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Mañjushri]] Although the eight bodhisattvas or ‘close sons of the Buddha’ all possess the same qualities and powers, each one displays perfection in a particular area or activity.

• Manjushri embodies wisdom;
• Avalokiteshvara embodies compassion;
• Vajrapani represents power;
• Kshitigarbha increases the richness and fertility of the land;
• Sarvanivaranavishkambhin purifies wrong-doing and obstructions;
• Maitreya embodies love;
• Samantabhadra displays special expertise in making offerings and prayers of aspiration; and
• Akashagarbha has the perfect ability to purify transgressions.

Khenpo Chöga says:

:Among the immeasurable qualities of the Buddha, eight of his foremost qualities manifest as the eight bodhisattvas: ::1) the personification of the Buddha’s wisdom (Tib. <big>ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. ye shes kyi rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī; ::2) the personification of the Buddha’s compassion (Tib. <big>སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. snying rje’i rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara; ::3) the personification of the Buddha’s power or capacity (Tib. <big>ནུས་པའི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. nus pa’i rang gzugs) is Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi; ::4) the personification of the Buddha’s activity (Tib. <big>ཕྲིན་ལས་</big>, Wyl. phrin las) is Bodhisattva Maitreya; ::5) the personification of the Buddha’s merit (Tib. <big>བསོད་ནམས་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. bsod nams rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha; ::6) the personification of the Buddha’s qualities (Tib. <big>ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. yon tan gyi rang gzugs) appears as Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhī; ::7) the personification of the Buddha’s blessings (Tib. <big>བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. byin rlabs kyi rang gzugs) arises as Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha; and ::8) the personification of the Buddha’s aspirations (Tib. <big>སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རང་གཟུགས་</big>, Wyl. smon lam gyi rang gzugs) is manifest as Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.<ref>In Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas, www.kunpal.org, vol. 1 p.282</ref>

<small><references/></small>

• Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rnam thar la bsngags pa bstod chen rgya mtsho rnam bshad
• Mipham Rinpoche, byang chub sems dpa' chen po nye ba'i sras brgyad kyi rtogs brjod nor bu'i phreng ba (Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. See below)
• Mipham Rinpoche, nye sras brgyad kyi sgrub pa rin chen gter bum

• Jamgön Mipham, A Garland of Jewels, (trans. by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso), Woodstock: KTD Publications, 2008

• Bodhisattva Outline Page at Himalayan Art

Enumerations 08-Eight Bodhisattvas Buddhas and Deities Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities </noinclude>