celestial Bodhisattvas. English term used to describe the ahistoric great Bodhisattvas mentioned in Mahāyāna texts who are highly advanced on the path the enlightenment (bodhi). The most notable examples of such Bodhisattvas are Avalokiteśvara and Mañjuśrī, who may be regarded as symbolic or mythical in nature, in contrast to ordinary human Bodhisattvas at a lower level of development on the Bodhisattva path.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)