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by Aemilius
Tue Mar 19, 2024 9:31 am
Forum: Pure Land
Topic: Struggling With Lotus Sutra
Replies: 4
Views: 183

Re: Struggling With Lotus Sutra

Hui Yuan was an early chinese pureland buddhist master. He writes in his commentary to the Visualization sutra that some of the Nine levels of rebirth are reserved to the followers of the sravakayana path, who converted before their death to the teaching of Amitabha. When these people have attained ...
by Aemilius
Tue Mar 19, 2024 9:16 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Enlightenment
Replies: 34
Views: 6328

Re: Enlightenment

Said previously: "The Lankavatara sutra possibly refers to it by saying that the bodhisattvas attain all the stages that the sravakas attain, but they don't get intoxicated by or stuck in these (temporary) attainments." Lankavatara sutra, Chapter Two, LVI , (translation of Red Pine), about...
by Aemilius
Mon Mar 18, 2024 9:58 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Enlightenment
Replies: 34
Views: 6328

Re: Enlightenment

By gathering the collections of merit and wisdom (punya sambhara and jñana sambhara) for innumerable lifetimes and for several or many kalpas (world cycles). This is how you attain enlightenment - however you also purify the mind and purify karma as Shakyamuni Buddha did over three kalpas. So a bri...
by Aemilius
Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:12 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Enlightenment
Replies: 34
Views: 6328

Re: Enlightenment

By gathering the collections of merit and wisdom (punya sambhara and jñana sambhara) for innumerable lifetimes and for several or many kalpas (world cycles). "Enlightenment" here means Full enlightenment (of a Buddha) or Samyak-sambodhi. You can still attain a "small enlightenment&quo...
by Aemilius
Sat Mar 16, 2024 4:05 pm
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva mahasatva
Replies: 5
Views: 306

Re: Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva mahasatva

Spiritual influences are often subtle, difficult to perceive. If we wanted to  study this phenomenon scientifically, we would have to be abe to divide your person into two separete persons: one who says the mantra, lets say for 100 days, and an another one who doesn't say the mantra at all and who d...
by Aemilius
Sat Mar 16, 2024 10:42 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: The metaphorical character of the Dhamma.
Replies: 9
Views: 626

Re: The metaphorical character of the Dhamma.

Hello everyone, I'm a Brazilian new to this site and I hope to learn a lot from the discussions posted here. Reading the Tripitaka, Gotama implies that the existence of gods or not; and the existence or non-existence of life after death would be irrelevant to the practice of Dhamma, considering tha...
by Aemilius
Fri Mar 15, 2024 7:05 pm
Forum: Academic Discussion
Topic: Women involved in the early transmission of Buddhism to the West?
Replies: 3
Views: 109

Re: Women involved in the early transmission of Buddhism to the West?

https://www.advite.com/sf/photos/life8.jpg "The first five disciples to leave the home-life under the Venerable Master were ordained in Taiwan. In 1968, the Shurangama Study and Practice Summer Session was held, and over thirty students from the University of Washington in Seattle came to stud...
by Aemilius
Fri Mar 15, 2024 6:32 pm
Forum: Academic Discussion
Topic: Women involved in the early transmission of Buddhism to the West?
Replies: 3
Views: 109

Re: Women involved in the early transmission of Buddhism to the West?

"Freda Bedi (born Freda Marie Houlston; 5 February 1911 – 26 March 1977), also known as Sister Palmo or Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo, was an English-Indian social worker, writer, Indian nationalist and Buddhist nun.She was jailed in British India as a supporter of Indian nationalism and was the ...
by Aemilius
Fri Mar 15, 2024 10:47 am
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva mahasatva
Replies: 5
Views: 306

Re: Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva mahasatva

What did you do exactly? Did you recite his/her mantra or dharani? Did you read the Lotus sutra chapter on him, or meditate on his form (or her form, if Kuan Yin or Kannon)? Why wouldn't Bodhisattvas exist? There are many stories in the buddhist tradition how Kuan Yin or Avalokiteshvara has helped p...
by Aemilius
Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:43 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: another question about rebirth (continued)
Replies: 3
Views: 172

Re: another question about rebirth (continued)

The Buddha asked a Shramana, "How long is the human life span?" He replied, "A few days." The Buddha said, "You have not yet understood the Way." He asked another Shramana, "How long is the human life span?" The reply was, "The space of a meal." The ...
by Aemilius
Thu Mar 14, 2024 10:02 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: another question about rebirth (continued)
Replies: 3
Views: 172

Re: another question about rebirth (continued)

Rebirth from one moment to the next moment and rebirth from today to tomorrow is not so very different than rebirth from one life (or form) to another life (or form). You can conceptualize existence in many different ways, concepts are not "bad" in themselves. Humans in their great arrogan...
by Aemilius
Wed Mar 13, 2024 1:36 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Punyakriyavastu, places for meritorious action
Replies: 0
Views: 138

Punyakriyavastu, places for meritorious action

"The puṇya-kriyā-vastus are the places of the practicing (vastu = adhiṣthāna) of meritorious (puṇya) action (kriyā). The expression is rendered in Tibetan by bsod-nams bya-baḥi dṅos-pa, in Chinese as fou-tch’ou by Kumārajīva, as fou-ye-che by Hiuan-tsang. According to the canonical sūtras (Dīgh...
by Aemilius
Tue Mar 12, 2024 12:33 pm
Forum: Prayers and Aspirations
Topic: Prayers for innocent civilians dead in Israel and Palestine
Replies: 9
Views: 1178

Re: Prayers for innocent civilians dead in Israel and Palestine

namo amitabhaya tathagataya arhate samyaksambuddhaya namo amitabhaya tathagataya arhate samyaksambuddhaya namo amitabhaya tathagataya arhate samyaksambuddhaya namo amitabhaya tathagataya arhate samyaksambuddhaya namo amitabhaya tathagataya arhate samyaksambuddhaya namo amitabhaya tathagataya arhate...
by Aemilius
Mon Mar 11, 2024 4:20 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Rebirth in the past
Replies: 23
Views: 1462

Re: Rebirth in the past

Explain what difference “only conventionally” makes. What’s the use of feeling hungry conventionally? You are purposefully forgetting the original claim to which I was replying. The original post was: Yet he also refutes truly existing birth or rebirth too does he not? When speaking of 2 different ...
by Aemilius
Mon Mar 11, 2024 11:23 am
Forum: Media
Topic: Music time
Replies: 5271
Views: 879575

Re: Music time



Codarts Symphony Orchestra plays Jonathan Harvey's (3 May 1939 – 4 December 2012) Body Mandala in De Doelen, Rotterdam, in November 2011.
Conductor: Hans Leenders.
by Aemilius
Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:35 am
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: The heart as the seat of consiousness
Replies: 4
Views: 400

Re: The heart as the seat of consiousness

" ANANDA'S SEARCH FOR THE MIND IN SEVEN LOCATIONS by Ronald Epstein, (Originally published in Vajra Bodhi Sea, March, 1975, pp. 17-23.) The first series of doctrinal arguments in the Surangama-sutra (T. 945) is concerned with the Buddha's refutation of seven hypothetical locations for the mind ...
by Aemilius
Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:48 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Rebirth in the past
Replies: 23
Views: 1462

Re: Rebirth in the past

Continuation to the above: I do accept that there is emptiness also in the sense of non-existence. Material things, like houses, bridges, etc, can just disappear into thin air. Without a "normal" or material cause. This quite is rare, I think, but it sometimes occurs. Things can also appea...
by Aemilius
Sat Mar 09, 2024 10:32 am
Forum: Pure Land
Topic: How did Nagarjuna find out about Pure Land?
Replies: 5
Views: 612

Re: How did Nagarjuna find out about Pure Land?

Nagarjuna mentions Amitabha in Suhrlekha, Letter to a Friend, verse 121: "121 And thus may you take many rebirths and dispel all ills, Old age, desire, and hatred in a perfect Buddhafield. May you have infinite life, as a Protector of the World Like Buddha Amitabha, Sublime Lord of Boundless Li...
by Aemilius
Fri Mar 08, 2024 9:30 am
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Rebirth in the past
Replies: 23
Views: 1462

Re: Rebirth in the past

What is the use of eating food or paying your rent and paying your your debts, because they exist only conventionally? Explain what difference “only conventionally” makes. What’s the use of feeling hungry conventionally? You are purposefully forgetting the original claim to which I was replying. Th...
by Aemilius
Thu Mar 07, 2024 10:26 am
Forum: Media
Topic: Music time
Replies: 5271
Views: 879575

Re: Music time

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