In earlier Mahayana texts, two types of bodhisattvas are described: firstly, the lay bodhisattva (在家菩薩) and, secondly, the monastic bodhisattva (出家菩薩). Modern scholarship, however, has not paid as much attention to the latter as to the former. In this article, we will attempt to show what kind of person the monastic bodhisattva was seen to be. This will be done through a comparison with monks (bhiksu) in Buddhist schools using two Mahayana texts that detail the monastic bodhisattva. In the Jingxing ping (浄行品) of the Huayan jing (華厳経), the manner of ordination (upasampada) for monastic bodhisattvas is the same as that for monks in Buddhist schools; moral conduct (sila) too is considered in the same way for both. Thus, it becomes clear that the monastic bodhisattva is differentiated from the layperson. However, in the Ugrapariprccha (郁伽長者所問経), it is notable that the sila for the monastic bodhisattva includes the fourfold attitudes (四聖種: caturaryavamsa) and the virtues of the purified person (頭陀行: dhutaguna), both of which are stricter requirements than the usual Sila required by monks. It will be argued, therefore, that the Ugrapariprccha and Jingxing ping of the Huayan jing attempt to define the monastic bodhisattva as a sterner, more disciplined monk.
