What is a Bodhisattva?

A BODHISATTVA is an ordinary person who takes up a course in his or her life that moves in the direction of buddha. You’re a bodhisattva, I’m a bodhisattva; actually, anyone who directs their attention, their life, to practicing the way of life of a buddha is a bodhisattva. We read about Kannon Bosatsu (Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, Guan Shi Yin Pu Sa) or Monju Bosatsu (Manjushri Bodhisattva, Wenshu Shili Pu Sa), and these are great bodhisattvas, but we, too, have to have confidence or faith that we are also bodhisattvas.

Most people live by their desires or karma. That’s what the expression gossho no bompu means. Gossho are the obstructions to practicing the Way caused by our evil actions in the past. Bompu simply means ordinary human being–that is, one who lives by karma. Our actions are dictated by our karma: We are born into this world with our desires and may live our lives just by reacting or responding to them. In contrast is gansho no bosatsu, or a bodhisattva who lives by vow.

The Life that Flows Through Each of Us and Through Everything (living) around us is actually All Connected. To say that, of course, means that who I really am cannot be separated from all the things that surround me. Or, to put it another way, all sentient beings have their existence and live within my life. So needless to say, that includes even the fate of all mankind–that, too, lies within me. Therefore, just how mankind might truly live out its life becomes what I aim at as my direction. This aiming or living while moving in a certain direction is what is meant by vow.

In other words, it is the motivation for living that is different for a bodhisattva. Ordinary people live thinking only about their own personal, narrow circumstances connected with their desires. In contrast to that, a bodhisattva, though undeniably still an ordinary human being like everyone else, lives by vow. Because of that, the significance of his or her life is not the same. For us as bodhisattvas, all aspects of life, including the fate of humanity itself, live within us. It is with this in mind that we work to discover and manifest the most vital and alive posture that we can take in living out our life. . . .

It’s not enough for a bodhisattva of the Mahayana to just uphold the precepts. There are times when you have to break them, too. It’s just that when you do, you have to do so with the resolve of also being willing to accept whatever consequences might follow. That’s what issai shujo to tomo ni (“together with all sentient beings” –regardless of what hell one might fall into) really means. . . .

It’s not enough just to know the definition of bodhisattva. What’s much more important is to study the actions of a bodhisattva and then to behave like one yourself.

Regarding the question “What is a bodhisattva?” you could also define a bodhisattva as one who acts as a true adult. That is, most people in the world act like children. The word dainin means “true adult” or “bodhisattva.” Today most people who are called adults are only pseudo-adults. Physically they grow up and become adult but spiritually too many people never mature to adulthood. They don’t behave as adults in their daily lives.

A bodhisattva is one who sees the world through adult eyes and whose actions are the actions of a true adult. That is really what a bodhisattva is.

Source http://www.tricycle.com/new-buddhism/bodhisattvas/what-bodhisattva

So what is a Bodhisattva Warrior?

Confrontation is the way by which bring conflict to the surface and break it down into manageable pieces. As long as conflict can camouflage itself in bureaucracy or in a hierarchy, resolution is impossible. So it must be called out! Into the open, Challenged, Confronted. Ironically, doing so requires us to draw on the “warrior archetype.” When applied to spiritual warfare, this archetype becomes the “Bodhisattva Warrior.”

The essential energy of the warrior is courage. The warrior represents and embodies the capacity to face what we most fear, especially in service to those who are weaker.

When we confront what we would most prefer to avoid, we are changed. Who we have been up until that moment is annihilated, to be replaced by the person who emerges when the dust settles. The shift can be subtle or very dramatic. We might become just a bit more assertive or a whole lot less aggressive.

Confrontation liberates us from whatever we once feared to face. Confrontation frees us from fear precisely by bringing us into an encounter with the source of our fear. The essence of all ancient forms of male initiation is the young boy’s experience of his own terror–when he faces his fear in a ritual setting, it awakens his slumbering masculine nature. In the course of the encounter, he discovers his manhood. Now the tribe can count on him to confront external danger without being defeated by self-doubt. The process of giving birth endows women with a similar kind of fearlessness.

Truth As Medicine: Facing Facts

There are times when it is not a person that we need to confront, but unpleasant facts or circumstances.

Discussions of the present day pertain to matters of extreme stress and hardship on Our Planet, and are under review by communities and Corporations (however, not in your best interest), that there be no mystery as to how we have arrived at the current situation.

When we resist facts, we often resent anyone who points them out. There is a tendency to “Kill the messenger” when the news is bad or unpopular. As a result, it is easy to become engaged in a personal conflict when we don’t want to confront the darker side of our human condition.

Facts do not inherently require a response. They just are. Facts demand acceptance, understanding. They compel us to reorganize our thinking to reflect the new knowledge. But they don’t necessarily bring us into contact with an adversary. Even if the fact of the adversary’s existence is what we have been resisting, the process is an internal one. The feeling of conflict is resolved when we fully integrate the painful facts into our perspective of the world.

Bodhisattva Warrior-Work with Heart (Pdf)

Video:

Modern history rest upon false stories, theories, misconception and lies; which has been constructed to deceive you and prevent you from Remembering (Awaking); and to claim you as their property. It is your duty to SELF to remove all assumptions.

You think you can take the King- Now Meet Kong!
Strong as the base of a mountain, there’s no counting…50,000 year process to make this combination, Ninety nine elements-biochemical manifestation.

Source:

Above Images are from The Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India  are 30 rock-cut cave monuments which dates back to the 2nd century BCE to 600 CE. the caves include paintings and sculptures considered to be masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, which depict the Jataka Tales.

http://everyhistory.org/500ajanta1.html

Learn More About the Bodhisattvas:

http://jadeturtlerecords.blogspot.no/2011/02/guanyin-opens-repository.html

http://jadeturtlerecords.blogspot.no/2011/05/bodhisattva-manjushri-wenshu.html

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