"Theravada Buddhist tradition has adhered to the assumption that the historical Buddha passed away during the night of the full moon in the lunar month of Visakha (which falls sometime in May to June). But the timing contradicts information given in the sutta, which states clearly that the Buddha died soon after the rainy-season retreat, most likely during the autumn or mid-winter, that is, November to January.
A description of the miracle of the unseasonal blooming of leaves and flowers on the sala trees, when the Buddha was laid down between them, indicates the time frame given in the sutta.
Autumn and winter, however, are seasons that are not favourable for the growth of mushrooms, which some scholars believe to be the source of the poison that the Buddha ate during his last meal." -- The Timing of How the Buddha Died
In light of this quote, I'm going to promote Christmas time as when the Buddha died.
Most likely, the Theravada Buddhists moved the Wesak (holy day for Buddha's Mahaparinirvana) to the night of the full moon in Visakha to coincide with the less warmer spring tending of crops planted during the cooler winter after the rainy season (after January).
Though, Saturnalia has nothing to do with the time the Buddha died. >:)
Original post: December 22, 2012 at 3:24 AM
Showing posts with label Mahaparinirvana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahaparinirvana. Show all posts
20130418
Mahaparinirvana is not Death
Hui Neng, The Sixth Patriarch, said:
The Supreme Maha Parinirvana
Is perfect, permanent, calm, and illuminating.
Common people and ignorant ones miscall it death,
While heretics hold arbitrarily that it is annihilation.
Those who belong to the Sravaka Vehicle or the Pratyeka Buddha Vehicle
Regard it as 'Non-action'.
All these are mere intellectual speculations,
And form the basis of the sixty-two fallacious views.
Since they are mere fictitious names invented for the occasion
They have nothing to do with the Absolute Truth.
Only those of super-eminent mind
Can understand thoroughly what Nirvana is, and take up the attitude of neither attachment nor indifference towards it.
They know that five Skandhas
And the so-called 'ego' arising from the union of these Skandhas,
Together with all external objects and forms
And the various phenomena of sound and voice
Are equally unreal, like a dream or an illusion.
They make no discrimination between a sage and an ordinary man.
Nor do they have any arbitrary concept on Nirvana.
They are above 'Affirmation' and 'Negation' and they break the barrier of the past, the present, and the future.
They use their sense organs, when occasion requires,
But the concept of 'Using' does not arise.
They may particularize on all sorts of things,
But the concept of 'Particularization' does not arise.
Even during the cataclysmic fire at the end of a Kalpa, when ocean-beds are burnt dry,
Or during the blowing of the catastrophic wind when one mountain topples on another,
The real and everlasting bliss of 'Perfect Rest' and 'Cessation of Changes'
Of Nirvana remains in the same state and changes not.
Here I am trying to describe to you something which is ineffable
So that you may get rid of your fallacious views.
But if you do not interpret my words literally
You may perhaps learn a wee bit of the meaning of Nirvana!
Reference:
The Supreme Maha Parinirva: http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/huineng/huineng7.html
The Supreme Maha Parinirvana
Is perfect, permanent, calm, and illuminating.
Common people and ignorant ones miscall it death,
While heretics hold arbitrarily that it is annihilation.
Those who belong to the Sravaka Vehicle or the Pratyeka Buddha Vehicle
Regard it as 'Non-action'.
All these are mere intellectual speculations,
And form the basis of the sixty-two fallacious views.
Since they are mere fictitious names invented for the occasion
They have nothing to do with the Absolute Truth.
Only those of super-eminent mind
Can understand thoroughly what Nirvana is, and take up the attitude of neither attachment nor indifference towards it.
They know that five Skandhas
And the so-called 'ego' arising from the union of these Skandhas,
Together with all external objects and forms
And the various phenomena of sound and voice
Are equally unreal, like a dream or an illusion.
They make no discrimination between a sage and an ordinary man.
Nor do they have any arbitrary concept on Nirvana.
They are above 'Affirmation' and 'Negation' and they break the barrier of the past, the present, and the future.
They use their sense organs, when occasion requires,
But the concept of 'Using' does not arise.
They may particularize on all sorts of things,
But the concept of 'Particularization' does not arise.
Even during the cataclysmic fire at the end of a Kalpa, when ocean-beds are burnt dry,
Or during the blowing of the catastrophic wind when one mountain topples on another,
The real and everlasting bliss of 'Perfect Rest' and 'Cessation of Changes'
Of Nirvana remains in the same state and changes not.
Here I am trying to describe to you something which is ineffable
So that you may get rid of your fallacious views.
But if you do not interpret my words literally
You may perhaps learn a wee bit of the meaning of Nirvana!
Reference:
The Supreme Maha Parinirva: http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/huineng/huineng7.html
20130403
Birth and Death and the Middle Way
Life is the companion of death,
death is the beginning of life.
Who understands their workings?
Man's life is a coming together of breath.
If it comes together, there is life;
if it scatters, there is death.
And if life and death are companions to each other,
then what is there for us to be anxious about?
— Chuang Tzu
A society that fears death such that almost everyone refuses to discuss death "out of respect for the dead" has thus paid false respect for their dead.
If such a society has no coming-of-age ritual to inculcate fearlessness in the face of death, then making death taboo is a cowardly act.
By fearing death, a person is but a coward when society treasures life so much that mass media glorifies youth to the point where the elderly are mocked by placing them in old age homes to die.
Western society thus is rendered sick in the sense that we associate death with sadness and despair to the point where the dead's living relatives are called "survivors".
In Taoism, Chuang Tzu wrote the truth about how death should be treated, as a companion of life.
Furthermore, viewing death as the beginning of life makes more sense than seeing it as the end of life.
Death is only the end of life when we ignore the afterlife.
Because society sees any depiction of the afterlife as fiction, it makes sense that death is taboo.
Such a society would rather let mass media manufacture a violent parody of life than make a film about the afterlife according to Buddhism.
Indeed, there has never been a movie about the Tibetan Buddhist afterlife, despite a book being written about Tibetans who have returned from the dead to tell about it.
Is it because the Dalai Lama forbids it? Or is it out of false piety and respect for the Tibetans that Hollywood has yet to finance such a venture?
Personally I find the Buddhist afterlife to be a place where anything can happen. I could be reborn in the hells and suffer according to the evil karma I have accumulated in this life. Eons later, I may spend time in the hungry ghost realm not taking any pleasure from eating.
Later on, I may be reborn as a worm in the animal realm, only to be eaten by a bird. Then I might be reborn as a girl in the human realm. Many eons later, I could end up in the demon realm and fight with other demons.
Much later, I may be reborn in the realm of gods and live a long life only to be reborn in one of the Buddhist heavens.
However, each rebirth still requires hearing the Dharma and turning away from evil. In this case, karmic evil would occur when I act according to the realm in which I am reborn.
In the human realm, to act like other humans requires committing evil karma. All the things humanity does to glorify humankind cannot help but create seeds of evil karma which only leads to rebirth in samsara, the realms of desire — the hells, hungry ghost, animal, human, demons and gods.
What kind of existence is this? Is it worth being reborn endlessly due to evil karma?
I do not believe so. For samsara is not humanity's destiny if we choose to live according to the Buddhadharma.
Contrary to what the brahmins of Santanadharma preach, rebirth in samsara is not a person's destiny when she chooses to become a Buddha.
In choosing to become a Buddha, even one sentient being abandons ignorance for the greater good of all sentient beings. This happened to Gotama over 2500 years ago. He became Sakyamuni Buddha in one lifetime, and discovered that he too spent previous lifetimes as a Bodhisattva, preparing for Nirvana.
Even after his mahaparinirvana, which appears to us as an earthly death, the Buddha was liberated to be whatever it is causes each Buddhist to abandon human existence in samsara to become like him.
He could be your Buddhist teacher, a guru, or even someone you hate. He might appear as your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your family, or even that bully who beat you up in Grade Two.
Whenever whatever another person does to us, good or bad, if we are inspired to learn from it and become better than we were before, then that is due to the Buddhadharma.
For it is the Buddha's aim to liberate all sentient beings from human existence and not be reborn in Samsara.
Each liberated sentient being is destined to become a Buddha when she has heard the Buddhadharma — the Four Noble Truths, dependent arising — and, repenting her former life, jumps over to the Middle Way.
20130106
Great Nirvana
When the Buddha died, his death was no ordinary death.
For in the eyes of the Buddha sages who knew him, it was seen as the mahaparinirvana. the blowing out of a spiritual life, and the transcendence of a great sage over the endless cycle of birth, life, and death.
In essence, mahaparinirvana is derived from "maha" (great) and "parinirvana" (the death of a truly awakened spiritual master), and means the great final death of the truly awakened. With respect to the Buddha, when the death has arrived for the truly awakened, their death is no ordinary death. In the Buddha's case, flowers bloomed out of season on trees that during the winter monsoon stand dormant.
Thus the nirvana of the Buddha was when his karma blew out the light of transmigration. All his actions on the way to realizing his buddhahood bore the fruit of Nirvana. After this moment in his life, he became the teacher of the Buddhadharma.
What the Buddha taught was dependent arising / dependent origination and the Four Noble Truths, but he followed it up with teachings about the Buddha-dhatu and the Tathagatagarbha. While dependent arising and the Four Noble Truths describe the phenomenon of suffering, its cause and its cure, the Buddha-dhatu and the Tathagatagarbha describe the phenomenon of personal experience and the noumenon of cosmic (transcendent) experience.
What is the Buddha-dhatu? It is the hidden, unconditioned Buddha Nature (Buddha Principle), "Hidden" implies that personal experience occults that spark of Buddha-dhatu in all sentient beings. "Unconditioned" implies further that even though Buddha-dhatu is hidden, it remains pure, real and true.
Quite simply, the Buddha-dhatu is the potential for spiritual awakening to ultimate Reality which is changeless. This potential must be realized, lest the Buddhist who hears the Buddha's teachings be seduced by the lie that there is only one Buddha.
In actual fact, while there may be many Buddhas, there is only one Gautama Buddha.
What is the Tathagatagarbha? It is the hidden, unconditioned Buddha Matrix within which Buddha-dhatu helps the practitioner become truly awakened. Through the aid of Buddha-dhatu, one realizes that one is already awake. Thus the truly awakened are already awake, and she who is already awake is primordially awake. For being awake results from being good, since it is the working of primordial goodness.
Yet Tathagatagarbha is the essence of Dharmakaya, the ultimate level of being. of the Buddha and of all sentient life. With the help of Buddha-dhatu, even you or I may one day be awakened to the reality of primordial goodness. For our original nature is indeed Buddha Nature.
Even so, the pragmatic among the followers of the Buddhadharma may ask, "If originally we are born awakened, then what's the point of the ritual of chanting and meditation?"
When we realize we are originally awaken beings, bodhisattvas in the making, this is because we have heard what the Buddha said, both through hearing his teachings, reading what the Buddha said and comments about what he said, and the practice of chanting of his Name-that-calls.
Personal experience without hearing the Buddhadharma, reading sutras and their commentaries, and Buddha Remembrance would only hide our primordial awakened state.
This is why hearing the Dharma, reading the sutras and their commentaries, and Buddha Remembrance is necessary to realize the cosmic experience that all is Buddha.
For just as Adi-Buddha is reflected in the 108 Buddhas, so too is the Buddha reflected in all sentient beings, including the bodhisattvas.
All it takes to uncover this primordial goodness inherent in all beings is to hear the Buddadharma.
Though, it requires more than merely listening with the ears; to hear the Buddhadharma, one must listen with one's heart. This is known as teaching the heart to be at one with the mind until with practice, one hears with the heartmind.
In conclusion, the Great Nirvana of the Buddha is his transcendence beyond the samsaric cycle of transmigration. Though his body died, his spirit lives on.
nirvanasutra.net: http://www.nirvanasutra.net
parinirvana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parinirvana
Buddha-dhatu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha-dhatu
For in the eyes of the Buddha sages who knew him, it was seen as the mahaparinirvana. the blowing out of a spiritual life, and the transcendence of a great sage over the endless cycle of birth, life, and death.
In essence, mahaparinirvana is derived from "maha" (great) and "parinirvana" (the death of a truly awakened spiritual master), and means the great final death of the truly awakened. With respect to the Buddha, when the death has arrived for the truly awakened, their death is no ordinary death. In the Buddha's case, flowers bloomed out of season on trees that during the winter monsoon stand dormant.
Thus the nirvana of the Buddha was when his karma blew out the light of transmigration. All his actions on the way to realizing his buddhahood bore the fruit of Nirvana. After this moment in his life, he became the teacher of the Buddhadharma.
What the Buddha taught was dependent arising / dependent origination and the Four Noble Truths, but he followed it up with teachings about the Buddha-dhatu and the Tathagatagarbha. While dependent arising and the Four Noble Truths describe the phenomenon of suffering, its cause and its cure, the Buddha-dhatu and the Tathagatagarbha describe the phenomenon of personal experience and the noumenon of cosmic (transcendent) experience.
What is the Buddha-dhatu? It is the hidden, unconditioned Buddha Nature (Buddha Principle), "Hidden" implies that personal experience occults that spark of Buddha-dhatu in all sentient beings. "Unconditioned" implies further that even though Buddha-dhatu is hidden, it remains pure, real and true.
Quite simply, the Buddha-dhatu is the potential for spiritual awakening to ultimate Reality which is changeless. This potential must be realized, lest the Buddhist who hears the Buddha's teachings be seduced by the lie that there is only one Buddha.
In actual fact, while there may be many Buddhas, there is only one Gautama Buddha.
What is the Tathagatagarbha? It is the hidden, unconditioned Buddha Matrix within which Buddha-dhatu helps the practitioner become truly awakened. Through the aid of Buddha-dhatu, one realizes that one is already awake. Thus the truly awakened are already awake, and she who is already awake is primordially awake. For being awake results from being good, since it is the working of primordial goodness.
Yet Tathagatagarbha is the essence of Dharmakaya, the ultimate level of being. of the Buddha and of all sentient life. With the help of Buddha-dhatu, even you or I may one day be awakened to the reality of primordial goodness. For our original nature is indeed Buddha Nature.
Even so, the pragmatic among the followers of the Buddhadharma may ask, "If originally we are born awakened, then what's the point of the ritual of chanting and meditation?"
When we realize we are originally awaken beings, bodhisattvas in the making, this is because we have heard what the Buddha said, both through hearing his teachings, reading what the Buddha said and comments about what he said, and the practice of chanting of his Name-that-calls.
Personal experience without hearing the Buddhadharma, reading sutras and their commentaries, and Buddha Remembrance would only hide our primordial awakened state.
This is why hearing the Dharma, reading the sutras and their commentaries, and Buddha Remembrance is necessary to realize the cosmic experience that all is Buddha.
For just as Adi-Buddha is reflected in the 108 Buddhas, so too is the Buddha reflected in all sentient beings, including the bodhisattvas.
All it takes to uncover this primordial goodness inherent in all beings is to hear the Buddadharma.
Though, it requires more than merely listening with the ears; to hear the Buddhadharma, one must listen with one's heart. This is known as teaching the heart to be at one with the mind until with practice, one hears with the heartmind.
In conclusion, the Great Nirvana of the Buddha is his transcendence beyond the samsaric cycle of transmigration. Though his body died, his spirit lives on.
nirvanasutra.net: http://www.nirvanasutra.net
parinirvana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parinirvana
Buddha-dhatu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha-dhatu
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