Eight great bodhisattvas

Eight great bodhisattvas from the Longchen Nyingtik Field of Merit

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

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.

• 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.

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
  • Free eBook available from dharmaEbooks.org

Internal Links

• Eight female bodhisattvas

External Links

• Brief presentation of the eight close sons by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche
• Bodhisattva Outline Page at Himalayan Art