Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ། | Glossary of Terms
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བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- byang chub sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvo mahāsattva
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
- bodhisattva-mahāsattva
- Term
The term can be understood to mean “great courageous one” or "great hero,” or (from the Sanskrit) simply “great being,” and is almost always found as an epithet of “bodhisattva.” The qualification “great” in this term, according to the majority of canonical definitions, focuses on the generic greatness common to all bodhisattvas, i.e., the greatness implicit in the bodhisattva vow itself in terms of outlook, aspiration, number of beings to be benefited, potential or eventual accomplishments, and so forth. In this sense the mahā- is closer in its connotations to the mahā- in “Mahāyāna” than to the mahā- in “mahāsiddha.” While individual bodhisattvas described as mahāsattva may in many cases also be “great” in terms of their level of realization, this is largely coincidental, and in the canonical texts the epithet is not restricted to bodhisattvas at any particular point in their career. Indeed, in a few cases even bodhisattvas whose path has taken a wrong direction are still described as bodhisattva mahāsattva.
Later commentarial writings do nevertheless define the term—variably—in terms of bodhisattvas having attained a particular level (bhūmi) or realization. The most common qualifying criteria mentioned are attaining the path of seeing, attaining irreversibility (according to its various definitions), or attaining the seventh bhūmi.
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvo mahāsattva
Standard epithet for a bodhisattva.
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
Generally refers to bodhisattvas who have reached at least the seventh of the ten bodhisattva levels (bhūmis).
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
A bodhisattva mahāsattva is a bodhisattva who has completed the seventh bhūmi and is on the eighth, ninth, or tenth bhūmi prior to becoming a buddha.
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
- 菩薩摩訶薩
A bodhisattva mahāsattva is a bodhisattva who has completed the seventh bhūmi and is on the eighth, ninth, or tenth bhūmi prior to becoming a buddha. These bodhisattvas have several special qualities that bodhisattvas on the lower bhūmis do not have.
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattva mahāsattva
A bodhisattva is a great being (mahāsattva), having the intention to achieve complete awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.
- bodhisattva great being
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
- bodhisattva great being
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
- bodhisattva great being
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
A bodhisattva who has attained the highest level next to the Buddha.
- bodhisattva great being
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattva-mahāsattva
Those “great beings” who have the intention to achieve the complete enlightenment of a buddha in order to liberate all sentient beings from cyclic existence. An epithet of a bodhisattva.
- bodhisattva great beings
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
Those “great beings” who have the intention to achieve the complete enlightenment of a buddha in order to liberate all sentient beings from cyclic existence. An epithet of a bodhisattva.
- great bodhisattva being
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po
- bodhisattvamahāsattva
See “bodhisattva” and UT22084-031-002-915–UT22084-031-002-918