DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0308
Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism
The Bodhisattva is he in whom the Bodhicitta or heart of
wisdom is fully expanded. In a sense, we are all Bodhi-
sattvas, and indeed all Buddhas, only that in us by reason
of ignorance and imperfection in love the glory of the
Bodhi-heart is not yet made manifest. But those are
specially called Bodhisattvas who with specific determina-
tion dedicate all the activities of their future and present
lives to the task of saving the world. They do not merely
contemplate, but feel, all the sorrow of the world, and
because of their love they cannot be idle, but expend
their virtue with supernatural generosity. It is said of
Gautama Buddha, for example, that there is no spot on
earth where he has not in some past life sacrificed his life
for the sake of others, while the whole story of his last
incarnation related in the Vessantara Jataka relates the
same unstinting generosity, which does not shrink even
from the giving away of wife and children. But Buddha-
hood once attained, according to the old school, it remains
for others to work out their salvation alone: “ Be ye
lamps unto yourselves,” in the last words of Gautama.
According to the Mahayana, however, even the attainment
of Buddhahood does not involve indifference to the sorrow
of the world; the work of salvation is perpetually carried
on by the Bodhisattva emanations of the supreme Buddhas,
just as the work of the Father is done by Jesus.
The Bodhisattvas are specially distinguished from the
Sravakas (Arahats) and Pacceka-Buddhas or ‘Private
Buddhas,’ who have become followers of the Buddha
‘for the sake of their own complete Nirvana’:1 for the
1 Hindus would express this by saying that Sravakas and Pacceka-
Buddhas choose the path of Immediate Salvation : Bodhisattvas, that
of Ultimate Salvation. ‘ The deferred path of Liberation is the path
of all Bhaktas. It is the path of compassion or service.’—P. N. Sinha,
Commentary on the Bhagavata Parana, p. 359.
230
The Bodhisattva is he in whom the Bodhicitta or heart of
wisdom is fully expanded. In a sense, we are all Bodhi-
sattvas, and indeed all Buddhas, only that in us by reason
of ignorance and imperfection in love the glory of the
Bodhi-heart is not yet made manifest. But those are
specially called Bodhisattvas who with specific determina-
tion dedicate all the activities of their future and present
lives to the task of saving the world. They do not merely
contemplate, but feel, all the sorrow of the world, and
because of their love they cannot be idle, but expend
their virtue with supernatural generosity. It is said of
Gautama Buddha, for example, that there is no spot on
earth where he has not in some past life sacrificed his life
for the sake of others, while the whole story of his last
incarnation related in the Vessantara Jataka relates the
same unstinting generosity, which does not shrink even
from the giving away of wife and children. But Buddha-
hood once attained, according to the old school, it remains
for others to work out their salvation alone: “ Be ye
lamps unto yourselves,” in the last words of Gautama.
According to the Mahayana, however, even the attainment
of Buddhahood does not involve indifference to the sorrow
of the world; the work of salvation is perpetually carried
on by the Bodhisattva emanations of the supreme Buddhas,
just as the work of the Father is done by Jesus.
The Bodhisattvas are specially distinguished from the
Sravakas (Arahats) and Pacceka-Buddhas or ‘Private
Buddhas,’ who have become followers of the Buddha
‘for the sake of their own complete Nirvana’:1 for the
1 Hindus would express this by saying that Sravakas and Pacceka-
Buddhas choose the path of Immediate Salvation : Bodhisattvas, that
of Ultimate Salvation. ‘ The deferred path of Liberation is the path
of all Bhaktas. It is the path of compassion or service.’—P. N. Sinha,
Commentary on the Bhagavata Parana, p. 359.
230