The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal

This monograph investigates how the bodhisattva concept may have originated and developed within early Buddhist textual traditions. Anālayo deliberately takes the early Buddhist discourses themselves as his primary frame of reference, asking what textual indications can be identified that may have contributed to the eventual formation of the Bodhisattva ideal. 

Methodologically, the study is strongly comparative. Its principal sources are the four Pāli Nikāyas, together with early material from the Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, and Sutta-nipāta. These are systematically compared with parallels preserved in the Chinese Dīrgha-āgama, Madhyama-āgama, and Saṃyukta-āgama, as well as Sanskrit fragments and selected Tibetan materials. Through comparison of parallel textual traditions, Anālayo attempts to distinguish early layers from later developments and thereby reconstruct aspects of the historical evolution of Buddhist thought. 

The significance of the work lies in its attempt to understand the Bodhisattva ideal not retrospectively through mature Mahāyāna doctrine, but through its possible formative stages in early Buddhist literature. It thus provides an important contribution to the study of early Buddhism, Buddhist textual history, Buddha biography, the Bodhisattva path, and the origins of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Table of Contents

1. Gautama as a Bodhisattva

• 1.1 Gautama’s Progress to Awakening

• 1.2 Gautama’s Motivation

• 1.3 Gautama’s Marvellous Qualities

• 1.4 The Lineage of Former Buddhas

2. Meeting the Previous Buddha

• 2.1 The Jātaka Genre

• 2.2 Gautama meets Kāśyapa

• 2.3 The Meeting with Kāśyapa as a Jātaka

• 2.4 Gautama’s Vow under Kāśyapa

3. The Advent of the Next Buddha

• 3.1 Maitreya in the Discourse on the Wheel-turning King

• 3.2 The Maitreya Episode in Comparative Perspective

• 3.3 Maitreya in the Discourse on an Explanation about the Past

• 3.4 The Prediction of Maitreya