The arahant ideal and the bodhisattva ideal
are often considered the respective guiding ideals of Theravāda Buddhism
and Mahāyāna Buddhism. This assumption is not entirely correct, for the
Theravāda tradition has absorbed the bodhisattva ideal into its
framework and thus recognizes the validity of both arahantship and
Buddhahood as objects of aspiration. It would therefore be more accurate
to say that the arahant ideal and the bodhisattva ideal are the
respective guiding ideals of Early Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism.
It is important to talk about the jhànas because it links up
from the 2nd stage of the meditation which I was talking about earlier.
In the 2nd stage one has full awareness on the breath. That is full
continuous awareness from the very beginning of the in-breath until it's
end. The very clear continuous awareness of the out-breath from the
beginning until it's end. And then the next in-breath and the next
out-breath.
In this new millennium it seems as if Sri Lanka and Buddhism
have become synonyms. Why? Because in the history of Buddhism it was here in
Sri Lanka that the Tripitaka was for the first time written down on palm leaves
in 100 BC. Again it was here that the cutting of the original Bo-tree from Bodh
Gaya was transplanted in the land of Sri Lanka in 240 BC, which is till the
present day well protected and well venerated. It was here in 425 AD that
Venerable Buddhagosha translated the Tripitaka commentaries from sinhela to
pali, which is now available to the whole world.