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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Spirituality in Daily Life:
The Buddha
Part 1
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by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron |
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Who is the Buddha? If he is just a man, how can he help us?
There are many ways to describe who the Buddha is. These various perspectives have their sources in the Buddha's teachings. One is as the historical Buddha, a human being who lived 2,500 years ago and who cleansed his mind of all defilements and developed all of his potential. Any being who does likewise is also considered a Buddha, for there are many Buddhas, not just one. Another way is to understand a particular Buddha or Buddhist deity as all the enlightened minds manifesting in a particular physical aspect in order to communicate with us. Yet another way is to see the Buddha or any of the enlightened Buddhist deities as the appearance of the Buddha that we will become once we have completely cleansed our minds of defilements and developed all of our potential. Let's examine each of these in more depth.
The Historical Buddha
The historical Buddha Shakyamuni was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama in an area near the present border between India and Nepal. He had all that life could offer: material possessions, a loving family, fame, reputation and power. Soon after his birth, a soothe-sayer predicted that Siddhartha would become either a great king or a great spiritual leader. Wanting him to be a great political leader, his father protected him from any contact with unpleasant situations.
However, the young Siddhartha sneaked out of the palace and on his forays in the town witnessed first a sick person, then a old one, and finally a corpse. He became disillusioned with things that brought temporary, worldly happiness but did not solve the basic human predicament. On another excursion into town, he saw a wandering ascetic and learned that this person was seeking liberation from the cycle of existence to which he was bound by ignorance and karma. Siddhartha then left his princely life to become an ascetic, searching for truth.
After six years of severe physical austerity, he realized that extreme self-denial was not the path to ultimate happiness. He gave up his extreme ascetic practices, and sitting under the bodhi tree, near present-day Bodhgaya, India, he entered into a deep meditation in which he completely purified his mind of all wrong conceptions and defilements and perfected all of his potential and good qualities. He then proceeded to teach with compassion, wisdom, and skill for forty-five years. In this way, he enabled others to gradually purify their minds, develop their potential, and attain the same realizations and state of happiness that he had. Thus, the word "Buddha" means "the awakened one," one who has purified and developed his or her mind completely.
How can such a person save us from our problems and pain? The Buddha cannot pull the disturbing attitudes of ignorance, anger, and attachment from our minds in the same way as a thorn can be pulled from our foot. Nor can the Buddha wash away our defilements with water or pour realizations into our minds. The Buddha has impartial compassion for all sentient beings and cherishes them more than himself, so if he could have eliminated our suffering by his actions, the Buddha would have done so.
However, our experiences of happiness and pain depend on our minds. They depend on whether or not we subdue our disturbing attitudes and contaminated actions (karma). The Buddha showed us the method to do this, the method that he himself used to go from the state of an ordinary confused being -- the way we are now -- to the state of total purification and growth, or Buddhahood. It is up to us to practice this method and transform our own minds. Shakyamuni Buddha is someone who did what we want to do -- he reached a state of lasting happiness. His example and teachings indicate how we can do the same. But the Buddha can't control our minds; only we can do that. Our enlightenment depends not only on the Buddha showing us the way, but also on our own efforts to follow it.
To use an analogy, suppose we want to go to London. First we find out if a place called London actually exists. Then we look for someone who has been there and who has the knowledge, capability, and willingness to give us all of the travel information. Following someone who had never been there would be foolish, because that person could unwittingly give us mistaken information. Likewise, the Buddha has attained enlightenment; he has the wisdom, compassion, and skill to show us the path. It would be silly to entrust ourselves to a guide who had not reached the enlightened state him or herself.
Our travel guide can give us information about what to take on our trip and what to leave behind. He or she can tell us about changing planes, the various places we'll pass through, what dangers we could encounter along the way, and what resources are available. Similarly, the Buddha described the various levels of the paths and stages, the progression from one to the next, the good qualities to take with us and develop, and the harmful ones to leave behind. However, a travel guide cannot force us to make the journey -- he or she can only indicate the way. We have to go to the airport ourselves and get on the plane. Likewise, the Buddha cannot force us to practice the path. He gives the teachings and shows by his example how to do it, but we have to do it ourselves.
The Buddhas as Manifestations
The second way to think of the Buddhas is as manifestations of enlightened minds in the physical forms of various Buddhas and Buddhist deities. Buddhas are omniscient in that they perceive all existent phenomena as clearly as we see the palm of our hand. They achieved this ability by fully developing their wisdom and compassion and thus eliminating all obscurations. But we cannot communicate directly with the Buddhas' omniscient minds because our minds are obscured. For the Buddhas to fulfill their most heartfelt wish to lead all beings to enlightenment, they must communicate with us, and to do so, they assume physical forms. In this way, we can think of Shakyamuni Buddha as a being who was already enlightened, and who appeared in the aspect of a prince in order to teach us.
But if Shakyamuni was already enlightened, how could he take rebirth? He didn't take rebirth under the control of disturbing attitudes and contaminated actions (karma) as ordinary beings do, because he had already eliminated these defilements from his mind. However, he was able to appear on this earth by the power of compassion. Similarly, high-level bodhisattvas -- beings who have the constant and intense wish to become Buddhas in order to benefit others -- can voluntarily take rebirth, not out of ignorance as ordinary beings do, but out of compassion.
When thinking of the Buddha as a manifestation, we do not emphasize the Buddha as a personality. Rather, we concentrate on the qualities of the omniscient mind appearing in the form of a person. This is a more abstract way of understanding the Buddha, so it takes more effort on our part to think in this way.
In the same way, the various enlightened Buddhist deities can be seen as manifestations of the qualities of omniscient minds. Why are there so many deities if all the beings who have attained enlightenment have the same realizations? Because each physical appearance emphasizes and communicates with different aspects of our personality. This demonstrates the Buddhas' skillful means, their ability to guide each person according to his or her disposition. For example, Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin, Chenresig, Kannon) is the manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas. Although possessing the same compassion and wisdom of any Buddha, Avalokiteshvara's particular manifestation emphasizes compassion.
Enlightened compassion cannot be seen with the eyes, but if it were to appear in physical form, what would it look like? In the same way that artists express themselves symbolically through images, the Buddhas express their compassion symbolically by appearing in the form of Avalokiteshvara. In some drawings, Avalokiteshvara is white and has a thousand arms. The white color emphasizes purity, in this case the purification of selfishness through compassion. The thousand arms, each with an eye in its palm, express impartial compassion in looking upon all beings and reaching out to help them. Avalokiteshvara's body itself demonstrates compassion. By visualizing compassion in this physical aspect, we can communicate with compassion in a nonverbal and symbolic way.
The deity Manjushri is the manifestation of the wisdom of all the Buddhas. Manjushri has the same realizations as all the Buddhas. In the Tibetan tradition, Manjushri is depicted as golden in color, holding a flaming sword and a lotus flower upon which rests the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. This physical form is symbolic of inner realizations. The golden color represents wisdom, which illuminates the mind just as golden rays of the sun light up the earth. Holding the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra indicates that to develop wisdom, we must study, contemplate, and meditate on the meanings contained in this sutra. The sword represents wisdom in its function of cutting through ignorance. By visualizing and meditating on Manjushri, we can attain the qualities of a Buddha, especially wisdom.
These examples help us to understand why there are so many deities. Each emphasizes a particular aspect of the enlightened qualities and communicates that aspect to us symbolically. That does not mean, however, that there is no such being as Avalokiteshvara. On one level, we can understand the Buddha of Compassion to be a person residing in a certain Pure Land -- a place where all conditions are conducive for spiritual growth. On another level, we can see Avalokiteshvara as a manifestation of compassion in a physical form. In Tibet, Avalokiteshvara is depicted in a male form and in China in a female form. An enlightened mind is actually beyond being male or female. The various physical forms are simply appearances to communicate with us ordinary beings who are so involved in forms. An enlightened being can appear in a wide variety of bodies. If it is more effective to appear in a female form for people of one culture and a male form for people of another, an enlightened being will do that.
The nature of these various manifestations is the same: the blissful omniscient mind of wisdom and compassion. All of the Buddhas and deities are not separate beings in the same way that an apple and an orange are separate fruits. Rather, they all have the same nature. They only appear in different external forms in order to communicate with us in different ways. From one lump of clay, someone can make a pot, a vase, a plate, or a figurine. The nature of all of them is the same -- clay -- yet they perform different functions according to how the clay is shaped. In the same way, the nature of all the Buddhas and deities is the blissful omniscient mind of wisdom and compassion. This appears in a variety of forms in order to perform various functions. Thus, when we want to develop compassion, we emphasize meditation on Avalokiteshvara, and when our mind is dull and sluggish, we emphasize the practice of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. These Buddhas all have the same realizations, yet each one has his or her specialty.
The Buddha That We Will Become
The third way to understand the Buddha is as the appearance of our own Buddha nature in its fully developed form. All beings have the potential to become Buddhas, for all of our minds are innately pure. At the present they are clouded by disturbing attitudes and negative emotions (klesa) and contaminated actions (karma). Through constant practice, we can remove these defilements from our mindstreams and nourish the seeds of the beautiful potentials we have. Thus each of us can become a Buddha when this process of purification and growth is completed. This is a unique feature of Buddhism, for most other religions say an unbridgeable gap exists between the divine being and the human being. However, the Buddha said that each being has the potential to become fully enlightened. It is only a matter of practicing the path and creating the causes to reach enlightenment. Thus there are many beings who have already become Buddhas, and we can become one as well.
When we visualize the Buddha or a deity and think of him or her as the future Buddha that we will become, we are imagining our now latent Buddha nature in its completely developed form. We are thinking of the future, when we will have completed the path to enlightenment. By imagining the future in the present, we reaffirm our own latent goodness. The future Buddha we will become is the real protection from our suffering, because by becoming this Buddha, we will have eliminated the causes for our present unsatisfactory conditions.
These different ways of understanding the Buddha are progressively more difficult to understand. We may not grasp them immediately. That's all right. Various interpretations are explained because people have different ways of understanding. We aren't expected to all think in the same way or to understand everything at once.
The FAQs in this section are extracted from Ven Thubten Chodron's Buddhism for Beginners, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY
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Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron,
Buddhist Nun, Teacher, Author
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Thubten Chodron (Cherry Greene) graduated with a B.A. in History from UCLA in 1971. After traveling extensively in Europe, North Africa and Asia, she taught in the Los Angeles City School District did post-graduate work in Education at USC.
In l975, she attended a meditation course given by Ven. Lama Yeshe and Ven. Zopa Rinpoche, and subsequently went to their monastery in Nepal to explore Buddhism. In l977, she was ordained as a Buddhist nun.
Chodron studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan masters for many years in India and Nepal.
She was the spiritual program director at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy for nearly two years and studied three years at Dorje Pamo Monastery in France. For two years she was resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, and for ten years she was resident teacher and spiritual advisor at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle.
She currently is co-founder of Sravasti Abbey at Liberation Park in USA. Ven. Chodron has taught Buddhist philosophy, psychology and meditation worldwide.
Her books include:
Open Heart, Clear Mind; Buddhism for Beginners; Working with Anger; Taming the Monkey Mind, and Blossoms of the Dharma: Living as a Buddhist Nun.
Active in interfaith dialogue, she also does prison work. Ven. Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha's teachings in daily life and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners.
www.thubtenchodron.
org
www.sravastiabbey.
org
www.dharmafriendship.
org
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