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''; Tib. ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་བརྒྱད་, [[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]]: | ||
{{Tibetan}} | {{Tibetan}} | ||
*[[Mañjushri]] | *[[Mañjushri]] | ||
*[[Avalokiteshvara]] | *[[Avalokiteshvara]] | ||
*[[Vajrapani]] | *[[Vajrapani]] | ||
*[[Maitreya]] | *[[Maitreya]] | ||
*[[Kshitigarbha]] | *[[Kshitigarbha]] | ||
*[[Akashagarbha]] | *[[Akashagarbha, Bodhisattva|Akashagarbha]] | ||
*[[Sarvanivaranavishkambhin]] | *[[Sarvanivaranavishkambhin]] | ||
*[[Samantabhadra]] | *[[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]]. | ||
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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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===In Tibetan=== | ===In Tibetan=== | ||
*[[Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé]], ''nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rnam thar la bsngags pa bstod chen rgya mtsho rnam bshad'' | *[[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. See below) | *[[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'' | *Mipham Rinpoche, ''nye sras brgyad kyi sgrub pa rin chen gter bum'' | ||
===In English=== | ===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] | |||
==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: | [[Category:08-Eight]] | ||
[[Category:Eight Close Sons| ]] | |||
[[Category:Bodhisattvas]] | [[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 07:39, 14 September 2023
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:
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- 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