Wrathful defenders of dharma

General discussion, particularly exploring the Dharma in the modern world.
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gloriasteinem
Posts: 360
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 2:12 pm

Wrathful defenders of dharma

Post by gloriasteinem »

So there are deities whos specific task ir to protect and defend the dharma. Why do you think some of them are wrathful, what from the dharma shoud be protected, and how open do you think a dharma should be if there is a clear utterance of its defendance. What are the risks and what do you think happens in such cases for those indulging or attending agreeingly some of such events. Do you think this is strictly metaphorical and story-telling line of Buddhism and how do you measure your own faith?
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conebeckham
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Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:49 pm
Location: Bay Area, CA, USA

Re: Wrathful defenders of dharma

Post by conebeckham »

If you are a parent, and your child misbehaves, do you smile and peacefully chat with your child when he or she does something wrong?

Sometimes compassionate action can take a wrathful or angry-looking appearance. But the wrathful aspect of the Dharma protectors, and other deities, is not the result of anger, but skillful means. There is not an iota of anger or negative mind in the continuum of the Enlightened protectors.

Also, you must understand that Dharma protectors do not protect the Dharma. They "protect" practitioners from negative circumstances and conditions--including, mainly, those caused by the practitioners themselves.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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