The term bodhisattva occurs frequently in early Buddhist literature, usually referring to Śākyamuni Buddha prior to the time of his enlightenment, which he achieved as he sat under the famous bodhi tree (Skt., bodhivṛkṣa, "tree of enlightenment") a few miles south of Gayā in modern Bihar. Bodhisattva means literally "enlightenment being," or, according to a theory that bodhisattva is a slightly mistaken Sanskrit spelling of the early dialectical form bodhisatta (as preserved in Pali), it could have originally meant "intent upon enlightenment." Whatever the literal meaning (and most scholars would favor the first one), a bodhisattva is a living being, usually human but not necessarily so, who has set out on the long path toward Buddhahood, which in accordance with the general Buddhist acceptance of the Indian theories concerning continual rebirth (or transmigration) was calculated to lead the aspirant through...