Bodhi

Sculpture of the Buddha meditating under the Mahabodhi tree

Bodhi (Sanskrit: बोधि) is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened.^{[citation needed]} In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things (dharma). The word "buddha" means "awakened one." Although its most common usage is in the context of Buddhism, bodhi is also present as a concept in other Indian philosophies and traditions.

Etymology

Bodhi is an abstract noun formed from the verbal root budh (to awake, become aware, notice, know or understand,) corresponding to the verbs bujjhati (Pāli) and bodhati or budhyate (Sanskrit). Also from the same root is the Sanskrit word buddhi which is the exact equivalent to the Greek word nous.

Buddha's awakening

In the suttapitaka, the Buddhist canon as preserved in the Theravada-tradition, a couple of texts can be found in which the Buddha tells about his own awakening.

In the Vanapattha Sutta (Majjhima, chapter 17) the Buddha describes life in the jungle, and the attainment of awakening. After destroying the disturbances of the mind, and the concentration of the mind, he attained three knowledges (vidhya):

1. Insight in his past lives
2. Insight in the workings of Karma and Reincarnation
3. Insight in the Four Noble Truths

Insight in the Four Noble Truths is here being called awakening. The monk (bikkhu) has

...attained the unattained supreme security from bondage"

Awakening is also being described as reaching Nirvana, the extinction of the passions whereby suffering is ended and no more rebirths take place. The insight arises that this liberation is certain:

Knowledge arose in me, and insight: my freedom is certain, this is my last birth, now there is no rebirth"

So awakening is insight in karma and rebirth, insight in the Four Noble Truths, the extinction of the passions whereby Nirvana is reached, ànd the certainty thàt liberation has been reached.

The Buddhist Path

From the Buddha's awakening originated the Buddhist Path. By following this path Buddhahood can be attained. Following this path dissolves the ten fetters and terminates volitional actions that bind a human being to the wheel of samsara.

The early Buddhist tradition preserved by the Theravada features four progressive stages culminating in full enlightenment. The four stages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahat.

Three types of buddha are recognized:

• Arhat (Pali: arahant), those who reach Nirvana by following the teachings of the Buddha. Sometimes the term Śrāvakabuddha (Pali: sāvakabuddha) is used to designate this kind of awakened person^{[citation needed]};
• Pratyekabuddhas (Pali: paccekabuddha), those who reach Nirvana through self-realisation, without the aid of spiritual guides and teachers, but don't teach the Dharma;
• Samyaksambuddha (Pali: samma sambuddha), often simply referred to as Buddha, one who has reached Nirvana by his own efforts and wisdom and teach it skillfully to others.

Development of the concept

The term bodhi acquired a variety of meanings and connotations during the development of Buddhist thoughts in the various schools.

Early Buddhism

In early Buddhism, bodhi carried a meaning synonymous to nirvana, using only some different metaphors to describe the insight, which implied the extinction of lobha (greed), dosa (hate) and moha (delusion). In Theravada Buddhism, bodhi and nirvana carry the same meaning, that of being freed from greed, hate and delusion.

Mahayana

In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of nirvana was downgraded, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained nirvana, and that one needed to attain bodhi to eradicate delusion:

An important development in the Mahayana [was] that it came to separate nirvana from bodhi ('awakening' to the truth, Enlightenment), and to put a lower value on the former. Originally nirvana and bodhi refer to the same thing; they merely use different metaphors for the experience. But the Mahayana tradition separated them and considered that nirvana referred only to the extinction of craving (= passion and hatred), with the resultant escape from the cycle of rebirth. This interpretation ignores the third fire, delusion: the extinction of delusion is of course in the early texts identical with what can be positively expressed as gnosis, Enlightenment.

In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, parinirvana is equal in all respects to bodhi and indeed is the state of perfect Buddhahood.^{[citation needed]}

Buddha-nature and natural mind

In the Tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism Bodhi becomes equivalent to the universal natural and pure state of the mind:

Bodhi is the final goal of a Bodhisattva's career [...] Bodhi is pure universal and immediate knowledge, which extends over all time, all universes, all beings and elements, conditioned and unconditioned. It is absolute and identical with Reality and thus it is Tathata. Bodhi is immaculate and non-conceptual, and it, being not an outer object, cannot be understood by discursive thought. It has neither beginning, nor middle nor end and it is indivisible. It is non-dual (advayam)... The only possible way to comprehend it is through samadhi by the yogin.

According to these doctrines Bodhi is always there within the being's mind, but requires the defilements to be removed. This vision is expounded in texts such as the Shurangama Sutra and the Uttaratantra.

In Shingon Buddhism, the state of Bodhi is also seen as naturally inherent in the mind. It is the mind's natural and pure state, where no distinction is being made between a perceiving subject and perceived objects. This is also the understanding of Bodhi found in Yogacara Buddhism and the mind's natural and pure state as in Dzogchen. To achieve this vision of non-duality, it is necessary to recognise one's own mind:

... it means that you are to know the inherent natural state of the mind by eliminating the split into a perceiving subject and perceived objects which normally occurs in the world and is wrongly thought to be real. This also corresponds to the Yogacara definition ... that emptiness (sunyata) is the absence of this imaginary split

Harmonisation of the various terms and meanings

During the develoment of Mahayana Buddhism the various strands of thought on Bodhi were continuously being elaborated. Attempts were made to harmonize the various terms. The Buddhist commentator Buddhaguhya treats various terms as synonyms:

For example, he defines emptiness (sunyata) as suchness (tathata) and says that suchness is the intrinsic nature (svabhava) of the mind which is Enlightenment (bodhi-citta). Moreover, he frequently uses the terms suchness (tathata) and Suchness-Awareness (tathata-jnana) interchangeably. But since Awareness (jnana) is non-dual, Suchness-Awareness is not so much the Awareness of Suchness, but the Awareness which is Suchness. In other words, the term Suchness-Awareness is functionally equivalent to Enlightenment. Finally, it must not be forgotten that this Suchness-Awareness or Perfect Enlightenment is Mahavairocana [the Primal Buddha, uncreated and forever existent]. In other words, the mind in its intrinsic nature is Mahavairocana, whom one "becomes" (or vice-versa) when one is perfectly enlightened.

See also

• Bodhi tree
• Enlightenment in Buddhism
• Satori

Sources

• Bhikkhu Nanamoli; Bhikkhu Bodhi (1995), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya 
• Faure, Bernard (1991), The Rhetoric of Immediacy. A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Universitu Press, ISBN 0-691-02963-6 
• Gombrich, Richard F. (1997), How Buddhism Began, Munshiram Manoharlal 
• Harvey, Peter (1995), An introduction to Buddhism. Teachings, history and practices, Cambridge University Press 
• Hodge, Stephen (2003), The Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra, With Buddhaguya's Commentary, London: RoutledgeCurzon 
• Sebastian, C.D. (2005), Metaphysics and Mysticism in Mahayana Buddhism, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications 
• Snelling, John (1987), The Buddhist handbook. A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice, London: Century Paperbacks 
• Walsh (translator), Maurice (1995), The Long Discourses of the Buddha. A translation of the Digha Nikaya, Boston: Wisdom publications 
• Wardner, A.K. (2000), Indian Buddhism, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers 

Further reading

• A. Charles Muller (translator) (1999), The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment. State University Press of New York
• Lu K'uan Yu (translator) (1978), The Surangama Sutra. Bombay: B.I. Publications
• Kenneth R. White (editor) (2005), The Role of Bodhicitta in Buddhist Enlightenment including a Translation into English of the Bodhicitta-Sastra, Benkenmitsu-nikyoron, and Sammaya-kaijo. New York : The Edwin Mellen Press

External links

• Hundreds of free buddhist talks and huge forum
• How to Recognize Enlightenment
• The Bodhi-Tree Practice - A set of meditations based on the four stages of the Buddha's enlightenment