Harry Oldmeadow
On the popular level the Bodhisattva provided an exemplar of the spiritual life and a devotional focus. Cosmologically, the Bodhisattva was an axial figure running through terrestrial, celestial and transcendental realms. Metaphysically considered the Bodhisattva conception, rooted in the doctrine of sunyata, provided a resolution of dualistic conceptions of samsara and nirvana and provided a bridge between the Absolute and the relative. In its reconciliation of all these elements in the Bodhisattva Mahayana Buddhism finds one of its most characteristic and elevated expressions.
