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'''Bodhisattva''' ({{Sanskrit|m., बोधिसत्त्व}} bodhisattva "enlightened being", from ''Bodhi'' "enlightenment" or "awakening" and ''Sattva'' "being") is the name given in Eastern teachings to a personality who is animated by an [[Archangel]] right into his [[physical body]], often only into his [[etheric body]].

{{GZ|One who has absorbed the whole of earthly experience, so that he knows of every thing how it can be utilised and has thus become a creator, is called a Bodhisattva, that is, a man who has sufficiently absorbed Bodhi, the Buddhi of the earth, into himself. Then he is ripe to work out of the innermost impulses. The sages of the earth are not yet Bodhisattvas. Even for a sage there are still things in which he is not yet able to find his way. Only when one has absorbed all the knowledge of the earth in order to be able to create, is one a bodhisattva. Buddha, Zarathustra, for example, were Bodhisattvas.|93a|54}}

In [[w:Mahayana|Mahayana]], "Eight Great Bodhisattvas" are particularly revered. According to [[Rudolf Steiner]], there are twelve Bodhisattvas in all, each of whom has a very specific mission to fulfil in the course of earthly development. Everything they need for this flows to them as substantial wisdom from a thirteenth: the [[Christ]].

{{GZ|If we take our clairvoyant eye to help us, we see that a Bodhisattva is a human being who is constantly connected with the spiritual world and does not live entirely in the physical world. His beingness is, as it were, too great to find room in a human body; only a part reaches down into the earthly shell, the greater part remains in the higher worlds. Consequently, the Bodhisattva is always in a state of inspiration.|118|219}}

Bodhisattvas rise with their consciousness up to the [[Buddhi plane]], i.e. up to the [[world of providence]]. The body through which a bodhisattva works on earth is called the [[dharmakaya]] (body of law). A bodhisattva is not only concerned with his own enlightenment, thereby finally entering [[nirvana]], but with all his powers he helps other beings to free themselves from the wheel of rebirths, as is also expressed in the bodhisattva vow recited in many schools of [[w:Mahayana|Mahayana Buddhism]]:

{{Quote|The number of beings is infinite; I vow to redeem them all.<br />
Greed, hatred and ignorance arise unceasingly; I vow to overcome them.<br />
The gates of Dharma are innumerable; I vow to pass through them all.<br />    
The path of the Buddha is incomparable; I vow to realise it.|The Four Great Vows}}

A bodhisattva's mission is accomplished when what he has to give has become completely his own human capacity. From then on, he no longer needs to embody himself in a [[physical body]]. He has become the [[Buddha]], whose consciousness now reaches up to the [[Nirvana plane]] and whose body has been transformed into the [[Sambhoakaya]] (body of completion). After death in this last earthly life, a Buddha only enters into earthly affairs in an etheric or astral form through the so-called Nirmanakaya:

{{GZ|Such an etheric body, however, in which an individuality such as the Buddha is embodied, is not a closed spatial unit. It is a multiplicity of unconnected members.|117|18}}

==Literature==

* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Grundelemente der Esoterik'', [[GA 93a]], Dornach (1987) {{Lectures|93a}}
* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Der Orient im Lichte des Okzidents'', [[GA 113]] (1982), ISBN 3-7274-1130-9 {{Lectures|113}}
* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Der Christus-Impuls und die Entwicklung des Ich-Bewusstseins'', [[GA 116]] (1982), Erster Vortrag, Berlin, 25. Oktober 1909 (''Die Sphäre der Bodhisattvas'') {{Lectures|116}}
* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Die tieferen Geheimnisse des Menschheitswerdens im Lichte der Evangelien'', [[GA 117]] (1986) {{Lectures|117}}
* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Das Ereignis der Christus-Erscheinung in der ätherischen Welt'', [[GA 118]] (1984) {{Lectures|118}}
* [[Rudolf Steiner]]: ''Das esoterische Christentum und die geistige Führung der Menschheit'', [[GA 130]] (1995), ISBN 3-7274-1300-X {{Lectures|130}}
* Rudolf Steiner: ''Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule 1904 bis 1914'', [[GA 264]], Dornach (1987) {{Lectures|264}}

{{GA}}

[[Category:Buddhism]]