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A statue of a Bodhisattva, Akasagarbha.
In Buddhist context, bodhisattva (simplified Chinese: 菩萨; traditional Chinese: 菩薩; pinyin: púsà; Pali: bodhisatta; Thai: phothisat, โพธิสัตว์) means "enlightened (bodhi) existence (sattva)" or \'enlightenment-being\' in Sanskrit. Another translation is "Wisdom-Being."Coomaraswamy, Ananda (1975). Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism. Boston: University Books, Inc., 225. The various divisions of Buddhism understand the word bodhisattva in different ways. In the oldest Buddhist scriptures, the Pali Canon, the Buddha uses the word to describe himself before his enlightenment. In this usage the word means \'one who is bound for enlightenment\'. According to the Pali scriptures Prince Siddhattha was seeking liberation for the benefit of both himself and othersMN19, the Dvedhavitakka Sutta, mentions that he chose to abandon wrong thoughts to prevent harm for himself and others, and that he saw no harm in good thoughts because they did not harm himself nor others.. According to one sutta, the Buddha, after his supreme enlightenment, was reluctant to teach others because he thought mankind had too much dust in the eyes and were too obsessed with desires, and did not consider abandoning desires. It was only after the entreaties of the Brahma Sahampati that the Buddha decided to teach the Dhamma to mankind.
The Bodhisattvas are honored in many famous artworks, including one of the highest sculptures of the Bodhisattva at the Chinese Puning Temple, built in 1755.
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The term Bodhisatta (Pali language) was used by the Buddha in the Pali Canon to refer to himself both in his previous lives and as a young man in his current life, prior to his enlightenment, in the period during which he was working towards his own liberation. When, during his discourses, he recounts his experiences as a young aspirant, he regularly uses the phrase "When I was an unenlightened Bodhisatta...". The term therefore connotes a being who is \'bound for enlightenment\', in other words, a person whose aim it is to become fully enlightened. Some of the previous lives of the Buddha as a bodhisattva are featured in the Jataka Tales.
While Maitreya (Pali: Metteya) is mentioned in the Pali Canon, he is not referred to as a bodhisattva, but simply the next fully-awakened Buddha to come into existence long after the current teachings of the Buddha are lost.
In later Theravada literature, the term bodhisatta is fairly frequent in the sense of someone on the path to liberation. The later commentarial tradition also recognizes the existence of two additional types of bodhisattas: the paccekabodhisatta who will attain Paccekabuddhahood, and the savakabodhisatta who will atain enlightenment as a disciple of a Buddha.
Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, regards the Bodhisattva as a person who already has a considerable degree of enlightenment and seeks to use their wisdom to help other human beings to become liberated themselves. In this understanding of the word the Bodhisattva is an already wise person who uses skillful means to lead others to see the benefits of virtue and the cultivation of wisdom.
The Mahayana encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all sentient beings. Indelibly entwined with the Bodhisattva Vow is parinamana (Sanskrit; which may be rendered in English as "merit transference").
In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is, at least in a sense, one who aspires to become Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings. In Mahayana Buddhism this world is compared with a burning home where all sentient beings are resided without the knowledge of house being burnt. A Bodhisattva is the one who has determination to free sentient beings from samsara with the cycle of death, rebirth and suffering. This type of mind is known as bodhicitta; Sanskrit for mind of awakening. Bodhisattvas take bodhisattva vows in order to progress on the spiritual path towards buddhahood. According to some East Asian Mahayana sources a bodhisattva can choose either of three paths to help sentient beings in the process of achieving buddhahood. They are:
Tibetan doctrine (like Theravada, for different reasons) recognizes only the first of these, holding that Buddhas remain in the world for ever, in some sense, able to help others, so there is no point in delay. East Asian doctrinal traditions tend to emphasize the second and/or third, the idea of deliberately refraining from becoming a Buddha, perhaps for ever.
Mahayana Buddhist philosophy sometimes poses the concept of the bodhisattva in contrast to that of the Śrāvakabuddha[citation needed] (conventionally referred to as an arhat). An arhat is liberated from samsara (or the cycle of uncontrolled rebirth), but did not choose, in a previous life, to try and save each and every other living being before achieving Buddhahood before passing away into nirvana. (In Theravada terminology, Buddhas are also arahants.) Bodhisattvas, on the other hand vow not to become enlightened until all sentient beings have been saved. Ksitigarbha, for instance, has vowed not to become a Buddha until there is nobody left in hell.
According to many traditions within Mahayana Buddhism, on the way to becoming a Buddha, a bodhisattva proceeds through ten, or sometimes fourteen, stages or bhumi. Below is the list of ten bhumis and their descriptions from The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, a treatise by Gampopa (an influential teacher of the Tibetan Kagyu school). Other schools give slightly variant descriptions.
Before a bodhisattva arrives at the first ground, he or she first must travel the first two of the five paths:
The ten grounds of the bodhisattva then can be grouped into the next three paths
Chinese wood carving of Guanyin; Shanxi Province (A.D. 907-1125)
After the ten bhumis, according to Mahayana Buddhism, one attains complete enlightenment and becomes a Buddha.
Some Mahayana traditions in East Asia recognize a much larger number of stages, more than fifty.
Various traditions within Buddhism believe in certain specific bodhisattvas. Some bodhisattvas appear across traditions, but due to language barriers may be seen as separate entities. For example, Tibetan Buddhists believe in Chenrezig, who is Avalokitesvara in India, Guanyin (other spellings: Kwan-yin, Kuan-yin) in China and Korea, Quan Am in Vietnam, and Kannon (formerly spelled and pronounced: Kwannon) in Japan. Jizo or Ti Tsang is another popular bodhisattva in Japan and China (Ksitigarbha in Sanskrit). Jizo is known for aiding those who are lost. His greatest compassionate Vow being: "If I do not go to the hell to help the suffering beings there, who else will go? ... if the hells are not empty I will not become a Buddha. Only when all living beings have been saved, will I attain Bodhi."
Two modern bodhisattvas for many are the 14th Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, both considered by many followers of Tibetan Buddhism to be an incarnation of that same bodhisattva Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
The bodhisattva is a popular subject in Buddhist art.
The place of a bodhisattva\'s earthly deeds, such as the achievement of enlightenment or the acts of dharma, is known as a bodhimanda, and may be a site of pilgrimage. Many temples and monasteries are famous as bodhimandas; for instance, the island of Putuoshan, located off the coast of Ningbo, is venerated by Chinese Buddhists as the bodhimanda of Avalokitesvara. Perhaps the most famous bodhimanda of all is the bodhi tree under which Shakyamuni achieved buddhahood.
Pollock (2005): p.43) provides a teaching story that evocatively describes the "nature of a Bodhisattva" and mentions \'circumambulation\' (Tibetan: skor ba):
The nature of the Bodhisattva is apparent from a teaching story in which three people are walking through a desert. Parched and thirsty, they spy a high wall ahead. They approach and circumnavigate it, but it has no entrance or doorway. One climbs upon the shoulders of the others, looks inside, yells Eureka and jumps inside. The second then climbs up and repeats the actions of the first. The third laboriously climbs the wall without assistance and sees a lush garden inside the wall. It has cooling water, trees, fruit, etc. But, instead of jumping into the garden, the third person jumps back out into the desert and seeks out desert wanderers to tell them about the garden and how to find it. The third person is the Bodhisattva.Pollock, Neal (2005). Practices Supporting Dzogchen: The Great Perfection of Tibetan Buddhism. Source: [1] (accessed: January 8, 2008)
A Chinese wooden Bodhisattva, Jin Dynasty (1115-1234 AD), Shanghai Museum.
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