The Bodhisattva Concept
By A.G.S. Kariyawasam
(Pali: Bodhisatta) is a being who aspires for Bodhi or Enlightenment. The concept
of bodhisattva (meaning Buddha-to-be) is one of the most important concepts
in Buddhism. Etymologically the term can be separated into two parts, bodhi
and sattva: bodhi from the root budh, to be awake, means `awakening' or `enlightenment'
and `sattva' derived from sant, the present participle of the root as, `to be',
means `a being' or, literally, `one who is', `a sentient being.' Hence, the
term is taken to mean `one whose essence is Enlightenment' or `enlightened knowledge'.
By implication it means a seeker after enlightenment, a Buddha-to-be. There
is also a suggestion that the Pali term may be derived from bodhi and satta,
(Skt. sakta from sa¤j) `one who is attached to or desires to gain enlightenment.'
In original Pali Buddhism, the term bodhisatta is used more or less exclusively
to designate Gautama Buddha prior to his enlightenment. The concept of bodhisattva,
along with that of Buddha and of the cakravartin (world-ruler), was in vogue
in India even before the appearance of Gautama Buddha. When Prince Siddhàrtha,
who later became Gautama Buddha, took conception in the womb of Queen Màyà,
a seer predicted that Suddhodana's future son would be either a world-ruler
(cakravartin) or a Buddha. Once, answering a question by a brahamin, the Buddha
himself admitted that he is neither a god nor a yakkha, but a Buddha, meaning
thereby one of a succession of Buddhas (A. II, p. 38). The well-known Pali stanza
sabbapàpassa akaranaü -kusalassa upasampadà, sacittapariyodapanaü
-etaü buddhàna sàsanaü (Dhp. stz 183; Nett. p. 43) states
that the teaching it contains is not of a single Buddha but of all the Buddhas.
The âmagandha Sutta is similarly recorded as a discourse not of Gautama
Buddha but of a past Buddha named Kassapa (Sn. vv. 239 ff.). Sammàsambodhi
or Perfect Enlightenment is an impersonal universal phenomenon occurrmg in a
particular context both in time and in space and a Buddha is thus a person who
re-discovers the Dhamma, which had become lost to the world and proclaims it
anew (Pug. p. 29). When Gautama Buddha appeared, however, he himself as well
as others used the term bodhisattva to indicate his career from the time of
his renunciation up to the time of his enlightenment. Later, its use was extended
to denote the period from Gautama's conception to the enlightenment and, thereafter,
to all the Buddhas from their conception to Buddhahood. By applying the doctrine
of karma and of rebirth, which had general acceptance even in pre-Buddhist India,
the use of the term was further extended to refer to the past lives not only
of Gautama Buddha, but also of those rare beings who aspire for Perfect Enlightenment.
The oldest Theravàda tradition, as contained, for example, in the Mahàpadàna
Suttanta (D. ii, p. 1) gives details of six Buddhas prior to Gautama. This discourse
is attributed to the Buddha himself, who gives the time, caste, family, length
of life etc. of these predecessors of his. In the Buddhavaüsa, a later
work belonging to the Khuddaka Nikáya, the number increases to twenty
five with Gautama Buddha as the last and this number remains fixed in Theravàda
tradition. However, these enumerations by no means imply that they are exhaustive.
In the Mahàpadàna Suttanta the Buddha starts the story of the
six Buddhas merely by saying that ninety-one kappas ago there was such and such
a Buddha, implying thereby that such beings were not limited in number. From
this it follows that, if the Buddhas are innumerable, the bodhisattvas too must
be innumerable. When prince Siddhartha attained Enlightenment he did so as a
human being and lived and passed away as such. As mentioned earlier, he himself
admitted that he was a Buddha and not a deva or any such supernatural being.
He was only the discoverer of a lost teaching. His greatness was that he found
out what his contemporaries could not discover at all or discovered only incompletely.
He was a genius by birth who achieved the highest state possible for man. Both
intellectually and morally he was a great man, a superman (mahàpurisa).
In all the stages of his life, from conception onwards, something extraordinary
was seen in him. In order to understand who a bodhisattva is, it would be useful
to explain briefly who a Buddha is. The Buddha-concept in Theravàda Buddhism
is not a personality cult; neither is the Buddha an object of glorified devotion.
He is neither a theoretical metaphysician nor a materialist. He is not a religious
teacher who demands unquestioned loyalty like a Messiah. He is a man who has
perfected himself by realizing his `self' to the highest degree possible for
man. Only a man can become a Buddha. There may be other supernatural beings
inhabiting perhaps other planets in a given solar system. But they are not capable
of becoming fully enlightened unless there are planets similar to our own where
humans live. Even if such beings are leading happier lives in their non-human
spheres, still they are subject to the laws of change and evolution (anicca
or vaya-dhamma), and as such not free from birth and death and their attendant
conflicts: hence they are not released from dukkha. A Buddha is a human being
who has realized that there is a happier state than this world of conditioned
phenomena. After a persevering mental struggle, he realizes this unconditioned
state (asaïkhata) which is free from duality. This freedom from duality
implies the absence of any conflict (dukkha). Therefore, this state is described
as free from both sorrow and happiness in the ordinary sense. It is the highest
happiness (parama-sukha) in the transcendental sense. As such it is not subject
to change and is, therefore, imperishable (avyaya) and, therefore, permanent
(dhuva). It is this that is described as Nirvana. The Buddha is the person who
realized this for the first time by his own effort and proclaimed it to the
world and hence, he is the Teacher (satthà). Arahants are his disciples
who follow his teaching. Bodhisattvas are those who aspire to be fully enlightened
ones or Buddhas, in preference to merely becoming Arahants. Strictly speaking,
the life of the Buddha commenced only fom the time of his enlightenment and
his life before this event was that of the bodhisattva. The Buddha himself used
the term in this sense and, it is more than probable that he occasionally referred
to his previous existences in his discourses to the people in order to elucidate
a particular doctrinal point. The Jàtakas found in the Sutta Piñaka
such as the Mahàgovinda Sutta (D. II, pp.220 ff.), the Mahàsudassana
Sutta (D. II, pp. 169ff.) and the Makhàdeva Sutta (M. II, 74ff.) etc.
bear out this view. Besides these, there seems to have been neither a Jàtaka
collection as such, nor the developed concept of the bodhisattva practicing
pàrmitàs, until a much later period. Hence it would appear that
the concept of the bodhisattva could be divided into two parts, the original
concept and the concept developed by later Buddhists. The division of Schools
which began at the second Council with the separation of the Mahàsàïghikas
also made its contribution to the development of the bodhisattva cult in later
literature as it marked the remote beginnings of Mahayana Buddhism. The earliest
use of the term bodhisattva in literature seems to be when the Buddha refers
to the days prior to his enlightenment, in such contexts as in the days before
my enlightenment or when as yet I was only a bodhisattva (M. 1, pp. 114, 163;
M. III, p. 119). Then, we have the Pali suttas referred to above, in which the
Buddha recounts a previous existence of his after the fashion of the later Jàtaka
stories. In the Buddhavaüsa and in the later commentaries we see how the
concept has been extended not only in relation to Gautama's own previous lives,
but also as a general concept. In the Buddhavaüsa which belongs to the
Khuddakanikàya of the Pali Canon, are found the life-stories of twenty-five
Buddhas of whom Gautama was the last. The names by which he was known during
his apprenticeship as a bodhisattva under each of the twenty-four Buddhas, are
also given. The chronicle describes the ten pàramitàs, the eight
conditions necessary for the fulfillment of Buddhahood and the bodhisattva's
decision to postpone his entry into Nibbana. The other early work that describes
the bodhisattva's career is the Mahàvastu (circa 1st or 2nd century B.C.),
a Sanskrit work of the Mahàsàïghikas. Since the Buddha's
teaching is not fatalistic but a course of mental training implying constant
change until the realization of the unconditioned state of Nirvana, everyone
has the ability not merely to attain release but also to be authoritative teachers
(i.e. perfect Buddhas) as well. People with lesser ability may rest content
with mere Arahantship or by becoming Pratyeka Buddhas. Just as the Theravàdins
in course of time began to lay greater stress on intellectual development than
on religious practice and realization, those who advocated the bodhisattva ideal,
as a protest against the theoretical teaching of the Theravàdins, went
to the other extreme of making it too practical by making the bodhisattva somewhat
like a savior as exemplified by Avalokite÷vara. Everyone tries to be
a Buddha to save others while passively believing in the saving grace of the
bodhisattvas. The pendulum swung from one extreme to the other. Gautama Buddha's
teaching of practical psychological ethics and that of the avoidance of extremes
was falling into oblivion. In this evolution of thought the altruistic motives
which had become more or less mere intellectual concepts among the Theravàdins
began to be greatly emphasized. As a result, individual responsibility, on which
the Buddha has laid great stress, began to be overlooked. This tendency was
developed to its extreme, specially in the Far East, the results of which are
to be seen in the concept of Buddha Amitàbha and of the Bodhisattva Avalokite÷vara
as embodiments of compassion, an all-merciful divine father, whose sole aim
is to deliver all living beings from suffering. This development was the natural
result of the intrinsic human nature which seeks for external protection and
consolation either in a male or a female divinity. It is an extension of the
father-mother concept and can be found in any developed religious system. But
Gautama Buddha firmly believed that Buddhas are only pathfinders and teachers
who, out of compassion for all living beings, preach the doctrine of deliverance
which has to be individually realized by the wise. As such, the idea of salvation,
except through the teaching which every person has to follow individually, is
foreign to him. This is why the Buddha's teaching is regarded as too demanding
in practice. It was shown earlier how, by the application of the doctrines of
karma and rebirth, the life of the bodhisattva was extended backwards to an
innumerable number of existences. The doctrine of karma implies that intellectual
and moral greatness cannot be produced without great effort. The necessary training
and discipline cannot be practiced to perfection in a single life-time. However,
this did not mean that enlightenment could not be obtained in a given time.
On the contrary, it was often asserted that such attainment is possible in this
very life (diññheva dhamme) provided the devotee has the required
qualification for Arahantship and it is the duty of every follower to attempt
such achievement. It is of interest to see how the concept of the bodhisattva
has developed down the ages. The historical facts about the Buddha are not difficult
to determine. He began his life as Siddhartha, son of a local rajah in north
India in the 6th century B.C. At first he quite enjoyed sensual pleasures but
his attitude to such self-indulgence was quite different from that of the ordinary
man. Even while enjoying pleasure, he intuitively felt that true and lasting
happiness could never be found by giving into each and every sensual attraction.
That would lead to moral and intellectual ruin, resulting in becoming subject
to more and more suffering. He was sure of this. He got married and begot a
son and still he felt that that was not the ultimate fulfillment of human life.
His inner urge could not stop at anything short of full and complete self-realization,
not only for his own private release, but also for the good of humanity as a
whole. This made him think. First he took to a self-mortifying life, and when
that failed, he, after a severe mental struggle, achieved perfection by becoming
a Buddha and then a teacher.
During the rest of his career of forty-five years, he gave his findings to the
rest of humanity by oral preaching (dhamma-desanà), which was the best
method of disseminating knowledge in those days when writing and reading of
books were not common. There was nothing mystic about the Buddha. He was a practical
man, a psychiatrist who, after realizing the cause of man's troubles, was eager
to convey the benefits of his realization to the rest of humanity, which he
did quite successfully. There is no reason to doubt these simple facts of history.
But, in course of time, these facts became mixed up with much legend and the
Buddha's teaching became more or less a devotional cult. Its rationalistic and
practical nature began to go under-ground. The higher life (brahmacariya) was
thought of as something impracticable and gradually Buddhism lost its pragmatic
character. Coupled with these tendencies there was the inborn human need for
a father-figure or a mother-figure to fall back upon. All these led to the creation
of a Buddhology. For the artist, literary as well as plastic, the Buddha became
an object of study and devotion. He was analyzed from every possible angle and
various theories regarding his career were evolved as for instance, when the
original triple classification (of the path of release) sãla (morality),
samádhi (mind-culture) and pa¤¤à (wisdom) was resolved
into ten paramitas. The bodhisattva became a special kind of God-like character,
the like of whom could hardly be an actuality. It was as a part of this development
that the main events of the bodhisattva's life were portrayed as being accompanied
by miracles. A bodhisattva's career should start with his making a resolution
before a Buddha (abhinãhàra-karana or målàpranidhàna)
to become a Buddha for the welfare and liberation of all creatures. In later
literature this abhinãhàra is preceded by a period during which
the bodhisattva practices manopranidhi, when he resolves in his mind a desire
to become a Buddha without declaring his intention to others. Even for the abhinãhàra
or the first resolve to become a Buddha to be effective, eight conditions have
to be fulfilled. These are that the aspirant should be a human being, a male,
sufficiently developed spiritually to become an Arahant in that very life, a
recluse at the time of the declaration, that he should make the resolution personally
before a Buddha, that he should possess the jhànas and be prepared to
sacrifice even his life. The resolution has to be absolutely firm. There are
eighteen inauspicious states into which a bodhisattva is not born. He is never
born blind, deaf, insane, crippled, among savages, as a slave or as a heretic.
He never changes his sex, is never guilty of the five heinous crimes which become
immediately effective (à3nantarika-kamma) and he never becomes a leper.
Should he be born as an animal he is never born bigger than an elephant or smaller
than a quail. He is not born as a peta or in Avãci nor in the hells known
as lokàntarika, which are eternally dark. He is not born as a Màra
nor as a Suddhàvàsa deva, nor in the Formless (aråpa) worlds,
nor in another cakkavàla (SnA. I, pp. 50 ff.). According to J. VI, p.
552 all bodhisattvas must make the five great sacrifices (mahàpariccàga)
of giving up wife, children, kingdom, life and limb. The Buddha, before whom
the abhinãhàra is made, looks into the future and, if satisfied,
declares the fulfillment of the wish, giving all the particulars of such
fulfillment. This declaration is called veyyàkarana (Skt. vyàkarana)
and is made also by all subsequent Buddhas whom the bodhisattva meets during
his career. From here onwards, till he attains Enlightenment, all his activities
are directed towards the practice of the perfections (pàramitàs).
As mentioned earlier, these perfections were later enumerations and there are
slight differences between the Pali and the Sanskrit lists. However, their theme
is the same, which is ethical perfection. Originally, there seem to have been
only six pàramitàs which were later made into a group of ten.
The earlier six, as given in Buddhist Sanskrit works, are as follows: dàna
(liberality), sãla (morality), khanti (patience), viriya (energy), dhyàna
(concentration) and pa¤¤à (wisdom). The four supplementary
pàramitàs are upàya or upàya kau÷alya (skill
in means), pranidhàna (resolution), bala (strength) and j¤àna
(knowledge: Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit literature,
London, 1932, p. 168). In the Pali list there is nekkhamma (renunciation) instead
of dhyàna while upàya, bala and j¤àna are replaced
by sacca (truthfulness), mettà (loving-kindness) and upekkhà,
(equanimity) respectively. The length of a bodhisattva's career varies: some
practice the pàramitàs for at least four asaïkheyyas and
one hundred thousand kappas, others for at least eight asaïkheyyas and
one hundred thousand kappas and yet others for sixteen asaïkheyyas and
one hundred thousand kappas. The first of these periods is the very least required
and is intended for those who excel in wisdom (pa¤¤à),
the middle period for those who excel in faith (saddhà) and the last
and the longest for those whose chief feature is perseverance. An important
event in the bodhisattva's life that occurs when he spends his penultimate life
in the Tusita heaven is coming to the conclusion that he should leave the Tusita
heaven and be reborn as a man. As this moment arrives, there is much excitement
(halàhala), because of various signs appearing in the ten-thousand world-systems.
All the devas come together and request the bodhisattva to seek birth as a human
being, whereupon the bodhisattva makes the five great investigations (pa¤camahà-vilokana)
regarding the time, the continent, the place of birth, his mother and the life
span left to her.
The time (kàla) has to be investigated because Buddhas do not appear
in the world when men live for more than one hundred thousand years or less
than one hundred. Buddhas are born only in Jambudvãpa (north India) and
only in the bràhmana or the khattiya clan. Once these investigations
are made the bodhisattva proceeds to the Nandanavana where he formally disappears
from among the devas. The conception of the bodhisattva is attended by various
miracles. Both in Pali and Sanskrit sources an attempt is made to show that
at the actual moment of conception there is no physical union of father and
mother. With regard to the general life of a bodhisattva as given in the books,
the following account from the Dictionary of Pali proper Names, G.P. Malalasekera
(II, pp. 324-7), may be quoted: On the day of his conception, the Bodhisattva's
mother takes the vows of fasting and celibacy at the conclusion of a great festival,
and when she has retired to rest she dreams that the Four Regent Gods take her
with her bed, bathe her in the Anotatta lake, clad her in divine garments and
place her in a golden palace surrounded by all kinds of luxury. As she lies
there the Bodhisattva in the form of a white elephant enters her womb through
her right side. The earth trembles and all the ten thousand world systems are
filled with radiance. Immediately the four Regent Gods assume guard over mother
and child. Throughout the period of pregnancy, which lasts for ten months exactly,
the mother remains free from ailment and sees the child in her womb sitting
cross-legged. At the end of the ten months she gives birth to the child, standing
in a grove, never indoors. Suddhàvàsa brahmas, free from all passion,
first receive the child in a golden net and from them the Four Regent Gods take
him on an antelope skin and present him to his mother. Though the bodhisattva
is born free of the mucous otherwise present at birth, two showers of water
one hot, the other cold, fall from the sky and bathe mother and child. The child
then takes seven strides to the north, standing firmly on his feet, looks on
all sides, and seeing no one anywhere to equal him, announces his supremacy
over the whole world and the fact that this is his last birth. Seven days after
birth his mother dies. She dies because she must bear no other being. The Bodhisattva's
last birth is attended by miracles. Soothsayers, being summoned, see on the
child's body the thirty-two-marks of a Great Man (mahà3purisa) and declare
that the child will become either a Cakkavatti or a Buddha. His father, desiring
that his child shall be a Cakkavatti, rather than a Buddha, brings him up in
great luxury, hiding from him all sin and ugliness of the world. But the destiny
of a Bodhisattva asserts itself, and he becomes aware of the presence in the
world of old age, disease, death and the freedom of mind to be found in the
life of a recluse. Urged by the desire to discover the cause of suffering in
the world and the way out of it, the Bodhisatta leaves the world on the day
of his son's birth ß Having left the world, the Bodhisattva practices
the austerities, the period of such practices varying. One the day the Bodhisattva
attains to Buddhahood, he receives a meal of milk-rice (pàyàsa)
from a woman and a gift of kusa-grass, generally from an âjivaka, which
he spreads under the Bodhi tree for his seat. The size of this seat varies.
Before the enlightenment the Bodhisattva has five great dreams (i) that the
world is his couch with the Himàlayà as his pillow, his left hand
resting on the eastern sea, his right on the western and his feet on the southern;
(ii) that a blade of tiriyà (kusa) grass, growing from his navel touches
the clouds; (iii) that white worms with black heads creep up from his feet,
covering his knees; (iv) that four birds of varied hues from the four quarters
of the world fall at his feet and become white; (v) that he walks to and fro
on a heap of dung, by which he remains unsoiled. ß The next day the Bodhisattva
sits cross-legged on his seat facing the east, determined not to rise till he
has attained his goal. The gods of all the worlds assemble to do him honor,
but Màra comes with his mighty hosts and the gods flee. All day, the
fight continues between Màra and the Bodhisattva; the pàramã
alone are present to lend their aid to the Bodhisattva, and when the moment
comes, the goddess of the earth bears witness to his great sacrifices, while
Màra and his armies retire discomfited at the hour of sunset, the gods
then returning and singing a paean of victory. Meanwhile the bodhisattva spends
the night in deep concentration; during the first watch he acquires knowledge
of past lives, during the second watch he develops the divine eye, while during
the last watch he ponders over and comprehends the Paticcasamuppàda doctrine.
Backwards and forwards his mind travels over the chain of causation and twelve
times the earth trembles. With sunrise, omniscience dawns on him, and he becomes
the Supremely Awakened Buddha, uttering his udàna of victory while the
whole world rejoices with him. If the bodhisattva ideal of the Mahayana be regarded
as a protest against the Arahant ideal of the Hãnayàna, there
is an important fact that needs clarification. This is the charge of selfishness
brought against the Arahant. In this connection there is much misunderstanding.
The charge of selfishness has to be leveled not against the arahants but against
those Theravàda monks who have portrayed Arahantship as a selfish ideal
by their own behavior and writings and thereby made the higher religious life
(brahmcariya or adhisãla) appear as something un-practicable. The Buddha
has clearly shown, both by example and precept, the value of working for the
welfare of others. The spirit of his teaching is that one should enlighten oneself
first and then try to help those that can be helped as clearly expressed in
the well-known words of the Buddha when he addressed the first sixty arahants
to devote themselves to the service of others (Vin. 1, pp. 19-20). He also discouraged
mere philosophy and speculation if it had no practical value. But, quite in
contrast to this noble example of the Teacher, his later followers, instead
of following by practice the religious life he discovered and promulgated, began
to make mere academic study thereof as an end in itself. They became speculators
and philosophers, with very little practice. The Hãnayàna monk
became more or less a fossilized antique living in a world of his own. The protest
of the Mahayanist was against this fossilization and resultant indolence, and
not against the arahant ideal as such. The Buddha and the genuine Arahants who,
after achieving their release helped mankind, have to be absolved of this charge
of selfishness. Yet, on the other hand, when the bodhisattva ideal was advocated,
the pendulum swung to the other extreme of mere bodhisattva worship. The extreme
intellectualism of the Hãnayàna was replaced by the extreme emotionalism
of developed Mahayana. The true spirit of the Buddha's teaching lies in between,
in a harmonious combination of intellect and emotion, of head and heart, of
theory and practice. That would be the perfection of character as understood
in Buddhism. The Pali Canon shows little interest either in philosophical speculation
or in the personality of the bodhisattvas who are simply treated as larval forms
of the Buddha. Gautama himself would not have denied the possibility of becoming
a Buddha to anyone who is intellectually and morally mature. The significant
fact is that it became quite incredible that a superior being such as a Buddha
should be suddenly produced in a human family. He was not to be explained as
an incarnation. Hence it was quite logical and edifying to treat him as a product
of a long evolution of virtue, extending over several existences of good deeds
and noble aspirations, culminating in a being superior to both gods and men.
Such a being remains in the Tusita heaven in his penultimate existence biding
the appropriate time to be born among men. In this manner the Pali Canon, quite
logically, recognizes the bodhisattva as a rare type of man appearing at a certain
stage in time and space. It leaves the matter at that. But later works like
the Buddhavaüsa, Cariyàpiñaka, the Pali commentaries and
the Mahayana sutras went on developing the bodhisattva concept in such a way
that he became an object of devotion and his human nature gradually disappeared.
The Mahayanists, in trying to remedy the situation, ended up by making him a
savior. According to the Hãnayàna view, the bodhisattva's penultimate
life is spent in the Tusita heaven where he enjoys the power and splendor of
any Indian deity. But, as it did not admit more than one Buddha at a time, there
was evidently also only one bodhisattva at a time in Tusita. In Mahayana, however,
the multiplication of not only celestial Buddhas but also of celestial bodhisattvas
became such a popular theme that as time went on their numbers became endless.
The bodhisattva ideal, with its more practical attitude to life, emphasizes
the value of family life. Renunciation of household life never meant running
away from life. Nirvana was to be sought not outside samsára but within
it. Gautama Buddha never recommended a `life of aloofness or of perennial seclusion.'
He was not an escapist and wanted none to be so. What he taught was that owing
to ignorance (avijjà), people do not see things as they really are, and
as such they are given to their desires, which in turn prolong their suffering.
His method was to remove this veil of ignorance so that there would be light.
It is the removal of mental illusion, resulting in a psychological revolution,
which makes one free from the trammels of ordinary birth, disease and death.
This cannot be achieved by running away from life. The problem has to be solved
by facing and overcoming it, by changing the inner self, the mind where lies
the cause of the problem. It is a change of attitude and outlook, resulting
from the removal of ignorance. Such a person lives in the world, but is not
of the world. If a person can become enlightened after leading a family life,
as prince Siddhartha himself did, he would certainly be a more useful man than
a sanctimonious ascetic living in the jungle. And it is this kind of pure social
life that the bodhisattva ideal recommends. The ancient emphasis on inward life
is given a new application. The godly and efficient layman so envisaged is exemplified
in the figure of Vimalakirti, described in the, Vimalakãrtinirdesa. This
wealthy householder who was residing at Vaisali, lived only for the sake of
the necessary means of saving creatures; abundantly rich, ever careful of the
poor, pure in self-discipline, obedient to all precepts, removing all anger
by the practice of patience, removing all sloth by the practice of diligence,
removing all distractions of mind by intent meditation, removing all ignorance
by fullness of wisdom; though he was but a simple layman, yet observing the
pure monastic discipline; though living at home, yet never desirous of anything;
though possessing a wife and children, always exercising pure virtues; though
surrounded by his family, holding aloof from worldly pleasures; though using
the jeweled ornaments of the world, yet adorned with spiritual splendor; though
eating and drinking, yet enjoying the flavor of the rapture of meditation; though
frequenting the gambling house, yet leading the gamblers into the right path;
though coming in contact with heresy, yet never letting his true faith be impaired;
though having a profound knowledge of worldly learning, yet ever finding pleasure
in the things of the spirit as taught by the Buddha; though profiting by all
professions, yet far above being absorbed by them; benefiting all beings, going
where-so-ever he pleases; ever teaching the young and ignorant, when entering
the hall of learning; manifesting to all the error of passion when in the hours
of debauchery; persuading all to seek the higher things when at the shop of
the wine-dealer; preaching the law when among wealthy people; teaching the ks2atriyas
patience; removing arrogance when among Brahmans; teaching justice to the great
ministers; teaching loyalty and filial piety to the princes; teaching honesty
to the ladies of the court; persuading the masses to cherish virtue. The bodhisattva
concept had its influence in the evolution of kingship in Sri Lanka too. For
some time between the fourth and the eleventh centuries A.C., the kings of Sri
Lanka began to be regarded not as ordinary human beings but as bodhisattvas.
The Jetavanàràma slab-inscription of Mahinda IV and the Prãtidànaka-manóapa
inscription of Nissaïka Malla are instances where the rulers refer to themselves
as bodhisattvas. The Ràjataranganã (p.470 and the Nikàyasaügrahava,
ed. Kumàranatunga, p.24) also bear evidence to this. Paràkramabàhu
II says that he would become a Buddha (Mahàvaüsa, ch. 86, stz.7).
Charles Eliot mentions that in China there is a system of admission into the
Order consisting of three stages: admission (pabbajjà), higher ordination
(upasampadà) and the acceptance of the bodhisattva vows (shou-pu-sa-chich).
The burning of the candidate's head from three to eighteen places is said to
be an essential part of the ceremony of taking the bodhisattva-vows (Hinduism
and Buddhism, Ill, p. 328). The worship of bodhisattvas needed iconographical
representation and this need has been more than fulfilled by the creation of
an abundance of bodhisattva images, specially in those countries that accepted
Mahàyàna. Buddhist art became the richer through these artistic
creations. In the subsequent phases of the bodhisattva-cult these deified personages
were given many forms in order to symbolize their multifarious functions. Sometimes
they were given many heads and many arms which practice has sometimes led to
the creation of such figures as exemplified by the thousand-armed Avalokitesvara
from Japan.