My glass is fully empty. You know that.
I know you have all Good in you as everyone has.
You have to decide why you used that part of the reply.
Regards Tony
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My glass is fully empty. You know that.
You see good in Hitler? In wars? In converting half a marriage to cause a divorce? In telling other people how to think? In speaking to people in condescending tones, designating yourself a teacher by quoting your prophet's words, he as mankind's teacher? How odd!
That was an interesting way to continue your online experiment. Really not a thing to do with what was being discussed.
Do you have any data yet? Can you confirm that Hindu have the greatest wisdom and best way to become selfless?
As we are subjects of an experiment, we would like to share in your results.
Yes, I've pretty well drawn up my personal conclusions. I won't be sharing, though. Hindus don't share.
Wow. Small town?
Ha. That sounds confusing. I think I did my search in two year intevals. From I dont know when to about fourteen, my mother introduced me to witchcraft and pagan views. At about sixteen, she took us to church out of the blue. She wanted to have the perfect family: white picket fence, christian family, labor dog, single family home, with a boy and girl and husband.
I would have never been christian if she didnt take us to church. She didnt go though. I remember saying I didnt believe in god so I wrote mt jesus prayers. I read the bible. Then I met my Catholic friend. Intrigued by devotional lifestyle I wanted to be a priest.
After five or years (of 2012 to 2014) going to Mass with my friend, her influence let me made the jump. This was during the same timeline I came out as lesbian. Not a good combination with The Church. I was offended that the Church has conversion program foe so calles homosexual attractions. Within the program they tell converts not to refer to themselves as LGBTQ.
Anyway, I slide some and studied paganism (going back to childhood). Then I practiced Zen Buddhism. I hit the wall being in the middle of the Shoshu and SGI debate.
I came back and thats when I took the precepts and now practice with the Kadampa tibetan tradition and school.
Buddha nature, the nature of being enlightened once one has full wisdom isnt like a soul, spirit, or mystical spark inside a person.
Here Buddha nature is called an embryo. Its a strictly Mahayana concept. Wiki Buddha Nature. Id have to find a non wiki source.
"According to the Ratnagotravibhāga, all sentient have "the embryo of the Tathagata" in three senses:[48]
The Ratnagotravibhāga equates enlightenment with the nirvāṇa-realm and the dharmakāya.[41] It gives a variety of synonyms for garbha, the most frequently used being gotra and dhatu.[47]"
- the Tathāgata's dharmakāya permeates all sentient beings;
- the Tathāgata's tathatā is omnipresent (avyatibheda);
- the Tathāgata's species (gotra, a synonym for tathagatagarbha) occurs in them.
They use theist terms to describe eastern concepts. That and Mahayana Buddhism, some traditions, treat The Buddha as a savior while in Theravada, there is no such concept that I know of in the suttas.
King James Bible
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
That's weird you got Buddha nature out of this. The Buddha is not god and we don't get The Dharma from an outside party, so we don't get it from The Buddha. He isn't a god nor someone we get "anything" from.
It's an "absence of" not something you get by going through anyone.
This is the result of enlightenment. Buddha nature (the potential nature/seed of an enlightened nature) just means the potential to be enlightened not the enlightened. The "seed" of enlightenment. Ten Tai tradition sees every thing with a Buddha nature, animals and plants included.
Did The Buddha create suffering and compassion?
The Dharma isn't physical.
About BDK: You would think-> BDK (Bukkyo Kendo KaiyoKai)
Quick note on Buddha Nature and Omnicent Mind (Not The Buddha Siddhartha)
Knowing the mind
With transcript under the audio
Thubten Chodron is a Tibetan Buddhist
“Is the Buddha’s omniscient mind permanent?” No, because if it were permanent it
couldn’t change, which means it couldn’t perceive anything. It perceives everything, so it changes. It is conditioned. Regarding the wisdom aspect: the wisdom truth body of the Buddha’s mind is a conditioned phenomena. The nature body of the Buddha’s mind, which is the emptiness of true existence. The objective existence of phenomena through their own entity without being posited by thought."phenomenon. We talked about this some time ago and so those videos are somewhere on YouTube. But they’re there because we went through this. We talked about the four bodies of the Buddha. We need to hear these things many times because we don’t always get it at first. We don’t always get it the second, third, fourth or fifth time."
Each of our Buddha Nature cannot be something permanent such as a soul. It is ever changing (impermanent) so one moment is not the same as the next.
We each have our unique journey. I suppose if your mother had wanted you to attend church and become a Christian, it would have helped if she had followed that path too. What faith does she have now? It seems a little odd for an American of African descent to go to church to embrace some kind of middle class, white ideal.
I attended church from age 5 through to about 12 years old as my parents role-modelled. During my teens, religion wasn't important and became something I thought about only occasionally. It wasn't until I was 21 that I seriously focused on religion spirituality and that search culminated in becoming a Baha'i five years later.
It is. It's not something I can give up since I can't change who I am regardless of who I am with and what I do. When you are defined as someone you are not, you kinda feel icky about it for lack of better words.It must be hard identifying with being gay and then being part of a faith that negates this important part of who you are.
I've seen some intense fights between Christians over the years so its no surprise Buddhism is prone to schism and disunity too.
It sounds like Buddhism is very well established in your locality with a variety of communities and practices to choose from. Its good that you have found your way back after the negative SGI experience.
Thanks for the link that outlines some of the evolution of Buddhist thought in regards to what it means to acquire the Buddha nature. I realise you are...
Since the mind of Amida Buddha with all its boundless potentialities of love and wisdom is compassion itself, Buddha can save all.
The most wicked of people -- those who commit unbelievable...
Those who are thus able to recite the holy name, when they come to the end of life, will be met by Amida Buddha and the Bodhisattvas of Compassion and Wisdom and will be led by them into the Buddha's Land, where they will be born in all purity of the white lotus.
The Eternal One created suffering and compassion. Buddha taught how we can free...
How can one become Christ like without Christ?
How can one master his own self and attain Buddha nature without Buddha?
As Christ has stated the necessity of His own self, so too has the Buddha.
To me the Dharma is the life and teachings of the Buddha. What is it to you?
Their intent seems motivated by Buddha's teachings on purity of heart and to spread His Teachings:
"Thought I attain Buddhahood, I shall never be complete until people everywhere, hearing my name, learn right ideas about life and death, and gain that perfect wisdom that will keep their minds pure and tranquil in the midst of the world's greed and suffering."
Buddha would be happy viewing all this from the perspective of being one with the Eternal.
Buddha has many forms of transfiguration and incarnation, and can manifest Himself in manifold ways according to the ability of each person.
He manifests his body in immense size to cover all the sky and stretches away into the boundless stellar spaces. He also manifests Himself in the infinitesimals of nature, sometimes in forms, sometimes in energy, sometimes in aspects of mind, and sometimes in personality.
Impermanence refers to the phenomenal world, not the unseen realm. Emptiness is being free from our human nature so our Buddha nature is fully realised IMHO.
Yes, you certainly shouldn't be listening to me at all. I'm a non-Baha'i way outside the Baha'i box of valid religions, a lowly outcast. You should be heeding the advice of your fellow Bahai's, as they are the only onew who know the real truth.
It is excellent to be reunited with Buddhism again after such a negative experience the first time round. I'm really pleased for you.
The Tibetans were the first Buddhists to set up a Buddhist community in my town. It just so happened they purchased the house I had been living in for over half a year. I'm looking forward to going back there through the interfaith group.
It was nearly 30 years ago that I was searching for my spiritual home. On Saturday nights it would be firesides with the Baha'is, Sunday mornings chanting with the Buddhists, and Sunday evening singing praises to Jesus with the Baptists. Someone told me my weekends would be a scary proposition for most New Zealanders. It was certainly intense at the time. There was no internet back then. I've been a Baha'i for nearly 28 years now.
With BDK its just a book. I haven't had anyone come knocking at the door as yet.
Its just fantastic to contemplate the reality of Buddha. Obviously its a different experience as a Baha'i compared to when I sought my spirital abode.
Evidently there is only one way to discover our Buddha nature and that is through Buddha. It sounds a little like John 14:6 that the Christian fundamentalists like to quote:
'Once upon a time a king gathered some blind men about an elephant and asked them to tell him what an elephant was like. The first man felt a tusk and said an elephant was like a giant carrot; another happened to touch an ear and said it was like a big fan; another touched its trunk and said it was like a pestle; still another, who happened to feel its leg, said it was like a rope. Not one of them was able to tell the king the elephant's real form.
In like manner, one might partially describe the nature of man but would not be able to describe the true nature of a human being,
the Buddha nature. There is only one possible way by which the everlasting nature of man, his Buddha nature, that can not be disturbed by worldly desires or destroyed by death, can be realized, and that is by the Buddha and the Buddha's noble teaching.'
.
Adrian do you have the source for that quote - ‘There is only one possible way? ‘
Adrian do you have the source for that quote - ‘There is only one possible way? ‘
Every person has truth within them Baha’i or not.
@adrian009
There are many ways to enter into the path of enlightenment and different practices/schools that lead to the truths of enlightenment.
Seven factors of awaking
Two practices to knowledge (essay)
There are many possible ways towards one goal. The appropriate way to say it it is there are many ways (edit) to one enlightenment (not a universal Truth; only to practitioners devoted to The Way and path of The Dharma).
Enlightenment is true for all people who are devoted to the practice. To those who are not, they dont have that truth (not the truth). Buddha Nature (potiental to enlightenment) is dormant until one practices The Dharma. Universal truth refers to all people. The Dharma are pecific practices for monastics and laity practitoners to obtain The Dharma truth. Its not universal. Its for devotees.
If you arent devoted to the Jewels as the only means to enlightenment, the practices wont lead you to enlightenment but practices can be helpful in general for those who want to train their mind.
Adrian do you have the source for that quote - ‘There is only one possible way? ‘
@adrian009
I love to learn and be challenged. Take your time.
From BDK Book (Pg. 134-135 The Way to Practical Attainment"
Before asking big questions like whether the universe is eternal, decern, and address whats important. For example, we are in a flux of birth, sickness, age, and death.
"Therefore, people should first decern what is of first importance, what problem should be solved, and what the first misfortune should be expected.
To do all this, they must first undertake the training of the mind, that is, they must first seek mind-control."
In christianity, one trains the heart by belief in christ. When one experiences life and love of christ, their mind is set on following christ and learning about him via scriptures.
Buddhism focuses on mind first. Everything we experience, heart ans otherwise, originates from our minds. Therefore, we first train our minds by ritual, purification (Tibetan), giving, teaching, etc as so to water the seeds after finding the weeds. Buddha nature is the absence of the weeds. Not all traditions teach this. But Id assume most teach you need to get rid of the arrow before asking questions about it.
Buddha, Truth and Brotherhood; An Epitome of Many Buddhist Scriptures
The Final Teaching of Buddha, mirrors many other scriptures I have read from the Great Beings. Would be an interesting to find those quotes and compare.
Regards Tony
I had to separate these in mini parts so I can read it all.
I was going to cut half of it but I thought this was worth the read so I split it.
I actually don't know. Now that she's getting older I hear her slipping and talk about god.
Middle class white ideal?
Most African Americans here on the east south are devout protestant Christians in culture, faith, and history. One gentleman told me that I went to a white church (Catholic) and left our culture/history of Christianity with whom has opposition to this day with The Church.
Seems around that age people start searching spiritually. I had surgery at 18, so my "search" came in my early thirties when I moved here to a predominately christian area. If I hadn't moved, I'd probably still be practicing Zen.
Here is a Dharma Talk on non-existence of a permanent self (soul/spirit in other words).
Refuting misconceptions of self
She does well in explaining Buddhist concepts through a Tibetan worldview.
Amida Buddha doesn't speak for all Buddhism especially not Theravada.
Amida would be ideal for you since it has a theistic worldview. It's not a Theravada worldview; so, among the two sides it's highly new.
Here is differences between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. and More information
Seems like you are mixing a couple of things.
1. Maitreya is from Theravada but what you are quoting is Mahayana (Younger school)
2. Theravada is more self-liberation so monastics can become enlightened arahants. (Older school: School of Elders)
continue....