Welcome to the Myths of Man
In my other series Alphabet Adventures I explore the dictionary and the words we use to describe our world in this series I intend to explore the stories we have told with them in order to attempt to describe how our world works.
Todays Myth
Before we begin by exploring this one please let me say that by including this in myths I am not intending to belittle any faith these posts are just meant to be an exploration of the cultural stories we tell about our world.
Please excuse any glaring errors as I'm by no means an expert in Buddhism.
Bodhisattva
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The Bodhisattva has its roots in Buddhist faith
The words bodhi - meaning Perfect Knowledge and sattva- meaning being or essence.
These are the beings that have set themselves on the path to becoming Buddha due to merit gained in previous lives. According to Mahayana tradition in order to become a Bodhisattva one must first master 'The Six Perfections'.
Perfect Generosity
Practising generosity to perfection helped the bodhisattva to avoid the clinging to things and the emotion caused by that attachment additionally the Buddhist master Gampopa of the early 12th century explained the the benefit of generosity on other as this.
The giving of material things will stabilise others body, the giving of protection from fear will stabilise others lives, and the teaching of dharma stabilise others minds.
Perfect Moral Discipline
While the suggestion is that an enlightened being acts correctly in all situations with out having to consult a rule book due the the thoroughly personalist nature of the faith there are some "Rules"
1: Restraint from harmful actions of body.
2: Cultivating, protecting, and increasing virtue.
3: Helping and benefiting living beings in their advancement through this life.
Cultivating a perfect moral discipline as one of the major corner stones of creating the peaceful mind which one requires in following the path.
Perfect Patience.
Again there are multiple aspects the the concept of developing patience in this ideology.
1: Taking no account of those that harm you.
This is a bigger concept than just turning the other cheek this is also about protecting oneself from being roused to anger which diminishes the ability for right thought this is not even about suppressing or not expressing anger but about developing the ability to feel at ease in all things.
2: Accepting hardships and suffering.
Part of this is about investigating the cause of suffering and accepting these difficulties as a result of past action of personal karma and that when we experience these challenges they represent an opportunity to burn negative karma and learn from the problem.
3: Patience in the pursuit of Dharma.
As you can imagine getting all this patience, calmness, generosity will take and incredible amount of well patience. People are quick to horde, quick to slap the mosquito on their arm, and quick to loose patience dealing with a difficult person unlearning these responses is a challenge so you better be patience with yourself.
Picture time: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
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Perfect Energy.
Developing a perfect energy is a true diligence and enthusiasm in all good things, enthusiasm in facing difficulties, in working for the benefit of others, energy in search of patience, the perfection of energy is a rejection of the wastefulness of human laziness.
Perfect Concentration
So every one knows that a Buddha needs to meditate well sames goes for the Bodhisattva something I didn't know before researching was the separate concepts of meditation. First is the practice of meditation to develop a mind free of distraction of developing and abiding calm, second is an analytical meditation using that distraction free state to search for understanding of Dharma and the development of true wisdom.
Perfect Wisdom.
Now this part I'm sure I can't do justice the concepts behind it all feeling very very zen to me.
Here we are talking about a transcendental wisdom, perfect,complete omniscience and understanding of every aspect of the nature of reality.
While the Bodhisattva uses wisdom in the practice of all the other perfections they also gain it from the study of the teachings, through critical investigation of his world.
A living Bodhisattva
Such is the compassion of a Bodhisattva that despite having opportunity to be freed from the wheel of life they have dedicated themselves to remain in order that they may help others be liberated and grow in Karma and enlightenment that they may also be free.
The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso is the current incarnation of Avalokiteśvara the Bodhisattva of compassion the first Dalai Lama was born in 1391AD and passed away in 1474 since that time this soul as rarely had more than a years break before being reincarnated and returning to work for the betterment of mankind.
That is dedication, 544 years of coming back to help humanity now that's perfect generosity, discipline, patience, energy, that surely required meditation and the development of a whole ton of wisdom.
Thanks for reading.
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Kind Regards
Peter