After going through more Lamrim studies, I am starting to see the central role Bodhicitta plays in Buddhism.
And if I examine my own heart, I will realise that most of the time my motivation for doing good deeds is selfish. As Master Ri-Chang says, this will lead to me being stuck in the cycle of life and deah, suffering. Thus, such good deeds, I should consider as demonic.
Therefore, when you are on the path—right from the time of wanting the goal of buddhahood—you must depend on both method and wisdom; you will not attain it by either one alone.
The Sublime Continuum comments on this passage as follows: Generosity, ethical discipline, patience, and so forth— These are the painters; Emptiness supreme in all aspects is said to be the likeness.
【《上续论》中释此义云：“此诸能画者，谓施戒忍等，具一切种胜，空性为王像。”】
This uses the analogy of assembling a group of artists to paint a king’s likeness. One knows how to paint a head but not something else, one knows how to paint a hand but not something else, and so on. If even one artist is missing, the painting will not get finished. The king’s likeness is analogous to emptiness and the painters are analogous to generosity and so forth. So if method—generosity and so forth—is incomplete, it would be like a decapitated or amputated likeness.
