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Although it often seems that the ideal behavior of the Buddhist layman contradicts the "higher" path of the monk, the lay behavior is actually a simpler expression of the same path. Aryasura's jataka tales portray the bodhisattva in his previous lives acting out this path. The jatakas show a single unified way, were lay activities are not different from, but rather the lead-up to monkly behavior. Whether the Buddha is being generous, attaining merit, or detaching himself from the world, he walks the path for both laymen and monks to follow.
In his consecutive lifetimes, the bodhisattva demonstrated the various qualities of his way, in differing levels. Often, the text portrays those qualities in the context of a layman, but they were of monkly commitment and strength. In the first jataka, the bodhisattva gives up his body so that a tigress may eat it and feed her children. The Buddha's incarnations displayed all of the virtues of his path by similar means, all of which culminated in his total devotion, which was detachment.
The most obvious lay quality and thus, the most noticeable trait of the bodhisattva, is generosity. They layman is to give regularly to the monks, who are in need. Those monks are to have totally renounced the world, so they depend upon the laypeople. Although the layman earns money to live a worldly existence, his behavior is merely a precursor to the renunciation of the monk. When the monk renounces the world, it is his generous donation to all others. He gives up, not only what he has, but even his potential to have. The bodhisattva, even more generous than the monks, goes so far as to give up his entire body. When doing so, he says, "suppose I fell down this mountainside; my lifeless corpse might server to prevent this creature from killing her young…It would inspire faith in those who follow the Better Way and would confound those who sneer at renunciation." This passage explores three goals: (1) feeding the tigress and saving her young; by accomplishing this, the bodhisattva acts in a way befitting a layman-he gives of himself to preserve the life of another. Such sacrifice is different only in quantity, not quality from that which is asked by the monks, who need less than the tigress. (2) The bodhisattva wishes to strengthen the faith of the monks, who would see the profound extremes asked of them by the Buddha but because of his own commitment would be uplifted by his acts. In him, they see themselves. (3) The bodhisattva is proselytizing, a goal of Buddhist, be they monk or layman. The first two of these goals are directly correlated; the sacrifice of the bodhisattva is an example to both layman and monk. Though he was a layman in that life, the bodhisattva performed the ultimate act of generosity, which goes even beyond that of the monks.
The theme of generosity is further iterated in the stories of the bodhisattva as a wealthy merchant, who passes over hell to give alms, and in the story of Visvamtara. As the wealthy merchant, the bodhisattva is able to walk over a hellish pit due to the merit of his good deed. This makes clear that generosity includes one's physical body and that it can supercede the difficulties of samsara. Visvamtara gave up everything he had. Starting with his kingdom's prized elephant and ending with his children and wife, there was nothing, which he was unwilling to offer up to others. Here is a layman performing the tasks of a monk. By giving up his entire life, the bodhisattva renounces everything-the ultimate end of generosity. Though it seems that it is diametrically opposed (he who owns nothing has nothing to give) it really is the gift of ownership, itself. The renunciate may not own anything and thus has given everything, which he may be due a share to the rest of the world. Full renunciation even includes one's own physical body, which was the bodhisattva's gift to the tigress. As Visvamtara, he said, "Were I asked to give my life, could I withhold it?"
It was largely through his great generosity that the bodhisattva gained an enormous amount of merit. That merit was put to use helping others; it grew forth a lotus so that the merchant could cross over the pit of hell, it reversed the wind, which would have blown Suparaga's friends to death at the end of the world, and eventually led to the full Buddha's life of teaching on Earth. The goal of the monk is to attain enough merit to achieve Nirvana while the goal of the layman is to obtain a better rebirth. But what is a better rebirth, but an opportunity to attain more merit and spiritual advancement? When one attains sufficient spiritual advancement, on e would become a monk and devote oneself to liberation. The monk is merely a layman, who has outlived the need to be a layman; through sufficient merit, he has been given a higher goal-and higher responsibility. When the layman looks forward to a better rebirth, he looks forward to Nirvana (to the best of his ability). As the saying goes, "a journey of one thousand miles begins with one step."
It is the monk's detachment from all things worldly, which makes him a monk. Meanwhile, the layman must be a devoted follower of the Buddha. The devoted follower, however, is a 'prenatal' form of the ideal. True devotion to the Buddha eventually means devotion solely to the Buddha's dharma. When one devotes oneself to the dharma, it becomes possible to detach oneself from all other things. Even the dharma, itself, loses its necessity and becomes merely a tool. When the bodhisattva was king of the monkeys and he allowed them to trample him in their search for safety, he was displaying an extreme detachment from his own physical needs and feelings. Instead, he devoted himself to proper behavior; in this way, devotion is detachment. Total devotion is total detachment. In his life as Ksantivadin, the bodhisattva's detachment again becomes physical. An enraged king dismembers Ksantivadin, who endures the situation without complaint for himself, only concern for the king: "as the sharp sword fell upon his body, that perfect saint felt neither grief nor anger…and because of his kindly disposition, he felt no sorrow. But to see the king fallen from the path of virtue caused him anguish." By his perfect detachment, the bodhisattva taught the value of devotion to the proper way and the discipline necessary for monks.
Primarily through generosity, the jatakas teach that the Buddha's path is the only path. Perception of it is the difference between laymen and monks. Monks are expected to pursue the path to its final end, while laymen should walk as far as they are able, which, in the case of the bodhisattva, was frequently even further than that asked of the monks. Through his own example, the bodhisattva gives faith to laymen and monks alike, that they may act in accordance with the path, for his actions, be he layman, animal or monk, always followed that path.
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