Bodhisattva

A statue of a Bodhisattva, Akasagarbha.

In the Buddhist context, a bodhisattva (Sanskrit: बोधिसत्त्व, bodhisattva; Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་; Wylie: byang chub sems dpa; Vietnamese: Bồ Tát; Pali: बोधिसत्त, bodhisatta; Thai: โพธิสัตว์, phothisat; Japanese: 菩薩, bosatsu; simplified Chinese: 菩萨; traditional Chinese: 菩薩; pinyin: púsà) means either "enlightened (bodhi) existence (sattva)" or "enlightenment-being" or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one (satva) for enlightenment (bodhi)". Another translation is "Wisdom-Being".^[1] The various divisions of Buddhism understand the word bodhisattva in different ways, but especially in Mahayana Buddhism, it mainly refers to a being that compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others.

Theravada Buddhism

The term Bodhisatta (Pali language) was used by the Buddha in the Pali Canon to refer to himself both in his previous lives and as a young man in his current life, prior to his enlightenment, in the period during which he was working towards his own liberation. When, during his discourses, he recounts his experiences as a young aspirant, he regularly uses the phrase "When I was an unenlightened Bodhisatta...". The term therefore connotes a being who is "bound for enlightenment", in other words, a person whose aim it is to become fully enlightened. Some of the previous lives of the Buddha as a bodhisattva are featured in the Jataka Tales.

While Maitreya (Pali: Metteya) is mentioned in the Pali Canon, he is not referred to as a bodhisattva, but simply the next fully-awakened Buddha to come into existence long after the current teachings of the Buddha are lost.

In later Theravada literature, the term bodhisatta is used fairly frequently in the sense of someone on the path to liberation. The later tradition of commentary also recognizes the existence of two additional types of bodhisattas: the paccekabodhisatta who will attain Paccekabuddhahood, and the savakabodhisatta who will attain enlightenment as a disciple of a Buddha.

Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, regards the Bodhisattva as a person who already has a considerable degree of enlightenment and seeks to use their wisdom to help other human beings to become liberated themselves. In this understanding of the word the Bodhisattva is an already wise person who uses skillful means to lead others to see the benefits of virtue and the cultivation of wisdom.

The Mahayana encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all sentient beings. Indelibly entwined with the Bodhisattva Vow is parinamana (Sanskrit; which may be rendered in English as "merit transference").

In Mahayana Buddhism life in this world is compared to people living in a house that is on fire^[2]. They take this world as reality pursuing worldly projects and pleasures without realising that the house is on fire and will soon burn down (the inevitability of death). A Bodhisattva is the one who has determination to free sentient beings from samsara with the cycle of death, rebirth and suffering. This type of mind is known as bodhicitta; Sanskrit for mind of awakening. Bodhisattvas take bodhisattva vows in order to progress on the spiritual path towards buddhahood.

There are a variety of different conceptions of the nature of a bodhisattva in Mahayana. According to some Mahayana sources a bodhisattva is someone on the path to full Buddhahood. Others speak of bodhisattvas renouncing Buddhahood. According to the Kun-bzang bla-ma'i zhal-lung, a bodhisattva can choose either of three paths to help sentient beings in the process of achieving buddhahood. They are:

1. King-like Bodhisattva - one who aspires to become buddha as soon as possible and then help sentient beings in full fledge;
2. Boatman-like Bodhisattva - one who aspires to achieve buddhahood along with other sentient beings and
3. Shepherd-like Bodhisattva - one who aspires to delay buddhahood until all other sentient beings achieve buddhahood. Bodhisattvas like Avalokiteshvara, Shantideva among others are believed to fall in this category.

Tibetan doctrine (like Theravada, for different reasons) recognizes only the first of these, holding that Buddhas remain in the world, able to help others, so there is no point in delay. The Dalai Lama notes:: "These are indications of the style of the altruistic motivation for becoming enlightened; in actual fact, there is no way that a Bodhisattva either would want to or could delay achieving full enlightenment. As much as the motivation to help others increases, so much closer does one approach Buddhahood."^[3]

East Asian doctrinal traditions tend to emphasize the second and/or third, the idea of deliberately refraining from becoming a Buddha, perhaps forever.

According to many traditions within Mahayana Buddhism, on the way to becoming a Buddha, a bodhisattva proceeds through ten, or sometimes fourteen, grounds or bhumi. Below is the list of the ten bhumis and their descriptions from The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, a treatise by Gampopa (an influential teacher of the Tibetan Kagyu school) and the Avatamsaka Sutra. Other schools give slightly variant descriptions.

Before a bodhisattva arrives at the first ground, he or she first must travel the first two of the five paths:

1. the path of accumulation
2. the path of preparation

The ten grounds of the bodhisattva then can be grouped into the next three paths

1. Bhumi 1 the path of insight
2. Bhumi 2-7 the path of meditation
3. Bhumi 8-10 the path of no more learning

Prince Siddhartha Gautama as a bodhisattva, before becoming a Buddha. He is characteristically depicted as a nobleman, posing with left hand on the hip, Gandhara, 2nd-3rd century.

The chapter of ten grounds in the Avatamsaka Sutra refers 52 stages, with the following 10 grounds

1. Great Joy
   • It is said that being close to enlightenment and seeing the benefit for all sentient beings, one achieves great joy, hence the name. In this bhumi the bodhisattvas practice all virtues (paramita), but especially emphasizing generosity (dana).
2. Stainless
   • In accomplishing the second bhumi, the bodhisattva is free from the stains of immorality, therefore, this bhumi is named 'Stainless'. The emphasized virtue is moral discipline (śila).
3. Luminous
   • The third bhumi is named 'Luminous', because, for a bodhisattva who accomplishes this bhumi, the light of Dharma is said to radiate from the bodhisattva for others. The emphasized virtue is patience (kṣanti).
4. Radiant
   • This bhumi is called 'Radiant', because it is said to be like a radiating light that fully burns that which opposes enlightenment. The emphasized virtue is vigor (virya).
5. Very difficult to train
   • Bodhisattvas who attain this bhumi strive to help sentient beings attain maturity, and do not become emotionally involved when such beings respond negatively, both of which are difficult to do. The emphasized virtue is meditative concentration (dhyāna).
6. Obviously Transcendent
   • "By depending on the perfection of wisdom awareness, he [the bodhisattva] does not abide in either saṃsāra or nirvāṇa, so it is 'obviously transcendent'". The emphasized virtue is wisdom (prajña).
7. Gone afar
   • Particular emphasis is on the perfection of skilful means, or upaya-kaushalya, to help others.
8. Immovable
   • The emphasized virtue is aspiration.
   • This, the 'Immovable' bhumi, is the bhumi at which one becomes able to choose his place of rebirth.
9. Good Discriminating Wisdom
   • The emphasized virtue is power.
10. Cloud of dharma
    • The emphasized virtue is the practice of primordial wisdom.

Chinese wood carving of Guanyin; Shanxi Province (A.D. 907-1125)

After the ten bhumis, according to Mahayana Buddhism, one attains complete enlightenment and becomes a Buddha.

With the 52 stages, the Shurangama Sutra in East Asia recognizes 57 stages. With the 10 grounds, various Vajrayana schools recognize 3-10 additional grounds^[4], mostly 6 more grounds with variant descriptions.^[5]

Various traditions within Buddhism believe in certain specific bodhisattvas. Some bodhisattvas appear across traditions, but due to language barriers may be seen as separate entities. For example, Tibetan Buddhists believe in various forms of Chenrezig, who is Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit, Guanyin (other spellings: Kwan-yin, Kuan-yin) in China and Korea, Quan Am in Vietnam, and Kannon (formerly spelled and pronounced: Kwannon) in Japan. Jizo or Ti Tsang is another popular bodhisattva in Japan and China (Ksitigarbha in Sanskrit). Jizo is known for aiding those who are lost. His greatest compassionate Vow being: "If I do not go to the hell to help the suffering beings there, who else will go? ... if the hells are not empty I will not become a Buddha. Only when all living beings have been saved, will I attain Bodhi."

Two modern bodhisattvas for many are the 14th Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, both considered by many followers of Tibetan Buddhism to be an incarnation of that same bodhisattva Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

The bodhisattva is a popular subject in Buddhist art.

The place of a bodhisattva's earthly deeds, such as the achievement of enlightenment or the acts of dharma, is known as a bodhimanda, and may be a site of pilgrimage. Many temples and monasteries are famous as bodhimandas; for instance, the island of Putuoshan, located off the coast of Ningbo, is venerated by Chinese Buddhists as the bodhimanda of Avalokitesvara. Perhaps the most famous bodhimanda of all is the bodhi tree under which Shakyamuni achieved buddhahood.

Important Bodhisattvas

• Avalokitesvara (Guan Yin in Chinese)
• Manjusri
• Samantabhadra
• Ksitigarbha
• Maitreya
• Vajrapani
• Sadaparibhuta

Teaching story

Pollock (2005): p.43) provides a teaching story that evocatively describes the "nature of a Bodhisattva" and mentions 'circumambulation' (Tibetan: skor ba):

The nature of the Bodhisattva is apparent from a teaching story in which three people are walking through a desert. Parched and thirsty, they spy a high wall ahead. They approach and circumnavigate it, but it has no entrance or doorway. One climbs upon the shoulders of the others, looks inside, yells “Eureka” and jumps inside. The second then climbs up and repeats the actions of the first. The third laboriously climbs the wall without assistance and sees a lush garden inside the wall. It has cooling water, trees, fruit, etc. But, instead of jumping into the garden, the third person jumps back out into the desert and seeks out desert wanderers to tell them about the garden and how to find it. The third person is the Bodhisattva.^[6]

In popular culture

• Zhang Jigang organized and created the Thousand Hand Bodhisattva dance, performed by the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe.
• Jack Kerouac mentions Bodhisattva in The Dharma Bums several times. In the book, Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder) tells Ray Smith (Kerouac) that he (Ray) is a "Bodhisattva, a great wise being or great wise angel". Kerouac uses the term several times in the novel, to describe himself and fellow zen Buddhists. In Move Under Ground, where Kerouac is a character, bodhisattva Kilaya accompanies him on his trek to defeat Cthulhu.
• The hip-hop group The Beastie Boys has a song called "Bodhisattva Vow" on their album Ill Communication.
• Ian Astbury's former rock band Holy Barbarians released a song called Bodhisattva from their only album Cream.
• The opening track from Steely Dan's 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy is called "Bodhisattva".
• Patrick Swayze's character in the film Point Break was referred to as Bodhisattva or "Bodhi" for his search of the perfect wave.

See also

A Chinese wooden Bodhisattva, Jin Dynasty (1115-1234 AD), Shanghai Museum.

• Zhang Jigang (Creator of Thousand Hand Bodhisattva Dance)
• Bodhisattva vows
• List of bodhisattvas
• Karuna ('compassion' in Sanskrit)
• Bodhicharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life)
• Vegetarianism in Buddhism
• Buddhist Ceremonies

Notes

References

External links

• The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, all-in-one page with memory aids & collection of different versions.
• What A Bodhisattva Does: Thirty-Seven Practices by Ngulchu Thogme with slide show format.
• Access to Insight Library: Bodhi's Wheel409

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