It may be useful to clarify some points about Bodhisattvas. This is from the Berzin Archives.
For the complete text please see the web site.
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/ar ... edges.htmlPlease note especially #6 of the 18 Root Downfalls which seems to be important to this discussion.
Bodhisattvas are those with bodhichitta (byang-sems) - a heart totally dedicated to others and to achieving enlightenment in order to benefit them as fully as possible. There are two levels of bodhichitta:
1. aspiring (smon-sems),
2. engaged ('jug-sems).
Aspiring bodhichitta is the strong wish to overcome our shortcomings and realize our potentials to benefit everyone. Engaged bodhichitta means engaging in the practices that bring about this goal and taking bodhisattva vows to restrain from actions detrimental to it.
Aspiring bodhichitta has two stages:
1. merely wishing to become a Buddha for the benefit of others (smon-sems smon-pa-tsam),
2. pledging never to abandon this aim until it is achieved (smon-sems dam-bca'-can).
With the pledged state of bodhichitta, we promise to train in five actions that help us never to lose our resolve. Developing the merely wishing state does not involve this promise. The first four trainings help our bodhichitta resolve not to decline during this lifetime. The fifth training helps us not to lose our resolve in future lives.
(1) Each day and night, recalling the advantages of the bodhichitta motivation.
(2) Reaffirming and strengthening this motivation by rededicating our hearts to enlightenment and others three times each day and three times each night.
(3) Striving to strengthen enlightenment-building networks of positive force and deep awareness (collections of merit and insight).
(4) Never giving up trying to help anyone, or at least wishing to be able to do so, no matter how difficult he or she may be.
The fifth point for training entails ridding ourselves of four types of murky behavior (nag-po'i chos-bzhi, four "black" actions) and adopting four glowing ones (dkar-po'i chos-bzhi, four "white" actions) instead.
(1) Stopping ever deceiving our spiritual teachers, parents, or the Triple Gem. Instead, always being honest with them, especially about our motivation and efforts to help others.
(2) Stopping ever faulting or being contemptuous of bodhisattvas. Instead, since only Buddhas can be certain who actually are bodhisattvas, regarding everyone in a pure way as our teachers.
(3) Stopping ever causing others to regret anything positive they have done. Instead, encouraging others to be constructive and, if receptive, to work on overcoming their shortcomings and realizing their potentials to be of more benefit to everyone.
(4) Stopping ever being hypocritical or pretentious in our dealings with others, in other words hiding our faults and pretending to have qualities we lack. Instead, taking responsibility to help others, always being honest and frank about our limitations and abilities.
Of the two stages of developing bodhichitta, aspiring (smon-pa'i sems-bskyed) and engaged (' jug-pa'i sems-bskyed), only with the latter do we take the bodhisattva vows.
Taking bodhisattva vows (byang-sems sdom-pa) entails promising to restrain from two sets of negative acts that Buddha prohibited for those training as bodhisattvas to reach enlightenment and to be of as much benefit to others as is possible:
1. eighteen actions that, if committed, constitute a root downfall (byang-sems-kyi tsa-ltung),
2. forty-six types of faulty behavior (nyes-byas).
The Eighteen Bodhisattva Root Downfalls
(1) Praising ourselves and/or belittling others
(2) Not sharing Dharma teachings or wealth
(3) Not listening to others' apologies or striking others
(4) Discarding the Mahayana teachings and propounding made-up ones
(5) Taking offerings intended for the Triple Gem
(6) Forsaking the holy Dharma
Here the downfall is to repudiate or, by voicing our opinions, cause others to repudiate that the scriptural teachings of the shravaka (nyan-thos), pratyekabuddha (rang-rgyal), or bodhisattva vehicles are the Buddha's words. Shravakas are those who listen to a Buddha's teachings while they are still extant, while pratyekabuddhas are self-evolving practitioners who live primarily during dark ages when the Dharma is no longer directly available. To make spiritual progress, they rely on intuitive understanding gained from study and practice conducted during previous lives. The teachings for both of them collectively constitute the Hinayana, or "modest vehicle" for gaining personal liberation from samsara. The Mahayana vehicle emphasizes methods for attaining full enlightenment. Denying that all or just certain scriptures of either vehicle derive from the Buddha is a root downfall.
(7) Disrobing monastics or committing such acts as stealing their robes
(8) Committing any of the five heinous crimes
(9) Holding a distorted, antagonistic outlook
(10) Destroying places such as towns
(11) Teaching voidness to those whose minds are untrained
(12) Turning others away from full enlightenment
(13) Turning others away from their pratimoksha vows
(14) Belittling the shravaka vehicle
(15) Proclaiming a false realization of voidness
(16) Accepting what has been stolen from the Triple Gem
(17) Establishing unfair policies
(18) Giving up bodhichitta
From Berzin Archives
