Table of Contents
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| frame | Eight great bodhisattvas from the [[Longchen Nyingtik Field of Merit]] </noinclude> 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
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<noinclude> Each fulfils a particular role to help beings. Symbolically they represent the pure state of the eight consciousnesses.
Qualities of the Eight Bodhisattvas
| 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. <big>ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ye shes kyi rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī; ::2) the personification of the Buddha’s compassion (Tib. <big>སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. snying rje’i rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara; ::3) the personification of the Buddha’s power or capacity (Tib. <big>ནུས་པའི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. nus pa’i rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi; ::4) the personification of the Buddha’s enlightened activity | activity (Tib. <big>ཕྲིན་ལས་</big>, Wyl. phrin las) is Bodhisattva Maitreya; ::5) the personification of the Buddha’s merit (Tib. <big>བསོད་ནམས་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. bsod nams rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha; ::6) the personification of the Buddha’s qualities (Tib. <big>ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. yon tan gyi rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī; ::7) the personification of the Buddha’s blessings (Tib. <big>བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. byin rlabs kyi rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha; and ::8) the personification of the Buddha’s aspirations (Tib. <big>སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. smon lam gyi rang gzugs) is manifest as Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.<ref>In Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas, www.kunpal.org, vol. 1 p.282</ref>
Notes
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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