[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]
With bodhicitta, nonvirtues are naturally purified. An analogy commonly used to describe that is one about traveling to a dangerous place. If you have some able companions (strong, heroic individuals) on your journey, they can help you if you encounter danger. Similarly, if you have bodhicitta, that will save you from the dangers of the passions that would otherwise harm you and cause you to lose your way.
If you cultivate bodhicitta, that alone will have the power to eliminate heaps of nonvirtue in your mind. The force and power of your cultivation will eliminate the nonvirtue you have amassed in this and all past lifetimes.
With bodhicitta, whatever virtue you accumulate becomes inexhaustible. Such virtue is different from virtue that is devoid of bodhicitta: virtue devoid of bodhicitta will ripen once, and then it will be over; virtue coupled with bodhicitta will ripen and increase as part of the great oceanlike enlightened mind, which is not exhausted until all beings reach the state of buddhahood.
From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct
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