| | Author: AlanChapman
In Buddhism we have the Bodhisattvas, in my tradition we have the Great White Brotherhood, but in both cases we are talking about the same thing: a group of beings who work towards the enlightenment of mankind. Like most ideas concerning enlightenment, there is a lot of cheese out there on this topic, and it wasn’t long ago that I considered the idea of Bodhisattvas as an ethical curiosity peculiar to some Buddhist schools.
However, I am increasingly of the opinion that Bodhisattvas (and the Great White Brotherhood) are indeed a genuine phenomenon, and that a single fruition marks membership to the club (I don’t think it is necessary to go further than this when defining the Bodhisattva; in my opinion, anything else is a limiting model, and usually outright fantasy or speculation). Although Bodhisattvas are expressed as a group of individuals living right here and now, I would like to posit that the realisation of emptiness, being beyond both time and space, can be considered One. In this sense, it is possible to concede the existence of a body of individuals with the same aim and direction, namely working to enlighten mankind, without having to imagine that all of these people from all over the world once met up as discarnate entities/meet up on the astral plane/communicate telepathically to plot a campaign that spans millennia.
Although it’s not valid to ascribe any idea to fruition, I would at least like to propose there is something implicit in the realisation of emptiness that seeks to promote that realisation in others.
What do you think? |