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Mahayana: how to save all sentient beings
nakazcid
Somewhere in Dixie, y'all Veteran
My understanding of the Mahayana path is that the goal of the practitioner is to save all sentient beings from suffering. This seems a rather large aim that I quite frankly see as impossible - at least for myself. Is this goal more aspirational than literal, a bit like visualizing oneself as a higher being? Or am I really supposed to be able to save the world single-handed?
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Yes, it looks aspirational to me.
There are Transcendent Bodhisattva's who do not enter Nirvana, but stay active in the World to help all sentient beings attain enlightenment. They will appear in many different forms.....
Chapter 25 of The Lotus Sutra is devoted to one such Bodhisattva.....
According to The Mahayana doctrine, Avalokitesvara is the Bodhisattva who has made a great vow to assist sentient beings in times of difficulty, and to postpone his own Buddhahood until he has assisted every sentient being in achieving Nirvaṇa.
The Lotus Sutra is one I have read a number of times and really worth reading if following the path of The Great Vehicle, or anyone really
I don't see it as saving the world single-handed. As more people become aware, the easier it becomes, because there are more teachers of the dhamma teaching fewer students. It's like a nuclear fission reaction.
I also see it as an impossible but very worthwhile task for any one individual but then I don't think anyone could truly be 100% awake until all of us have awakened.
I don't want to sound all weird or anything but maybe if we see the full truth of non-separation, we see past time. No separation strictly speaking leaves no room for distance and without distance, what is time?
I only ask this because it seems to me that Buddha took on this impossible task but it is also said he was fully awakened. Perhaps Buddha saw that we would awaken and so to him, it was mission complete.
A little part of me thinks we are all living a Jataka tale.
Mostly I see it as @Walker does but have always used the domino or the avalanche effect.
If awakening does indeed happen, even in degrees, there has to be a tipping point where the awakened outnumber the slumbersome.(if that's a word)
It isn't meant to be taken literally. Yes, it is aspiration, and inspiration. And a reminder that all beings equally deserved to be helped and saved. Though I don't like that wording as it suggests that one person can save another from Samsara and their karma and it doesn't really work that way. It is really more about helping any being whenever possible and the desire to continue to be reborn in order to do so rather than take freedom from rebirth for oneself.
I can't follow the middle way for other people.
Well, you can.... You can follow the middle way for (the good of) other people....
You aspire to save all beings until the realisation dawns that there are actually no beings to save. Since everything is in a constant flux, a person is just a convention for that person is ultimately insubstantial.
Yes, I was relying on you ...
In a sense we have to develop the capacity to save others by working on the small wheel (ourselves) before going all Mahayana ...
for now be kind, especially to cructaceans and low lifes, they need it more than the lovable ...
I'm not even sure I can "save" myself.
Yeah don't listen to me, I don't even know who I was before I was born. In fact I don't know who I am now!!?
Oh well.
Not single handed, two thousand handed.
My practice over the years changed from straight Zen to embracing the Bodhisattva vows. I have them posted above my little altar as a reminder when I start to feel discouraged, and it gives me determination again.
The vows are twofold, and that's important. First, I acknowledge that people are infinite. Only then do I vow to save them anyway. We aren't delusional. I'm not Jesus or Superman, and neither one of them were mere mortal beings anyway.
There's an unspoken additional part to the vow, as there is in any vow. "...or die trying."
I suppose it is aspirational. But it's more than that. It's a reminder that no group or individual is more important than another. Nobody deserves enlightenment more than another. Mahayana sprang up partly in response to a tendency of the Buddhist temples to focus on how special they were. Only the monks had advanced enough through reincarnations to deserve enlightenment. It was destiny and the suffering lay people had to suffer in this lifetime because of karma. This vow focuses your effort back on the suffering of the world instead of your own progress.
Written in today's language, I suppose that vow could read: "Nobody gets left behind, not on my watch." Cue the Rocky theme song and I'm ready to tackle the day. Like Rocky, I might not win, but I can go the distance.
Hope this helps.
Buddhist Rangers! Lock and load, you bodhisattvas!
"I'm here to chew gum and chant mantras, and I'm all out of gum."
I don't think of it as an instruction to report back with "Mission Accomplished " at the end of the task. There is no end. I think of it as a habit and a mindset, ongoing. Are you alleviating suffering in your environment? If you are, you're following the path.
I don't even know what there is to be saved from, truth be told.
Without ignorance there is no discovery and dukkha could be attributed to growing pains.
I have taken the pledge to take part in the awakening of all but "saving" everyone makes it sound like this is a bad place and the subjective experience useless.
I don't want us to wake up just so we can quit experiencing dukkha so bad though that's a darned good reason. I want us to wake up so we can get to work.
Well, this morning I took the rest of my birthday cake to work, which saved everyone here from feeling hungry before lunch and saved me from regretting eating all that cake and saved my stepdaughter from worrying about me eating all that cake and saved me from having to listen to her lecture me like I'm a child for eating cake instead of a healthy diet. That's a lot of saving so far this morning from one little action. It's not enlightenment, maybe. Or maybe it is. Maybe it's not what the original writer meant by saving all beings. If not, then still everyone here had a piece of cake. And so it goes.
@Cinorjer Happy BIrthday!!!!!!! Between that and the Rocky pep talk today, you are on FIRE baby!!!!!
We're havin' us some serious church up in here!!!
...got beside myself...lolololol
Pass the collection plate...and we don't want what jingles...we want what folds....lololololol...oh sorry...wrong place
Praise the Lord!
...and pass the cake.....!
I have struggled a lot with this..how is it possible to save all sentient beings?
As nothing can exist on its own, it implies we are all connected in some direct or indirect way. Therefor; by saving oneself and maybe some others a bit; all are saved...
It seems to be a joint effort.
Nobody can walk the path in our stead but I'm grateful for all who have lit the way.
In Mahayana, it is understood that the blissful state of nirvana is not full awakening, just the flip side of samsara.
One could spend (waste) their life in solitary, blissful meditation.
So the bodhisattva takes the vow to remain thru all time helping beings as a skillful means to avoid succumbing to the temptation to dwell in nirvana.
It is a selfish act aimed at defeating selfishness, in a way.
A bodhisattva understands that ultimately there are no beings to save, but chooses to reside and remain active in the world of beings.
That's the way It looks to me.
^^^ Exactly so.
Euphoric and bliss outs, to me the 'god realm', is a hindrance. A place where we 'kill the Buddha'. We have to undermine our sense of attainment/wisdom/compassion.
In this sense getting to the far shore is just the start [@robot faints ... eh no I think it was me] just heard some sea gulls overhead. Serendipity for us fishermen ...
In this sense the overhead, the fish and us land lubbers are all headed eventually in the same direction ...
Land ahoy!
It's a wonderful koan, isn't it? What does it mean, to vow to do the impossible? Well, to begin with, it means you must let go of your beliefs about what is and isn't possible.
Also, you're not vowing to do it alone.
The way I understand this is that "all" doesn't mean "each and every in the world" as that would be purely aspirational. Rather, "all" points to opening up to and trying to be helpful to whoever comes our way. We often tend to care only about our families and friends, while the rest we are either indifferent towards or even suspicious and hostile. Mahayana tells us to push against that "us/them" division, as much as we can. Afterall, we are all made of the same stuff.