Bodhisattva
Anyone, who understands the truth of life and wants to help others to understand it, can be called “Bodhisattva”. One who has trained his or her consciousness from regular human consciousness into Buddha’s consciousness can also be called a Bodhisattva.
The category of Bodhisattva generally has two different types. The first type understands the truth of life completely through logic or intellectual power. The second type completely understands the truth of life through the mind but also has an extensive meditation training (which develops a higher awareness ability) and has wider experience of the truth of life.
The Bodhisattva consciousness contains two basic kinds of awareness that come from the Bodhisattvas heart.
The first kind is the wisdom to be aware of the truth of life. (Wisdom has two meanings: complete joy without ignorance; and, complete freedom without greediness.) The second part is to develop compassion. (Compassion means: complete kindness without ego; and complete care without being emotional.)
The way to develop this wisdom is to not look at things through the perspective of an individual “I.” Because Bodhisattva can do this, he can patiently observe things from many different angles. To release the feeling of an individual I, one must also hold onto nothing in his heart. To develop wisdom, one must constantly try to observe life until his observing ability is completely developed.
There are six things one must practice to gain awareness of the truth of life.
These are:
1. Generosity.
To be generous means to give up jealousy, greed, selfishness and miserliness and to develop a sharing character. There are two kinds of sharing. One is sharing material things, such as food or money. The second is sharing knowledge or wisdom.
2. Discipline.
In Buddhism, there are two kinds of discipline. One concerns one’s outward actions, the other concerns one’s inward attitude. The first type is to have the discipline not to do negative things but to do only positive things. The second type is not to be ignorant in living, but always to stay aware of the truth of life.
3. Patience.
There are two types of patience that one must develop. The first type is the patience to accept things that one doesn’t want to do but has to do. (For example, when you get sick you don’t like to waste time in the hospital, but because of your weakened body condition you have to. This is something one must learn to patiently accept.)
The second type of patience is the patience to be aware of the truth of life. Because the truth of life is deep, complicated, and mysterious, there is no chance to be aware of this truth without patience.
4. Concentration.
There are also two types of concentration to develop. One is to concentrate from your mind to be aware of the truth of life. The other is to concentrate deeply from your heart to be aware of the truth of life.
A useful way to explain the difference between these two kinds of concentration is to look at our general habits. In Buddhism all kind of human habits arise from the law of desire. As we feel desire we try to satisfy it by acquiring or attaining something. But once we satisfy this desire, we immediately feel a new desire that requires satisfaction. Trying to satisfy these desires is a never-ending process. In fact, the more satisfied one gets the more one wants to enjoy this sense of satisfaction.
This sense of desire for satisfaction includes learning ideas and philosophy of life. When we push ourselves to learn the truth of life intellectually, it is from the power of desire.
Buddhism teaches one to be awakened from the law of desire. This means that one no longer looks for satisfaction of any kind (physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual). To be aware of the truth of life one must truly want from his heart not to be blind. There is a famous sentence from Buddha regarding the moment he became Buddha. He said, “All the wisdom about life is already in everyone everywhere. If our heart truly wants to be aware of it, then without any teacher we all can be aware of it.” It is for this reason that the second type of concentration must be from one’s heart.
Here is a simple example of what it means be concentrated from your heart to try to be aware of the truth of life. There are two people who study history. One tries to learn it because he has to learn it to pass an exam. He tries to concentrate his mind to learn names, dates, and places. But when he studies, his heart actually longs to go swimming and have fun. Even though he makes great effort and tries hard to use his mind, he cannot learn and retain the things that he wishes to.
The second person learns history because he has a very important principle from his emotion that inspires him. For example, his parents may have been killed in the Second World War and he wants to understand everything he can about the circumstances surrounding their lives and deaths. Because his emotion arises from so deeply within his heart, he learns without having to work at it.
Concentration means being serious from your heart as well as from your mind.
5. Meditation.
All Bodhisattvas try to be calm to observe the truth of life. Meditation is the technique they use to calm, open and sensitize their consciousness.
There are two basic types of Buddhist Meditation. The first type works to stop our thinking. There is a Buddhist saying that goes, The mind is like flowing water. Some people think faster, like a fast river rapid, and some think slower, like a smooth, wide river flows. But the same idea holds true in each case. The water continues to flow. This is also true of the mind. It constantly continues to think.
To stop the mind from thinking is very difficult for most people. But when we concentrate on our own thinking we cannot observe the truth of the whole eternal life. So there are some basic meditation techniques to achieve this state.
One method is to sit quietly and count from one to ten, then from ten to one, over and over. Another method is to consciously observe one’s breathing. Doing this, one thinks of nothing except the feelings of his body and its surroundings. This type of meditation can also include yoga stretching techniques and martial arts forms such as Tai Chi.
The second type of meditation is built up from the ability gained from first type. The difference is that the second type of meditation is only possible when the first type of meditation has been deeply mastered. The reason one first must learn not to think is to experience deep calmness. Once the deep calmness awareness has been built, one can again think anything or do any regular activities and always stay in touch with this deep calm awareness.
Keeping this calm awareness as one goes about his daily activities is the second type of meditation.
In Chinese, meditation also has another definition, which is “the strength of being stationary”. To meditate does not simply mean to sit down and be still.
The whole universe is the power of constant movement and change, and our awareness follows the constantly changing forms. There is no instant when one can feel completely calm without any sense of moving.
The strongest power in the universe is this power of being stationary. Only when your consciousness is strong enough can one remain completely calm and not follow the changing forms. Thus, the idea of being still refers not to one’s physical sense, but to one’s heart. But this does not mean that the heart is a concrete object, like a rock that does not move. Rather the heart (the strong, developed consciousness) is pure and open. Like the empty space. It accepts everything that moves but it does not move.
6. Wisdom.
As a Bodhisattva the main wisdom is the wisdom to be aware of the truth of life.
The truth of life has two parts united as one: the forms of all kinds of life and the essence of these forms. By observing all kinds of life forms, one can become aware of their essence. This truth is conveyed in the well-known saying, “Back to the essence–Nirvana.”
The forms of life constantly change. They appear, disappear, come into existence, and cease to exist. But the power that make things constantly change, appear and disappear remains. A wave can rise or fall in a river, but the power behind the wave remains. This power is the essence of the wave–water. The essence of all constantly changing life forms also remains the same.
Buddhism calls this essence “emptiness.” We can be aware of Emptiness only when our consciousness is completely open and calm, like empty space is completely open and calm.
The essence of our lives is the ability to be aware of all life forms. This ability is constantly aware of the changing life forms, but it is not aware of itself. When the Bodhisattva sees that all life forms constantly change and are an illusion, then the blind desire that tries to hold onto this illusion ends.
This is the first stage of Bodhisattva wisdom–awareness of the true essence of all life forms and the end of all desire–emotional, mental, and physical. The wisdom described here is the ability in the Bodhisattva, not any acquired knowledge.
Wisdom ability is not knowledge of wisdom. Wisdom ability is the process, while knowledge of wisdom is the products of that process. Someone who has wisdom ability can observe the truth of life and discover all kinds of knowledge. But when others try to learn the knowledge that he discovered, it doesn’t mean they have the same ability.
When people study a wise person’s teachings they do not acquire his ability, but only his knowledge. Knowledge can be taught, but wisdom ability cannot be. One must develop it.
Wisdom ability comes only from training one’s observing ability to be aware of the truth of life. We can say, for example, that knowledge is like a bridge. Wisdom ability is the architect of the bridge. People who acquire the knowledge are those who pass over on the bridge. But simply because one can cross over on the bridge does not mean he could design and build a new bridge. But if one wants to do this, he could learn how to build a bridge by analyzing and studying the existing bridge in addition to simply using it to cross the river to the opposite shore.
The second stage of Bodhisattvas’ wisdom builds on the first stage. It is when his complete calmness observing ability keeps him from being lost in the illusions of life forms and at the same time he becomes aware that other peoples’ consciousness is still lost. They do not see the essence of the changing illusions and feel all kinds of fear, insecurity and suffering. His compassion rises up and he has the will to help people develop their consciousness so that they too can be aware of the truth of life and release all suffering.
He then learns the second type of wisdom, the wisdom of how to help others develop their conscious awareness to understand the truth of life.
The first stage of Bodhisattva wisdom can be compared to the architect who designs and builds a bridge. The second stage can be compared to the architect who can not only build bridges but also teach others how to build bridges.
Buddha is one who has completely developed these two types of wisdom.
