Maitreya Boddhisattva
Four Heavenly Kings on each face of this pillar.
My buddy, Boddhidharma! The First Zen Patriach of the Eastern Zen lineage.
The Zen lineage from Sakyamuni Buddha onwards.
From the perspective of Mahayana the pursuit of personal salvation
whilst others continue to suffer is not ideal. Instead one should work
for the greater good and if necessary return to the suffering of
cyclic existence to help others transcend it as often as is required
to drain the dregs of samsara. It is therefore, like the Hinayana, a
path of renunciation. To return to the analogy of the poison tree,
instead of cutting roots one by one, in the case of the Mahayana the
main root alone is cut allowing the others to wither as a consequence.
In the Mahayana, also known as the Great Vehicle, or Bodhisattvayana,
the liberation of others from suffering is the motivation of Mahayana
practitioners or Boddhisattvas who understand that neither the
individual nor pheneomena have substantive existence. The vow to gain
enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings and develop
limitless compassion for all others is inseparable from wisdom, the
realisation of emptiness. Everything is perceived as being dreamlike
or illusory. But the law of cause and effect is recognised and with
compassion he or she uses this to benefit sentient beings.
Nevertheless, in contrast to reliance on codes of conduct in the
Hinayana of Hinayana, motivation is considered all important in
governing ones actions rather than the actions themselves and that
motivation is compassion. The Buddha reportedly said: "It is intention
that I call karma". In the earliest Buddhist monastic code, and to
this day, a monk himself has the responsibility to judge whether or
not he has infringed the vinaya. The issue is not a matter of whether
or not motivation is important but what the motivation is!
Meanwhile having realised her or his ultimate nature free from
clinging and all limiting conditions, he or she rests in the great
evenness of non-dual absolute truth.
View
Neither phenomena nor the individual has reality. In the Cittamatra
(sems tsam pa) all phenomena is mind created, but reflective non-dual
awareness exists. The Madhyamaka (bdu ma) has two schools: The
Svatantrika (rang rgyud pa) considers phenomena really do not exist at
all but relatively they appear through the combination of causes and
conditions, perform their function and have a verifiable conventional
existence; Considered from the Nyingma 9 Yana system, the Prasangika
maintains phenomena are completely devoid of existence and cannot be
characterised by any concept whatsoever whether ultimately or
relatively, but absolute truth is the pristine wisdom of the Buddhas
free from conceptual elaboration.
Meditation
Practice of the Thirty Seven Branches of
enlightenment. The Tathagatagarbha
or the potential for enlightenment is recognised within oneself and
one aspires to fulfill this. All clinging to external phenomena is
pacified by shamatha meditation achieving calm samadhi. Practising
vipasana meditation one recognises all outer phenomena is unreal and
all inner dualistic concepts of subject/object are void. Remaining
without notions of what is real in the evenness of absolute nature in
which there is nothing to add and nothing to subtract, inner-calm
meditation and insight is united.
Action
Between formal meditation practice one benefits beings, Practising the
Six Paramitas one considers all living beings to be superior to
oneself. These are generosity, morality, patience, effort, meditation
and insight. A further four paramitas are added; skilful means,
strength, prayer and pristine wisdom. When these are all permeated by
wisdom they transformed into transcendent activities.
Fruit
Finally the Bodhisattva achieves the path of no more learning, the
eleventh spiritual level (bhumi) and becomes a fully enlightened
Buddha.
Having achieved the Dharmakaya he or she manifests the
rupakaya (the bodily form combining sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya) to
perform compassionate activity on behalf of all sentient beings until
the dregs of samsara are finally drained.
rupakaya (the bodily form combining sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya) to
perform compassionate activity on behalf of all sentient beings until
the dregs of samsara are finally drained.
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