Elusive Notions of Bodhisattvas: Personified, Idealized, Mystified, Naturalized, and Integral
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Historical and Traditional Buddhist Bodhisattva Conceptions
2.1. Buddhist Bodhisattvas
2.1.1. The Bodhisattva in Theravāda Buddhism
2.1.2. The Bodhisattva in Mahāyāna Buddhism
“In this kind of “top-down” approach to awakening, it may no longer be correct to say that “deluded individuals have buddha-nature” or that “individuals become buddhas;” rather, it might be more accurate to say that buddhas just appear to be deluded individuals and that all living beings are simply buddhas in the process of waking up from this delusion. That is, rather than saying that buddha-nature is within sentient beings, we can more properly say that sentient beings are within buddha-nature, in the sense that it is buddhas who appear as and for sentient beings. In the same vein, it no longer holds that ordinary beings become buddhas, but rather, that buddhas become buddhas”.
“May the precious spirit of awakeningArise where it has not arisen,Where it has arisen, may it not dissipate,But further and further increase”.
3. Philosophical and Psychospiritual Views of Buddhist Bodhisattvas
3.1. Buddhist Philosophical Views—No-Self, Emptiness, Personhood, Buddha Nature
3.2. Personified, Idealized, and Mystified Bodhisattvas
“Living beings are infinite; I vow to free them.Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to cut through them.Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to enter them.The Buddha Way is unsurpassable; I vow to realize it.”.
4. Non-Buddhist Bodhisattvas
4.1. Naturalized Bodhisattvas
4.2. Integral Bodhisattvas
5. Buddhist Bodhisattvas’ Morals: Paradoxes and Obstacles
5.1. Key Tenets and Obstacles to Buddhist Bodhisattvas’ Motivations
5.2. The Bodhisattva Paradox
6. Ethical Implications of Becoming and Being a Bodhisattva
6.1. Buddhist Ethics and the Eastern Bodhisattva
“The Buddha is approached and asked by the bodhisattva mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara about the qualities that should be cultivated by a bodhisattva who has just generated the altruistic mind set on attaining awakening. The Buddha briefly expounds seven qualities that should be practiced by such a bodhisattva, emphasizing mental purity and cognitive detachment from conceptuality”.
6.2. Non-Buddhist Ethics and Western Bodhisattva Conceptions
6.3. Tensions Between Bodhisattva Morals and Contemporary Moral Relativism in the U.S
7. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Grunwald, S. Elusive Notions of Bodhisattvas: Personified, Idealized, Mystified, Naturalized, and Integral. Religions 2025, 16, 764. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060764
Grunwald S. Elusive Notions of Bodhisattvas: Personified, Idealized, Mystified, Naturalized, and Integral. Religions. 2025; 16(6):764. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060764
Chicago/Turabian StyleGrunwald, Sabine. 2025. "Elusive Notions of Bodhisattvas: Personified, Idealized, Mystified, Naturalized, and Integral" Religions 16, no. 6: 764. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060764
APA StyleGrunwald, S. (2025). Elusive Notions of Bodhisattvas: Personified, Idealized, Mystified, Naturalized, and Integral. Religions, 16(6), 764. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060764