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One of the many definitions of the Bodhisattva in the Perfection of Wisdom is one who is not afraid when hearing the teachings on emptiness. In chapter 10 of the Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines (can we call this PW8K?), Sakra the king of the gods, Śariputra the early monastic, and the Buddha have a conversation about what conditions these fearless Bodhisattvas must already have.

Central to being this kind of Bodhisattva is having been connected to the Perfection of Wisdom already. If you like this teaching, you’ve probably liked it for eons, and if you reject it, you likely rejected it in the past already. So Bodhisattvas have already been practicing for many lifetimes, and what will become part of the myth is the idea that Bodhisattvas get a “prediction” from a Buddha, in person, that they will develop the Perfections and become a fully realized Buddha at some point in the distant future. You can see where this is going—eventually the doctrine develops that all beings will eventually become Buddhas. 

This is really a sibling doctrine to the idea that Bodhisattvas save all beings by realizing that there is no such thing as beings to be saved. All beings become Buddhas by realizing that no one becomes a Buddha because everything already has/is Buddha Nature.

But in addition to how this teaching goes radically non-dual, it also rides on a deep vision of the long arc (and slow unfolding) of moral development in the universe. If beings that are to awaken into this kind of profound goodness are assumed to have been on the path of awakening for many eons already, and beings who reject these teachings in the present are assumed to have rejected them in the deep past, how should we think about our individual spiritual path in this one very small lifetime?

One way to explore this is to expand the timeline we conventionally feel like we’re on. Contemporary life feels like it moves in dramatic arcs of generations, at most—sometimes feeling like everything changes radically month to month! Bodhisattva time is vast, way vaster than the assumptions about time popular in Christian Europe around the same time these texts were being written in India. (Compare 6000 years since creation for Christians with the descriptions of beginningless cosmic eons in the Buddhist imaginary.)

How do our ideas of work, justice, fruition, progress, and spiritual practice fit into a rebirth-based timeline of infinitely many cosmic eons? To engage with the idea that we might be or become Bodhisattvas means engaging with how we envision ourselves participating in expanses of time that make individual lifetimes as well as the entire rising and falling of empires nearly insignificant. Nearly. 

But everything we care about and do fits into that “nearly.” 

(Ok, this is where I went in thinking we were heading, but then I did a bit of catching up with the story so far, and talked about Bodhisattvas and vastness, leading into this long time discussion. We got up to the lip of it, but not as far in as I’d want, so we’ll pick up the thread next week.)

SEAN OAKES
Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/they, queer, Puerto Rican & English, living on Pomo ancestral land in Northern California), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received Insight Meditation teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. Sean holds certifications in Somatic Experiencing (SEP, assistant), and Yoga (E-RYT 500, YACEP), and teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and elsewhere.

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Blessings on your path.