An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism: The Essentials of Buddhist Spirituality by William Stoddart & Joseph A. Fitzgerald

Author:William Stoddart & Joseph A. Fitzgerald [Stoddart, William & Fitzgerald, Joseph A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781936597260
Amazon: 1936597268
Goodreads: 17387412
Publisher: World Wisdom
Published: 2013-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

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An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism

is seen as a dimension of knowledge, and the Bodhisattva is the very

incarnation of this.

Amongst the many celestial Bodhisattvas are Avalokiteshvara (the

Bodhisattva of Mercy), Mahāsthāmaprāpta (the one who awakens men

to the need for salvation), Mañjushrī (the Bodhisattva of Wisdom),

Kshitigarbha—in Japan Jizō—(the savior from hell and the protector

of children and travelers), and Achala Vidyārāja—in Japan Fudō—(the

opponent of the world’s inequities, stupor, and indifference to truth).

The feminine aspect of Avalokiteshvara, known in China as Kwan-

Yin and in Japan as Kwannon, is particularly venerated in these two

countries. Kwan-Yin is often assimilated to Tārā, who is venerated in

Tibet as the Consort of Avalokiteshvara (see p. 89).

A Buddha can be said to be one who has come from Heaven to

earth in order to reveal the path that leads from earth to Heaven (i.e. the

achieving of Nirvāna from the starting-point of samsāra—the achiev-

ing of the Absolute from the starting-point of the relative). A Bodhisat-

tva, for his part, is a helping, compassionate, salvific, and Nirvanic presence within samsāra itself. His role may be compared to the Christian

doctrine of the Holy Spirit as an ever-present Helper in this world.

In a certain sense, it could be said that the grace of the Buddha

is static or intrinsic, and the grace of the Bodhisattva dynamic or ex-

trinsic. Frithjof Schuon has given a metaphysical exposition of the

relationship of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva as follows: The three

fundamental attributes of the Divine Nature—the three fundamental

hypostases of Unity—are Absoluity, Infinity, and Perfection. These

may be symbolized geometrical y as Center, Radii, and Circumference.

In Christian terms, the Father is the Absolute (the Center), the Holy

Spirit is the Infinite (the Radii), and the Son is the Perfect (the Cir-

cumference—the Incarnation of God in the world). In Buddhist terms,

Nirvāna is the Absolute (the Center), the Bodhisattva is the Infinite

(the Radii), and the Buddha is the Perfect (the Circumference—in this

case, the presence of Nirvāna in samsāra). In both cases, the Infinite is the Radii emerging from the Center and returning to it. This symbolical way of looking at things enables us to see, firstly, the respective

functions of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva, and also the analogy

between the functions of the Holy Spirit and the Bodhisattva.1

1 See Frithjof Schuon, “Hypostatic Dimensions of Unity”, in Sufism: Veil and Quintes-

sence (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006), and “The Mystery of the Bodhisattva”,

in Treasures of Buddhism; Titus Burckhardt, “The Image of the Buddha”, in Sacred Art in East and West; Peter Masefield, Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism; and Marco Pallis, “Is There Room for Grace in Buddhism?”, in A Buddhist Spectrum (Bloomington,

IN: World Wisdom, 2003).

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