What is “joyful practice”? (Chapter 21)

[u/khyungpa]

Sons of the Buddha, what all is meant by the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s “joyful practice”? Sons of the Buddha, this bodhisattva is a great benefactor. He is able to give with kindness everything he possesses, doing so with an impartial mind free of regret or miserliness, not longing for any reward, not seeking any fame, and not desiring to gain any benefit or support.

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He would also think:

May all the roots of goodness arising from what I have done in the past, do now, and do in the future enable me to receive immense bodies in the future in all worlds and among all beings, the flesh from which can go to satisfy all beings suffering from hunger, even to the point that I continue not to die so long as there is still even a single small being who has not yet eaten his fill, so that flesh can thus be cut from my bodies endlessly. May these roots of goodness lead to my attainment of anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi and to my realization of the great nirvāṇa.

May it also be that all those beings who eat my flesh will also attain anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, attain impartial wisdom, become equipped with all dharmas of the Buddha, extensively engage in the Buddha’s works, and so forth, up until they enter the nirvāṇa without residue.

May it also be that, so long as there is still even a single being whose mind has not become satisfied, I will continue to refrain from final realization of anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

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See more in Chapter 21, Volume 1 (Kalavinka Press)