WHAT IS BODHISATTVA?

[Aurore]

Bodhisattva exist with the sole purpose to benefit and liberate others. I think this will give us a clearer understanding of how a Bodhisattva think and do:

“All creatures are in pain. All suffer from bad and hindering karma and they cannot see the Buddhas or hear the Excellent Dharma or know the Community of Followers. All that mass of pain and evil karma I take into my own body. I take upon myself the burden of sorrow; I resolve to do so; I endure it all. I do not turn back or run away, I do not tremble,  I am not afraid,  nor do I despair. Assuredly, I must bear the burdens of all beings for I have resolved to save them all. I must set them all free. I must save the whole world from the forest of birth, old age, disease, and rebirth, from misfortune and sin, from the round of birth and death, from the toils of delusion. For all beings are caught in the net of craving, encompassed by ignorance, held by the desire for existence; they are doomed to destruction, shut in a cage of pain. They are ignorant, untrustworthy, full of doubts, always at odds with one another, always prone to see evil; they cannot find a refuge in the ocean of existence; they are all on the edge of the gulf of destruction.

“I work to establish the realm of transcendent wisdom for all beings. I care not at all for my own deliverance. I must save all beings from the torrent of misery with the raft of my omniscient mind. I must pull them back from the great precipice. I must free them from all misfortune, ferry them over the sea of suffering.

“For I have taken it upon myself, by my own will, the whole of the pain of all living things. Thus I dare try every abode of pain, in every part of the universe, for I must not defraud the world of the root of good. I resolve to dwell in each state of misfortune through countless ages, for the sake of all beings. For it is better that I alone suffer than that all beings sink into the worlds of misfortune. I shall give myself in bondage, to redeem the entire world from the pits of hell, from the province of death. I shall bear all grief and pain in my own body, for the good of all living things, speaking the truth, not breaking my word. I shall not forsake them.

I must be the leader of all beings, I must be their torchbearer, I must be their guide to safety, and I must not wait for the help of another, nor lose my resolve and leave my tasks to another. I must not turn back in my efforts to save all beings nor cease to use my merit for the destruction of all pain.”

[Big Uncle]

Bodhisattva is both a level of spiritual attainment and it's also a spiritual practice. Arya Asanga and Arya Shantideva wrote extensively on how to achieve the 6 qualities of a Bodhisattva. The 6 qualities of the Bodhisattva is mentioned earlier as the 6 Paramitas or the 6 Perfections of Generosity, Ethics, Patience, Effort, Concentration and Wisdom.

In order to achieve these qualities, we need to collect a vast amounts of merit. One of the ways would be to hold Bodhisattva vows and the vows consists of 18 root vows and 46 secondary vows. What we need to do is to learn up on what the vows entail and then, we receive this vows from a qualified vow-holder like our Guru. The Guru may give it along with a Tantric initiation or he may just bestow the vows to you directly. When we have received the vows, we have to maintain a good samaya with our Guru, meaning we listen and we carry out all the instructions of our Guru to the best of our ability. And along the way, we uphold our vows and repair any infractions on our vows whenever we can.

[buddhalovely]

Becoming a Bodhisattva is a huge step in helping not only yourself, but also every other sentient being, both seen and unseen. Most people are self-motivated and work primarily to solve their own problems, keeping others a distant second. Should someone do an act of kindness, repayment is generally expected whether in the form of a thank you and/or further praise.

A Bodhisattva is motivated by pure compassion and love. Their goal is to achieve the highest level of being: that of a Buddha. Bodhisattva is a Sanskrit term which translates as: Bodhi [enlightenment] and sattva [being]. And their reason for becoming a Buddha is to help others. The Bodhisattva will undergo any type of suffering to help another sentient being, whether a tiny insect or a huge mammal. In Shakyamuni Buddha's 'Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines' it states: "I will become a savior to all those beings, I will release them from all their sufferings." If this sounds familiar to anyone not acquainted with Buddhism, then you only need to think of the example of Jesus Christ, a true Bodhisattva.

[icy]

In Mahayana Buddhism, when one takes the bodhisattva vow, one pledges to work tirelessly in this life and all future lives to awaken oneself and purify oneself in order to help all other beings attain freedom from suffering through spiritual enlightenment. One vows to help beings whenever possible, and a profound way of doing this is to give a being the gift of life through an act of kindness. This can take the form of helping an animal in danger cross the road to safety before being struck by a vehicle or freeing an animal that is in captivity before it is killed by buying it from the captor and letting it roam free. If one is in a position to help save another's life--whether a human or an animal--one must practice fearless kindness to help the other being in danger.

In Tibetan Buddhism, it is believed that due to the countless incarnations all beings have undergone throughout time, at one point or another any given living creature has been one's mother in a past life. Therefore, it is viewed as an obligation to repay the kindness of those who are referred to as "mother sentient beings." If your own mother in this life were in danger, you would certainly do whatever you could to save her life. Similarly, dedicated holders of the bodhisattva vow feel this kind of urgency to save the lives of all "mother sentient beings."