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Sculpture of the buddha meditating under the Mahabodhi tree

Bodhi (Sanskrit: बोधि; and Pali) in Buddhism is the understanding possessed by a Buddha regarding the nature of things. It is traditionally translated into English with the word enlightenment and literally means awakened. Bodhi is knowledge into the causal mechanism by which beings incarnate into material form and experience suffering. Although its most common usage is in the context of Buddhism, bodhi is also present as a concept in other Indian philosophies and traditions.

Etymology[link]

Bodhi is an abstract noun formed from the verbal root budh (to awake, become aware, notice, know or understand,) corresponding to the verbs bujjhati (Pāli) and bodhati or budhyate (Sanskrit). Also from the same root are the Sanskrit words bodha (also meaning knowledge or intelligence) and buddhi which is the exact equivalent to the Greek word nous.

Soteriological meaning[link]

The soteriological goal of Indian religions is liberation or moksha (also called mukti). Liberation is simultaneously freedom from suffering and the endless round of existences. Within the Sramanic traditions one who has attained liberation is called an arhat (Sanskrit; Pali: arahant), an honorific term meaning 'worthy' acknowledging the skill and effort required to overcome the obstacles to the goal of nirvana.

According to the Buddha the path to liberation is one of progressively coming out of delusion (Pali: Moha). This path is therefore regarded as a path of awakening. Progressing along the path towards Nirvana one gains insight into the true nature of things. A Buddha is one who has attained liberation and an understanding of the causal mechanism by means of which sentient beings come into existence. This mechanism is called pratitya samutpada or dependent origination. The knowledge or understanding of this is called bodhi.

Buddha's awakening[link]

In the suttapitaka, the Buddhist canon as preserved in the Theravada-tradition, a number of texts can be found in which the Buddha tells about his own awakening^[1].^[2]

In the Vanapattha Sutta (Majjhima, chapter 17)^[3] the Buddha describes life in the jungle, and the attainment of awakening. After destroying the disturbances of the mind, and the concentration of the mind, he attained three knowledges (vidhya)^[4][5]:

1. Insight into his past lives
2. Insight into the workings of Karma and Reincarnation
3. Insight into the Four Noble Truths

Insight into the Four Noble Truths is here called awakening.^[4] The monk (bhikkhu) has

...attained the unattained supreme security from bondage"^[6]

Awakening is also described as synonymous with Nirvana, the extinction of the passions whereby suffering is ended and no more rebirths take place.^[7] The insight arises that this liberation is certain:

Knowledge arose in me, and insight: my freedom is certain, this is my last birth, now there is no rebirth"^[7]

So awakening is insight into karma and rebirth, insight into the Four Noble Truths, the extinction of the passions whereby Nirvana is reached, ànd the certainty thàt liberation has been reached.^[7]

The Buddhist Path[link]

From the Buddha's awakening originated the Buddhist Path^[8].^{[web 1][web 2]} By following this path Buddhahood can be attained. Following this path dissolves the ten fetters^[9] and terminates volitional actions that bind a human being to the wheel of samsara.

The early Buddhist tradition preserved by the Theravada features four progressive stages culminating in full enlightenment. The four stages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahat.^{[9][10][web 3]}

Three types of buddha are recognized^[11]:

• Arhat (Pali: arahant), those who reach Nirvana by following the teachings of the Buddha.^[11] Sometimes the term Śrāvakabuddha (Pali: sāvakabuddha) is used to designate this kind of awakened person^{[citation needed]};
• Pratyekabuddhas (Pali: paccekabuddha), those who reach Nirvana through self-realisation, without the aid of spiritual guides and teachers, but don't teach the Dharma^[11];
• Samyaksambuddha (Pali: samma sambuddha), often simply referred to as Buddha, one who has reached Nirvana by his own efforts and wisdom and teach it skillfully to others^[11].

Development of the concept[link]

The term bodhi acquired a variety of meanings and connotations during the development of Buddhist thoughts in the various schools.

Early Buddhism[link]

In early Buddhism, bodhi carried a meaning synonymous to nirvana, using only some different metaphors to describe the insight, which implied the extinction of lobha (greed), dosa (hate) and moha (delusion). In Theravada Buddhism, bodhi and nirvana carry the same meaning, that of being freed from greed, hate and delusion.

Mahayana[link]

In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of nirvana was downgraded, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained nirvana, and that one needed to attain bodhi to eradicate delusion:

An important development in the Mahayana [was] that it came to separate nirvana from bodhi ('awakening' to the truth, Enlightenment), and to put a lower value on the former. Originally nirvana and bodhi refer to the same thing; they merely use different metaphors for the experience. But the Mahayana tradition separated them and considered that nirvana referred only to the extinction of craving (= passion and hatred), with the resultant escape from the cycle of rebirth. This interpretation ignores the third fire, delusion: the extinction of delusion is of course in the early texts identical with what can be positively expressed as gnosis, Enlightenment.^[12]

In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, parinirvana is equal in all respects to bodhi and indeed is the state of perfect Buddhahood.^{[citation needed]}

Buddha-nature and natural mind[link]

In the Tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism Bodhi becomes equivalent to the universal natural and pure state of the mind:

Bodhi is the final goal of a Bodhisattva's career [...] Bodhi is pure universal and immediate knowledge, which extends over all time, all universes, all beings and elements, conditioned and unconditioned. It is absolute and identical with Reality and thus it is Tathata. Bodhi is immaculate and non-conceptual, and it, being not an outer object, cannot be understood by discursive thought. It has neither beginning, nor middle nor end and it is indivisible. It is non-dual (advayam)... The only possible way to comprehend it is through samadhi by the yogin.^[13]

According to these doctrines Bodhi is always there within the being's mind, but requires the defilements to be removed. This vision is expounded in texts such as the Shurangama Sutra and the Uttaratantra.

In Shingon Buddhism, the state of Bodhi is also seen as naturally inherent in the mind. It is the mind's natural and pure state, where no distinction is being made between a perceiving subject and perceived objects. This is also the understanding of Bodhi found in Yogacara Buddhism and the mind's natural and pure state as in Dzogchen. To achieve this vision of non-duality, it is necessary to recognise one's own mind:

... it means that you are to know the inherent natural state of the mind by eliminating the split into a perceiving subject and perceived objects which normally occurs in the world and is wrongly thought to be real. This also corresponds to the Yogacara definition ... that emptiness (sunyata) is the absence of this imaginary split^[14]

Harmonisation of the various terms and meanings[link]

During the develoment of Mahayana Buddhism the various strands of thought on Bodhi were continuously being elaborated. Attempts were made to harmonize the various terms. The Buddhist commentator Buddhaguhya treats various terms as synonyms:

For example, he defines emptiness (sunyata) as suchness (tathata) and says that suchness is the intrinsic nature (svabhava) of the mind which is Enlightenment (bodhi-citta). Moreover, he frequently uses the terms suchness (tathata) and Suchness-Awareness (tathata-jnana) interchangeably. But since Awareness (jnana) is non-dual, Suchness-Awareness is not so much the Awareness of Suchness, but the Awareness which is Suchness. In other words, the term Suchness-Awareness is functionally equivalent to Enlightenment. Finally, it must not be forgotten that this Suchness-Awareness or Perfect Enlightenment is Mahavairocana [the Primal Buddha, uncreated and forever existent]. In other words, the mind in its intrinsic nature is Mahavairocana, whom one "becomes" (or vice-versa) when one is perfectly enlightened.^[14]

See also[link]

Buddhism portal

• Bodhi tree
• Enlightenment in Buddhism
• Satori

References[link]

Web references[link]

Sources[link]

Further reading[link]

• A. Charles Muller (translator) (1999), The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment. State University Press of New York
• Lu K'uan Yu (translator) (1978), The Surangama Sutra. Bombay: B.I. Publications
• Kenneth R. White (editor) (2005), The Role of Bodhicitta in Buddhist Enlightenment including a Translation into English of the Bodhicitta-Sastra, Benkenmitsu-nikyoron, and Sammaya-kaijo. New York : The Edwin Mellen Press

External links[link]

• Hundreds of free buddhist talks and huge forum
• How to Recognize Enlightenment
• The Bodhi-Tree Practice - A set of meditations based on the four stages of the Buddha's enlightenment

Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert on April 6, 1931) is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal^[2][3] 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, and for founding the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. He continues to teach via his website.

Biography[link]

Youth and education[link]

Alpert was born to a Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts. His father, George Alpert, was a lawyer in Boston, president of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, one of the founders of Brandeis University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as a major fundraiser for Jewish causes. While Richard did have a bar mitzvah, he was "disappointed by its essential hollowness".^[4] He considered himself an atheist^[5] and did not profess any religion during his early life, describing himself as “inured to religion. I didn’t have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics.”^[6]

Alpert attended the Williston Northampton School, graduating in 1948 as a part of the Cum Laude Association.^[7] He then went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, a master's degree from Wesleyan University, and a doctorate (in psychology) from Stanford University.

Harvard professorship and the Leary-Alpert research[link]

After returning from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, Alpert accepted a permanent position at Harvard, where he worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. Perhaps most notable was the work he did with his close friend and associate Timothy Leary. Leary and Alpert were formally dismissed from the university in 1963. According to Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey, Leary was dismissed for leaving Cambridge and his classes without permission or notice, and Alpert for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate.^[8]

Spiritual search and name change[link]

In 1967 Alpert traveled to India, where he traveled with the American spiritual seeker Bhagavan Das, and ultimately met the man who would become his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, whom Alpert called "Maharaj-ji". It was Maharaj-ji who gave him the name "Ram Dass", which means "servant of God",^[9] referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama. Alpert also corresponded with the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba and mentioned Baba in several of his books.

Later life[link]

In February 1997, Ram Dass had a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia, which he interprets as an act of grace. He no longer travels, but continues to teach through live webcasts^[10] and at retreats in Hawaii.^[11] When asked if he could sum up his life's message, he replied, "I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people ... to me, that's what the emerging game is all about." Ram Dass was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in August 1991.^[12]

Ram Dass is a vegetarian.^[13] In the 1990s, he became more forthcoming about his bisexuality^[14] while avoiding labels and asserting that bisexuality "isn't gay, and it's not not-gay, and it's not anything—it's just awareness."^[15] At 78, Ram Dass learned that he had fathered a son as a 24-year-old, at Stanford during a brief affair with a history major Karen Saum, and that he was now a grandfather. The fact came into light when his son Peter Reichard, a 53-year-old banker in North Carolina, took a DNA test after learning about his mother's doubt concerning Peter's heritage. ^[16][17]

Foundations[link]

The Love Serve Remember Foundation was organized to preserve and continue the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass, and to work with Ram Dass on his writings and other future plans. The Hanuman Foundation is a nonprofit educational and service organization founded by Ram Dass in 1974, focused on the spiritual well-being of society through education, media and community service programs. The Seva Foundation is an international health organization founded by Ram Dass in 1978 along with public health leader Larry Brilliant and humanitarian activist Wavy Gravy. Ram Dass also serves on the faculty of the Metta Institute where he provides training on mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Works[link]

Books[link]

• Identification and Child Rearing (with R. Sears and L. Rau) (1962) Stanford University Press
• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner) (1964) ISBN 0-8065-1652-6
• LSD (with Sidney Cohen) (1966) ISBN 0-453-00120-3
• Remember, Be Here Now (1971) ISBN 0-517-54305-2
• Doing Your Own Being (1973)
• The Only Dance There Is (1974) ISBN 0-385-08413-7
• Grist for the Mill (with Steven Levine) (1977) ISBN 0-89087-499-9
• Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook (1978) ISBN 0-553-28572-6
• Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba (1978) ISBN 0-525-47611-3
• How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (with Paul Gorman) (1985) ISBN 0-394-72947-1
• Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush) (1991) ISBN 0-517-57635-X
• Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying (2000) ISBN 1-57322-871-0
• Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita (2004) ISBN 1-4000-5403-6
• Be Love Now (with Rameshwar Das) (2010) ISBN 1-84604-291-7

Recordings[link]

• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary & Ralph Metzner) (1966) (reissued on CD in 2003 by Folkways)
• Here We All Are, a 3-LP set recorded live in Vancouver, BC in the summer of 1969.
• Love Serve Remember (1973), a six-album set of teachings, data, and spiritual songs (ZBS Foundation) (released in MP3 format, 2008)

Films[link]

• Ram Dass Fierce Grace, a 2001 biographical documentary about Ram Dass directed by Micky Lemle.
• Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember, a 2010 short film directed by V Owen Bush, included in the "Be Here Now Enhanced Edition" eBook.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ram Dass

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ram Dass

• Official website. This site also includes information about the "Love Serve Remember Foundation".
• Ram Dass Tapes Library
• The Living/Dying Project (an outgrowth of the Hanuman foundation, which was created by Ram Dass)
• Ram Dass, Fierce Grace at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Ram Dass in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Bhikkhu Bodhi
School	Theravada
Personal
Nationality	American
Born	(1944-12-10) December 10, 1944 (age 67) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Senior posting
Based in	Buddhist Publication Society Sangha Council of Bodhi Monastery Yin Shun Foundation
Predecessor	Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (BPS editor and president)
Successor	Mr. Kariyavasam (BPS editor)[1]
Religious career
Teacher	Ven. Ananda Maitreya

Bhikkhu Bodhi (b. December 10, 1944, NYC), born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York/New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.

Life[link]

In 1944, Block was born in Brooklyn, NY. In 1966, he obtained a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College. In 1972, he obtained a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School.^[2][3]

In 1967, while still a graduate student, Bodhi was ordained as a novice monk in the Vietnamese Mahayana order.^[3] In 1972, after graduation, Bodhi traveled to Sri Lanka where, under Ven. Ananda Maitreya,^[4] he received novice ordination and, in 1973, he received full ordination in a Theravada order.^[2]

In 1984, succeeding co-founder Ven. Nyanaponika Thera,^[4] Bodhi was appointed English-language editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS, Sri Lanka) and, in 1988, became its president.^[1][2][5] In 2002, he retired from the society's editorship while still remaining its president.^[1][3][5]

In 2000, at the United Nations' first official Vesak celebration, Bodhi gave the keynote address.^[6]

In 2002, after retiring as editor of BPS,^[3] Bodhi returned to the United States. He currently teaches at Bodhi Monastery (Lafayette, New Jersey) and Chuang Yen Monastery (Carmel, New York) and is the chairman of the Yin Shun Foundation.^[2][7]

Bhikkhu Bodhi is founder of the organisation "Buddhist Global Relief", which is fighting hunger across the world.^[8]

Publications and teachings[link]