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Bodhisattvas???
rocala
Explorer
I am rather confused by the idea of a 'bodisattva'. The intension is, I believe, to strive for the liberation of all sentient beings. This seems to imply that the number of sentient beings is finite. I conclude from this that the universe, as we understand it, is not infinite? Does 'all' perhaps refer to some event much more localised in time and space?
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It's infinite actually. Even on the tip of a hair there are infinite numbers of Buddhas surrounded by their Bodhisattvas. Sorry I have heard some talks where this view came up but I never internalized it so I cannot explain it.
This does not talk about Budhisattvas but it does mention what a Buddhist student might mean by there being infinite Buddhas in each pore of the skin.
Unfortunately I don't recollect the minute she talks about it.
It seems like an impossible quest but that may be the point and/or part of the illusion.
I've always thought the number of sentient beings as infinite, innumerable.
Hi Nerima, so do I. Does that mean that a bodhisattva must remain so, equally infinitely?
Hmmmmm. I think I read somewhere that when a person takes his/her Bodhisattva vows, they promise to help ALL sentient beings, no matter what.
Wow. This is an amazing point. Nobody's every thought of this before, here; not in the last few years, anyway. Definitely a head-scratcher.It would take a lot of bodhisattvas working together to liberate all the sentient beings that are alive in this moment, AND the ones born the next moment, and the next.
We don't have a head-scratch emoticon anymore....
sentient beings : beyond numbering
time-space : relative
yes, the intention to liberate limitless numbers of sentient beings! wonderful, indeed.
if one considers that awarness is beyond birth and thereby beyond death, even remaining for countless eons to liberate all beings would be like the recollections of an old man over his life.. it may seem long now, but in that moment it will all have seemed very brief
really there is this moment,
cultivate the intention to liberate All beings "as numberless as space is vast" .. then when you have the ability to do so, it can happen easily.
if you try counting the drops of water in the ocean, you might run into problems, but if your goal is to unite all droplets with the great ocean of compassion, then it doesn't really matter how many digits your abacus can maintain
The Bodhisattva vow is powerful because if you're ready to take it, you understand that you're vowing to do the impossible and yet you do it anyway. Of course sentient beings are beyond numbering. The vow admits this. And there's new ones created every minute of every day and will be till the end of time. As long as life exists in this universe, there will be sentient beings needing saved.
Sentient beings are beyond numbering. I vow to save them all.
Notice I didn't vow to do it alone. Nor did I vow to get it done in this lifetime. If you ask me how I can do the impossible, well I'm still working on it. I haven't failed yet. I just haven't succeeded. There's a difference.
well said.
"even heavy weights are made light through pratice"
Really? I thought they were already here just in different form?
You have to think pragmatic here.
If you decide to take the Boddhisattva vow, and lead a boddhisattvic way of life, the vow would imply to do as much good as you can, to all the people that happen to cross your path.
The idea of infinite here, to me, would imply that we don't make distinctions between the people we do good for and not.
We simply do good, and vow to help liberate, every sentient being that comes our way.
You're thinking of the cosmology that says every living sentient being is a recycled spirit of someone who died unenlightened? So logically, that means once everyone is enlightened, the universe will be a barren, lifeless void of a realm except for plants and a few mindless lower lifeforms.
And if that happened, life would evolve new sentient beings because intelligence leads to survival. And those sentient beings would suffer because the universe doesn't give a damn about personal happiness. A carnivore has to eat. Disease has to take the weak. Life goes on.
No, as long as life exists in the universe, there will be a need for bodhisattvas. That's why I joined.
There is an old story, I forget where I read it, that has stuck with me. Let me try to repeat it from memory:
Two guys are walking down a beach. There had been a storm the night before and the wind and waves had swept up starfish and other creatures onto the beach well above high tide. The seabirds were feasting, but even they couldn't keep up with the bounty.
One of the beachwalkers would come to a starfish that was still struggling and moving, pick it up and throw it back into the water.
"Why are you bothering to do that," the other guy said. "Look up and down this beach. There's thousands of the things littering the sand. And next storm, you'll find a thousand more. You can't save them all. A few rescued starfish don't matter."
The first guy picked up another struggling starfish and flung it into the water. "It matters to this one," he replied.
I think someone (maybe not the author) shared the starfish story at a college graduation speech.
I tried various ways of googling just now and found several variations scattered around, none exactly like the one I ended up with. I like my version better
I liked yours @Cinorjer
In the end, I don't think it really matters. A bodhisattva is someone who's mind is suffused with bodhicitta and desires to help relieve the suffering of others, pointing the way towards spiritual awakening. That's the important part. Everything else is intellectual jibberjabber.