བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་སྤྱད་པ་ལ་འཇག་པ 4

4

Like the supreme alchemical elixir,
It takes this impure body and transforms it
Into the priceless jewel of the Jina's form;
Therefore, firmly seize that which is called bodhicitta!
Because the sole captain of migrating beings, whose wisdom is limitless,
Thoroughly analyzed and perceived its great value,
Those wishing to be free from the states of migrating beings
Must firmly grasp the jewel of bodhicitta!
All other virtues, just like the plantain tree,
Perish having produced their fruit;
Whereas the wish-fulfilling tree of bodhicitta
Incessantly bears fruit and ever flourishes.
Even if one has committed the most unbearable sins,
Just as one relies on a hero when facing great danger,
One is instantly freed by relying upon this;
Why do the heedful not rely upon it?
Like the fire at the end of a cosmic age,
It surely burns away great sins in a single moment.
Its immeasurable benefits
Were explained by the wise Lord Maitreya to Sudhana.
In brief, that bodhicitta
Should be understood to be of two types:
Aspiring bodhicitta,
And engaging bodhicitta.
Just as one knows the distinction
Between wishing to go and actually traveling,
So too the wise should understand the distinction
Between these two in due order.
Although great results in saṃsāra arise
From aspiring bodhicitta,
It does not bring about a continuous stream of merit
In the way engaging bodhicitta does.
From that moment when,
In order to thoroughly liberate the boundless realms of sentient beings,
One genuinely undertakes that mind
With an irreversible resolve,
From that time onward, whether sleeping
Or heedless, an unbroken flow of merit,
Abundant and vast,
Arises equal to the sky.
This was reasonably