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:
- Mañjushri, འཇམ་དཔལ་ or འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་,
- Avalokiteshvara, སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་,
- Vajrapani, ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་,
- Maitreya, བྱམས་པ་མགོན་པོ་,
- Kshitigarbha, ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་ or སའི་སྙིང་པོ,
- Akashagarbha, ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་,
- Sarvanivaranavishkambhin, སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་སེལ་, and
- Samantabhadra, ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་.
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.
- Manjushri embodies wisdom;
- Avalokiteshvara embodies compassion;
- Vajrapani represents power;
- Kshitigarbha increases the richness and fertility of the land;
- Sarvanivaranavishkambhin purifies wrong-doing and obstructions;
- Maitreya embodies love;
- Samantabhadra displays special expertise in making offerings and prayers of aspiration; and
- Akashagarbha has the perfect ability to purify transgressions.
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
- ↑ 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
- Jamgön Mipham, A Garland of Jewels, (trans. by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso), Woodstock: KTD Publications, 2008
External Links
Source
RigpaWiki:Eight great bodhisattvas
[[Category:Eight Bodhisattvas)
