Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (detail)
Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow, 1840

My dear friends,

As we enter the season of Advent, the time of watchful expectation for the coming of the Lord, we also enter a season of awakening. Advent is the Christian echo of the Bodhisattva’s call to rouse the mind from forgetfulness and to turn again toward compassion, wisdom, and fearless love. It is a time when the outer symbolism of approaching light invites us to recognize the dawning of bodhicitta, the "Awakening Mind" of love, compassion, and wisdom, within our own hearts.

Paul’s exhortation, “wake from sleep,” reminds us that our habitual mind drifts endlessly in the slumber of self-centeredness, lulled by distraction and forgetfulness of our true nature. The time to awaken is always now. In the Lam Rim teachings, this is the precious recognition of human life’s rarity and potential: that we have, in this very instant, the capacity to rouse the "mind of Christ", the great compassion that refuses to abandon any being to suffering. Advent invites us not simply to remember that the light is coming, but to remember that we can awaken to it this very moment.

The Bodhisattva recognizes that awakening is not a distant hope but an ever-present possibility. “The day is near” because the luminosity of wisdom is already within us, obscured only by our clinging and confusion. The imagery of night passing is a reminder that ignorance (avidyā) cannot endure forever. Every act of patience, every moment of compassion, every remembrance of the interconnected nature of all life thins the darkness. In Advent, Christians look toward the birth of Christ; in the Bodhisattva path, we look toward the birth of the awakened mind within ourselves for the sake of all beings. These are not two different dawns but one.

To “put on the armor of light” is to clothe ourselves in the radiance of bodhicitta. This armor is not for aggression but for protection against despair, cynicism, and the corrosive habits of ego-grasping. In lojong practice we train precisely in this: exchanging self with others, transforming adversity into the path, and guarding the mind from the poison of resentment and indifference. Paul’s call is the same: to lay aside the mind that dwells in shadows and to choose, again and again, the luminous clarity that arises when we see Christ in every being.

The harmful behaviors Paul names are manifestations of a mind that seeks satisfaction in what cannot satisfy. Quarreling and jealousy are the fruits of a mind that believes it is separate and must defend what it thinks is “mine.” Revelry that numbs and desire that consumes are attempts to fill the hollow ache of disconnection. To “live honorably as in the day” is to live from the clarity that recognizes the dignity and sacredness of all beings, including ourselves. Such living requires mindfulness, discipline, and the courage to hold our hearts open.

To “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is to awaken the "mind of Christ", the Holy Spirit understood as bodhicitta. This is not the suppression of the body but the reorientation of desire itself: from craving toward compassion, from self-gratification toward the flourishing of all beings. When the mind is centered in Christ-like love, the small desires of ego naturally loosen their grip. In the wisdom of emptiness, we understand that the self we try to gratify is fleeting and insubstantial. In the compassion of Christ, we understand that the only lasting joy is that which rejoices in the well-being of others. To put on Christ is to let this understanding permeate our thoughts, words, and actions.

Dear friends, Advent is the season of holy awakening. Paul’s words call us to vigilance, courage, and the joyful willingness to let the light already rising within us become the light we offer to the world. May we walk this season as Bodhisattvas of Christ, bearing the armor of light, keeping watch for every opportunity to love, and awakening moment by moment into the dawn of compassion that liberates all beings.