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Where is the Buddha?
Jainarayan
Veteran
This is a genuine question, not trolling or being facetious, so please don't jump on me.
The Buddha achieved nirvana, yes? My understanding of nirvana is peace, bliss, no rebirth. Yet does the Buddha not say that he will return? Moreover, if achieving nirvana severs ties to this world, how is that the Buddha can interact with us, if he does at all? That is, if the Buddha is gone, to coin a phrase, is it only superstition that makes people pray to him, and even to other buddhas. Is there any point in invoking them through mantras, e.g. Medicine Buddha mantra?
Maybe I should know the answers, but it escapes me right now.
The Buddha achieved nirvana, yes? My understanding of nirvana is peace, bliss, no rebirth. Yet does the Buddha not say that he will return? Moreover, if achieving nirvana severs ties to this world, how is that the Buddha can interact with us, if he does at all? That is, if the Buddha is gone, to coin a phrase, is it only superstition that makes people pray to him, and even to other buddhas. Is there any point in invoking them through mantras, e.g. Medicine Buddha mantra?
Maybe I should know the answers, but it escapes me right now.
0
Comments
I assume the Buddha was no different.
The mental reduction that describes the Buddha as an entity separated from the rest of existence, is just part of the dream that the Buddha asked us to awaken from.
Plus the idea of divinity (=well-attuned Spirit)!
The bit about the universal-shared-soul-god-all-in-one has already been covered above.
Now if you're secular, then so far the best naturalistic description of the 'shared soul' is the collective mind/collective consciousness. In sociology, the collective consciousness is a chalkboard abstraction (i.e. only exists on a chalkboard) and describes the fact that people think similarly and sometimes act like the whole as a mind of it's own. If the whole has a mind, then why not interpret the collective mind as as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas-- the collective minds of everyone trying to cure diseases-- that is the naturalistic Medicine Buddha.
Next, naturalistically, how could mantras work--they remind you to be like the Medicine Buddha in your own behavior-- I recite the various vows with gongyo. Paying attention to the Medicine Buddha at all helps set the goals for the collective consciousness--to the extent that you actually communicate that to other people. I haven't figured out a naturalistic way to make the mantras do everything they promise.
Then Venerable Sàriputta came there, and after ascertaining the fact, proceeded to dispel Venerable Yamaka's wrong view by getting him to answer a series of questions. Suffice it to mention, in brief, that it served to convince Venerable Yamaka of the fact that whatever is impermanent, suffering and subject to change, is not fit to be looked upon as `this is mine, this am I, and this is my self'.
"Therefore, friend Yamaka, any kind of form whatsoever, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, all form must be seen as it really is with right wisdom thus: `this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self'. Any kind of feeling whatsoever ... any kind of perception whatsoever ... any kind of preparations whatsoever ... any kind of consciousness whatsoever, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, all consciousness must be seen as it really is with right wisdom thus: `this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self'."
"But then, friend Yamaka, now that for you a Tathàgata is not to be found in truth and fact here in this very life, is it proper for you to declare: `As I understand Dhamma taught by the Exalted One, an influx-free monk is annihilated and destroyed when the body breaks up and does not exist after death'?"
As if to get a confirmation of Venerable Yamaka's present stance, Venerable Sàriputta continues: "If, friend Yamaka, they were to ask you the question: `Friend Yamaka, as to that monk, the influx-free arahant, what happens to him with the breaking up of the body after death?' Being asked thus, what would you answer?"
"If they were to ask me that question, friend Sàriputta, I would answer in this way: Friends, form is impermanent, what is impermanent is suffering, what is suffering has ceased and passed away. Feeling ... perception ... preparations ... consciousness is impermanent, what is impermanent is suffering, what is suffering has ceased and passed away. Thus questioned, I would answer in such a way."
"So too, friend Yamaka, the uninstructed worldling, who has no regard for the noble ones, and is unskilled and undisciplined in their Dhamma, who has no regard for good men and is unskilled and undisciplined in their Dhamma, regards form as self, or self as possessing form, or form as in self, or self as in form. He regards feeling as self ... perception as self ... preparations as self ... consciousness as self ...
"He becomes committed to form, grasps it and takes a stand upon it as `my self'. He becomes committed to feeling ... to perception ... to preparations ... to consciousness, grasps it and takes a stand upon it as `my self'. These five aggregates of grasping, to which he becomes committed, and which he grasps, lead to his harm and suffering for a long time."
What Venerable Sàriputta wanted to prove, was the fact that everyone of the five aggregates is a murderer, though the worldlings, ignorant of the true state of affairs, pride themselves on each of them, saying `this is mine, this am I and this is my self'. As the grand finale of this instructive discourse comes the following wonderful declaration by Venerable Yamaka.
"Such things do happen, friend Sàriputta, to those venerable ones who have sympathetic and benevolent fellow monks in the holy life, like you, to admonish and instruct, so much so that, on hearing this Dhamma sermon of the Venerable Sàriputta, my mind is liberated from the influxes by non-grasping."
This might sound extremely strange in this age of scepticism regarding such intrinsic qualities of the Dhamma like sandiññhika, "visible here and now", akàlika, "timeless", and ehipassika, "inviting to come and see". But all the same we have to grant the fact that this discourse, which begins with a Venerable Yamaka who is bigoted with such a virulent evil view, which even his fellow monks found it difficult to dispel, concludes, as we saw, with this grand finale of a Venerable Yamaka joyfully declaring his attainment of arahant-hood.
Generally, such discourses instil fear into the minds of worldlings, so much so that even during the Buddha's time there were those recorded instances of misconstruing and misinterpretation. It is in this light that we have to appreciate the Buddha's prediction that in the future there will be monks who would not like to listen or lend ear to those deep and profound discourses of the Buddha, pertaining to the supramundane and dealing with the void.
Nibbana Sermon 9
Bh Nyanananda
In short, "you" don't really exist. So how can that which doesn't truly exist perish. The Buddha woke up to this truth and became the Awakened One. The rest of us are still asleep.
So where is He? The same as all the Buddhas, which are as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges -- everywhere, in a "there is no divide between samsara and nirvana" kind of way.
Most of us are the results of our thinking. Our thinking is a result of our circumstances. Change the thoughts that occupy our thinking and . . . have you guessed yet?
. . . our thinking changes.
This process is independent of belief, blessing, resonance with spooky Buddha realms. Though of course those things for those empowered or enabled to believe, add mountains of faith to our molehills.
The efficacy of the placebo effect - aprox 30% of modern medicines effect is placebo - excellent . . . Then we have programming the subconscious with good vibes. We have sound and breath healing. We have trance and visualisation. No such thing as a Buddha? Think again.
As I said to the Buddha only this morning:
OH MAN, YO DA MANI HOMI
like Mr Cushion, he gave me one of those looks - 'you messin wid me?'
OM YA HA HUM
@seeker242 Where is this excerpt from?
A: I killed him.
Bonus points: with a tire iron.
Yeah, I'm not good at many things. But that certainly is one of them.
next to yama.
They get on so well, you know.
NOT a facetious response.
your understanding of nibbanam is totally wrong. In Pali-Canon it´s being descibed siply: "Nothing is here."
Yes, Gotamo Buddho, said that there is reincarnation, if you are not far enough developed on the spiritual path. If there is enough karma it is possible, not to return to
earth any more.
Nibbanam has not left anything behind. There are 8 Jhanasand nibbanam is only the sixth step of it. The seventh step is: The border of possible perception and the 8th one is the Dissolement of any kind of reception, inside and outside of yourself.
Gotamo Buddho does interact with us by his teaching, in the Pali-Canon. These are not the original teachings but the only original that are available for us. Be carefull with the selection of Pali-Canon translaters and try to proof their qualifications.
There is a definition of Gotamo Buddho of himself, when he says that he is only a:
Thinker. the best Worschipping is to follow the instructions of the 8fold path and not adore him like a god.
I think you ment the Buddho consciousness. The 8fold path is the tool to achieve it.
If one has achieved it the teaching is now obsolete for him, he doesn´t need it any more. The only neans of getting into this kind of consciousness is the 8fold path, nothing to add, nothing to take away.
I tried it out and got everything Gotamo Buddho taught.
anando
Now all you need is a dictionary.
Is it?
But there are teachings, and they can be helpful to a small extent. Since Buddhism is about first-hand experience, and since most of the important things in life ARE experiential and not intellectual .. teachings can only help so much.
I will pass on two teachings.
The first is from my own teacher (an older Tibetan monk & geshe, from the Dalai Lama's monastery).
"Nirvana is not a place. It is a state of mind".
And, from a book:
“Everything is always changing. If you relax into this truth, that is Enlightenment. If you resist, this is samsara (suffering).”
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You Not a Buddhist”
So WHERE is the Buddha?
YOU are the Buddha .. you just don't know it yet.
Not the answer you were looking for. But the only answer is that which you discover for yourself once you become enlightened.
Or so we are told.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca3/nibbana.html
"There is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress."
also... this is the topic of a talk by Ven. K Sri Dhammananda
Inside.
Inside what?
(Just kidding)
http://www.rigpa.org/en/teachings/extracts-of-articles-and-publications/teachings-extracts-from-the-tibetan-book-of-living-and-dying/teachings-compassion-the-wish-fulfilling-jewel.html