Mahāsattva
A mahāsattva (P. mahāsatta; T. sems dpa' chen po སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་; C. dashi/mohesa; J. daiji/makasatsu 大士/摩訶薩) is translated as "great being," etc.[1] It is an epithet of a bodhisattva of great accomplishment.[1][2]
In the Sanskrit tradition, some commentators define a mahāsattva as a bodhisattva who has attained the path of seeing (darśana-mārga);[1] and some define it as a bodhisattva who has attained at least the seventh bodhisattva ground (dūraṅgamā-bhūmi).[2] The term is also used in a more general sense.
In the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteśvara is referred to as a "bodhisattva-mahāsattva."
Other bodhisattvas referred to as mahāsattvas in the Sanskrit tradition include: Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Akasagarbha, Kṣitigarbha, Maitreya, etc.[3]
In the Pali tradition, the term mahāsatta (great being) was used to refer to the kings of Sri Lanka, who were considered to be bodhisattvas.[4]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. mahāsattva.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
mahāsattva, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ needs verification
- ↑ Holt, 1991 & pp. 59-60.
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Holt, John (1991), Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka (PDF), Oxford University Press
External links
sems_dpa'_chen_po, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki- mahāsattva, Christian-Steinert Dictionary