After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

General forum on the teachings of all schools of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Topics specific to one school are best posted in the appropriate sub-forum.
User avatar
Caoimhghín
Posts: 3419
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:35 pm
Location: Whitby, Ontario

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Caoimhghín »

Malcolm wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:56 pm
Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:47 pm
Malcolm wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:33 pm

This idea of three gotras is provisional.
To be fair, they say that the doctrine of the rousing is provisional.

I believe in the rousing myself, it's in the Lotus Sūtra and the Prajñā Treatise, but there are plenty that don't. Furthermore, we are talking about Buddhahood in two different ways with regards to two different things. I am familiar with imperfect degrees of Buddha, including "(Ārya)Bodhisattva" and "Pratyekabuddha."

Who are "they?" Some modern academicians?
I've heard one person say as much in person. He was a Venerable at the Cham Shan temple in Bayview. I'm not married to his Dharma exegeses, but I've heard him say as much using the "burnt seeds cannot sprout" proverb. Other than that, the only other I've heard of is Ven Hùifēng based on his reading of the Śakra section of the Prajñāpāramitā.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Malcolm »

Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:14 pm Other than that, the only other I've heard of is Ven Hùifēng based on his reading of the Śakra section of the Prajñāpāramitā.
can you point me to a link.
User avatar
Caoimhghín
Posts: 3419
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:35 pm
Location: Whitby, Ontario

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Caoimhghín »

It's the link from earlier. It's poorly formatted, not being clearly integrated into my text well. I'm on my phone, so hyperlinks are a bit dodgy. Look on page 1, the fourth post from me. There's a hyperlink there.

I had thought I had read you two disagreeing over it, but likely it was something else I'm misremembering. I think I'm conflating you explaining the rousing in one of the old "three vehicles/ekayāna" threads with that linked thread from ages ago.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Malcolm »

Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:22 pm It's the link from earlier. It's poorly formatted, not being clearly integrated into my text well. I'm on my phone, so hyperlinks are a bit dodgy. Look on page 1, the fourth post from me. There's a hyperlink there.

I had thought I had read you two disagreeing over it, but likely it was something else I'm misremembering. I think I'm conflating you explaining the rousing in one of the old "three vehicles/ekayāna" threads with that linked thread from ages ago.

Here is the passage:
If a person has already entered into the status of certitude [to perfection], they are unable to generate mental aspiration toward anuttarāsamyak saṃbodhi. For what reason? Because they have already constructed an embankment against [the torrent of cyclic] birth and death.
-- An Annotated English Translation of Kumārajīva’s Xiaŏpĭn Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

This is not a problem. This requires that arhats be roused in ordered to be introduced to Mahāyāna aspiration. It is not a passage claiming arhats cannot be roused by a buddha. The reason it is possible for an arhat to realize perfect buddha eventually is given a little later:
Then, Ānanda said: “Teaching the meaning of Prajñāpāramitā in this way, avinivartin bodhisattvas, those who possess right views, and arhats who have fulfilled their aim; [people] such as these will be able to take it up.”
Last edited by Malcolm on Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Caoimhghín
Posts: 3419
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:35 pm
Location: Whitby, Ontario

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Caoimhghín »

I can agree with that. I can also see the other side's logic, even if I don't agree with it and think that the conclusion is flawed.

There's more issues than that though, as I see it. By his logic voiced elsewhere that I can find in a bit, a Bodhisattva becoming a Bhūmika would be like a Śrāvaka stream-entrant: seven lifetimes and then it's "over." According to the more radical consequences of his thought, attaining the first bhūmi would have to be indefinitely postponed.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Malcolm »

Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:36 pm I can agree with that. I can also see the other side's logic, even if I don't agree with it and think that the conclusion is flawed.

There's more issues than that though, as I see it. By his logic voiced elsewhere that I can find in a bit, a Bodhisattva becoming a Bhūmika would be like a Śrāvaka stream-entrant: seven lifetimes and then it's "over." According to the more radical consequences of his thought, attaining the first bhūmi would have to be indefinitely postponed.
There are many issues with such a position, such as the one you just mention.
User avatar
Zhen Li
Posts: 2748
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:15 am
Location: Tokyo
Contact:

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Zhen Li »

Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:14 pm I've heard one person say as much in person. He was a Venerable at the Cham Shan temple in Bayview. I'm not married to his Dharma exegeses, but I've heard him say as much using the "burnt seeds cannot sprout" proverb. Other than that, the only other I've heard of is Ven Hùifēng based on his reading of the Śakra section of the Prajñāpāramitā.
That sounds more like the Nirvāṇa sūtra than Prajñāpāramitā. Of course, the Nirvāṇa sūtra also affirms that icchantikas will inevitably attain the path and move towards buddhahood. The key is Buddha-nature. So long as arhats don't see Buddha-nature, they do not realise Great Nirvāṇa, but they inevitably will:
The Buddha-Nature gains one unsurpassed Enlightenment. How is it that you, the Tathagata, so expansively deliver the sermons of the 12 types of sutras? O World-Honoured One! For example, the four rivers take their rise from [Lake] Anavatapta. The devas and all Buddhas might say that the rivers do not flow into the great sea, but turn back to their source. But this makes no sense. It is the same with the mind of Enlightenment. Anybody with the Buddha-Nature must attain unsurpassed Enlightenment, whether he has heard the sermons or not, whether he has upheld the moral precepts or not, whether he has practised giving or not, whether he has practised the Way or not, whether he has Wisdom or not.
Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:36 pm]
There's more issues than that though, as I see it. By his logic voiced elsewhere that I can find in a bit, a Bodhisattva becoming a Bhūmika would be like a Śrāvaka stream-entrant: seven lifetimes and then it's "over." According to the more radical consequences of his thought, attaining the first bhūmi would have to be indefinitely postponed.
If one cleaves only to the words and logic of the Xiapin Prajñāpāramitā, one will inevitably have a limited perspective on the Mahāyāna.
anjali wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:03 pm And this brings to mind a quote from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,

"Compassion is the effortless radiance of emptiness, free of concepts and beyond description. That is how a buddha’s activity for beings can be limitless. If you understand this, you will know that even when a cool breeze blows upon a sick person burning with fever, that itself is the blessings and compassion of the buddhas."
This is such a great, illustrative quote. I will treasure it. :anjali:
ItsRaining
Posts: 301
Joined: Fri May 12, 2017 7:45 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by ItsRaining »

Malcolm wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:56 pm
Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:47 pm
Malcolm wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:33 pm

This idea of three gotras is provisional.
To be fair, they say that the doctrine of the rousing is provisional.

I believe in the rousing myself, it's in the Lotus Sūtra and the Prajñā Treatise, but there are plenty that don't. Furthermore, we are talking about Buddhahood in two different ways with regards to two different things. I am familiar with imperfect degrees of Buddha, including "(Ārya)Bodhisattva" and "Pratyekabuddha."

Who are "they?" Some modern academicians?

There are all kinds of grades of bodhi, that is not at issue here. We can certainly consider tenth stage bodhisattvas a type of buddha, since the Abhisamayālaṃkāra deems it so, since their omniscience is very nearly that of a samyasaṃbuddha. But to claim that arhats and pratyekabuddhas cannot be roused from their samadhi a) defies scripture b) defies logic. In the first place, we have already agreed that there is scriptural evidence that arhats, etc. are roused. In the second place, asserting they cannot be roused means they are essentially icchantikas, that their continuums have ceased to exist, and so on. Moreover, such as assertion harms the bodhisattva path, because the consequence of this assertion is that no one can attain samyaksambuddhahood, not even the buddha, since as soon as their afflictions are completely eradicated, a bodhisattva can no longer proceed on the bodhisattva path. So I stand by my initial claim. There is no such thing as a śrāvakabuddha. They may not like the idea since an arhat, once roused from cessation, has to begin at the Mahāyāna path of accumulation, rendering them effectively ordinary sentient beings.
This view is very popular amongst those that study or specialise in Yogacara, particularly Xuanzang’s transmission of it in China. One text reports that before Xuanzang returned to China he asked Śīlabhadra on whether he should teach the five gotras as it was extremely unpopular among Chinese Buddhist. Śīlabhadra replied that if he were to teach anything he must teach the five gotras as that was the definitive view of the Mahayana. People kept carrying on this legacy I guess.
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Malcolm »

ItsRaining wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:55 am
Malcolm wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:56 pm
Caoimhghín wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:47 pm To be fair, they say that the doctrine of the rousing is provisional.

I believe in the rousing myself, it's in the Lotus Sūtra and the Prajñā Treatise, but there are plenty that don't. Furthermore, we are talking about Buddhahood in two different ways with regards to two different things. I am familiar with imperfect degrees of Buddha, including "(Ārya)Bodhisattva" and "Pratyekabuddha."

Who are "they?" Some modern academicians?

There are all kinds of grades of bodhi, that is not at issue here. We can certainly consider tenth stage bodhisattvas a type of buddha, since the Abhisamayālaṃkāra deems it so, since their omniscience is very nearly that of a samyasaṃbuddha. But to claim that arhats and pratyekabuddhas cannot be roused from their samadhi a) defies scripture b) defies logic. In the first place, we have already agreed that there is scriptural evidence that arhats, etc. are roused. In the second place, asserting they cannot be roused means they are essentially icchantikas, that their continuums have ceased to exist, and so on. Moreover, such as assertion harms the bodhisattva path, because the consequence of this assertion is that no one can attain samyaksambuddhahood, not even the buddha, since as soon as their afflictions are completely eradicated, a bodhisattva can no longer proceed on the bodhisattva path. So I stand by my initial claim. There is no such thing as a śrāvakabuddha. They may not like the idea since an arhat, once roused from cessation, has to begin at the Mahāyāna path of accumulation, rendering them effectively ordinary sentient beings.
This view is very popular amongst those that study or specialise in Yogacara, particularly Xuanzang’s transmission of it in China. One text reports that before Xuanzang returned to China he asked Śīlabhadra on whether he should teach the five gotras as it was extremely unpopular among Chinese Buddhist. Śīlabhadra replied that if he were to teach anything he must teach the five gotras as that was the definitive view of the Mahayana. People kept carrying on this legacy I guess.
Well, Yogacara accepts icchantikas. But their view on this is incorrect.
Nalanda
Posts: 646
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:35 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Nalanda »

Is it mainstream/majority Mahayana view that arhats are to walk the Bodhissatva path eventually?

Does that mean then that they are reborn (inspite of what they expected: arhats = end of rebirth) reborn as regular sentient beings to become Bodhissatva?

Is it such a stretch then to think that a significant many Mahayanists or living life as a Bodhisatva today were once sravakas?
IF YOU PRACTICE WITH A STRONG BELIEF IN WHAT
YOU ARE DOING, THEN THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT
YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR PRACTICE.

CHAKUNG JIGME WANGDRAK RINPOCHE

User avatar
Zhen Li
Posts: 2748
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:15 am
Location: Tokyo
Contact:

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Zhen Li »

Nalanda wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:45 am Is it mainstream/majority Mahayana view that arhats are to walk the Bodhissatva path eventually?
If you are asking about majorities, you should open a poll.

Clearly, people on this forum have a diversity of opinions, so you're going to get our answers based upon peoples' different experiences, traditions, and readings.
Nalanda wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:45 am Does that mean then that they are reborn (inspite of what they expected: arhats = end of rebirth) reborn as regular sentient beings to become Bodhissatva?
They don't attain nirvāṇa that stops their rebirths, but they end the production of seeds of defilement.
Lotus Sutra, Chp. 8, verse 44 wrote: “The friend to the world has made us realize,
‘There is no nirvāṇa such as this.’
It is the supreme wisdom of the highest beings
That nirvāṇa is the supreme bliss.
Arhat liberation is not nirvāṇa but a temporary station on a longer road. Here's what the Laṅkāvatāra says about it:
Lankavatara II. XVI wrote:And what is different about a shravaka’s attainment of the personal realization of buddha knowledge? This refers to attaining stillness of mind in regard to the realms of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and the absence of a self, in regard to the truths concerning the cessation and transcendence of desire, and in regard to the end of anything indestructible among the individual or shared characteristics of the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas. And with stillness of mind come the liberation of dhyana, the final fruit of samadhi, and the deliverance of samapatti. But while enjoying the bliss from the personal realization of buddha knowledge, shravakas are not yet free of habit-energy or imperceptible transformation deaths. This is how a shravaka’s attainment of the personal realization of buddha knowledge differs.
Those imperceptible transformation deaths (in Sanskrit: acintya-pariṇāminī cyutiḥ, or acintya-cyuti). These are explained in the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra as being birth and death freed from limited saṃsāra, and birth rather in mind-made bodies whose functioning is facilitated by samādhi and/or vows.

So, they are not regular sentient beings. I think if they did not reject the śrāvaka path in life, then they inevitably do so in their acintya-cyuti existences. This is where cultivation will occur for them, so at a certain point it could allow them to easily access Pure Lands.
Nalanda wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:45 am Is it such a stretch then to think that a significant many Mahayanists or living life as a Bodhisatva today were once sravakas?
It is not a stretch. As the Prajñāpāramitā and many other sūtras state, the number of beings who come to hear, let alone believe and understand in the Mahāyāna sūtras, is extremely few. The only reason you have been able to encounter the Mahāyāna now is because of seeds planted in past lives.

The reason why the arhats in the Lotus Sūtra come to repent their śrāvaka path and join the bodhisattva path is because of seeds planted in the past. Śākyamuni Buddha helped them bring those seeds to fruition. But most people are not so fortunate as to live when a Buddha is present who can do this for us.
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Malcolm »

Nalanda wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:45 am Is it mainstream/majority Mahayana view that arhats are to walk the Bodhissatva path eventually?
Yes, this is the mainstream view.
Does that mean then that they are reborn (inspite of what they expected: arhats = end of rebirth) reborn as regular sentient beings to become Bodhissatva?
This is a difficult point. Some scholars assert that, once roused from the absorption of cessation (nirodhasamāpatti), arhats are basically equivalent to 7th stage bodhisattvas and some even assert they can enter the bodhisattva path on the eighth bodhisattva stage because it is asserted that arhats are equivalent to bodhisattvas in realizing the selflessness of phenomena that is the absence of inherent existence.

Other scholars assert that once roused from the absorption of cessation (nirodhasamāpatti) arhats must begin at the beginning of the Mahāyāna path of accumulation since they have not generated Mahāyāna bodhicitta nor have they realized the profound emptiness free from extremes. I personally favor the latter position because the Abhisamayālaṃkāra clearly describes the superiority of the hearing and reflection on signlessness in the Mahāyāna path of accumulation, and so on. Gorampa summarizes it as follows in his Moonrays:
Therefore, in our own system of Madhyamaka, although the selflessness of the three yānas is equivalent, the difference between whether freedom from proliferation, the two accumulations, the ultimate nature and reality are realized or not realized is clear in all Madhyamaka textual systems.
Basically, arhats have a subtle grasping to true existence because they do not realize four-fold signlessness. Since they have this subtle grasping to true existence, they continue to grasp a self. Because they continue to grasp a self, they accumulate action. And since they continue to accumulation action, they can continue to take birth, having been roused from nirodhasamāpatti. And because of this arhats, in order to realize buddhahood, must begin at the beginning of the Mahāyāna path of application where one reviews through hearing and reflection signlessness, etc.
User avatar
Queequeg
Former staff member
Posts: 14462
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:24 pm

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Queequeg »

Some edifying stuff here, fellas.

:bow:
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
Nalanda
Posts: 646
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:35 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Nalanda »

Wow, that's just wow. I have some adjustments in thinking to do. I just thought arhats are enlightened (but that their enlightenment is not similar to that of the Buddha) and that once enlightened there is nothing further to do. I didn't know they are still in samsara and will take rebirth in spite of the belief that there is nothing further after their reaching their arhatship.
IF YOU PRACTICE WITH A STRONG BELIEF IN WHAT
YOU ARE DOING, THEN THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT
YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR PRACTICE.

CHAKUNG JIGME WANGDRAK RINPOCHE

User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9441
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Maybe the question to first consider is, if a Buddha transcends all time and space, is there such a thing as “after enlightenment”?
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Malcolm »

Nalanda wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:41 pm Wow, that's just wow. I have some adjustments in thinking to do. I just thought arhats are enlightened (but that their enlightenment is not similar to that of the Buddha) and that once enlightened there is nothing further to do. I didn't know they are still in samsara and will take rebirth in spite of the belief that there is nothing further after their reaching their arhatship.

Arhats, after they die, are basically formless realm beings, who because they have subtle traces, wind up taking birth again. They are among the "some buddhas" who err and re-enter samsara. It's not very shocking, since we already know that arhats can fall away from arhatship, according even to śrāvaka sources.
Nalanda
Posts: 646
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:35 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Nalanda »

Formless sentient beings. Like devas? So sort of like the accomplishment of our Jain cousins.

I think the sravakas would ask "If that's all true, why would the historical Buddha Shakyamuni not teach the actual path? Yeah yeah okay, 500 years before Nagarjuna, people are not as sharp in mental faculties, but why bother teaching the sravaka path at all considering it sounds a lot like the Jain vehicle? So either that's the case, or maybe your team's calculations is off a bit and that the Buddha Shakyamuni was actually right and sravaka is the path he taught in the buddhavacana."

At least that's what I imagine sravaka path followers would say.
IF YOU PRACTICE WITH A STRONG BELIEF IN WHAT
YOU ARE DOING, THEN THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT
YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR PRACTICE.

CHAKUNG JIGME WANGDRAK RINPOCHE

User avatar
Caoimhghín
Posts: 3419
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:35 pm
Location: Whitby, Ontario

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Caoimhghín »

Higher Bodhisattvas and the Buddhas are also "formless," and merely create "formed" bodies via the powers of their minds. It's a matter of two different kinds of formlessness. The Arhats' minds are constantly preoccupied by their all-emcompassing samādhi. The minds of Āryabodhisattvas are otherwise. Buddhas do not have "minds." My opinion, obv, but one I feel confident defending.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
Nalanda
Posts: 646
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:35 am

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Nalanda »

Caoimhghín wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 8:30 pm Higher Bodhisattvas and the Buddhas are also "formless," and merely create "formed" bodies via the powers of their minds. It's a matter of two different kinds of formlessness. The Arhats' minds are constantly preoccupied by their all-emcompassing samādhi. The minds of Āryabodhisattvas are otherwise. Buddhas do not have "minds." My opinion, obv, but one I feel confident defending.
Well the Buddha Dharmakaya obviously have no "minds" right?

But the Sambhogaya do?

And Nirmanayaka clearly do have minds.
IF YOU PRACTICE WITH A STRONG BELIEF IN WHAT
YOU ARE DOING, THEN THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT
YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR PRACTICE.

CHAKUNG JIGME WANGDRAK RINPOCHE

User avatar
Caoimhghín
Posts: 3419
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:35 pm
Location: Whitby, Ontario

Re: After enlightenment, can a Buddha return/manifest/emanate to samsara?

Post by Caoimhghín »

They are "appearances" of minds and forms, not "true" minds and forms. Please give me a bit to substantiate this, as I realize it's a radical statement.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
Post Reply

Return to “Mahāyāna Buddhism”