The Bodhisattva is one who has vowed to fulfil the perfections on the path of awakening, so as to awaken one day as a Buddha in a future age. Having made the vow, he holds to it firmly: however many obstacles he meets, he does not lose heart and does not give up his purpose, but builds and brings the perfections to completion, so as to lead across Samsara, all the way to Nirvana, as many beings of the world as he can.
There are two kinds. The indefinite Bodhisattva is one who has not yet received from a former Buddha the prediction of his future buddhahood: it is not yet certain that he will reach it, for he might in future abandon the purpose. The definite Bodhisattva is one to whom a Buddha of the past has predicted that he will surely become a Buddha, once the perfections are full. In whatever realm he is reborn — human, animal, or deity — his mind stays firm in fulfilling them, unshaken before obstacles and the hosts of Mara.
The four qualities of buddhahood
Four are the qualities that uphold the Bodhisattva on the path: supreme effort and tireless striving; a keen, penetrating wisdom; a firm, resolute steadiness toward the goal; and the constant cultivation of loving-kindness and the divine abidings.
The thirty perfections
A perfection is an excellent deed, the cultivation of good with wholesome intention. They are ten, and to fulfil them is most essential for awakening:
- Giving: to give and to renounce, with the intent to help others above all.
- Virtue: to keep one’s conduct pure, according to one’s station.
- Renunciation: to abstain from the pleasures of the senses, the heart turned toward peace.
- Wisdom: to study the world and the Dharma with diligence, with a wisdom able to guide even others out of suffering.
- Energy: constant exertion in doing good.
- Patience: to bear outer obstacles and the impurities of one’s own mind, without doing evil.
- Truthfulness: to keep one’s given word and say only what is good and useful.
- Resolve: firmness in the vow made, without wavering.
- Loving-kindness: goodwill toward all beings, wishing each to be free and happy.
- Equanimity: a steady mind that sees the world as it is and knows that every being fares according to its own deeds.
Each of these is cultivated at three degrees — basic, intermediate, and supreme — and so they are called “the thirty perfections.”
The six dispositions
Six, then, are the dispositions by which the perfections of the definite Bodhisattva ripen ever more: joy in renunciation; joy in solitude; joy in giving; joy in loving-kindness; joy in the study that makes one see clearly; and joy in Nirvana, the mind set straight toward liberation, no longer delighting in the round of birth and death.
The ten renunciations of the Bodhisattva
Ten modes of conduct, all in the sign of laying down worldly desire:
He never wishes that his body be free of illness. He never wishes that there be no danger to himself. He never wishes that there be no obstacle on his way. He never wishes that purifying the mind be without toil. He holds that work should yield the greatest fruit, without having to be finished in haste. He keeps company with others without wishing to gain from them. He does not demand that others always defer to him in all things. He does good to others without hoping for reward. Seeing a gain, he does not wish to take it for himself. When slandered, he does not wish to retaliate.
The three eminent qualities
Three are the eminent qualities of the Bodhisattva: great wisdom, which sees clearly without falling slave to any impurity; great compassion, ready to sacrifice itself to free beings from suffering; and great skilful means, the art of teaching and guiding others to the truth.
The Four Great Vows
I will abandon the impurities utterly. I will study the true Dharma to the end. I will help and free from suffering all the beings of the world. I will attain the sublime buddhahood, according to my vow.
These are the virtues called the Dharma of the Bodhisattva, which every Bodhisattva has practised to gather the perfections and reach the buddhahood he has well aspired to.