The bodhisattva

The Path of Great Compassion

Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhism

About 400 years after the Buddhas death, a new branch within the Buddhist school developed, offering its adepts new - and partly easier - ways of liberation. The orthodox school was in danger of becoming too lofty, and was turning into an exclusive and intellectual speciality for learned monks. The new school wanted to revive the old teaching by laying a new stress on the heart of the matter (the emptiness of all phenomena), while establishing a broad movement with a place for everybody, where compassion was the main virtue.

The new branch called itself Mahayana, the Great Vehicle, and polemically dubbed the other school Hinayana or Small Vehicle, as they felt the orthodox monks strove all too exclusively for their own personal liberation. The Mahayana considered itself a logical development of the original teaching as it was expounded by the Buddha and did not even hesitate to put their new texts into the mouth of the Buddha himself.

Indeed, the basic message of both schools is completely the same, and it is important to point out that for many centuries the Hinayana and Mahayana continued to share their monasteries.

The bodhisattva

The main difference is the use of upaya, or handy means by the Mahayana. Whereas the Hinayana remained faithful to the very words and rules of the original Buddhist community, the Mahayana would use anything on their way to help others toward enlightenment. They embroidered their texts with incredibly fantastic and cosmic settings, with thousands of universes and as many Buddhas residing there, and they built a whole network of special beings: the so-called bodhisattvas.

These bodhisattvas were in the first place symbols of the Mahayana-ideal. The Hinayana arhat (saint) wanted to dissolve into nirvana as quickly as possible, in order never to be reborn again, but Mahayana-compassion compelled the bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) to remain in the phenomenal world to use their insights and powers to help all others to free themselves.

To the devoted meditator, this ideal opened the door of great compassion toward every one. To the people who were confined to daily toil, the bodhisattva became something of a heavenly creature to whom they could pray and that could serve as a guideline in their lives. It is particularly in this last form that the bodhisattva would become so immensely popular throughout Asia.

Avalokitesvara: listening to the sound of suffering

One of the most popular bodhisattvas is Avalokitesvara - He that looks down or Lokesvara - Lord of the world (as he is known in Khmer Cambodia). Avalokitesvara is the embodiment of the highest compassion emanated by the Buddha Amithaba, another symbol of compassion. Amithaba is usually depicted in lotus position on a medal in Avalokitesvaras hairdo.

A story tells how one day when Avalokitsevara looked down from heaven and saw the suffering of the people on earth, his head split with compassion. Buddha Amithaba was able to cure the bodhisattva with his wisdom, but Avalokitesvara would for ever be known as the bodhisattva who hears the suffering of the world.

Usually he wears a rosary in his right hand and a jug of holy water in his left. If he has four arms, he wears a lotusbud and a book as well. As a thousand-armed figure, he wears all kinds of utensils to help people in all kinds of trouble.

Maitreya: the Buddha of the future

Another well-known bodhisattva is Maitreya. He is the only bodhisattva who is also known in the Hinayana, as he is professed to be the next Buddha on earth. Until that day comes, he resides in the Tusita heaven. In the basis of his hairdo a stupa is represented, the most important Buddhist monument but also a shrine for relics, a symbol for the universe and and allusion to the omnipresence of the Buddhanature.