(10) Next, with a mind of love toward all limited beings as a start,
Look to all wandering beings, barring none,
Suffering from birth and so forth in the three worse realms,
And from death, transference, and so on.
(11) Then, with the wish that all wandering beings
Be liberated from the suffering of pain,
From suffering, and from the causes of suffering,
Generate pledged bodhichitta with which you will never turn back.
(12) The benefits of generating aspiring minds like this
Have been thoroughly explained
By Maitreya in
The Sutra Spread Out Like a Tree Trunk.
(13) When you have read this sutra
or heard from your guru concerning this,
And have become aware of the boundless benefits
of full bodhichitta,
Ten as a cause for making it stable
Generate this mind over and again.
(14) The positive force of this is shown extensively
In The Sutra Requested by Viradatta.
As it is summarized there in merely three stanzas,
Let me quote them here.
(15) "If the positive force
Of bodhichitta had form,
It would fill completely the sphere of space
And go beyond even that.
(16) Although someone may totally fill with gems
Buddha-fields equal in number
To the grains of sand on the Ganges
And offer them to the Guardians of the World,
(17) Yet should anyone press his or her palms together
And direct his or her mind toward bodhichitta,
His or her offering would be more specially noble;
It would have no end."
(18) Having generated the aspiring states of bodhichitta,
Ever enhance them with many efforts;
And, to be mindful of it in this and other lives too,
Thoroughly safeguard as well the trainings explained in the texts.
Taking the Vows for Engaged Bodhichitta
(19) Except through the vows that are the very nature
of engaged bodhichitta,
Your pure aspiration will never come to increase.
Therefore, with the wish to progress toward aspired full enlightenment,
Take them definitely on, energetically for that sake.
(20) Those who maintain at all times other vows
From any of the seven classes for individual liberation
Have the proper share for the bodhisattva vows;
Others do not.
