The Bosat and the Bodhisattva Paths

The Saddharma Pundarika, or Lotus Sutra, is a collection of teachings that sets out the path-truths of Buddhas, Bodhisattas, and Bodhisattvas. Within the Mahayana tradition there is a lineage of Buddhas, with its own theoretical framework and its own doctrine, but the complete picture behind all of this is not visible to everyone. That is entirely reasonable. In truth, only a Samma Sambuddha sees that complete picture in full, and it is only in the moment just before parinirvana that a Samma Sambuddha places the final point on that picture. A Samma Sambuddha teaches a number of subjects that do not belong to Theravada, or the so-called Hinayana. The paths of the Bosat (the Bodhisatta) and of Bodhisattvas belong to exactly these subjects.

The Bodhisatta and the Bodhisattvas

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are two different things. The Bodhisatta is the one fulfilling the perfections (paramita) on the way to Buddhahood. Bodhisattvas, by contrast, live close beside a Buddha, setting themselves aside and working, fulfilling perfections while dwelling within the state of Bodhisattva-hood. When their perfections are eventually complete, they let go of that Bodhisattva state and pass into Buddha-nature.

This path-truth is contained within Mahayana. Someone who is genuinely Mahayana in outlook has broad thinking and a broad attitude — someone able to break through the shell of the egg from the inside and come out into the open, the way a chick does. A true Mahayana practitioner is, in that sense, a noble researcher.

Dwelling Alone: The Heart of the Mahayana Vision

Mahayana holds a number of large concepts built on theory and doctrine. One of them is the idea of dwelling alone. This carries a deep and subtle meaning. If, in trying to understand this teaching, some kind of 'person' becomes the object of your refuge, you cannot see Nibbana — because a person to take refuge in gets established inside you, and that inner person has to be put to death before Nibbana can be seen. So the goal is to receive the vision and the path-truth without ever establishing an inner person, and simply to follow that path-truth. Do that, and no person is being taken as refuge. If a person is taken as refuge, the path has gone wrong. Mahayana exists in order to dwell alone.

There are many kinds of Buddha in this world: Maha Rahat Buddhas, Pasebuddhas, Buddhas, Samma Buddhas, and the Samma Sambuddha. Maha Rahats, too, are a kind of Buddha — the eighty great disciples (Maha Sravaka) are themselves called Buddhas in this sense, because to 'become Buddha' means that each one becomes awakened through a particular kind of knowledge (gnana). An Arahant, however, is not called Buddha in this sense, because an Arahant has no such gnana. Every Buddha has some gnana; what an Arahant has is a path-fruit — the fruit of Arahantship.

A Buddha possesses a knowledge-vision: through that gnana, reality is understood, and one becomes utterly, purely extinguished. That knowledge is what is called Buddha — it is also called Buddha-Bodhi. Buddha means buddhi, intelligence; the two are the same thing.

Who, then, are the Bodhisattvas? Bodhi relates to Buddha. Those who dwell close to a Buddha, setting themselves aside and working, are Bodhisattvas. Some of them go on to become Buddhas; some do not. They cultivate Bodhisattva qualities, and they see Nibbana from within that very state of Bodhisattva-hood — none of the path-fruits such as stream-entry apply here, since that belongs to Theravada. This is a path that exists within Mahayana.

Someone who works honestly while staying close to a Buddha is called a Bodhisattva. What they hold is Bodhi itself — that is exactly how they see the Buddha and recognise the Buddha. Bodhisattvas do not serve beings directly, and they are not the ones ferrying beings across to liberation; that is the Buddha's task. Bodhisattvas work for the sake of the Buddha.

There can be several Bodhisattvas at once, but there is only ever one Bodhisattvi — one female Bodhisattva. In every sasana, one Bodhisattvi appears, carrying out the preparatory, supporting work that the Bodhisattvas themselves cannot do. This holds true for every sasana; without it, Bodhisattvas would not even arise. Bodhisattvas complete their task and then attain parinibbana.

Why a Buddha Never Praises a Bodhisattva

A Buddha never tells a Bodhisattva what their own qualities are. Why is that? Because naming those qualities would corrupt something in them — it would become a burden on the mind. It is easier for them not to know, so that they can carry on their work freely. Bodhisattvas themselves are also reluctant to have their virtues spoken of. For the sake of the Bodhisattvas' own good, a Buddha does not go about praising or extolling them. But at the final moment, when a Bodhisattva is about to attain parinibbana, the Buddha does declare that Bodhisattva's qualities — for they carry an immense mass of virtue.

One quality of a true Bodhisattva is this: they have no wish even to know that they are a Bodhisattva. In just the same way, Buddhas and Arahants have no wish to be told 'you are a Buddha' or 'you are an Arahant.' That is simply their nature.

Inside an Arahant, there is no 'Arahant.' It is only for those who are not yet Arahants that 'an Arahant' exists as something to point to. It is the same for a Bodhisattva — there is no separate 'one who is a Bodhisattva' living inside them. All they want is to work honestly and purely for the Buddha's sake. These labels are simply words we use for convenience of reference; apart from that, there is no such separate thing. Within any sasana there are several kinds of Buddha, and several Bodhisattvas, present at once — but they are not put forward publicly in society, because the moment such a person is made prominent, harm naturally begins to come to them.

With your own wisdom, you should purify your understanding of this subject and this path-vision, while also dwelling in the four Brahma-vihara qualities needed to serve beings: loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. For a Bodhisattva, every being is a teacher.

There are, of course, two sides here — the Mahayana tradition and the Theravada tradition — and that is a separate conversation. Setting tradition aside and speaking directly and theoretically, Mahayana refers to a system that operates around and in relation to Buddhas. A 'Buddha' here is not a person but a capacity able to transact and to exist by drawing on the field of Buddha-knowledge. Bound up with how that system operates, with the path, and with Bodhi, is the doctrine called Bodhisattva-hood. Bodhisattvas are able to stay intimately close to a Buddha without the Buddha experiencing any discomfort from it. Being a Bodhisattva means being able to surrender oneself completely — a hundred percent — in order to transact with the Buddha. That is precisely what allows the Buddha to remain 'living,' able to go on working from within a Pure Buddha Nature.

According to this doctrine, a Bodhisattva does not think about their own Nibbana. They simply go on doing their work honestly, saying, in effect, 'On the day I come to see Nibbana, I will have seen it.' In truth, there is no fixed 'thing' called Nibbana. In Sri Lanka, people have turned Nibbana into exactly that — a fixed possession. How many people have been misled this way — when someone dies, boards go up wishing them 'the bliss of Nibbana.' Some people carry what amounts to an obsession with Nibbana. There is no such place called Nibbana. The accurate word is Enlightenment: rising to the highest point of wisdom, reaching the very peak of what it means to be human. Once there, free from birth, ageing, sickness, death, sorrow and lamentation, a person has already seen Nibbana. No further, freshly-arrived Nibbana is required after death. It is not that, once dead, a person goes on to enjoy some imagined Nibbana; the bliss of Nibbana must be experienced while alive. This Enlightenment — reaching the summit of Nibbana through wisdom, reaching the maximum of what a human being can become — has to be reached as a human being, within this very life. Having reached it, having completed everything, no cause remains that could bring about a further birth.

The Story of Avalokiteshvara

Gautama Buddha, on some occasions, tested a Bodhisattva quite severely. The finest Bodhisattva at the Buddha's side was Avalokiteshvara. The Buddha's way of teaching Dhamma in that era was often unusual — an example or a situation would first be created, and the Dhamma taught by reference to it, which is exactly the pattern found in many of the old texts: an incident occurs, and the Dhamma is taught with that incident as its basis.

Before giving Avalokiteshvara his prediction of future Buddhahood, the Buddha, near a certain pond, said, 'I would like to drink a little water from this pond.' Avalokiteshvara said he would bring it, and set off, walking a considerable distance. Others were present too, but none of them wished to go and fetch water from that particular pond. Avalokiteshvara went without a word, brought the water back, and offered it: 'Here it is, Venerable Sir — water.'

'Ah, so you brought it? Wherever it comes from, water is water — only the pond differs; the water itself never changes wherever it is drawn from. Yet on hearing what I said, you were foolish enough to go all that way to that particular pond just to fetch water,' the Buddha said, and in front of the assembled crowd, appeared to embarrass him. The Buddha then poured the water out onto a young plant. Avalokiteshvara's mind did not change even in the slightest. He remained full of quiet joy — he had brought the water, and that alone was enough for him. He had fetched it, he had offered it, and in that he was content.

The Buddha then said that the Buddha who has arisen within Avalokiteshvara does not change. His faith does not change; it is unshakeable, it does not waver. Even mocked and ridiculed as much as this, the Buddha within him remains unaffected. Avalokiteshvara is not someone who speaks a great deal — he barely speaks at all, perhaps two words in a day, and even where speech might be expected, he stays silent. He offers reverence to every being. Only the Buddha could see that this was the kind of Bodhisattva he was; even Avalokiteshvara himself did not know it. He carried an extraordinary mass of virtue, entirely free of any trace of conceit. Just as water drawn from any pond remains water, so the Buddha-nature within Avalokiteshvara remains unchanged, the Buddha said. The Buddha lives on within Avalokiteshvara — which is exactly why it is under the name Avalokiteshvara that the Buddha's nature and doctrine are carried out into the world. That is how the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara came to be known.

The subject of Bodhisattva-hood is a vast field in its own right. Once someone has entered onto the Bodhisattva path, if they change that path-truth or that doctrine along the way, they must travel back a distance equal to however far they had already come through samsara to reach that point — that is the scale of the derailment such a change causes. The doctrine of the Bodhisattvas, the qualities of a Bodhisattva, and the Bodhisattva path itself belong to a subject area entirely their own.