Essay Bodhisattva

Huixing Shi/ 2001150

Graduate Department of Religious Studies

School of Research and Graduate Studies

International Buddhist College

The Development of Bodhisattva Ideal

By

Huixing Shi (ID: 2001150)

M.A. in Buddhist Studies 2007- 2008

ME6102. Mahāyāna Buddhism

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(Dr. Fa Qing)

The Bodhisattva Doctrine

Contents:

1- Introduction.

2- Etymology.

3- The Bodhisattva Concept.

4- The Buddha Concept.

5- The ideal Man of Theravāda and Mahāyāna.

6- Influence of other religions.

7- The Transcendental Bodhisattvas.

8- Notes.

9- Bibliography.

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1- Introduction:

The Bodhisattva doctrine is a complex phenomenon that

probably originated in the Second century B.C. The word

bodhisattva occurs not infrequently in the Pāli Canon. Although in

Theravāda tradition there was an embryo proposal, its real

development owns to Mahāyāna Buddhism. Mahāyānists elaborated

this model into an ideal during the course of several centuries (2nd

cent. B.C. to 7th cent. A.D.)

2- Etymology:

The Sanskrit word bodhisattva has been explained in many

different ways. It has two parts, bodhi, which means Enlightenment,

perfect Wisdom, and sattva. Several interpretations have been

offered for this word. I present here the final conclusion about its

meaning given by Har Dayal1, who sustains that is safer to have an

accurate understanding of the word, to go back to the Pāli rather

than to later lexicographers and philosophers. Hence bodhisatta in

the Pāli texts means “a bodhi being”. But satta seems to mean not

an ordinary being but “a warrior, a hero, a valiant man”. The same

1 Har Dayal. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in the Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. Delhi. Motilal. 1975. Page 9.

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meaning has the equivalent Tibetan pdaḥ. Satta in Pāli should be

interpreted as “heroic being, a spiritual warrior”. Both ideas of

existence and great effort are suggested. The term sattva, in

Dayal’s view, may be a wrongly Sanskritized of the Pāli word satta.

Therefore Bodhisattva can be rendered as “a spiritual warrior or a

spiritual hero, who aspires to Buddha-hood”.

3- The Bodhisattva Concept:

It is of interested to observe how the Bodhisattva concept has

developed down the ages. In the Theravāda Pāli Canon the term is

primarily restricted to Gotama Buddha. The use of the term "bodhisatta"

occurs in a number of the sūttas in the Majjhima, Anguttara, and

Samyutta Nikāyas, where the Buddha referred to Himself as “a

bodhisattva” before His enlightenment.2 In later canonical texts, the

Bodhisattva idea is further developed and associated with others

concepts. The Buddhavaṃsa [1] shows more maturity of the model.

Here, the bodhisattva construction refers to an ideal being that makes a

vow to become a perfect enlightened Buddha (sammāsambuddha), out

of compassion for all sentient beings, who performs several acts of

merit, and who receives a prophecy of his future Buddhahood by a living

2 Jeffrey Samuels. The Bodhisattva Ideal in Theravāda Buddhist Theory and Practice: A Reevaluation of the Bodhisattva-Śrāvaka Opposition. Philosophy East and West. Volume 47, Number 3, July 1997. University of Hawaii’s Press.Page 401.

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Buddha.3 Consequently another thought arises in parallel, i.e., a

Bodhisattva needs to complete a number of Perfections (pāramitā),

during his career. Besides the Buddhavaṃsa, also in the Cariyāpitaka

are delineated ten perfections [2], in contrast with the six ones asserted

in the Mahāyāna sūtras, like the

Aṣṭasāhasrikā-Prajñnāpāramitāsūtra and the Ratnaguṇasam- cayagāthā.

The Buddhavaṃsa and the Cariyāpiṭaka discuss as well, how each of the

ten Perfections may be practiced at three

different levels: a common degree, a higher degree, and an ultimate

degree of completion. Although the most of the uses of the term

bodhisattva refers to Shakyamuni Buddha or the Buddhas who preceded

him, there is also some reference in the Pāli Canon about the future

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. As example, can be cited the

Cakkavatisīhanāda Sūtta of the Dīgha Nikāya; where the Buddha

predicts Metteyya bodhisattva as the Sammāsambuddha of the future.4

Based in the former data, one might affirm that Mahāyāna’s

bodhisattva ideal was completely shaped within Hīnayāna Schools,

particularly between the Sarvastivādins, who had given a careful

attention to the career of a bodhisattva, proven by the fine description of

a bodhisattva’s mentality in the Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu.

Nevertheless, in name of justice, one has to affirm also that the

Mahāyānists evolved a doctrine valid to everyone; and this was their

3 Ibid. Page 402.4 Ibid. Page 403.

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innovation. The Sadharmapuṇḍarika (Sad. Pu.) mainly teaches that

every being has the possibility of becoming a bodhisattva and in

consequence a Buddha, even the insects and worms as Śāntideva

declared.5

The ideal of the bodhisattva was partially due to social pressure

on the Order, which had become closed to the ordinary people, but the

most important factor was the

necessity of adapting to the changing circumstances of the age. The

Bodhisattva Doctrine was the necessary conclusion of two ideas that had

been developed by Early Buddhism:

Faith (saddhā in Pāli) and the idealization of the Buddha. Faith was

originally directed towards the triple gem. In the AN X.61, the Buddha

said that faith has for its nutriment hearing the exposition of the true

Dharma. Therefore saddhā, the kind of faith that comes into being as a

result of hearing the exposition of the true Dharma, is essentially an

attitude of trust and commitment directed to ultimate emancipation,

which is grounded in an objective capable of eliciting it such as the triple

gem.

After his Parinirvāna the Buddha was soon idealized, spiritualized and

universalized. The original saddhā turned into devotion. The faith not

blind and critical of the earlier period was converted into belief and hope

of liberation by “other power”. Then the Buddha himself became a 5 Har Dayal. The Bodhisattva Doctrine. Page18.

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distant object of devotion for the doctrine followers and thus the

invention and the adoration of the bodhisattvas fulfilled that defect.6

4- The Buddha Concept:

As a bodhisattva is a germ of a Buddha, both concepts depend on

each other and they developed in parallel. For Theravāda Buddhism the

Buddha is a man who by his own effort and dedication has realized the

Truth of the existence and actualized himself in the highest degree

possible for a human. Despite the theravādins considered the Buddha as

a man, this man is an extraordinary one, one who appears in the world

in very rare occasions and as a unique manifestation. The Buddha is the

person who realized the Highest Truth for the first time by his own effort

and proclaimed it to the world and hence, he is the Teacher. The life of a

Buddha commenced only from the time of his enlightenment and his life

or lives before this event was that of the bodhisattva. So in Theravāda

tradition there is only one living Buddha and in correspondence only one

bodhisattva, the one who will become the Buddha.

The Avadāna- ҫataka describes a Buddha as having ten Powers or

bālani, related with Omniscience, four Grounds of Self-confidence or

vaiҫāradyāni and three Fields of

Mindfulness or smiṛty-upasthānāni. In other hand, the Mahāyāna

literature [3] describes

6 Ibid. Page. 30.

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eighteen attributes or āveṇika-dharmas, which distinguish a Buddha

from other beings and

that shows him as a super-natural being. This list is not found in the Pāli

canon. There are other qualities describes by Buddhist Sanskrit writers in

relation to Buddhahood,

there are the foundation for the production of a bodhisattva. These

characteristics have to be understood and appreciate before to strive for

bodhi. They are: Mahā- karuṇā; unblemished purity; a Buddha has his

Buddha-kṣetra or field; when He appears in the earth His existence

never ceases; a Buddha is superhuman, His conception is not produce by

physical union of His parents; a Buddha has three bodies or kāyas (rūpa,

nirmāṇna and dharma-kāya); His real body is the cosmic Absolute, which

means that all the Buddhas are united in the dharma-kāya and all of

them are One. This conception of Buddhahood developed in the

Mahāyāna- sūtrālaṅkāra, asserts a kind of “Pan-Buddhism”, in contrast

with the Pantheism of Hinduism. The Buddhas became immortal,

universal, deified and unified.7

5. The ideal Man of Theravāda and Mahāyāna:

The teachings of the Buddha collected in the Pāli canon stress

the way to nirvāna, which allows the people to free themselves from

7 Ibid. Page. 28.

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suffering and rebirth or liberation from saṃsara. The method used

to achieve that goal is insight and to acquire the habit of regarding

all phenomena, include other beings as dharmas or impersonal

forces which arise and pass away moment to moment. The Buddha

advised His disciples to practice sīla, samādhi and paññā, to restrain

sense contact

and live a life of aloofness, stressing the solitary meditation

practice. Thus the arahants are represented as very austere, self-

restrained, dispassionate ascetics and in some way rigid and self-

centered. The Mahayanist declared that the ideal of arahanship was

inferior to that of Buddhahood. They argued that arahants hence

achieved liberation form saṁsāra; they cannot destroy the jñeya-

āvaraṇas or traces of defilements which avoid them to achieve

perfect Buddhahood. The four stages of sotappana, sakadāgāmi,

anāgāmi and arahant, which correspond to the Theravāda Path to

Enlightenment, are considered as preliminary of the bodhisattva

career. When those four stages are completed it is said that all the

fetters (saṃyojana) have been destroyed [4]. But that is not enough

for achieving prajñāpāramitā or Bodhi, understood as

Omniscience, and it is the summum bonum of the bodhisattva

career. The bodhisattvas are described as compassionate, friendly

and active. They are saviors who renounce to nirvāna to help other

beings to achieve liberation from suffering. A bodhisattva has the

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possibility of attain bodhi and become a Buddha. This two concepts

bodhi and Buddhahood is the core of the bodhisattva doctrine. To

attain bodhi he has to develop bodhicitta or the mind of

enlightenment which is founded in compassion. Thus the

bodhisattva is the ideal man who develops the virtue of living

dealing with the contradiction of two paradoxical forces which are

compassion and wisdom. By compassion he helps beings, by

Wisdom he sees no persons. Whereas Theravāda stresses the

monastic life as the sole path to salvation, Mahāyāna says anyone,

including laity, can attain enlightenment by practicing the

bodhisattva values.

Rather than consider one of the two ideals the best one, the

middle way as the Buddha taught should be the appropriate

approach to judge them. Each one could fulfill the necessities of

introverted or extroverted personalities, and in this way both

tradition presents an acceptable goal.

6. Influence of others religions:

Despite that the bodhisattva concept presented in the Pāli texts

appears to be an original Buddhist thought; the later development of the

ideal by the Mahāyānist shows the influence of different religions, which

were contemporary with the Mahāyāna Buddhism progress. As it was

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already pointed out in the Earliest Buddhism the bodhisattva was a

synonym of Buddha Ҫakyamuni, before His enlightenment. In later

Mahāyāna texts, the ideal changes its form and comes out as a

compassionate savior, who takes the resolve of sacrificing his own life

for the sake of others, ideal that evolved into the development of

devotion to transcendental bodhisattvas into whom the concept of

salvation was superimpose. On all these ideas the Christian influence

can be seen. The Christian Gospels entered Northern India in the 1st

century A.D through St. Thomas and sprout in the Pahlava Empire of

Gondophares and the Sakas who were under their dominion.

Tradition8records that Thomas set out for India immediately after the

Crucifixion, i.e. 30 A.D. Thus the appearance of Gondophares in the Acts

of Thomas (New Testament) is therefore chronologically acceptable.

Therefore during Gondophares’ rule the apostle Thomas brought the first

knowledge of Christianity to India. Sanskrit, the language of Māhayāna

writings, first developed in the same place, the Saka Empire around 150

AD [5] this data supports the idea of the Christian influence in the later

Mahāyāna developments.

Besides Christianity, Zoroastrianism, with its cult of sun-worship,

which was introduced to India in the 3rd century B.C., also influence

Mahāyāna Buddhism. It can be observed in several names of Mahāyāna

8 A.T. Olmstead, The Chronology of Jesus’ life, Anglican Theological Review XXIV. 1(Evanston, Ill. 1942), page 23.

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that suggest sun-worship as Amitābha (Measureless Light), Vairocana

(the Brilliant One), Dīpaṅkara (Light-maker), between others.9

Hinduism is as well recognized as influencing Buddhism in the 4th

century A.D. many practice of Yoga were borrowed from Hinduism,

especially by Yogācāra school philosophers. Also a bodhisattva is

described as a “yogi” par excellence, the numbers of samādhis were

increased in correlation with Yoga teachings and extraordinary powers

were assigned to them10.

Greeks through Art representing Hellenic gods and heroes taught

the Buddhist the importance of personality representation on statues

and paintings. The first figure of Buddha appeared in Gandhāra

sometime between the 1st B.C and 2nd century A.D. The bodhisattvas

were depicted as bare-chested and jeweled Indian princes, and the

buddhas as Greek kings wearing the himation, a light toga-like wavy

robe covering both shoulders. The buildings in which they are depicted

incorporate Greek style, with the ubiquitous Indo-Corinthian capitals and

Greek decorative scrolls. Surrounding deities form a pantheon of Greek

(Atlas, Heracles) and Indian gods (Indra).11

7. The Transcendental Bodhisattvas:

9 Har Dayal. The Bodhisattva Doctrine, page 39.10 Ibid. page 45.11 Greco-Buddhist art. Wikipedia. 10/10/2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 12/10/2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herakles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Corinthian_capital

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toga

http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/


Once introduced the worship of Buddha as a deity in

anthropomorphic form His pantheon was also developed. It included

gods and goddesses borrowed from Greeks and Hindus, but the

capital representations were that of bodhisattvas. Many

bodhisattvas are named in the Sanskrit scriptures; some of them

act as ministers of the Buddha, others as Dharma and preachers

protectors. But between all Avalokiteҫvara and Mañjuҫrī are the

most important. Mañjuҫrī, whose name means “Gentle Glory” or

“Sweet Splendor”, is cited in the Sad. Pu. as a master of wisdom

and knowledge. He was widely venerated as the image of Prajñā

during the 2nd century A.D., when the writings of the Mādhyamika

School reached its climax. But the later Mahāyāna emphasized

Compassion more than Wisdom, and Avalokiteҫvara began his

reign. His name has many translations: The Lord who sees, or looks

down; the Lord of what it seen, of the visible world; the Lord, who is

seen from on high; the Lord of compassionate glance; the Lord of

the dead an the dying; etc. He is the chief minister of Amitābha’s

Paradise and in some texts like the Kāraṇḍa- Vyūha, is described as

much greater than the Buddhas in Merit, intelligence and sphere of

influence12.

These Bodhisattvas are closer to the common man as their

constant guide than Buddha himself. Although the enigmatic

12 Har Dayal. The Bodhisattva Doctrine, page 49.

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problem of non-dwelling nirvāna is difficult to elucidate, even when

the wisdom of emptiness (prajñā) and upayākosalla (skillful means)

act as the bodhisattva context.

Anyhow by conceptualizing the superior ideal of a

bodhisattva, Mahāyāna Buddhism has set a high standard of

virtuous conduct to emulate by ordinary people, the striving for a

spiritually life free of selfishness, indeed the foundation for a

meaningful and fulfilling existence, both for the individual and for

the world around.

6. Notes

[1] The Buddhavaṃsa is a later work belonging to the Khuddaka Nikāya.

The ten perfections are mentioned numerous times in it. For example,

Buddhavaṃsa 2A:117 ff., 4:14, 5:20, and 6:14.

[2] The Ten Pāramitās named by the theravādins are: dāna; sīla;

paññā; nekkhamma; viriya; khanti; sacca; adhiṭṭhāna; mettā and

upekkhā. Meanwhile the six perfections outlined by the Mahāyānist

are; generosity; ethical discipline; patient; effort; concentration

(samadhī) and wisdom.

[3] Mahāyāna literature about āveṇika-dharmas: Mahā-vyutpatti;

Divy- āvadāna; Mahāyāna- sūtrālaṅkāra; Ҫata- sāhasrikā Prajñā-

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pāramitā; Lalita- vistara; Daҫa- Bhūmika sūtra; Dharma- saṅgraha;

Mahā-vastu.

[4] The ten fetters (saṃyojana) are: 1) sa-tkāya-dṛṣṭi or belief in

substantial Individuality; 2) vicikitsā or doubt; 3) ҫīla-vrata-

parāmarҫā or the perverted belief in good works an ceremonies; 4)

kāma-rāga or love of sense-pleasure; 5) vyāpāda or malice, ill-will;

6) rūpa-rāga or love of existence in the material worlds; 7) ārūpya-

rāga or love of existence in the non-material worlds; 8) avidyā or

ignorance; 9) māna or pride and 10) auddhatya or self-

righteousness, exaltation, excitement.

[5] The stone pillar inscription of Samudra Gupta (AD 330 to 380) written

in Sanskrit and a late Brahmi script called the Gupta script was incised

on an Asoka pillar at Allahabad.

Composed by Harisena, a commander-in-chief of the king it describes

elaborately the

Moral, intellectual and military achievements of this king; this inscription

dates around 350 A.D. (Alexander, Harris. The Development of

Civilization. Pp.42-43)

* * *

7. Bibliography

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Conze, Edward. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development, Wind horse Publication, 2001.

Dayal, Har. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in the Buddhist Sanskrit

Literature,

Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1975.

Harris, Alexander. The Development of Civilization and Religion in

India and Its

Influence on the World Society. Chennai. India. 2001.

Samuels, Jeffrey. The Bodhisattva Ideal in Theravāda Buddhist

Theory and

Practice: A Reevaluation of the Bodhisattva-Śrāvaka

Opposition. Philosophy

East and West. Volume 47, Number 3, July 1997. By University

of Hawaii’s

Press. Pages 399-415.

Wikipedia. Greco-Buddhist art. 10/10/2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

12/10/2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art

http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/

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Essay Bodhisattva