Mahayana and the Bodhisattva path...

budding_flower

I am addressing to all of you who are followers of the Mahayana. What are your feelings about the Bodhisattva path and acquiring bodhicitta for the sake of all sentient beings? Do you find hard to pursue enlightenment not for yourselves but for others? Can you imagine yourselves devoting your enlightenment and spiritual efforts to others?

Cinorjer

Speaking only for myself, I found the Bodhisattva path to be an expression of what, I suspect, all Buddhists face once they've opened themselves up to compassion. It's not really a choice.

There's a price to be paid for breaking down the walls of hatred and fear that keep you separated from the people around you. How could I eat in a room full of starving people? How could I climb into a life raft while women and children are crying for rescue around me?

If I made it to Heaven, how could I have one moment of happiness, hearing the screams of those being tortured in Hell? So like it or not, we're all in this together.

"How can I help?" becomes your practice.

jll

Not to offend anyone, but I think its unrealistic to say I will not eat until all the hungry children have been fed. There will always be hungry children.

budding_flower

To be honest I still haven't got the picture about the Bodhisattva decision. Does he/she get first enlightened and then starts the quest of saving the unenlightened or waits to help them all and then get to enlightenment. And is enlightenment equivalent to the attainment of Nibanna? But beyond my inquires, my thread's questions still go on...

Cinorjer

Not to offend anyone, but I think its unrealistic to say I will not eat until all the hungry children have been fed. There will always be hungry children.

No offense. Yes, there will always be hungry children. You can't feed them all. But you can feed the one in front of you. There will always be suffering. You can't save people from themselves, but you can help the person in front of you. Knowing you cannot stop the suffering of the world but responding to it correctly, anyway, is what the Bodhisattva path tries to teach us. It's in the vows that some genius came up with way back when.

Sentient beings are beyond numbering, I vow to liberate them.
The sufferings are endless, I vow to extinguish them.
The dharmas are immeasurable, I vow to master them.
Enlightenment is unsurpassable, I vow to accomplish it.


When there is no difference between yourself and others, when there is no difference between one and a million suffering people, then the vows make sense.

I don't vow to do it alone. We can use all the help we can get.
I don't vow to finish the job tomorrow, or in this lifetime. The Sangha has been working on it since Buddha gave us the task.
But I can promise not to give up. Nobody gets left behind. We're all in this together. That's the Bodhisattva way.

So how do you feed the hungry children of the world? By feeding the hungry child in front of you.

I'm sorry this comes across as "preachy" when I try to explain.

Cinorjer

To be honest I still haven't got the picture about the Bodhisattva decision. Does he/she get first enlightened and then starts the quest of saving the unenlightened or waits to help them all and then get to enlightenment. And is enlightenment equivalent to the attainment of Nibanna? But beyond my inquires, my thread's questions still go on...

Depends on who you ask, and how your school of Buddhism defines enlightenment and such. For me, I started out wanting to be Enlightened. So I started meditating and contemplating the dharma, and found that Enlightenment is extinguishing the selfish desires that cause suffering. When I started working on the selfish desires, I found the only thing that works is focusing on an unselfish life by cultivating compassion.

If you think of Enlightenment as a destination, a place out there, then you see the Bodhisattva as refusing to step through the door. But if you see Enlightenment as the elimination of the Self, then when "Only me, alone." is gone, there's only "All of Us, together." The distinction between my suffering and your suffering begins to fade.

Again, I'm saying it poorly. I dislike guru talk of Oneness because it usually hides a big ego. You're right, the Bodhisattva path doesn't make sense, but then neither does life when you look closely enough at it.

Cinorjer

wrong button

SherabDorje

In my opinion, Cinorjer has covered this very well. :thumbsup:

person

To be honest I still haven't got the picture about the Bodhisattva decision. Does he/she get first enlightened and then starts the quest of saving the unenlightened or waits to help them all and then get to enlightenment. And is enlightenment equivalent to the attainment of Nibanna? But beyond my inquires, my thread's questions still go on...

In the Mahayana tradition nirvana and enlightenment aren't the same thing. Nirvana is freeing yourself from samsara. Enlightenment means removing all the obstructions to omniscience and developing infinite compassion, so one can be of perfect help to others. The path to Buddhahood involves a vast collection of positive karma so the bodhisattva goes about this partly by helping others on the way to enlightenment. Though a different way of looking at it for us more normal people is of a bodhisattva as like a doctor. Those of us in the Mahayana tradition are like med students, first we have to get ourselves to the point where we can be of use to people or we may just do more harm than good, you wouldn't want a first year med student doing brain surgery on you just because he wants to be a brain surgeon.

budding_flower

@person this is just what I wa thinking yesterday, that first we have to attain a certain degree of prajna before going in applying karuna...

mugzy

If I made it to Heaven, how could I have one moment of happiness, hearing the screams of those being tortured in Hell?

This statement touches the very depths of my heart and reminds me how important it is to subdue my own mind in order to benefit others.

seeker242

Do you find hard to pursue enlightenment not for yourselves but for others?

No because enlightenment for yourself and others, are both the same thing.