Are all sentient beings Bodhisattvas?

[disastermouse]

I just re-read the title of this thread and I had this thought:

"I'm not sure all sentient beings are sentient most of the time."

:/

Chet

[Myozan Kodo]

Thanks for the Whitman. Wonderful!
Gassho
Myozan

[galen]

In my view, all sentient beings (humans, animals, rocks, trees) are Buddhas from the beginning (what beginning? ), not Buddhas-to-be. And Bodhisattva for me has the two meanings Jundo explains above.

Gassho,
Pontus

Pontus... well done. Not-Buddha-to-be it seems, but the realization of `presences.

[galen]

I feel that the true meaning of (Big B) "Buddha" and "Bodhisattva" is not to be approached with a philosopher's intellectual scalpel, but with a poet's soft heart. Buddhist philosophers of old may have debated and refined their definitions, much as a Western philosopher might try to define "God" or "the Good" ... or a physicist might try to come up with the exact equation capturing some physical property. It is not like that.


Maybe it would take the sensibilities of a Walt Whitman to sing of the Bodhisattva (from "Song of Myself") ...


I know I have the best of time and space -- and that I was never measured, and
never will be measured

I tramp a perpetual journey,
My signs are a rain-proof coat and good shoes and a staff cut from the woods;
No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
I have no chair, nor church nor philosophy;
I lead no man to a dinner-table or library or exchange,
But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
My left hand hooks you round the waist,
My right hand points to landscapes of continents, and a plain public road.

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it yourself

It is not far . . . . it is within reach,
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know,
Perhaps it is every where on water and on land.

Shoulder your duds, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth;
Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.

If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me;
For after we start we never lie by again.

This day before dawn I ascended a hill and looked at the crowded heaven,
And I said to my spirit, When we become the enfolders of those orbs and the pleasure
and knowledge of every thing in them, shall
we be filled and satisfied then?
And my spirit said No, we level that lift to pass and continue beyond.

You are also asking me questions, and I hear you;
I answer that I cannot answer . . . . you must find out for yourself.

Thank you for posting WW, Jundo. I used to carry his little hard back book in my car for years and read it while waiting for various car maintenance. And of course i did leave it once and later discovered that when my next maintenance was needed, oh damn, just a book and replaceable (i think i lost spell check and that is dangerous!). He was quite profound!

[Jakudo]

I have given up on trying to intellectualize the Dharma. I'm certainly not scholarly when it comes to discussions such as this but do enjoy reading everyone's questions and responses. Which came first, the Buddha or the Bodhisattva? . Jundo, you have a wonderful knack to boil these questions down to their essence so simple Zen Buddhists like myself can make sense of it all.
Gassho, Shawn.