The Bodhisattva Concept

This is a Pariyatti audiobook of Bodhi Leaves No. 157, 'The Bodhisattva Concept' by A.G.S. Kariyawasam found in the Pariyatti Edition of Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. V.


Excerpt from The Bodhisattva Concept:


In original Pali Buddhism, the term bodhisatta is used more or less exclusively to designate Gautama Buddha prior to his enlightenment.


'The concept of bodhisattva, along with that of Buddha and of the cakravartin (world-ruler), was in vogue in India even before the appearance of Gautama Buddha. When Prince Siddhārtha, who later became Gautama Buddha, took conception in the womb of Queen Māyā, a seer predicted that Suddhodana’s future son would be either a world-ruler (cakravartin) or a Buddha. Once, answering a question by a brahmin, the Buddha himself admitted that he is neither a god nor a yakkha, but a Buddha, meaning thereby one of a succession of Buddhas (A II 38).