The Study Of Mahayana Bodhisattva Thought

In the historical course of mankind's civilization, Buddhism seems to have been thoughtfully regarded as a crucial turning-point, an extremely bright and external light which has gone throughout many South-East Asian countries and the world as well. The religion has also played a very important role in improving the ethics of human life, and in removing blind and wrong faiths, and totally worked for the welfare and happiness of mankind at large. It is only because of the very Mahayan Bodhisattva thought through which a unique and great contribution as such could be carried out successfully.It is noticeable that the term Bodhisattva is certainly originated from the stories of the Buddha 's former births, and later on, has been used by the Buddha 's disciples as an extremely lofty and idealistic title to indicate all His activities. In respect of the history of Buddhist thought, the appearance of Bodhisattva title and idea have truly opened new era in propagating Buddhism. That is to say, this religion was changing from the Orthodoxy or Hinayana to Mahayana or Developing Buddhism as far as the Bodhisattva thougt concerned with a fundamental and unique emphasis on producing Bodhi-citta or the Thought of Enlightenment and devotedly implementing Six Paramitas or Six Perfections as well.A Bodhisattva who has produce the Bodhi-citta is likely to have firmly moved forward on the path of the so-called Non-one-sided Gate, and devotedly practise the Six Perfections or Six Paramitas which consist of 1-Dana (Giving), 2- Sila (Vertuous Conduct), 3- Ksati (Forbearance), 4- Virya (Energy), 5- Dhyana (Meditation), and 6- Prajna (Wisdom). These Six Perfections in either practice or theory, among which a mutual relation has been set up very closely, could be only carried out comprehensively and perfectively under the light of Emptiness (Sunyata), the Middle Path and Non-acquisition.