Fugen-bosatsu
Fugen-bosatsu East AsiaIn Japan the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who will be the final Buddha and at present out of his ‘divine compassion’, bhadra, is spreading around ‘enlightening wisdom’, samanta. He is pictured as a young man seated on an elephant, which is usually white and has six tusks, and either he carries a lotus flower, like the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, or he has his hands joined together. Of particular appeal to women in medieval Japan was Fugen-bosatsu, who in the thirteenth century appeared to a monk as a courtesan, thereby revealing that Buddahood was potential in all beings. Today the bodhisattva is little worshipped.
It was Samantabhadra who initiated Sudhana to full and perfect enlightenment. This young Indian ascetic had visited all the places and people connected with the Buddha, shortly after Sakyamuni passed into nirvana. His was the first spiritual quest in a world lacking the living, physical Buddha;...
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