Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

What is the difference between Buddha and bodhisattvas?

Answer

That is hard to explain. It would take a whole lecture. The bodhisattva is a living Buddha. In Mahayana Buddhism there is no fear of hell. In Christianity that is the supreme punishment. In Zen, if you have to go to hell you go. If you went to sit beside the Buddha you would have to be practicing zazen all the time and then you wouldn't have so much freedom. So people think that it's better to go to hell! The Zen monk must leap into hell to save those who are suffering. The bodhisattva must leap into the impurities of the social world. Leap, not fall! Falling into the river and diving into the river are completely different things. If you fall into the river your only thought is to save your life. If you dive into the river you swim and then you can save people who are drowning. Bodhisattvas dive into the world to help. Statues of the Buddha are different from statues of bodhisattvas: Buddha is not decorated, bodhisattvas are. They don't have to cut off their hair. They wear the same clothes as everybody else. They live in society. They don't change their lives. The only difference is on the inside. Sometimes it is necessary to rub your hands in impurities. There was a monk once who spent his life in jail to help the other prisoners. As his behavior was perfect he was always released after a short time. So he would quickly commit another offense in order to go back to jail. In the end there were no prisoners left except him. Then there was a Zen master who did the accounts for a house of geishas. The geishas became nuns (there may have been a few nuns who became geishas, too, but the story doesn't say). He would give talks to all the men who came to the house. The men changed completely, too, and many of them became monks. That is also the bodhisattva's vocation. I could give you many examples.