Yes. Buddha reveals (the pathless) path, allowing to awaken. Since our coarse mind cannot do that. The revealing path has many methods and therefore the appropriate method must be applied. Since Buddha “sees” ( yes !!! ) what kind of confusion there is, there are as many as there are methods. That is why we can sometimes go to a retreat or a teaching in group and have afterwards not a little bit more insight in how our mind is working or no inner peace or whatever. And also when there is no connection, the appropriate method is lacking too. Then the awaken teacher can be as famous as can be, that itself doesn’t change anything.reveal the path.
What can Buddhas do and not do?
Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
“We are each living in our own soap opera. We do not see things as they really are. We see only our interpretations. This is because our minds are always so busy...But when the mind calms down, it becomes clear. This mental clarity enables us to see things as they really are, instead of projecting our commentary on everything.” Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bg9jOYnEUA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bg9jOYnEUA
Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
Yes. And sometimes our reaction can be like a wolf in trap who bites the helping hand, helping him out of his painful situation but feels himself attacked. I mean, our ego is not always appreciating some particular help, it just feels more pain or be attacked. Then doubt can arise and respect can be temporary lost. Then I think courage is necessary.if you know you need help, help will come (although not always in the form you will expect).
“We are each living in our own soap opera. We do not see things as they really are. We see only our interpretations. This is because our minds are always so busy...But when the mind calms down, it becomes clear. This mental clarity enables us to see things as they really are, instead of projecting our commentary on everything.” Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bg9jOYnEUA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bg9jOYnEUA
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Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
Thank you once again!
Such beautiful and comprehensive replies.
So, I will tell some experiences in relation to this topic; I have been really thinking a lot about this lately.
My teacher, Garchen Rinpoche, came and initiated me in a dream before I met him. It was a glorious dream. At the time, I was ill and was about to stay that way for 22 years (it is just now starting to get better with practice and acupuncture, I really should be in a wheel chair by now) and I think I might have gone down a very bad path if it wasn't for the dream.
I suppose that was from prior lifetime merit then, and Rinpoche Buddha wasn't just trolling around for souls to help and I just happened to be there.
Yes, also sometimes the help can feel not the way we want it:
This year my mom died after being in a coma for four months, I almost committed suicide because of it. I lost my job after my patient of many years was elevated to hospice (it was so hard to watch him die too!), brakes failed and I crashed my car, one thing after another, so much so that I talked to my lama about it-120 miles away in Wesley Chapel- and he invited me to come down and live in one of the houses they have down there! The shrine room will be 5 minutes away by walking in a very pretty neighborhood. I am pretty lazy about practice up here in Gainesville with no sangha, I hate to admit it, but it's true.
The experience, the tragedy after tragedy, was unbearable, and then someone from my sangha reminded me that this is what can happen when one makes those prayers to have obstacles to dharma practice removed!
Thank you once again, Really, you can't know how grateful I am.
Lisa
Such beautiful and comprehensive replies.
So, I will tell some experiences in relation to this topic; I have been really thinking a lot about this lately.
My teacher, Garchen Rinpoche, came and initiated me in a dream before I met him. It was a glorious dream. At the time, I was ill and was about to stay that way for 22 years (it is just now starting to get better with practice and acupuncture, I really should be in a wheel chair by now) and I think I might have gone down a very bad path if it wasn't for the dream.
I suppose that was from prior lifetime merit then, and Rinpoche Buddha wasn't just trolling around for souls to help and I just happened to be there.
Yes, also sometimes the help can feel not the way we want it:
This year my mom died after being in a coma for four months, I almost committed suicide because of it. I lost my job after my patient of many years was elevated to hospice (it was so hard to watch him die too!), brakes failed and I crashed my car, one thing after another, so much so that I talked to my lama about it-120 miles away in Wesley Chapel- and he invited me to come down and live in one of the houses they have down there! The shrine room will be 5 minutes away by walking in a very pretty neighborhood. I am pretty lazy about practice up here in Gainesville with no sangha, I hate to admit it, but it's true.
The experience, the tragedy after tragedy, was unbearable, and then someone from my sangha reminded me that this is what can happen when one makes those prayers to have obstacles to dharma practice removed!
Thank you once again, Really, you can't know how grateful I am.
Lisa
Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
I am not sure how to square this with passages like this one from the Casket Seal Dharani Sutra (best translation I could find):
"At that time, The Buddha told Varjrapani: “ Listen, listen, this important Dharma has immeasurable spiritual power and uncountable benefit. It is like the precious gratified pearls on the banner. It spread gems to fulfil all wishes.
I just tell you one ten thousandth of this dharma. You should remember for the benefit for all.
If any bad person felt into the Hell. He suffered seriously and did not know when he could be
relieved. If his son or grandson calls the dead person’s name and read this Dharani for seven times. The melting copper and hot iron becomes suddenly a pond with eight virtual water.
A lotus flower carries him with a precious cover upon his head. The door of Hell will be broken and the road of Bodhi opens. The lotus flower flies to the World of Ultimate Bliss. All the wisdom appears naturally. He is happy to speak and stay at a position of supplement of a Buddha."
Or for that matter, Amida Buddha's vow (as Dharmakara) from the Juseige if Buddhas really can't save anyone:
I will be the greater provider
Throughout innumerable kalpas.
Should I fail to save all in need,
I would never attain Enlightenment.
My personal understanding is that while it is not instantaneous, there is a great conspiracy in the universe to unleash upon us some unmitigated good. Also while it may take eons to "save" every, pretty much all time in the Saha world is just one day and night in Amitabha Buddha's pure land so there is that too.
http://www.purifymind.com/RelicsBuddhasHeart.htm
https://www.nishihongwanji-la.org/teach ... s/juseige/
http://iteror.org/big/Source/Avatamsaka/chapter31.html
"At that time, The Buddha told Varjrapani: “ Listen, listen, this important Dharma has immeasurable spiritual power and uncountable benefit. It is like the precious gratified pearls on the banner. It spread gems to fulfil all wishes.
I just tell you one ten thousandth of this dharma. You should remember for the benefit for all.
If any bad person felt into the Hell. He suffered seriously and did not know when he could be
relieved. If his son or grandson calls the dead person’s name and read this Dharani for seven times. The melting copper and hot iron becomes suddenly a pond with eight virtual water.
A lotus flower carries him with a precious cover upon his head. The door of Hell will be broken and the road of Bodhi opens. The lotus flower flies to the World of Ultimate Bliss. All the wisdom appears naturally. He is happy to speak and stay at a position of supplement of a Buddha."
Or for that matter, Amida Buddha's vow (as Dharmakara) from the Juseige if Buddhas really can't save anyone:
I will be the greater provider
Throughout innumerable kalpas.
Should I fail to save all in need,
I would never attain Enlightenment.
My personal understanding is that while it is not instantaneous, there is a great conspiracy in the universe to unleash upon us some unmitigated good. Also while it may take eons to "save" every, pretty much all time in the Saha world is just one day and night in Amitabha Buddha's pure land so there is that too.
http://www.purifymind.com/RelicsBuddhasHeart.htm
https://www.nishihongwanji-la.org/teach ... s/juseige/
http://iteror.org/big/Source/Avatamsaka/chapter31.html
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Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
From "Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism", by the late Kalu Rinpoche.
1st paragraph of the chapter on Guru-Yoga, pg 73:
(underlining mine)
1st paragraph of the chapter on Guru-Yoga, pg 73:
(underlining mine)
Kalu R. wrote:The practice of Guru-Yoga and a special attitude which views the teacher as guru is something which is particular to the Vajrayana path. In the sutra tradition of the Hinayana and the ordinary Mahayana teachings, when we take the vows of refuge, the vows of the lay person, novice, monk or nun, and the bodhisattva vows, we are not speaking of a guru or lama in the strict sense of the word. We receive these vows from our abbot or preceptor, our teacher or spiritual friend, but not from our guru. On a sutra level of practice there is no sense that the teacher is one to whom we pray as a source of blessing. Certainly the teacher or spiritual friend is considered worthy of our respect and honor, someone to whom we can make offering and in whom we have faith, but only the Vajrayana views the teacher as a source of blessings.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
Long-dead thread I know, but not sure where else to post this:
Can enlightened beings somehow trigger the ripening of negative karmas - in such a way as to dissuade and pull a person away from from a negative course of action likely to lead to rebirth in the hells? Or for that matter, can they support a person's practice by ripening positive karmas in any concrete kind of fashion?
I'm writing very much 'after the fact', so PMs as well as public replies will be much appreciated.
Can enlightened beings somehow trigger the ripening of negative karmas - in such a way as to dissuade and pull a person away from from a negative course of action likely to lead to rebirth in the hells? Or for that matter, can they support a person's practice by ripening positive karmas in any concrete kind of fashion?
I'm writing very much 'after the fact', so PMs as well as public replies will be much appreciated.
you wore out your welcome with random precision {Pink Floyd}
- PadmaVonSamba
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Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
It’s like saying the Sun helps plants spring from the ground. The Sun can, and it does, but not if the seed is buried too far down or is blocked by shade.
The Sun has no power to sprout even a single seedling that is not in a situation to be sprouted. But it can raise a whole field of grain effortlessly if they are ready to sprout.
The Sun has no power to sprout even a single seedling that is not in a situation to be sprouted. But it can raise a whole field of grain effortlessly if they are ready to sprout.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
Are you talking about negative (as well as positive) fruits of past* karma being experienced unexpectedly 'early', in this life-? Either way, I don't know if what you've written accounts for the oddly precise calibration of {negative} causes and effects that has gradually led me to abandon a negative action of mind that dominated my youth even for many years after I began 'following' dharma, and which also seems to have 'wiped the slate clean', in large part, of many misconceptions about Buddhadharma - besides many apparently-unrelated negative acts. The chain of events seems to have begun around the time of a {limited} level of engagement with a Buddhist teacher in which I tried to justify the negative action (besides taking refuge!); it then developed while I let the self-destructive habits induced by the action (OK, basically the action itself but in an a different context) linger...
The odd thing about it all is that there was no natural link, physical or mental, between the negative action and the 'targeted' nature of the events that followed. I don't feel this is the place to go into details (I more or less spelled out the negative action as well as my 'justification' of it several times on DW during the first few years of my membership anyway) - especially as the whole thing might be seen (though I would disagree) to cast the workings of karma and/or enlightened beings in various questionable shades of light. I've never entertained any other 'superstitious' beliefs, and I can't see how you or anyone else could dismiss everything as unhappy coincidence if you/they were in my shoes.
Any informed perspectives would be greatly appreciated.
{*=EDIT: I'm talking mainly about fruits of negative actions (including any all-consuming desire for things to fall into a particular pattern though not necessarily that specific) committed in this life, as the 'early' ripening thing in general seems to have already been covered in this and the https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.p ... 6826&hilit thread.}
The odd thing about it all is that there was no natural link, physical or mental, between the negative action and the 'targeted' nature of the events that followed. I don't feel this is the place to go into details (I more or less spelled out the negative action as well as my 'justification' of it several times on DW during the first few years of my membership anyway) - especially as the whole thing might be seen (though I would disagree) to cast the workings of karma and/or enlightened beings in various questionable shades of light. I've never entertained any other 'superstitious' beliefs, and I can't see how you or anyone else could dismiss everything as unhappy coincidence if you/they were in my shoes.
Any informed perspectives would be greatly appreciated.
{*=EDIT: I'm talking mainly about fruits of negative actions (including any all-consuming desire for things to fall into a particular pattern though not necessarily that specific) committed in this life, as the 'early' ripening thing in general seems to have already been covered in this and the https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.p ... 6826&hilit thread.}
you wore out your welcome with random precision {Pink Floyd}
Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
So there's a Buddha Kshitigarbha who teaches in hell. My Drikung Kagyu lama said the common belief among many Nyingma that a lama can come save you in the bardo or in hell is false, because of karmic cause and effect. What can happen is more teachings, perhaps some realized would allow one to ripen the bad karma quicker. But the old Buddhist adage, I can show you the door, but you have to walk through it, holds true in Vajrayana.lisasimmarco wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2016 10:47 pm Anyone here know their scripture well?
I was at an empowerment recently and the lama during the teachings period said the Buddhas could not bring anyone out of hell. You could have knocked me off my seat. I thought they could-well, if the karma was ripe for the soul? The lama- a very good teacher - said that if that were true, everyone would be out of hell.
So, what can they do, and not do? And if they can't help anyone's karma or bring someone out of hell, what's the point of all those aspiration prayers I do for all sentient beings all the time? Might as well be a Hinayana Buddhist.
And if they can't do it, what can li'l ole me do, with all those om mani padme hum's I do every day, sending them out in all directions?
Finally, just for reference, my root teacher, Garchen Rinpoche (I'm a Drigung Kagyu Buddhist) once said that if any of us were in hell he would come and save us. He was very serious at the time. So that seems like a contradiction.
So, now I'm totatlly confused. Cited references would be great, if anyone has the time. I will say I have been very discourage in my practice since I heard this.
Thank you in advance.
Lisa
So your lama was correct. Lamas are not messiahs.
Garchen Rinpoche, for all his amazing qualities sometimes says things which Buddhism doesn't say. He says guru yoga works because dharmakaya pervades the universe, which is Atman/Brahman. Dharmakaya is not Atman/Brahman.
I was at the Northern Treasures transmission in Tehachapi with HH Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche. Many weird and amazing things happened there. And many of the lamas in attendance were talking about HH's poor health and reminding people HH will come find you in the bardo and take you to a pure land.
I think some of this idea probably comes from the Guhyagarbha Tantra's ritual of liberation. I feel the point being demonstrated there is greatly misunderstood. One cannot actually capture someone's consciousness and send it into a Pure Land.
As your lama points out, if that were possible there wouldn't even be Earth level for humans. Buddha would have already seated us on blissful rainbow lotuses.
Last edited by Natan on Sun Sep 19, 2021 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What can Buddhas do and not do?
I don't know about that... There was a great master told about by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in Blazing Splendor who was able to travel down to all levels of hell purely through the power of his meditation. (He went down there to lead people out.) He came to Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche for a special empowerment because he was unable to enter the vajra hell in his current state.Crazywisdom wrote: ↑Sun Sep 19, 2021 3:15 pm My Drikung Kagyu lama said the common belief among many Nyingma that a lama can come save you in the bardo or in hell is false, because of karmic cause and effect.
I've also heard from my Geluk teacher incredible stories of HH Dalai Lama helping people in the Bardo. eg. One person had a near death experience... Had visions of lights and sounds and was terrified to the point of remembering HH Dalai Lama's name and calling it out. His Holiness came and saved the person and he came back from the Bardo.
Therefore I think your idea that lamas can't do these things is merely the opinion of someone who hasn't witnessed such a thing.
I don't think you understand well... There are countless accounts of Buddhas and lamas taking sincere practitioners to the pureland. Clearly it doesn't happen with everyone, but some people have practiced in a way that opens them up to this beautiful destiny.Crazywisdom wrote: ↑Sun Sep 19, 2021 3:15 pm I think some of this idea probably comes from the Guhyagarbha Tantra's ritual of liberation. I feel the point being demonstrated there is greatly misunderstood. One cannot actually capture someone's consciousness and send it into a Pure Land.
As your lama points out, if that were possible there wouldn't even be Earth level for humans. Buddha would have already seated us on blissful rainbow lotuses.
I don't know about "capturing a consciousness..." From what I've heard, it's more about Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to guide them to the pureland.