Quotessence
Home / Books / The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism

The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism

Book by Sangharakshita · 4 quotes · Buddhism, The Path Of The Bodhisattva, Path Of The Bodhisattva

Filter quotes by topic

AllBuddhismThe Path Of The BodhisattvaPath Of The BodhisattvaSpiritual HierarchyAvalokitesvaraBodhicittaCompassionDharma PracticeDivine GraceEffortHigher ConsciousnessNondualityOnenessPositive ConditionsSamsaraSpirit Of EnlightenmentSpiritual FriendsSpiritual LifeSpiritual MomentumSpiritual Transformation

The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism Quotes

“The Indian mystic Sri Ramakrishna likened this to going out in a rowing boat. At first one has to make a lot of effort; it’s quite a strain, especially if one is rowing against the stream. But when one finally manages to reach the middle of the river, one can hoist one’s sail and the breeze will carry the boat along. In the same way, a great deal of effort is necessary in the early stages of the spiritual life, but a time comes when one makes contact with forces that in a sense are beyond oneself – though in another sense they are part of one’s greater self – and these begin to carry one along.”

EffortBuddhismSpiritual LifeDivine GracePath Of The BodhisattvaSri Ramakrishna
Book:The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism
Create image

“We believe in ourselves in this narrow, limited, egoistic sense, as identified with the body and the lower mind. We are blind to any higher vision, any more ultimate selfhood, any more universal mind or consciousness. This belief in self in this sense is a fetter that has to be broken before we can enter the Stream and break through into a higher, wider dimension of being and consciousness.”

BuddhismHigher ConsciousnessUniversal ConsciousnessPath Of The BodhisattvaUltimate Selfhood
Book:The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism
Create image

“Between the unenlightened human being and the Enlightened one, the Buddha, there are a number of intermediate degrees, embodied in different people at different stages of spiritual development. Most people are still short of Enlightenment, to a greater or lesser extent, but at the same time they are not wholly unenlightened. They stand somewhere between the unenlightened state and the state of full Enlightenment, and thus make up the spiritual hierarchy, the higher reaches of which can be referred to as the Bodhisattva hierarchy. By now we know enough about Bodhisattvas to have an appreciation of the intensity of their aspiration and commitment to the spiritual life. But even among Bodhisattvas there are degrees of spiritual attainment. The principle of spiritual hierarchy is very important.”

BuddhismPath Of The BodhisattvaSpiritual Hierarchy
Book:The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism
Create image

“There is a real correspondence between biological and psychological masculinity and femininity on the one hand, and spiritual masculinity and femininity on the other. What one must bear in mind is that the Bodhisattva combines both. This may seem strange, but the Bodhisattva can be described as being psychologically and spiritually bisexual, integrating the masculine and the feminine at every level of his or her psychological and spiritual experience. This is reflected in Buddhist iconography. With some representations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas it is hard to discern whether the figure is masculine or feminine. This iconographical convention reflects the psychological and spiritual bisexuality of the Bodhisattva, and indeed of any spiritually developed person. The idea, or even ideal, of psychological and spiritual bisexuality is unfamiliar to us in the West today, but it was known to the ancient Gnostics, one of the heretical sects of early Christianity. The teaching was quickly stamped out by the Church, but an interesting passage has been preserved in a work known as the Gospel of Thomas, which was discovered in Egypt as recently as 1945. It isn’t an orthodox Christian work, but it consists of 112 sayings attributed to Jesus after his resurrection. In the twenty-third of these sayings, Jesus is represented as saying: 'When you make the two one, and make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and the upperside like the underside, and (in such a way) that you make the man (with) the woman a single one, in order that the man is not the man and the woman is not the woman; when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image; then you will go into the Kingdom.' This is not the sort of teaching one normally encounters in church, but it is obviously of profound significance. In the context of Buddhism the idea or concept, and even the practice, of spiritual bisexuality features most graphically in the Tantra, where it is represented not just by the androgynous appearance of the Bodhisattva, but by the symbol of sexual union. Here, ksanti, the feminine aspect of the spiritual life, becomes transcendental wisdom, while energy, the masculine aspect, becomes fully realized as compassion. Thus in Tantric Buddhist art one encounters representations of a mythical form of the Buddha in sexual union with a figure who is sometimes described as the female counterpart to his own masculine form. These images are called yab-yum, yab meaning ‘father’ and yum meaning ‘mother’. They are sometimes regarded in the West as being obscene or even blasphemous, but in Tibet such symbolism is regarded as extremely sacred. It has nothing to do with sexuality in the ordinary sense; it is a representation of the highest consummation, the perfect balance, of ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’, wisdom and compassion. Although there are two figures, there are not two persons. There is only one person, one Enlightened person, within whom are united reason and emotion, wisdom and compassion.”

BuddhismOnenessNondualityPath Of The BodhisattvaWisdom And CompassionYab Yum
Book:The Bodhisattva Ideal : Wisdom and Compassion in Buddhism
Create image