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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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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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