Cittotpāda

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cittotpāda (T. sems bskyed / sems bskyed pa སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ / སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་). Forming the resolve; producing a thought; motivation; aspiration; etc.[1][2]

Often used as a synonym for bodhicittotpāda ("generating bodhicitta") within Mahayana sources.

The Indo-Tibetan Lexical Resource states:

The word cittotpāda, which literally means “generation of thought,” seems to be employed in Buddhist sources in at least two different senses. First, it is used non-technically or non-terminologically in the sense of the generation of any kind of thought. It is perhaps in this sense that the word is used in non/pre-Mahāyāna sources. Second, in the Mahāyāna sources, it appears to be used mainly in the technical sense of bodhicittotpāda (“generation of the resolve to [attain the highest state of] awakening”).[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
  2. ↑ སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
  3. ↑ cittotpāda (1), Indo-Tibetan Lexical Resource

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