Buddhahood
In Buddhism, Buddha, is a title for those who are spiritually awake or enlightened, and have thus attained the supreme goal of Buddhism, variously described as awakening or enlightenment, Nirvāṇa, and liberation. A Buddha is also someone who fully understands the Dhārma, the true nature of all things or phenomena, the ultimate truth. Buddhahood is the condition and state of being a Buddha. This highest spiritual state of being is also termed sammā-sambodhi and is interpreted in many different ways across schools of Buddhism.
The title of "Buddha" is most commonly used for Gautama Buddha, the historical founder of Buddhism, who is often simply known as "the Buddha". The title is also used for other sentient beings who have achieved awakening or enlightenment and liberation, such as the other human Buddhas who achieved enlightenment before Gautama; members of the Five Buddha Families such as Amitābha; and the bodhisattva Maitreya, known as the "Buddha of the future who will attain awakening at a future time."
In Theravāda Buddhism, a Buddha is commonly understood as a being with the deepest spiritual wisdom about the true nature of reality, who has transcended rebirth and all causes of suffering. He is also seen as having many miraculous and magical powers. However, a living Buddha has the limitations of a physical body, will feel pain, get old, and eventually die like other sentient beings. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, any Buddha is considered to be a transcendent being with extensive powers, who is all-knowing, immeasurably powerful, with an eternal lifespan. His wisdom light is said to pervade the cosmos, and his great compassion and skillful means are limitless. This transcendent being is not understood as having a normal physical human body; instead, Mahāyāna Buddhism defends a kind of docetism, in which Gautama Buddha's life on earth was a magical display which only appeared to have a human body.
A sentient being who is on the path to become a Buddha is called a bodhisattva. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Buddhahood is the universal goal and all Mahāyānists ultimately aim at becoming a Buddha, in order to benefit and liberate all sentient beings. Thus, Buddhahood is the goal for all the various spiritual paths found in the various Mahāyāna traditions. This contrasts with the common Theravādin goal of individual liberation, or arhatship.
Definition
Buddhahood is the state of an awakened being, who, having found the path of cessation of suffering is in the state of "no-more-Learning".Buddhism is devoted primarily to awakening or enlightenment, Nirvāṇa, and liberation from all causes of suffering due to the existence of sentient beings in saṃsāra through the threefold trainings. Classical Indian Buddhism emphasized the importance of the individual's self-cultivation in the process of liberation from the defilements which keep us bound to the cycle of rebirth. According to the standard Buddhist scholastic understanding, liberation arises when the proper elements are cultivated and when the mind has been purified of its attachment to fetters and hindrances that produce unwholesome mental factors.
There is a broad spectrum of opinion on the nature of Buddhahood, its universality, and the method of attaining Buddhahood among the various schools of Buddhism. The level to which this manifestation requires ascetic practices varies from none at all to an absolute requirement, dependent on doctrine. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Buddhahood is the universal goal and all Mahāyānists ultimately aim at becoming a Buddha, in order to benefit and liberate all sentient beings. While most Mahāyāna Buddhist schools accept the bodhisattva ideal, in which it takes aeons to reach Buddhahood, not all agree that everyone can become a Buddha or that the path to Buddhahood must necessarily take aeons.
In Theravāda Buddhism, Buddha refers to one who has reached awakening or enlightenment through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point out the Dhārma. A samyaksaṃbuddha re-discovers the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path to awakening on their own, and then teaches these to others after his awakening. A pratyekabuddha also reaches Nirvāṇa through his own efforts, but is unable or unwilling to teach the Dhārma to others. An arhat needs to follow the teaching of a Buddha to attain Nirvāṇa, and may also preach the Dhārma after attaining Nirvāṇa. In one instance the term Buddha is also used in Theravādin literature to refer to all who attain Nirvāṇa, using the term śrāvakabuddha to designate an arhat, someone who depends on the teachings of a Buddha to attain Nirvāṇa. In this broader sense it is equivalent to the arhat.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Buddha is seen as a transcendent being with extensive powers, who is all-knowing, immeasurably powerful, with an eternal lifespan, and whose awakened wisdom is all pervasive. This view can be found in numerous Mahāyāna texts, such as the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Mahāyāna buddhology mainly understands the Buddha through the "three bodies" framework. In this framework, the historical Buddha or other Buddhas who appear human are understood docetically as magical "transformation bodies". Meanwhile, the real or ultimate Buddha is the Dharmakāya, the body of ultimate reality. Thus, the Ratnagotravibhāga, a key Mahāyāna treatise, defines the Buddha as "the uncompounded, and spontaneous Dharmakāya" and as "self-enlightened and self-arisen wisdom, compassion and power for the benefit of others." This ultimate awakened reality is understood and interpreted in numerous different ways by the different Mahāyāna schools.
The doctrine of Buddha-nature in Mahāyāna Buddhism also consider Buddhahood to be a universal and innate property which is immanent in all sentient beings. Most Buddhists do not consider Gautama Buddha to have been the only Buddha. The Pāli Canon refers to many previous ones, while the Mahāyāna texts additionally have many Buddhas of celestial origin.
Views about the Buddhas
A Buddha as a supreme person
The Theravāda Buddhist tradition generally sees the Buddha as a supreme person who is neither a God in the theistic sense, nor a deva, nor a regular human. Thus, the Buddha is seen as a very special and unique class of persons called a "great person".Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human. Instead, he is seen as having many supranormal powers, such as the superknowledges, the capacity for a very long lifespan, as well as the thirty-two marks of a great man.
In the Pāli Canon, the Buddha is depicted as someone between a human and a divine being. He has a human body that decays and dies, and he was born from human parents. The most important element of a Buddha is that they have attained the supreme spiritual goal: Nirvāṇa. This is what makes him supreme and what grants him special powers. This view of the Buddha as supreme person with many superpowers, but which has a physical body that has many limitations of a human form was also shared by other early Buddhist schools, like the Sarvāstivāda and the Dharmaguptaka.
In the Doṇa Sutta, the Buddha is asked whether he was a deva or a human, and he replies that he had eliminated the deep-rooted unconscious traits that would make him either one, and should instead be called a Buddha: one who had grown up in the world but had now gone beyond it, as a lotus flower grows from the water but blossoms above it, unsoiled.
The Pāli Canon also states that Gautama Buddha is known as being a "teacher of the gods and humans", superior to both the gods and humans since he has attained the highest liberation, whereas the gods are still subject to attachment, ignorance, anger, fear, and sorrow. In the Madhupindika Sutta, Buddha is described in powerful terms, such as the "Lord of the Dhārma" and the bestower of immortality.
Similarly, in the Anuradha Sutta, Gautama Buddha is described as the "supreme man" and the "attainer of the superlative attainment". Because he has attained the highest spiritual knowledge, the Buddha is also identified with the Dhārma In the Vakkali Sutta.
A Buddha as a transcendent and supramundane being
In the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika branch regarded the buddhas as being characterized primarily by their supramundane nature. The Mahāsāṃghikas advocated the transcendental and supramundane nature of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the fallibility of arhats. Of the 48 special theses attributed by the Indian scholar Vasumitra to the Mahāsāṃghika sects of Ekavyāvahārika, Lokottaravāda, and Kukkuṭika, 20 points concern the supramundane nature of buddhas and bodhisattvas. According to Vasumitra, these four groups held that the Buddha is able to know all dharmas in a single moment of the mind. Yao Zhihua writes:A doctrine ascribed to the Mahāsāṃghikas is, "The power of the tathāgatas is unlimited, and the life of the buddhas is unlimited." According to Guang Xing, two main aspects of the Buddha can be seen in Mahāsāṃghika teachings: the true Buddha who is omniscient and immeasurably powerful, and the manifested forms through which he liberates sentient beings through skillful means. For the Mahāsaṃghikas, the historical Gautama Buddha was one of these transformation bodies, while the essential real Buddha is equated with the Dharmakāya.
As in Mahāyāna traditions, the Mahāsāṃghikas held the doctrine of the existence of many contemporaneous Buddhas throughout the ten directions. In the Mahāsāṃghika Lokānuvartana Sūtra, it is stated, "The Buddha knows all the dharmas of the countless buddhas of the ten directions." It is also stated, "All buddhas have one body, the body of the Dharma." The concept of many bodhisattvas simultaneously working toward Buddhahood is also found among the Mahāsāṃghika tradition, and further evidence of this is given in the Samayabhedoparacanacakra, which describes the doctrines of the Mahāsāṃghikas.
Guang Xing writes that the Acchariyābbhūtasutta of the Majjhima Nikāya along with its Chinese Madhyamāgama parallel is the most ancient source for the Mahāsāṃghika view. The sūtra mentions various miracles performed by Buddha Śākyamuni before his birth and after. The Chinese version even calls him Bhagavan, which suggests the idea that the Buddha was already awakened before descending down to earth to be born.
Similarly, the idea that the lifespan of a Buddha is limitless is also based on ancient ideas, such as the Mahāparinirvānasūtra's statement that the Buddha's lifespan is as long as an eon but that he voluntarily allowed his life to end. Another early source for the Mahāsāṃghika view that a Buddha was a transcendent being is the idea of the thirty-two major marks of a Buddha's body. Furthermore, the Simpsapa sutta states that the Buddha had way more knowledge than what he taught to his disciples. The Mahāsāṃghikas took this further and argued that the Buddha knew the dharmas of innumerable other Buddhas of the ten directions.