Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c42.s2.t5.50

v2.c42.s2.t5.50

Gṛhī Bodhisattvas: In the early Mahāyāna texts, there is no express mention of householder-bodhisattvas.⁵ In the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (p. 20), a Bodhisattva is said to have 800 disciples (antevāsins), but it is not known whether they were householders or recluses. In the Daśabhūmikasūtra, it is stated that in the fourth bhūmi, the Bodhisattva takes ordination, which implies that he could remain a householder up to the fourth bhūmi, or the practice of vīrya-pāramitā. The dhyāna and prajñā pāramitās are to be accomplished after a bodhisattva becomes a monk. In the later Mahāyāna texts like Ugradattaparipṛcchā and Śikṣāsamuccaya, a special code has been framed for the conduct of the householder-bodhisattvas.¹ The pāramitās, it seems, were meant more for the householders than for the recluses. In actual practice, as is found in the Jātaka stories, the pāramitās were being accomplished by laymen, gods and animals, and rarely by ascetics. In the Mahāvastu and other early Mahāyāna texts, the duties of Gṛhi-bodhisattvas are not distinctly prescribed, but in course of time this desideratum of a code was removed and the career of a householder-bodhisattva was clearly chalked out.²