Halo During Amitabha Retreat

[Seishin]

True. But I can't help but wonder whether they would have said the same about a normal rainbow, or a rogue cloud, or any other natural phenomena.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Lovely stuff. Produces great effects.
After my recent retreat I found a Buddha shaped stone. I have heard mantras in boiler systems and sacred sounds in the clanging of pots and pans.
We are creatures that generate meanings and the auspicious. Some things can be very impressive. The ordinary for example . . .

When I was a kid it was a kind of "meditation" for me (before I knew the term) to spend hours finding faces in patterns of stucco, or to experience beautiful songs in torrents of noise. The reality or non-reality of them was never the point, and really never occurred to me. Then I got older, and all the sudden I was supposed to have a "why" for stuff like this.

[sinweiy]

found out that my younger brother also took a couple of photos, but don't see the "lotus" lens flare. case closed.


ps: a normal rainbow is auspicious to me. as it can be the doing of devas paying a respect to dharma. but creating images in rocks/objects or some kind miracles could be the doing of spirits/preta wanting amusement.
like the recent event below:-
Hundreds turn up to see 'Virgin Mary' image in SDMC
http://my.news.yahoo.com/photos/hundred ... 51759.html

[Kaji]

Nice photos of the circular rainbow, thanks sinweiy!

[Nosta]

Sinwei, one day (2 years ago perhaps) someone that was not Christian, from my town, died. I went to the funeral and tought to myself that dying without a place to go could be hard, so i tried to speak mentally with the deceased.

Of course that i didnt have a mean to know if he could "hear" my toughts, but i give it a try. Then, carefully and without to much words, i told him about Amitabha and the idea behind it. I told him that he could try to reborn there and then i said Namo Amitabha Buddha a few times.

It was not imediatly, but i remember seeing somewhere, during the funeral ceremony, a kind of rainbow in the clouds. Not a typical rainbow but more like this (see the pics in the link):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tkellyphoto/390592135/


http://adnams.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ice-rainbow1.jpg

Of course that it could be just a pure coincidence, but we can also think that Amitabha has intervened in such a way that such rainbow could be created by natural phenomenon. The same applys for the rainbow in the retreat.

[sinweiy]

Amituofo.
(though i cannot say where a person without a religion would go when they die. karma from the past might surface and they might still be reborn in heaven. just like the sutra mentioning a cow died and reborn in heaven. ) but it's a good gesture. that's what there's these group of PL people do during "supportive recitation" for the dying. they tell them about Amitabha and PL and tell them to reborn there.

[remm]

found out that my younger brother also took a couple of photos, but don't see the "lotus" lens flare. case closed.


ps: a normal rainbow is auspicious to me. as it can be the doing of devas paying a respect to dharma. but creating images in rocks/objects or some kind miracles could be the doing of spirits/preta wanting amusement.
like the recent event below:-
Hundreds turn up to see 'Virgin Mary' image in SDMC
http://my.news.yahoo.com/photos/hundred ... 51759.html

I don't agree. Perhaps the images of Buddha's and Bodhisattvas that appear on the mountains etc., could just be the work of devas or spirits who want to venerate the images of Buddhas, just like the same way humans show respect to images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Just because something appears 'miraculous' doesn't always imply that spirits are playing tricks on human beings. Nonetheless, this did show up in the sky at CTTB during Master Hsuan Hua's annual entering nirvana celebration:
Vid: http://s913.beta.photobucket.com/user/s ... n.mp4.html
Looks like a phoenix to me.

[sinweiy]

I don't agree. ... Just because something appears 'miraculous' doesn't always imply that spirits are playing tricks on human beings.

that's why i use the word "could be" no?

/\

[remm]

I don't agree. ... Just because something appears 'miraculous' doesn't always imply that spirits are playing tricks on human beings.

that's why i use the word "could be" no?

/\

Chill. I'm just saying the way you worded the sentence almost made it seem like you were inferring that miraculous images were made for amusement by some ghost. I mean, you even went as far to post a link to back up your claim. Anyone who read that would've totally interpreted that the same way I did.

[sinweiy]

I mean, you even went as far to post a link to back up your claim.

ok, so what do you think of the link - 'Virgin Mary' image on the glass.

/\

[remm]

Um... I think it's an image of the Virgin Mary on a window. What else should I infer about it? If I don't know the exact cause or event of it, I don't think I should disregard it immediately and say its fake. Who knows, could be a plethora of reasons as to why an image like that appeared.