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Couple of questions regarding the Buddha
Ok I hope my rambling questions make sense.
1) Buddha,didn't take the bodhisattva vows, therefore not being reborn correct? I am curious if there was an explanation of why this was?
2) Was Buddha a rebirth of a Bodhisattva like HHDL14? if so, which Bodhisattva was he the rebirth of?
3) (following from 2, i know this is possibly an impossible question to answer) If he was not a rebirth of a Bodhisattva, has any assumption, or suggestion been made to who he was a rebirth of?
4) If you do a search for a list of Bodhisattva's why are there so few, when it seems, from looking around online, there are a lot of people today who have taken he vows, so over then centuries there must have been hundred? why are they not all listed. Also, why are not all Bodhisattva's given titles, such as HHDL14 is the reborn Bodhisattva of Compassion.
5) Are only bodhisattva's given titles? such as the Bodhisattva of compassion, or do some Buddhas receive titles as well?
6) Is there any number floating out there as to how many Buddhas are currently alive?
7) odd question i know, but, when someone who has taken the Bodhisattva vows dies, are they searched for?
8) do you have to be a Buddha (enlightened) to take the Bodhisattva vows?
9) can someone give me a bare bones definition difference between Bodhisattva & Bodhicitta
Thanks
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Comments
In the Mahayana tradition one starts out generating bodhicitta (the mind of enlightenment). At that point one becomes a bodhisattva. To further complicate things there are 2 levels of bodhicitta, conventional and ultimate. The first comes without a realization of emptiness the second with. I think? its at the point where one develops ultimate bodhicitta that one can then begin to control ones rebirth.
There are then 10 levels, or bhumis, of being a bodhisattva, each describing a further refinement of one's mindstream, until finally one reaches the 11th bhumi or Buddhahood. So the historical Buddha would have taken bodhisattva vows at some point in his past lives until he was reborn here to attain Buddhahood. (This view isn't universal in Buddhism.)
There are 8 great bodhisattvas, these may be actual beings living in other places. They may be personifications of great attributes.
I will do my best to answer some of these questions for you.
1. The Buddha did not take bodhisattva vows but he did say, "while I was still an UN-ENLIGHTED bodisattva... it occurred to me, Suppose that i divide my thoughts into 2classes...then i set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill will, and thoughts of cruelty, and i set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non ill will and non cruelty..." ect... (majjhima nikaya19, Dvedhavitakka sutta)
this would be like bodisattva 101...what you can see here is that while you are still/ and as long as you remain, a boddhisattva, you cannot become enlightened. The idea of putting negative thoughts on one side and possitive on the other side is one of the basic meditations to do in order to become mindfull of what those kinds of thoughts "produce". IE suffering, or non suffering.
The second part of your first question is correct, the Buddha did not become born again. Many suttas show us the reasons for this, but to quote something else the Buddha said "He understands thus, There is this, there is the inferior, the is the superior, and beyond there is an escape from this whole feild of perception. When he knows and sees thus, his mind is liberatedfrom the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being,and from the taint of ignorance. When it is libereated there comes the knowledge : it is liberated. He understands: birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done is done, there is no more coming into any state of being."
(majjhima nikaya 7, Vatthupama Sutta)
at this point I have to skip down to question 7....The tibetan monks take boddhisattva vows. They look for their master whenever he dies....it is usally around 3 years or so when they search for his reincarnation. So yes....but i would suggest if you want to remain a bodhisattva, and you want to make sure you always get a human life that allows you to remain as a bodhisattva you should consider looking into joing a mahayanna tibetian monestary.
number 8. No...you are a boddhisattva first...a buddha is the highest level to achieve.
number 9. "There are two levels in the development of bodhicitta - the mind (or heart) dedicated to attaining enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. These are the aspiring and engaging bodhicitta. Whereas a person with the aspiring dedicated heart wants to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, he/she is not yet prepared to engage in all of the practices and activities necessary to do so. On the other hand, a person who has generated the engaging dedicated heart joyfully undertakes the bodhisattva's practices of the six far-reaching attitudes (six perfections) by taking the bodhisattva vows. The difference between aspiring and engaging bodhicitta is similar to the difference between wanting to go to Dharamsala, and actually getting onto the transport and travelling there." this is from a website I found but could not copy the link...(im currently using my ps3 to get online and the link was way too long to write down...you could always google "whats the difference between boddhisattva and bodhicitta")
Hope this helps.
Namaste
Thus from one point of view the buddha is always arising and falling.
On your last question. A bodhisattva is a being who has realized two fold emptiness and has vowed to attain full enlightenment for the purpose to save all sentient beings. Such a being is motivated by such aspiration (bodhicitta). The bodhisattva does not abide in their personal nirvana but moves beyond cessation to use the passions of samsara to engage in the world to develop all the qualities of a full buddha (bhumi path).
Now bodhicitta can also mean different things in the higher/lower tantras.
Well, there are technically two types of Buddhas - Samyaksambuddhas and Pratyekabuddhas.
Samyaksambuddhas are like Gautama Buddha - they attain Nirvana by themselves and teach the Dharma in a time when it hasn't existed or has been forgotten. They also have sanghas.
Pratyekabuddhas are Buddhas that attain Nirvana by themselves, but don't teach or have sanghas.
Buddhist cosmology states that there can't be more than one Samyaksambuddhas per "world-system" (there are a multitude of these world-systems) so long as the Dharma exists, so in this case, there can't be another Samyaksambuddha until the Dharma has been completely eradicated.
As for Pratyekabuddhas, I have no idea if anyone in the Buddhist community is considered one. I highly doubt it though, or we'd hear more about them.
7) It might depend on the tradition, but like you said earlier, many devout Buddhists today take the Bodhisattva vows, so searching for every one would be, IMO, a waste of time.
8) No, because that defies the point of Bodhisattva-hood. Bodhisattvas delay Buddha-hood in order to help all sentient beings become Enlightened before they themselves become Enlightened.
Overall you're right, just a few small points for accuracy's sake.