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Reality just 'a dream', so Bodhisattva Ideal of Mahayana is just a delutional dream in a dream

BodhisattaBodhisatta New
in Buddhism Basics

It is said that the iconic figure Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva associated with the vow:
"Not until the hells are emptied will I become a Buddha; not until all beings are saved will I certify to enter nirvana."
In fact such kind vow is an ideal and exists only in the big dream. Why? It is simply to understand: Not all beings accept your help though you like to save all beings. So the ideal of Mahayana bodhisattva never achieved success, never made into a Reality.

To reply the above, anatamananataman wrote as follow:
"With the greatest respect Mahayana has become a reality @bodhisatta, because the reality is that reality is just 'a dream'! You haven't awoke to it yet.
Dreams have no substance or material basis and are therefore empty as the dharma prescribes, but to say that they do not exist is something else. And here is the line that is drawn. Cross the rubicon and you have no foundation, without foundation you have nothing to claim. And who is claiming what?"

Comments

  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran

    Mirabai once said:

    I have ridden atop elephants and felt their wide sway, and you want me to ride that Jackass? You've got to be kidding!

    anataman
  • BodhisattaBodhisatta New

    It is absolutely funny to express "the greatest respect" towards a delutional dream in a dream

  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator

    Isn't the ideal more to help others, as they are ready, to wake up from the dream? Not to save them in the way that we understand saving? Also, it doesn't mean, I don't think, saving them or helping them on our terms. It means helping them on their terms when they are ready to accept. It doesn't mean proselytizing or forcing them to understand or change. I means making a vow to come back to human birth so that you can help those who are ready. It hardly means hanging a sign around one's neck to proclaim to people that they need to wake up. People have to realize they are asleep before they seek help in waking.

  • ChazChaz The Remarkable Chaz Anywhere, Everywhere & Nowhere Veteran

    @Bodhisatta said:  So the ideal of Mahayana bodhisattva never achieved success, never made into a Reality.

    So if that's what you think, then don't follow it.

  • BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran

    well since all things are impermanent wouldn't there EVENTUALLY be an end to samsara? well I mean there would have to be for the bodisattva vows to make sense no?

    the concept never made much sense to me so I've never given it much care or thought. My limited wisdom, intuition, and what I know of the buddha's teachings, and everything that life has taught me just doesn't jive with the idea.

    That being said It is a noble thing to strive for I suppose, so long as ego is not the one in the drivers seat.

  • CinorjerCinorjer Veteran

    You say reality is just a dream? WAKE UP! There, is that better? You're welcome.

    Samsara is not a dream. It's an illusion. Dreams don't operate by the universal rule of karma. An illusion is something that is disguised as what it is not.

  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator
    edited March 2014

    A lot of people take a Bodhisattva vow as an ideal. But those who are actually Bodhisattva's don't have much ego to work with anymore, if any. They just have decided to forgo their own enlightenment to be able to help others. Though my understanding of it is pretty limited at this point. My teacher is a mahayana teacher so we talk about it a lot but I'm still working on the basics. As is said, take out your own trash before you try to take out someone else's, lol.

    In any case, I see no reason to express judgement towards someone else's chosen path. There is plenty I don't understand about other Buddhist (or other religious) paths and I try to refrain from judging them as silly just because they aren't mine. Enough to worry about in my own path without judging other paths I don't understand.

    Cinorjer
  • ChazChaz The Remarkable Chaz Anywhere, Everywhere & Nowhere Veteran

    @Jayantha said:

    the concept never made much sense to me so I've never given it much care or thought. My limited wisdom, intuition, and what I know of the buddha's teachings, and everything that life has taught me just doesn't jive with the idea.

    Not everyone "gets" Mahayana. Thats ok.

    That being said It is a noble thing to strive for I suppose,

    That's awfully generous of you. ;-)

    so long as ego is not the one in the drivers seat.

    Same could be said taking any sort vows, eh?

  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    edited March 2014

    With the greatest respect @bodhisatta I bow to you as I bow to the delusional mind, and laugh, because that is all you can do really, it's a bit like waving to a wave, it just ripples with whatever made it ripple!

    You are nothing really, a bit like @Chaz, nothing more than a response I get from tapping at my keyboard - a few thoughts and fancies.

    But, behind it all I know (I really do KNOW) you are there, and you have thoughts, and desires and all the other things that make you human. Thanks for recognising I'm here BTW

    And as Ksitigarbarba told me: hell isn't so bad, it's temporary, as is heaven and everything else you can experience.

    Mahayana is the greatest vehicle for a reason, if you don't get it, then just enjoy the ride. But what is your destination?

    Mettha

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