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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Spirituality in Daily Life:
Science, Creation, and Rebirth -
Part 3 of 4
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by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron |
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Do plants have minds? Are they sentient beings? Could a computer ever become a sentient being?
In general, according to Tibetan Buddhism, plants are not sentient beings. They are biologically alive, but that doesn't mean they are conscious. Plants may react to music or to people talking to them, just as iron filings react to a magnet placed near them, but that doesn't indicate that they have minds. However, in some rare cases, due to one's past actions, a person's mind may be attracted to a tree, for example, as its habitat.
When asked whether computers could ever have consciousness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama responded that if at some point computers had the ability to act as a physical support for consciousness and if a person had created the karma to be reborn inside one, then a computer could become a sentient being!
Is there one universal mind that we are all a part of?
According to Buddhism, no. Each of us has our own mindstream. However, when we purify our minds and become Buddhas, we will no longer have the feeling of being separate, isolated individuals. We will each be an individual Buddha, but we will have the same spiritual realizations. We won't feel cut off from each other.
Where did ignorance come from? Were we once enlightened and then became separated from that state?
No. Once someone is enlightened, there is no cause to again become confused and ignorant. If the cause for imperfection exists in the mind, the person is still ignorant. Thus from a Buddhist viewpoint, we weren't once enlightened and then fell from that state. Such an occurrence is impossible because there's no cause for it to happen.
Although all sentient beings have Buddha nature or Buddha potential, their minds have been clouded over by ignorance since beginningless time. Each moment of ignorance was produced from the preceding moment, without beginning. No external being created it. However, although ignorance has no beginning, it does have an end. It can be removed through the wisdom realizing emptiness, the lack of fantasized ways of existing. Once we perceive reality, our minds can no longer ignorantly misconceive things.
What is Buddha nature?
Buddha nature or Buddha potential is the potential that all sentient beings have to become fully enlightened. This is an inseparable part of our mind, and awareness of it gives us a firm foundation for self-confidence and hope. Our Buddha nature is compared to the open expansive sky that is always there. Clouds may temporarily obscure it, but since the clouds and the sky are not of the same nature, the clouds can be removed. Similarly, the deeper nature of our mind is pure, but it is temporarily obscured by circumstantial defilements of the disturbing attitudes, negative emotions, and subtle stains. When these are eliminated through practicing the path, we become fully enlightened Buddhas.
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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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