Tidak selalu Bodhisattva lebih tinggi. Arahat setara dengan Bodhisattva Bhumi ke-6 dalam Mahayana. Kalau Bodhisattva Bhumi pertama justru malah 'lebih rendah' ketimbang Arahat.
Di dalam ajaran & budaya Vajrayana (Buddhisme Tibet), Bodhisattva dan Buddha hampir tidak dapat dibedakan lagi. ... Bodhisattva Manyusri disebut juga Buddha Manyusri. ... Orang Tibet percaya bahwa di sekitar mereka terdapat banyak Buddha dalam bentuk guru-guru yang hidup. Ini berbeda dengan kepercayaan di Theravada bahwa dalam satu zaman hanya ada satu Buddha. ...
Hampir menyamai..... tapi masih ada klesha:
Di dalam ajaran Vajrayana, seorang tokoh-Buddha bisa beremanasi (memancar) menjadi Bodhisattva ... dst ... bahkan menjadi tokoh-tokoh historis, seperti Padmasambhava & pasangan perempuannya, Tsogyel, dsb. ...
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/making_sense_tantra/pt1/making_sense_tantra_04.html"Coarse and Subtle Emanations of Buddha-Figures
To benefit others, Buddhas emanate multiple appearances of themselves in a variety of coarse and subtle forms. They assume an array of subtle bodies (Skt. sambhogakaya) to teach arya bodhisattvas – the only ones able to see such forms. Aryas (noble ones) are highly realized beings with direct, straightforward, nonconceptual perception and understanding of how things exist. Buddhas take an assortment of coarser bodies (Skt. nirmanakaya) in order to benefit ordinary beings. Any Buddha may emanate coarse or subtle bodies in the forms of any Buddha-figure or everyday being, or even of another Buddha. The same is true of Buddha-figures when appearing as if they were individual enlightened beings. Only those who are receptive to receiving help or teachings, however, are able to meet Buddhas in any form and derive the full benefit.
Buddhas and their Buddha-figure emanations reside in their own Buddha-fields. Buddha-fields are special realms unassociated with the confusion of uncontrollably recurring existence (Skt. samsara). They are the pure lands where Buddhas and Buddha-figures manifest in subtle forms and teach arya bodhisattvas the final steps to enlightenment. Since Buddha-fields are beyond the common experience of Buddhologists and Hinayana adherents, their literal existence would naturally be unacceptable to them. Mahayana sutra and tantra practitioners, however, regard them as actually existing, although no one can reach them without the prerequisite realizations. Even great masters cannot bring the mental continuums of freshly deceased persons to pure lands unless the deceased have built up the potentials for this from their own practices.
The nonliteral ultimate meaning of Buddha-fields is the clear light continuum of each individual being. Within the sphere of each being's clear light continuum, beyond the confusion of uncontrollable existence, dwell the various aspects of Buddha-nature, represented by Buddha-figures. Arya bodhisattvas on the path of highest tantra - the only practitioners with nonconceptual meditative access to their clear light continuums – gain final actualization of their Buddha-natures while in this state.
Sometimes Buddha-figures come from their Buddha-fields in the subtle forms of bodhisattvas and request Shakyamuni to impart the various sutras and tantras, as when Vajrapani requested A Concert of Names of Manjushri (Praises to the Names of Manjushri). As bodhisattvas, they may also attend and compile Buddha's discourses, as Vajrapani did for The Guhyasamaja Tantra, or give teachings in Shakyamuni's stead, as Avalokiteshvara did for The Heart Sutra. In such cases, as explained above, the Buddha-figures and Shakyamuni share the same mental continuum.
Some of the coarse bodies that Buddhas or Buddha-figures emanate from their Buddha-fields were actual historical persons, such as Padmasambhava, the Indian master responsible for the first spread of Buddhism to Tibet. From the viewpoint of conventional truth, these great beings seemed to have individual mental continuums and appeared as such to ordinary beings, who could understand only this truth about them. A deeper truth about them was that their mental continuums were one with the Buddhas and Buddha-figures of whom they were emanations. For Buddhologists and Hinayana adherents, only the first statement about these historical figures is true. For Mahayana practitioners, both statements are fact.
Tantra practice includes visualizing oneself in the forms of certain historical figures regarded as Buddha-figure emanations, such as Padmasambhava, his female partner Yeshey Tsogyel, or the Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi. Not all masters regarded as Buddha-figure emanations, however, serve as forms for tantra self-visualization, for example the Dalai Lamas as Avalokiteshvaras. Moreover, political reasons may have motivated the Tibetans to address honorifically certain rulers as Buddha-figure emanations, such as the Manchu emperors of China as Manjushris and the Russian czars as Taras. Tantra practice does not include such persons. Regarding them as emanations, however, accords with the general Mahayana advice to avoid speaking badly of anyone, because one can never tell who may be a bodhisattva emanation.
Further, some coarse Buddha-figure emanations that the Tibetans consider as having been historical figures would be hard to confirm by Western standards. A prominent example is Tara. Tara appeared as an individual who during a lifetime as a woman developed bodhichitta and became a bodhisattva. She vowed to continue taking rebirth ever after as a woman and to achieve enlightenment in a female form to encourage women to follow the path. ..."