by Max Barry

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Impermanence

"Suzuki Roshi, I've been listening to your lectures for years," a student said during the question and answer time following a lecture, "but I just don't understand. Could you just please put it in a nutshell? Can you reduce Buddhism to one phrase?"

Everyone laughed. Suzuki laughed.

"Everything changes," he said.

Then he asked for another question.

Confederate Farmers and Dharmakaya

Of paths the Eightfold is the best;
of truths the Noble Four are best;
of mental states, detachment is the best;
of human beings the illumined one is best.

~ The Dhammapada, v.273

Chenrezig and Dharmakaya

__/\__

Chenrezig and Dharmakaya

"Because the perfect buddhas' kaya is all-pervading,
because reality is undiferrentiated.
and because they possess the potential,
Beings always have the Buddha nature."

- Maitreya, Uttaratantra Shastra I, 27

Chenrezig and Dharmakaya

If evil flowers bloom in the mind-ground,
Five blossoms flower from the stem.
Together they will create the karma of ignorance;
Now the mind-ground is blown by the winds of karma.

If correct flowers bloom in the mind-ground,
Five blossoms flower from the stem.
Together they practice the prajna wisdom;
In the future this will be the enlightement of the Buddha.

Hui Neng

A man walking through a forest encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger chasing after him.

Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above.
Terrified, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger had come, waiting to eat him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little began to gnaw away at the vine.

The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine in one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other.

How sweet it tasted!

Post self-deleted by Iron Buddha.

Whatever precious jewel there is in the heavenly worlds,
there is nothing comparable to one who is Awakened.

~ Sutta Nipata

Chenrezig and Dharmakaya

The Buddha then ordered [his son] Rahula to ring the bell and asked Ananda: “Do you hear it?” Ananda and the others in the assembly replied that they did. When the bell was no more heard, the Buddha asked again: “Do you still her it?” They all replied that they did not. Rahula again rang the bell and the Buddha asked: “Do you hear it?” They replied that they did. The Buddha then asked Ananda: “What do you mean by hearing and not hearing?” Ananda and the others replied: “If the bell is rung, we call it hearing and when the sound and its echo stop, we call it not hearing.”

The Buddha again ordered Rahula to ring the bell and asked Ananda: “Is there any sound?” Ananda and the others replied that there was a sound of the bell. A little later when it could no longer be heard, the Buddha asked again: “Is there any sound?” They all replied that there was none. Then Rahula rang the bell again and the Buddha asked: “Is there any sound?” They all replied in the affirmative. The Buddha then asked Ananda: “What do you mean by sound and no sound?” Ananda and the others replied that if the bell was rung, there was sound and when both the sound and its echo stopped, this was called no sound.

The Buddha said: “Why did you talk so wildly? When I asked you about hearing, you spoke of hearing, and when I asked you about sound, you spoke of it. So merely about hearing and sound, your answers were ambiguous; how could they not be called wild? Ananda, when both the sound and its echo ceased, you said there was no hearing: if there really was no hearing, its nature would have died and would be like a withered log, but when the bell was rung again, how did you hear it? Existence and non-existence concern only the sound which may be present or not, but how can the nature of your hearing follow your discrimination to exist or not? If it really ceased, who then knew there was no sound?

“Therefore, Ananda, in your hearing, the sound may exist or not, but this does not mean that the sound, whether heard or not, [can] cause your hearing to exist or not. In your delusion you mistake the sound for your hearing and so regard the permanent as transient. You should not say that hearing has no nature when it exists apart from [the conditions of] disturbance, stillness, obstruction, and clearance.

“For instance, when a man sleeps soundly, if people pound rice, he may hear the beating of a drum or the ringing of a bell. Ananda, does that man remember in his sleep [the conditions of] stillness, disturbance, clearance, and obstruction? Although his body rests, the nature of his hearing is present.

“Even when your body perishes and your life comes to an end, how can this nature vanish? For since time without beginning all living beings have followed forms and sounds and pursued the flow of their thoughts without awakening to their pure, profound, and permanent nature. By straying from the permanent and by following birth and death, they have been contaminated with defilements in successive lives. If you [only] keep away from samsara and dwell in real permanence, your eternal Light will appear, thereby causing your organs, sense data, consciousness and [mad] mind to vanish simultaneously. The objects of your thinking process are [polluting] dust and the feelings that arise from your consciousness are impurities; if both are kept away, your Dharma eye will appear pure and bright instantly. Why then cannot you realize Supreme Bodhi?

Excerpted from the Shurangama Sutra, translated by Lu K’uan Yu, B. I. Publications, Bombay

Bodhisattva Vow ~ Beastie Boys

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HPmELalsXOg

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. Look deeply: I arrive in every second - TNH

I promise not to cause trouble I respect freedom of religion in America and in this region. I believe in The god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Yeshua am I allowed here ?

Conquer anger with non-anger. Conquer badness with goodness. Conquer meanness with generosity. Conquer dishonesty with truth.

~ The Buddha, The Dhammapada

Dharmakaya

"According to the phases of impure,
partially pure and completely pure,
we speak of sentient beings, bodhisattvas
and the thus-gone buddhas."

- Maitreya, Uttaratantra Shastra I, 47

Dharmakaya

Excerpt from Huangbo’s ‘On the Transmission of Mind’
Translated by John Blofeld

When a sudden flash of thought occurs in your mind and you recognize it for a dream or an illusion, then you can enter into the state reached by the Buddhas of the past- not that the Buddhas of the past really exist, or that the Buddhas of the future have not yet come into existence. Above all, have no longing to become a future Buddha; your sole concern should be, as thought succeeds thought, to avoid clinging to any of them. Nor may you entertain the least ambition to be a Buddha here and now.

Even if a Buddha arises, do not think of him as ‘Enlightened’ or ‘deluded’, ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Hasten to rid yourself of any desire to cling to him. Cut him off in the twinkling of an eye!

On no account seek to hold him fast, for a thousand locks could not stay him, nor a hundred thousand feet of rope bind him. This being so, valiantly strive to banish and annihilate him.

I will now make luminously clear how to set about being rid of that Buddha. Consider the sunlight. You may say it is near, yet if you follow it from world to world you will never catch it in your hands. Then you may describe it as far away and, lo, you will see it just before your eyes. Follow it and, behold, it escapes you; run from it and it follows you close.

You can neither possess it nor have done with it. From this example you can understand how it is with the true nature of all things and, henceforth, there will be no need to grieve or to worry about such things…

All the visible universe is the Buddha; so are all sounds; hold fast to one principle and all the others are Identical. On seeing one thing, you see all. On perceiving any individual’s mind, you are perceiving all Mind. Obtain a glimpse of one way and all ways are embraced in your vision, for there is nowhere at all which is devoid of the Way…

According to what has been said, we can encompass all the vast world systems, though numberless as grains of sand, with our One Mind.

Then, why talk of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’? Honey having the invariable characteristic of sweetness, it follows that all honey is sweet. To speak of this honey as bitter would be nonsensical! How could it be so? Hence we say that the Void has no inside and outside. There is only the spontaneously existing Bhutatathata (Absolute). And, for this same reason, we say it has no centre. There is only the spontaneously existing Bhutatathata.

Thus, sentient beings are the Buddha. The Buddha is one with them. Both consist entirely of the one ‘substance’.

Yuanwu said, “The sword that kills. The sword that gives life. These are artifices of the ancients, and yet they remain pivotal for us today. Trying to understand from words is like washing a dirt clod in muddy water. But not using words to gain understanding is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. If you don’t use some idea you’ve already missed it. But if you have any strategy whatsoever, you’re still a mountain pass away from it. It’s like the sparks from struck flint or a lightning flash. Understanding or not understanding, there’s no way to avoid losing your body and life. What do you say about this principle? A bitter gourd is bitter to the root. A sweet melon is sweet to the base!”

The master then got down and left the hall.

This world is blind! There are so few Who see things as they truly are.
Come, take a good look at this world, Pretty like a king's chariot.
Though fools become immersed in it, For the wise there's no attachment.
See how much it's like a bubble! See how much it's like a mirage!

~ Dhammapada, Lokavagga: "The World"

Dharmakaya

Hey Hey! You’re Featured Today! Congratulations My Friends!
\_O_/ Yay! :D

Bodhi Nirvana, -Allemeine, and Hms york

Congratulations on being featured. What an excellent and thoughtful region!

Are any locals here still active?

Bodhi Nirvana, -Allemeine, and Hms york

Congratulations on being featured!

Bodhi Nirvana and Hms york

Congrats on being featured!

RMSboatymcboatface wrote:Hey Hey! You’re Featured Today! Congratulations My Friends!
\_O_/ Yay! :D

Middlemidden wrote:Congratulations on being featured. What an excellent and thoughtful region!

Are any locals here still active?

-Allemeine wrote:Congratulations on being featured!

Hms york wrote: Congrats on being featured!

Thank you for your kind words and congratulations, you are all very welcome, whether you wish to visit or stay.

We are all active invariably, as every day is Dharma.

Namaste

__________________/\______________

Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame.

~ The Dhammapada, Chapter 6, The Wise Man

Chenrezig, Dharmakaya, and Swastik

"The disposition is empty of the adventitious stains,
Which are characterized by their total separateness.
But it is not empty of the unsurpassed qualities,
Which have the character of total inseparability."

- Maitreya, Uttaratantra Shastra, I, 155

Bodhi Nirvana, Chenrezig, and Dharmakaya

I went surfing

Hi, I am a NationStates traveller and here I am!

Bodhi Nirvana, Chenrezig, Lord Buddha, and Wolf android 15

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