Dharma Wheel

Does anybody know about the silent buddha, I couldn't find much information on the silent buddha online

Why does one become a silent buddha instead of a buddha?

Also, is there a direct way of differencing a buddha from an arhat? At what degree of self realization done by self does it take to be a buddha instead of an arhat? How dependent does an enlightenment have to be, to be labeled as the enlightenment of an arhat instead of a buddha's?

Look up "pratyekabuddha" (Skt; or "paccekabuddha" in Pali), which doesn't mean "silent" per se, but is often described that way, ie. doesn't teach others.

~~ Huifeng

My 'teacher' was a pratyekabuddha, they are silent in so far as they may or may not be involved in Buddhism or other spirituality. They do not teach in a recognisable way but may have other functions. Just because they do not teach does not mean that a 'transmission' does not occur. However it does not occur in the normal recognised way. They may be imparting a needed change in areas they are active in, without anyone being aware consciously of what is happening. It is in effect a silent or hidden transmission outside of formality or even recognition.
The best that can be said is 'when the student is ready, the master will appear'.

Can a pratyekabuddha become a samyaksambuddha?

Yes, the same way an arhat does. By being awakened from nirvana by a fully enlightened buddha and then completing the path.

Jinzang wrote:Yes, the same way an arhat does. By being awakened from nirvana by a fully enlightened buddha and then completing the path.

but a pratykekabuddha is self-enlightened?

xtracorrupt wrote:

Jinzang wrote:Yes, the same way an arhat does. By being awakened from nirvana by a fully enlightened buddha and then completing the path.

but a pratykekabuddha is self-enlightened?

If you mean he doesn't attain Enlightenment from Dharma teachings, then yes. If you mean that a pratyekabuddha is equal to a Samyaksambuddha, then no.

Does anybody know if a pratyekabuddha can become a samyaksambuddha?

xtracorrupt wrote:Does anybody know if a pratyekabuddha can become a samyaksambuddha?

Yes, likely much like Arhats. After they gain their attainment, the Buddhas teach them the rest of the path (mostly Bodhicitta).

The Illuminator Dictionary from Tony Duff has a really good excerpt on this:

"Pratyekabuddha", "solitary realizer" or "self-made buddha". The disciples of the Buddha who followed the teachings of the ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ Lesser Vehicle were of two kinds: Śhrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas. The Śhrāvakas listened to the teaching and taught it to others, the Pratyekabuddhas having heard the teaching went off and obtained their realization in solitary practice.
The term "pratyekabuddha" in Sanskrit comes from the two Sanskrit words "pratyeka" and "buddha" meaning that they "on their own" became "buddhas". This was translated completely accurately in Tibetan with རང་ and སངས་རྒྱས་ which were then combined into རང་སངས་རྒྱས་. The definition of the term as it was passed from India to Tibet is as follows. A Pratyekabuddha is explained as someone who without having an ongoing relationship with an āchārya (unlike the ཉན་ཐོས་ Śhrāvakas), manifested their རང་ own enlightenment through their own prajñā and hence were that type of སངས་རྒྱས་ buddha. This is captured well with the English "solitary realizer" or "self-made buddha". Another common term for རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ is རང་རྒྱལ་ "Solitary Conqueror"; sometimes the two are put together to be རང་སང་རྒྱས་རང་རྒྱལ་ "solitary realizer, solitary conqueror".
There are two styles of behaviour amongst pratyekabuddhas: those who live in isolation and practice their path in a completely solitary way and those who do their practice while mixing with society:

There are two styles of behaviour amongst pratyekabuddhas: those who live in isolation and practice their path in a completely solitary way and those who do their practice while mixing with society:

Perhaps that is what is said but it is not my experience. There are many styles of behaviour, things are not so clear cut in reality. For example not all pratyekabuddhas espouse or practice exoteric Buddhist dharma. They have no need of a recognizable 'practice' as they are on the far shore and bodhicitta is part of their nature, whether they use the term, or most likely not. In essence practice and lifestyle are integrated but may not be clear in appearance because they may choose to hide their attainment. Again no mention or external manifestation of inner qualities may be apparent to most people.

Perhaps that is what is said but it is not my experience.

Have you met one of these beings? (I wanna meet one too )

"The two levels of Pratyekabuddha". There are two types of pratyekabuddha according to their approach to practice. 1) བསེ་རུ་ལྟ་བུ་ "rhinoceros-like"; and 2) ཚོགས་དང་སྤྱོད་པ་ "going in society".
The rhinoceros-like pratyekabuddha is so-called because he abjures contact with all others, lives in solitude (like a rhinoceros), finds the path for himself, and practices it on his own until attaining realization. The other one "going in society" is one who finds his own path to realization but does so without cutting himself off from others, still mixing with society.