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| Poster: Phúc Sơn Reply Post Message Date: Sun Nov 20 05:57:40 2005 |
| Subject: To pureLand |
| Post No: 2321 Reply to: 2320 |
##TD is the best sect and number one practice of budhism## Now now now, please tone down your enthusiasm ;-)) because there are many great good knowing advisors in this forum who can beg to differ with you. ## that will lead practical budhists fastly to enlightened Nirvana. Viva TD, Viva TD.## I, for one, beg to differ with this statement of yours. I don't know whether it is during your ecstatic moment that you had made a typo error or not. Enlightenment is one thing, while Nirvana is another thing. Nirvana is a state that can only be reached by enlightened people. However, a person, who reaches enlightenment, does not have to enter Nirvana. The Pure Land dharma practice does not lead to, or shall I say, does not encourage practitioners to enter Nirvana. Nirvana, to put in a nut shell, is a state of no birth and no death. Once you are in there, you are in eternal bliss, but you would no longer have interaction with living beings or have the capability to save, preach and help living beings. Buddhas don't want to enter nirvana. They said they enter nirvana, but they don't really do so. Check out the Lotus Flower, the buddha clearly explained that in chapter 16, "Như Lai Thọ Lượng". I hope you can read Vietnamese, since I see that you had typed in english rather than vietnamese. "Vì sao? - Vì nếu Phật ở lâu nơi đời, thời người đức "mỏng, chẳng trồng gốc lành, nghèo cùng hèn-hạ, ham ưa năm món dục, sa vào trong lướI nhớ tưởng vọng-kiến. Nếu thấy đức Như-Lai thường còn chẳng mất, bèn sinh lòng buông-lung nhàm trễ, chẳng có thể sinh ra ý tưởng khó gặp-gỡ cùng lòng cung-kính, cho nên đức Như-Lai dùng phương-tiện nói rằng: "Tỷ-khiêu phải biết, các đức Phật ra đời, khó có thể gặp gỡ". Vì sao? - Những người đức mỏng, trải qua trăm nghìn muôn ức kiếp, hoặc có người thấy Phật hoặc người chẳng thấy, do việc này, nên ta nói rằng: "Tỷ-khiêu! Đức Như-Lai khó có thể được thấy". Các chúng-sinh đó nghe lời như thế, ắt sẽ sinh ý-tưởng khó gặp-gỡ, ôm lòng luyến-mộ khát-ngưỡng nơi Phật, bèn trồng gốc lành, cho nên đức Như-Lai dầu chẳng diệt mà nói diệt-độ. " The last sentence summed it all up "cho nên đức Như-Lai dầu chẳng diệt mà nói diệt-độ." The buddha, and all buddhas, practices the bodhisattva way. He wants to be near living beings, he wants to follow living beings to help them, therefore, he cannot or will not enter nirvana. Once he reaches enlightenement, he attains the "vô sinh pháp nhẫn", he can be born and die, born and die, without being affected by all the disturbances of the birth and death process. Therefore, he is constantly born into different worlds and die, to follow the living beings. That's what this sentence means: "Các thiện-nam-tử! Ta xưa tu-hành đạo Bồ-tát, cảm thành thọ-mệnh," He has or he choose to have "thọ-mệnh", so that he can always be near living beings who are born and die. To help and teach someone, he cannot be a supernatural being. He has to take up the form of a living being. He grows up, becomes enlightened, so that living beings can see that they, too, can become enlightened. "Các thiện-nam-tử! Ta xưa tu-hành đạo Bồ-tát, cảm thành thọ-mệnh, nay vẫn chưa hết, lại còn hơn số trên, nhưng nay chẳng phải thực diệt-độ, mà bèn xướng nói sẽ diệt-độ. Đức Như-Lai dùng phương-tiện đó, giáo-hóa chúng-sinh." Allow me to loosely translate the above paragraph: Since long ago, I practice the bodhisattva way, assume to have a life time which has still not reach the end. Its (life time) lenghth is very long, now I do not really become extinct (enter nirvana) but declare that I will extinct. The Thus Come One uses that skillful mean to teach living beings. Now, back to our discussion. The ultimate goal of the Pure Land dhrama practice is for people to reach enlightenment and become buddhas. Once they become buddhas, they will, in turn, go to the ten directions and hep living beings. Those enlightened people (buddhas) don't enter nirvana. I sometimes jokingly equate the action of the buddha Amitabha as "buddha recruiting service" ;-)) The buddha Amitabha helps living beings to get to his land, teaches them to become buddhas, then send them away to far far away lands in the ten directions to do the job of saving living beings for Him ;-)) |