There is a very vast misconception that there are people with great capacity and thus great potential for awakening, and some with small capacity and little potential for awakening. This is half right, half wrong.
Worse still, some people imagine that enlightened practitioners are all 'special emanations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to the saha world to save sentient beings' as if those practitioners are somehow more 'special' than us, that they are some sort of gods or deities descending from the sky to 'save us'. This is far from true - those are simply practitioners like you and me, who made their effort and succeeded - and you can too.
This one line by Loppon Namdrol resolves this issue at once:
.............
Capacity depends on personal interest and diligence -- nothing more.
N
.............
You can apply this not only to 'dharma practice' but also 'learning piano', 'studying exams' - everyone CAN pass their piano, studies exams... it's whether they are interested and diligent - nothing more.
Nice article.
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:There is a very vast misconception that there are people with great capacity and thus great potential for awakening, and some with small capacity and little potential for awakening. This is half right, half wrong.
Worse still, some people imagine that enlightened practitioners are all 'special emanations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to the saha world to save sentient beings' as if those practitioners are somehow more 'special' than us, that they are some sort of gods or deities descending from the sky to 'save us'. This is far from true - those are simply practitioners like you and me, who made their effort and succeeded - and you can too.
This one line by Loppon Namdrol resolves this issue at once:
.............
Capacity depends on personal interest and diligence -- nothing more.
N
.............
You can apply this not only to 'dharma practice' but also 'learning piano', 'studying exams' - everyone CAN pass their piano, studies exams... it's whether they are interested and diligent - nothing more.
Buddhism is not easy for our intellectual minds to understand.
When I first look into buddhism. I was thinking how come buddha is not affected by pretty girls. I never seen a guy that can do this.
There was a story abt buddha cutting flesh to give to eagle or something, I also think got people so noble meh.
Buddhism can be a hard pill to swallow.
I also discusses with my secondary school friends, all of them say they are pretending to be �高。
Buddha is not affected by pretty girls because he has overcome ignorance and attachments.
He has realized emptiness, realized that it is all like a dream.
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Buddha is not affected by pretty girls because he has overcome ignorance and attachments.
He has realized emptiness, realized that it is all like a dream.
Yeah I know i was talking abt my first experience in secondary school.
All of the ppl including my friends do not believe at that time.
Yes... it seems magical, it sounds like Buddha is some kind of superhuman and 'beyond desire' is something only superhumans can do...
With some dharma knowledge you will know that this isn't true.
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Yes... it seems magical, it sounds like Buddha is some kind of superhuman and 'beyond desire' is something only superhumans can do...
With some dharma knowledge you will know that this isn't true.
We din think he is super human rather pretending.
That time I dont know buddha got super powers.
Just dont treat buddhism as a academic or research subject cos if we do that we will think buddhism is for those high IQ or PHD kind of person.
It will give rise to a sense of inferior complex that we are not smart enough for buddhism.
Indeed...
Like what Loppon Namdrol said here about Dzogchen practice, however it can be applied to other forms of Buddhism, especially the third paragraph:
Dzogchen is not rocket science. It is very easy to understand if
you have an open mind and you do not go around complicating things.
Sometimes,
the biggest obstacle to understanding Dzogchen that people have is
Buddhism, so they constantly try to compare Dzogchen with the vehicles
of cause and result. This causes them to automatically deviate. Dzogchen
is completely beyond cause and result. All notions of paths and stages
are completely irrelevant in Dzogchen.
There are mainly one
thing that matters in Dzogchen -- whether or not you are a fortunate
person. If you are a fortunate person you will meet a master who has
experience who can demonstrate to you your real condition and the
methods to discover that for yourself. You do not have to be an educated
person like me who has studied way too many books. There is a saying in
Dzogchen, an illterate person who has personal experience of their real
state will gain liberation far sooner than a Pandita who is expert in a
hundred dharma systems but does not have that experience. Dzogchen is
not intellectual. It is based on personal experience. You do not have to
be literate, or particularly well educated to have that experience. Our
friend adinatha will tell you that realization of Dzogchen based on the
blessings of the lineage. But actually, it is based on recognizing a
personal experience. Maybe we mean the same thing. Certainly having that
recognition is wonderful thing, inexpressible, a cause for faith and a
great blessing. But collecting blessings and reciting supplications will
never get you that experience. Only an experienced master who has that
experience will able to introduce it to you in a direct personal way.
That is the best blessing.
N