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Bodhisattvas?
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Are Bodhisattvas important to you or do you think the opposite and consider them irrelevant to your practice? Or somewhere in the middle?
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I see them as guiding lights for behaviour in daily life. They can inspire, even when they choose not to be teachers. I also think Bodhisattvas show up in many unexpected places, especially when circumstances are difficult.
I would even say, anyone you see being acclaimed as a Bodhisattva in a religious setting is unlikely to truly be one.
I see them as an ideal to work towards even if practically its out of reach for us.
I think its also important to understand what a bodhisattva is. Its more than a very compassionate person, there is also an element of awakening involved.
I think it starts with the realization that all sentient beings can potentially become fully enlightened and that they have a starting point wherever they are. So it's kind of a confirmation and removal of doubts in the Buddha Nature.
I don't think a picture or sense of removal of doubts prevents confusing things from happening. Same goes for discomfort from happening, though you see a path through
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Just a note:
The difference between a Bodhisattva and a Buddha.
In striving toward Enlightenment a Bodhisattva is rising others and with him or her.
A Buddha is one who has achieved the enlightened (awakened) state and reaches down to bring others up to join him or her.
In taking the actions of a Bodhisattva, it is OK to question, that is part of seeking. Also, the actions of a Bodhisattva are effectively the same those of a Buddha.
Peace to all
the mantra of bodhisattva: heart sutra
tayatha.....thusness of buddha in us,
ohm....samsara cosmic power in us,
gate....gone to thusness accumilate/learn the parimitas,
gate....gone to thusness of be/practice
paragate....gone to perfect seeing of thusness
parasamgate..refine thusness in meditation of empty--peace--and bliss--body-- given to us by mother God of all buddhas sam earth.
bodhi...awake to be and do mother sam earth....vessel of dharma with ohm and thusness
savha...is so the true state of nirvana-emptyness, and form samsara
ty bodhi jesus buddha for easter day tomorrow. may all have a nice day (t)ommorrow.
may we die to self to awaken new day to work our bodhi to our lord shakimoon and christ brother in dharma.
bodhi is natural. everyone is a bodhi, some more learn than others as we take the vow in buddha is our wellness, the dharma is our heart light mind and be of use a vessel of nonself in our shangha
As we know and even experience:
Enlightenment occurs in all ages, religions and secular life. The level , intensity and nature of which can:
And yet...
It is nothing, a flash of realisation of where one has always been
How can we prepare? According to Zen we can not 'polish a stone to make it a mirror' BUT we can find a mirror in the wisdom that rings true and constantly from many sources...
Happy Easter Sunday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism
Thank you for the question. Just some musings...
I am not well-acquainted with the 'requirements' for being considered an 'official' Bodhisattva, either in Theravada or Mahayana.
Maybe my personal definition would be someone that a) provokes in me and others a deeply wholesome sense of 'gimme some of that!' and b) provides tools that actually move me and others in that direction.
Since in offline life, with only a couple of exceptions, I am rather isolated in my spiritual meanderings (something to remedy), since I am mostly surrounded by decent but 'ordinary' people, and since the Buddha rightly said that good spiritual friends and mentors are the whole of the path, I consider such influences (whether from books or modern forms or people I meet and associate with) tremendously important in my development.
Finally, personally, I'd say that 'Bodhisattvahood' lies not in a binary distinction but on a continuum. Each one of us sometimes manifests 'Bodhisattva-action'. Some rarely, some often, and some (maybe) always. Each one of these 'Bodhisattva-actions' helps to lower aggregate suffering in the world and, maybe to some paradoxicaly, in self too. Great success!
I don't think that musing too much about the details of Bodhisattvahood is very helpful. One zen monk came to an elementary school and, in silence, wrote on the blackboard: 'Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help mom with the dishes'. Let us 'help mom with the dishes' with cheer, this is Bodhisattva-action. It's a training, like in the gym. We practice over and over and over again, keeping failing but slowly hitting the mark closer and more often, and slowly 'move up'.
I would like here to throw in my hey penny.
When we relax, stop trying to question, "Am I doing the Bodhisattva thing?" as if deliberately weighing our thoughts and actions on an invisible scale, "This will get me points" or "This will get me demerits.", and we just, without judgement or comparison, appreciate ourselves and others, the only question is two fold.
1. Am I being true to myself?
2. Are my word and deeds helping or harming?
Bodhisattvas are ordinary people. We could pass a thousand Bodhisattvas on the street and not "see" them as such.
Many years ago, in a discussion on who or what is Bodhisattva, a fellow used the analogy of a thief fleeing from the police. As he is running, he sees a child going into the street and into heavy traffic. At that moment, he pulls the child to safety. Though he is a thief, in that moment, his action was that of a Bodhisattva. In that moment, he was a Bodhisattva. He brought up that, no matter what general life state we may be in, we still posses the life state of (or the potential of) Buddha or Bodhisattva. They are life conditions and potentials within all of us, just as is sadness, joy or contentment.
granted this is just a rudimentary presentation, and we are all striving toward ever greater awakening, but perhaps, it opens the door.
Peace to all
Having taken the Bodhisattva Vows, I'd say they are important to me.
The Four Great Vows gatha (not the same as the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts)
Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them.
The Buddha Way in unattainable, I vow to attain it.
In truth, when all beings have awakened, not a single being has woken.
I am preparing to undertake Jukai (precept takings under the Zen tradition) and have found the Bodhissatva ideal a bit conflictive because of my Theravada and Vajrayana past. In both teachings I was warned about this because a wrong doing could cause endless rebirths and, some of them, will not be as lucky as my current one.
Right now, beyond those metaphysical questions, I am concentrating on the present moment and vow to help those I can, including myself. Like Marcitko mentions, help momma with the dishes, clean yo' shit up, don't be a jerk, keep training! Stay hard!
The Bodhisattva ideal is as central to Vajrayana Buddhism as it is in Zen @Kotishka. To help with the dishes is great. To help all beings attain Buddhahood is also great. Even in Therevada, the Buddha was a Bodhisattva in previous lives although they see the term a bit differently. I would suggest that those warning against the ideal simply do not understand it.
I find it a bit amusing when Therevada teachers make light of the Bodhisattva path because here they are teaching others to liberate themselves and those they help awaken may in turn help others awaken. Mahayana is not opposed to Therevada, it just takes it to the next step.
Walking backwards or even running backwards... @Shoshin1 used to do that. Maybe she can suggest a suitable side step as used by my friends the crabs...
This thread actually brought me back to a discussion I started here about six years ago, called Advice on adding ritual to practice. It is interesting to read it now because I can see how much my practice has changed since then.
At the time, I was looking for ways to add ritual and devotion to what had largely been a philosophical and meditation-oriented Buddhist practice. I was considering Nembutsu, prostrations, huatou, Silent Illumination, and eventually the Eight Great Bodhisattvas and various Dharma protectors. I initially thought I needed to find a place for several Bodhisattvas in my practice.
Looking back, I don't think I was trying to “collect” practices. I simply had the feeling that I wasn't doing enough. I thought that if my practice felt incomplete, perhaps the answer was to add something else; another Bodhisattva, another practice, another form of devotion.
What eventually became clear to me was that I didn't actually need more. I needed to go deeper into what was already there.
And in that process, something rather unexpected happened.
I had originally been looking for ways to incorporate multiple Bodhisattvas into my practice. Instead, I found that I needed one.
For me, that became Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara).
She has gradually become much more than an object of devotion or an image representing compassion. She has become the central orientation of my practice. The important distinction for me is that I don't think of Guanyin as someone who is going to save me. Rather, she represents the direction in which I am trying to train my own mind and conduct: learning to listen, to notice suffering, and to respond with compassion.
My practice has consequently become fairly simple at its core, although it is an amalgamation of influences from Chan, Theravāda, and Tibetan Buddhism. Over time, I have drawn practices and teachings from these different traditions that have spoken to the same direction of practice for me.
Sati — awareness.
I cultivate mindfulness and presence, beginning with the breath and extending into ordinary life. The point isn't simply to become more attentive, but to become less lost in habitual thought and reactivity.
Mettā — kindness.
Awareness without kindness can become rather dry. So I deliberately cultivate loving-kindness toward myself and others, and try to carry that into relationships and ordinary interactions.
Karuṇā — compassionate response.
This is where Guanyin becomes particularly important. Compassion isn't simply feeling sorry for someone. It means allowing what I hear and perceive to actually affect how I respond.
And then there is Guanyin herself as the thread running through all of it.
Her name and imagery remind me to listen. The question “Who is hearing?” gives me one way of turning attention inward, while listening to sound and to other people gives me a way of turning that same attention outward. In that sense, listening becomes both meditation and ethical practice. The connection isn't something I invented retrospectively; the practices I follow draw on the Buddhist tradition of Guanyin as the one who hears the cries of the world, including practices centered on hearing itself.
So I suppose my answer to the original question is that Bodhisattvas are extremely important to my practice; but I don't really approach them as a collection of supernatural beings I need to incorporate.
I found that one was enough.
Guanyin gives me an image, a practice, an aspiration, and a constant question: Am I actually listening?
And perhaps that is the biggest difference between where I was six years ago and where I am now. Back then I was asking, “What else should I add to my practice?”
Now I'm much more interested in asking, “How deeply can I actually practice what I've already been given?”
The ritual is still there. The prostrations, recitation, imagery and devotional elements didn't disappear. But they became means of embodying the practice rather than things I was collecting.
In a way, I went looking for Bodhisattvas and eventually discovered that I was looking for a way to make compassion the organizing principle of my practice.
Guanyin just happened to be the form through which that became real for me.
QUICK NOTE:
":The ritual is still there. The prostrations, recitation, imagery and devotional elements didn't disappear. But they became means of embodying the practice rather than things I was collecting."
The practice of Buddhism is not a practice of obligatory mudras or mantras. It is a practice of choices. It is not a practice of "Have to". The various schools of Buddhism do have their rituals. But the reality of the rituals, be they simple or complex is that the are supposed to aid one to most effectively realize the meaning and purpose of Buddhist practice.
The danger of ritual is that it becomes the focus. "You must do XYZ this way and in this order" So one will spend so much time and effort concentrating upon the ritual that the purpose is lost in the action, in the ritual itself. The "students" of such a school may be punished for not following the rituals "properly". In such extremes, the goal changes from striving for awakening or advancing one's life condition to just completing (surviving) the rituals.
Devadatta was so immersed in out "Buddhaing" the Buddha (Sakyamuni) that he took the rituals to extremes. His jealousy and anger blinding him to the true intended functions of the rituals.
For whatever rituals you choose to follow/apply, remember, they are meant to support, not supplant the purpose of your practice.
Peace to all