Bodhi Day, Dec. 8, marks the emergence into world history of a philosophic and religious teaching that now consoles and motivates people in many cultures and societies throughout the world.

Bodhi means enlightenment, which Gautama Siddhartha (563 B.C.-483 B.C.) attained in ancient India. He became known as the Buddha, the enlightened one, and Sakyamuni, the sage of the Sakya clan.

We might view Buddhism like a set of Russian nesting eggs or boxes, each fitting into the other from the smallest to the largest inclusive container. In the smallest egg, Buddhism deals with the individual. It offers each person an understanding of life, a hope for ultimate fulfillment and the basis for ethical living. It challenges our superficial understanding of ourselves and our human relations, transforming people from self-centered concerns to awareness of those about us.

On a yet larger dimension, Buddhism supports the family. Though individuals may pursue monastic life, Buddhism emphasizes a life of mutuality, reciprocity, support and comfort in the principle of interdependence and nurture in a family. On the broad screen, it also makes people aware of the contribution and role of ancestors in one's life. We are what we are because of them and the labors and values they shared. The family is the seedbed where the individuals grow to be contributing members of society.

In the social dimension, Buddhism offers a basis for cohesion, focusing also on the principle of interdependence. We are not isolated marbles in a bag but related to each other like a net. Buddhism reminds us of our responsibilities to society and nature. With compassion, it aims for the welfare of all beings and for justice and fairness in the community. Promoting non-injury and nonviolence, Buddhism rejects hatred and war as a means of solving problems in the world. Over its history, Buddhism has stressed rehabilitation, rejecting the practice of capital punishment.

Finally, on the most universal and comprehensive dimension, Buddhism teaches a cosmic philosophy that sees all beings, even sticks and stones, as possessing Buddha-nature. We all have the potentiality to become enlightened from the smallest to the greatest and from the most evil to the most righteous. No one is beyond the reach of Buddha's compassion and wisdom, where everything has value if we have the spiritual understanding to see it.

Buddhism has developed various traditions that have numerous practices to awaken our spiritual insight. Their common thread is to stimulate self-reflection, seeing ourselves as we really are as passion-ridden ego-centric beings. However, with the opening of our spiritual eyes, we realize that we can be more; we can embrace more and do more, when we become aware that we each are expressions or extensions of the cosmic, inclusive Buddha mind of unconditional compassion and wisdom. In this way, our small, individual egg is embraced by the cosmic egg of Buddha's enlightenment.

The Rev. Alfred Bloom, a Buddhist, is emeritus professor of religion of the University of Hawai'i.