//Indeed, to be a bodhisattva and ultimatley to become a Buddha
is an aspiration (ambition), no different from 'grasping', no
matter how altruistic the aim is.//
The ideal of Bodhisattvaship is compassion.
Their coming back into this world is not about ‘grasping for
existence’, far from it. They come back to this world not because
there is any notion of ‘self’ to grasped for, it is more for the
sacrifice they are prepared to make for the betterment of others.
Mother Teresa is a good example of the ideal of the Bodhisattvaship
in Buddhist term. If she have come into this
world with the intention of 'grasping for her own existence’, would
she have gone into the gutters of Calcutta bringing back the
diseased and dying not caring what infection it could have brought
upon herself so that they could die with some human
dignity?
You do not
‘grasp for existence’ if you are prepared to ‘sacrifice yourself
for other’. It is either one or the other. In the case of a
Bodhisattva, it is the other.
Mother Teresa was an outstanding human being who dedicated her
life to charity. There are also many people who dedicated
their lives for the good of mankind. The Catholic Church had
canonised Mother Teresa, making her a saint. I wrote before
that Buddhist bodhisattva is like Catholic saint, and I am
heartened you are in syn with me. I have no idea what Mother
Teresa as a saint is doing!
I have no issue with altruistic aims - the betterment of
human lives, to reduce or eliminate "life sucks".
However, the issue is bodhisattva - a human who entered
parinirvarna, come back (I don't what) and is able to reside in SE
Asia, to save the rest of mankind, not for his selfish
existence. I can see a similarity - Jesus Christ was like
that but not in exact manner. It does not matter, the
ultimate aim was a 'sacrifice' to save the world. All these
sound very noble. The Christian path to salvation is to
believe in Christ as the saviour. The Buddhist path to
liberation is to believe in bodhisattva!