The Honey Bodhisattva Of Avatamsaka Sutra: (甜蜜蜜菩萨)

The mahā-vaipulya-buddhâvataṃsaka-sūtra (华严经) is one of the earlier and important sutras in the study of Chinease, Korean and Japanese Mahayana Buddhism. In the Gaṇḍa-vyūha-varga (入法界品), it is mentioned that Sudhanakumara (善财童子) wished to learn about Bodhisattva path, so he ventured to visit 53 wise ones.

Amongst the 53 wise ones, there is one female bodhisattva by the name Vasumitra. As the Sanskrit name implies, ‘vasumitra’ means ‘sweet and nice’ (甜蜜). As it is odd to the oriental world to have a ‘honey bodhisattva’, so the name is not translated in Chinese Mahayana Avatamsaka Sutra.

So the story goes that Sudhanakumara went to see this Honey Bodhisattva and asked her about her way of practising bodhisattva path. This is what Vasumitra said to her visitor:

“Virtuous man, I attain bodhisattva status and become liberated through the method of abstention from lusts. I shall appear myself according to enjoyment and lusts.”

In another words, this Vasumitra would make a lustful person ‘enlighten’ by:

“Temporarily see her, talk to her, holding her hands, go into her bed, looking at her, looking at her face, looking at her eyes, hugging her, kissing her and having intimate contact with her…”

It is in such a way that the lustful person shall temporarily stay in this lust and forget about lust. In this way, he shall enter the land of bodhisattva and attain all wisdom and hence become liberated (somehow).

I am sure that I don’t have to explain explicitly the above description already mentioning the steps of fondling and love making this ‘Honey Bodhisattva’ uses to ‘liberate’ her visitors. Isn’t this an interesting find? Hahaha…

Apparently, intimate contact to achieve liberation not only mentioned in Tantric texts, it is also mentioned in Mahayana sutra texts too! The different lies in if a person can read between the lines and  ‘pick’ up the ‘hidden messages’ by the previous translators!