Path to Enlightenment: No One Strives Alone

Wisdom Quarterly

Young Buddhist novice studies and strives for enlightenment with an entire support network provided free by others (HimalayaCrafts/Facebook)

A bodhisattva is an individual who vows to forego final emancipation until others also find the way to freedom. It is a wonderful -- if often exaggerated, misunderstood, and undermined -- ideal reflecting how we are all interconnected and interdependent.

Everyone must indeed do his/her own striving, but no one need do it alone. Even in the forest, on his quest, Siddhartha could not do it alone. He had a great deal of help, encouragement, and support. Most of this is implicit or ignored because we (as Americans) are "rugged individualists" who prefer stories of remarkable survival, struggle, and success in the face of all odds.

• But his yogi-gurus Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputra helped
• Earth-devas (pictured above) helped when they said they would feed the Bodhisattva through his pores if he continued to fast
  
• The Five Ascetics (who were his companions on the path of penance and austerities) helped
• The laywoman Sujata (who fed him a nutritious meal that caused him to realize that the body is not an impediment but a potential boon on the way to enlightenment) helped
• King Bimbisara (who promised protection and asked him to come back when he accomplished his goal) helped
• His wife Princess Yasodhara (who watched their son and confidently knew he was out for the good of everyone) helped
• His family (King Suddhodana, Queen Mahaprajapati, and Maya Devi looking down from the Space World of the Thirty-Three) helped
• Sakka, King of the Devas of the World of the Thirty-Three (who might have been prompted by Maya Devi to look after the good Siddhartha on his quest) helped protect and later, along with Brahma Sahampati, asked the Buddha to teach the liberating Dharma to the world...

These and perhaps many other beings helped the Bodhisattva until he became the Buddha.

Later bodhisattvas, inspired by such stories of enlightened self-interest manifesting as "sacrifice" for the benefit of others (and therefore of all), also vowed to help save all living beings.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva mantra: Om Ba La Mo Ling To Ning Swaha

One excellent example is Ksitigarbha ("Earth-Treasury") Bodhisattva, who vowed:

"Unless the hells become empty, I vow not to attain buddhahood. Until all have achieved ultimate liberation, I shall not consider my enlightenment full..."

There are many "hells" (narakas) in Buddhist cosmology, of incredible duration and unimaginable misery, but none actually eternal.

For this reason, in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, he is regarded as "caretaker of the world" until the return of the future buddha Maitreya, whose birth is anticipated in 5.7 billion years. (Such is the reckoning of time by the historical Buddha in India, speaking of aeons (kalpas) and the long stretches of time between short periods when the liberating Dharma exists in the world and is able to be learned and practiced.

The wonderful thing, then, is that we are not alone in our quest, our struggle and striving. Others around us -- even apparent, unrelated strangers whom we are connected to -- are helping and ready to help. Beneficial unseen beings are also helping. And we ourselves, often without realizing it, are helping and encouraging others.

• The Life Story of the Buddha
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• Freedom from limiting Body Memory