Corrente Theravada e Mahayana - differenze nella pratica di com-passione e nell´aspirazione

It is then said that the wisdom of a Bodhisattva is superior to that of the Arhats, because in his compassion he puts it at the disposal of all beings, so that they may be able to win Nirvana. This superiority is based on the “thought of enlightenment” (see A2), and the 6 perfections (P 41), and it finds an expression in the fact that, as the source of all that is good in the world, the Bodhisattvas are worthy of the gifts of all beings, including the Arhats.

A2. The “thought of enlightenment” is (a) the decision to win full enlightenment, or all-knowledge; (b) the desire for the welfare of others. Emptiness and Compassion are it two constituents. It makes one into a Bodhisattva. The term is used twofold19: 1. For the initial, first, production of the thought of enlightenment, the “vow”20. 2. For the marching towards21 enlightenment. In the second sense it covers the entire career of a Bodhisattva, and its 22 forms correspond to its stages (cf. III1f), and end in Buddhahood. The 22 kinds of P are also found in Asanga’s Sutralamkara (ch. IV. 15-20), although in a different order.

Through making just this path of development preponderant and developing it, he will forsake greed for the world of form, greed for the formless world, ignorance, conceit and excitedness.269 He is then the person who is called an Arhat”.