A mahāsattva () is a great ''

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...

'' who has practiced Buddhism for a long time and reached a very high level on the path to awakening (''

bodhi The English term ''enlightenment'' is the Western translation of various Buddhist terms, most notably ''bodhi'' and ''vimutti''. The abstract noun ''bodhi'' (; Sanskrit: बोधि; Pali: ''bodhi'') means the knowledge or wisdom, or awakene ...

''). Generally refers to bodhisattvas who have reached at least the seventh of the ten '' bhumis''. The transcription of ''mahāsattva'' in Chinese is ''móhé-sāduò'' (摩訶薩埵), often simplified in ''móhésà'' (摩訶薩/大菩薩, Japanese: ''makasatsu''). It is also

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

d as ''dàshì'' (大士, "great being", Japanese: ''daishi''). The eight most famous ''mahāsattvas'' are Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra,

Avalokiteśvara In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (meaning "the lord who looks down", International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), also known as Lokeśvara ("Lord of the World") and Chenrezig (in Tibetan), is a Bodhisattva#Bhūmis (stages), tenth-level bodhisattva associ ...

, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Akasagarbha, Kṣitigarbha,

Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit) or Metteyya (Pali), is a bodhisattva who is regarded as the future Buddhahood, Buddha of this world in all schools of Buddhism, prophesied to become Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha.Williams, Paul. ''Mahayana Buddhism: Th ...

and Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahasattva Bodhisattvas Buddhist stages of enlightenment