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Manjusri is one of the best known and most important of the bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism and is especially associated with the wisdom of awakening. How did Manjusri come to be associated with Wisdom? Simply, he was the teacher of seven successive Buddhas, the Sakyamuni Buddha being the last. One version of his story says that he himself was a Buddha in the distant past, and came back to teach the others. The Buddha said that in fact hundreds of Buddhas of the past became enlightened through Manjusri's teaching. He is often depicted as a beautiful youth, in keeping with the notion of the sense of freshness and newness of such liberating awareness, and is seated cross-legged on a lotus-flower throne, attired in princely silks and ornaments. In his right hand, raised above his head, he wields the symbol most distinctively his, a flaming sword of wisdom that cuts through the ignorance which binds sentient beings to a cycle of suffering and unhappiness. In his left hand, at his heart, he holds a book, a volume of the Perfection of Wisdom, representing both the source and embodiment of his awakened understanding.
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