Enlightenment

General discussion, particularly exploring the Dharma in the modern world.
A Ah Sha Sa Ma Ha
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by A Ah Sha Sa Ma Ha »

shanyin wrote: Sat May 19, 2018 7:27 am I think I got a glimpse of jhana during Samatha meditation, unless I was experiencing the first jhana or the state of samadhi. I was very happy and peaceful.

I like the tradition that I took refuge in, and am reading "Teachings in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism." I took vows to acheive enlightenment as fast as I can and to keep precepts. I do not remember my vows.

Does enlightenment have something to do with emptiness? Sometimes when I think of the concept of emptiness in Buddhism I think of a connection to nature.
It's more important for you to connect to your teacher, and ask him/her these questions.

Do you have a teacher ?
It's their job to teach you.

:anjali:
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Astus
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by Astus »

shanyin wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:50 am How do you attain enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism?
With bodhicitta and the six paramitas.

For more:

Nagarjuna's Guide to the Bodhisattva Path
Nagarjuna on the Six Perfections
Vasubandhu's Treatise on the Bodhisattva Vow
Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra
Śikṣāsamuccaya
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Is the question, "what makes Mahayana Buddhism Mahayana... how is it different from Theravada?"
There are a few points of distinction.
.
.
.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
shanyin
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by shanyin »

PadmaVonSamba wrote: Sun May 20, 2018 12:08 am Is the question, "what makes Mahayana Buddhism Mahayana... how is it different from Theravada?"
There are a few points of distinction.
.
.
.
Yes I think that that was the question vs Theravada. My mental state is a mess right now and I feel I have fallen off the eight fold path. I am trying to be more careful with my posts online because I often get shut down.
shanyin
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by shanyin »

Sorry for not posting and answering the questions. I think that Theravada may be a more fitting school for me, because I like focusing my life around the 4 noble truths if that makes sense and I don't think about emptiness alot outside of my psychology or actions and I don't feel I have much compassion right now because the people around me are mysterious and cause me anger and frustration.
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catmoon
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by catmoon »

Wicked Yeshe wrote: Fri May 18, 2018 8:00 pm Like Douglas Hofstadter or something. :hug:
Yeah he's pretty much the key to enlightenment. Actually the whole Baywatch series is full of enlightening lessons.
Sergeant Schultz knew everything there was to know.
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catmoon
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by catmoon »

shanyin wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:50 am How do you attain enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism?
Depends.

What do you think enlightenment is?
Sergeant Schultz knew everything there was to know.
stevie
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by stevie »

shanyin wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:50 am How do you attain enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism?
Initially there is faith because without faith you wouldn't even listen to the teachings.
Ideally this faith is getting imperturbable when following the teachings.
shanyin
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by shanyin »

A Ah Sha Sa Ma Ha wrote: Sat May 19, 2018 4:36 am
shanyin wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:50 am How do you attain enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism?
By being a Bodhisattva, and waiting for everyone else to attain Enlightenment first .


:shrug:

https://www.lionsroar.com/the-bodhisattva/
That's an insult. Say your sorry and apologize :jawdrop:
shanyin
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by shanyin »

shanyin wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 3:30 am
A Ah Sha Sa Ma Ha wrote: Sat May 19, 2018 4:36 am
shanyin wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:50 am How do you attain enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism?
By being a Bodhisattva, and waiting for everyone else to attain Enlightenment first .


:shrug:

https://www.lionsroar.com/the-bodhisattva/
That's an insult. Say your sorry and apologize :jawdrop:
I believe I have an understanding of the truth non egotistical enough to understand that compassionate enought to not "wait for everyone else" to attain enlightenment. And that you would understand this. I thought you should know. Never mind in general. It's late and I to be honest and humble I don't seem to be thinking what I'm reading much as I should be on this forum and in general. And perhaps attain is the wrong word. Good day to you. I'm Sorry if I offended your tradition soon enough. :rules:
Mirror
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by Mirror »

shanyin wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:50 am How do you attain enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism?
The motivation to attain enlightenment is to stop taking rebirth in the cycle of Samsara and help others to do so. Then why do we keep getting reborn? Because we create negative karma. So how to stop creating negative karma? By realizing the ultimate Bodhicitta. That is done through practising the relative Bodhicitta i.e. loving-kindness and compassion.
Memento mori
Remember that you die
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Aemilius
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by Aemilius »

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" in each life or in some of the innumerable lives. This topic is somewhat esoteric, because it implies that the "ordinary enlightenment" is in fact impermanent. This is told or voiced on rare occasions. It is, however, made quite clear in the White Lotus of the True Law sutra, i.e. the Lotus sutra. For example, Tsong Khapa and Longchenpa have referred to the fact that enlightenment is impermanent or transitory, in their writings. It has been said in this context that like the ice (of afflictions) can melt into the water (of enlightenment), it can (and it will ?) also freeze back to ice again. As said already, this is really somewhat esoteric. 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.
svaha
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Sarvē mānavāḥ svatantrāḥ samutpannāḥ vartantē api ca, gauravadr̥śā adhikāradr̥śā ca samānāḥ ēva vartantē. Ētē sarvē cētanā-tarka-śaktibhyāṁ susampannāḥ santi. Api ca, sarvē’pi bandhutva-bhāvanayā parasparaṁ vyavaharantu."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1. (in english and sanskrit)
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kirtu
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by kirtu »

Aemilius wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:12 pm 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 briefer answer is purify the mind and karma and accumulate incalculable heaps of merit and wisdom.

As it is said in Dharmapada 14:183 "Do good, don't do evil, purify your mind."

And as Vimalikirti says in the VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
'What is meant by "seat of enlightenment"?' He then spoke the following words to me, 'Noble son, the seat of enlightenment is the seat of positive thought because it is without artificiality. It is the seat of effort, because it releases energetic activities. It is the seat of high resolve, because its insight is superior. It is the seat of the great spirit of enlightenment, because it does not neglect anything.

"'It is the seat of generosity, because it has no expectation of reward. It is the seat of morality, because it fulfills all commitments. It is the seat of tolerance, because it is free of anger toward any living being. It is the seat of effort, because it does not turn back. It is the seat of meditation, because it generates fitness of mind. It is the seat of wisdom, because it sees everything directly.

"'It is the seat of love, because it is equal to all living beings. It is the seat of compassion, because it tolerates all injuries. It is the seat of joy, because it is joyfully devoted to the bliss of the Dharma. It is the seat of equanimity, because it abandons affection and aversion.

"'It is the seat of paranormal perception, because it has the six superknowledges. It is the seat of liberation, because it does not intellectualize. It is the seat of liberative technique, because it develops living beings. It is the seat of the means of unification, because it brings together living beings. It is the seat of learning, because it makes practice of the essence. It is the seat of decisiveness, because of its precise discrimination. It is the seat of the aids to enlightenment, because it eliminates the duality of the compounded and the uncompounded. It is the seat of truth, because it does not deceive anyone.

"'It is the seat of interdependent origination, because it proceeds from the exhaustion of ignorance to the exhaustion of old age and death. It is the seat of eradication of all passions, because it is perfectly enlightened about the nature of reality. It is the seat of all living beings, because all living beings are without intrinsic identity. It is the seat of all things, because it is perfectly enlightened with regard to voidness.

'It is the seat of the conquest of all devils, because it never flinches. It is the seat of the triple world, because it is free of involvement. It is the seat of the heroism that sounds the lion's roar, because it is free of fear and trembling. It is the seat of the strengths, the fearlessnesses, and all the special qualities of the Buddha, because it is irreproachable in all respects. It is the seat of the three knowledges, because in it no passions remain. It is the seat of instantaneous, total understanding of all things, because it realizes fully the gnosis of omniscience.

"'Noble son, when bodhisattvas are thus endowed with the transcendences, the roots of virtue, the ability to develop living beings, and the incorporation of the holy Dharma, whether they lift up their feet or put them down, they all come from the seat of enlightenment. They come from the qualities of the Buddha, and stand on the qualities of the Buddha.'

"Lord, when Vimalakirti had explained this teaching, five hundred gods and men conceived the spirit of enlightenment, and I became speechless.
So the above passage can be too much at once, but the gist is that during the accumulation (or development) of wisdom, one has to abandon all negative actions and perform positive actions (for example, it is the seat of generosity).

As Mirror and others said: through the development of Bodhicitta, the mind of Enlightenment, which is also in the Mahayana the dedication to attain Enlightenment for oneself and all beings, thus becoming a Bodhisattva and training in the path of the Bodhisattva. The path of the Bodhisattva is summarized as a being dedicated to attaining Enlightenment for all beings (so to be able to lead all beings to Enlightenment) , abandoning all negative actions, performing positive actions esp. to help other beings (accumulate merit) and to dedicate that merit for all beings to attain Enlightenment, and to develop wisdom which is more specifically the full understanding of Emptiness. There are several Bodhisattvas who delineated their actual practices. One of the several is Samantabhadra and his ten vows :
to pay homage to all the buddhas;
to glorify the qualities of all the tathāgatas;
to make ample offerings to all the buddhas;
to confess and repent of all one's misdeeds;
to rejoice in the merits of others;
always to request the preaching of the dharma;
to entreat enlightened beings to remain in the world;
to always to study the teachings of the buddha;
to always to respond to sentient beings according to their various needs;
to dedicate all merits to sentient beings that they may achieve buddhahood.
Kirt's Tibetan Translation Notes

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche

"Most all-knowing Mañjuśrī, ...
Please illuminate the radiant wisdom spirit
Of my precious Buddha nature."
HH Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
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Aemilius
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Re: Enlightenment

Post by Aemilius »

kirtu wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 2:44 pm
Aemilius wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:12 pm 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 briefer answer is purify the mind and karma and accumulate incalculable heaps of merit and wisdom.

As it is said in Dharmapada 14:183 "Do good, don't do evil, purify your mind."

Thanks!
Purifying karma or accumulating merit and wisdom describe the same thing. Tai Situpa said this in Copenhagen, Denmark, in early 1990's, that they are the same thing, you don't "first purify" and then "accumulate merit and wisdom". Both are metaphorical expressions.

Moreover, "gathering merit" is short hand for the practice of the five paramitas/perfections that precede the Paramita of Wisdom (and for the eight non-wisdom paramitas in the scheme of Ten Paramitas/Perfections).This has been said in the Five Works of Maitreya.

People are different, and some take metaphorical expressions (of the functioning of mind) more literally than others.
svaha
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Sarvē mānavāḥ svatantrāḥ samutpannāḥ vartantē api ca, gauravadr̥śā adhikāradr̥śā ca samānāḥ ēva vartantē. Ētē sarvē cētanā-tarka-śaktibhyāṁ susampannāḥ santi. Api ca, sarvē’pi bandhutva-bhāvanayā parasparaṁ vyavaharantu."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1. (in english and sanskrit)
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