Eight great bodhisattvas: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Bodhisattva.JPG|frame|Eight great bodhisattvas from the [[Longchen Nyingtik]] Field of Merit]] | [[Image:Bodhisattva.JPG|frame|Eight great bodhisattvas from the [[Longchen Nyingtik]] Field of Merit]] | ||
</noinclude> | </noinclude> | ||
'''Eight Great Bodhisattvas''', or 'Eight Close Sons' (Skt. ''aṣṭa utaputra''; [[Wyl.]] ''nye ba'i sras brgyad'') — the main [[bodhisattva]]s in the retinue of [[Buddha Shakyamuni]]: | '''Eight Great Bodhisattvas''', or 'Eight Close Sons' (Skt. ''aṣṭa utaputra''; Tib. [[ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་བརྒྱད་]], ''nyewé sé gyé'', [[Wyl.]] ''nye ba'i sras brgyad'') — the main [[bodhisattva]]s in the retinue of [[Buddha Shakyamuni]]: | ||
*[[Mañjushri]] | {{Tibetan}} | ||
*[[Avalokiteshvara]] | *[[Mañjushri]] | ||
*[[Vajrapani]] | *[[Avalokiteshvara]] | ||
*[[Maitreya]] | *[[Vajrapani]] | ||
*[[Kshitigarbha]] | *[[Maitreya]] | ||
*[[Akashagarbha]] | *[[Kshitigarbha]] | ||
*[[Sarvanivaranavishkambhin]] | *[[Akashagarbha, Bodhisattva|Akashagarbha]] | ||
*[[Samantabhadra]] | *[[Sarvanivaranavishkambhin]] | ||
*[[Bodhisattva Samantabhadra|Samantabhadra]] | |||
<noinclude> | <noinclude> | ||
Each fulfils a particular role to help beings. Symbolically they represent the pure state of the [[eight consciousnesses]]. | Each fulfils a particular role to help beings. Symbolically they represent the pure state of the [[eight consciousnesses]]. | ||
==Qualities of the Eight Bodhisattvas== | ==Qualities of the Eight Bodhisattvas== | ||
[[Image:Manjushri.jpg|frame|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. | 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]]; | *Manjushri embodies [[wisdom]]; | ||
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*Sarvanivaranavishkambhin purifies wrong-doing and obstructions; | *Sarvanivaranavishkambhin purifies wrong-doing and obstructions; | ||
*Maitreya embodies [[love]]; | *Maitreya embodies [[love]]; | ||
*Samantabhadra displays special expertise in making offerings and prayers of aspiration; and | *Samantabhadra displays special expertise in making offerings and [[Aspiration prayers|prayers of aspiration]]; and | ||
*Akashagarbha has the perfect ability to purify transgressions. | *Akashagarbha has the perfect ability to purify transgressions. | ||
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:Among the immeasurable qualities of the Buddha, eight of his foremost qualities manifest as the eight bodhisattvas: | :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 | ::1) the personification of the Buddha’s wisdom (Tib. <big>ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''ye shes kyi rang gzugs'') is Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī; | ||
::2) the personification of the Buddha’s compassion | ::2) the personification of the Buddha’s compassion (Tib. <big>སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''snying rje’i rang gzugs'') appears as Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara; | ||
::3) the personification of the Buddha’s power or capacity | ::3) the personification of the Buddha’s power or capacity (Tib. <big>ནུས་པའི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''nus pa’i rang gzugs'') is Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi; | ||
::4) the personification of the Buddha’s activity | ::4) the personification of the Buddha’s [[enlightened activity|activity]] (Tib. <big>ཕྲིན་ལས་</big>, Wyl. ''phrin las'') is Bodhisattva Maitreya; | ||
::5) the personification of the Buddha’s merit | ::5) the personification of the Buddha’s [[merit]] (Tib. <big>བསོད་ནམས་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''bsod nams rang gzugs'') arises as Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha; | ||
::6) the personification of the Buddha’s qualities | ::6) the personification of the Buddha’s qualities (Tib. <big>ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''yon tan gyi rang gzugs'') appears as Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī; | ||
::7) the personification of the Buddha’s | ::7) the personification of the Buddha’s [[blessing]]s (Tib. <big>བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''byin rlabs kyi rang gzugs'') arises as Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha; and | ||
::8) the personification of the Buddha’s | ::8) the personification of the Buddha’s aspirations (Tib. <big>སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ''smon lam gyi rang gzugs'') is manifest as Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.<ref>In ''Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas'', www.kunpal.org, vol. 1 p.282</ref> | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
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==Further Reading== | ==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]], Tib. བྱང་སེམས་ཉེ་སྲས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་བརྗོད་ནོར་བུའི་ཕྲེང་བ།, Wyl. ''byang chub sems dpa' chen po nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rtogs brjod nor bu'i phreng ba'' (Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. See below) | |||
*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 | *Jamgön Mipham, ''A Garland of Jewels'', (trans. by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso), Woodstock: KTD Publications, 2008 | ||
** [https://dharmaebooks.org/garland-jewels/ Free eBook available from dharmaEbooks.org] | |||
==Internal Links== | |||
*[[Eight female bodhisattvas]] | |||
==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
*[http://all-otr.org/public-talks/48-the-eight-close-sons Brief presentation of the eight close sons by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche] | |||
*[http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/bodhisattva/index.html Bodhisattva Outline Page at Himalayan Art] | *[http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/bodhisattva/index.html Bodhisattva Outline Page at Himalayan Art] | ||
[[Category:Enumerations]] | [[Category:Enumerations]] | ||
[[Category:08-Eight]] | |||
[[Category:Eight Close Sons]] | |||
[[Category:Bodhisattvas]] | |||
[[Category:Buddhas and Deities]] | [[Category:Buddhas and Deities]] | ||
[[Category:Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities]] | [[Category:Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities]] | ||
[[Category:Buddha Shakyamuni's Disciples]] | |||
</noinclude> | </noinclude> |
Latest revision as of 13:11, 26 July 2024
Eight Great Bodhisattvas, or 'Eight Close Sons' (Skt. aṣṭa utaputra; Tib. ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་བརྒྱད་, nyewé sé gyé, Wyl. nye ba'i sras brgyad) — the main bodhisattvas in the retinue of Buddha Shakyamuni:
![]() |
This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script. |
- Mañjushri
- Avalokiteshvara
- Vajrapani
- Maitreya
- Kshitigarbha
- Akashagarbha
- Sarvanivaranavishkambhin
- Samantabhadra
Each fulfils a particular role to help beings. Symbolically they represent the pure state of the eight consciousnesses.
Qualities of the Eight Bodhisattvas
![](/images/c/c4/Manjushri.jpg)
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 personification of the Buddha’s 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]
Notes
- ↑ 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, Tib. བྱང་སེམས་ཉེ་སྲས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་བརྗོད་ནོར་བུའི་ཕྲེང་བ།, Wyl. byang chub sems dpa' chen po nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rtogs brjod nor bu'i phreng ba (Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. See below)
- 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