"May I be an island for those who seek one
And a lamp for those desiring light,
May I be a bed for all who wish to rest
And a slave for all who want a slave."
Śântideva : A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, III:19.

The Bodhisattva is committed to or intent upon "Bodhi", "enlightenment". In the Hînayâna, the goal was the state of the Arhat, membership of the Ârya-Sangha. Then the "Pratyekabuddha" appears, one who enters "nirvâna" on his own and for himself alone. But this Buddha does not teach and so does not benefit anybody except himself. Embryonic in the teachings of the Buddha, the Mahâyâna ideal received outer form some five centuries after his "parinirvâna". This was not a separate lineage, code or "vinaya", but an "extension" of the Lesser Vehicle, both qua method, merit & wisdom.

Someone pursuing the goal of perfect (full) enlightenment for the benefit for all sentient beings is a "Bodhisattva Mahâsattva". "Bodhisattva" refers to their personal aspiration to Buddhahood and "great being", to their wish to help all possible sentient beings, not only themselves. This wish is aspiring Bodhicitta, sincerely intending the happiness of all sentient beings.

If such a wish can not be generated, the Mahâyâna cannot and should not be entered. More renunciation is then required.

The creation, mental fabrication or conceptual generation of this wish is not easy, for all possible sentient beings must be included. After having extended this aspiration to those we love, we turn to those we hate and to those we could not care less. Upon simple analysis, the authenticity of aspiring Bodhicitta needs to be (self) established. In that sense, an active summary of the Lesser Vehicle should be presupposed. When at a given point, enough equanimity is part of the mindstream, producing aspiring Bodhicitta leads to genuine minds. Imagining one has generate Bodhicitta while immersed in self-chershing is like swimming in mud after having taken a shower. Pointless.

At the core of the Bodhisattva ideal is the generation of "Bodhicitta", the mind, consciousness or will towards enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is a force or urge entirely outside the five "skandhas" and thus supramundane. Various methods were developed to generate it, but the most powerful one is the cultivation of compassion.

In order to help sentient beings to the full of his or her capacity, the Bodhisattva wishes to attain full enlightenment as soon as possible. Without Buddhahood, no omniscience and so no best possible help ! The popular idea, prevalent in the West, that the Bodhisattva vows to postpone his own enlightenment until all sentient beings attain theirs, is a misrepresentation based on two admirable but unrealistic devotional forms of the Bodhisattva intent (called the shepherd-like & boatman-like Bodhicitta).

Actual, true Bodhicitta is called "king-like". The Bodhisattva first becomes enlightened and then uses his or her resources to help others. The Bodhisattva vows to generate Bodhicitta, the "mind of enlightenment for all" and to complete the Ten Stages of the Bodhisattva training, involving deeper probing into the real, ultimate nature of phenomena, eliminating innate self-grasping.

But before being able to begin truly understanding & seeing emptiness, the Bodhisattva has to accumultate merit (compassion) & wisdom (insight into emptiness) and prepare conceptually for the direct perception of emptiness. Mind training, ritual actions, devotion, Calm Abiding, Insight Meditation etc. based on the Perfection of Wisdom Sűtras make the mind pliant, supple, fresh, clean and clear. The Sutric Bodhisattva understands how the texts reveal the crucial role of wishing true happiness, Bodhicitta & emptiness. Aspiring & engaging Bodhicitta have to be spontaneous !

The path of the Sutric Bodhisattva is said to demand many lifetimes.

This is pursued by two major methods : (a) training in the Ten Stages and (b) practicing the "pâramitâs" or Six Perfections : (1) generosity ("dâna"), (2) ethics ("śîla"), (3) effort ("vîrya"), (4) patience ("ksânti"), (5) meditation ("samâdhi") and (6) wisdom ("prajńâ"). To correlate these perfections with the Ten Stages ("bhűmis"), four perfections are added : (7) skillful means ("upâya"), (8) vow to achieve Buddhahood ("pranidhâna"), (9) power ("bala") and (10) knowledge ("jńâna").

The first five perfections are sealed by wisdom. Hence, the Bodhisattva realizes the ultimate reality (or conventional unreality) of the beings he or she saves. This is "mahâkarunâ" or "Great Compassion".

The Six Perfections also explain the two "accumulations" ("bodhi-sambhâra" or "equipments for Bodhi") : the accumulation of merit ("punya-sambhâra") or the generation of the first five perfections, while the accumulation of wisdom ("jńâna-sambhâra") is achieved through the perfection of wisdom, the sixth perfection. Because wisdom is perfected by understanding and seeing emptiness, giving, morality, joyous effort, patience & meditation can be perfected.

Relative Bodhicitta or Great Compassion based on wishing true cessation of the suffering of all sentient beings, both aspiring and engaging, is wholly turned to otherness. Absolute Bodhicitta, like the ultimate wisdom understanding emptiness, understands & directly perceives the true nature of all conventional events & happenings, of all phenomena inner and outer, namely their dependent-arising, or absence of inherent existence.

Absolute Bodhicitta is an ultimate wisdom because it reveals the true nature of the mind of enlightenment manifested for and dedicated to the benefit of all sentient beings (namely true cessation of (a) emotional afflictions & (b) gross, subtle & very subtle mental delusions, both intellectual & innate).

The absence of own-nature, of an entity devoid of inherent existence ("nihsvabhâva"), is the ultimate nature of all possible phenomena. It is not another nature or another phenomenon. It is the same (conventional) phenomenon devoid of inherent existence, viewed in terms of fugal & functional interconnectedness. Absolute Bodhicitta is the ultimate nature of relative Bodhicitta, allowing every action done in the spirit of the latter to be dedicated to interrelationality, holism & continuum-thinking, seeing every thing done as an empty but functional form emerging out of the emptiness of this form. Although form and its emptiness are nominally not identical, i.e. different, they are the same entity. This view is the heart of wisdom (cf. Heart Sűtra).

Absolute Bodhicitta brings to the fore the importance of mind. The last step in the process underlining the stages of the path to enlightenment always involves a radical rethinking of oneself, the others and the world. An epistemological turn pertains. To prepare for the radical thinking of the Consequence School, emptiness is first touched upon in the lower tenet systems.

These incomplete views allow realist or idealist "exits". Such metaphysical groundings always shape ontological illusion and its antinomies. Because of the conflicts between the tenets, the intelligent mind seeks answers. When all of this has matured, the whole cognitive field is addressed and emptiness is comprehensive and defined as "absence of inherent existence" (cf. the Mâdhyamaka-Prâsangika). At this point, both the "I" and outer phenomena no longer exist "from their own side", as substantial ontic entities, but they "arise from emptiness" as a gold coin arises from its gold. Emptiness is not some "ground", "fundamental nature", "immortal me" or "Supreme Being" outside conventional realities, but the same interdependent & impermanent subcontinuum (the gold coin) understood & seen as devoid of inherent existence, i.e. fully, completely and inexhaustibly interrelated and process-like (the gold).

Kamalaśîla (ca. 700 - 750 CE), integrated the "pâramitâs" & "bhűmis" in five "paths". These form the basis for the understanding of the Path of the Bodhisattva in Tibetan schools like the Gelugpas. The smooth integration of these various complex insights evidences a high scholastic level. This classification proves the point made, for the process involves the epistemology of emptiness and the excellent sublimity of mixing the mind with it until both finally merge.

• Path of Accumulation : entered upon the arising of the mind of enlightenment for all sentient beings, the practice of the perfections causes the two baskets (of merit and wisdom) to be filled. Understanding of emptiness is gross & conceptual, and self-cherishing is abandoned. One is able to analyze emptiness and simultaneously generate Calm Abiding, generating "superior seeing" or "special insight". Self-cherishing is halted ;

• Path of Preparation : as soon as "superior seeing" is a fact, a deep conceptual insight into emptiness, the fundamental nature of all phenomena, is realized. Once achieved, this complete conceptual understanding is irreversible. The subtle conceptual aspects of emptiness are integrated. The supreme Dharma mind nearly completely mixes with emptiness, the highest inferential realization of emptiness possible. Acquired self-grasping stops ;

• Path of Seeing : after this full understanding, the direct experience of emptiness in meditation is at hand. Then the Bodhisattva enters the first "bhűmi" & the Ârya-Sangha and eliminates all intellectually based conceptions  of inherent existence. Because innate self-grasping is not yet removed, this Superior Bodhisattva has valid cognitions while meditating only ;

• Path of Meditation : here, thanks to continuous meditation, this direct experience is developed and stabilized by going though the remaining nine stages. The experience of emptiness of the Hînayâna Arhat is identified with the Sixth Stage. When the last innate delusion is removed, Buddhahood is nearly at hand ;

• Path of No More Learning :  the simultaneous experience of conventional & ultimate truth, of "samsâra" & "nirvâna", of compassion & wisdom offers complete insight into the relative and ultimate nature of all possible phenomena, leading to the state of Buddhahood.

Western Criticism (preluded by Ockham but starting with Kant) and the epistemics of emptiness differ on the status of conceptuality. In the West, conceptual thought is bound to categories or modes of designation (substance, quantity, quality, relation, modality) and so what appears to the conceptual mind is "das Ding für uns", reality-for-us, a phenomenon, while "das Ding as sich", reality-as-such, a noumenon, remains unknown to discursive thought.

Taking into account the accomplishments of linguistics, philosophy of language, geneto-cognitive theory, system-theory, cybernetics as well as anthropology, history, archeology, economics etc., contemporary criticism (epistemology, ethics & esthetics) conjectures a spectrum of seven strata, planes, levels or modes of cognition, called : mythic, pre-rational & proto-rational (forming together ante-rationality, as exemplified in Ancient Egyptian thought) and formal, critical, creative & nondual cognition. Of all these modes, only mythical and nondual thought (the beginning and end of the spectrum) are nonconceptual. Mythical is pre-conceptual, nondual thought is post-conceptual.

Together, formal & critical thought constitute scientific knowledge, whereas creative thought is an immanent metaphysical inquiry, but one staying within the boundaries of conceptuality. Moving beyond this, nondual thought is non-conceptual. When the Buddha urged us to inquire into the ultimate nature of things and discover their emptiness, i.e. their lack of inherent existence, nondual cognition was the cognitive mode called for. Because Yoga was part of India's culture, the possibility of directly perceiving reality-as-such was not a priori rejected. Although Indian thought and Kant both agree conceptual cognition cannot move beyond its own categories, yogis knew from experience nondual thought was possible. Kant was not oblivious of this fact, but because "intellectual perception" (the Western name for intuitive, direct, non-conceptual knowledge) was not given to everyone, he rejected it altogether.

Moreover, in the West, intuition had been largely recuperated by the Roman Church, identifying it with the "grace of the Holy Spirit", an identification hardly lauded by Protestants like Kant. It took another two centuries before Western intellectuals no longer identified "intuition" with a church-bound religious dogma. Only then was a secular approach of "higher states of consciousness" possible (cf. psychic research at the end of the 19th century, parapsychology and transpersonal psychology in the 20th). However, the impact of this remained rather shallow.

In all vehicles of the Buddhadharma, a direct, non-conceptual, nondual cognition of emptiness, or the ultimate nature of phenomena is deemed possible & necessary. The noumenon is known by a valid yogic perceiver, i.e. one discovering emptiness directly. These minds are beyond conceptual, discursive, analytical thought, but also beyond the emotional, totalising, synthetical mode. They express themselves bi-hemispherically, allowing for multiple transferences between analysis & synthesis (between analytical Insight Meditation & Calm Abiding). They perceive without conceptualization and so are called "direct" (without means). Although beyond conceptualization, some yogis consider them as non-cognitive (Gorampa, Shentong, Dzogchen), while for yogi-scholars, like Tsongkhapa, they are cognitive.

Because Great Bodhisattvas finish the Paths of Seeing & Meditation, they develop all possible mundane & psychic abilities to help others, and so their resulting accomplishments are progressively less different from those of a fully awakened Buddha. Hence, they are worshipped to the same degree as a Buddha. Since they have been practicing for countless lifetimes and have been reborn in more refined realms of "samsâra" numerous times, these Bodhisattvas are no longer common humans or ordinary Bodhisattvas.