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The History of Buddhist Thought c24: Chapter XVI. The Bodhisattva's Career

The History of Buddhist Thought c24

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Chapter XVI. The Bodhisattva's Career

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TWO aspects of Mahāyāna doctrine, which seem to show no relation to each other, stand out in great contrast. There is the religious side of the worship of saintly beings with the ideal of a succession of lives of heroic virtues, and the philosophical side developing the boldest speculations in logic and epistemology. The cause of this contrast was inherent in Buddhism from the beginning—the division into the monastic order and the laity. The layman received instruction from the Order, “ discourses about almsgiving, morality, heaven, the evils of lusts, the worthlessness of the defilements, and the blessing of renunciation,” as a standing description expresses it. Only to those whose minds were disposed and who were ready to leave a household life were the four Truths taught.

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The layman while in the world was a member of a society in which caste was not merely a religious belief but part of the structure of society. As a member of that society, however well disposed he was to the Order, he still had his caste duties to fulfil. From birth, and even before birth, ceremonies were performed for his well-being, and he remained subject to household rites and sacraments at every stage of life. Buddhism made no attempt to abolish the caste system. We find passages where rites and sacrifices are reinterpreted and moralized, but no condemnation of them as such.¹ It was only when a person entered the Order that his clan was merged in the clan of ascetics and he became a son of Buddha. As a layman he kept the five moral precepts with three further rules of abstinence on the fast-days.

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¹ The *Sigālovāda-sutta*, *Dīgha*, iii, 180, is well known. It has been called the householder's book of discipline (*gihi-vinaya*). It is not in the ordinary sense a discourse, but consists of a poem of twenty-six verses with an introductory legend and a commentary. The question whether a layman can become an arhat is a perversity of expression. The real question is what are the conditions for becoming an arhat. If a layman can fulfil these conditions (and sudden conversion and insight are admitted), then, of course, he becomes an arhat. But in so doing he has cut off everything that binds him to the world, and even if he lives in a house he is exempt from the passions. The problem appears to have arisen from the fact that legends of the earliest period speak of laymen attaining arhatship at once. These do not belong to serious history.

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In the older literature the religion of the layman appears to be much as we find it in Hindu ritual books. Kings performed great sacrifices, and the ordinary layman his daily rites. This theory of the whole duty of man was comprehended for the Hindu in the Karma-mīmāṃsā system, which made salvation depend upon karma, this karma being the due performance of the sacrifices as understood by the brahmin priesthood. Upanishadic thought had already advanced beyond this point, but the teaching of the Upanishads was not intended for the ordinary layman, nor was it meant to make the sacrifices superfluous except for those who by following a special training had reached a higher stage.

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But for the layman a new type of religion arose. It may in its origin not have been brahminical at all, but it finally became absorbed in Hinduism. In this type we find an exclusive devotion (*bhakti*) to one god, a personal being who promises salvation to all that faithfully worship him. The earliest literary example of this type is the *Bhagavadgītā*, the poem in which the god Krishna transforms the doctrine of karma by teaching that action should not be performed for the sake of the resulting merit or pleasure, but that salvation depends upon the god’s power to save his devoted worshippers. The importance of the work here is only as one example of the emotional religions which permeated popular Hinduism. We have no evidence to place the contact of such religions with Buddhism earlier than the second century B.C.¹ It is from that period that we find archæological evidence for the existence of the religion of bhakti, and it is also from that time that the worship of bodhisattvas appears in Buddhism. The belief in bodhisattvas may well have developed naturally out of the story of the historical Buddha and his previous existences. The career which he undertook came to be looked upon as a possible career for all, and the inventiveness of the Mahāyānists supplied the names of numberless bodhisattvas. There can be little doubt that the bhakti worship which the Buddhist layman found all round him stimulated exactly the same kind of worship as we find in the popular bodhisattva doctrine.

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¹ Krishna worship and the *Bhagavadgītā* may be much older than this. The poem is placed before the rise of Buddhism by Professor Belvalkar (*Shree Gopal Basu Mallik Lectures*, 1925) and Professor Dasgupta (*Hist. Ind. Philos.*, ii, 549). There is nothing in the history of Buddhism to disprove this. The poem arose in the west of India, and may well have existed there for a long time before coming into contact with Buddhism. Krishna is not mentioned in the Pāli suttas. In one of the latest books there are two references to the worship of Vāsudeva (*Mahānidd.*, i, 89, 92), but we do not know if this god was then identified with Krishna. The story of Krishna (with no reference to his divine character) occurs in *Jāt.*, 454. There is no reason why his character as a god should have been suppressed if it had been known, for the Buddhists were fond of making the Hindu gods supporters of Buddhism. Both Krishna and Śiva are found in later Buddhist works. Cf. R. G. Bhandarkar, *Vaiṣṇavism*; V. G. Bhat, *The Bhagavadgītā, a study*.

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Besides the worship of these great beings, there was a theoretical treatment of the stages of the bodhisattva’s career by the various schools of Buddhist education. The earliest is in the *Mahāvastu*, where a list of ten stages is given. Here we meet the same problem as in the case of Sarvāstivāda doctrine, namely, as to whether this can be called a borrowing from Mahāyāna. It does not seem as if there is any one school which can be spoken of as the originator of this doctrine and as the source from which the rest have borrowed it. The conception of a Buddha as a man who strove through numberless births is wider than any school. When the Sarvāstivādins began to teach that anyone through Buddha’s teaching might make the vow to become a Buddha, we have no reason to believe that there was a distinct Mahāyāna school from which they could have borrowed it. The reason why we are asked to consider the doctrine of a bodhisattva’s career a borrowing from Mahāyāna is that the Pāli form of early Buddhism was once taken as a standard and compared with Mahāyāna. Everything not found in it was supposed to be Mahāyāna. But the main line of descent of Buddhist doctrine in India is through the Sarvāstivādins and Mahāsanghikas. They continued their development long after the Theravādins had passed to Ceylon and disappeared from India. In India Sarvāstivādins, Mahāsanghikas, and Mahāyānists remained in contact, living and teaching in the same monasteries. All sorts of borrowings would thus be possible, but we do not know enough of the origin of Mahāyāna to be able to say that the new doctrines started in a Mahāyāna school and then infected the older teaching. It was the making of these doctrines the exclusive teaching that constituted a new school, but still one in which the older teaching could be looked upon as a preliminary stage of the new. The real break comes with the doctrine of the Void, a break so violent that the teaching of two kinds of truth was needed to preserve the formulas of the old religion.

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In the teaching of the Mahāsanghikas, as expressed in the *Mahāvastu*, the differences from Mahāyāna are still more distinct. The ten stages of the Bodhisattva’s career are not the same as in Mahāyāna. The most that can be said is that they may have been elaborated in rivalry with some Mahāyāna school. The conception of the career in the *Mahāvastu* also shows more primitive features. It is described not as a career for any bodhisattva, but as having been the career of Śākyamuni and previous Buddhas. In this respect it agrees much with the Theravādin conception. Both omit the characteristic teaching of Mahāyāna that all may become Buddhas. There will be future Buddhas, but each is chosen by a Buddha to be his successor. The *Mahāvastu* teaches that one of the five necessary actions of a Buddha is to appoint a successor, a viceroy or crown prince (*yuvarāja*) who is to be consecrated. Śākyamuni himself appointed Ajita, the bodhisattva, who after him will become a Buddha named Ajita of the Maitreya gotra in the city of Bandhumā.¹

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¹ i, 51; the other four actions are setting in motion the Wheel of the Doctrine, converting his mother, his father, and beings who are capable of becoming Buddhists.

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The *Mahāvastu* is a long exposition of the career of the bodhisattva, but it always refers to the historical bodhisattva, Gotama, or as it usually calls him, Śākyamuni. It begins by explaining the four kinds of conduct of bodhisattvas, (1) their conduct as natural unconverted men (*prakṛticaryā*), when they follow the ordinary moral rules, pay reverence to Buddhas and their disciples, but do not produce the thought of attaining perfect enlightenment, (2) their conduct in making the vow (*praṇidhāna*) to become a Buddha, (3) their conduct in practising the ten stages leading to Buddhahood (*anulomacaryā*), (4) their reaching a stage from which there is no falling back (*avaivartacaryā*).

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The stages (*bhūmi*) are ten, and are described in a chapter called the *Daśabhūmika* (i, 63–193).

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The chapter begins by giving in verse the story of the elder Kāśyapa hearing of the death of Buddha, Buddha’s funeral, and an account of the first Council. Kāśyapa then asks Kātyāyana to set forth the career of the Buddhas.

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(1) The first stage is *Durārohā*, “ hard to reach.” In this stage bodhisattvas are at first unconverted. They exercise the eight good qualities of liberality, compassion, zeal, unweariedness, absence of pride, study of all the śāstras, heroism, taking leave of the world, and steadfastness. Through certain vices (sensual pleasures, sloth, not practising the thought of impermanence), they may fail to reach the next stage. This means that they are reborn again and again in this stage till those vices are eradicated. Those who are to advance make the vow to attain perfect enlightenment. This produces greater merit than if they were to make a gift of the whole of India heaped up with jewels.

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(2) Second stage, *Baddhamānā*, “ bound.” Here they have a dislike for existences. They have twenty special inclinations: good, kind, sweet, etc. On account of twenty-eight vices (love of gain and praise, etc.) they may fail to reach the next stage.

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(3) Third stage, *Pushpamaṇḍitā*, “ adorned with flowers.” They sacrifice their wealth and themselves to obtain a single “ well-spoken ” verse of the Doctrine, and through fourteen vices may fail to reach the next stage.

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(4) Fourth stage, *Rucirā*, “ beautiful.” The bodhisattvas avoid certain great crimes at this stage, and receive births as gods or in high positions. For sins such as corrupting nuns they may fail to reach the next stage.

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(5) In the fifth stage, *Citravistarā*, “of varied expanse,” they look on all existence as on fire with lust, hate, and delusion.

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(6) They arrive at the sixth stage, *Rūpavatī*, “ of fair form,” with the thought, “ few delights has this terrible whirlpool of the world.” At this point it is explained that there are never two Buddhas in one Buddha-field, but there are innumerable Buddhas each in a separate field or universe. There are certain hindering vices mentioned here, but the passage is corrupt.

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(7) Seventh stage, *Durjayā*, “ hard to conquer.” Their minds turn to self control. Through the thought of great compassion they pass to the next stage. The three last stages are arranged according to the stages of the life of a prince who becomes a universal monarch—his birth, appointment as viceroy, and consecration. Throughout these there is no turning back.

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(8) Eighth stage, *Janmanideśa*, “ discussion of birth.” A list of Buddhas is given, under whom in the first seven births Śākyamuni made the roots of goodness to grow and became a son of the Buddhas. In this stage bodhisattvas are to be looked upon as Buddhas. They are eloquent and great teachers.¹

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¹ Dr. N. Dutt says that in the last four stages there is hardly anything more than a mere mention of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who attained them, but he has overlooked a long description, especially of the eighth stage, pp. 105–6.

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(9) Ninth stage, *Yauvarājya*, “viceroyship.” The list of such Buddhas is continued. Some of them, as Dr. Rahder notes, are named from their eloquence.

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(10) Tenth stage, *Abhisheka*, “consecration as king.” The bodhisattvas are born in the Tushita heaven, and then have a desire for a human existence. Although they are spoken of in the plural, the individual described is always Śākyamuni. A long account is given of his conception and birth with the special doctrines of the Mahāsanghikas concerning the nature of bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas are not really produced by parents. They arise of their own choice, and their birth is apparitional. When they are born they have the knowledge of all human arts. They do not indulge in sensual pleasures. Rāhula was not Buddha’s son in the course of nature, but arose (as universal monarchs do) by apparitional birth. This is the logical result of the doctrine that the Buddhas have extinguished the passions and are undefiled by contact with the world. Although bodhisattvas develop into beings in whom human action is a mere appearance, yet they have begun as ordinary fallible creatures, and it is through their great compassion and desire to save all beings that they have arrived at a state beyond the world of impermanence, pain, and soullessness. This is unlike the gnostic docetism which represented the essentially divine as assuming the mere appearance of the human. Indian thought never conceived any fundamental difference in kind between the human and the divine. Whether as in Vedic thought they started with the One and reached the individual, or as in Buddhism extended the individual into a universal principle, the conception always resulted in pantheism or pancosmism according to the aspect emphasized.

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This description of the bodhisattva’s career has nothing essentially out of harmony with the older teaching. There is no bodhisattva-worship and the purpose of the whole scheme is to show how the worship culminates in attaining the nature of a Buddha. The bodhisattva in gradually getting rid of moral vices, of desire for existence, and false views, is following the training of the disciple. The difference comes when he decides not to realize the truths under another Buddha, but deliberately to submit himself to a further series of rebirths so that he can in time acquire the virtues and qualities that belong only to a Buddha and become a teacher of gods and men.

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The Theravāda teaching is much the same, but, as has been pointed out (p. 171), the doctrine is discussed only in one Pāli work, the Buddhavamsa. This work is quoted in the Mahāvastu, so that it certainly existed in another school, and it is possible that it was adopted as it stood by the Theravādins. It shows considerable development of the doctrine, as in the clear statement made by the bodhisattva to postpone his Nirvāṇa, in the list of the eight qualities required to make a Buddha, and in the list of the ten Perfections. But there is no list of bhūmis, and the commentator on the Jātaka seems to have no notion of the significance of the Perfection of wisdom (paññā). For the Theravādins this is the full knowledge of the arhat, and for the Mahāyānists the apprehension of the highest Mahāyāna doctrine, but the commentator explains it by instancing some Jātakas in which the bodhisattva showed great intelligence and practical sense. This makes it appear as a fragment adopted from a school where the doctrine was much more complete and systematized.

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The fullest Mahāyāna statement of the bodhisattva doctrine is in the Daśabhūmika-sūtra. Another scheme of ten stages appears here and is repeated with variations in other works. The stages of progress to arhatship already existed in the older doctrine, and they have been enlarged and adapted to the bodhisattva’s career.¹ There can be no doubt that such schemes formed part of the regular oral teaching of the schools. The teaching would differ according to the school and the character of the individual teachers, for it is combined all through with the other doctrines prominent in each school. This rivalry and hostility is very clear in the *Bodhisattvabhūmi*, a work of the Yogāchāra school.

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¹ Dr. N. Dutt speaks of “a list of ten Hinayānic bhūmis” as occurring in the Śatasāhasrikā, a Mahāyāna work, but this is a misapprehension. It is not a single list, but the names of the three stages or goals attained by following the three yānas. The first seven are a list of the stages of the aspirant for arhatship. It ends with kṛtāvī “he who has done what he had to do”, i.e. the arhat. This list occurs separately in Mvyut., 50, where it is expressly called the stages of the disciple. The eighth is the Pratyekabuddhabhūmi, which is also a separate career and stage and “hīnayānic”. The two last are Bodhisattvabhūmi and Buddhabhūmi, and are probably intended to be contrasted with the previous careers. Dr. Dutt, however, tries to equate the whole ten with the ten Mahāyāna stages; Aspects, pp. 286–9.

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The general career of the bodhisattva is given in the *Caryāmārgabhūmisūtra*.¹ “A bodhisattva who practises the career progresses gradually and little by little till the moment when he arrives at supreme wisdom. By means of the six Perfections he discerns the practice of the Void. After having accumulated merits during innumerable cycles he acquires the career of a Buddha. Like a young soldier who advances, at first he is poor, but gradually he obtains great riches. By making efforts he is promoted to the grade of lieutenant; finally he becomes general. By degrees he is raised to the dignity of governor of a province, receiving 360,000 measures of rice as revenue. Successively he becomes minister of second rank, of first rank, universal monarch, king of the gods. Thus he who practises the stages of the career of the bodhisattvas produces the thought of enlightenment, fulfils (the Perfections of) almsgiving, morality, patience, heroism, meditation, and wisdom in succession. He vanquishes the six movements of the heart (contentment, anger, sadness, joy, love, hatred), rejects the three poisons (passions, hatred, stupidity) and the cover of the skandhas. He turns to the three modes of release, arrives at the condition of not turning back, and approaches the state of being bound to existence by only one birth. As in polishing a mirror the iron is washed, cleaned, and smoothed, so that it is thinned and at last reflects images, so the bodhisattva practises the six Perfections, and accumulates merits until the moment when he becomes a Buddha and saves the world. He cares for all beings as if they were his children. His gradual exercise of the career is like the waxing of the moon, the growth of plants, or the building of a house followed by the feast of inauguration.”

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¹ Translated into Chinese, A.D. 284. The above passage is from Dr. Rahder’s version given in his edition of *Daśabh.*, p. xxi.

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The *Daśabhūmika-sūtra*² describes how the Lord was in the heaven of the Paranirmitavaśartin gods (the highest of the heavens of sense, next to the heaven of Brahmā). It was in the second week after he had attained enlightenment, and he was surrounded by bodhisattvas, first of whom was Vajragarbha, and by unspeakably numerous bodhisattvas from other buddha-fields. At that time Vajragarbha entered a form of concentration called Mahāyānaprabhāsa, “splendour of Mahāyāna.” Thereupon a host of Tathāgatas from other universes, all called Vajragarbha, showed themselves and approved. They stroked Vajragarbha’s head, and he rose up from the trance. Then he addressed the bodhisattvas about the stage of knowledge (jñānabhūmi) which all bodhisattvas enter, gave a list of the ten bodhisattva-stages, and became silent. The bodhisattva Vimukticandra implored him to expound them, and Vajragarbha replied that if they were to hear those inconceivable things, doubt and disputes might arise. Hence it was through compassion that he kept silent. All the bodhisattvas with one voice implored him, and then a ray of light issued from Śākyamuni’s forehead illumining the ten quarters. It went round and formed in the air a cell like a shining cloud of rays, and from it, through the might of Buddha, came a voice telling him to utter his exposition by the power of the Buddhas. Vajragarbha consented, but begged their attention and reverence in listening to it.

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² Rahder says that Paramārtha says that this sūtra belongs to the Mahāsanghikas. If this is correct, all that it means is that the sect which used this sūtra claimed to belong to that school. This is likely enough, but it was certainly not the sect that produced the *Mahāvastu*.

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A thing most difficult in words to utter;
But this immeasurable might of Buddha
Has entered me, and these embodied rays,
Through the great might whereof I have the power.

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1. The first stage is Pramuditā, “joyous.” Here the bodhisattva, who has formerly done good deeds and caused the roots of goodness to grow, produces the thought of enlightenment. He thus passes beyond the stage of the common man and enters the family of the Tathāgatas. He becomes joyful and cheerful, remembering the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and their achievements. As he has no thought or love of self, he is free from the five fears of not making a livelihood, of disgrace, of death, of an evil destiny, or timidity in assemblies. He has great compassion, and makes ten great vows: (1) in all realms and in all ways to perform great worship to Buddhas, (2) to preserve the teaching of all the Buddhas wherever and whenever it shall appear, (3) to see the rising of Buddhas in all fields from the time when they leave the Tushita heaven down to their final Nirvāṇa, (4) to vow the thought of enlightenment for attaining all the Perfections and all the stages, (5) to ripen all beings in every form of birth and in all planes of the universe, and set them in omniscience, (6) to perceive all the differences that exist in all universes, (7) to purify all Buddha-fields and delight beings according to their dispositions, (8) to bring about one disposition in all bodhisattvas, to attain to each birth in his own body, to prevent interruption in the practice of a bodhisattva's career and attain the inconceivable Mahāyāna, (9) to practise the bodhisattva's career which is set going without turning back, to get a body like Bhaishajyarāja ¹ or like a wishing gem, (10) to be enlightened with the highest perfect enlightenment in all worlds, to show forth the whole career of a Buddha from his state as a child and an ordinary man to his final nirvāṇa.

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¹ Here identified with Bhaishajyaguru, a Buddha who wished that his body should attain enlightenment shining like lapis lazuli, that his name should cure maladies and release prisoners. His heaven is in the eastern quarter, as Amitābha's is in the west. See Pelliot, BEFEO., iii, 33, 1903.

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For the purifying of this stage he has ten qualities : faith, compassion, friendliness, liberality, endurance of weariness, knowledge of śāstras, knowledge of the world, modesty and shyness, firmness.

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2. In the second stage, Vimalā, “ pure,” he avoids the ten sins of body, speech, and mind. Of the Ten Perfections morality is practised to the greatest extent but not the others.

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3. By practising ten dispositions of mind he reaches the third stage, Prabhākārī, “ luminous.” He perceives impermanence in all compound things. He practises the eight stages of trance, the four brahmavihāras, the magic powers, and the five higher knowledges. He sees many Buddhas, the bonds of lust, of body, and of becoming are weakened, and the bonds of heresy are destroyed. His dispositions of gentleness, patience, etc., are purified, and he especially practises the Perfection of patience.

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4. He passes to the fourth stage, Arcishmatī, “ brilliant,” by practising ten dharmālokas, lights of the Doctrine, examining the world of living beings, etc. He then practises ten qualities that ripen knowledge, the four contemplations, the five faculties of faith, etc., the bodhyangas, and the eight-fold Way. His mind becomes more kindly and soft, doubts are cut off, his dispositions are purified. He renounces the world in the teaching of a Tathāgata, and practises the Perfection of heroism.

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5. He passes to the fifth stage, *Sudurjayā*, “hard to conquer,” by practising uniformity and purity of disposition with regard to ten matters: the doctrines of past, future, and present Buddhas, morality, etc. He understands the four Truths, becomes skilled in ten kinds of truth, relative, absolute, etc., and duly knows that all compounded things are unreal and vain. Out of compassion he learns secular arts which will be useful to all beings, mathematics, medicine, different forms of literature, knowledge of metals, astrology, interpretation of dreams, etc. Still more during his lives in this stage does he renounce the world and become a preacher. He specially practises the Perfection of dhyāna (meditation).

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6. The sixth stage, *Abhimukhī*, “facing,” is reached through the ten samenesses of things. This list is a statement of the Mahāyāna principle that all particular things are unreal, without a mark, without arising or origin, like the illusion of a dream, etc. But through his compassion he looks at the originating and passing away of the world as if it were real, and meditates on the twelvefold Causal Formula in ten different schemes. But reflecting that there is no self, no creature, no individual, he enters upon the three releases of voidness, signlessness, and aimlessness. These are the characteristics of things in reality, but he retains the ideas of self and other, doer and perceiver, existence and non-existence.

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So far, it will be seen, he has practised all the stages that lead to arhatship. But now he turns away from the stages of disciple and pratyekabuddha. He has reached *prajñā* (*paññā*), which in the older teaching meant the full knowledge of the arhat. The term is still retained, but now it has the additional meaning which the Mahāyānists put into it—the knowledge of the truth of things as they understood it. In this sense, as the Perfection practised at this stage, it is usually called the Perfection of Wisdom.

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7. In the seventh stage, *Dūrangamā*, “going far,” he practises the Perfection of skill in expedients (*upāyakauśalya*). He also practises all the ten Perfections, (1) giving, by giving his root of virtue in his desire for buddha-knowledge, (2) *morality*, in extinguishing all the defilements, (3) *patience*, in his pity and love for all beings, (4) *heroism*, in acts of extreme goodness, (5) *meditation*, in aiming at omniscience, (6) *wisdom*, in considering with approval the doctrine of the non-arising of all things, (7) *skill in expedients* (for converting beings), in his efforts for unlimited knowledge, (8) *the vow*, in his efforts to make the supremely highest vow, (9) *power*, in being able to change his form and teach beings of other careers according to their dispositions, (10) *knowledge* in acquiring the true knowledge of all things.

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He practises in their fullness the four elements of popularity. These are, giving or liberality, pleasant speech, beneficent conduct, and impartiality. Like a skilled sailor who knows the nature of waves and currents and embarks on a great ship in the ocean but is not defiled by the filthy water, so the bodhisattva in the seventh stage has entered the great ocean of omniscience and has embarked on the great ship of the Perfections, but he does not yet realize cessation (Nirvāṇa). He has the knowledge of a Buddha and exercises to the full his task of saving all beings.

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The eighth stage is *Acalā*, “immovable.” He knows that things are non-existent, and he is beyond the pleasures of body, speech, and mind, like a man who has awakened from a dream and perceives that his dream experience was unreal. Buddhas then ask him to acquire the ten powers of a Tathāgata (above, p. 149) and the four subjects of confidence. He continues to preach and acquire further powers.

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In the ninth stage, *Sādhumatī*, “the stage of the good,” he understands still more the methods of converting beings. As a preacher of the Doctrine he develops the four methods of analysis of a bodhisattva (see p. 159), and preaches in all universes. The analysis here, however, is that of Mahāyāna doctrine.

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The tenth stage, *Dharmameghā*, “cloud of dharmas,” is also called *Abhiṣeka*, “consecration.” The bodhisattva attains all forms of concentration. A vast lotus appears, and the bodhisattva sits on it in the concentration called the knowledge of the omniscient. Other lotuses appear, on which other bodhisattvas from the ten quarters sit and gaze at him. An earthquake shakes all the universes, and rays of light issue appeasing the pains of all creatures. Rays issue from the foreheads of the assembled Buddhas and rest on his head. He is thus consecrated (abhishikta, lit. sprinkled). and called a fully enlightened Buddha, just as a universal monarch takes his eldest son and “sprinkles” him as viceroy with water from the four oceans. The bodhisattva through his skill in remembering is able to take up and keep in mind all the clouds of dharmas showered on him by the buddhas in his presence, but he still has to be reborn once. Then when he descends from the Tushita heaven to this world, he is ready to undertake all the prescribed actions of a Buddha in saving creatures. It is easy to see, without a special theory of docetism, why such a being in his last existence acts by merely conforming to the custom of the world.

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Other discussions of the bodhisattva’s career are found, and it is clear that the subject was discussed and elaborated by different schools variously without any great changes in system or principle. The Bodhisattvabhūmi is a work of the Yogāchāra school, and goes into minute details. It begins by discussing the ten principles which belong to the career of a bodhisattva, and it adds two more stages. These are preliminary and previous to making the vow. (1) Gotrabhūmi, the stage in which the destined bodhisattva comes to belong to the clan or family of Buddhas. It corresponds to the prakṛticaryā, the “natural” conduct of the bodhisattva as given in the Mahāvastu (above p. 201). Five gotras are given in the Mahāvyutpatti (61), (a) that of the disciple’s career, (b) pratyekabuddha’s career, (c) tathāgata’s career (which the bodhisattva follows), (d) undetermined gotra, (e) absence of gotra. The last not absolutely predestined destinies. Those whose gotra is undetermined or non-existent may in some instances originate roots of goodness through the teaching of bodhisattvas or Buddhas. The second preliminary stage is Adhimukticaryābhūmi, “stage of aspiration,” in which the thought of enlightenment has been formed, but the vow has not yet been made.

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Another classification of the bodhisattva’s career made by the Bodhisattvabhūmi, a Yogāchāra elaboration, is the division into twelve (or including the Buddha stage) thirteen vihāras, “abodes.” It is a scholastic addition which does not carry the conception any further.¹

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¹ The chapter on vihāras has been published by Rahder in the Daśabhūmika-sūtra, and it has been analysed by La Vallée Poussin in Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi, p. 721. The first part of the work has been summarized in English by C. Bendall and La Vallée Poussin, Muséon, 1905–6.

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Another classification which depended on the fancy of the scholastics is the list of six or ten virtues which the bodhisattva practises in perfection during his career, hence they are perfections, *pāramitā*. The list of the first six appears to be original, as it ends with the attainment of full knowledge or wisdom, *prajñā*. But the *Daśabhūmika-sūtra* has four more, which make a list fitting imperfectly with the ten stages. There are also ten in the *Buddhavaṃsa*, but the Pāli commentators do not seem to have known what to do with them. They also vary in name and in order. Of the first six Wisdom comes fourth, meditation (*dhyāna*) is omitted, and renunciation (*nekkhamma*) inserted. The rest are truth, resolution (*adhiṭṭhāna*, corresponding to *praṇidhāna*, "the vow"), love, and equanimity. The *Mahāvastu* almost ignores them, but in one place gives a list of the first six.

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All through the career of the Bodhisattva run two motives, the aim of becoming a Buddha in order to save beings and the attainment of absolute truth in the Perfection of Wisdom. The two do not appear to be essentially related. Indeed, the bodhisattva has to avoid realizing the highest truth. When he meditates on the Causal Formula he has to take the view that particular things are real, and when he preaches to beings of other disciplines and religions he actually assumes the form of a teacher of those religions and sets forth relative truth. The reason of this combination was the existence of Buddhism as a great religion for the laity at the side of its existence in the schools as a carefully taught body of doctrine. Hence on the one hand the popular sūtras describing the marvellous achievements of Avalokiteśvara and the Land of Bliss promised to his worshippers, and on the other the philosophical sūtras which set forth a doctrine of the unreality of the world of experience, the doctrine of the Void. Even these latter sūtras have a popular character, as they state in oracular language (attributed to Buddha) the principles which were argued and maintained orally in the schools. Their full exposition is found not in these sūtras, but in the works of eminent doctors like Nāgārjuna, who expounded them in systematic treatises.

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