"Bodhisattva-icchantika": On the problem of the state of bodhisattva in Mahayana

Abstract

According to Buddhist teaching icchantikas are sentient beings that cut off their roots of merit (abilities to free themselves from three basic vices, greed, hatred and ignorance). In Hinayana doctrine icchantikas are doomed to be in samsara forever, without hope of deliverance. But in Mahayana even those who had cut off their roots of merit can restore them due to the infinite compassion of bodhisattvas and attain nirvana at last. Bodhisattva, knowing the illusoriness of the difference between nirvana and samsara, rises above it and can act in samsara for the salvation of all sentient beings without losing the state of enlightenment. So bodhisattva is similar to icchantikas in that he intentionally refuses to leave samsara, but, unlike them, his motive is not depravity but great compassion (mahakaruna). Paradoxical phrase “bodhisattva-icchan-tika” is a rhetorical method aimed at the activation of hearer's or reader's attention in order to let him to fully comprehend the essence of the teaching and promote him to the attainment of nirvana.