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Eight great bodhisattvas

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[[Image:Bodhisattvass.JPG|thumb|250px|Eight great bodhisattvas from the Longchen Nyingtik Field of Merit)]

Eight Great Bodhisattvas, or 'Eight Close Sons' (Skt. aṣṭa utaputra; Tib. ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་བརྒྱད་, Wyl. nye ba'i sras brgyad) — the main bodhisattvas in the retinue of Buddha Shakyamuni:

Each fulfils a particular role to help beings. Symbolically they represent the pure state of the eight consciousnesses.

Qualities of the Eight Bodhisattvas

[[Image:Manjushri.jpg|thumb|250px|The bodhisattva Mañjushri)] Although the eight bodhisattvas or ‘close sons of the Buddha’ all possess the same qualities and powers, each one displays perfection in a particular area or activity.

Khenpo Chöga says:

Among the immeasurable qualities of the Buddha, eight of his foremost qualities manifest as the eight bodhisattvas:
1) the personification of the Buddha’s wisdom (Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. ye shes kyi rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī;
2) the personification of the Buddha’s compassion (Tib. སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. snying rje’i rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara;
3) the personification of the Buddha’s power or capacity (Tib. ནུས་པའི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. nus pa’i rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi;
4) the activity (Tib. ཕྲིན་ལས་, Wyl. phrin las) is Bodhisattva Maitreya;
5) the personification of the Buddha’s merit (Tib. བསོད་ནམས་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. bsod nams rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha;
6) the personification of the Buddha’s qualities (Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. yon tan gyi rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī;
7) the personification of the Buddha’s blessings (Tib. བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. byin rlabs kyi rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha; and
8) the personification of the Buddha’s aspirations (Tib. སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. smon lam gyi rang gzugs) is manifest as Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.[1]

Footnotes

  1. In Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the bodhisattvas, www.kunpal.org, vol. 1 p.282

Further Reading

In Tibetan

  • Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rnam thar la bsngags pa bstod chen rgya mtsho rnam bshad
  • Mipham Rinpoche, byang chub sems dpa' chen po nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rtogs brjod nor bu'i phreng ba (Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.
  • Mipham Rinpoche, nye sras brgyad kyi sgrub pa rin chen gter bum

In English

External Links

Source

RigpaWiki:Eight great bodhisattvas

[[Category:Eight Bodhisattvas)