Eight great bodhisattvas Page
Image:Bodhisattva.JPG|frame|Eight great bodhisattvas from the [[Longchen Nyingtik Field of Merit]]
Eight Great Bodhisattvas, or 'Eight Close Sons' (Skt. aṣṭa utaputra; Tib. ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་བརྒྱད་, nyewé sé gyé, Wyl. nye ba'i sras brgyad) — the main bodhisattvas in the retinue of Buddha Shakyamuni:
{{Tibetan}}
*Mañjushri
*Avalokiteshvara
*Vajrapani
*Maitreya
*Kshitigarbha
*Akashagarbha, Bodhisattva|Akashagarbha
*Sarvanivaranavishkambhin
*Bodhisattva Samantabhadra|Samantabhadra
Each fulfils a particular role to help beings. Symbolically they represent the pure state of the eight consciousnesses.
Qualities of the Eight Bodhisattvas
Image:Manjushri.jpg|frame|The [[bodhisattva Mañjushri]]
Although the eight bodhisattvas or ‘close sons of the Buddha’ all possess the same qualities and powers, each one displays perfection in a particular area or activity.
*Manjushri embodies wisdom;
*Avalokiteshvara embodies compassion;
*Vajrapani represents power;
*Kshitigarbha increases the richness and fertility of the land;
*Sarvanivaranavishkambhin purifies wrong-doing and obstructions;
*Maitreya embodies love;
*Samantabhadra displays special expertise in making offerings and Aspiration prayers|prayers of aspiration; and
*Akashagarbha has the perfect ability to purify transgressions.
Khenpo Chöga says:
:Among the immeasurable qualities of the Buddha, eight of his foremost qualities manifest as the eight bodhisattvas:
::1) the personification of the Buddha’s wisdom (Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. ye shes kyi rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī;
::2) the personification of the Buddha’s compassion (Tib. སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. snying rje’i rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara;
::3) the personification of the Buddha’s power or capacity (Tib. ནུས་པའི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. nus pa’i rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi;
::4) the personification of the Buddha’s enlightened activity|activity (Tib. ཕྲིན་ལས་, Wyl. phrin las) is Bodhisattva Maitreya;
::5) the personification of the Buddha’s merit (Tib. བསོད་ནམས་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. bsod nams rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha;
::6) the personification of the Buddha’s qualities (Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. yon tan gyi rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī;
::7) the personification of the Buddha’s blessings (Tib. བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. byin rlabs kyi rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha; and
::8) the personification of the Buddha’s aspirations (Tib. སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་, Wyl. smon lam gyi rang gzugs) is manifest as Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.[In Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas, www.kunpal.org, vol. 1 p.282]
Notes
Further Reading
=In Tibetan
=
*Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rnam thar la bsngags pa bstod chen rgya mtsho rnam bshad
*Mipham Rinpoche, Tib. བྱང་སེམས་ཉེ་སྲས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་བརྗོད་ནོར་བུའི་ཕྲེང་བ།, Wyl. byang chub sems dpa' chen po nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rtogs brjod nor bu'i phreng ba (Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. See below)
*Mipham Rinpoche, nye sras brgyad kyi sgrub pa rin chen gter bum
=In English
=
*Jamgön Mipham, A Garland of Jewels, (trans. by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso), Woodstock: KTD Publications, 2008
** [https://dharmaebooks.org/garland-jewels/ Free eBook available from dharmaEbooks.org]
Internal Links
*Eight female bodhisattvas
External Links
*[http://all-otr.org/public-talks/48-the-eight-close-sons Brief presentation of the eight close sons by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche]
*[http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/bodhisattva/index.html Bodhisattva Outline Page at Himalayan Art]
Category:Enumerations
Category:08-Eight
Category:Eight Close Sons
Category:Bodhisattvas
Category:Buddhas and Deities
Category:Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities
Category:Buddha Shakyamuni's Disciples