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| Quote: Do the Worthier
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Though it might be harder
to do the right thing,
it is correspondingly worthier to do so.
- Stonepeace: http://twitter.com/stonepeace
| | The TDE Collection |
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| Realisation: Can a ‘Creator God’ be 'Created'? |
| Unless out of Bodhicitta,
wanting to create something external
is a sign of internal imperfection,
incompletion and discontentment.
- Stonepeace |
In the Brahmajala Sutta (http://tinyurl.com/sutta1), the Buddha tells of a long time ago, when this world system is naturally and cyclically dissolved after a lapse of many aeons. During this time, beings are mostly reborn as gods with radiant light from their bodies in the Abhassara heaven (the highest of the second jhanic heavens) nurtured by jhanic bliss. (See http://tinyurl.com/31planes for planes of existence) When the world arises again after a long time, a palatial Brahma abode manifests naturally (in one or all of the three first jhanic heavens – of Maha Brahma, his ministers and retinue). One of the Abhassara beings is reborn into this lower heaven due to exhaustion of his relevant positive karma or lifespan. There, he lived alone for many aeons, becoming weary and lonely. Longing for company, he uttered, ‘Would that some other beings come to this place!’ By a string of karmic ‘coincidences’, other beings from the Abhassara ‘fall’ and are reborn there.
| ‘Seeing this, the ‘first’ god thought, ‘I am Brahma, the great Brahma (Maha Brahma), the conqueror, the unconquered [almighty], omniscient, the subjector of all to his wishes [lord of all], the omnipotent, the maker, the creator, the supreme, the controller… and Father to all that have been and shall be. I have created these other beings…’ These beings revered him as they too assumed that he created them - as he was there before they came into being, and that they too had forgotten about their past lives. However, this was simply because the first god there karmically has a longer life, more beauty and power than the following ones. When the Earth is formed later, one of these gods dies and is reborn as a human, who becomes an ascetic. Through diligent mental cultivation, he is able to recall just one immediate past life, from which he concludes that Maha Brahma creates humans, and that he is ‘eternal’ and ‘unchanging’.
| The Buddha thus showed how belief and worship of a creator god arose. Incidentally, the Buddha was first invited to teach the Dharma by Brahma Sahampati from the highest fourth jhanic heaven. Being an enlightened ‘Teacher of Humans and Gods’, the Buddha clearly saw that world systems undergo natural cycles of formation, evolution, dissolution and destruction, which interact with beings’ karma without any creator god. He also how beings can be reborn as wondrous gods through meditative virtues, though they are still spiritually short-sighted, unmindful of many past lives and the existence of higher heavens. It is by karmic default that some gods naturally mistake themselves to be perfect, omniscient, omnipotent creators, when they are not - due to their inadequacy, pride and delusion. Though they live the illusion of ‘eternal’ life in ‘eternal’ heavens, they too are trapped in rebirth. Interestingly, the Kevatta Sutta (see Realisation at http://tinyurl.com/kevatta) says Maha Brahma already realised the Buddha’s superiority! – Shen Shi'an: http://facebook.com/shenshian
| The ultimately enlightened [Buddhas] are so
because they are able
to understand and explain everything ultimately.
- Stonepeace
Related Articles:
~ How Baka Brahma Realised He is Not a Creator God
~ How the Goldilocks Effect Affects You |
| Share Articles & Comments: comment@... | More Realisations |
| Excerpt: The Mantra of the Perfection of Wisdom |
| The perfection of wisdom (Prajnaparamita)
is the ability to guide all
to transcend the sea of Samsara,
and to reach the shore of Buddhahood
- Stonepeace
| A mantra is something that you utter when your body, your mind and your breath are at one in deep concentration. When you dwell in that deep concentration, you look into things and see them as clearly as you see an orange that you hold in the palm of your hand. Looking deeply into the five skandhas [aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental formation, consciousness], Avalokitesvara [Guanyin Bodhisattva] saw the nature of inter-being [interdependence] and overcame all pain [suffering]. He became completely liberated. It was in that state of deep concentration, of joy, of liberation, that he uttered something important. That is why his utterance is a mantra.
| When two young people love each other, but the young man has not said so yet, the young lady may be waiting for three very important words. If the young man is a very responsible person, he probably wants to be sure of his feeling, and he may wait a long time before saying it. Then one day, sitting together in a park, when no one else is nearby and everything is quiet, after the two of them have been silent for a long time, he utters these three words. When the young lady hears this, she trembles, because it is such an important statement. When you say something like that with your whole being, not just with your mouth or your intellect, but with your whole being, it can transform the world. A statement that has such power of transformation is called a mantra. Avalokitesvara's mantra is 'Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha'.
| 'Gate' means 'gone'. Gone from suffering to the liberation of suffering. Gone from forgetfulness to mindfulness. Gone from duality into non-duality. 'Gate gate' means 'gone, gone'. 'Paragate' means 'gone all the way to the other shore'. So this mantra is said in a very strong way. Gone, gone, gone all the way over. In 'parasamgate', 'sam' means everyone, the Sangha, the entire community of beings. Everyone gone over to the other shore. 'Bodhi' is the light inside, enlightenment, or awakening. You see it and the vision of reality liberates you. And 'svaha' is a cry of joy or excitement, like 'ah!' or 'hurrah!' 'Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment!'
| The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra
Thich Nhat Hanh
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