The
Religion
of Bodhisattva
(The Significance of the Dasabhumi
Doctrine and its Treatment)
Kizow Inazu
I Sattva and Bodhisattva
(1) Sattva
The samskrit word sattva, which is derived from "as (to be)", means literally "the living Being", and it has been accepted in our life through
Chinese translation-衆 生. The conception of sattva is unique. As a term
in the system of Buddha's preaching, it means to comprehend all Beings, human and non-human, as being enveloped within the profound mercy revealed in Buddha, and moreover to perceive the same Bodhi-nature in them, which they share with Buddha.
In Mahayana Buddhism The thesis, "All sattvas have Bodhi-nature", which appears emphatically in Mahaparinirvana-sutra, has been admitted as an important viewpoint about the essential nature of human being. There the idea to hold that sinfulness is man's original nature and only by some divine mercy he can be saved, the idea which is prevailing in many religious teachings, is rejected. Then how should Avidya be explain-ed in the relation of man's Bodhi-nature
The meaning of avidya (ignorance) has been often misunderstood as though similar to the original sin. It will be reasonable to conceive avidya as follows;-while the Bodhi-nature is sleeping in man, his consciousness remains darkened, namely unable to see the highest truth of his own self and his surroundings, because the eye of wisdom not yet opened; but when Bodhi-nature awakes in man, avidya beeing swept away and his
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ness enlightened, he becomes Bodhisattva, awakened human. So Buddha's teaching of avidya, contrary to the idea of original sin, instructs us that we possess the potentiality of becoming Buddha as our inherent natuue. It may be said that avidya is the first appearance of the Bodhi-nature itself into the sattva's consciousness, like the hard shell of a seed or an egg is the first appearance of its inner life.
on the basis of such high thinking about the nature of sattva, has appeared a suggestive idea of "tathagatagarbha", into Chinese translated as
如 來 藏, which is another name of sattva. How can it'be that sattva is
called tathagata-garbha Tathagata means the Universal Person revealed in Buddha and garbha means womb, so tathagata-garbha may be translated as "tathagata-womb"; and it has three folds meaning according to the three relations of the two words. That is 1) According to the relation of ge-netiv subjectivus, sattva is called tathagata-garbha, becagse being cherrished in tathagata's womb. 2) according to the relation of genetiv ob jectivus, sattva is called tathagata-womb, because sattva cherrishes tathagata in its womb. 3) according to the relation of genetiv partitvus, sattva is called tathagata-womb, because sattva itself the child-form of tathagata.
Above mentioned philosophical treatment of human nature has come from the deep meditation of Mahayana Buddhists, and it lays foundation to the religion of Bodhisattva.
(2) Bodhisattva, and his first Awakenment
In early Buddhism "Bodhisattva" was an epithet offered to Sakyamuni Buddha, meaning his previous life; but in Mahayana Buddhism it was wi-dened to all sattvas.
Man, as a sattva, is potentially a Bodhisattva; and when the Bodhi-nature be awakened in him, he becomes a real Bodhisattva and begins to proceed his way for attaining Buddha. The essence of Bodhi-nature is usu-ally defined as the immeasurable love and compassion (Mahamaitri, Mahaka-runa) and transcendent wisdom (Prajnaparamita); and man's Bodhi-nature manfTests itself at first as Bodhicitta in his conciousness. Bodhi-citta means
The Religion of Bodhisattva (K. Inazu)
(35)
the mind aspiring for Bodhi" or "mind having the essence of Bodhi in
itself"; and the first awakening of Bodhi-citta in man is thus described in
Bodhisattva's Dasabhumika-sutra:
sattvanam bodhaya cittam utpadyate"; literally translating, "of (or
for) sattvas to the Bodha (aspiring) mind arises".
In this short expression we find a careful consideration, especially on
the two words, sattvanam and utpadyate; that is,
1) Man can not be called Bodhisattva, before the real spiritual
awa-kenment not yet comes to him, so here used the word "sattva", not
Bodhi-sattva. 2) Such awakenment can not be caused by one's own will or
strength, but comes forth from the inner depth of his being aroused by
the touch of some divine love; so here mentioned as "Bodhaya cittam
ut-padyate". not "Bodhaya sattvas cittam utpadayati".
Bodha means the
en-lightened Personality, full of infinite mercy and wisdom, fulfilled by Buddha.
Buddha's Bodha, or Sambodha. must be the sourse from which our cittam
inspired, as well as the destination for which our cittam aspires.
As soon as "Bodhaya cittam utpadyate" one receives an inexplicable
change in his person and attains his new birth in the light of Buddha's
Eternal Person (Dharma-kaya) and becomes Bodhisattva; in the following
sentence, therefore, it is thus explained:
"Yena cittotpadena sahotpannena, Bodhisattvo tikranto bhavati
pritha-gjana-bhumim, avakranto bhavati bodhisattvaniyamam, jato bhavati
tatha-gata-kule, niyato bhavati sambodhi-parayanah,-jinaputra,
Bodhisattvah
pramuditayam bodhisattvabhumau vyavasthito bhavati acalayogena."
As soon as the cittotpada (awakenment of aspiring mind) be aroused,
Bod-hisattva be transcended the situation of worldly man, ascended into the
definite situation of bodhisattva, born in the family of tathagata,-be
destined to fulfill Sambodhi (perfect enlightenment), 0 Buddha's sons,
Bodhi-sattva be standing steadily on the bodhiBodhi-sattva-ground of blessed joy by
immovable law."
The experience of such spiritual awakenment is not accidental, but
natural, because it comes from the essential nature of man's own; it
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bles the new birth of a chick or new shooting of a plant. In whomever the distinguished feature of his first awakenment is immense joy, so it is called
the "pramuditanama-prathama-bodhisattva-bhumi" (初 歓 喜 地). It is the first
grade of bodhisattva, so to say the stage of a new born child of Buddha; whence begins a long journey for Bodhisattva, till he reaches maturity and attains Buddha; and there must be naturally some grades in his life course.
II Ten Grades' System and its Reformation
In the course of Bodhisattva's life, from the first awakenment to the fufillment of Buddha's sambodha, ten grades are indicated in the Dasabhu-mika-sutra. Once constructed this ten grades system, it has been adopted as one of the most fundamental doctrine through the hitory of Mahayana Buddhism from India to Japan. At the same time it must be noticed that
there are contained two different motifs in the same system. On one side it is constructed merely by theoretical speculations, while on the other side it expresses the real religious experiencee of man; and because of the latter motif it has a living importance until present day. For instance the first awakenmnt, the sixth abhimukhi (realization) and the eighth acala (immovable or avaivartika) are those which reflect the real experience; acc-ordingly f he reformation of the ten grades has been tried by the leading thinkers of Mahayana, such as Nagarjuna, Asafiga, Vasubandhu and Prince Shotoku of Japan.
In my previous paper I explained the relation between the Vi jnapti-matrata theory of Vasubandhu and the Dasabhumi sytem, and here I sho-uld like to observe how the problem of reforming the ten grades was treated by vasubandhu and Prince Shotoku.
(1) Viewpoint of Vasubandhu
According to Chinese text, in Vasubandhu's Commentary of Mahayana-samgraha-sastra the whole course of Bodhisattva's life is systematized into
four stages of "轄 依", which is the Chinese translation of samskrit
"asra-yasya paravritti", meaning "conversion of standing basis". As the same con-
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The four stages of this conversion are shown as
follows;-1) 一 日 ハ 力 損 能 縛-The tirst stage of conversion where the spiritual
strength increases and the sensual instinct lessened.
2) 二 日 通 達 轄-The second stage of conversion where Bodhisattva
rea-ches into the depth of truth.
3) 三 日 修 習 縛-The third stage of conversion where Bodhisattva
real-izes the truth more evidently by practice.
4) 四 日 果 圓 満 轄-The fourth stage of conversion where the fruit
(be-coming Buddha) is fulfilled in Bodhisattva.
Among those four the first is the preparatory course where the Bodhi-citta not yet awakened, and the last is the ultimate destinatian where Bo-dhisattva becomes Buddha; so both of them may be put aside. It is the second and the third stage that covers the ten grades. Consequently the view-point presented by Vasubandhu is to reform the ten grades collectively into two stages, the former including six grades, from the first to the sixth, and the latter including four grades, from the seventh to the tenth. The reason for setting up a borderline between the sixth and the seventh is that on the sixth grade the transcendent wisdom (prajflaparamita) comes to Bodhisattva and his avidya-enveloped consciousness being enlightened he realizes clearly the highest truth; and after then he enters higher life of practicing immeasurable love. This opinion of Vasubandhu must be admitted as authoritative, yet there remain some questions on the treat-ment of the seventh grade.
(2) Viewpoint of Prince Shotoku
A different viewpoint was presented by Prince Shotoku in the Co-mmentary of Srimala-sutra. There the ten grades are reformed collectively
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into two classes, that is-七 地 己 還 (the seventh and below) and 八 地 以 上
(the eighth and above). It is the same as Vasubandhu in dividing the ten grades into two classes, but the borderline, is drawn between the seventh and the eighth; the reason for which is not explained. Factually it may be difficult to decide which is better, to put the seventh grade in the abo-ve or under; because in the original ten grades system the differentiation
between the seventh and the eighth is not so clear. The most important concern for Prince Shotoku is not to put interpretation on, the ten grades system, but, getting materials from it, to establish his own doctrine of human life. So that the distinction between the upper class (above the eighth) and the under class (below the seventh) is clearly indicated; that is
in the upper class Bodhisattva attains "the absolute one mind" (一 心)
which can accept Buddha's Saddharma (撮 受 正 法) and thus manifests
Bu-ddha's Dharma-kaya in himself (顯 法 身). In these contemplations of the
vir-tue revealed in the higher Bodhisattva, Prince Shotoku expresses his own life-ideals, and here we see the unique Buddhism of Japan, which has the characteristics of "the Religion of Bodhisattva", is established.
