One of our biggest obstacles to developing bodhichitta is we don’t really believe we can become a Buddha. Maybe others can, but not us. Maybe nobody can and all this Dharma stuff is a big scam. Such doubts may lurk within our mind and we’d be wise to dig them up and work through them. Pretending they are not there will not help us.

Without this confidence that we actually can become a Buddha, when we consider the full magnitude of others suffering and see there is nothing much we can do to help, we can quickly become despondent and then overwhelmed by it all.

Knowing this, we then hold ourselves back from considering their suffering, both in this life and their future lives, because we feel it will just be too much.

This in turn filters further down into a reluctance to actually change the object of our cherishing from self to others. Best we just accept everyone else is going to suffer and try save ourselves, or at least eke out a little bit of mental peace.

Therefore, it is vitally important that we confront our doubts about our ability to attain enlightenment – including whether such a thing is really possible. If we allow these doubts to remain, it will clog the spiritual pipes of everything that comes before it.

How can we overcome these doubts? Fundamentally, it comes down to believing in the methods we have received, believing in our pure potential, and believing in the laws of karma.

We have the same methods all the previous Buddhas had, the only difference between us is they applied enough effort and we haven’t yet. But the methods themselves are scientific methods that work for all who put them into practice.

We can believe in our pure potential because, first, we do have many examples of having successfully changed ourself with small things. If we can do so with some things, we can, with sufficient effort, do so with everything. And because second, everything – including ourself – is empty, mere constructions of our mind. This can be proven directly through our own investigation. Descartes said “I think, therefore I am.” The Kadampa corollary to this is, “I can change how I think, therefore I can change who I am.”

And we can have confidence in the laws of karma because everything points to them being true and because enlightened beings – those who have completed the path – have verified for us with their omniscient minds that they are true. If we create the necessary causes to attain enlightenment, the result is definite.

When we believe we have methods that can actually take us there, the ability to change ourselves and ripen fully our pure potential, and unwavering conviction that if we never give up creating the causes for it, we will get there in the end, then we will believe – in our heart – that we can actually do it. More than that, we will know we can. This is wisdom.

But then there is one last obstacle we will need to unclog and that is our attachment to immediate results – both for ourself and for others. Even with the Ganden Oral Lineage instructions, it is going to take time, possibly a long time, before we get there. During that time, we will suffer and all those we love will continue to suffer. We need a patience that can accept these realities, but knows eventually we will get there and we will help all those we love do the same.

Once this final obstacle is removed, then every suffering we encounter both for ourself and for others gets channeled into a powerful bodhichitta. Since samsara is the nature of suffering, this means our samsaric experience itself – every moment of it – becomes a cause of our enlightenment. As this becomes our new mental habit, we start to pick up spiritual momentum until we feel ourselves charging down the path like a locomotive, with all living beings in tow. Nothing will stop us from reaching the city of enlightenment and bringing all those we hold dear to the same final destination.

How wonderful!