“With a great loving heart they look upon the sufferings of all beings, who are diversely tortured in Avici Hell in consequence of their sins--a hell whose limits are infinite and where an endless round of misery is made possible on account of all sorts of karma [committed by sentient creatures]. The Bodhisattvas filled with pity and love desire to suffer themselves for the sake of those miserable beings. “But they are well acquainted with the truth that all those diverse sufferings causing diverse states of misery are in one sense apparitional and unreal, while in another sense they are not so. They know also that those who have an intellectual insight into the emptiness (_çûnyatâ_) of all existences, thoroughly understand why those rewards of karma are brought forth in such and such ways [through ignorance and infatuation]. “Therefore, all Bodhisattvas, in order to emancipate sentient beings from misery, are inspired with great spiritual energy and mingle themselves in the filth of birth and death. Though thus they make themselves {294} subject to the laws of birth and death, their hearts are free from sins and attachments. They are like unto those immaculate, undefiled lotus-flowers which grow out of mire, yet are not contaminated by it. “Their great hearts of sympathy which constitute the essence of their being never leave suffering creatures behind [in their journey towards enlightenment]. Their spiritual insight is in the emptiness (_çûnyatâ_) of things, but [their work of salvation] is never outside the world of sins and sufferings.” _The Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta._ What is the meaning of the word “Bodhisattva”? It is a Sanskrit term consisting of two words, “Bodhi,” and “sattva.” _Bodhi_ which comes from the root _budh_ meaning “to wake,” is generally rendered “knowledge” or “intelligence.” _Sattva_ (_sat-tva_) literally means “state of being”; thus “existence,” “creature,” or “that which is,” being its English equivalent. “Bodhisattva” as one word means “a being of intelligence,” or “a being whose essence is intelligence.” Why the Mahâyânists came to adopt this word in contradistinction to Çrâvaka is easily understood, when we see what special significance they attached to the conception of Bodhi in their philosophy. When Bodhi was used by the Çrâvakas in the simple sense of knowledge, it did not bear any particular import. But as soon as it came to express some metaphysical relation to the conception of Dharmakâya, it ceased to be used in its generally accepted sense. {295}