I stumbled across a new word recently – bodhichitta. According to Pema Chodron, this is a Sanskrit word meaning a noble or awakened heart. Digging deeper, it seems to be a word of broad meaning depending on its use (which seems circular). The etymology indicates the word derives from “bodhi” which can be read as awake, enlightened, or completely open, and “chitta” which translates to mind, heart, or attitude. So bodhichitta = an awakened, enlightened, or completely open mind, heart, or attitude.
Several things come to mind immediately. They run from Socrates’ “An unexamined life is not worth living” to the “renewing of the mind” in Romans 12:2, and on to the currently popular word – “woke.”
You’d think that after more than 2,500 years (not personally, or course) of listening to and pondering this concept it would have sunk it a bit more into our collective psyche and be fairly well ingrained in not only our thinking but in our action – but here we are, here I am. Thankfully, the words and concepts are still there, and there is still time for examining, awakening, enlightening, renewing, and waking.
It occurs to me... 