Can I be Buddha?
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Yes... since I have said several times.... no matter who you are, evil or good, stupid or smart, your Buddha Nature is wholly complete. Buddha Nature does not become lessened when you are deluded, nor does it increase when you become wise. Hence Heart Sutra says 'neither increase nor decrease'. It is therefore only a matter of time that he embarks on the spiritual journey towards Buddhahood. Everyone.Originally posted by shade343:Is buddhahood meant for all?
However, neutral_onliner made a very good point, it is only in the Human realm that we can truly cultivate
Not even in the celestial realms... All the more we should cherish this human life, practise the dharma, and attain enlightenment quickly. -
Everyone can be a Buddha , thus said by the Famous Pureland Master of Taiwan
the late Venerable Master Guang Qing
If your go around Buddhist free distribution centre, will happen to see this book known as <>
It is translating his work in English
He have been verified as one of the attained master in Pureland and Chan Buddhism
The founder of Cheng Tian Chan Monastery in Taiwan ,He practise Chan and Pureland ,and on his funeral ,many people saw a ray of light shining onto his coffin from the sky and several wonderful sights -
So is Buddha or God greater?
If its God, then maybe I should be worshipping God instead?
Someone said even Buddha is bounded physically.. -
So, if its Buddha, you worship Buddha?
I dont think real Buddhists worship Buddha. -
Before I start to reply you... I will make it known to you what Buddhism meant by 'celestial realms'. (from The Earth People: Genesis in Buddhism
There are three fields of heaven/celestial planes, altogether there are 28 heavens:
(i) Field of Desires:
Within the Field of Desires, there are:
Heaven of Four Heavenly Kings (Catummaharajika)
Thirty-three Heavens (Tavatimsa) - (there are 33 devas in this heaven comprising 8 devas in each direction of East, West, North and South together with the centre being that of Sakka. Sakyamuni Buddha was once the deva-king of this heaven.)
Heaven of Devas Yama
Tusita Heaven
Nirmanarati Heaven
Paranirmitavasavartin Heaven
(ii) Field of Forms:
Above the Field of Desires is the Field of Forms where beings delight in Jhanic bliss achieved by renouncing sense-desires. This field consists of 4 Dhyana Heavens - the Heaven of 1st Dhyana, the Heaven of 2nd Dhyana, the Heaven of 3rd Dhyana and the Heaven of 4th Dhyana.
In the Heaven of the 1st Dhyana or Jhana, there are:
- The Heaven of Brahma's Retinue
- The Heaven of Brahma's Ministers
- The Heaven of Maha Brahma (Sakyamuni Buddha was once the heavenly king of this heaven)
In the Heaven of the 2nd Dhyana, there are:
- The Heaven of Minor Lustre
- The Heaven of Infinite Lustre
- The Heaven of Light-sound or Radiant Lustre
In the Heaven of the 3rd Dhyana, there are:
- The Heaven of Minor Purity
- The Heaven of Infinite Purity
- The Heaven of Extensive Purity
In the Heaven of the 4th Dhyana, there are:
- The Heaven of blessing-arising
- The Heaven of blessing-attached
- The Heaven of vast-reward
- The Heaven of no thought
- The Heaven of no vexation
- The Heaven of no heat
- The Heaven of virtue-view
- The Heaven of virtue-appear
- The Heaven of form ultimate
(iii) Field of Formless:
There are 4 other heavens within this Field of Formless. The heavens are totally devoid of matter or bodies. These are:
The Sphere of infinite space
The Sphere of boundless consciousness
The Sphere of nothingness and
The Sphere of no thought, no no-thought
From the above three Fields, there are altogether 28 levels of heavens. -
Buddhism tells you there isn't even a need to worship Buddha, God, or gods. No need to worship anyone. Most important thing is that you live your life blissfully, liberated, and attain wisdom - by practising the dharma in your life.Originally posted by SocialOutcast:So is Buddha or God greater?
If its God, then maybe I should be worshipping God instead?
Someone said even Buddha is bounded physically..
As you can see above, there are three fields of Heaven - the Sensual field, the Form field, and the Formless field. Nobody in the world up to the 4th Jhana heaven, including gods, or even the Maha Brahma ("God") is not physically bounded. And even the 5th Jhana to 8th Jhana heaven, although the Brahmas have surpassed the realm of 'form', into 'formlessness', the Brahmas will have to suffer impermanence. Even after lets say.. billions of years, according to which plane he is residing in, he will eventually be reborn although he is not aware of it. But the Buddha is fully aware - fully omniscient. He was even aware and stated the lifespan of each celestial realm - ranging up to many many billions of years.
And there does 'God' reside? Actually, it was the Maha Brahma residing in the 1st Jhana plane, who propogated the view that he was the Creator. He was deluded into thinking that he created the world, and lives eternally. Neither was he aware that there were higher celestial planes above him. Even the celestial beings worship him as the al-mighty Creator. Please see the article How the Brahma believed He was God?. It was only after the Buddha talked to him did the Maha Brahma realised his mistakes.
Only when you attain NIRVANA - will you be freed from samsara (where the six realms of transmigration exists), from impermanence, from sufferings, forever. Nirvana is the highest bliss of clarity. It is beyond time and space. Nothing that the mind can ever perceive. Then why did Buddha appeared on Earth? Just for the sake of saving sentient beings like us out of great compassion. I believe this has been elaborated in previous posts. -
Originally posted by _wanderer_:
Some people may have already replied you... but I haven't got time to finish reading all their posts.
Indeed the Buddha is not a God. However, the Buddha is the teacher of gods and men. He has perfected wisdom and compassion (methods) and is able to help himself and others to attain Nirvana - a state of Enlightenment that is beyond the pain of dualism.
What is dualism? It is the fixated concepts of good/bad, high/low; it is fixation, rigidity, grasping, attachment.
"Heaven is good/desirable and hell is bad/scary." These are dualistic notions, which the Buddha has seen their nature as impermanent, dissatisfactory and painful. Whether one is born in heaven, hell or any other realm, one's existence ensures that one will experience the dukkha of birth, old age, sickness, death and so forth.
Gods are not of higher rank than the Buddha and cannot be, for Gods, like us, are tied by the ignorance of dualism. They are still happy about existence, about getting what they want, and scared about death, angry/unhappy when they don't get what they want. They are swayed by changing conditions and hence are not free. [P/S: Look at how the Christian God describes himself to be a Jealous God; and the stories of how local Chinese deities get angry over their devotees...]
The Buddha, on the other hand, is beyond dualism, beyond birth and death, beyond the 6 realms of rebirth, beyond happiness/sadness, beyond good/bad. Thus, attaining Buddhahood is the ultimate liberation and is beyond comparison. -
It is an irrelevant question. Because they are two totally different approach. One is an Apple, the other is an Orange.
Buddha is in a state of Wholeness or Oneness. Everthing is one entity.
Big and small are ONE - breaks away the boundary of size
Here and There are ONE - breaks away the boundary of space / distance
Past, Present, Future are ONE - breaks away the boundary of time
It breaks away from the law of opposite polarity. Hence to be physically bounded is not right. Because everything is empty and in emptiness, there is no boundary. (yi4 Zhen1 Fa3 Jie4)
God still has heaven, hell and earth which itself is a space and bounded to them. Not Empty.
There is NO who is greater. In the eyes of all Buddhas, every sentinent being is a Buddha. Because at his state, the you that He sees, is the He that He is. Because you and Him is again ONE.
Buddha is a great Teacher. His objective is to help all sentient beings to develope wisdom from within and see the inner core true-self - AWAKEN. So as to break away from samsara.
No worries. You have your choice to choose what you want to believe in.
There is this common chinese phrase in Buddhist community - Lai2 Zhe3 Bu3 Ju4, Qu4 Zhe3 Bu3 Liu2.
Amituofo.
Originally posted by SocialOutcast:So is Buddha or God greater?
If its God, then maybe I should be worshipping God instead?
Someone said even Buddha is bounded physically.. -
Laurence: Well of course...if buddha is the real God then I will worship Buddha
Surely that makes sense to you as well?
But I'm still confused...the 'God' that someone mentioned is 'deluded'? How can God be deluded..then he is not all knowing and therefore not god..
And also Buddha is a teacher of men and gods? How do you define 'gods'? -
Buddha is not God, he is a person like you and me. The difference is He has awakened / Enlightened.
First of all, we should baseline the defination of a God. As the meaning of a God is different from people to religions.
In Buddhism context, there are many Gods and Deities. There are many levels of heaven and many floors of hell. There are also innumerable worlds and galaxies, each with heavens and hells and other realms. But each and every one has boundary.
Being a God means there is a space and in-Control. Because the God must take charge. And the Gods are still within the six realms, because he is in Heaven. So his knowledge is still within the boundaries of His control. Anything out of this context is unexplainable.
Buddha in a state of perfect bliss and ONENESS, he is already out of the boundary of all realms (including Heaven). Total and Complete Freedom. His knowledge is borderless. There is no boundary in Emptiness.
Two different destination.
Hope this help.Originally posted by SocialOutcast:Laurence: Well of course...if buddha is the real God then I will worship Buddha
Surely that makes sense to you as well?
But I'm still confused...the 'God' that someone mentioned is 'deluded'? How can God be deluded..then he is not all knowing and therefore not god..
And also Buddha is a teacher of men and gods? How do you define 'gods'? -
There are at least few thousands sutras, they record down spoken words from buddha and some bodhisatvas.
Just the Da4 Zhang4 jing1 alone already consist of a few thousands and is written in chinese (Wen2 Yan2 Wen2), which is an ancient version of chinese language. The late master Yin Sun from Taiwan himself has finished reading it for a number of times.
I don't know who else did that before. Really amazing.
Regardless which dharma doors or which sutras that you focus on, you must stick to the basic teaching, 5 precepts, karma, avoid evil, purify minds, get rid of 3 poisons.
Meditation is also a very good practise that can benefit all dharma doors. Some buddhists like to do chanting because it gives them merits and reduce sins. Meditation comes handy in a way that when you are in ding4 state, you can chant 1 thousand or even 10 thousands times in a second, this will greatly improve the effectiveness of your chanting.
There are really many sutras you can find. Better still if you can read chinese because most of them is still in chinese. If you are really serious about it, go and learn wenyanwen, so you will be able to read each and every mahayana sutras. -
buddha's lifestyle can be very boring you know?Originally posted by SocialOutcast:Few questions to answer:
1. Is there anyway I can be a buddha?
2. How do you know that everything is not real and a construct by the mind only?
3. Is Buddha a god? If so, why did he die? If not, what is his reason to be on earth? Where is he now?
4. How many buddhist sutras are there, who wrote them and where can i get them? -
Well, perhaps you have not read my post carefullyOriginally posted by SocialOutcast:Laurence: Well of course...if buddha is the real God then I will worship Buddha
Surely that makes sense to you as well?
But I'm still confused...the 'God' that someone mentioned is 'deluded'? How can God be deluded..then he is not all knowing and therefore not god..
And also Buddha is a teacher of men and gods? How do you define 'gods'?
In Buddhism, we do NOT worship anyone, even the Buddha. The Buddha and us are teacher-to-student relationship. There is no need at all to worship any gods... or 'God'.
And perhaps, I have not made it clear or you have mistaken what I meant, Buddhism does not believe in a Creator. There is no such thing as an almighty 'God' that created the entire universe, and such speculations are also of no use in our spiritual development. It is the Maha Brahma who propogated the view that he was the al-mighty creator due to his delusion. And yes, he was not omniscient even though he claimed to be. Only the Buddha had attained omniscience. I will post more on the Maha Brahma in the next post.
As for 'Teacher of men and gods', it means that the Buddha is the teacher of both humanity and the celestial realms. Shakyamuni Buddha had 10 titles* - and one of the commonly known name is 'Teacher of Men and Gods'.
Also see this very interesting article - Teacher of the Devas:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/jootla/wheel414.html
Teacher of the Devas (Devas means Celestial Beings)
Contents
* I. Introduction
* II. The Buddha Teaches Deities
* III. Devas and Brahmas Honor the Buddha
* IV. The Role of Devas in the Buddha's Career
* V. Liberation for Humans, Devas, and Brahmas
* Notes
* Abbreviations
* Bibliography
---------------
* The ten titles of Shakyamuni Buddha are: (1) Tathagata, 'thus-come,' one who has come from Thusness or Suchness; (2) Arhat, 'one worthy of receiving alms'; (3) Samyaksambuddha, 'fully enlightened'; (4) Vidya-carana-sampanna, 'one having wisdom and practice'; (5) Sugata, 'well-gone,' one who has attained emancipation; (6) Lokavid, 'the knower of the world'; (7) Anuttara, 'the unsurpassed'; (
Purusa-damya-sarathi, 'the tamer of men'; (9) Shasta deva-manusyanam, 'the teacher of gods and men'; (10) Buddha-bhagavat or Buddha-lokanatha, 'the enlightened and world-honored one.' -
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
In Buddha's days there were many many different teachings, one popular one was Brahmanism. In fact the Brahma was still worshipped nowadays. Brahma was known to be "The Supreme One, the All-mighty, the All-seeing, the Ruler, the Lord of all, the Maker, the Creator, the Chief of All".
In Buddhism, the Mahabrahma resides in the 1st Jhana plane, the first plane among the 8 jhanic planes. There were higher realms above where he lives that he was unaware of, and above it all, beyond the 8 Jhanic planes and all Samsaric planes, is Nirvana. Nevertheless all the devas below the 1st Jhana planes considered him as the Creator God. Buddha did not suscribed to the belief of such a notion that the Universe and its Inhabitants were the Creation of the Mahabrahma. He met with the Brahma, asked him questions which he could not answer. Eventually he has took refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.
The Buddha was also known to have said this,
If the creator of the world entire
They call God, of every being be the Lord
Why does he order such misfortune
If the creator of the world entire
They call God, of every being be the Lord
Why prevail deceit, lies and ignorance
And he such inequity and injustice create?
If the creator of the world entire
They call God, of every being be the Lord
Then an evil master is he, (O Aritta)
Knowing what's right did let wrong prevail!
When the previous universe was destroyed and this universe was formed, the Mahabrahma was first to be reborned. Other subsequent brahmas/devas were to be reborned.
'On this, brethren, the one who was first reborn thinks thus to himself: " I am Brahmà , the Great Brahmà , the Supreme One, the Mighty, the All-seeing, the Ruler, the Lord of all, the Maker, the Creator, the Chief of all, appointing to each his place, the Ancient of days the Father of all that are and are to be. 'These other beings are of my creation. And why is that so ? A while ago I thought, 'Would that they might come!' And on my mental aspiration, behold the beings came." DN 1 2:5
In reality, the universe works by the law of Karma and he has no control over the system of karma.
The Venerable Ledi Sayadaw, a highly renowned Myanmar scholar-monk of the first part of this century, gave a careful analysis of the powers of Maha Brahma in his Niyama Dipani (MB pp. 138-39). He states that although Maha Brahma can perform all sorts of transformations, he cannot actually create independent creatures, change the kammic law of cause and effect, or keep anyone from growing old or dying. Brahma can use his special powers to transport a man to the brahma plane for a short visit, but he cannot ensure that someone will be reborn there.
from http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol5no3f.htm:
When he came to know about Sakyamuni Buddha in the human world who speaks of the universal truth, he was curious and arrived at the human world with the intention to debate with the Buddha. The Buddha, with his ability to know another's mind, knew his intention and asked, "You claim to be the creator of the human race and all things in the universe, is this a fact?"
The king replied, "Yes, it is."
Buddha continued to question him, "Since you created life, why did you also create death? Is death created by you too?"
The king paused for while, and thinking that everyone loves life and nobody welcomes death, he replied, "I did not create death."
Buddha asked him again, "All human beings experience sickness, did you create sickness also?" The king knew that nobody likes to be ill, and he replied, "I did not create illness."
Buddha asked many questions in succession, but the king denied that he created them. Eventually, he admitted that he did not create the universe and all things in it, and certainly not the human race. The king of heavens was full of regrets and he felt ashamed. Finally, he accepted Buddha as his teacher and invited Him to spread the Dharma in the heavens.
-----------------------------
http://www.mahindarama.com/e-library/whybuddhism2.html
"To those who talked about the first cause of this world, the Buddha responded by saying that it is impossible to find a first cause since everything is changing, interdependent and conditioned by other things. Something that acts as the cause in the present may become the effect in the future. Later that same effect may again become the cause. Such phenomenon continues ad infinitum. It is called the universal law of Anicca or impermanency."
However, Buddhism is largely Agnostic rather than Atheist. We believe that speculations on creation does not help in our spiritual practise, enlightenment, and liberation from samsara.
"Malunkhyaputta Sutta stresses that whether the universe was created or uncreated, finite or infinite, is irrelevant to our main spiritual concerns: the cause and cessation of suffering:
"Therefore Malunkhyaputta, bear the undeclared as undeclared. Malunkhyaputta, what are the not declared? The world is eternal, is not declared by me. The world is not eternal, is not declared by me. They are not essential for the principles of the holy life, they do not lead to turning away, to detachment, to cessation, to appeasement, to realisation, to enlightenment and to extinction. Malunkhyaputta, what are the declared by me? This, is unpleasant, is declared. This, is its arising, is delcared. This, is its cessation is declared. This is the path to its cessation, is declared. Malunkhyaputta, why are these declared by me? These are the essentials for the principles of the holy life, they lead to turning away, to detachment, to cessation, to appeasement, to realisation, to enlightenment and to extinction. Malunkhyaputta, I declare them." MN 64" -
[double post]
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:http://hhdl.dharmakara.net/hhdlquotes22.html
The Dalai Lama's conversation on God/Creator/Primordial Buddha
A: Why is there no creation possible in Buddhism? It has been said that one cannot find living beings at the becoming of the universe for the essential reason that causes have no beginning. If there were a beginning to the universe, there would also have to be a beginning to consciousness. If we accepted a beginning to consciousness, we would also have to accept that its cause has a beginning, a sudden cause which would have instantly produced consciousness; this would lead to a great many other questions. If consciousness had arisen without cause, or from a permanent cause, that cause would have to exist on. a permanent basis, always, or not exist at all, ever. The fact that a phenomenon exists intermittently proves that it depends on causes and conditions. When all the conditions are met, the phenomenon is produced. When those conditions are absent or incomplete, the phenomenon does not appear. As causes have no beginning and stretch back to infinity, the same thing must apply for living beings. Creation is therefore not possible. (continued in the webpage) -
Boring is really a matter of perspective.Originally posted by dragg:buddha's lifestyle can be very boring you know?
Buddha was never bored at all throughout his 49 years of teaching the dharma to countless sentient beings after his Enlightenment. In fact, he was bored of the sensual lifestyle he used to have as a prince... as he saw the impermanence and emptiness of such enjoyment. -
Interesting how 'creation is not possible' is not becuase it is really impossible, but because it will 'raise more questions'. Why is he reluctant to seach for answers? Is he just happy to know what he knows? Anyway scientists today agree that the universe had a beginning..Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
And from the conversations that Buddha had, it seems to be that there is a greater being than Buddha himself...ie. the real Creator (not those who claim they are).
Any thought on this? -
The Buddha's refutation of the God-concept was formulated some 2500 years ago, perhaps at the very time that the idea of a single supreme God was mooted in India and in the Middle East. With the rise of modern science, and the discovery of natural causes for phenomena, which were formerly ascribed to the action of God, some philosophers have restated the basic fallacies of the God-hypothesis using modern science and logic (and not the Buddha's Dhamma) as their point of departure. Yet many people in the world formally subscribe to the notion of God. What is the Buddhist explanation for this phenomenon?
There are many causes for the persistence of the God-idea. Some of these are induced by social and other factors. These include the institutionalization of theistic religion, the use of vast economic resources to propagate it including the mass media, and the legal right given to parents to impose their religions on their children. There is also the attractiveness of vicarious salvation, or salvation through prayer or forgiveness which permits the committing of many moral crimes for which the doer does not "pay". We shall not consider these here. From the Buddhist point of view the root causes are ignorance and fear, with fear itself ultimately the product of ignorance. Atheistic materialism has failed to dislodge the God-idea not because of any deficiency of its arguments when compared to those put forward by the theists, but because it too has not been able to eliminate ignorance.
The ignorance (avijjâ) that is meant here cannot be eliminated by formal education and the propagation of scientific knowledge. After all some leading scientists are themselves completely deluded by theistic suppositions. The progress of science has resulted only in a minor diminution in the power of theistic religion, and in any case theologians have become adept at "reinterpreting" dogma while the general followers continue to do what they have always done.
The Buddha himself grasped the over-pervading nature of ignorance because of his titanic struggle to liberate himself. He even initially displayed some reluctance to propagate his knowledge because of the formidable nature of the task. Nonetheless he proclaimed his knowledge out of compassion for the world because he felt that at least a few "with little dust in their eyes" would be able to benefit fully from his ideas. From the Buddhist point of view the persistence of theism, with all its evil consequences seen in history, is a necessary consequence of the persistence of ignorance.
While intellectual and scientific knowledge is not the sole (or even essential) constituent of wisdom it could in the modern world with high levels of educational attainment be a good basis for it. But what is really required is the cultivation of the mind (bhâvanâ, samâdhi). This is usually referred to as "meditation" even though this term is quite inadequate to convey the full implications of what is meant. Many modern-day "meditation teachers" do not give instruction in Buddhist mental culture, and even some of those who claim to do so may take a literal view of a few classic Buddhist texts on the subject. The Buddhist path requires a correct balance between three components: wisdom, morality and mental culture. Progress in all these three areas must be made simultaneously, and exclusive concentration on any one these, especially "meditation" of a highly stylized form, is not the balanced path. The Buddha has asked all his disciples to go to the Dhamma as their guide rather than to specific teachers. The Buddha's final instruction to his followers was to "work out your own salvation with diligence" with the Buddha's teaching (the Dhamma) as the only guide.
The path of the Buddha cannot be followed if a person is deluded by the notion of God. This is why a correct understanding of all the ramifications of the God-idea is essential for anyone seeking to progress along the Buddhist path to total liberation.
In Buddhism, there is not, as in most other religions, an Almighty God to be
obeyed and feared. The Buddha does not believe in a cosmic potentate,
omniscient and omni-present. In Buddhism there are no divine revelations or
divine messengers. A Buddhist is, therefore, not subservient to any higher
supernatural power which controls his destinies and which arbitrarily
rewards and punishes. Since Buddhists do not believe in revelations of a
divine being, Buddhism does not claim the monopoly of truth and does not
condemn any other religion. But Buddhism recognises the infinite latent
possibilities of man and teaches that man can gain deliverance from
suffering by his own efforts independent of divine help or mediating priests.
Buddhism cannot, therefore, strictly be called a religion because it is
neither a system of faith and worship, nor "the outward act or form by which
men indicate their recognition of the existence of a God or gods having
power over their own destiny to whom obedience, service, and honour are due." -
too bad i just dont see it.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Boring is really a matter of perspective.
Buddha was never bored at all throughout his 49 years of teaching the dharma to countless sentient beings after his Enlightenment. In fact, he was bored of the sensual lifestyle he used to have as a prince... as he saw the impermanence and emptiness of such enjoyment.
thats why i can never reach enlightenment. -
By logical and analytical deduction, creatorism does not make sensed. This is what the HHDL is trying to point out.. which I agree. In Buddhism, speculations about whether the world is Created, or there was a Creator, is not necessary or important in our spiritual development towards our inner enlightenment.Originally posted by SocialOutcast:Interesting how 'creation is not possible' is not becuase it is really impossible, but because it will 'raise more questions'. Why is he reluctant to seach for answers? Is he just happy to know what he knows? Anyway scientists today agree that the universe had a beginning..
And from the conversations that Buddha had, it seems to be that there is a greater being than Buddha himself...ie. the real Creator (not those who claim they are).
Any thought on this?
Buddha has himself enlightened to the truth of liberation - not liberation as in being reborn in somewhere very enjoyable in the next life, like the heavens, but liberated from all vexations, afflictions, sufferings, illusion, right here in this world. Right here we can experience the Highest Bliss. Once enlightened there is without a single doubt left because he has seen the nature of reality. This is what the Buddha taught. Liberation of Samsara/Dukkha is the aim, not necessarily seeking something far away - only to be temporarily sheltered from sufferings but is not a worthy source of refuge because it is not beyond Conditioned Phenomena and Impermanence.
No other religions teach liberation and the purification of the mind. Remember the mind is source of all these troubles and if we want to treat the problems - if we want to get rid of the impurities in the world, the only way is to purify the human's mind. When the mind is purified, the entire world will be purified, thus a Pure Land on this very Earth will be found.
BTW neutral_onliner, have I talked to you before? Are you from IRC? You type pretty fast and seem knowledgeable. -
Yes most people have not seen it. Buddha had not seen it too for many years in his palace - until seeing the Four Sights that gave him a a little insight into the nature of reality. Most people are shrouded under a mist of illusions... and will continue to be until sufferings comes in and he found good spiritual teacher to guide him.Originally posted by dragg:too bad i just dont see it.
thats why i can never reach enlightenment. -
Of course the universe had a beginning, planet earth had a beginning, chinese civilisation had a beginning, buddhism had a beginning, all religions had a beginning, etc. And all of them will go through stages of development to decay. The description of big bang does bear similarities with Buddhism. Although Buddhism does not accept a beginning, it does mention the formation and cessation of a world system.Originally posted by SocialOutcast:Anyway scientists today agree that the universe had a beginning..
Science does not tell you that there is a first cause neither does it know the exact causes and conditions. It is in the realm of unknown, but it does not mean the unknown has to be a creator God who made them. In Buddhism, there are uncountable past universes apart from the present one.
And Sinweiy have often said, the Big Bang starts and ends every moment. He could have explained in more details. Unfortunately he is away for a holiday in Thailand until Friday. -
The concept of "Intelligent Design" was defeated in US court against Evolution. Not difficult to find it over the web - I believed.
There is no beginning and there is no end. The Earth itself is round and by travelling on straight, will still come back to the exact point where we have started. Same about life and death - There are already books, by the west, who have spent laborious effort doing research about reincarnation.
There is also an interesting article about the question of God or No God. I do not think that it was written by Buddhist. The queries were based on logic. http://www.stanford.edu/~pj97/God.htm. Interestingly it is from Stanford University. Written also by people from the west.
The Big Bang theory actually blends very well with Buddhism. The physical appearance of all forms is yi4 shi2 dun4 xian4 with frames of images, actually produced by our wang4 xin1. This theory also sit in perfectly well with computer software - "Objects" and hardware - "Picture frames".
The answer lies not in this argument and not from the external. The answer is really deep in our core. Once found, wisdom grows.
It probably will be more worthwhile to spend some peaceful time doing meditation, Yoga or Taichi (Qi Gong). Over time, wisdom will develope. Finding a good teacher is also important.
Ascertain for yourself with your findings. Whatever the end-result is perfectly alright. You can believe whatever you want - Sui2 Shun4 Zhong4 Shen1, Sui2 Xi3 Gong1 De2. Buddhism is such a peace-loving religion. Namo Amituofo. -
Yes... but I wld like to make a point that yoga and tai chi has different purposes, and cannot be depended upon to free ourselves from birth and death.Originally posted by concerned_man:The concept of "Intelligent Design" was defeated in US court against Evolution. Not difficult to find it over the web - I believed.
There is no beginning and there is no end. The Earth itself is round and by travelling on straight, will still come back to the exact point where we have started. Same about life and death - There are already books, by the west, who have spent laborious effort doing research about reincarnation.
There is also an interesting article about the question of God or No God. I do not think that it was written by Buddhist. The queries were based on logic. http://www.stanford.edu/~pj97/God.htm. Interestingly it is from Stanford University. Written also by people from the west.
The Big Bang theory actually blends very well with Buddhism. The physical appearance of all forms is yi4 shi2 dun4 xian4 with frames of images, actually produced by our wang4 xin1. This theory also sit in perfectly well with computer software - "Objects" and hardware - "Picture frames".
The answer lies not in this argument and not from the external. The answer is really deep in our core. Once found, wisdom grows.
It probably will be more worthwhile to spend some peaceful time doing meditation, Yoga or Taichi (Qi Gong). Over time, wisdom will develope. Finding a good teacher is also important.
Ascertain for yourself with your findings. Whatever the end-result is perfectly alright. You can believe whatever you want - Sui2 Shun4 Zhong4 Shen1, Sui2 Xi3 Gong1 De2. Buddhism is such a peace-loving religion. Namo Amituofo.