Bodhisattva:- A Messenger of Universal Friendliness and a Model of the Ideal of Buddhist Education

Abstract

The culture of a nation, the civilization of a country, is the product of it’s system of education. At present different systems of reform of education are in the air throw-out the world. But the western principles of education do not seem to make for the perfection of human personality. Therefore we have to examine the role of ancient Indian education system for the creation of ideal man in modern times.

At the very outset it is essential to note here that ancient Indian education including the centralized educational system of Buddhists is the outcome of the Buddhist attitude of the Dhamma, the theory of knowing it and a part of the corresponding scheme of life and values. The aim of the Buddhist system of education is the purification of the consciousness or complete eradication of those evil factors of the mind by which one becomes enable to see the total life situation. Thus the education, in the Buddhist outlook, is a process of creative self-culture aimed at the illumination of life and discipline and subdue the human instinct. It never aimed at the acquisition of mere objective knowledge. It was more concerned with the subject than the object, the inner than the outer world.