The Bodhisattva
“I pictured a rainbow, you held it in your hands. I had flashes, but you saw the plan. I wandered out in the world for years, while you just stayed in your room. I was dumbfounded by truth, you cut through the lies. I saw the rain-dirty valley, you saw Brigadoon. I spoke about wings, you just flew. Yes, you climbed on the ladder with the wind in your sails. You came like a comet, blazing your trail. I saw the crescent, you saw the whole of the moon.” - The Whole of the Moon, The Waterboys (1985).
In the most simplistic definition, a bodhisattva is an ordinary person who is able to reach nirvana/paradise but delays doing so out of compassion for others. In the Buddhist tradition, the bodhisattva vows to nurture the well-being of all. In the energy of the chakras, this transition from the self-centered will of the third chakra to the heart of inclusivity suggests a move to a wider, more spacious and human view. The vow of the bodhisattva is a vow of the heart.
Watts - someone who could live on two levels. They can dance and play but at the end of the day can look back and still know what’s really going on. They can play by the rules and still know . The understanding of Zen, the understanding of awakening, of mystical is one of the most dangerous things in the world. For a person who cannot contain it, it’s like putting a million volts through your electric shaver. If you go off in that way, that would what would be called a Pratyekabuddha, a private buddha. He is one who goes off into the transcendental world and is never seen again. He’s made a mistake from the standpoint of Buddhism because, from the standpoint of Buddhism, there is no fundamental difference between the transcendental world and this everyday world. The bodhisattva doesn’t go off into a nirvana and stay there for ever and ever, but comes back to live everyday ordinary life to help other beings to see through it too. He doesn’t come back because he feels he has some slolom duty to help mankind, and all that kind of pious camp. He comes back because he sees that the two worlds are the same. He sees all other beings a buddhas. It’s fascinating to see all other beings as enlightened. Catatonic Samadhi. The Zen buddhist idea of enlightenment is not comprehended in the idea of a trascendental, neither is it comprehended in the idea of the ordinary. Not in terms of the infinite nor the the finite. Not in terms of the eternal, not in terms of the termporal. Becasue they are all concepts. So then, it’s terribly important to see beyond ecstacy.
Nietzsche examines this in his book “Thus Spoke Zarathrustra'“ - a master grows wery of the weight of his wisdom, and descends from his mountain to everyday life below. We can either remain on our mountain or we can descend out of compassion - but first we must realize that we aren’t the doers - a master is merely a conduit of wisdom.