Shedding the blood of Buddha

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stucked
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Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by stucked »

So I just saw a Buddha's image and I saw a little black spot in one of her eyes. I tried to clean it, but it didn't work and it looks like I accidentally scratched it. Do I commit one of five gravest offenses? And what should I do?

Also I want to ask if the shedding of the Buddha's blood is only limited to the Buddha's physical body or also applies to damaging works related to the Buddha? And also I wanna ask, what should someone do if they have committed Anantarika-karma?

Thank you.
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Aryjna
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by Aryjna »

stucked wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 2:06 pm So I just saw a Buddha's image and I saw a little black spot in one of her eyes. I tried to clean it, but it didn't work and it looks like I accidentally scratched it. Do I commit one of five gravest offenses? And what should I do?

Also I want to ask if the shedding of the Buddha's blood is only limited to the Buddha's physical body or also applies to damaging works related to the Buddha? And also I wanna ask, what should someone do if they have committed Anantarika-karma?

Thank you.
I'm not sure how you could even imagine that scratching a statue could have anything to do with shedding the blood of a buddha, or of anyone else.
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

stucked wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 2:06 pm So I just saw a Buddha's image and I saw a little black spot in one of her eyes. I tried to clean it, but it didn't work and it looks like I accidentally scratched it. Do I commit one of five gravest offenses? And what should I do?

Also I want to ask if the shedding of the Buddha's blood is only limited to the Buddha's physical body or also applies to damaging works related to the Buddha? And also I wanna ask, what should someone do if they have committed Anantarika-karma?

Thank you.
I do not understand such a superstitious view of Buddhism. Can you explain it to me? Thanks.
EMPTIFUL.
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stucked
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by stucked »

What I mean is, does damaging works (intentionally/unintentionally) related to Buddha is counted as shedding blood of the Buddha as person?

Since I found some sources stated that.
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

stucked wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 4:19 pm What I mean is, does damaging works (intentionally/unintentionally) related to Buddha is counted as shedding blood of the Buddha as person?

Since I found some sources stated that.
Intentionally damaging Buddha images would carry some serious bad mojo, doing it on accident is pretty meaningless.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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Dhammanando
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by Dhammanando »

Johnny Dangerous wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:03 pm Intentionally damaging Buddha images would carry some serious bad mojo,
:?

Oh, poor Tianran!
During the Yuan He era of the Tang dynasty Tianran visited Longmen Monastery on Fragrant Mountain in Luoyang. There he became a friend of the monk Funiu. Later, Tianran stayed at Wisdom Woods Temple. During some extremely cold weather, he took a wooden statue of Buddha and burned it in the fire to get warm.

The temple director got extremely upset with Tianran and yelled, “Why are you burning my wooden buddha?”
Tianran pulled some burning embers from the fire and said, “I’m burning this buddha to get the sacred relics from it.”

The temple director said, “How can a wooden buddha have sacred relics?”

Tianran said, “Well, if it doesn’t have sacred relics, let’s burn a couple more of them.”

The temple director was so upset that his eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard all fell out.
(A. Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage)
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hc3ehtvsquj51.jpg
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Dhammanando wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:58 pm
Johnny Dangerous wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:03 pm Intentionally damaging Buddha images would carry some serious bad mojo,
:?

Oh, poor Tianran!
During the Yuan He era of the Tang dynasty Tianran visited Longmen Monastery on Fragrant Mountain in Luoyang. There he became a friend of the monk Funiu. Later, Tianran stayed at Wisdom Woods Temple. During some extremely cold weather, he took a wooden statue of Buddha and burned it in the fire to get warm.

The temple director got extremely upset with Tianran and yelled, “Why are you burning my wooden buddha?”
Tianran pulled some burning embers from the fire and said, “I’m burning this buddha to get the sacred relics from it.”

The temple director said, “How can a wooden buddha have sacred relics?”

Tianran said, “Well, if it doesn’t have sacred relics, let’s burn a couple more of them.”

The temple director was so upset that his eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard all fell out.
(A. Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage)
.
hc3ehtvsquj51.jpg
I mean it’s a nice story which carries a certain meaning in Zen/Chan, but it’s not an exhortation to go burn Buddha images.

Anyway, I wasn’t meaning to further contribute to fears of hellfire and retribution so let me clarify:

The worst part of *intentionally* burning a Buddha image with some sort of malice would be the separation it creates from the teachings of the Buddha in the mind.

Doing it completely unintentionally (in fact, with the desire to clean the image) is really not a thing to worry about in my opinion.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

-Khunu Lama
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It'sYa1UPBoy
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Re: Shedding the blood of Buddha

Post by It'sYa1UPBoy »

There's a certain story which I find helpful, about Shakyamuni's death. His last meal came from a layperson, and he got sick after eating and died. Now, whether this was due to food poisoning or general old age--- Shakyamuni was 80 when he died, after all ---isn't clear, but everyone was worried it was the former. When the layperson asked what would come of his karma from accidentally poisoning the Buddha, Shakyamuni told him that for giving the Buddha his last meal, he would gain great merit. He said nothing of bad karma from harming the Buddha. He simply said, in so few words, that the layperson offered him a meal, out of kindness and good intention, to feed the propagator of the Dharma, and that is good. He said, in so few words, that the man provided him care at the end of his life, and that is good.

That's why, generally speaking, when speaking of karma, and in particular anantarika-karma, intention is a key component--- to MALICIOUSLY shed the blood of the Buddha is the evil action. I've read that passage from Ven. Hsuan Hua as well, and it also caused me anxiety for a time, but I figure he must've assumed that his audience would be familiar with the caveat of intention. And besides that, his view is far from universal, to my knowledge.

In gassho,
:anjali:
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