Buddha Nature, Buddha Love

>Love unconditional originates with the Buddha in the form of Buddha Nature, which is the essence of his Boundless Life of Compassion and his Boundless Light of Wisdom.

Like the sunlight reflected off the moon, the Buddha's Compassion is realized through the wisdom of the Four Noble Truths.

Although life may be full of suffering, its cause is endless craving; its end, ceasing vain grasping at everything we crave; and the solution, the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the essence of the Four Noble Truths.

In the Noble Eightfold Path are the Threefold Division of wisdom, ethical conduct and concentration. Of the Eightfold Path factors, Right view and Right intention make up wisdom; Right speech, Right action, and Right livelihood make up ethical conduct; and Right effort, Right mindfulness and Right concentration make up Concentration.

Due to the effects of the samatha and vipassanā meditation practices, the Buddhist practitioner acquires the calm mind of clarity through samatha practice which accumulates the two acquired factors of Superior right knowledge and Superior right liberation through vipassanā practice.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Threefold Divisions are known as the Three Higher Trainings, which consist of higher wisdom, higher moral discipline and higher concentration. These trainings lead to liberation and enlightenment through engagement with the motivation of renunciation (bodhicitta).

How does unconditional love originate with the Buddha? His compassion for the suffering of endless number of human beings led him to achieve Nirvana. After his death, his followers passed on the meditative practices of samatha-vipassanā to laypeople and Buddhist clergy. For his love for future generations led to the concept of Buddha Nature arising among his many practitioners.

Buddha Nature is the divine nature of the spiritually awakened mind, which is planted like a seed in the mind of a Buddhist follower through the careful and patient instruction of Zen masters, Buddhist practitioners and clergy, working together to carry on the legacy of Gautama Buddha.

Indeed, Buddha Nature inspires the sincere desire to develop the mind spiritually so that the Buddhist practitioner is able to handle the challenges of life courageously and nobly.

How compassionate is the Buddha that he had foreseen our need to realize the spiritual purpose of life, which is to encourage spiritual development through meditative practice!

For Buddha Nature inspires love unconditioned by human suffering to relieve all practitioners of endless craving.

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References:

Noble eightfold Path: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path
Samatha and Vipassanā meditation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81#Relation_with_samatha
Samatha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha
Mahayana Buddhism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana
Nirvana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana
Buddha Nature: http://buddhism.about.com/od/mahayanabuddhism/a/Buddha-Nature.htm
Amida Buddha, Lord of Boundless Light and Boundless Life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitābha

I am a Mirror (poem)

I am a mirror.
Whatever you say
About me reflects on you.
You call me "weak"
because of your weaknesses.
You call me "strong"
because of your strengths.
Reflecting thusly, my silence
is golden always.

You are a mirror
Reflecting on the mind
Entranced by the ego
Until lost in
the dualities
Of Self and Other.

I am a mirror.
Whatever I say
About you reflects on me.
I call you "weak"
Because of my weaknesses.
I call you "strong"
Because of my strengths.
Reflecting thusly, your silence
is golden always.

You are a mirror
Lost in the mind that projects
The ego upon the world,
Until found through
The reality
of Selflessness.

To free the ego grasping
In vain for the object of desire,
Appease the ego with love
Rendered unconditional by Buddha,
Whose smile is contagious
And Whose Nature is true.

What is that mirror
But a single facet
of the diamond mind of Buddha,
And each sparkling facet,
The mind of a bodhisattva
Reflecting on True Self
And the Other as One,
While the ego is appeased.

This is that mirror,
The mind in meditation
Reflecting with the clarity
of the diamond mind of Buddha,
Having appeased the ego
With Four Noble Truths
That led to the Eightfold Path —
Nirvana sets all of us free!

---

Originally posted on Oct 2, 2014 at 5:57 AM

Praises to the Buddha (poem)

Breathing in and out,
This old fool wants not a thing,
For he is no one
But a bag of bones, awake
And marveling at it all.

Once he was as young
As a child so long ago -
But now, young at heart,
He sits in silence, alone
And with a smile on his face.

Breathing in and out,
This old fool knows not a thing,
Yet he is quiet
While sitting there, alone
With the Buddha in his heart.

When he was so young,
A child, this old man did err,
Yet such innocence
Deserves mercy even now -
Thankfulness is his mantra.

Breathing in and out,
This old fool sees everything -
This dear saha world,
And the Pure Land awaiting...
His fate is truly assured.

Once he was so young,
But now this man is so old,
His mind is awakened
By Nirvana's splendid bliss.
Ah! Praises to the Buddha

Without a Soul to Save, Only the Good Life Awaits (satire)

I'm pretty sure the fact that The Book of Mormon is in the English of King James version makes it a difficult read for me.

What if, instead of the Celestial Kingdom, I'm fine with rebirth in the Terrestrial Kingdom?

I'm not sure if a Mormon can understand that. In Buddhism, the reason why there is no baptism is because the metaphors about water refer to how the multitude of Buddhists are a part of mighty ocean of wisdom and love.

However, the goal of an earnest Buddhist is not to be reborn in the Six Realms of Desire but to escape rebirth itself through meditation and related acts of mindfulness.

I suppose meditation is mysterious to a Mormon who equates baptism and giving up worldliness with achieving the Celestial Kingdom in the Afterlife.

Nobody in America can really fathom how sitting on your ass achieving calmness of mind is supposed to lead to nirvana, let alone Enlightenment, except perhaps a Buddhist.

Yet that calm mind leads to the clarity of mind to realize almost the same thing that a Christian knows to be true: seeking fame and glory does not lead to a truly good life and neither does seeking riches.

In this way is Buddhism almost on the same page as Christianity. For, even without baptism, I can avoid the delusions that chasing fame may lead to, and also avoid the pitfalls of financial success.

After all, the Buddhist principle of no-self implies that there is no soul to save. Instead, there is only a good life to make my own.

I Believe in a God Unlike the Christian, Jewish and Muslim God

I believe in a God devoid of anthropomorphic qualities that is called the Absolute.

If we have souls, then after death no soul is turned away from return to the Godhead.

For the universe has infinite capacity for these souls because they pass on to another dimension where no soul is limited physically.

Though no soul can have sex because souls can not get pregnant. There is also no need to eat because you are never hungry for physical sustenance.

However, you have to listen to a sermon until God calls to you, "Time to be reborn, pilgrim!"

This dimension is known as a Pure Land but is separate from the many other Buddha worlds called Pure Land of Bliss and their respective Buddhas.

On death, everything will be explained to you: the fallacy of good and evil is merely a tool to separate the monotheistic people who practice dualism from the believers in the Absolute who strive for the non-duality called Shunyata.

Indeed, the Christian Heaven is the closest monotheistic equivalent of the Absolute. For all Buddhists, the Absolute is the closest to God that the faithful attain.

Though Amida Buddha would urge the bodhisattvas reborn in the Pure Land in his sermon to return to the earthly plane to help other lost souls find their way to his Pure Land.

Note too that all souls are finite aspects of the Godhead which itself is almost infinite.

YMMV

---

Originally posted: October 26, 2012 1256H PDT

The Sexism of Pure Land Ideology

Vow 35:If, when I attain Buddhahood, women in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters who, having heard my Name, rejoice in faith, awaken aspiration for the Enlightenment and wish to renounce womanhood, should after death be reborn again as women, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. — 48 Vows of Amida Buddha


In Pure Land Buddhism, I notice women who get reborn as women cause Bodhisattva Dharmakara not to attain perfect Enlightenment. They have to renounce womanhood, and subsequently be reborn as men.

This makes me wonder where women get reborn, because it is not any of the Buddhist heavens.

It is quite possible that lust may prevent both male and female Buddhists from finding true peace of mind. Yet gender differentiation itself is an impediment to spiritual growth and the eventual enlightenment of Nirvana.

Indeed, gender differentiation may lead to sexual temptation. This explains the need for the Buddhist vow regarding sexual misconduct.

In the Soma Sutta, the bhikkhuni Soma states:
"Anyone who thinks 'I'm a woman'
or 'a man' or 'Am I anything at all?' —
that's who Mara's fit to address".

Thus, gender neutrality is linked to the Buddhist concept of no-self, which is a strategy the Buddha taught to relieve suffering.

Indeed, the Pure Land Buddhist seeks to be reborn in the Pure Land of Bliss, not as a man or woman but as a Bodhisattva.

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48 Vows of Amida Buddha: http://venchinkung.com/48-vows-of-amitabha/

Women in Buddhism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Buddhism

Pure Mind Leads to Nirvana

Maitreya said, "Discrimination is consciousness. Nondiscrimination is wisdom. Clinging to consciousness will bring disgrace but clinging to wisdom will bring purity. Disgrace leads to birth and death but purity leads to Nirvana."

"Discrimination" refers to discriminating and holding views. To the Buddhist, discrimination is a wilderness, a turmoil, a clinging, a bad path and a false way. He who travels on it will not achieve nirvana, even if he becomes a Buddhist. A mind filled with discrimination is a mind that is always in turmoil.

No matter how long he meditates, the man who discriminates will not achieve through samatha the calm mind necessary practice vipassana meditation with success. For vipassana helps the Buddhist achieve the Pure Mind.

"Pure Mind" is achieved by "abandoning the killing of living beings, abstaining therefrom; abandoning the taking of what is not given, abstaining therefrom; abandoning misconduct in sensual pleasure...abandoning false speech...malicious speech...harsh speech...gossip, abstaining therefrom. Abandoning greed, he is no more greedy. Abandoning malevolence and hatred, his heart becomes free from ill will. Abandoning wrong-view, he
becomes one of right view.”

"Consciousness" refers to rebirth in the six realms of desire, which is the destination of people with a mind of discrimination, which results in an impure mind. Thus "discrimination is consciousness" implies that discriminations leads to the evil karma associated with rebirth.

It is good karma to achieve nirvana, since the goal of Buddhist practice is to escape the wheel of karmic existence that is rebirth. For hard is it to achieve nirvana, and most consciousnesses are destined for rebirth due to evil karma from both past and present existences.

"Nondiscrimination" is associated with the mind tamed by samatha practice, for a calm mind is a mind of clarity. With a clear mind, it is possible with vipassana meditation to achieve Pure Mind.

"Wisdom" refers to fruit of the Pure Mind. For a Buddhist who has achieved Pure Mind is freed from the bonds of discrimination and the evil karma arising from acts of discrimination. Indeed, discriminations results in evil karma for anyone who acts upon it. Anyone who holds the discriminating view is sure to becloud his mind, judging other people and acting out of the ignorance that such discrimination causes. For ignorance is the result of evil karma due to discrimination.

Thus vipassana helps the Buddhist with his mind calmed by samatha practice to abandon the six worldly dusts of killing, theft, misconduct in sensual pleasure (including sexual misconduct such as adultery, child abuse, rape and sexual deviancy), wrong speech (lying, gossip, criticism, verbal abuse, and greed), ill will (malevolence and hatred), and wrong views.

Freed of the six dusts, the Buddhist becomes wise through practice of samatha-vipassana. This is why it is important to not just practice samatha and achieve the calm mind. For the Buddhist who practices samatha meditation is like a farmer who plants soy and other legumes to make a field fertile. After the season of soy is over, he can plant rice and flood the land to obtain rice and other grains, provided he alternate with grozing legumes on it. Likewise, the practice of samatha meditation not only prepares the mind of a Buddhist for vipassana meditation, it also helps him to deal with the challenges of daily living. Thus, samatha-vipassana meditation not only prepares the Buddhist to achieve Nirvana, it also prepares him to become a better person than he would be were he a farmer ignorant of Buddhist practice.

Thus "nondiscrimination is wisdom" means the abandonment of the six dusts which frees the Buddhist from ignorance and the cycle of rebirth. With continuing practice of samatha-vipassana meditation he can then understand that "clinging to consciousness will bring disgrace but clinging to wisdom will bring purity."

With the Pure Mind achieved through samatha-vipassana meditation, the Buddhist will realize that "disgrace leads to birth and death but purity leads to Nirvana."

For what is birth and death but the cycle of rebirth in Samsara, the Six Realms of Desire? And what is the Pure Mind but the means by which the Buddhist achieves Nirvana?

So go forth and practice meditation, knowing that your practice will result in the Pure Mind. Indeed, with the Pure Mind, the Buddhist shall achieve Nirvana!

---

References:

East Asian Yogācāra - Later history and the modern era: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_Yog%C4%81c%C4%81ra#Later_history_and_the_modern_era

Discrimination: a Buddhist perspective: http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/Paul_Fuller.pdf

Japanese Buddhism: How to Ensure Nirvana in Pure Land for Departed Loved Ones

This article is a short guide to ensuring that departed loved ones will remain the Pure Land and eventually become Buddha.

First of all, they were True Pure Land School members and practised the Nembutsu, especially near death.

That guarantees them rebirth at the gate to the Pure Land. To open the gate to Pure Land for them, that is the purpose of the Buddhist funeral service and the memorial days. Yearly services ensure that he will stay in the Pure Land and become Buddha.

If this is but a superstition designed by Buddhist priests to ensure a livelihood, then it is a good livelihood since the Buddhist member who survives the death of a loved one are still taking care of him, even after death.

This is the epitome of filial piety. Sadly, Western society is sorely lacking in this kind of dedication to loved ones who are deceased due to superstitions about death, the dead, and dying itself.

Small wonder there are more people in the West who suffer needlessly yet admit to being Christian, Jewish, Muslim and even atheist.
=== translation: jp ===
日本仏教：ディパーテッド愛する人のために浄土に再生を確実にする方法

この記事は去っ愛する人が浄土に残り、最終的には仏になることを確実にするのショートガイドです。

まず第一に、彼らは真の浄土学校のメンバーであった、特に死の近くで、念仏を練習した。

それは彼らが浄土にゲートで復活を保証します。彼らのために浄土にゲートを開くには、それは仏教の葬儀や記念日の目的です。毎年のサービスは、彼が浄土に滞在し、仏になることを確認してください。

これはですが、愛する人の死を存続仏教のメンバーはまだ死の後、彼の世話をしているので、生活を保証するために僧侶によって設計された迷信は、それは良い生活であれば。

これは親孝行の縮図である。悲しいことに、西洋社会が痛んにより死、死んで、そして自分自身を死に約迷信に死亡している大切な人への献身のこの種のに欠けている。

小さな不思議不まだクリスチャン、ユダヤ人、イスラム教徒、さらには無神論者であることを認めるに苦しむ欧米の多くの人々があります。
=== transliteration: romaji ===
Nihon bukkyō: Dipāteddo aisuruhito no tame ni jōdo ni saisei o kakujitsu ni suru hōhō

Kono kiji wa sa~tsu aisuruhito ga jōdo ni nokori, saishūtekini wa Futsu ni naru koto o kakujitsu ni suru no shōtogaidodesu.

Mazu daiichi ni, karera wa shin no jōdo gakkō no menbādeatta, tokuni shi no chikaku de, nenbutsu o renshū shita. Sore wa karera ga jōdo ni gēto de fukkatsu o hoshō shimasu. Karera no tame ni jōdo ni gēto o hiraku ni wa, soreha bukkyō no sōgi ya kinenbi no mokutekidesu. Maitoshi no sābisu wa, kare ga jōdo ni taizai shi, Futsu ni naru koto o kakuninshitekudasai.

Korehadesuga, aisuruhito no shi o sonzoku bukkyō no menbā wa mada shi no ato, kare no sewa o shite irunode, seikatsu o hoshō suru tame ni sōryo ni yotte sekkei sa reta meishin wa, sore wa yoi seikatsudeareba.

Kore wa oyakōkō no shukuzudearu. Kanashī koto ni, seiyō shakai ga itan ni yori shi, shinde, soshite jibun jishin o shini yaku meishin ni shibō shite iru taisetsunahitohe no kenshin no kono tane no ni kakete iru.

Chīsana fushigi fu mada kurisuchan, yudayahito, Isuramu kyōto, sarani wa mushinronshadearu koto o shitatameru ni kurushimu Ōbei no ōku no hitobito ga arimasu.

---

Original post: April 15, 2013 2:39 PM PDT

Addiction and the Realm of Hungry Ghosts as Metaphor

In Buddhist cosmology, the realm of hungry ghosts is one of the Six Realms of Desire, being the second after the Hells.

These realms are metaphorical destinations where people are reborn due to the "evil" passions of strong emotions (anger, hate, fear, lust, jealousy, happiness, attachment, desire, etc).

What is so evil about strong emotions? That one may err and harm self or others or worse, both self and others. We have heard of crimes of passion where a murder is justified due to strong emotions clouding the judgment of the murderer who killed her lover due to jealousy.

Could even a child of two who hits his one-year old brother on the head with a hoe be due to evil passions? Yes, especially when the young lad runs like hell to the neighbor's property to escape justice at the hands of his mother!

Addiction is akin to being in the realm of hungry ghosts. In this way, reincarnation may be used as a metaphor to explain daily living.

Ever wonder why some practicing Buddhists could be so stoic? They have practiced meditation to calm the mind and maintain control over the biggest addiction of all: the passions.

For a Buddhist, passions (strong emotions) are evil in the sense that they almost lead one to the Hells when regularly experienced.

Such an addiction to emotions is an evil because a person could lose sight of the goal of Buddhism: to cease rebirth by putting out the flames of evil passion, and thus enter Nirvana.

How might one enter Nirvana? In this lifetime? Or, the next? Before answering the first question, the answer to the second and the third is, it depends on your past actions, your present actions and your future action. As well, the karma of your past may prevent Nirvana in this life. It might even prevent Nirvana in the next.

Below I give a rough guide to Samatha-vipassana meditation. Samatha is the meditation of stillness, while Vipassana may combine both sitting and walking meditation. If I have erred here, please correct me and I'll credit you and correct the text.

By sitting on his ass in contemplation of bliss, the Buddha practiced the meditation of stillness.

If this isn't your style, then the second method is useful as a guide

By walking while in silent meditation on a koan the Buddhist may find it possible to go beyond peace of mind.

Even though the strict Zen practitioners decry reading a sutra or even writing down one's thoughts, due to the risk of stirring up evil passion, the first meditation in stillness shows that even passions will dissipate when carefully observed.

What good then is the walking meditation?

It makes it possible to realize the meaning of this koan:

"What is your face before you were born?"

Answer: The face before I was born is not the face I was born with. For karma dictates that a practitioner may never know the face before being born. Yet he can be assured that it is not the face he was born with.

Nor will it be the face of my next birth, which brings us to a koan of my own: "What is your face after you die?" The answer is, "It's not the face I was born with nor the face before I was born."

Yet this is not reincarnation, but the transmigration of karma.

However, meditation when practiced with a true Buddha buddy beats sitting still alone.

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Hungry Ghosts: http://taiyu.hubpages.com/hub/Hungry-Ghosts

Becoming Unborn

When we are reborn in the Six Realms of Desire, samsara is not nirvana.

When we are attached to nirvana, nirvana is samsara for it leads to rebirth in samsara.

Samsara consists of the Six Realms of Desire —

• the Hells,
• the Realm of Hungry Ghosts,
• the Realm of Animals,
• the Realm of Humans,
• the Realm of Daemons, and
• the Realm of the Gods

.

When one is attached to rebirth in the human realm, that is not Buddhism but Sanatanadharma and results in rebirth. This attachment consists of a strong belief in transmigration and the permanent soul that is reincarnated solely as a human. It also violates the law of karma, which allows for rebirth in the Six Realms.

In Buddhism, non-attachment is an ideal which may be achieve by purifying the mind. The difficult route is to practice No-thought i.e. let no thought attract you to follow it to its end, but first let each thought go and return to the breath. With practice, it becomes as easy as breathing. This is the essence of Zen.

As for the easy route, Buddha Recitation leads to non-attachment as the Name-that-calls purifies the mind with earnest repetition, burning evil karma as you remember the Buddha. This is why it is called Buddha Remembrance. This is the essence of Pure Land Buddhism.

By remembering the Buddha, the mind is purified so that non-attachment to Nirvana is easily assured!

For non-attachment to Nirvana is essential to becoming Unborn.

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

Truth about Nirvana (poem)

Nirvana is when
we awaken from this dream
called Life, and
realize we were never
the caterpillar dreaming
we were the butterfly.
Nor are we God.
All we are is free
from rebirth in
the Realms of Desire.

Truth about Samsara

In this world of dreams — Samsara itself —
it is impossible to imagine Ultimate Reality,
let alone fully realize Nirvana.

The Buddha as Love: The Bodhisattva in Action

Free of the confines of ego, the love of the Buddha is due to the working of great compassion. Transcending the dualism of being and non-being, it rises from a heart of non-discrimination. It is purposeless, effortless, and ego-less.

As long as there is but one unsaved sentient being to enjoy single-minded bliss (Samadhi) to which she is entitled by her long spiritual discipline, the Tathagata's great love of all sentient beings is unending until everyone of them is happily led to Nirvana.

Empowered by boundless love and compassion, the Tathagata regards all sentient beings as if they were his only child. Were he to enter into Nirvana, no work will be done in the world where imaginative discrimination goes on and wonderful variety prevails. Because of this, he refuses to leave this world of birth-life-death. All his thoughts are directed towards the ignorant and suffering masses of sentient beings.

For them, he is willing to sacrifice his enjoyment of absolute reality and self-absorption.

Thus the Buddha as love is embodied in the Bodhisattva, who through her actions and desires in the realm of twofold egolessness works to save all sentient beings.

The Root of Nirvana is Found in Adversity (poem)

Even though I speak of
love and compassion,
patience and wisdom,
the disciple who believes
that they only arise
out of peaceful situations
will never find love,
compassion, patience,
or wisdom on a good day,
because they arise out of
the muck and mire of a bad day.
For the root of Nirvana is not
found by contemplating your navel
but by dealing in adversity!

Samsara is Nirvana (poem)

Samasara is Nirvana,
Nirvana, Samsara.
Empty is Nirvana
of all carnal things.
Yet he who is attached
to Nirvana will not
attain the higher mind
until one sees Samsara
as Nirvana, golden and
resplendent and pure.

Enlightenment is Always With Us

From birth until death, the potential of Enlightenment is present within all sentient beings as Buddha Nature.

During life, mental and physical negativities arise as afflictions to distract us from it, due to the ego's grasping onto the illusion of permanence.

These negativities leads to suffering due to the Five Poisons of desirous attachment, aversive anger, and delusive ignorance, and their daughters, pride born out of ignorance and desire, and jealousy arising attachment and aggression.

The Five Poisons are the destructive emotions.

Through meditation and mindful practice of wisdom, the charitable acts of kindness to help, and the loving sacrifice in service to other sentient beings aid in satisfying the ego, pacifying it.

Once the ego is pacified, the mental and physical negativities are replaced with the antidotes of love, compassion and insight,which are strengthened through practice and training.

Buddha Nature represents the essential nature of the mind, which is pure and undefiled by the destructive emotions.

When joy comes easily, and the mind is easily calmed through meditation, the antidotes have succeeded in curing it of the Five Poisons.

For that joy arises due to Buddha Nature, the seed of Enlightenment itself.

Thus Enlightenment is always with us, like the pure white light of freedom.

---

References:

The Gandavyuha Sutra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatamsaka_Sutra#The_Gandavyuha_Sutra
Five poisons:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleshas_%28Buddhism%29#Five_poisons
  
• http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_poisons
  wli>http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Disturbing_emotions
  

Craving for sensation

The one who beholds that which has become as become
Passes beyond that becoming
And is released from craving for sensation.
In that which really is, he understands becoming.
Free from longing for birth or death,
He finds the true meaning of the end of becoming.

-Itivuttaka Sutta

"The one who beholds" is the disciple sitting in insight meditation whose mind is single-mindedly focused on attaining nirvana.

"That which has become" is tathata, the state of awakening in mind and in body.

When such a person views the Buddha as awakened, sh/he transcends the single-mindedness of samadhi.

In transcending nirvana, s/he lets go of vainly grasping and loses all "craving for sensation."

Having realized true Dharma as Truth, s/he "understands becoming."

Being liberated "from longing for birth and death", such a person discovers "the true meaning of the end of becoming", nirvana.

---

Originally published: November 23, 2005 2351H
Updated: February 26, 2013 0928H

Reference:

See also: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/iti/tb0/index.html#glossary

Bodhi Mind as The Mother of Liberation

Clearly aspiring for buddhahood, the disciple arouses the Bodhi Mind, for the sake of all sentient beings — like a bodhisattva incarnated as a Buddhist worthy of nirvana who postpones it to help others — with the determined longing to attain complete enlightenment — like a buddha who has achieved the state of perfect enlightenment, nirvana.

Compassion is the cause of Bodhi Mind, while the root of compassion is loving kindness.

Through the practice of loving kindness, the Bodhi Mind is aroused with clear determination for buddhahood and aspiration to be a bodhisattva to help all sentient beings.

To develop loving kindness, imagine your mother right before you while the following thought is brought to mind,

"My kind mother produced this body I have, an effort which caused her a lot of hardship and trouble. She gave me this precious life, taken care of me, and performed every single action needed for my survival in this world.

"Regarding me with a love greater than she had for her self, she protected me, and gave me all the help and support that I needed to grow up. When threatened by harm, she protected me, which is a great kindness. It would be truly amazing if my mother was happy and at ease, but it is not just my present mother — in all my countless lives, I have had mothers who have done exactly the same, loving mothers who have bestowed on me the same kind of help and love.

"This happened not only once, as a mother, but also countless times as a friend, a lover, and a companion. All these people have helped me in all kinds of ways. Thinking of my mother who is very dear to me and helped me, I now want to return her kindness."

Aroused in our hearts by such a thought, loving kindness should become a distinct and truly real feeling.

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References:

• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche & Tulku Adeu Rinpoche, Skillful Grace: Tara Practice for Our Time
  

Pure Joy of Liberation

Enhanced by quiet meditation,
pure joy takes the disciple
the journey from ignorance to
wisdom through the mindful practice
of loving kindness — treating
all sentient beings with kindness,
and patience until compassion
uncovers the treasure of Buddha Nature.

When I uncover Buddha Nature,
that same pure joy arises in my heart,
yet I dare not blow my horn
lest anyone who has an "Aha!" moment
be disturbed by my happiness,
for this is the pure joy of liberation.
Such moments are a blessing
to us all, when they happen.

Though, if I had such a moment,
I would have doubts, because
the joy after meditation is
different from the manic happiness
that comes from an awful place.
True happiness is buoyed by the joy
attained through meditation.

For such joy is due to liberation
be it through chanting or via zazen.
Either practice helps one develop
the samadhi called one-pointedness,
until one achieves Nirvana.
If this happens suddenly or gradually,
then would it be easy or difficult
to achieve the goal of Buddhahood?

For both the Zen master
and the Pure Land devotee
aspire to become bodhisattvas
and are determined to
attain Buddhahood, though
this is not for the lazy and indolent,
but for the wise along us.