Chinese Buddhism Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Myriads of scholarly sources have studied various aspects of being a bodhisattva; yet few of them look into the practicability of the bodhisattva path in the modern era. The present research discusses the notion of what a bodhisattva is, and investigates the Buddhist understanding of this concept and its praxis in a contemporary social context. This study has adopted primary data sources which were produced by means of a mixed method, including a canonical analysis of the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, and qualitative fieldwork data, together with other first-hand data sources. Canonical analysis has provided the theoretical discourse from the Mahāyāna perspective, focusing on the idea of prajñā; while the qualitative data, which were derived from interviews, validate the applicability of the theoretical discourse, namely, bodhisattva-mārga (the bodhisattva path). The 46 interview sessions with individuals and focus groups involved Buddhist volunteers, helping service practitioners, beneficiaries, and Buddhist masters (totally 38 participants), who were recruited by cold calls, snowball effect, acquaintances, and electronic mailing. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed for analysis through the paradigm of interpretative phenomenological analysis, in order to explore the informants’ lived experiences. In addition, this study was also supported by multiple sources, including visual art. Ensuring the research rigour, different forms of triangulation were employed, covering member checking and peer analysis at an inter-rater reliability of 92%. With the aid of ATLAS.ti 7, a computer-assisted software for qualitative data analysis which was used for both the canonical and the interview analyses, eight themes were grouped together, including bodhisattva, bodhicitta, catvāri apramānāni, roles, praxis, qualities, intensions, and causes of sickness, from which self-benefiting altruism (altruistic activities and other forms of help performed towards other people which result in benefit to oneself), representing what is referred to here as the bodhisattva spirit. This research further differentiates between self-benefiting altruism and reciprocal altruism, reflecting the philosophical disparities in diverse cultures. Therefore, it offers potential insight into Buddhist helping behaviour that contributes to the well-being of sentient individuals and the society.