A Bodhisattsva is a highly evolved human being on the way to becoming a Buddha, who is not seeking enlightenment for himself alone, but has vowed to help all other beings achieve Buddhahood before he enters into nirvana. The origin of this idea lies in the decision of the Buddha – presented in Buddhist tradition as a conscious and not at all easy decision – not simply to enter nirvana, but to return to the world in order to show the path to salvation to his fellow human beings. The Bodhisattsva ideal is also consistent with the Buddhist doctrine of non-ego, because if there is no separate individual self, the idea of one individual entering nirvana alone obviously does not make much sense.
It is this most basic human loneliness that threatens us and is so hard to face. Too often we will do everything possible to avoid the confrontation with the experience of being alone, and sometimes we are able to create the most ingenious devices to prevent ourselves from being reminded of this condition. Our culture has become most sophisticated in the avoidance of pain, not only our physical pain but our emotional and mental pain as well. We not only bury our dead as if they were still alive, but we also bury our pains as if they were not really there. We have become so used to this state of anesthesia, that we panic when there is nothing or nobody left to distract us. When we have no project to finish, no friend to visit, no book to read, no television to watch or no record to play, and when we are left all alone by ourselves we are brought so close to the revelation of our basic human aloneness and are so afraid of experiencing an all-pervasive sense of loneliness that we will do ...
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