The Bodhisattva Joanna Macy

excerpted from a talk at Barre Center for , The Wings of the Bodhisattva, Insight magazine, Spring/Summer 2001.

In the major religions, the spiritual journey of the Perfection of Wisdom which seems to be presented in two ways. inaugurate the . One is like a journey out of this messy, As the tradition ripened over the centuries, broken, imperfect world of suffering, into archetypal forms of bodhisattvahood a sacred realm of eternal light. At the same appeared, as celestial bodhisattvas. These you time, within the same tradition, the spiritual can call on at any time; they are right at hand. journey is also experienced and expressed as You honor your own capacity for wisdom, going right into the heart of the world--into as you think of the celestial bodhisattva this world of suffering and brokenness and , the embodiment of wisdom. Or imperfection--to discover the sacred. you experience your own , as you turn to the Compassionate One who In , this movement into the world listens, Avalokiteshvara. Or you access your is associated with the bodhisattva. In early own creativity and courage, as you turn to Buddhism the term bodhisattva the bodhisattva of action, . Or refers to the earlier lives of Gotama the you discover your own fearlessness, as you Buddha. He had lots of them, and in each turn to the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, who’s he practiced and grew in compassion not afraid to go down into the deepest level of and wisdom. These are the hallmarks of a for the sake of those who suffer there. bodhisattva: compassion and insight into the interconnectedness of all beings. And That’s the gift from these celestial he developed those capacities not just in bodhisattvas--to symbolize and evoke the human lives, but also in non-human lives. capacities of the human heart and mind, Many of you probably share my delight in to represent what we all want to expect of the Jataka stories, where these earlier lives, ourselves. As we learn to see ourselves and with wondrous displays of courage and others as potential bodhisattvas, we find compassion, are recounted. In some of them more equanimity in our relationship to our the Buddha was a rabbit, or a monkey, or an world—not to be scared of the messiness and elephant, or a snake, as well as a merchant the pain; not to hold back and close off from and a prince, and a counselor to kings. the world. Instead we open up and move into it. So there’s both fearlessness, and a kind of As Mahayana Buddhism comes on the celebration. scene, the central doctrine of the Buddha, dependent co-arising, is understood with In the earliest Mahayana texts, the fresh appreciation and vigor. As that bodhisattva is portrayed as flying on two happens, a resounding recognition comes: wings. These sutras explain at length that the “Oh, given that we course together in bodhisattva doesn’t have any place to stand, radical interconnectedness, we belong to because there is no turf, views or possessions each other. We are all bodhisattvas—that is that she can call her own. Nor is there a our true nature.” That is a major message solid self, or an unchanging identity, or any