Significance of Bodhisattva Ideal in Building a Compassionate and Appreciative Society with Reference to Mahayana Buddhism.

Abstract

In Mahayana Buddhism, one fundamental concept is Bodhisattva ideal. Bodhisattva refers to a human being committed to the attainment of enlightenment for the sake of others. Becoming a bodhisattva is the goal of Mahayana Buddhism. He is not concerned about his own salvation; instead he is concerned about helping all beings to attain the spiritual goal of Nirvana and also to obtain material advantages of happiness and welfare of the beings. Bodhisattva sacrifices his life towards people to such an extent, that the austere unworldliness of the old ideal is abandoned in favor of a more humane aim. Thus the Bodhisattva concept brings such glorious qualities to build a compassionate and sympathetic joy in society. At Present, people live in stress and distress, as the consequences of competition and unlimited expectations.As a result,people are prone to develop negative emotions such as jealously and irritation.In contrast, compassion in Bodhisattva ideal providesa glorious example to overcome such evil emotions in society. In addition, another extraordinary quality of Bodhisattva is sympathetic joy. Sympathetic joyis a significant trait of an ideal society where people share resources and live in harmony.If people are able to tolerate others’ progress; there will be no more conflicts in society. Therefore, this paper attempts to critically examine significance of Bodhisattva ideal in building a compassionate and appreciative society with reference to Mahayana Buddhism.The data for this research have been collected from the Secondary Sources and the pertinent monograph and the articles that have been written related to the field.