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after nirvana

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Comments

  • edited August 2010
    does a drop of water distinguish itself from the ocean?

    If it does, it is deluded.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    I shouldn't think so, a drop of water is an innanimate non-being made up of loose particles easily physically seperated from other particles.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited August 2010
    I do hope that you do not use such absolutism if you are ever presented with comforting the bereaved or those whose approaching death is a terrifying prospect. Sogyal Rinpoche should give you pause.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    *shrugs* In death comes life.
  • cazcaz Veteran United Kingdom Veteran
    edited August 2010
    hindmost wrote: »
    In the days when I was trying to believe in rebirth, I heard a talk where a monk said there is nothing at the heart of the lotus. This meant that, when the phenomena we mistakenly think of as "I" are peeled back one by one, we find nothing at the core. If that is true, then when we die an arahant, nothing is left. We are gone, like a ripple back into the ocean.


    That is Nihilism.
    When one develops the minds of the stages of the path do these minds cease once they are compleletly mixed and realized ?
    The Samsaric aggregates cease once emptiness is accomplished,Transmigration ceases once the root of self-grasping is upheaved, But this does not mean that unbound aggregates cannot be accomplished.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited August 2010
    LoveNPeace wrote: »
    *shrugs* In death comes life.


    Is this compassion? Or perhaps you need to wait until you, too, have lost parents, a life partner and two children, along with many friends and near-contemporaries.

    Whatever our personal opinion - as unproven as any other - about what happens to mind and identity after death, I hope you never offer this consolation to the bereaved or near-bereaved - or, if you do, you are prepared for the bloody nose.
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited August 2010
    LoveNPeace wrote: »
    *shrugs* In death comes life.

    I am curious to see if you would still feel the same when you are presented with your OWN death. :)
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited August 2010
    There is a scene in the film "The Sacrifice" by Tarkovsky, where a man is trying to console his distraught family as they await death in a possible nuclear war. After everyone is asleep he prays to God and says something like ".. I'll give up anything if you could just take away this naked animal fear"

    That line really hit home for me, and experiencing it in my own life started the search that lead to practicing Buddhism. Samsara can be that desperate. Will be at some point.
  • edited August 2010
    one word that is majestic and magnificent the nectar of the entire buddhist teaching ; Bodhichitta.

    Just saying it today brought great peace and tranquility of my mind. I am reading ornament of clear realization ( it finally came from the publisher) and it starts out at the very beginning with bodhichitta. Its a beautiful word. Bodhi - enlightened mind , Chitta - heart. So its like the "heart of enlightenment" that is amazing. Heart is the core or possibly that enlightenment depends on the bodhichitta just like human life is dependent on heart.

    I also heard that the Buddha himself bows to you with the mind of bodhichitta because Buddha is completely in service to this mind.
  • edited August 2010
    every human being has the right to happiness , i hope and pray you find yours.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    Sorry about that, I flipped :o I'm OK now :)
  • edited August 2010
    I do hope that you do not use such absolutism if you are ever presented with comforting the bereaved or those whose approaching death is a terrifying prospect. Sogyal Rinpoche should give you pause.

    Only an ignoramus tramples on others' feelings when they are in crisis or suffering deeply. When dealing with real human crises, one remembers right speech. It is important not just to speak the truth, but to do so when the time is right, and to be flexible.

    But why should I even have to say these things? They are bleeding obvious.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    naturally
  • edited August 2010
    Only an ignoramus tramples on others' feelings when they are in crisis or suffering deeply. When dealing with real human crises, one remembers right speech. It is important not just to speak the truth, but to do so when the time is right, and to be flexible.

    But why should I even have to say these things? They are bleeding obvious.

    i think your correction to the poster would be better recieved in private, other wise those in glass houses might break thier own windows.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010

    Is this compassion? Or perhaps you need to wait until you, too, have lost parents, a life partner and two children, along with many friends and near-contemporaries.

    Whatever our personal opinion - as unproven as any other - about what happens to mind and identity after death, I hope you never offer this consolation to the bereaved or near-bereaved - or, if you do, you are prepared for the bloody nose.

    If I were comforting somebody I would not just say those few words and walk out the room. That would not be compassion. If I was comforting somebody I'd probably not speak because I'd feel very uncomfortable. If that person had accepted their own death or somebody elses I might try and get it across that it's part of life, a natural occurence, and that they weren't targeted above all else for death, because it comes to all of us, and (if they'd been injured or had an illness) their suffering was over. Hopefully the person had a good life and I'd point out how he or she must have had happy times and how they've enjoyed their life on earth and how the person being comforted meant so much to them. But we all have to leave, because we can't stay here. And if they were looking down at you they'd want you to be happy, wouldn't they? And if they had religious beliefs I'd say something like I'm sure they're looking down at you from heaven and you'll meet again or I'm sure you meet in another life and that they'll have a favourable rebirth.
    I don't know if that would be very comforting. When my dad's grandad had a heart attack, my mum's cousin died of a brain tumor, her grandma died of dimentia, her dad died of motor neurons desease and her grandad got run over I most mostly too young. Although my mum only really showed she was greaving was when her dad and cousin died... and back then I felt too uncomfortable to talk to her.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    seeker242 wrote: »
    I am curious to see if you would still feel the same when you are presented with your OWN death. :)

    I'm not scared of dieing and will quite happily talk quite casually about how my own demise might come about. I wouldn't want to die however, because I've got so much I want to do, like write a book and see what it's like to have fully independence.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    I do hope that you do not use such absolutism if you are ever presented with comforting the bereaved or those whose approaching death is a terrifying prospect. Sogyal Rinpoche should give you pause.
    Although it is basically the same princibal, scientifically speaking that is, a sentient being is more important than a group of formless, non-living particles.
  • edited August 2010
    LoveNPeace wrote: »
    a sentient being is more important than a group of formless, non-living particles.

    i disagree with this statement because don't we all derive of atoms and energy. a block of wood has atoms. so is it not your human nature to want to believe this? When someone dies the body is no longer a sentient being yet we still treat it with importance, and in some cultures we treat it as if it had more importance.

    but this could just be my opinion.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    Well I don't treat a lump of dead meat with importance.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited August 2010
    Unless I was eating meat for some reason, then I'd be greatful for the life it came from and the sustaining meat. Most things are important, but I'd rather nuke a drop of water than an ant.
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