Passing By wrote: ↑Sat Apr 24, 2021 9:30 am
Malcolm wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 4:39 pm
Sādhaka wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:47 pm
Actually, I saw something recently in a text that implied that Asuras have the possibility to attain Buddhahood as well. Unlikely that many would, I’d imagine, but the implication of the possibility was there. Now if I could just remember where I’d read it.... It was only like a month or so ago.
Also, aren’t there stories in Sutras and so on about Devas having the possibility to attain Buddhahood too?
The Suhṛllekha states:
Birth as one holding wrong views, as animals, pretas, and hell beings,
as one without the teaching of the victor, or in a border country,
birth as a barbarian, as one stupid and dumb,
or birth as any of the long-lived gods
are the eight faults of lacking freedom.
Having acquired the freedom that is liberated from those states.
one must make effort in order to avoid them.
Asuras here are included among the devas.
You'd think, going by the number of times Indra and other major non-Buddhist deities have appeared in the tantras as retinues of the featured mandala or Buddha, that they'd be the ones who practise dharma the most though.
Not to mention most of the retinue of mandala yidams aren't human anyway
Or do those not count as devas?
As long as beings desire to be free from suffering (dukkha) this indicates that they have within them the innate potential for realization. Even the antagonistic attitude (jealousy, combativeness, whatever you want to call it) of asuras is, ultimately, motivated by that desire for happiness, the desire to be free from suffering, or free from the very thing that binds them to that state of asura (asuraness? Asuranity?
)
This doesn’t mean that they currently have the opportunity to practice or attain realization. But the potential is there, and at some point, when they are reborn as humans, they will have that opportunity.
What is it that indicates they have that potential?
It is because their current experience manifests as, or results In the experience of suffering.
In other words, to use an analogy, suppose you step on a tiny piece of glass and it gets stuck in your foot. That object causes you pain. The ‘innate potential’ of your foot is to be free from pain. That is your foot’s original nature. So, the experience of glass in your foot is pain. If the sensation of stepping on glass was that it felt like a foot massage, or felt like your feet were soaking in warm water, then that would be a pleasant sensation, a pleasant experience, one that is free from suffering. Then, we could say that indicates the true nature of your foot is to have glass stuck in it. But of course, this is not the case.
Likewise, if asuras attained satisfaction rather than suffering from fighting, or if pretas (hungry ghosts) experienced hunger and thirst as satisfaction, then there would be no indication that their true nature is anything other than hunger and thirst. We wouldn’t say that asuras ‘experience the suffering of endless fighting’.
The point is that our suffering results from not experiencing our true nature. Hence, it is precisely because we experience samsara as dukkha, as unsatisfactory, that this is how we know it is not our true nature. Since the opposite of the experience of dukkha and ignorance is the experience of perfect satisfaction and awakening, and the experience of perfect satisfaction (the cessation of all cravings) and wisdom is buddhahood, then this indicates that the original state of beings is buddhahood.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.