Spark of Bodhicitta

2025, March, Issue 139

Brightness is noticed,

just a spark in your heart center,

in your Heart Center

you see something most precious,

something that you thought

was familiar at first,

something from brightness,

something you saw once in a dream,

something flashing in the sky at night,

something rising into the heavens

or from a crackling midnight campfire;

You see this tiny spark

when you decide once and for all

to let go of all this foolishness,

this angst, this depressing condition

where we are embroiled

in fights and struggles,

turmoil that really make no sense at all;

We aspire to awaken

as great compassion wells up within us;

Life, this magical appearance,

This amazing miracle that we know only too well,

is lightly guarded

when we seek the ineffable condition

that we have always known in our heart;

We discover a spark,

A spark that is no different than enlightenment;

We nurture a spark, a spark that is most precious;

We choose to awaken, nurturing this light,

Then we awaken.

A poem by Robert Aho © 2025

From the Ultimate point of view, there is absolutely no difference between a tiny spark of the aspiration to awaken and awakening itself. Visualize a bright spark in your heart center, maybe something that is barely perceptible. Give it the name of Bodhicitta. Realize that it is actually beyond all labels, beyond all concept, even though we can generally say that it is the aspiration to awaken, suffused with great compassion. It shines brightly with or without giving it a name or conceptualizing that it is there, or whether or not you believe such a thing could ever even exist.

Bodhicitta starts with the very compassionate wish to awaken. If we do not possess this spark of aspiration, then we’re really not on any Spiritual Path. Without that Spark of Bodhicitta, we are simply dabbling around the edges, virtually floundering, without any sort of control, within a vast dark ocean that perpetually remains a mystery. We need to become illuminated by our own unlimited potentiality, which is Bodhicitta, also known as enlightenment mind.

So, we carry that Spark in our Heart Center, knowing that it is the most precious thing that we can possibly possess. Even though we know that enlightenment itself is beyond any sort of elaboration or reification, we also realize that this world has never really been of any use, just another illusion dancing before our senses, without any real purpose. To step onto the Spiritual Path, we need to realize the complete futility of cyclic existence. We need to realize that we will be born, find illness, get old and die, then repeat that all over again for all eternity—all amounting to nothing whatsoever. Cyclic existence has no point. It’s just misery extended beyond all reason.

Awakening means that we discover reality and this reality is far beyond human intellect. When a human tries to understand reality, their first step is always a mistake. Humans start with belief, then concept, then complex intellectualization. None of that has anything to do with reality. If we wish to discover reality, we must go beyond all constraints, beyond concept itself. Most humans find that hard to imagine. Reality is beyond limitations of any kind, even the idea of reality.

So, we are conditioned to believe that if we struggle there will be something at the end of this rainbow resembling a win of some sort. We think that there will be some sort of resolution to all of our struggles, once we pick that winning lottery ticket or defeat one last enemy. We delude ourselves that way.

In reality, there is no end to worldly concerns. If you win the lottery, you can almost count the days before you lose that fortune. If you defeat all your enemies, you can be certain that many more will spring up to replace them, blaming you for all of their misery. There are no happy endings, we only have inevitable futility followed by more of that sort of thing. We are, after all, in a condition that has no beginning and no ending. You can examine that and see for yourself.

When we discover the illusory nature of this world, then we can let go. All we thought was real, all of our concerns seem dreamlike. It’s not so serious when we realize that we’ve been spending eternity fretting over nothing whatsoever. When we let go, we are letting go of our attachments to desire, aversion and this concept of self and other. This actually takes great compassion, even though people often think it is an emotionless callus approach to everything. We discover that we had no need to dwell in this constant angst, this nervousness that surrounds our ego.

We have a glimpse of enlightenment mind, which is really just a spark, a speck of what is actual reality, rather than those things we fabricate. We have a spark that is the same as this all-pervading brilliance we might understand as Source or Dharmakaya. This spark is exactly the same composition of our shared condition beyond belief. This clear illumination of reality is not different than our own awakening. It is enlightenment itself. This is why we must nurture this light.

Blessings in Light,

Robert Aho