Buddhist Faith

Since faith is not realized by reasoning, their emotional basis may lead to the cognitive distortion caused by rationalization of feeling and emotions.

For example: if I feel strong emotions about an event (my birthday), a thing (taking pictures), or a state of mind (happiness), then I act happy, experience anticipation, or feel happy.

Each of these effects may become problematic if the cognitive distortion leads to a gross change in mood. For happiness could lead to future suffering if it isn't allowed to end on its own.

Yet faith in Amida Buddha's Primal Vow is sure to aid the Pure Land practitioner in practice of Buddha Recitation at least ten times when done with sincerity and thanksgiving.

Faith based on emotional reasoning is unsound because if one's feelings about enlightenment changes, then so will one's faith in enlightenment, which requires spiritual awakening through both meditation and mindful practice consisting of being of service and helpful to others.

However, faith in the Buddha as a Higher Power is dependent on a deeper concept of the Buddha as having three forms (bodies), consisting essentially of the three kayas, which are aspects of enlightened being, the reflections of the historical Gautama Buddha in three distinct ways to help all sentient beings.

The word Buddha itself means "awakened one" and "fully realized", for it implies serenity arising in the calm state of mind so that clear insight about enlightenment is possible.

With such a clarity of mind, one is able to see the original nature of mind perfectly as it is, unchanged and pristine. Such clear insight is the reflection of the pure heart of the Buddha and specifically of Buddha Nature itself.

As a result of Buddha Nature's effect on the heart-mind, one is able to maintain the open mind while freeing oneself from the fetters of life.

Indeed, that which fetters us in life are our desires, which lead to ignorant craving to satisfy desires, clinging to name and form, and becoming dependent on satisfying desires.

Once free, we awaken to the understanding about the true nature about relative and absolute levels of consciousness and relative and absolute truth.

Thus, the Buddha is the truly awakened one, and has realized the complete transcendence of mental and behavioral negativities which obscure the mind, and lead one to become fettered by delusions about life, lost in the darkness of ignorance clouded over by all kinds of cognitive distortions.

Having realized such a transcendence, the practitioner is able to remain positive, bright and cheerful as though the cloud of ignorance has disappeared in the sunshine of the Buddha's radiance.

All realized sentient beings are Buddhas. They who realized their true nature yesterday were Buddhas, they who realize their true nature today may be considered Buddhas, and they who are about to realize their true nature will become Buddhas tomorrow. Thus, "Buddha" is the general term which does not refer to a specific realized being but to every realized being.

Once Buddhas have realized their true nature, they strive to be of service to others, and thus benefit other sentient beings, from the microscope quanta to the macroscopic multiverse. Thus they diligently work to keep their bodies healthy so that they are able to free their minds of the fetters of human existence through meditation and mindful practice.

In order to benefit others, Buddhas appear in many different forms or bodies. Specifically, the main bodies consist of the three kayas: Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya.

Additionally, there are also four and five kayas in Tibetan Buddhism, which qualify other expressions of enlightened being, yet ultimately all are one Buddha.

'Kaya' is a Sanskrit word which means "body in the sense of many qualities gathered together, joined and united as one". In this context, "kaya" specifically refers to the body of spiritual experience and knowledge arising from such experience, manifested as "the embodiments of loving-kindness, compassion, wisdom and skillful means which appear in the world to help sentient beings."

Dharma is Sanskrit for external and internal phenomenon, both inside and outside. Dharmakaya refers to the primordial nature of phenomena which truly transcends all conception of dualistic thought while remaining impartial without discrimination.

For Dharmakaya is Great Equanimity, the steadiness of mind under stress which is calm and serene.

Clear and devoid of all worldly passion, the mind is open to the clear insight inculcated by years of earnest and devoted mindful practice and meditation with eyes open and the heart-mind free of the cognitive distortions arising from ego delusion, having realized by direct experience the true meaning of wisdom.

Thus is this embodiment of wisdom known as Dharmakaya.

Each of us is aware of many kinds of phenomenon, which include what we know and feel, and are categorized in two types: 1) subjective phenomena and 2) objective phenomena. Both develop through interaction with the elements, which are composed of sub-units called quanta, and may have shape and form.

On careful examination of the elements, each of them are composed of individual atoms, and each atom is composed of quanta such as electrons, protons and even neutrons which form a cohesive whole.

None of these particles exist alone, for each is dependent on others for their existence. On careful examination of a particular element, thorough investigation in terms of subject and object soon disappears by the intuition of Great Emptiness. This spiritual intuition is derived from meditation and mindful practice, which results in the calm mind necessary to develop clear insight into the nature of being.

One cannot go beyond this examination of a single element, for it is beyond our dualistic conception. Thus is the true nature of being realized as Great Emptiness.

When we view subjective phenomena, we see that it is not unlike the elements. While it is possible to divide the mind into eight categories of consciousness as in the Yogacara school of Buddhism, the mind still functions as one unit.

When we try to find from where our current thoughts come, nowhere are we able to discover from where they arise. When we seek each thought's destination, each of their paths is undetermined.

Indeed, each thought rises and falls in waves, sometimes with a flurry of mental activity and often without rhyme or reason — no one knows where our thoughts will go, nor where they will lead us.

Thus, we see that the subject of our self discovery, the mind, is arising in
Great Emptiness which defies expression and our ability to describe accurately its nature of being, both the source of thought and its destination.

Based in one primordial nature, both the internal and external are indistinct and indistinguishable from each other, for all are Emptiness and beyond dualistic thought, beyond the nature of existence and non-existence, being both existence and non-existence and neither of them, extending far beyond the common sense idea of being the state of containing nothing. Rather, Emptiness is expressible as a description within context of the concepts of impermanence and no-self, for it describes both the true nature of being and the original nature of mind, yet is incomprehensible to ordinary sentient beings.

Being devoid of shape or form, Emptiness is not a 'thing' nor does it have any quality of 'thingness'. It is truly omnipresent, yet is not God existing apart from the multiverse but transcends our limited human conception of God.

Indeed, the primordial nature of being is both great and small yet is neither great nor small, for it defies all definition and is thus beyond any articulate expression about itself.

While our circumstances cannot change the primordial nature of being, it is possible to perfectly realize this nature as the realization of Dharmakaya.

With Great Emptiness being our primordial nature, this Emptiness is neither like a black hole nor is it nothingness itself. For Emptiness is full of thingness yet is not a thing nor is it thingness itself. By means of the primordial nature of being, all things in this multiverse arise without effort and thought to spontaneously appear with clarity of mind.

Indeed, the calm mind — which arises due to meditation, is inculcated through dedicated mindful practice of being of service to others, and helps every sentient being to realize Emptiness as it is — is one of the signs of Emptiness made real.

When no concept of Emptiness exists, all things are blocked, nothing moves, nothing develops, and nothing appears &mdash as though frozen in time. When the spontaneous radiance of unceasing clarity illumines the mind, the resulting clear insight is known as Sambhogakaya.

Sambhogakaya is the perfect enjoyment of the body of spiritual experience and knowledge. This perfect enjoyment is possible due to the effect of meditation and practice which helps develop the clear insight into our primordial nature as its radiant wisdom aspect.

Displayed as the Five Wisdoms, Sambhogakaya consist of:

1) Dharmadhatu Wisdom,

2) Mirror-like wisdom,

3) Wisdom of Equality,

4) Discriminating Awareness Wisdom, and

5) All-Accomplishing Wisdom.

All Five Wisdoms reflect the clarity aspect of our true nature, that clearness of mind which inspires us to see clearly our primordial nature as it is.

While we exist in the world of samsara — this life of suffering birth, life, old age and death — ignorant of Emptiness, of enlightenment, and of our true primordial nature, these Wisdoms are seen as the eight consciousnesses.

When the obscuration of dependent arising are purified and removed by meditation and mindful practice, our understanding of the eight consciousnesses are transformed by applying the Five Wisdoms through meditation. Consequently deep understanding of the primordial nature of our present consciousness is based on these Five Wisdoms.

Here are the eight consciousnesses: first are the five sense consciousnesses of

1. eye consciousness,
   
2. ear consciousness,
   
3. tongue consciousness,
   
4. nose consciousness, and
   
5. body consciousness.

— these first five consciousness operate via the sense organs to perceive the external objects of sense. By themselves, they are limited with the eye consciousness seeing only form within the limited range of visible light, which cannot taste or hear sounds or smell. Likewise, the ear is only able to hear a limited range of sounds, but cannot see, taste and so on. So, how may the five consciousnesses work together as one? That function belongs to the sixth sense because it is like a judge who makes decisions, and is able to receive input from the five external consciousnesses and to organize that input so that we are able to make sense of our experience. As a result, the sixth consciousness makes as one the five sense consciousnesses, creating mental fabrications, and thus is known as the mind consciousness. Being very immediate, the first five consciousnesses have no continuity and only refer to the present, having no sense of the past or the future, and only communicates directly in the present moment. Thus they are rather exclusive and single-minded. Not only does the sixth consciousness unite these five, it is able to refer to events and activities of the past and the future. Indeed, the mind actually makes sense of time itself. On closer examination, the mind has two aspects to it:

1. the sixth consciousness, which handles the business of past, present and future; makes decisions based on information received from the first five consciousnesses; and is very neutral and rational;
   
2. the seventh consciousness, which is very subtle, giving rise to ego-clinging, the vain grasping of the ego.

Due to the action of ego-clinging, ignorance, anger, attachment, jealousy, pride and doubt develop, arising and falling according to the complex interplay between karma and samsara. All this happens in the mind. All of these aspects of the mind are based on the eight consciousness, the ground of mind or storehouse (Ayala) consciousness. Being neutral, the nature of the eighth consciousness is such that it retains every basic habit pattern of sentient beings. Everything being stored there — be it good, bad or neutral karma — all kinds of habits and any kind of actions we do in our lifetimes are stored there. This is why it is called a "storehouse". For Alaya is an even more subtle consciousness than the defiled mind of the seventh consciousness. When these eight consciousnesses are transmuted or transformed, they turn into the Five Wisdoms, and are symbolized by the five Dhyani Buddhas, which are the radiant spectrum of clarity qualifying the Dharmakaya.

1. The main Buddha of Dharmadhatu Wisdom is Vairocana;
   
2. the eastern Buddha of Mirror-like Wisdom is Akshoba;
   
3. the Wisdom of Equality is represented by the Buddha of the southern direction, Ratnasambhava;
   
4. the western Buddha of Discriminating Awareness is Amitabha; and
   
5. the northern Buddha of All Accomplishing Wisdom is Amogha Siddhi.

These are Sambhogakaya's five principle Buddhas. All Buddhas are highlighted reflections of one Buddha. Different levels, aspects or kayas of Buddha exist solely to benefit sentient beings with each Buddha being able to appear in any of these three kayas. Dharmakaya Buddhas like Samantabhadra show themselves only to highly realized beings i.e. tenth bhumi Bodhisattvas who may also receive teachings from the five Dhyani Buddhas. Novice Buddhists, or those with dualistic thoughts and conceptions, may find it hard to to perceive and receive teachings from Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya Buddhas. Thus, the third Buddha, the Nirmanakaya ("manifest in form") Buddha, is manifested, not just in one style or form but in almost every way possible, so as to benefit all sentient beings, regardless of their high realization, their novice status or their inability to transcend the calm mind and apply it to clear insight. Indeed, the Nirmanakaya Buddha suits all sentient beings. Nirmanakaya Buddhas may be divided into four groups:

1. Supreme emanations
   
2. Birth emanations
   
3. Artisan emanations, and
   
4. Emanations of various things.

Born into the world as a unique person is the Supreme emanation, e.g. Buddha Shakyamuni (Gautama) or Guru Padmasambhava. Each of them consists of special forms of body, speech and mind. The mind of realization has three qualities:

love,

compassion, and

wisdom, and also the ten powers and four kinds of fearlessness.

A Buddha has no obstruction to seeing the past, present or future. Indeed, everything is clear to the eye of wisdom, for a Buddha's speech and body qualities are apparently more obvious yet people have strong doubts about such wisdom. Consequently they pretend it cannot be done exactly as it says in the sutras.

Even during Gautama Buddha's time, they investigated this and "closely examined whether Buddha was totally enlightened and perfectly clear in relation to object or not."

The second Nirmanakaya or birth emanation appears in the animal and non-visible realms, using different names and forms, male or female as they are needed.

For example, the Jataka tales about Buddha taking birth as animals such as a fish, a bird, a monkey, a bear, a lion, and also humans. These are all avatars of the Buddha which may or may not traditionally appear wearing robes. Such incarnated avatars may not immediately be recognized as Buddhas. In each case, they are born to remove obstacles and dualistic conceptions, so as to free sentient beings from ignorance and bring about the perfection of each believer's understanding of primordial wisdom.

Called the artisan emanation, the third Nirmanakaya appears as objects of art and the artists who make them for the benefit of sentient beings. Some of the forms these emanations take include thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist iconography), statues and even music. Thus, artisan emanations in the form of beautiful works of art inspired by Buddhist meditation may result from the mindful practice of disciples, which serve the purpose of bringing clarity and peace of mind. Indeed, joy and a marvelous sense of something special also touches the heart-mind to its central core for each and every practitioner who creates such works of art.

Through each of the kayas the isciple is able to continuously renew his or her faith in the Buddha, and remain on the long journey called enlightenment, which may have begun in our primordial past, continues today, and shall eventually happen one day soon for each and every one of us.

For, even though there may be people living vicariously within the realm of dualistic notions of being either for good or for evil, in due time, even they too will realize love, compassion and even the clarity of mind associated with a spiritual awakening.

Whether one is animist, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or pagan, monotheistic or polytheistic or even some form of pan(en)theism, all religious paths do lead to each faith's version of enlightenment through sudden spiritual experiences which transform their lives.

How does this happen?

In the past, Buddha Nature was sown in the storehouse consciousness, in the present that primordial nature is sown in each moment, and in the future, Buddha Nature shall ripen, only for the cycle of samsara to rise and fall until Nirvana, when the mind of realization achieves Buddhahood.

Thus I place my faith in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.


Reference:

The Three Kayas: http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/A%20-%20Tibetan%20Buddhism/Authors/Kenpo%20Palden%20Sherab%20Rinpoche/The%20Three%20Kayas/The%20Three%20Kayas.htm


Thji