Differences in religion??
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In yur point of view we just surpass all suffering and goes into a state of nothingless. And we are just something with no feeling or watsoever?
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Originally posted by Daniel88:
In yur point of view we just surpass all suffering and goes into a state of nothingless. And we are just something with no feeling or watsoever?
Yupz, that's a rough description of AEN's belief. -
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Maitreya's 'Birthday' is 18th Feb last year, 7th Feb this year, translated from Lunar calendar. It is actually 1st January if you use Georgian calendar. That's the day Maitreya will be born in future. We celebrate his 'birthday' every year. Doesn't mean he has come.
He will come millions/billions of years later.
oh birthday ah... i musta got mixed up or something...
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who bigger by rank?
Jade Emperor?
Buddha?and really got Fighting Buddha?
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Originally posted by Daniel88:
In yur point of view we just surpass all suffering and goes into a state of nothingless. And we are just something with no feeling or watsoever?
No. When we become freed from all illusions, we can live an ordinary life like anybody else. We continue to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, think, after enlightenment but no longer are we deluded by them, no longer do we cling to them. In fact we will find the bliss in Life, but Life without a Center or a Self (we realise there never has been a Center or a Self in the first place, apart from the process of life). Naturally of course, we also stop fearing death.
All seeing, hearing, etc, are the pure functioning or Buddha-Nature or Pure Awareness. (And our Buddha-Nature has been ever-present, with no beginning nor an end, never lost at any moment for countless aeons, and doesn't increase upon enlightenment... but upon awakening it becomes realised, like the clouds of intellectual (erroneous views of reality) and emotional (greed, anger, jealousy, pride, etc) obscurations blocking the Sun of Awareness (Buddha-Nature) that was ever-present finally becomes dispelled and Reality as-it-is reveals. Even though the clouds of intellectual and emotional obcurations has prevented us from seeing our Reality as-it-is, nevertheless it is still there shining through the clouds, otherwise there would not be any awareness at all (no light shining upon the world), no awareness of anything. Our Buddha-Nature is also described as being like a mirror, having the capacity to reflect everything as it is whether ugly or bad, or belonging to samsara or nirvana. That is why "Even though one says that it exists, it does not actually exist (is empty of substantial or inherent existence). On the other hand as a source, it is the origin of the diversity of all the bliss of Nirvana and all of the sorrow of Samsara." and "It is the single nature of mind that encompasses all of Samsara and Nirvana." -- Padmasambhava
Everything we experience is an expression of luminous Buddha-Nature, pure presence or awareness. Anyway the point I want to say is the goal of Buddhism is not about entering a state of nihilism. As Guru Padmasambhava states about our nature, "it is not a mere nothingness or something annihilated because it is lucid and present.")
Normally human beings experience things through a point of reference, and that point of reference is the Self, the Observer, the Doer, etc. It is the sense that there is a truly existing and permanent Agent/Self that is behind acting, observing, basically experiencing life. Or, a soul, a ghost in the machine. And what they see, hear, etc, appers to them to be 'external objects separate from himself', appearing to have a substantial inherent existence.
Not understanding the 3 dharma seals (the three characteristics of phenomena/the nature of reality) which is Impermanence, Suffering and No-Self, -- and Empty -- we continue to impute the false sense of a separate self upon our sensate reality, and we continue to grasp on what we perceived as inherently existing entities.
When realisation into the nature of reality (Emptiness) dawns, all clinging and attachments and sufferings end. Sights, sensations, thoughts, etc, continue to arise but are no longer viewed through a reference point of a Self, are no longer grasped due to ignorance, which is like an illness causing us to hallucinate/project imaginary reality. (sutras describe this as being like a cataract that cause us to see flowers in the empty sky)
Zen Teacher Charlotte Joko Beck, author of 'Everyday Zen':
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What does it mean to shatter our usual way of seeing our life? My ordinary experience of life is centered around myself. After all, I am experiencing these ongoing impressions - I can't have your experience of your life. I always have my own. And what inevitably happens is that I come to believe that there is an "I" central to my life, since the experiences of my life seem to be centered around "I". "I" see, "I" hear, "I" feel, "I" think, "I" have this opinion. We rarely question this "I." Now in the enlightened state there is no "I"; there is simply life itself, a pulsation of timeless energy whose very nature includes -or is - everything.
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To talk on the razor's edge is to do that; we have once again to be what we basically are, which is seeing, touching, hearing, smelling; we have to experience whatever our life is, right this second. If we're upset we have to experience being upset. If we're frightened, we have to experience being frightened. If we're jealous we have to experience being jealous. And such experiencing is physical; it has nothing to do with the thoughts going on about the upset.
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It's not that "I" hear the birds, it's just hearing the birds. Let yourself be seeing, hearing, thinking. That is what sitting is. It is the false "I" that interrupts the wonder with the constant desire to think about "I." And all the while the wonder is occurring, the birds sing, the cars go by, the body sensations continue, the heart beating - life is a second-by-second miracle, but dreaming our I-dreams we miss it. So let's just sit with what may seem like confusion. Just feel it, be it, appreciate it. Then we may more often see through the false dream which obscures our life. And then, what is there?..................
And to substitute one conditioning for another is to miss the point of practice. The point is not that a positive emotion is better than a negative one, but that all thoughts and emotions are impermanent, changing, or (in Buddhist terms) empty. They have no reality whatsoever. Our only freedom is in knowing, from years of observation and experiencing, that all personally centered thoughts and emotions (and the actions born of them) are empty. They are empty; but if they are not seen as empty they can be harmful. When we realize this we can abandon them. When we do, very naturally we enter the space of wonder.
This space of wonder - entering into heaven - opens when we are no longer caught up in ourselves: when no longer "It is I," but "It is Thou." I am all things when there is no barrier. -
Originally posted by youyayu:
who bigger by rank?
Jade Emperor?
Buddha?and really got Fighting Buddha?
No Fighting Buddha. Buddhism is a teaching that emphasizes on non-violence and compassion.
Jade Emperor is a deva, devas are under the 6 realms of existence and has not been freed from birth and death. Buddha has transcended samsaric transmigration.
Buddha has been known as the 'Teacher of Gods and Men': http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/jootla/wheel414.html
To My Teachers
My Parents, and
My Husband
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 -
Originally posted by angel7030:
Oh no, u see, the markets had lots of products for you choose, let say a pair of shoes, you may want Reebok, addidas, nike, panda, or simply bata..it depend on your budgets and your lifestyle, so you bought what you think it suit you, and in the end you get a pair of shoes on your feet.Tho religions are not same as thing, but the markets remain the same, you got Buddhism (which some say it is not a religion but a study of human doctrines), Islam, Christianity, taosim, etc etc etc, and within each religions, there are many more branches and different way of practicing. There are many heavens and hells, just like you can go to Takashimaya, Plaza Singapura, city plaza to buy your shoes etc etc, you decide what you want, study it, understand it, and once if you feels that is the one for you, go for it, believe in it and practice the good of it. Dun worry, take your time, for all the different heavens can wait for you, just that hell cannot wait.
i like your logic. i agree with you, that one should choose the religion most suitable for him, instead of blindly following the religion he was born into.
i prefer to go around barefoot, in that sense.