/r/bodhisattva
The goal of this subreddit is to foster the study of the Way of the Bodhisattva and the cultivation of Bodhichitta through discussion, practice, mind training (Lojong), and the collection of resources.
For all things Bodhisattvayana and Bodhichitta related.
The goal of this subreddit is to foster the study of the Way of the Bodhisattva and the cultivation of Bodhichitta through discussion, practice, mind training (Lojong), and the collection of resources.
One of the senior-most lamas of Tibetan Buddhism, Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, has said that the Eight Verses of Training the Mind represents the short version of the Lojong, the Thirty Seven Practices is the medium, and the Bodhicharyavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva) is the extensive version.
What is the Bodhisattvayana?
The Bodhisattva vehicle is the part of the Mahāyāna that belongs to the vehicle of characteristics. It is called the vehicle of bodhisattvas because once it has been entered it has the power to lead someone to great enlightenment, because its domain of experience is vast, in terms of its extensive skillful methods and its profound wisdom, because it brings about benefit and happiness, in the higher realms in the short term, and ultimately at the stage of definitive good, and because it carries one to greater and greater qualities as one progresses along the paths and stages. It is called a vehicle of characteristics because it has all the characteristics of a path that is a direct cause for bringing about the ultimate fruition, the level of Buddhahood.
Quick Start Guides
Bodhicharyavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva)
Eight Verses of Training the Mind
Thirty Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas
The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech
The Bodhisattva’s Garland of Jewels
Other Subreddits
/r/bodhisattva
Inspired both by stories of Shakyamuni’s years of asceticism and intensive self-cultivation in the wilderness prior to his awakening and by jataka stories describing his previous lives, some Buddhist monastics began to envision a far more rigorous and time-consuming path leading to the full awakening of a Buddha. Would-be bodhisattvas had to look forward to thousands, if not millions, of additional lives before Buddhahood could be attained. Further, it was assumed that in those lives they would perform the kind of extreme acts of self-sacrifice described in the jatakas, in which, for example, the Buddha-to-be, out of compassion, allows himself to be devoured by a hungry tigress and her cubs or to be cut to pieces by an evil king.
The pioneers of the bodhisattva path might well have viewed themselves as an elite destined for a higher goal than their monastic compatriots, but they did not, at this point, separate themselves from those who were striving for arhatship. In all likelihood, in fact, these early bodhisattvas constituted a relatively small group living within a monastic environment consisting largely of those who still had arhatship as their goal. These early volunteers for the bodhisattva track did not subscribe to the “signature” doctrines of later Mahayana philosophical schools—the emptiness of all phenomena, the ten stages of the bodhisattva path, the three “bodies” of the Buddha, and so forth—for all these had yet to emerge. They were simply a group of unusually ambitious and compassionate individuals who had dedicated themselves to doing whatever it takes to obtain Buddhahood rather than arhatship. But since the very definition of a Buddha is someone who discovers the way to awakening by himself in a world that knows nothing of Buddhism, they could not become Buddhas here and now. Rather, that final step had to be reserved for another time and (in most cases) another world-system. So the aim of these pioneering bodhisattvas entailed “rediscovering” Buddhism for the benefit of all beings in the distant future, when the teachings of previous Buddhas had long since been forgotten.
Given this scenario, the possibility of arhatship becomes, ironically, a threat. The early Mahayana scriptures still regarded its attainment as quite accessible even within this present lifetime. Meditation—especially the practice of the dhyanas (Pali, jhanas), or states of concentrative absorption—is viewed as a particular danger, since the budding bodhisattva may inadvertently "tumble into" arhatship. This is why the bodhisattva is warned in the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, for example, to use his "skillful means" to avoid accidentally attaining nirvana. The bodhisattva must walk a tightrope, as it were, cultivating advanced meditational practices while staving off what would be their natural result. - Greater Awakening by Jan Nattier