The Signification of Bodhisattva Manjushri in Mahayana Buddhism

Shabd Braham E ISSN 2320 – 0871 International Research Journal of Indian languages 17 May 2017 Peer Reviewed Refereed Research Journal The Signification Of Bodhisattva Manjushri In Mahayana Buddhism Dr.Manish Meshram Assistant Professor School of Buddhist Studies and Civilization Gautam Buddha University Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India Abstract Manjushri is a bodhisattva of the tenth and final stage (bhuumi) of the bodhisattva path, and at this level he is joined by figures such as Avalokite'svara and Maitreya. As stated above, Manjushri’s standard epithet kumaarabhuuta has a double sense, being a youth or being a prince. Understood as prince the term also has a technical meaning which indicates that its bearer has received consecration (abhi.seka) from the Buddha as crown prince (kumaara) of the Dharma, making him a tenth stage bodhisattva. The consecration gives him the powers of a Buddha, enabling him to be a Cloud of the Dharma (dharmamegha) that rains down the Buddha's teachings upon the world for its benefit. As well as 'Cloud of the Dharma' the tenth stage of the bodhisattva path is therefore also called the Stage of Consecration (abhi.seka-bhuumi). In this article I would like to express about practical approach and its experience of Manjushri bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism. Keywords: Manjushri, Bodhisattva, Wisdom, Perfect wisdom, Mantra, Pranja, Insight, Buddha, Nirvana, Meditation, Mahayana Buddhism Introduction Manjushri is depicted as a beautiful young Manjushri is bodhisattva associated with prince, usually said to be sixteen years old. pranjna (insight) in Mahayana Buddhism. In His freshness and beauty represent the Tibetan Buddhism, he is also a yidam. His fresh way that the awakened mind sees the name means ‘Gentle Glory’ in Sanskrit. world. While the unenlightened mind Manjushri is also known by the fuller name typically sees life as being ordinary, to those of Manjushrikumarabhatu, literally who are awakened life is magic, ‘Manjushri, Still a Youth’ or, less literally, extraordinary, and full of potential. The name ‘Prince Manjusri’. Manjushri is a Bodhisattva Manushri means ‘Gently Auspicious One.’ who represents wisdom. Along with He is also known as Manjughosha, or Avolokiteshvara and Vajrapani, he is one of ‘Gentle Voiced One.’ Like most Bodhisattv trinity of family protectors. The family that figures, he is seated on a lotus flower. Majuhshri protects is known as the Because the lotus grows from mud in often Tathagata family, which includes the foul water, and yet remains unstained, it is historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, as well as considered to represent the purity of Vairochana, the central figure in the Five wisdom, which can exist in the midst of Buddha Mandala. Tathagata” the name of delusion without being affected by it. Majushri’s family, means “The one thus Manjushri’s most distinctive emblem is the gone (to Nirvana) or (because of the flaming sword that he holds aloft in his right ambiguities in Sanskrit) “The one thus come hand. The sword symbolizes his mind’s (to this world) and is an epithet of the ability to cut through the fetters that bind historical Buddha. Of all the Bodhisattvas, beings to the cycle of delusion and suffering. Manjushri has perhaps the closest The flames suggest that the sward is not a association with the Buddha, and could be literal one, and flames in Buddhist said to represent his genius (in the sense of iconography invariably represent his attendant deity) or daimon (attending transformation; Manjughosa’s wisdom does spirit or inspiring force). This paper is published online at www.shabdbraham.com in Vol 5, Issue 7 32 Shabd Braham E ISSN 2320 – 0871 International Research Journal of Indian languages 17 May 2017 Peer Reviewed Refereed Research Journal not destroy ignorance in the conventional Kumarbhuta (‘Youthful Being’), although he sense, but transforms it into wisdom. does also manifest in some texts as elderly In Manjushri’s left hand is his other man. His quality of having eternal youth characteristic emblem: the stem of a lotus, (sometimes despite appearances to which bears a book. This book is the contrary) symbolized the eternal freshness Perfection of Wisdom, which is both the and spontaneity with which the enlightened source of his realization and a concrete mind approaches life. symbol of it. In the Manjughosa form the The word “bodhisattva” is a compound world book is held to the heart. There are formed from bodhi (spiritual awakening, numerous other variations of Manjushri, enlightenment) and sattva (a being, some of which go by different names. For essence, sprit). The word can then be example he is sometimes seen riding a lion, translates as “A being set upon or holding a bow and arrow. enlightenment,” “One whose essence is Manjushri features prominently in many perfect knowledge,” or “A being whose Perfection of Wisdom texts. He makes a late essence is enlightenment.” appearance in the Lotus Sutra, and is The word, however, has several shades of particularly prominent in the Vimalakirti meaning, and we will explore these below. Nirdesa. Both of these are early Mahayana Heare’s Monier-William’s Sanskrit-English sutras. However he is most often found in Dictionary definition of the word the later Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, where ‘bodhisattva” he is, in effect, the Buddha’s spokesman. In “sattva means ‘one whose essence is some of these sutras the dialogues that perfect knowledge,’ one who is one the way Manjushshri has with the Buddha are so to on the attainment of perfect knowledge, intimate that we can get a sense that we are (i.e. a Buddhist saint when he has only one hearing the Buddha thinking out loud. birth to undergo before obtaining the state of Manjushri is associated with ordinary a supreme Buddha and then Nirvana), intelligence and mental acuity as well as Buddha (the early doctrine had only one transcendent wisdom, and his mantra Om A Bodhi-sattva, viz, Maitreya: the later Ra Pa Ca Na Dhihi is a said to confer reckoned many more) the principle Buddha intelligence. Shantideva, the author of th of the present era (before he become a great Bodhicaryavatar (‘Guide to the Buddha)” Bodhisattva’s Way of life’) is said to have There is a possibility that the Pali word gained his wisdom by communing with ‘sattv’ was actually a back-formation from Manjushri by nigh, while appearing by a day the Sanskrit word sakta, meaning as a slovenly and lazy scholar-monk. Some “committed to, fixed or intent upon, directed scholars believe that Manjushri has his towards.” The Pali term “bodhisatta” would, origins in a Ghandharva (celestial musician) from a Sanskrit point to view, has been called Pancashiksha, who is found some ambiguous, and it’s possible that it wrongly early Pali texts, the name Pancacirakha as “enlightenment being” when is should means five-crests, and has a have been retranslated as “one committed correspondence with Manjushri’s Being a enlightenment.” musician, Pancashikha is also “gentle Three meanings of the word voiced” and is praised by the Buddha for “bodhisattva” quality of his singing. Both figures are also There are three principle meaning of the involved in question-and-answer sessions term “bodhisattva,’ each of which I will with the Buddha and both are generally discuss in more detail below: depicted as eternally young, although this is 1 In early Buddhist, bodhsattva meant “the so common a quality that it’s not in itself previous lives of a (or the ) Buddha.” persuasive. Manjushri is often known as This paper is published online at www.shabdbraham.com in Vol 5, Issue 7 33 Shabd Braham E ISSN 2320 – 0871 International Research Journal of Indian languages 17 May 2017 Peer Reviewed Refereed Research Journal 2 In Mahayana Buddhism, bodhisattva refers Bodhicaryavatara contains ten chapters to a human being committed to the detailing the practice of the Perfections . attainment of enlightenment for the sake of (paramitas) by which one becomes a others. Becoming a bodhisattva is the goal bodhisattva. It is thought the cultivation of of Mahayana Buddhism. bodhicitta (the mind or heart of awakening) 3 Bodhisattva may also refer in Mahayana that one becomes a bodhisattva. The Buddhism to archetypal bodhisattvas: Mahayana (“Great Vehicle”) seems to have mythical beings such as Avalokiteshvara arisen at least in part because of a and Manjushri, who are objects of devotion. perception that Buddhist practitioners in We will look as these three different certain schools (which they pejoratively understandings of the term bodhisattva dubbed the ‘Hinayana” or “Lesser Vehicle”) below. had too narrow a conception of the Buddhist 1 The Bodhisattva in early Buddhism path, seeing it purely in terms of liberation This relief from Borobodur illustrates a oneself from suffering without regard to the Jataka tale in which the bodhisatta (the wellbeing of others. Buddha in a previous life) is a great turtle This self-centered orientation was in conflict who firs saves a group of shipwrecked with the Buddha’s original emphasis that his sailors by taking them on his back, then disciples “go forth for the welfare of the offers his body to them as food to relieve many” and with his own untiring concern their hunger. with the wellbeing of others. Mahayanists The Pali equivalent to bodhisattva is therefore looked back to the Buddha’s own bodhisatta (satta having the same meaning life for inspiration. Prior to his own as Sanskrit sattva- or sakta), and this is a enlightenment, the Buddha-to-be, or word that appears in the Pali canon to refer Bodhisattva, was said to have spent to: countless lifetimes cultivating the perfection 1 The historical Buddha, Shakymuni, before of compassion and generosity. The Jataka his enlightenment, and tales mentioned above contain a vast body 2.The current life or lives of the Buddha-to- of folklore in which the Bodhisattva, whether come, Maitrey (Pali Metteya).

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