Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Samsara: can one **really** be 'liberated' from it?
I'd say, as long as you keep thinking of Samsara as a place you can escape from, then no, you will never escape. It would be like trying to run from your own shadow.
I'd say, as long as you keep thinking of Samsara as a place you can escape from, then no, you will never escape. It would be like trying to run from your own shadow.
But isn't liberation from samsara the point of Buddhist practice?
1
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Yes. But it's not a state in a nation, it's a state of mind. Which is why 'running away' from it and trying to escape, is futile.
Liberation is also a state of mind.
You just have to switch from one to the other.
@SpinyNorman said:
But isn't liberation from samsara the point of Buddhist practice?
Buddhism can certainly be defined as a path of liberation. Some people think of Samsara and Nirvana as physical places or realms. Samsara is here and now, the universe we live in, and Nirvana is attained upon death by the few who achieve Enlightenment. In this model, the Enlightened do not leave Samsara while still alive because it's all around them, it's just that Samsara no longer has an affect on them.
But there is a deeper teaching that is woven through the sutras, one that insists samsara is an illusion we create within our own minds, and the point of Buddhism is not escape from samsara because that's a dualistic trap. The point is now to become a Buddha. The "here and now" is both samsara and nirvana, depending on your state of mind.
So in this "mind only" way of looking at Buddhism, we practice being a Buddha in order to be a Buddha. Period.
Comments
.... and then there's another hill.....
(we're getting awfully good at this.....!)
But we're getting fitter and whizzing up those hills, and then enjoying the view at the top of the hill....
And the more fit we become, the easier the Grand tour becomes.... until we can tackle mountains.
Hmm...
I'd say, as long as you keep thinking of Samsara as a place you can escape from, then no, you will never escape. It would be like trying to run from your own shadow.
But isn't liberation from samsara the point of Buddhist practice?
Yes. But it's not a state in a nation, it's a state of mind. Which is why 'running away' from it and trying to escape, is futile.
Liberation is also a state of mind.
You just have to switch from one to the other.
Simple.
ROTFLMAO......
Buddhism can certainly be defined as a path of liberation. Some people think of Samsara and Nirvana as physical places or realms. Samsara is here and now, the universe we live in, and Nirvana is attained upon death by the few who achieve Enlightenment. In this model, the Enlightened do not leave Samsara while still alive because it's all around them, it's just that Samsara no longer has an affect on them.
But there is a deeper teaching that is woven through the sutras, one that insists samsara is an illusion we create within our own minds, and the point of Buddhism is not escape from samsara because that's a dualistic trap. The point is now to become a Buddha. The "here and now" is both samsara and nirvana, depending on your state of mind.
So in this "mind only" way of looking at Buddhism, we practice being a Buddha in order to be a Buddha. Period.
Samsara = The Borg "Resistance is Futile"
I get's it . . . :buck:
Yes, samsara and nirvana are both states of mind. But it's still about liberation.
...Who's arguing....?