Āryabodhisattva

ārya bodhisattva (T. byang chub sems dpa' 'phags pa བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་འཕགས་པ་ [alt. byang 'phags བྱང་འཕགས་]) is translated as "noble bodhisattva," "superior bodhisattva," "sublime bodhisattva," etc. It is a title given to a follower of the bodhisattva path who has reached a high state of realization; specifically, the arya bodhisattva has attained the level of insight known as the path of seeing.

The ārya bodhisattva is one of two types of bodhisattva identified in the Mahayana tradition.

• the title bodhisattva or "ordinary bodhisattva" can refer to anyone who has entered the path of the bodhisattva that begins with the aspiration of bodhicitta
• the title arya bodhisattva refers to a bodhisattva who has had a direct realization of emptiness (sunyata) and thus has reached the path of seeing (darśana-mārga) and entered the first bodhisattva ground (pramuditā-bhūmi)

From the moment the arya bodhisattva directly and non-conceptually realizes emptiness, they are said to follow the "transcendent path" of the aryas. This path is described in terms of the ten bodhisattva grounds (ten bhumis) and the transcendent path of the ten paramitas. At this level, the arya bodhisattva focuses on purifying the most subtle obscurations through the practice of meditation.

The epithet mahasattva is sometimes used to refer to arya bodhisattvas.

External links

• byang_'phags, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• བྱང་འཕགས་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary