Bodhi
Bodhi ( Sanskrit बोधि bodhi mufund Pali , literally awakening , often with enlightenment translated) referred to in Buddhism a knowledge process, which on the taught by the Buddha Salvation is away from central. The word comes from a Sanskrit root from which " Buddha " (literally "the awakened") is derived.
General
According to the Buddhist teachings, a Buddha is a being who has achieved the purity and perfection of his mind on his own - not thanks to outside instruction and guidance - and has thus achieved a limitless development of all "his" potentials: perfect wisdom ( prajna ), infinite Compassion ( Karuna ) with all living things and thereby (which the Chinese and Japanese iconography in particular clearly indicate) complete serenity .
The prerequisites are the complete understanding of the four noble truths , the overcoming of all needs and deceptions which bind to existence and thus the cessation of all karmic forces. Bodhi breaks the cycle of suffering, samsara , and attains nirvana .
In order to achieve this, legend has it that the Buddha gave 84,000 teachings during his lifetime, all aimed at ending the suffering in samsara and attaining Bodhi. The practice systems of all Buddhist schools fall back on the teachings of the Buddha, which form the core of the teaching - the Dharma -, but sometimes emphasize different aspects.
There are two different doctrines within Zen Buddhism : that of Bodhi as a spontaneous and sudden experience (e.g. Hui Neng , the 6th Patriarch) and that of gradual meditative self-perfection (e.g. Shenxiu ). But even with the spontaneous experience is not meant a one-off process through which final knowledge is achieved in absolute completeness, but all masters have deepened their acquired insight for decades, often with other masters as well. According to these teachings, the idea of being able to or even wanting to achieve a lightning-like "enlightenment" is detrimental to relaxed, patient meditative practice and rather has the opposite effect.
On the other hand, in Theravada Bodhi , for example, it is always seen as a lightning-like breakthrough to grasp the truth / reality, even if the way there may lead via a laborious exercise path.
The abbreviation “Bodhi” is also used to refer to the Bodhi tree , which is revered as a symbol of the Buddha in Buddhism .
Modes of Obtaining Bodhi
Pratyeka Buddha
The Pratyeka Buddha reaches Bodhi only through his own efforts, without the help of teachers. According to the Tripitaka , such Buddhas only appear in times when the Dharma , the teaching, has been lost. Several Pratyeka Buddhas can appear at the same time during such a time. Their ability to help others achieve bodhi is considered less than that of the arhats and bodhisattvas .
Sravaka Buddha
The Shravaka Buddha reaches Bodhi with the help of teachers. Such an awakened one is called an arhat in Theravada. Arhats are regarded as good teachers who, not least because of their own experiences, can help other people to achieve Bodhi themselves. In the representation of the Mahayana , an arhat has indeed overcome the idea of the ego, but is still bound to the duality of subject-object in the perspective. Which means a contradiction, since there can be no subject-object bond without an ego.
Therefore, after Mahayana, it is still necessary to go through 10 Bodhisattva levels in order to ultimately attain Bodhi. In contrast, an arhat in the original teaching has overcome all clinging and ignorance and is therefore no longer bound to anything.
Completely awakened Buddha
The fully awakened ( Samyak Sambuddha ) is considered to be the perfect, most compassionate and omniscient form of a Buddha who has fully grasped the Dharma through his own effort and is able to convey it to others in such a way that they too can free them from the cycle of samsara become. The historical Buddha Shakyamuni ( of the Shakya clan ) was such a fully awakened Buddha . According to Buddhist tradition, a fully awakened Buddha appears at the beginning of a New Age. According to tradition, the Buddha prophesied a thousand such Buddhas for this aeon ; he, the Buddha Shakyamuni, is the fourth of them. The next Buddha should then be called Maitreya .
See also
- Bodhipakkhiyadhamma , the 37 things required for awakening.
- Bodhichitta
- Vajrayana
literature
- Peter N. Gregory: Sudden and Gradual (Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought). Motilal Banarsidass 1991, ISBN 8120808193
- Taizan Maezumi, Bernard T. Glassman: Enlightenment - What Is It? OW Barth bei Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3502610932 (with a foreword by Chögyam Trungpa ).
- Ama Samy: Zen and Enlightenment. Ten meditations from a Zen master. Theseus, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3896202561 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Bi-Yan-Lu. Notes from the Master of the Blue Rock. Koan Collection, translated from Chinese, annotated and edited. v. Ernst Schwarz, Munich 1999 ( ISBN 3-466-20443-7 ), pp. 24f, 254, 311.