Where's Buddha?

Any mirror will do.

from JoeUser Forums
With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



As we practice, we will daily chant the three refuges, Namu kie Bu, Namu kie Ho, Namu kie So. These are the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We see these as both independent and interdependent. A very real, not mystical, one and many.



The Buddha is our original Teacher and his mind, yet his Mind pre-existed, still exists, and will always exist. Buddha, in this sense is the Infinite, not the little statue, but the Universal Mind that is the complete ground of being. An awakened human being has unfolded this Universal Mind. The Dharma is this reality. The Sangha is this reality in people practicing the Way together.



So these three treasures are omnipresent regardless of their names. In fact, names are toxic to them. A Catholic priest who has awakened understands this; a Baptist who has awakened understands this; a Jew who has awakened understands this, a Muslim who has awakened understands this, even an atheist or agnostic who has awakened understands this. It is the lessor ones, the ones with eyes half open, walking along the way, but still stuck on the name of the street, that has that stumbles on the rocks of names and identification with names.



Our practice is a practice of letting go of names and identification with names. Our practice is a practice of universality. Buddha is: God, Infinite, Christ, Messianic Ideal, Allah, Tao, Earth, Universe, you, me, awake to itself and its own true nature.



So, where is the dharma? In your big toe, in your bible, in your heart, in your mind, in the grass, in all domains of nature. Zen is nothing more or less than the Way to realize this.



Be well.
religion
1,137 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Not intending to derail your thread, friend, but my wife and I, both of us Buddhists, were wondering if you had seen this.

We would both be very interested on your take of it.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
With palms together,
Such a crazy thing. I'd laugh, but they are serious and the result of (oddly enough) incredibly materialistic thinking. I really don't think a discussion of this would derail this post's thread (assuming one develops) as it speaks directly to the issue.

Re-incarnation is incredibly misunderstood and distorted. We must understand Shakyamuni Buddha taught in a context and differently as that context changed. It wasn't the the dharma changed, the dharma is the dharma is the dharma. How it is perceived and then transmitted changes and adapts to varying conditions.

On the most basic level, and from an interior point of view, there is no transmigration of soul as there is no soul to migrate. From an exterior point of view, there is "soulness" and that varieties of soulness such as the paramitas or compassion. A person may manifest these universal aspects, perhaps the aspect of compassion and be a "re-incarnation (or more accurately, an incarnation) of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

Do the Chinese, materialist as they are, see the Incarnation as a literal phenomenon? I wouldn't know, but I wouldn't be surprised. People who have not looked deeply into their own nature have a very materialistic view of their identity. More to the point for the Chinese, however, is the political issue. What sort of Dalai Lama would it be if that lama were not complete and total compassion made manifest in a human body? Short answer, no sort.

Be well.
Siege of Centauri