Bodhicitta, often translated as awakening mind or awakening heart, is at the very center of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Rooted in profound compassion, it is the resolve to attain complete enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. One who cultivates this aspiration is known as a bodhisattva.
In Like Honey Amidst Bees, former Buddhist monk Tim Addison presents three time-tested bodhicitta practices drawn from the tradition of the future buddha Maitreya, as well as from Shantideva and Atiśa. Passed down through centuries of oral instruction in India and Tibet, these practices are presented here as clear, practical methods for cultivating compassion and integrating it into daily life.
The first practice, The Quintessential Instructions for Generating Bodhicitta, is a sequence of eight accessible yet deeply transformative contemplations that systematically expand compassion and strengthen the resolve to benefit others. The second, The Aspiration Prayer of Maitreya, carries this resolve into everyday activity-bodhicitta in action. The third practice, tonglen, is a concise and powerful method that can be practiced anytime, anywhere.
Before introducing these practices, Tim lays essential groundwork by exploring refuge-not as a belief, but as a lived shift of orientation. Refuge arises when, through personal experience, one discovers that life becomes clearer, saner, and more workable when the Buddha's view and teachings are integrated into daily life.
Written in a style that has been described as both intimate and rigorous, this book is the second volume in a three-part presentation of meditation practices attributed to Maitreya and widely practiced across Asia and the modern West.
Book One introduces shamatha (peaceful abiding) and contemplative meditation (anupashyana), along with the four foundational reflections that orient the mind toward awakening.
Book Three explores vipashyana, or insight meditation, which directly examines the mind's true nature-buddha nature itself.
Tim Addison grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and entered the Shambhala Buddhist tradition in 1990. He was ordained as a monk by Thrangu Rinpoche at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, where he studied and practiced intensively for many years. He completed advanced monastic training at Gampo Abbey and graduate studies at Naropa University, later serving as faculty at the Mipham Academy. After working to bring Buddhist teachings into prisons through the Ratna Foundation, he moved to southern Germany, where he continues to practice and occasionally teach in Germany and Switzerland.
