Serenity509 wrote:
I've studied Eastern philosophy for years. The idea of a bodhisattva is to work toward the Enlightenment of all beings by transferring merit to those who supplicate.
If you recite a Buddha's name, you must also practice the way of Buddha. Your own effort is always required. And true merits come from a pure mind, so an inherent of the mind. So when karma has lessened, wisdom and merits will naturally increase. If you seek enlightenment through attachments, you are deluded and superstitious. The path of enlightenment is the path of detachment, if you are attached to your vehicle, you are deluded.
If you recite karma of body, speech,and mind, then you will be cycling in the 6 realms of death and rebirth. If you truthfully recite a Buddha such as Amitabha, you will realize enlightenment at Pure Land. This is karma.
Serenity509 wrote:Didn't the Buddha encourage us to form our own interpretations? What I've brought to your attention is various traditions within Buddhism.
Yes but with correct reasoning
LastLegend wrote:The inherent nature of the mind is empty, because it's empty it can take many manifestations. To name it a Self or High Power is to give it attributes but it's nature is empty and is not limited by anything. To give it attributes is to create an identification which inherently lack of since it's empty. The reason why we here because at some point we had a thought of self due to ignorance...so use the Buddhist terms such as Buddha Nature or mind, not Self or Higher Power.
But if you truly understand the teachings, it is neither Self nor Non-Self, it is neither self nor non-self, yet it lack nothing, truly empty but full of all. So to give attributes is to limit it to those attributes only, and this is so called individual self we have. Buddhism seeks to liberate from this individual self which we have mistaken for so long.
Gods or God is with particular attributes, truly empty mind (Buddha) is without particular attributes but lack nothing.
To give it a name is to give it a form. Name and Form from dependent origination. But it's empty so neither form or non-form. No duality yet not lack of anything. I hope you will get.
It's not easy to digest sometimes.
It’s eye blinking.