Bhūmi (Buddhism)

The Ten Bodhisattva Bhūmi (Sanskrit; Tibetan "byang chub sems dpa'i sa", enlightenment-being grounds/levels) are the ten stages on the Mahayana bodhisattva's path of awakening.

The Sanskrit term literally means "ground" or "foundation". Each stage represents a level of attainment, and serves as a basis for the next one. Each level marks a definite advancement in one's training, that is accompanied by progressively greater power and wisdom.

The bhūmis are subcategories of the Five Paths (pañcamārga, Wylie Tibetan lam lnga):

Passage through the grounds and paths begins with Bodhicitta, the wish to liberate all sentient beings. Aspiring Bodhicitta becomes Engaging Bodhicitta upon actual commitment to the Bodhisattva vows. With these steps, the practitioner becomes a Bodhisattva, and enters upon the paths.

Before attaining the ten grounds, the bodhisattva traverses the first two of the five Mahayana paths:

The ten grounds of the bodhisattva are grouped within the three subsequent paths:

In Hua-yen Buddhism there are some 40 previous stages before the first bhumi:

In Tientai Buddhism the practitioner of the so-called "perfect teaching" is equal in attainment to arhats by just the 4th faith.

Mahayana literature often features an enumeration of "two obstructions" (Wylie: sgrib gnyis):

The obstruction of delusive emotions is overcome at the attainment of the path of seeing, and the obstructions to knowledge are overcome over the course of the path of meditation. This is not a statement agreed upon by all Buddhist schools, e.g. Korean Son's Kihwa states that the obstructions to knowledge are overcome by the 10th bhumi.

The Avataṃsakasūtra refers to the following ten bhūmis:

The First bhūmi, called "Very Joyous", is attained with the first direct perception of emptiness (Sunyata) and is simultaneous with entry into the third of the five paths to awakening, the path of seeing. It is called "very joyous" because the bodhisattva works at the perfections of generosity and develops the ability to give away everything without regret and with no thought of praise or reward (for themselves). All phenomena are viewed as empty and as subject to decay, suffering, and death, and so bodhisattvas lose all attachment to them. According to Tsong Khapa, first level bodhisattvas directly understand that persons do not exist by way of their own nature. Due to this, they overcome the false idea that the five aggregates constitute a truly existent person. They also eliminate predispositions toward corrupted ethics so completely that they will not arise again.

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