Quotes about Bodhisattva

As long as space abides and as long as the world abides, so long may I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world.

    "The true bodhisattva spirit grows out of this personal sense of freedom.  You discover that you don't feel so needy anymore.  You don't crave another refueling - with shamatha or with other people's love and attention - because you know within yourself how to be free, how to be confident.  With this sense of security and freedom, you begin to direct your attention to the needs of others.  The compassion expands.  This is my point about inner simplicity as the basis for living fearlessly in a complex world.
    This principle of fearless simplicity involves training in the two accumulations as a unity and experiencing the fruition of such training.  We have found a true, effective remedy for ego-clinging, negative emotions, the twofold ignorance, and adversity.  We have persevered in the two accumulations, and we have grown confident in liberation.  We are now open and spacious, and from within that sense of fearless simplicity, we can accomadate all phenomena.  We can naturally care for others unpretentiously; no one is a threat any longer."

Take advantage of this human boat;
Free yourself from sorrow's mighty stream!
This vessel will be later hard to find.
The time that you have now, you fool, is not for sleep!

Examine thus yourself from every side.
Note harmful thoughts and every futile striving.
Thus it is that heroes in the bodhisattva path
Apply the remedies to keep a steady mind.

Examine thus yourself from every side.
Note harmful thoughts and every futile striving.
Thus it is that heroes in the bodhisattva path
Apply the remedies to keep a steady mind.

Those who have no mental vigilance,
Though they may hear the teachings, ponder them or meditate,
With minds like water seeping from a leaking jug,
Their learning will not settle in their memories.

Suffering also has its worth.
Through sorrow, pride is driven out
And pity felt for those who wander in samsara;
Evil is avoided, goodness seems delightful.

May I be like a guard for those who are protectorless,
A guide for those who journey on the road.
For those who wish to go across the water,
May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.

And so let beings do to me
Whatever does not bring them injury.
Whenever they catch sight of me,
Let this not fail to bring them benefit.

For sentient beings, poor and destitute,
May I become a treasure ever plentiful,
And lie before them closely in their reach,
A varied source of all that they might need.

Because the relationship between self and world is reciprocal, it is not a matter of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us. No need to wait. As we care enough to take risks, we loosen the grip of ego and begin to come home to our true nature. For in the co-arising nature of things, the world itself, if we are bold enough to love it, acts through us. It does not ask us to be pure or perfect, or wait until we are detached from all passions, but only to care to harness the sweet, pure intention of our deepest passions, and, as the early scripture of the Mother of the Buddhas says, "fly like a Bodhisattva."

Even fear itself is frightened by the bodhisattva's fearlessness.

A virtuous man or woman who is determined to develop the Supreme Enlightened Mind, should thus develop it: I have to lead all living beings to put a stop to (reincarnation) and escape (suffering), and when they have been so led, not one of them in fact stops (reincarnating) or escapes suffering. Why? Because, if a Bodhisattva believes in the notion of an ego, a personality, or a living being, he is not a true Bodhisattva.

I strongly believe that nothing is more spiritual than living at our highest potential while serving others. I believe that the more closely aligned we are to “spirit” the more fully we will give ourselves in service to the world. As such, my “spiritual path” is the path that leads me to a more complete manifestation of my unique Bodhisattvic duties.