พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าหัวใจพระโพธิสัตว์มี 3 อย่าง คือ ทำพระนิพพานให้แจ้ง แสวงบุญ และสร้างบารมี ซึ่งบารมีทั้งสิบอย่างนั้นครอบคลุมทั้งเมตตาธรรมและปัญญาไว้ในตัวทั้งหมดThe teacher explains that the heart of the Bodhisattva path rests on three things: realizing Nibbana clearly, seeking merit, and building the perfections — and within the ten perfections, both loving-kindness and wisdom are already contained in full.
Someone asked the teacher what qualities and characteristics define being a "Bodhisattva," so as to practice in line with them. He pointed to three things at the heart of being a Bodhisattva: realizing Nibbana clearly, seeking merit, and building the perfections.
Realizing Nibbana Clearly
A Bodhisattva must be like a Bodhi tree's shade that all beings can rely on. If we ourselves are not yet aimed straight at the path to Nibbana, if our own goal is not yet the highest, then we don't even know what that highest goal is. To "realize Nibbana clearly" means to shine brightly at the center of Nibbana in every moment — abiding at the center of the Triple Gem, with the Triple Gem at our own center, and both ourselves and the Triple Gem at the center of Nibbana.
Abiding this way means abiding within system, so that the stream of merit refines and purifies us — a universal goodness that holds true whether or not one even knows of Buddhism. Even in an age when Buddhism has not yet arisen, a Bodhisattva born into the world is still guided by the inner knower — the Triple Gem within — toward doing good.
Goodness means abiding in the wholesome system so that the stream of merit flows through us. If we abide in the wrong system — with , or with the morally neutral — then it is that stream which flows through instead. Every life is constantly guided by inner voice and feeling. Even small children are guided this way — some see a dog or cat and cuddle it tenderly, others torment it — all of it steered by something behind the scenes.
Seeking Merit
Merit has its sources — it doesn't flow everywhere equally. One with the -eye knows where those sources are, and must go there. On, say, the first Sunday of the month, or on days set aside for meditation practice, the stream of merit flows abundantly through that place. Simply bring your body and your heart there and sit — the wholesome will take care of the rest. One should seek out these sources of merit weekly, monthly, and once a year for the great merit-making occasions.
Building the Perfections
Building the perfections, however, is a personal matter — not bound to any place or time, because the instrument of the perfections sits at our own center, driving our life at every moment. There are ten perfections: generosity, , renunciation, wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolution, , and equanimity — all turning to drive our life through samsara, much like a nuclear reactor generating the power that drives a submarine through the ocean depths. We should check whether each of our own perfections is turning well: generosity — are we stingy or generous? Virtue protects body and speech, freeing us from the unwholesome (the five precepts) and from both the unwholesome and the neutral (the eight precepts); the Dhamma protects the heart, freeing it from the lure of form, taste, smell, sound, touch, and mental objects, so that one can live the holy life.
There are other paired practices too: humility paired with eagerness to help others, which lets us abide well within society; dedicating merit paired with rejoicing in others' merit, which benefits humans, devas, and Brahmas alike, in both the coarse and the refined body; and listening to the Dhamma paired with teaching it, which develops Right View further.
The heart of the Bodhisattva, then, rests on three things — realizing Nibbana clearly, seeking merit, and building the perfections — and within the perfections, both loving-kindness and wisdom are already contained in full. There is nothing beyond these three.