Test Your Enlightenment

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oushi
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Re: Test Your Enlightenment

Post by oushi »

Astus wrote:From the Mirror of Seon:

"Empty your mind and reflect with clarity. You must have faith in the fact that the causal arising of each thought is actually non-arising." (32)
With all respect to the author. If mind is empty, where is the "fact" kept? Either you have empty mind, or mind holding the fact that "that the causal arising of each thought is actually non-arising". The order should be reversed. First, have faith in the emptiness of thoughts, then, and only then, you will be able to empty your mind and reflect with clarity.

And here few words from Bodhidharma:
"A Buddha doesn't observe precepts. A Buddha doesn’t do good or evil. A Buddha isn't energetic or lazy. A Buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can’t even focus his mind on a Buddha. A Buddha isn't a Buddha. Don’t think about Buddhas. If you dont see what I’m talking about, you’ll never know your own mind. People who don’t see their nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are lairs and fools."
Say what you think about me here.
zAnt
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:08 pm

Re: Test Your Enlightenment

Post by zAnt »

First, who are you to tell whether someone has attained enligghtenment. How can you ask someone if they have reached it, when you haven't reached it yourself ;)

And if one where to say yes to all of those, they wouldn't be enlightened, but delusional. I am sure if you asked someone who is truely enlightened those questions, they would say neither yes or no, but laugh and say "who knows"

But what do I know, I'm not even Buddhist :quoteunquote:
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Luke
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Re: Test Your Enlightenment

Post by Luke »

Astus wrote: (The Demonstration of the Inconceivable State of Buddhahood in "A Treasury of Mahayana Sutras", p. 33)

Resolute Mind asked, "Have you, sir, attained the Surangama Samadhi?"
The Indra king replied, "Could the characteristics of 'attain' and 'not attain' exist within this samadhi?"
Resolute Mind said, "No."
The Indra king said, "Good youth, you should understand that when a Bodhisattva practices this samadhi, there is nothing that is attained in any of the dharmas."
Resolute Mind said, "Since your understanding is like this, you must have already attained the Surangama Samadhi."
The king said, "Good youth, I do not perceive that the dharmas have any place of residence. He who has no residence in all the dharmas has attained the Surangama Samadhi. Good youth, to reside in this samadhi is to be completely without residence in all the dharmas. If one is without residence, then one is without grasping. If one is without grasping, one is also without preaching."
Whoa! What a cool excerpt! :thumbsup:
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lobster
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Re: Test Your Enlightenment

Post by lobster »

Astus wrote:I now present ten questions in order to form a framework [to test your understanding].

[1] Do you thoroughly understand seeing [one’s] nature, as if delineating and contemplating phenomenal forms similar to someone like Mañjuśrī?

[2] In everything you do—whether encountering situations or dealing with externals, seeing phenomenal forms or listening to sounds, raising a foot or lowering a foot, opening the eyes or closing the eyes—do you illuminate the implicit truth [ zong ] and comply with Buddhism?

[3] Do you read the teachings of each age and the statements of former patriarchs and masters, listening deeply and unafraid, completely understanding the truth in all of their teachings and not doubting it?

[4] In response to different [types of] difficult questions and all manner of trivial queries, are you able to provide [answers] according to the four kinds of eloquent responses and completely resolve the doubts that others have?

[5] At all times and in all situations, does wisdom shine forth unhindered and does thought after thought pass perfectly, without encountering a single dharma that is able to cause obstruction, or being interrupted for even a single instant?

[6] In all the occasions that present themselves to you in the external realm, whether contrary or agreeable, good or bad, do you resist [the desire to] elude them [on the one hand] and are you always conscious of destroying [any attachment to] them [on the other]?

[7] Within the realm of the mind and its objects comprised of a series of one hundred dharmas, do you get to see the extremely subtle essence-nature and the original point of rising of each and every [dharma], without confusing them with the circumstances of birth and death and the organs of sense and their objects?

[8] Regarding the four types of behavior—walking, standing, sitting, and lying—do you address others respectfully and exercise restraint when replying? And when wearing clothes and eating food, performing and carrying out [tasks], do you understand the true reality of each and every grade [in rank]?

[9] When listening to claims that there are Buddhas or there are no Buddhas, there are sentient beings or there are no sentient beings, do you sometimes applaud them and sometimes refute them, sometimes agree and sometime disagree, with a firm unwavering mind?

[10] When you hear about how all the different kinds of wisdom are able to clearly fathom how nature and form complement each other, how li and shi are unhindered, how nonexistence and existence are one and the same phenomena and do not reflect the origin [of phenomena] itself, and how the thousand sages appear in the world, can you avoid doubting it?

(Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing Lu, p. 273-274, tr. A. Welter)
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Monsoon
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Re: Test Your Enlightenment

Post by Monsoon »

I don't understand any of the questions... perhaps I should get my coat? :?
Let peace reign!

Metta,

Monsoon
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