Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

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SunRay
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Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

Post by SunRay »

One of the popular stories about Shakyamuni Buddha's previous lives is one where Buddha as a captain of a ship kills a wicked black dwarf -as the character is known in Tibet. I assume that the story is familiar to all. I am curious about what became of the evil black dwarf after the captain (a Bodhisattva with clairvoyance and other special skills who would later become a Buddha) killed him. Is he still wondering through hell realms or get a rebirth as a Buddha's disciple or what? :namaste:
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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

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Went into merchant banking, I heard......
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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

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I believe he was reborn as Bernie Madoff.
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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

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Last I heard he was working for Snow White.
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SunRay
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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

Post by SunRay »

Thank you most kindly. I addressed this issue to Venerable Geshe Thupten Kunkhen and he didn't know either... Or he did, but thought that I just wasn't ready to handle the truth. They do that sometimes.

But, yeah, he could be a previous incarnation of one of the seven dwarfs.

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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

Post by kirtu »

SunRay wrote:One of the popular stories about Shakyamuni Buddha's previous lives is one where Buddha as a captain of a ship kills a wicked black dwarf -as the character is known in Tibet.
That part I never heard. I thought he was reborn as a major disciple, possibly Maudgalyayana?

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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

Post by Astus »

No mention of a wicked dwarf, but the story is the same:

"And the robber died to be reborn in a world of paradise." (The Skill in Means Sutra, p. 74)
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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SunRay
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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

Post by SunRay »

Astus wrote:No mention of a wicked dwarf, but the story is the same:

"And the robber died to be reborn in a world of paradise." (The Skill in Means Sutra, p. 74)
The idea behind being that the Boddhisattva kills the evil being he takes it's karmic burden upon himself willingly entering the hell realms for the sake of the others? Demon dissolves into Rigpa kinda thing..

The pirate dwarf that gets killed in the story reminds me of demon Apasmara (Ignorance) of the Hindy mythology. There the God needs to adopt the form of Nataraj (Shiva the Destroyer) and perform the Tandava (dance of cosmic destruction) to suppress it, as Apasmara is immortal. ...Of course, it could be purely coincidental that Apasmara is also represented as a wicked black dwarf that is destined to be crushed by the emanation of the Dharma.
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Re: Whatever happened to the wicked dwarf?

Post by Astus »

SunRay wrote:The idea behind being that the Boddhisattva kills the evil being he takes it's karmic burden upon himself willingly entering the hell realms for the sake of the others? Demon dissolves into Rigpa kinda thing..
Taking over another's karma is impossible in Buddhism. In the story the captain simple prevented the robber committing murder, that is, generating very bad karma.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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