Home » Posts tagged with "enlightenment"
Posts tagged with "enlightenment"
What Are Buddhist Meditative Practices Truly For?
Sep. 17 | Question: What are Buddhist meditative practices for? Can they be for relaxation and the sharpening of mindfulness for work and play? Answer: They are for training, to attain enlightenment, which leads to liberation from the cycle of birth and death....
Verse On Sitting
Oct. 7 | 正身端坐， 当愿众生， 坐菩提座， 心无所著。 – 文殊菩萨 (华严经: 净行品11: 第29偈) When uprighting [the] body [to] sit, [reflect that] ‘May sentient beings sit [on] Bodhi’s seat,* [with] minds without...
The Compassion & Wisdom Of Relative & Absolute Truths
Nov. 1 | To share absolute truths with those who need relative truths is to confuse instead of help. To share relative truths with those who need absolute truths is to belittle instead of enlighten. – Stonepeace Relative truths refer to conventional realities...
Attainment Of Non-Attainment
Oct. 31 | Perfect attainment of the fruit of enlightenment is non-attainment of anything. – Surangama Sutra [Perfect enlightenment is non-attachment to everything, while functioning with perfect compassion and wisdom naturally for everyone, as it realises...
Have You Washed Your Bowl Yet?
Sep. 6 | If you are hungry, why have you not eaten? If you have eaten, why have you not washed up? – Stonepeace In the Zen tradition, a classic dialogue between a teacher and a student is called a ‘mondo’ (in Japanese and Chinese: ‘問答:...
Is Enlightenment Gradual Or Sudden?
Aug. 2 | Paradoxically, realisation of the unconditioned requires many conditions. – Stonepeace When we speak of the word ‘enlightenment’, what might come to mind is the image of an electric bulb within suddenly switching on, illuminating the...
Awareness
Jul. 12 | The first step towards enlightenment is having awareness. The next step towards enlightenment is increasing awareness. The last step towards enlightenment is perfecting awareness. – Stonepeace
How A Dragon Girl Attained ‘Instant’ Buddhahood
May. 24 | Major sudden enlightenment in an instant is the culminating effect of minor gradual awakenings over much time. ~ Stonepeace In the Lotus Sutra, there is a section where Wisdom Accumulation Bodhisattva asks Manjushri Bodhisattva if there is anyone who...
Four Attachments
May. 19 | If you have attachment to this life, you are not a spiritual person. If you have attachment to the world of existence, you do not have renunciation. If you have attachment to your own purpose, you do not have the thought of enlightenment. If grasping...
The Doubt Paradox
May. 9 | Once you have doubts if you are enlightened, have no doubt you are not yet enlightened, because enlightenment is about absolute certainty. (If you are enlightened like the Buddha, why are you not ‘enlightening’ others like the Buddha?) ~...
Claims of Enlightenment?
Mar. 30 | “I command that after my [Pari]Nirvana, Bodhisattvas and Arhats appear in response-bodies in the Dharma-ending Age, and take various forms in order to rescue those in the cycle of rebirth. They should either become Shramanas, white-robed laypeople,...
How Did The Buddha Know He Was Enlightened?
Mar. 14 | Question: How did Buddha know that he was enlightened? Answer: The Buddha developed his mind so perfectly that he could survey the universe, after which he realised there are no beings who are just as enlightened – other than other Buddhas. It’s...
Was The Buddha A Free-Thinker?
Nov. 11 | To assume oneself to be right dogmatically is to be wrong spiritually. – Stonepeace Recently, there is an increase in atheists and agnostics (free-thinkers) who are eager to show that it is possible to be secular humanists, to be moral (instead...
