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object:Buddha
class:author
subject class:Buddhism
subject:Buddhism

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now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks


OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS
SEE ALSO


AUTH

BOOKS
A_Brief_History_of_Everything
Becoming_the_Compassion_Buddha__Tantric_Mahamudra_for_Everyday_Life
Buddhahood_in_This_Life__The_Great_Commentary_by_Vimalamitra
Buddhahood_Without_Meditation__A_Visionary_Account_Known_as_Refining_One's_Perception
Essential_Integral
Evolution_II
Great_Disciples_of_the_Buddha__Their_Lives,_Their_Works,_Their_Legacy
Infinite_Library
Letters_On_Yoga
Letters_On_Yoga_I
Letters_On_Yoga_III
Living_Buddha
Manual_of_Zen_Buddhism
Meditation__The_First_and_Last_Freedom
Modern_Man_in_Search_of_a_Soul
My_Burning_Heart
Questions_And_Answers_1929-1931
Questions_And_Answers_1955
Questions_And_Answers_1957-1958
The_Blue_Cliff_Records
The_Book_of_Secrets__Keys_to_Love_and_Meditation
The_Connected_Discourses_of_the_Buddha__A_Translation_of_the_Samyutta_Nikaya
The_Diamond_Sutra
The_Essential_Songs_of_Milarepa
The_Gateless_Gate
The_Gospel_of_Sri_Ramakrishna
The_Heart_of_the_Buddha's_Teaching__Transforming_Suffering_into_Peace
The_Heart_of_the_Path__Seeing_the_Guru_as_Buddha
The_Heros_Journey
The_Lotus_Sutra
The_Middle_Length_Discourses_of_the_Buddha__A_Translation_of_the_Majjhima_Nikaya
The_Numerical_Discourses_of_the_Buddha__A_Complete_Translation_of_the_Anguttara_Nikaya
The_Perennial_Philosophy
The_Suttanipata__An_Ancient_Collection_of_the_Buddha's_Discourses_Together_with_its_Commentaries
Thought_Power
Toward_the_Future
Universal_Love__The_Yoga_Method_of_Buddha_Maitreya
Vishnu_Purana
What_the_Buddha_Taught

IN CHAPTERS TITLE
08.36_-_Buddha_and_Shankara
1.07_-_Hui_Ch'ao_Asks_about_Buddha
1955-10-05_-_Science_and_Ignorance_-_Knowledge,_science_and_the_Buddha_-_Knowing_by_identification_-_Discipline_in_science_and_in_Buddhism_-_Progress_in_the_mental_field_and_beyond_it
1956-05-23_-_Yoga_and_religion_-_Story_of_two_clergymen_on_a_boat_-_The_Buddha_and_the_Supramental_-_Hieroglyphs_and_phonetic_alphabets_-_A_vision_of_ancient_Egypt_-_Memory_for_sounds
1957-10-02_-_The_Mind_of_Light_-_Statues_of_the_Buddha_-_Burden_of_the_past
1.hcyc_-_20_-_Our_teacher,_Shakyamuni,_met_Dipankara_Buddha_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_46_-_People_hear_the_Buddhas_doctrine_of_immediacy_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_50_-_The_Buddhas_doctrine_of_directness_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.ki_-_Buddha_Law
1.ki_-_Buddhas_body
1.mb_-_on_buddhas_deathbed
1.ms_-_Buddhas_Satori
1.rmr_-_Buddha_in_Glory
1.ss_-_Trying_to_become_a_Buddha_is_easy
2.23_-_THE_MASTER_AND_BUDDHA
CASE_6_-_THE_BUDDHAS_FLOWER

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
00.03_-_Upanishadic_Symbolism
0.00_-_INTRODUCTION
0.00_-_The_Book_of_Lies_Text
0.00_-_THE_GOSPEL_PREFACE
01.02_-_Natures_Own_Yoga
01.02_-_Sri_Aurobindo_-_Ahana_and_Other_Poems
01.02_-_The_Creative_Soul
01.03_-_Sri_Aurobindo_and_his_School
0.10_-_Letters_to_a_Young_Captain
01.10_-_Nicholas_Berdyaev:_God_Made_Human
01.10_-_Principle_and_Personality
01.11_-_Aldous_Huxley:_The_Perennial_Philosophy
01.11_-_The_Basis_of_Unity
0.11_-_Letters_to_a_Sadhak
0_1960-10-22
0_1961-01-10
0_1961-07-18
0_1961-08-02
0_1961-08-05
0_1961-10-30
0_1962-10-30
0_1962-11-27
0_1963-03-27
0_1963-05-03
0_1963-07-03
0_1963-09-28
0_1964-07-22
0_1964-09-16
0_1964-10-17
0_1965-02-24
0_1965-03-20
0_1965-05-19
0_1965-08-25
0_1966-10-22
0_1966-10-26
0_1966-11-09
0_1967-08-12
0_1967-09-20
0_1969-05-24
0_1969-05-31
0_1972-09-06
0_1973-01-20
02.06_-_The_Integral_Yoga_and_Other_Yogas
03.01_-_Humanism_and_Humanism
03.06_-_Divine_Humanism
03.06_-_The_Pact_and_its_Sanction
03.08_-_The_Democracy_of_Tomorrow
03.09_-_Buddhism_and_Hinduism
03.10_-_The_Mission_of_Buddhism
03.11_-_Modernist_Poetry
03.13_-_Human_Destiny
03.14_-_Mater_Dolorosa
03.15_-_Towards_the_Future
04.01_-_The_March_of_Civilisation
04.02_-_A_Chapter_of_Human_Evolution
04.03_-_Consciousness_as_Energy
04.05_-_The_Immortal_Nation
05.02_-_Gods_Labour
05.08_-_True_Charity
05.11_-_The_Place_of_Reason
05.29_-_Vengeance_is_Mine
06.08_-_The_Individual_and_the_Collective
06.23_-_Here_or_Elsewhere
07.08_-_The_Divine_Truth_Its_Name_and_Form
07.19_-_Bad_Thought-Formation
08.18_-_The_Origin_of_Desire
08.35_-_Love_Divine
08.36_-_Buddha_and_Shankara
08.37_-_The_Significance_of_Dates
10.02_-_Beyond_Vedanta
10.07_-_The_World_is_One
1.00a_-_Introduction
1.00b_-_DIVISION_B_-_THE_PERSONALITY_RAY_AND_FIRE_BY_FRICTION
1.00e_-_DIVISION_E_-_MOTION_ON_THE_PHYSICAL_AND_ASTRAL_PLANES
1.00_-_INTRODUCTION
1.00_-_Preliminary_Remarks
10.10_-_A_Poem
1.01f_-_Introduction
1.01_-_Tara_the_Divine
1.01_-_THAT_ARE_THOU
1.01_-_the_Call_to_Adventure
1.01_-_The_Four_Aids
1.01_-_The_Highest_Meaning_of_the_Holy_Truths
1.01_-_The_Unexpected
1.01_-_To_Watanabe_Sukefusa
1.01_-_Who_is_Tara
10.20_-_Short_Notes_-_3-_Emptying_and_Replenishment
10.23_-_Prayers_and_Meditations_of_the_Mother
1.02_-_Karmayoga
1.02_-_MAPS_OF_MEANING_-_THREE_LEVELS_OF_ANALYSIS
1.02_-_Meditating_on_Tara
1.02_-_Pranayama,_Mantrayoga
1.02_-_Skillful_Means
1.02_-_Taras_Tantra
1.02_-_The_Development_of_Sri_Aurobindos_Thought
1.02_-_The_Divine_Teacher
1.02_-_THE_NATURE_OF_THE_GROUND
1.02_-_The_Ultimate_Path_is_Without_Difficulty
1.037_-_Preventing_the_Fall_in_Yoga
1.03_-_A_Parable
1.03_-_Bloodstream_Sermon
1.03_-_Invocation_of_Tara
1.03_-_Man_-_Slave_or_Free?
1.03_-_Master_Ma_is_Unwell
1.03_-_PERSONALITY,_SANCTITY,_DIVINE_INCARNATION
1.03_-_Tara,_Liberator_from_the_Eight_Dangers
1.03_-_THE_GRAND_OPTION
1.03_-_The_Sephiros
1.03_-_To_Layman_Ishii
1.04_-_GOD_IN_THE_WORLD
1.04_-_Homage_to_the_Twenty-one_Taras
1.04_-_KAI_VALYA_PADA
1.04_-_Reality_Omnipresent
1.04_-_Te_Shan_Carrying_His_Bundle
1.04_-_THE_APPEARANCE_OF_ANOMALY_-_CHALLENGE_TO_THE_SHARED_MAP
1.04_-_The_Core_of_the_Teaching
1.04_-_The_Crossing_of_the_First_Threshold
1.04_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda
1.04_-_The_Praise
1.04_-_Wake-Up_Sermon
1.04_-_What_Arjuna_Saw_-_the_Dark_Side_of_the_Force
1.052_-_Yoga_Practice_-_A_Series_of_Positive_Steps
1.05_-_Buddhism_and_Women
1.05_-_Consciousness
1.05_-_Hsueh_Feng's_Grain_of_Rice
1.05_-_Some_Results_of_Initiation
1.05_-_The_Destiny_of_the_Individual
1.05_-_THE_HOSTILE_BROTHERS_-_ARCHETYPES_OF_RESPONSE_TO_THE_UNKNOWN
1.05_-_The_Magical_Control_of_the_Weather
1.06_-_Dhyana
1.06_-_MORTIFICATION,_NON-ATTACHMENT,_RIGHT_LIVELIHOOD
1.06_-_The_Literal_Qabalah
1.06_-_Yun_Men's_Every_Day_is_a_Good_Day
1.070_-_The_Seven_Stages_of_Perfection
1.07_-_A_Song_of_Longing_for_Tara,_the_Infallible
1.07_-_Hui_Ch'ao_Asks_about_Buddha
1.07_-_Incarnate_Human_Gods
1.07_-_The_Farther_Reaches_of_Human_Nature
1.07_-_The_Three_Schools_of_Magick_2
1.07_-_TRUTH
1.08a_-_The_Ladder
1.08_-_RELIGION_AND_TEMPERAMENT
1.08_-_Sri_Aurobindos_Descent_into_Death
1.08_-_The_Change_of_Vision
1.08_-_The_Depths_of_the_Divine
1.08_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
1.09_-_SELF-KNOWLEDGE
1.09_-_Talks
1.09_-_Taras_Ultimate_Nature
1.1.01_-_Certitudes
11.02_-_The_Golden_Life-line
1.1.03_-_Brahman
1.1.04_-_Philosophy
1.10_-_GRACE_AND_FREE_WILL
1.10_-_The_Scolex_School
1.10_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
11.12_-_Two_Equations
11.14_-_Our_Finest_Hour
1.11_-_Delight_of_Existence_-_The_Problem
1.11_-_GOOD_AND_EVIL
1.11_-_The_Kalki_Avatar
1.12_-_Independence
1.12_-_The_Divine_Work
1.13_-_And_Then?
1.13_-_Gnostic_Symbols_of_the_Self
1.13_-_SALVATION,_DELIVERANCE,_ENLIGHTENMENT
1.13_-_Under_the_Auspices_of_the_Gods
1.14_-_IMMORTALITY_AND_SURVIVAL
1.15_-_Index
1.15_-_The_Possibility_and_Purpose_of_Avatarhood
1.16_-_PRAYER
1.16_-_The_Process_of_Avatarhood
1.17_-_God
1.17_-_The_Divine_Birth_and_Divine_Works
1.17_-_The_Transformation
1.19_-_Equality
1.19_-_THE_MASTER_AND_HIS_INJURED_ARM
12.09_-_The_Story_of_Dr._Faustus_Retold
1.20_-_Equality_and_Knowledge
1.20_-_TANTUM_RELIGIO_POTUIT_SUADERE_MALORUM
1.21_-_Chih_Men's_Lotus_Flower,_Lotus_Leaves
1.21_-_Tabooed_Things
1.22_-_ADVICE_TO_AN_ACTOR
1.22_-_THE_END_OF_THE_SPECIES
1.23_-_THE_MIRACULOUS
1.240_-_1.300_Talks
1.240_-_Talks_2
1.24_-_RITUAL,_SYMBOL,_SACRAMENT
1.25_-_Fascinations,_Invisibility,_Levitation,_Transmutations,_Kinks_in_Time
1.25_-_SPIRITUAL_EXERCISES
1.27_-_CONTEMPLATION,_ACTION_AND_SOCIAL_UTILITY
1.27_-_Structure_of_Mind_Based_on_that_of_Body
1.300_-_1.400_Talks
1.3.1.02_-_The_Object_of_Our_Yoga
1.37_-_Death_-_Fear_-_Magical_Memory
1.4.03_-_The_Guru
1.42_-_This_Self_Introversion
1.63_-_Fear,_a_Bad_Astral_Vision
17.09_-_Victory_to_the_World_Master
1.78_-_Sore_Spots
19.05_-_The_Fool
1914_03_13p
19.14_-_The_Awakened
19.20_-_The_Path
19.21_-_Miscellany
19.25_-_The_Bhikkhu
19.26_-_The_Brahmin
1929-06-09_-_Nature_of_religion_-_Religion_and_the_spiritual_life_-_Descent_of_Divine_Truth_and_Force_-_To_be_sure_of_your_religion,_country,_family-choose_your_own_-_Religion_and_numbers
1951-02-10_-_Liberty_and_license_-_surrender_makes_you_free_-_Men_in_authority_as_representatives_of_the_divine_Truth_-_Work_as_offering_-_total_surrender_needs_time_-_Effort_and_inspiration_-_will_and_patience
1951-03-03_-_Hostile_forces_-_difficulties_-_Individuality_and_form_-_creation
1951-03-14_-_Plasticity_-_Conditions_for_knowing_the_Divine_Will_-_Illness_-_microbes_-_Fear_-_body-reflexes_-_The_best_possible_happens_-_Theories_of_Creation_-_True_knowledge_-_a_work_to_do_-_the_Ashram
1951-03-29_-_The_Great_Vehicle_and_The_Little_Vehicle_-_Choosing_ones_family,_country_-_The_vital_being_distorted_-_atavism_-_Sincerity_-_changing_ones_character
1951-04-07_-_Origin_of_Evil_-_Misery-_its_cause
1951-05-03_-_Money_and_its_use_for_the_divine_work_-_problems_-_Mastery_over_desire-_individual_and_collective_change
1953-04-08
1953-05-27
1953-07-08
1953-10-21
1953-11-11
1954-02-17_-_Experience_expressed_in_different_ways_-_Origin_of_the_psychic_being_-_Progress_in_sports_-Everything_is_not_for_the_best
1955-02-09_-_Desire_is_contagious_-_Primitive_form_of_love_-_the_artists_delight_-_Psychic_need,_mind_as_an_instrument_-_How_the_psychic_being_expresses_itself_-_Distinguishing_the_parts_of_ones_being_-_The_psychic_guides_-_Illness_-_Mothers_vision
1955-10-05_-_Science_and_Ignorance_-_Knowledge,_science_and_the_Buddha_-_Knowing_by_identification_-_Discipline_in_science_and_in_Buddhism_-_Progress_in_the_mental_field_and_beyond_it
1956-02-08_-_Forces_of_Nature_expressing_a_higher_Will_-_Illusion_of_separate_personality_-_One_dynamic_force_which_moves_all_things_-_Linear_and_spherical_thinking_-_Common_ideal_of_life,_microscopic
1956-02-15_-_Nature_and_the_Master_of_Nature_-_Conscious_intelligence_-_Theory_of_the_Gita,_not_the_whole_truth_-_Surrender_to_the_Lord_-_Change_of_nature
1956-05-23_-_Yoga_and_religion_-_Story_of_two_clergymen_on_a_boat_-_The_Buddha_and_the_Supramental_-_Hieroglyphs_and_phonetic_alphabets_-_A_vision_of_ancient_Egypt_-_Memory_for_sounds
1956-06-06_-_Sign_or_indication_from_books_of_revelation_-_Spiritualised_mind_-_Stages_of_sadhana_-_Reversal_of_consciousness_-_Organisation_around_central_Presence_-_Boredom,_most_common_human_malady
1956-07-18_-_Unlived_dreams_-_Radha-consciousness_-_Separation_and_identification_-_Ananda_of_identity_and_Ananda_of_union_-_Sincerity,_meditation_and_prayer_-_Enemies_of_the_Divine_-_The_universe_is_progressive
1956-08-29_-_To_live_spontaneously_-_Mental_formations_Absolute_sincerity_-_Balance_is_indispensable,_the_middle_path_-_When_in_difficulty,_widen_the_consciousness_-_Easiest_way_of_forgetting_oneself
1957-01-23_-_How_should_we_understand_pure_delight?_-_The_drop_of_honey_-_Action_of_the_Divine_Will_in_the_world
1957-10-02_-_The_Mind_of_Light_-_Statues_of_the_Buddha_-_Burden_of_the_past
1960_11_12?_-_49
1964_09_16
1.bd_-_A_deluded_Mind
1.dz_-_A_Zen_monk_asked_for_a_verse_-
1f.lovecraft_-_Poetry_and_the_Gods
1.hcyc_-_16_-_When_I_consider_the_virtue_of_abusive_words_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_1_-_There_is_the_leisurely_one_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_20_-_Our_teacher,_Shakyamuni,_met_Dipankara_Buddha_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_26_-_The_moon_shines_on_the_river_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_2_-_When_the_Dharma_body_awakens_completely_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_36_-_One_moon_is_reflected_in_many_waters_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_42_-_I_raise_the_Dharma-banner_and_set_forth_our_teaching_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_46_-_People_hear_the_Buddhas_doctrine_of_immediacy_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_50_-_The_Buddhas_doctrine_of_directness_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_51_-_Being_is_not_being-_non-being_is_not_non-being_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_53_-_If_the_seed-nature_is_wrong,_misunderstandings_arise_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_57_-_Pradhanashura_broke_the_gravest_precepts_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_62_-_When_we_see_truly,_there_is_nothing_at_all_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_6_-_Who_has_no-thought?_Who_is_not-born?_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_8_-_Transience,_emptiness_and_enlightenment_(from_The_Shodoka)
1.hcyc_-_It_is_clearly_seen_(from_The_Song_of_Enlightenment)
1.hcyc_-_Who_is_without_thought?_(from_The_Song_of_Enlightenment)
1.he_-_Hakuins_Song_of_Zazen
1.he_-_The_Form_of_the_Formless_(from_Hakuins_Song_of_Zazen)
1.he_-_You_no_sooner_attain_the_great_void
1.is_-_Although_I_Try
1.is_-_I_Hate_Incense
1.jm_-_The_Song_of_Food_and_Dwelling
1.jm_-_The_Song_of_Perfect_Assurance_(to_the_Demons)
1.jm_-_The_Song_of_View,_Practice,_and_Action
1.jm_-_Upon_this_earth,_the_land_of_the_Victorious_Ones
1.ki_-_Buddha_Law
1.ki_-_Buddhas_body
1.ki_-_now_begins
1.ki_-_rice_seedlings
1.ki_-_Where_there_are_humans
1.kt_-_A_Song_on_the_View_of_Voidness
1.mb_-_on_buddhas_deathbed
1.ms_-_Buddhas_Satori
1.ms_-_Incomparable_Verse_Valley
1.nrpa_-_The_Summary_of_Mahamudra
1.nrpa_-_The_Viewm_Concisely_Put
1.rmr_-_Buddha_in_Glory
1.srh_-_The_Royal_Song_of_Saraha_(Dohakosa)
1.ss_-_Paper_windows_bamboo_walls_hedge_of_hibiscus
1.ss_-_Trying_to_become_a_Buddha_is_easy
1.tr_-_In_The_Morning
1.wby_-_The_Double_Vision_Of_Michael_Robartes
1.wby_-_The_Statues
1.whitman_-_Passage_To_India
1.whitman_-_Song_of_Myself
1.whitman_-_Song_Of_Myself-_XLI
1.yb_-_This_cold_winter_night
1.ym_-_Climbing_the_Mountain
1.ym_-_Motto
1.ym_-_Pu-to_Temple
1.yt_-_This_self-sufficient_black_lady_has_shaken_things_up
20.01_-_Charyapada_-_Old_Bengali_Mystic_Poems
2.00_-_BIBLIOGRAPHY
2.01_-_On_Books
2.02_-_On_Letters
2.02_-_The_Ishavasyopanishad_with_a_commentary_in_English
2.02_-_The_Synthesis_of_Devotion_and_Knowledge
2.03_-_Karmayogin__A_Commentary_on_the_Isha_Upanishad
2.03_-_On_Medicine
2.04_-_On_Art
2.05_-_Apotheosis
2.05_-_The_Cosmic_Illusion;_Mind,_Dream_and_Hallucination
2.05_-_Universal_Love_and_how_it_leads_to_Self-Surrender
2.05_-_VISIT_TO_THE_SINTHI_BRAMO_SAMAJ
2.06_-_Reality_and_the_Cosmic_Illusion
2.06_-_The_Wand
2.07_-_On_Congress_and_Politics
2.07_-_The_Knowledge_and_the_Ignorance
2.08_-_ALICE_IN_WONDERLAND
2.08_-_On_Non-Violence
2.09_-_The_Pantacle
2.0_-_THE_ANTICHRIST
21.01_-_The_Mother_The_Nature_of_Her_Work
2.10_-_The_Vision_of_the_World-Spirit_-_Time_the_Destroyer
2.12_-_The_Origin_of_the_Ignorance
2.13_-_On_Psychology
2.14_-_The_Unpacking_of_God
2.17_-_December_1938
2.18_-_January_1939
2.18_-_SRI_RAMAKRISHNA_AT_SYAMPUKUR
2.19_-_THE_MASTER_AND_DR._SARKAR
2.20_-_THE_MASTERS_TRAINING_OF_HIS_DISCIPLES
2.21_-_1940
2.21_-_IN_THE_COMPANY_OF_DEVOTEES_AT_SYAMPUKUR
2.23_-_THE_MASTER_AND_BUDDHA
2.24_-_THE_MASTERS_LOVE_FOR_HIS_DEVOTEES
2.25_-_AFTER_THE_PASSING_AWAY
2.25_-_List_of_Topics_in_Each_Talk
2.28_-_The_Divine_Life
2.3.02_-_The_Supermind_or_Supramental
2.3.07_-_The_Vital_Being_and_Vital_Consciousness
27.02_-_The_Human_Touch_Divine
29.03_-_In_Her_Company
30.02_-_Greek_Drama
30.03_-_Spirituality_in_Art
30.04_-_Intuition_and_Inspiration_in_Art
30.09_-_Lines_of_Tantra_(Charyapada)
3.01_-_Forms_of_Rebirth
3.01_-_The_Principles_of_Ritual
3.02_-_The_Formulae_of_the_Elemental_Weapons
3.02_-_The_Motives_of_Devotion
3.02_-_The_Psychology_of_Rebirth
3.03_-_The_Four_Foundational_Practices
3.04_-_On_Thought_-_III
3.04_-_The_Flowers
3.05_-_The_Divine_Personality
3.06_-_Charity
3.06_-_The_Sage
3.08_-_The_Mystery_of_Love
3.1.01_-_The_Problem_of_Suffering_and_Evil
3.1.04_-_Transformation_in_the_Integral_Yoga
3.10_-_Punishment
31.10_-_East_and_West
3.14_-_Of_the_Consecrations
3.2.01_-_The_Newness_of_the_Integral_Yoga
3.2.02_-_Yoga_and_Skill_in_Works
3.2.03_-_Jainism_and_Buddhism
3.2.04_-_The_Conservative_Mind_and_Eastern_Progress
3.2.06_-_The_Adwaita_of_Shankaracharya
3.2.08_-_Bhakti_Yoga_and_Vaishnavism
32.08_-_Fit_and_Unfit_(A_Letter)
33.01_-_The_Initiation_of_Swadeshi
33.10_-_Pondicherry_I
3.4.2_-_Guru_Yoga
3.6.01_-_Heraclitus
3.7.1.09_-_Karma_and_Freedom
3.7.1.10_-_Karma,_Will_and_Consequence
3.7.2.04_-_The_Higher_Lines_of_Karma
38.02_-_Hymns_and_Prayers
38.07_-_A_Poem
3_-_Commentaries_and_Annotated_Translations
4.01_-_Introduction
4.08_-_THE_RELIGIOUS_PROBLEM_OF_THE_KINGS_RENEWAL
4.1.2_-_The_Difficulties_of_Human_Nature
4.2.3_-_Vigilance,_Resolution,_Will_and_the_Divine_Help
4.3.3_-_Dealing_with_Hostile_Attacks
5.01_-_The_Dakini,_Salgye_Du_Dalma
5.4.01_-_Notes_on_Root-Sounds
6.0_-_Conscious,_Unconscious,_and_Individuation
7.02_-_Courage
7.07_-_Prudence
7.12_-_The_Giver
7.16_-_Sympathy
7_-_Yoga_of_Sri_Aurobindo
9.99_-_Glossary
APPENDIX_I_-_Curriculum_of_A._A.
Big_Mind_(non-dual)
Big_Mind_(ten_perfections)
Blazing_P3_-_Explore_the_Stages_of_Postconventional_Consciousness
BOOK_II._--_PART_I._ANTHROPOGENESIS.
BOOK_II._--_PART_II._THE_ARCHAIC_SYMBOLISM_OF_THE_WORLD-RELIGIONS
BOOK_I._--_PART_I._COSMIC_EVOLUTION
BOOK_I._--_PART_III._SCIENCE_AND_THE_SECRET_DOCTRINE_CONTRASTED
BOOK_I._--_PART_II._THE_EVOLUTION_OF_SYMBOLISM_IN_ITS_APPROXIMATE_ORDER
Book_of_Imaginary_Beings_(text)
CASE_1_-_JOSHUS_DOG
CASE_2_-_HYAKUJOS_FOX
CASE_5_-_KYOGENS_MAN_HANGING_IN_THE_TREE
CASE_6_-_THE_BUDDHAS_FLOWER
Conversations_with_Sri_Aurobindo
Diamond_Sutra_1
DS2
DS3
DS4
Guru_Granth_Sahib_first_part
Liber_111_-_The_Book_of_Wisdom_-_LIBER_ALEPH_VEL_CXI
Liber_71_-_The_Voice_of_the_Silence_-_The_Two_Paths_-_The_Seven_Portals
Maps_of_Meaning_text
MoM_References
r1912_01_13
r1912_01_16
r1912_02_07
r1912_02_08
r1912_07_15
r1912_07_19
r1912_07_21
r1914_04_19
Sayings_of_Sri_Ramakrishna_(text)
SB_1.1_-_Questions_by_the_Sages
Talks_001-025
Talks_026-050
Talks_100-125
Talks_176-200
Talks_225-239
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_1
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_2
The_Act_of_Creation_text
The_Anapanasati_Sutta__A_Practical_Guide_to_Mindfullness_of_Breathing_and_Tranquil_Wisdom_Meditation
The_Coming_Race_Contents
the_Eternal_Wisdom
The_Five,_Ranks_of_The_Apparent_and_the_Real
The_Poems_of_Cold_Mountain
Thus_Spoke_Zarathustra_text

PRIMARY CLASS

author
SIMILAR TITLES
Becoming the Compassion Buddha Tantric Mahamudra for Everyday Life
Buddha
Buddhahood in This Life The Great Commentary by Vimalamitra
Buddhahood Without Meditation A Visionary Account Known as Refining One's Perception
Great Disciples of the Buddha Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy
Living Buddha
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching Transforming Suffering into Peace
The Heart of the Path Seeing the Guru as Buddha
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya
The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha A Complete Translation of the Anguttara Nikaya
The Suttanipata An Ancient Collection of the Buddha's Discourses Together with its Commentaries
Universal Love The Yoga Method of Buddha Maitreya
What the Buddha Taught

DEFINITIONS


TERMS STARTING WITH

Buddha ::: [a great sage, sometimes considered to be one of the avataras of Visnu]; the awakened spirit.

Buddha: An enlightened and wise individual who has attained perfect wisdom. Specifically applied to Gautama Siddhartha, founder of Buddhism in the sixth century B.C.

Buddhabhadra. (C. Fotuobatuoluo; J. Butsudabatsudara; K. Pult'abaltara 佛陀跋陀羅) (359-429). Important early translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese, also known by the Chinese translation of his name, Juexian, or "Enlightened Sage" (the Chinese above is the more common transcription of his Sanskrit name). According to the "Biographies of Eminent Monks" (GAOSENG ZHUAN), Buddhabhadra was born in north India and joined the SAMGHA after losing both his parents at an early age. Buddhabhadra studied various scriptures and was adept in both meditation and observing the precepts; he was also renowned for his thaumaturgic talents. At the behest of a Chinese monk named ZHIYAN, Buddhabhadra traveled to China along the southern maritime route. Upon learning of the eminent Kuchean monk KUMARAJĪVA's arrival in Chang'an, Buddhabhadra went to the capital in 406 to meet him. Due to a difference of opinion with KumArajīva, however, Buddhabhadra left for LUSHAN, where he was welcomed by LUSHAN HUIYUAN and installed as the meditation instructor in Huiyuan's community; Buddhabhadra came to be known as one of the eighteen worthies of Lushan. He devoted the rest of his career to translating such scriptures as the DAMODUOLUO CHAN JING, Guanfo sanmei hai jing, and AVATAMSAKASuTRA, to name just a few. Buddhabhadra also translated the MAHASAMGHIKA VINAYA with the assistance of FAXIAN and contributed significantly to the growth of Buddhist monasticism in China.

Buddhabhadra

BuddhabhumisAstra. (C. Fodijing lun; J. Butsujikyoron; K. Pulchigyong non 佛地經論). In Sanskrit, "Exposition of the Stage of Buddhahood"; an influential commentary on the BUDDHABHuMISuTRA, attributed to Bandhuprabha (Qinguang; d.u.), a disciple of DHARMAPALA (530-561), and collaborators. The commentary is extant only in a seven-roll Chinese translation made by XUANZANG and his translation team in 649-650.

Buddhabhumisāstra

Buddhabhumisutra

Buddhabhumisutra. (T. Sangs rgyas kyi sa'i mdo; C. Fodi jing; J. Butsujikyo; K. Pulchi kyong 佛地經). In Sanskrit, "Scripture on the Stage of Buddhahood," an important MAHAYANA scripture on the experience of enlightenment. The sutra begins with a description of the PURE LAND in which the scripture is taught and its audience of BODHISATTVAs, mahAsrAvakas, and MAHASATTVAs. The text goes on to describe the five factors that exemplify the stage of buddhahood (buddhabhumi). The first of these is (1) the wisdom of the DHARMADHATU, which is likened to space (AKAsA) itself, in that it is all-pervasive and uncontained. The next two factors are (2) mirror-like wisdom, or great perfect mirror wisdom (ADARsAJNANA), in which the perfect interfusion between all things is seen as if reflected in a great mirror, and (3) the wisdom of equality, or impartial wisdom (SAMATAJNANA), which transcends all dichotomies to see everything impartially without coloring by the ego. The scripture then describes (4) the wisdom of specific knowledge (PRATYAVEKsAnAJNANA) and (5) the wisdom of having accomplished what was to be done (KṚTYANUstHANAJNANA), both of which are attained as a result of the subsequently attained wisdom (TATPṚstHALABDHAJNANA); these two types of knowledge clarify that the dharmadhAtu is a realm characterized by both emptiness (suNYATA) and compassion (KARUnA). Finally, similes are offered to elucidate the nature of these wisdoms. The Chinese translation, in one roll, was made by XUANZANG and his translation team in 645 CE. In tantric Buddhism, these five wisdoms or knowledges (JNANA) are linked with the five "buddha families" (see PANCATATHAGATA).

Buddha [Budh Avatar]

Buddhacarita

Buddhacarita. (T. Sangs rgyas kyi spyod pa; C. Fosuoxing zan; J. Butsushogyosan; K. Pulsohaeng ch'an 佛所行讚). In Sanskrit, "Acts [viz., Life] of the Buddha"; the title of two verse compositions written in the first and second centuries CE that were intended to serve as a complete biography of the historical Buddha. The first was by the monk Sangharaksa (c. first century CE), whose work survives today only in its Chinese translation. The second version, which became hugely popular across Asia, was composed by the well-known Indian philosopher-poet AsVAGHOsA (c. second century), who was supposedly an opponent of Buddhism until he converted after losing a debate with the VAIBHAsIKA teacher PARsVA. Because of the early date of Asvaghosa's epic poem, it is of great importance for both the history of Indian Buddhism, as well as the study of classical Indian linguistics and thought. Asvaghosa's version of the Buddha's life begins with a description of his parents-King sUDDHODANA and Queen MAYA-and ends with the events that immediately follow his death, or PARINIRVAnA. His text is written in the style of high court poetry, or kAvya. In keeping with this style, the Buddhacarita is characterized by lengthy digressions and elaborate descriptions. For example, one entire canto is devoted to a detailed description of the sight of the women sleeping in the palace that precedes GAUTAMA's renunciation (pravrajya; see PRAVRAJITA). Canto XII provides an invaluable outline of the ancient Indian SAMkhya philosophical system. The Buddhacarita has served an important role within the Buddhist tradition itself, as the canonical works do not offer a systematic, chronological account of the Buddha's life from his birth through his death. Only the first half of the Buddhacarita is extant in its original Sanskrit; the remainder survives in Tibetan and Chinese translations.

Buddhachchhaya (Sanskrit) Buddhacchāyā [from buddha awakened one + chāyā shadow] The shadow of the Buddha; during certain commemorative Buddhist celebrations, an image said to have appeared in the temples and in a certain cave visited by Hiuen-Tsang (c. 602 – 664), the famous Chinese traveler (IU 1:600-01).

BuddhadAsa. (1906-1993). Prominent Thai monk, Buddhist reformer, teacher of meditation, and ecumenical figure. Born the son of a merchant in the village of Pum Riang in southern Thailand, he was educated at Buddhist temple schools. It was customary for males in Thailand to be ordained as Buddhist monks for three months at the age of twenty and then return to lay life. BuddhadAsa decided, however, to remain a monk and quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant thinker, meditator, and teacher. He dwelled for several years in the Thai capital of Bangkok to further his studies but grew disillusioned with the prevailing practices of the SAMGHA in the city, which he perceived to be lax and corrupt. In 1932, he returned home to an abandoned monastery near his native village to live a simple life, practice meditation, and teach the dharma. He named his monastery Wat Suan MokkhabalArAma (Garden of the Power of Liberation), which is usually abbreviated to Suan Mokkh, the Garden of Liberation. The monastery became one of the first VIPASSANA (S. VIPAsYANA) (insight meditation) centers in southern Thailand. BuddhadAsa spent most of his life at this forest monastery overlooking the sea. Although his formal scholastic training was limited, BuddhadAsa studied PAli scriptures extensively, in particular the SUTTAPItAKA, to uncover their true meaning, which he felt had become obscured by centuries of commentarial overlays, ritual practices, and monastic politics. A gifted orator, his numerous sermons and talks were transcribed and fill an entire room of the National Library in Bangkok. In his writings, many of which are his transcribed sermons, he eschewed the formal style of traditional scholastic commentary in favor of a more informal, and in many ways controversial, approach in which he questioned many of the more popular practices of Thai Buddhism. For example, he spoke out strongly against the practice of merit-making in which lay people offer gifts to monks in the belief that they will receive material reward in their next life. BuddhadAsa argued that this traditionally dominant form of lay practice only keeps the participants in the cycle of rebirth because it is based on attachment, whereas the true form of giving is the giving up of the self. Instead, BuddhadAsa believed that, because of conditioned origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA), people are naturally connected through a shared environment and are in fact capable of living harmoniously together. The hindrance to such a harmony comes from attachments to "I" and "mine," which must therefore be severed. Modern and ecumenical in perspective, BuddhadAsa sought to strip traditional Buddhism of what he regarded as obscurantism and superstition, and present the Buddha's teachings in a rational scientific idiom that acknowledged kindred teachings in other religions. BuddhadAsa's interpretations of the dharma have had a great impact on contemporary Buddhist thought in Thailand and are especially influential among the urban intelligentsia, social reformers, and environmentalists. His teachings are often cited as foundational by advocates of engaged Buddhism. The monastery he founded has become a venue for the training of foreign monks and nuns and for interfaith dialogue between Buddhists of different traditions, as well as between Buddhists and adherents of other religions.

Buddhadāsa

Buddhadatta. (fl. c. fifth century CE). A prominent PAli scholar-monk from South India who is presumed by the tradition to have been a personal acquaintance of the preeminent PAli commentator BUDDHAGHOSA. Buddhadatta lived and wrote his several works at BhutamangalagAma monastery in the Cola country (Tamil Nadu) of South India, although it is also said he trained at the MAHAVIHARA in ANURADHAPURA in Sri Lanka. Buddhadatta is best known as the author of the ABHIDHAMMAVATARA, the oldest of the noncanonical PAli works on ABHIDHAMMA (S. ABHIDHARMA). The text is a primer of PAli abhidhamma, divided into twenty-four chapters called niddesa (S. nirdesa; "exposition"), which displays many affinities with Buddhaghosa's VISUDDHIMAGGA. Other works attributed to Buddhadatta include the Vinayavinicchaya, the Uttaravinicchaya, and the RupArupavibhAga. Some authorities also attribute to him the MadhuratthavilAsinī and the JinAlankAra.

Buddhadatta

Buddha Gautama. See GAUTAMA

Buddhagayā. See BODHGAYĀ

Buddhaghosa. (S. Buddhaghosa) (fl. c. 370-450 CE). The preeminent PAli commentator, who translated into PAli the Sinhalese commentaries to the PAli canon and wrote the VISUDDHIMAGGA ("Path of Purification"), the definitive outline of THERAVADA doctrine.There are several conflicting accounts of Buddhaghosa's origins, none of which can be dated earlier than the thirteenth century. The Mon of Lower Burma claim him as a native son, although the best-known story, which is found in the CulAVAMSA (chapter 37), describes Buddhaghosa as an Indian brAhmana who grew up in the environs of the MAHABODHI temple in northern India. According to this account, his father served as a purohita (brAhmana priest) for King SangAma, while he himself became proficient in the Vedas and related Brahmanical sciences at an early age. One day, he was defeated in a debate by a Buddhist monk named Revata, whereupon he entered the Buddhist SAMGHA to learn more about the Buddha's teachings. He received his monk's name Buddhaghosa, which means "Voice of the Buddha," because of his sonorous voice and impressive rhetorical skills. Buddhaghosa took Revata as his teacher and began writing commentaries even while a student. Works written at this time included the NAnodaya and AttHASALINĪ. To deepen his understanding (or according to some versions of his story, as punishment for his intellectual pride), Buddhaghosa was sent to Sri Lanka to study the Sinhalese commentaries on the PAli Buddhist canon (P. tipitaka; S. TRIPItAKA). These commentaries were said to have been brought to Sri Lanka in the third century BCE, where they were translated from PAli into Sinhalese and subsequently preserved at the MAHAVIHARA monastery in the Sri Lankan capital of ANURADHAPURA. At the MahAvihAra, Buddhghosa studied under the guidance of the scholar-monk SanghapAla. Upon completing his studies, he wrote the great compendium of TheravAda teachings, Visuddhimagga, which summarizes the contents of the PAli tipitaka under the threefold heading of morality (sīla; S. sĪLA), meditative absorption (SAMADHI), and wisdom (paNNA; S. PRAJNA). Impressed with his expertise, the elders of the MahAvihAra allowed Buddhaghosa to translate the Sinhalese commentaries back into PAli, the canonical language of the TheravAda tipitaka. Attributed to Buddhaghosa are the VINAYA commentaries, SAMANTAPASADIKA and KankhAvitaranī; the commentaries to the SUTTAPItAKA, SUMAnGALAVILASINĪ, PAPANCASuDANĪ, SARATTHAPPAKASINĪ, and MANORATHAPuRAnĪ; also attributed to him is the PARAMATTHAJOTIKA (the commentary to the KHUDDAKAPAtHA and SUTTANIPATA). Buddhaghosa's commentaries on the ABHIDHAMMAPItAKA (see ABHIDHARMA) include the SAMMOHAVINODANĪ and PANCAPPAKARAnAttHAKATHA, along with the AtthasAlinī. Of these many works, Buddhaghosa is almost certainly author of the Visuddhimagga and translator of the commentaries to the four nikAyas, but the remainder are probably later attributions. Regardless of attribution, the body of work associated with Buddhaghosa was profoundly influential on the entire subsequent history of Buddhist scholasticism in the TheravAda traditions of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Buddhaghosa. See BUDDHAGHOSA

Buddhaghosa

Buddhaguhya. (fl. c. 760) (T. Sangs rgyas gsang ba). Sanskrit proper name of the author of a detailed commentary on the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA ("Great Vairocana's Enlightenment Discourse"); his commentary (MahAvairocanAbhisaMbodhi-vikurvitAdhisthAna-vaipulyasutrendrarAja-nAma-dharmaparyAyabhAsya), and his TantrArthA-vatAra ("Introduction to the Meaning of the Tantras") are said to have been the primary resource for Tibetan translators of tantra during the earlier spread of the doctrine (SNGA DAR). He is claimed to have been the teacher of VIMALAMITRA. His views on KRIYATANTRA and CARYATANTRA are considered authoritative by later Tibetan writers.

Buddhaguhya

Buddhakshetra (Sanskrit) Buddhakṣetra [from buddha awakened + kṣetra field, sphere of action] The sphere of action of an enlightened one. According to theosophy, there are four (or seven) buddhakshetras or fields in which the buddhas manifest and do their sublime work of benevolence which, counting from above, are: 1) the realms in which the dhyani-buddhas live and work; 2) the realms in which the dhyani-bodhisttvas live and work, called by Blavatsky “the domain of ideation”; 3) the realms of the manushya-buddhas, in which these work as nirmanakayas; and 4) the field of action in which the human buddhas work, the ordinary human world — our physical globe.

Buddhamitra. (C. Fotuomiduoluo; J. Butsudamitsutara; K. Pult'amiltara 佛陀蜜多羅). In Sanskrit, literally "Friend of the Buddha"; one of the Indian patriarchs listed in Chinese lineage records. He is variously listed in Chinese sources as the ninth (e.g., in the LIDAI FABAO JI and BAOLIN ZHUAN), the eighth (e.g., FU FAZANG YINYUAN ZHUAN), or the fifteenth (e.g., LIUZU TAN JING) patriarch of the Indian tradition. He is said to have been born into the vaisya caste of agriculturalists, in the kingdom of Daigya. His master was the patriarch BUDDHANANDI. According to tradition, when Buddhamitra was fifty years old, Buddhanandi was passing by the house in which Buddhamitra lived; seeing a white light floating above the house, Buddhanandi immediately recognized that his successor was waiting inside. Buddhamitra is also said to be one of the teachers of the Indian Buddhist philosopher VASUBANDHU and is considered the author of a work known as the PaNcadvAradhyAnasutramahArthadharma.

Buddhamitra

Buddhanandi. (C. Fotuonanti; J. Butsudanandai; K. Pult'ananje 佛陀難提). In Sanskrit, literally "Joy of the Buddha"; one of the Indian patriarchs listed in Chinese lineage records. He is variously listed in Chinese sources as the eighth (e.g., in the LIDAI FABAO JI and BAOLIN ZHUAN), the seventh (e.g., FU FAZANG YINYUAN ZHUAN), or the fourteenth (e.g., LIUZU TAN JING) patriarch of the Indian tradition. He is said to hail from the Indian country of Kamala, and is a member of the Gautama family. According to some records (e.g., BAOLIN ZHUAN), his master was the patriarch VASUMITRA.

Buddhanandi

Buddhangums (Sanskrit) Buddhāṅga [from buddha enlightened + aṅga limb, science] Buddha-science or the essence of occult wisdom and knowledge.

Buddha of Compassion One who, having gained the right to nirvana, renounces it to return to help all living beings. “They are men who have raised themselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, the light of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the human soul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry and selfish: through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words, through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becoming god-men, man-gods — human divinities.

Buddhapālita

BuddhapAlita. (T. Sangs rgyas bskyang) (c. 470-540). An Indian Buddhist scholar of the MADHYAMAKA school, who is regarded in Tibet as a key figure of what was dubbed the *PRASAnGIKA school of Madhyamaka. Little is known about the life of BuddhapAlita. He is best known for his commentary on NAGARJUNA's MuLAMADHYAMAKAKARIKA, a commentary that was thought to survive only in Tibetan translation, until the recent rediscovery of a Sanskrit manuscript. BuddhapAlita's commentary bears a close relation in some chapters to the AKUTOBHAYA, another commentary on NAgArjuna's MulamadhyamakakArikA of uncertain authorship, which is sometimes attributed to NAgArjuna himself. In his commentary, BuddhapAlita does not adopt some of the assumptions of the Buddhist logical tradition of the day, including the need to state one's position in the form of an autonomous inference (SVATANTRANUMANA). Instead, BuddhapAlita merely states an absurd consequence (PRASAnGA) that follows from the opponent's position. In his own commentary on the first chapter of NAgArjuna's text, BHAVAVIVEKA criticizes BuddhapAlita's method, arguing for the need for the Madhyamaka adept to state his own position after refuting the position of the opponent. In his commentary on the same chapter, CANDRAKĪRTI in turn defended the approach of BuddhapAlita and criticized BhAvaviveka. It was on the basis of these three commentaries that later Tibetan exegetes identified two schools within Madhyamaka, the SVATANTRIKA, in which they included BhAvaviveka, and the PrAsangika, in which they included BuddhapAlita and Candrakīrti.

Buddhaphala (Sanskrit) Buddhaphala [from buddha enlightened + phala fruit] The fruit of the Buddha, which is won when the arhat has attained the fruition of arhatship (arhattvaphala).

Buddha (Sanskrit) Buddha [from the verbal root budh to perceive, awaken, recover consciousness] Awakened, enlightened; one who is spiritually awakened, who has become one with the supreme self (paramatman).

Buddha(Sanskrit) ::: The past participle of the root budh, meaning "to perceive," "to become cognizant of," also "toawaken," and "to recover consciousness." It signifies one who is spiritually awakened, no longer living"the living death" of ordinary men, but awakened to the spiritual influence from within or from "above."When man has awakened from the living death in which ordinary mortals live, when he has cast off thetoils of both mind and flesh and, to use the old Christian term, has put on the garments of eternity, thenhe has awakened, he is a buddha. He has become one with -- not "absorbed" as is constantly translatedbut has become one with -- the Self of selves, with the paramatman, the Supreme Self. (See also Bodhi,Buddhi)A buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in thismanvantara; they have reached nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lowercenters of consciousness of a buddha are in nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enablesa Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind's supreme guide andinstructor, living usually as a nirmanakaya.

Buddha-Siddhartha. See GAUTAMA

Buddha(s) of Compassion ::: One who, having won all, gained all -- gained the right to kosmic peace and bliss -- renounces it so thathe may return as a Son of Light in order to help humanity, and indeed all that is.The Buddhas of Compassion are the noblest flowers of the human race. They are men who have raisedthemselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, thelight of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the humansoul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry andselfish; through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words,through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becominggod-men, man-gods -- human divinities.They are called Buddhas of Compassion because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feelintimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, untilfinally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because itis at one with the universe. "The dewdrop slips into the shining sea" -- its origin.Feeling the urge of almighty love in their hearts, the Buddhas of Compassion advance forever steadilytowards still greater heights of spiritual achievement; and the reason is that they have become thevehicles of universal love and universal wisdom. As impersonal love is universal, their whole natureexpands consequently with the universal powers that are working through them. The Buddhas ofCompassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from theSilent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and evenbeyond themselves to their chelas or disciples. Spiritually and mystically they contrast strongly withwhat Asiatic occultism, through the medium of Buddhism, has called the Pratyeka Buddhas.

Buddhas of Contemplation. See DHYANI-BUDDHA

Buddha: The enlightened one; full of knowledge.

BuddhatrAta. (C. Fotuoduoluo; J. Butsudatara; K. Pult'adara 佛陀多羅). Proper name of the putative translator of the YUANJUE JING (Dafangguang yuanjue xiuduoluo liaoyi jing; "Book of Perfect Enlightenment"). According to the KAIYUAN SHIJIAO LU, Zhisheng's catalogue of Chinese Buddhist scriptural translations, BuddhatrAta hailed from Kashmir (see KASHMIR-GANDHARA) and translated this text, in 693, at BAIMASI outside the Chinese capital of Luoyang. Although Zhisheng's attribution is followed by all subsequent cataloguers, this scripture is now generally recognized to be an indigenous Chinese Buddhist scripture (see APOCRYPHA) from the eighth century CE, so his ascription is dubious. There are a few other works attributed to a BuddhatrAta in the Chinese catalogues, including a vinaya text and a commentary to the YULANBEN JING, but it is unclear whether these are the same BuddhatrAta; nothing else is known about his life or activities in China.

Buddhatrāta

BuddhavaMsa. In PAli, "The Chronicle of the Buddhas"; the fourteenth book of the KHUDDAKANIKAYA of the PAli SUTTAPItAKA. A work in verse, it contains the life histories of twenty-five buddhas, concluding with that of the historical Buddha, Gotama (S. GAUTAMA). Details of each buddha are given, such as the species of the BODHI TREE under which he sat at the time of attaining enlightenment, as well as the name that the future buddha Gotama assumed under each previous buddha. The final chapter concerns the distribution of the relics (sarīra; S. sARĪRA) of Gotama Buddha. According to TheravAda tradition, the BuddhavaMsa was preached at the request of the Buddha's disciple SAriputta (S. sARIPUTRA), following the Buddha's display of the "jeweled-walk" (ratanacankama) miracle, which is the name of the chronicle's first chapter. The MadhuratthavilAsinī is the PAli commentary to the BuddhavaMsa.

BuddhavaMsa

Buddha, which the mind of man seizes on for adoration. To be able to see a living form, a mental body, as it were, of the

Buddhayasas. (C. Fotuoyeshe; J. Butsudayasha; K. Pult'ayasa 佛陀耶舍) (d.u.; fl. c. early fifth century). A monk from Kashmir (see KASHMIR-GANDHARA) who became an important early translator of Indic Buddhist texts into Chinese. Buddhayasas is said to have memorized several million words worth of both mainstream and MahAyAna materials and became a renowned teacher in his homeland. He later taught the SARVASTIVADA VINAYA to the preeminent translator KUMARAJĪVA and later joined his star pupil in China, traveling to the capital of Chang'an at KumArajīva's invitation in 408. While in China, he collaborated with the Chinese monk ZHU FONIAN (d.u.) in the translation of two massive texts of the mainstream Buddhist tradition: the SIFEN LÜ ("Four-Part Vinaya," in sixty rolls), the vinaya collection of the DHARMAGUPTAKA school, which would become the definitive vinaya used within the Chinese tradition; and the DĪRGHAGAMA, also generally presumed to be associated with the Dharmaguptakas. Even after returning to Kashmir four years later, Buddhayasas is said to have continued with his translation work, eventually sending back to China his rendering of the AkAsagarbhasutra.

Buddhayasas

buddha. ::: an awakened one

buddha ::: awake, awakened, conscious, enlightened one. Generally used to refer to Siddhārtha Gautama (c. 560 BC), who is also known as Shakya Muni (sage of the Shakya clan) or Buddha.

buddhAbhiseka. In Sanskrit, "buddha [image] consecration." See ABHIsEKA; DIANYAN; NETRAPRATIstHAPANA.

BUDDHABHuMI (no. 680)

BUDDHABHuMISuTRA (no. 680)

buddha bodies. See BUDDHAKAYA.

buddha bodies

buddhacakkhu. See BUDDHACAKsUS

buddhacaksus. (P. buddhacakkhu; T. sangs rgyas kyi spyan; C. foyan; J. butsugen; K. puran 佛眼). In Sanskrit, "buddha eye"; one of the five eyes or five sorts of vision (PANCACAKsUS) similar to the five (or six) "clairvoyances" or "superknowledges" (ABHIJNA). In mainstream Buddhist materials, the buddha eye is one of the five sorts of extraordinary vision of a buddha and includes the other four sorts of vision: fleshly eye (MAMSACAKsUS, P. mAnsacakkhu), divine eye (DIVYACAKsUS, P. dibbacakkhu), wisdom eye (PRAJNACAKsUS, P. paNNAcakkhu), and all-seeing eye (samantacaksus, P. samantacakkhu). In MahAyAna texts, the buddha eye is described as the eye that knows all dharmas in the full awakening of final enlightenment (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAMBODHI).

buddhacaksus

buddhadhamma. See BUDDHADHARMA

buddhadharma. (P. buddhadhamma; T. sangs rgyas pa'i chos; C. fofa; J. buppo; K. pulpop 佛法). In Sanskrit, "the teachings of the Buddha"; one of the closest Indian equivalents to what in English is called "Buddhism," along with DHARMAVINAYA (teaching and discipline), BUDDHANUsASANA (teaching, dispensation, or religion of the Buddha), and sASANA (teaching or dispensation). ¶ This term is also used with reference to the "unshared factors" (AVEnIKA[BUDDHA]DHARMA), a list of eighteen (or sometimes as many as 140) special qualities (dharma) that are unique to the buddhas, such as their perfect mindfulness and their inability to make a physical or verbal mistake, or for all the qualities that together make up a buddha.

buddhadharma

buddhadhātu

buddhadhAtu. (T. sangs rgyas kyi khams; C. foxing; J. bussho; K. pulsong 佛性). In Sanskrit, "buddha-element," or "buddha-nature"; the inherent potential of all sentient beings to achieve buddhahood. The term is also widely used in Buddhist Sanskrit with the sense of "buddha relic," and the term DHATU alone is used to mean "buddha-element" (see also GOTRA, KULA). The term first appears in the MAHAYANA recension of the MAHAPARINIRVAnASuTRA, now available only in Chinese translation, which states that all sentient beings have the "buddha-element" (FOXING). (The Chinese translation foxing literally means "buddha-nature" and the Chinese has often been mistakenly back-translated as the Sanskrit buddhatA; buddhadhAtu is the accepted Sanskrit form.) The origin of the term may, however, be traced back as far as the AstASAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA, one of the earliest MahAyAna SuTRAs, where the fundamental substance of the mind is said to be luminous (prakṛtis cittasya prabhAsvarA), drawing on a strand of Buddhism that has its antecedents in such statements as the PAli AnGUTTARANIKAYA: "The mind, O monks, is luminous but defiled by adventitious defilements" (pabhassaraM idaM bhikkhave cittaM, taN ca kho Agantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilitthaM). Because the BODHISATTVA realizes that the buddha-element is inherent in him at the moment that he arouses the aspiration for enlightenment (BODHICITTOTPADA) and enters the BODHISATTVAYANA, he achieves the profound endurance (KsANTI) that enables him to undertake the arduous training, over not one, but three, incalculable eons of time (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA), that will lead to buddhahood. The buddhadhAtu is a seminal concept of the MahAyAna and leads to the development of such related doctrines as the "matrix of the tathAgatas" (TATHAGATAGARBHA) and the "immaculate consciousness" (AMALAVIJNANA). The term is also crucial in the development of the teachings of such indigenous East Asian schools of Buddhism as CHAN, which telescope the arduous path of the bodhisattva into a single moment of sudden awakening (DUNWU) to the inherency of the "buddha-nature" (foxing), as in the Chan teaching that merely "seeing the nature" is sufficient to "attain buddhahood" (JIANXING CHENGFO).

buddha field. See BUDDHAKsETRA.

buddha field

buddhahood. See BUDDHAYANA; BODHISATTVAYANA.

buddhahood

buddhakārya. See TWELVE DEEDS OF A BUDDHA

buddhakāya

buddhakAya. (T. sangs rgyas sku; C. foshen; J. busshin; K. pulsin 佛身). In Sanskrit, literally "body of the buddha." Throughout the history of the Buddhist tradition, there has been a great deal of debate, and a good many theories, over the exact nature of a buddha's body. In the PAli NIKAYAs and the Sanskrit AGAMAs, we find a distinction made between various possible bodies of sAKYAMuNI Buddha. There are references, for example, to a putikAya, or corruptible body, which was born from the womb of his mother; a MANOMAYAKAYA, or mind-made body, which he uses to visit the heavens; and a DHARMAKAYA, the buddhas' corpus of unique qualities (AVEnIKA[BUDDHA]DHARMA), which is worthy of greater honor than the other two bodies and is the body of the buddha in which one seeks refuge (sARAnA). Perhaps the most popular of these theories on the nature of the buddhakAya is the MAHAYANA notion of the "three bodies," or TRIKAYA. According to this doctrine, a buddha is indistinguishable from absolute truth, but will still appear in various guises in the relative, conditioned world in order to guide sentient beings toward enlightenment. To distinguish these differing roles, MahAyAna thus distinguishes between three bodies of a buddha. First, a buddha has a dharmakAya, which is identical to absolute reality. Second, a buddha has a SAMBHOGAKAYA, or "enjoyment body," which resides in a buddha land (BUDDHAKsETRA); this is the body that is visible only to the BODHISATTVAs. Finally, a buddha possesses a NIRMAnAKAYA, a "transformation" or "emanation body," which are the various earthly bodies that a buddha makes manifest in order to fulfill his resolution to help all different types of sentient beings; this type of body includes the Buddha who achieved enlightenment beneath the BODHI TREE. These are many other theories of the buddhakAya that have developed within the tradition.

buddhaksetra

buddhaksetra. (T. sangs rgyas zhing; C. focha; J. bussetsu; K. pulch'al 佛刹). In Sanskrit, "buddha field," the realm that constitutes the domain of a specific buddha. A buddhaksetra is said to have two aspects, which parallel the division of a world system into a BHAJANALOKA (lit. "container world," "world of inanimate objects") and a SATTVALOKA ("world of sentient beings"). As a result of his accumulation of merit (PUnYASAMBHARA), his collection of knowledge (JNANASAMBHARA), and his specific vow (PRAnIDHANA), when a buddha achieves enlightenment, a "container" or "inanimate" world is produced in the form of a field where the buddha leads beings to enlightenment. The inhabitant of that world is the buddha endowed with all the BUDDHADHARMAs. Buddha-fields occur in various levels of purification, broadly divided between pure (VIsUDDHABUDDHAKsETRA) and impure. Impure buddha-fields are synonymous with a world system (CAKRAVAdA), the infinite number of "world discs" in Buddhist cosmology that constitutes the universe; here, ordinary sentient beings (including animals, ghosts, and hell beings) dwell, subject to the afflictions (KLEsA) of greed (LOBHA), hatred (DVEsA), and delusion (MOHA). Each cakravAda is the domain of a specific buddha, who achieves enlightenment in that world system and works there toward the liberation of all sentient beings. A pure buddha-field, by contrast, may be created by a buddha upon his enlightenment and is sometimes called a PURE LAND (JINGTU, more literally, "purified soil" in Chinese), a term with no direct equivalent in Sanskrit. In such purified buddha-fields, the unfortunate realms (APAYA, DURGATI) of animals, ghosts, and hell denizens are typically absent. Thus, the birds that sing beautiful songs there are said to be emanations of the buddha rather than sentient beings who have been reborn as birds. These pure lands include such notable buddhaksetras as ABHIRATI, the buddha-field of the buddha AKsOBHYA, and SUKHAVATĪ, the land of the buddha AMITABHA and the object of a major strand of East Asian Buddhism, the so-called pure land school (see JoDOSHu, JoDO SHINSHu). In the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, after the buddha reveals a pure buddha land, sARIPUTRA asks him why sAKYAMUNI's buddha-field has so many faults. The buddha then touches the earth with his toe, at which point the world is transformed into a pure buddha-field; he explains that he makes the world appear impure in order to inspire his disciples to seek liberation.

buddhakula

buddhakula. (T. sangs rgyas rigs; C. rulai jia; J. nyoraike; K. yorae ka 如來家). In Sanskrit, "buddha family"; synonymous with GOTRA ("lineage"); buddhakula and gotra, like BUDDHADHATU and TATHAGATAGARBHA refer to the potential inherent in all sentient beings to achieve buddhahood. The RATNAGOTRAVIBHAGA describes a confluence of three necessary factors: the altruistic effort that buddhas make out of their great compassion (MAHAKARUnA) to disseminate their doctrines; the ultimate nature of beings that is purified of any essential defilement; and, last, buddhakula or gotra, i.e., belonging to a lineage that does not lead to endless rebirth or to a final end in the limited NIRVAnA of HĪNAYANA adepts, but rather to the royal state of a buddha. The defining mark of the buddhakula is the seed of great compassion (mahAkarunA). Because of the confluence of these three factors, all beings are said to have the TATHAGATAGARBHA, which in this interpretation of the compound means the womb or embryo of a tathAgata. In tantric Buddhism, there are typically five (but sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on the tantra) buddha families (see PANCAJINA, PANCATATHAGATA), the families of VAIROCANA, AKsOBHYA, RATNASAMBHAVA, AMITABHA, and AMOGHASIDDHI. These buddhas (regarded as the final purification and transformation of the five SKANDHAs) are the forms in which adepts with differing personality types, those in whom the five KLEsAs of delusion (MOHA), hatred (DVEsA), pride (MANA), desire (RAGA), and jealousy (ĪRsYA), respectively, predominate, reach the goal. The five buddha families are also connected with the five YOGACARA knowledges or wisdoms (JNANA) (see BUDDHABHuMISuTRA; PANCAJNANA).

buddha ::: mental; the mental plane, the plane of buddhi.

buddha-nature. See BUDDHADHATU; FOXING.

buddha-nature

buddha ::: n. --> The title of an incarnation of self-abnegation, virtue, and wisdom, or a deified religious teacher of the Buddhists, esp. Gautama Siddartha or Sakya Sinha (or Muni), the founder of Buddhism.

buddhAnusAsana. In Sanskrit, "the dispensation of the Buddha." See sASANA; BUDDHAVACANA.

buddhAnusmṛti. (P. buddhAnussati; T. sangs rgyas rjes su dran pa; C. nianfo; J. nenbutsu; K. yombul 念佛). In Sanskrit, "recollection of the Buddha"; one of the common practices designed to develop concentration, in which the meditator reflects on the meritorious qualities of the Buddha, often through contemplating a series of his epithets. The oldest list of epithets of the Buddha used in such recollection, which is found across all traditions, is worthy one (ARHAT), fully enlightened (SAMYAKSAMBUDDHA), perfect in both knowledge and conduct (vidyAcaranasampanna), well gone (SUGATA), knower of all worlds (lokavid), teacher of divinities (or kings) and human beings (sAstṛ devamanusyAnaM), buddha, and BHAGAVAT. BuddhAnusmṛti is listed among the forty meditative exercises (KAMMAttHANA) discussed in the VISUDDHIMAGGA and is said to be conducive to gaining access concentration (UPACARASAMADHI). In East Asia, this recollection practice evolved into the recitation of the name of the buddha AMITABHA (see NIANFO) in the form of the phrase namo Amituo fo ("homage to AmitAbha Buddha"; J. NAMU AMIDABUTSU). This recitation was often performed in a ritual setting accompanied by the performance of prostrations, the burning of incense, and the recitation of scriptures, all directed toward gaining a vision of AmitAbha's PURE LAND (SUKHAVATĪ), which was considered proof that one would be reborn there. Nianfo practice was widely practiced across schools and social strata in China. In Japan, repetition of the phrase in its Japanese pronunciation of namu Amidabutsu (homage to AmitAbha Buddha) became a central practice of the Japanese Pure Land schools of Buddhism (see JoDOSHu, JoDO SHINSHu).

buddhapāda

buddhapAda. (T. sangs rgyas kyi zhabs; C. fozu; J. bussoku; K. pulchok 佛足). In Sanskrit and PAli, lit. "the feet of the Buddha"; typically referring to "the Buddha's footprints," which became objects of religious veneration in early Buddhism. There are typically three kinds of footprints of the Buddha, all of which are treated as a type of relic (sARĪRA, DHATU). At the incipiency of the tradition, the Buddha's footprints were a popular aniconic representation of the Buddha; the oldest of these, from the BHARHUT reliquary mound (STuPA), dates to the second century BCE. The second are natural indentations in rock that are said to have been made by the Buddha's feet; an example is the Sri Lankan mountain known as srī PAda, or "Holy Foot," which is named after an impression in the rock of the mountain's summit that the Sinhalese people believe to be a footprint of GAUTAMA Buddha. Both these first and second types are concave images and are presumed to be a sign of the Buddha's former presence in a specific place. Such footprints are also often important as traditional evidence of a visit by the Buddha to a distant land. The third form of footprint are convex images carved in stone, metal, or wood (or in some cases painted), which represent the soles of the Buddha's feet in elaborate detail and are often covered with all manner of auspicious symbols. They may bear the specific physical marks (LAKsAnA) said to be present on the feet of a fully awakened being, such as having toes that are all the same length, or having dharma-wheels (DHARMACAKRA) inscribed on the soles (see MAHAPURUsALAKsAnA). In the PAli tradition, there is a practice of making buddhapAda in which the central wheel is surrounded by a retinue (parivAra) of 108 auspicious signs, called MAnGALA. Symbolically, the footprints point to the reality of the Buddha's erstwhile physical presence in our world. At the same time, the footprints also indicate his current absence and thus may encourage the observer to reflect on nonattachment. Veneration of the Buddha's footprints occurs throughout the Buddhist world but is particularly popular in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. Of his footprints, tradition reports that the Buddha said, "In the future, intelligent beings will see the scriptures and understand. Those of less intelligence will wonder whether the Buddha appeared in the world. In order to remove their doubts, I have set my footprints in stone."

buddhapātramudrā

buddhapAtramudrA. (T. sangs rgyas kyi lhung bzed phyag rgya; C. foboyin; J. buppatsuin; K. pulbarin 佛鉢印). In Sanskrit, "the gesture of the Buddha's begging bowl." In this symbolic posture or gesture (MUDRA), the Buddha holds a begging bowl (PATRA) that sits in his lap. In some variations, the hands hold a jewel, or ornate treasure box, instead. In esoteric rituals, variations of this mudrA may be used for a number of different outcomes. For example, one Chinese indigenous SuTRA (see APOCRYPHA) suggests that forming and holding this gesture will cure stomach ailments. In another Japanese ritual, this mudrA is used to invite autochthonous deities to join the audience in attendance. The buddhapAtramudrA is typically associated with images of the Buddha AMITABHA, whose begging bowl is filled with the nectar of immortality (AMṚTA).

BUDDHA (Skt, the awakened one) Title of a 42-self, initiate of the 8th degree. Gautama Buddha is the fourth buddha in the current eon. His three predecessors were called Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kashyapa (K 6.12.33)

buddha

buddha tapas ::: mental will-power; same as intellectual / mental tapas.

buddhatā

buddhatA. (S). See BUDDHADHATU.

buddha. (T. sangs rgyas; C. fo; J. butsu/hotoke; K. pul 佛). In Sanskrit and PAli, "awakened one" or "enlightened one"; an epithet derived from the Sanskrit root √budh, meaning "to awaken" or "to open up" (as does a flower) and thus traditionally etymologized as one who has awakened from the deep sleep of ignorance and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge. The term was used in ancient India by a number of different religious groups, but came to be most strongly associated with followers of the teacher GAUTAMA, the "Sage of the sAKYA Clan" (sAKYAMUNI), who claimed to be only the most recent of a succession of buddhas who had appeared in the world over many eons of time (KALPA). In addition to sAkyamuni, there are many other buddhas named in Buddhist literature, from various lists of buddhas of the past, present, and future, to "buddhas of the ten directions" (dasadigbuddha), viz., everywhere. Although the precise nature of buddhahood is debated by the various schools, a buddha is a person who, in the far distant past, made a previous vow (PuRVAPRAnIDHANA) to become a buddha in order to reestablish the dispensation or teaching (sASANA) at a time when it was lost to the world. The path to buddhahood is much longer than that of the ARHAT-as many as three incalculable eons of time (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) in some computations-because of the long process of training over the BODHISATTVA path (MARGA), involving mastery of the six or ten "perfections" (PARAMITA). Buddhas can remember both their past lives and the past lives of all sentient beings, and relate events from those past lives in the JATAKA and AVADANA literature. Although there is great interest in the West in the "biography" of Gautama or sAkyamuni Buddha, the early tradition seemed intent on demonstrating his similarity to the buddhas of the past rather than his uniqueness. Such a concern was motivated in part by the need to demonstrate that what the Buddha taught was not the innovation of an individual, but rather the rediscovery of a timeless truth (what the Buddha himself called "an ancient path" [S. purAnamArga, P. purAnamagga]) that had been discovered in precisely the same way, since time immemorial, by a person who undertook the same type of extended preparation. In this sense, the doctrine of the existence of past buddhas allowed the early Buddhist community to claim an authority similar to that of the Vedas of their Hindu rivals and of the JAINA tradition of previous tīrthankaras. Thus, in their biographies, all of the buddhas of the past and future are portrayed as doing many of the same things. They all sit cross-legged in their mother's womb; they are all born in the "middle country" (madhyadesa) of the continent of JAMBUDVĪPA; immediately after their birth they all take seven steps to the north; they all renounce the world after seeing the four sights (CATURNIMITTA; an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a mendicant) and after the birth of a son; they all achieve enlightenment seated on a bed of grass; they stride first with their right foot when they walk; they never stoop to pass through a door; they all establish a SAMGHA; they all can live for an eon if requested to do so; they never die before their teaching is complete; they all die after eating meat. Four sites on the earth are identical for all buddhas: the place of enlightenment, the place of the first sermon that "turns the wheel of the dharma" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA), the place of descending from TRAYASTRIMsA (heaven of the thirty-three), and the place of their bed in JETAVANA monastery. Buddhas can differ from each other in only eight ways: life span, height, caste (either brAhmana or KsATRIYA), the conveyance by which they go forth from the world, the period of time spent in the practice of asceticism prior to their enlightenment, the kind of tree they sit under on the night of their enlightenment, the size of their seat there, and the extent of their aura. In addition, there are twelve deeds that all buddhas (dvAdasabuddhakArya) perform. (1) They descend from TUsITA heaven for their final birth; (2) they enter their mother's womb; (3) they take birth in LUMBINĪ Garden; (4) they are proficient in the worldly arts; (5) they enjoy the company of consorts; (6) they renounce the world; (7) they practice asceticism on the banks of the NAIRANJANA River; (8) they go to the BODHIMAndA; (9) they subjugate MARA; (10) they attain enlightenment; (11) they turn the wheel of the dharma; and (12) they pass into PARINIRVAnA. They all have a body adorned with the thirty-two major marks (LAKsAnA; MAHAPURUsALAKsAnA) and the eighty secondary marks (ANUVYANJANA) of a great man (MAHAPURUsA). They all have two bodies: a physical body (RuPAKAYA) and a body of qualities (DHARMAKAYA; see BUDDHAKAYA). These qualities of a buddha are accepted by the major schools of Buddhism. It is not the case, as is sometimes suggested, that the buddha of the mainstream traditions is somehow more "human" and the buddha in the MAHAYANA somehow more "superhuman"; all Buddhist traditions relate stories of buddhas performing miraculous feats, such as the sRAVASTĪ MIRACLES described in mainstream materials. Among the many extraordinary powers of the buddhas are a list of "unshared factors" (AVEnIKA[BUDDHA]DHARMA) that are unique to them, including their perfect mindfulness and their inability ever to make a mistake. The buddhas have ten powers specific to them that derive from their unique range of knowledge (for the list, see BALA). The buddhas also are claimed to have an uncanny ability to apply "skill in means" (UPAYAKAUsALYA), that is, to adapt their teachings to the specific needs of their audience. This teaching role is what distinguishes a "complete and perfect buddha" (SAMYAKSAMBUDDHA) from a "solitary buddha" (PRATYEKABUDDHA) who does not teach: a solitary buddha may be enlightened but he neglects to develop the great compassion (MAHAKARUnA) that ultimately prompts a samyaksaMbuddha to seek to lead others to liberation. The MahAyAna develops an innovative perspective on the person of a buddha, which it conceived as having three bodies (TRIKAYA): the DHARMAKAYA, a transcendent principle that is sometimes translated as "truth body"; an enjoyment body (SAMBHOGAKAYA) that is visible only to advanced bodhisattvas in exalted realms; and an emanation body (NIRMAnAKAYA) that displays the deeds of a buddha to the world. Also in the MahAyAna is the notion of a universe filled with innumerable buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA), the most famous of these being SUKHAVATĪ of AmitAbha. Whereas the mainstream traditions claim that the profundity of a buddha is so great that a single universe can only sustain one buddha at any one time, MahAyAna SuTRAs often include scenes of multiple buddhas appearing together. See also names of specific buddhas, including AKsOBHYA, AMITABHA, AMOGHASIDDHI, RATNASAMBHAVA, VAIROCANA. For indigenous language terms for buddha, see FO (C); HOTOKE (J); PHRA PHUTTHA JAO (Thai); PUCH'o(NIM) (K); SANGS RGYAS (T).

buddhavacana

buddhavacana. (T. sangs rgyas kyi bka'; C. foyu; J. butsugo; K. puro 佛語). In Sanskrit and PAli, "word of the Buddha"; those teachings accepted as having been either spoken by the Buddha or spoken with his sanction. Much traditional scholastic literature is devoted to the question of what does and does not qualify as the word of the Buddha. The SuTRAPItAKA and the VINAYAPItAKA of the Buddhist canon (TRIPItAKA), which are claimed to have been initially redacted at the first Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, FIRST), held in RAJAGṚHA soon after the Buddha's death, is considered by the tradition-along with the ABHIDHARMAPItAKA, which was added later-to be the authentic word of the Buddha; this judgment is made despite the fact that the canon included texts that were spoken, or elaborated upon, by his direct disciples (e.g., separate versions of the BHADDEKARATTASUTTA, which offer exegeses by various disciples of an enigmatic verse the Buddha had taught) or that included material that clearly postdated the Buddha's death (such as the MAHAPARINIRVAnASuTRA, which tells of the events leading up to, and immediately following, the Buddha's demise, or the NAradasutta, which refers to kings who lived long after the Buddha's time). Such material could still be considered buddhavacana, however, by resort to the four references to authority (MAHAPADEsA; CATURMAHAPADEsA). These four types of authority are found listed in various SuTRAs, including the eponymous PAli MahApadesasutta, and provide an explicit set of criteria through which to evaluate whether a teaching is the authentic buddhavacana. Teachings could be accepted as authentic if they were heard from four authorities: (1) the mouth of the Buddha himself; (2) a SAMGHA of wise elders; (3) a group of monks who were specialists in either the dharma (dharmadhara), vinaya (vinayadhara), or the proto-abhidharma (mAtṛkAdhara); or (4) a single monk who was widely learned in such specializations. The teaching should then be compared side by side with the authentic SuTRA and VINAYA; if found to be compatible with these two strata of the canon and not in contradiction with reality (DHARMATA), it would then be accepted as the buddhavacana and thus marked by the characteristics of the Buddha's words (buddhavacanalaksana). Because of this dispensation, the canons of all schools of Buddhism were never really closed, but could continue to be reinvigorated with new expressions of the Buddha's insights. In addition, completely new texts that purported to be from the mouths of the buddha(s) and/or BODHISATTVAs, such as found in the MAHAYANA or VAJRAYANA traditions, could also begin to circulate and be accepted as the authentic buddhavacana since they too conformed with the reality (dharmatA) that is great enlightenment (MAHABODHI). For example, a MahAyAna sutra, the AdhyAsayasaNcodanasutra, declares, "All which is well-spoken, Maitreya, is spoken by the Buddha." The sutra qualifies the meaning of "well spoken" (subhAsita), explaining that all inspired speech should be known to be the word of the Buddha if it is meaningful and not meaningless, if it is principled and not unprincipled, if it brings about the extinction and not the increase of the afflictions (KLEsA), and if it sets forth the qualities and benefits of NIRVAnA and not the qualities and benefits of SAMSARA. However, the authenticity of the MahAyAna sutras (and later the tantras) was a topic of great contention between the proponents of the MahAyAna and mainstream schools throughout the history of Indian Buddhism and beyond. Defenses of the MahAyAna as buddhavacana appear in the MahAyAna sutras themselves, with predictions of the terrible fates that will befall those who deny their authenticity; and arguments for the authenticity of the MahAyAna sutras were a stock element in writings by MahAyAna authors as early as NAGARJUNA and extending over the next millennium. Related, and probably earlier, terms for buddhavacana are the "teaching of the master" (S. sAstuḥ sAsanam) and the "dispensation of the Buddha" (buddhAnusAsanam). See also APOCRYPHA, DAZANGJING, GTER MA.

buddhavarsa. (P. buddhavassa; T. sangs rgyas kyi lo; C. foji; J. butsuki; K. pulgi 佛紀). In Sanskrit, "Buddhist Era." The term used for the Buddhist calendar calculated from the date of the final demise (S. PARINIRVAnA; P. parinibbAna) of the Buddha. There is general agreement among Buddhist traditions that the Buddha died in his eightieth year, but no consensus as to the date of his death and hence no agreement regarding the commencement of the Buddhist era. Dates for the parinirvAna given in texts and inscriptions from across Buddhist Asia range from 2420 BCE to 290 BCE. One of the more commonly used dates is 544/543 BCE, which is the year asserted for the Buddha's death by the THERAVADA tradition of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Use of the TheravAda calendar most likely originated in Sri Lanka, where it is attested in inscriptions dating from as early as the first century BCE. The same calendar appears in Burmese inscriptions beginning in the eleventh century, which coincides with that country's adoption of TheravAda Buddhism as its dominant faith. The earliest known record of its use in India is likewise relatively late, and dates from the thirteenth century in an inscription erected at BODHGAYA. Since at least the fifth century, the TheravAda traditions have asserted that the religion of the Buddha (P. buddhasAsana; see sASANA) would endure for five thousand years. Accordingly, in 1956 the halfway point in the life span of the religion was presumed to have been reached, an event that was celebrated with considerable millenarian overtones throughout the TheravAda world in the Buddha Jayantī ("Celebration of Buddhism"). A historically significant feature of the TheravAda calendar is that it places the coronation of the Mauryan emperor AsOKA 218 years after the parinirvAna of the Buddha. This contrasts with another ancient Buddhist calendar tradition, preserved primarily in Sanskrit sources, which instead places Asoka's coronation one hundred years after the parinirvAna. The two calendars have come to be designated in modern scholarship as the "long chronology" and "short chronology," respectively. According to the long chronology, the Buddha's dates would be 566-486 BCE. According to the short chronology, they would be 448-368 BCE. The precise dating of the Buddha's parinirvAna has been a contested issue among scholars for well over a century, and both the long and the short chronologies, as well as permutations thereof, have had their supporters. At present, there is widespread consensus, based primarily on Greek accounts and Asoka's own inscriptions, that Asoka ascended to the Mauryan throne in c. 265 BCE, or approximately sixty years later than what is reported in the long chronology. Scholars who accept this dating, but who still adhere to the TheravAda claim that the Buddha died 218 years before this event, therefore place the parinirvAna at c. 480 BCE. This is known as the "corrected long chronology" and is the theory upheld by many contemporary scholars of Indian Buddhism. Recently however, a number of historians have argued, based primarily on a reevaluation of evidence found in the DĪPAVAMSA, that the short chronology is the earlier and more accurate calendar, and that the parinirvAna should be moved forward accordingly to between c. 400 and 350 BCE. Many contemporary traditions of East Asian Buddhism now also follow the modern TheravAda system in which the Buddha's parinirvAna is calculated as 544/543 BCE.

buddhavarsa

buddhavassa. See BUDDHAVARsA

BuddhAvataMsakasutra. In Sanskrit, "Scripture of the Garland of Buddhas." See AVATAMSAKASUTRA.

buddhayāna

buddhayAna. (T. sangs rgyas kyi theg pa; C. fo sheng; J. butsujo; K. pul sŭng 佛乘). In Sanskrit, "buddha vehicle," the conveyance leading to the state of buddhahood. In general, the buddhayAna is synonymous with both the BODHISATTVAYANA and the MAHAYANA, although in some contexts it is considered superior to them, being equivalent to a supreme EKAYANA. When this path is perfected, the adept achieves the full range of special qualities unique to the buddhas (AVEnIKA[BUDDHA]DHARMA), which result from mastery of the perfections (PARAMITA). This understanding of the term buddhayAna and its significance is explained in chapter two of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"). There, the Buddha compares three means of salvation to three carts promised to children in an effort to convince them to come out from a burning house. The three carts are said to correspond to the three vehicles (TRIYANA). The first is the sRAVAKAYANA, the vehicle for sRAVAKAs ("disciples"), in which teachings were learned from a buddha and which culminates in becoming a "worthy one" (ARHAT). Next is the PRATYEKABUDDHAYANA, the vehicle of the PRATYEKABUDDHA or "solitary buddha," those who strive for enlightenment but do not rely on a buddha in their last life. The third is the bodhisattvayAna, the path followed by the BODHISATTVA to buddhahood. In the parable in the "Lotus Sutra," the Buddha uses the prospect of these three vehicles to entice the children to leave the burning house; once they are safely outside, they find not three carts waiting for them but instead a single magnificent cart. The Buddha then declares the three vehicles to be a form of skillful means (UPAYAKAUsALYA), for there is in fact only one vehicle (ekayAna), also referred to as the buddha vehicle (buddhayAna). Later exegetes, especially in East Asia, engaged in extensive scholastic investigation of the relationships between the terms bodhisattvayAna, buddhayAna, and ekayAna.


TERMS ANYWHERE

  “A Buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in this manvantara; they have reached Nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lower centers of consciousness of a Buddha are in Nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enables a Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind’s supreme Guide and Instructor, living usually as a Nirmanakaya” (OG 33-4).

AbhAsvarAloka. (P. Abhassaraloka; T. 'od gsal ba; C. jiguangjing tian/guangyintian; J. gokukojoten/koonten; K. kŭkkwangjong ch'on/kwangŭmch'on 極光淨天/光音天). In Sanskrit, the "heaven of radiant light" (in Chinese, the name is also parsed as the "heaven of radiant sound"), the highest of the three heavens associated with the second concentration (DHYANA) of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU). As the BRAHMA divinities dwelling in this realm perpetually experience this profound state of meditation, they are described as subsisting on bliss (PRĪTI) and abiding in ease (SUKHA). Their bodies radiate light in all directions like lightning or like flames from a torch. While the bodies of the divinities of this realm are uniform, their perceptions are diverse, and there is no assurance that they will not be reborn in a lower realm of existence after their death. At the beginning of a world cycle, when the physical world (BHAJANALOKA) of the sensuous realm (KAMADHATU) has not yet been formed, and at the end of a world cycle when that physical world has been destroyed, many beings are reborn into the AbhAsvarAloka. A BODHISATTVA is never reborn in the immaterial realm (ARuPYADHATU) even if he has achieved meditative states consistent with that realm, but he may be reborn in the AbhAsvarAloka. The Buddha once disabused a BrahmA god dwelling in that realm of the mistaken view that he was eternal. This god, whose name was Baka, had been the first living being born in the AbhAsvarAloka after a period of world dissolution, and presumed that no one had existed before him. When the divinities (DEVA) of the AbhAsvarAloka are first reborn in the realm of human beings (MANUsYA), they may retain their divine attributes for a time, being spontaneously generated rather than born viviparously, and possessing bodies made from subtle materiality rather than gross matter. However, as time passes and they take on the physical and mental characteristics of ordinary human beings, they lose their luminosity, develop sexual characteristics, and come to subsist on solid foods.

abhayamudrA. (T. mi 'jigs pa'i phyag rgya; C. shiwuwei yin; J. semuiin; K. simuoe in 施無畏印). In Sanskrit, "the gesture of fearlessness" or "gesture of protection"; also sometimes called the gesture of granting refuge. This gesture (MUDRA) is typically formed with the palm of the right hand facing outward at shoulder height and the fingers pointing up, although both hands may simultaneously be raised in this posture in a double abhayamudrA. Occasionally, the index, second, or third finger touches the thumb, with the remaining fingers extended upward. This gesture is associated with sAKYAMUNI Buddha immediately following his enlightenment, and standing buddha images will often be depicted with this mudrA, portraying a sense of the security, serenity, and compassion that derive from enlightenment. This gesture is also commonly associated with AMOGHASIDDHI.

Abhaya (Sanskrit) Abhaya [from a not + bhaya fear from the verbal root bhī to fear] Fearlessness, peace, mental serenity; a title of both Siva and Buddha; one of Dhritarashtra’s hundred sons; also reputedly a “son” of Dharma.

Abhidhamma (Sanskrit abhidharma) is defined by Buddhaghosha as “that higher law (dharma) which goes beyond (abhi) the popular or common law.”

Abhidhammatthasangaha. In PAli, "Summary of the Meaning of Abhidharma"; a synoptic manual of PAli ABHIDHARMA written by the Sri Lankan monk ANURUDDHA (d.u.), abbot of the Mulasoma VihAra in Polonnaruwa, sometime between the eighth and twelfth centuries CE, but most probably around the turn of the eleventh century. (Burmese tradition instead dates the text to the first century BCE.) The terse Abhidhammatthasangaha Has been used for centuries as an introductory primer for the study of abhidharma in the monasteries of Sri Lanka and the THERAVADA countries of Southeast Asia; indeed, no other abhidharma text has received more scholarly attention within the tradition, especially in Burma, where this primer has been the object of multiple commentaries and vernacular translations. The Abhidhammatthasangaha includes nine major sections, which provide a systematic overview of PAli Buddhist doctrine. Anuruddha summarizes the exegeses appearing in BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA, though the two works could hardly be more different: where the Visuddhimagga offers an exhaustive exegesis of THERAVADA abhidharma accompanied by a plethora of historical and mythical detail, the Abhidhammatthasangaha is little more than a list of topics, like a bare table of contents. Especially noteworthy in the Abhidhammatthasangaha is its analysis of fifty-two mental concomitants (CETASIKA), in distinction to the forty-six listed in SARVASTIVADA ABHIDHARMA and the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA. There is one major PAli commentary to the Abhidhammatthasangaha still extant, the PorAnatīkA, which is attributed to Vimalabuddhi (d.u.). The Abhidhammatthasangaha appears in the Pali Text Society's English translation series as Compendium of Philosophy.

AbhidhammAvatAra. In PAli, "Introduction to Abhidhamma"; a primer of PAli ABHIDHAMMA attributed to BUDDHADATTA (c. fifth century CE), who is said to have been contemporaneous with the premier PAli scholiast BUDDHAGHOSA; some legends go so far as to suggest that the two ABHIDHAMMIKAS might even have met. The book was written in south India and is the oldest of the noncanonical PAli works on abhidhamma. It offers a systematic scholastic outline of abhidhamma, divided into twenty-four chapters called niddesas (S. nirdesa; "expositions"), and displays many affinities with Buddhaghosa's VISUDDHIMAGGA. These chapters include coverage of the mind (CITTA) and mental concomitants (CETASIKA), the various types of concentration (SAMADHI), the types of knowledge (JNANA) associated with enlightenment, and the process of purification (visuddhi, S. VIsUDDHI). The work is written in a mixture of prose and verse.

abhidhammika. [alt. Abhidhammika]. In PAli, "specialist in the ABHIDHAMMA"; scholarly monks who specialized in study of the abhidhamma (S. ABHIDHARMA) section of the Buddhist canon. In the PAli tradition, particular importance has long been attached to the study of abhidharma. The AttHASALINĪ says that the first ABHIDHAMMIKA was the Buddha himself, and the abhidhammikas were presumed to be the most competent exponents of the teachings of the religion. Among the Buddha's immediate disciples, the premier abhidhammika was SAriputta (S. sARIPUTRA), who was renowned for his systematic grasp of the dharma. Monastic "families" of abhidhamma specialists were known as abhidhammikagana, and they passed down through the generations their own scholastic interpretations of Buddhist doctrine, interpretations that sometimes differed from those offered by specialists in the scriptures (P. sutta; S. SuTRA) or disciplinary rules (VINAYA) . In medieval Sri Lanka, the highest awards within the Buddhist order were granted to monks who specialized in this branch of study, rather than to experts in the scriptures or disciplinary rules. Special festivals were held in honor of the abhidhamma, which involved the recital of important texts and the granting of awards to participants. In contemporary Myanmar (Burma), where the study of abhidhamma continues to be highly esteemed, the seventh book of the PAli ABHIDHARMAPItAKA, the PAttHANA ("Conditions"), is regularly recited in festivals that the Burmese call pathan pwe. Pathan pwe are marathon recitations that go on for days, conducted by invited abhidhammikas who are particularly well versed in the PatthAna, the text that is the focus of the festival. The pathan pwe serves a function similar to that of PARITTA recitations, in that it is believed to ward off baleful influences, but its main designated purpose is to forestall the decline and disappearance of the Buddha's dispensation (P. sAsana; S. sASANA). The TheravAda tradition considers the PatthAna to be the Buddha's most profound exposition of ultimate truth (P. paramatthasacca; S. PARAMARTHASATYA), and according to the PAli commentaries, the PatthAna is the first constituent of the Buddha's dispensation that will disappear from the world as the religion faces its inevitable decline. The abhidhammikas' marathon recitations of the PatthAna, therefore, help to ward off the eventual demise of the Buddhist religion. This practice speaks of a THERAVADA orientation in favor of scholarship that goes back well over a thousand years. Since at least the time of BUDDHAGHOSA (c. fifth century CE), the life of scholarship (P. PARIYATTI), rather than that of meditation or contemplation (P. PAtIPATTI), has been the preferred vocational path within PAli Buddhist monasticism. Monks who devoted themselves exclusively to meditation were often portrayed as persons who lacked the capacity to master the intricacies of PAli scholarship. Even so, meditation was always recommended as the principal means by which one could bring scriptural knowledge to maturity, either through awakening or the realization (P. pativedha; S. PRATIVEDHA) of Buddhist truths. See also ABHIDHARMIKA.

AbhidhAnappadīpikA. A PAli dictionary of synonyms attributed to the twelfth-century Sinhalese scholar-monk MoggallAna, which, in style and method, is similar to the Sanskrit lexicon the Amarakosa. The text is arranged into three sections, dealing with celestial, terrestrial, and miscellaneous topics. The three sections are further subdivided into various chapters, each composed of groups of synonyms arranged in verse for ease of memorization. For example, the first section of the thesaurus includes 179 different entries, each of which offers multiple entries: e.g., thirty-two different epithets for the Buddha and forty-six synonyms for nibbAna (S. NIRVAnA). The second section has six different chapters, which include twenty-four synonyms for a house, ten for man, fifteen for woman, etc. The third section has four chapters on miscellaneous topics. A Sinhalese paraphrase and commentary on this dictionary were produced in Sri Lanka by Caturangabala (d.u.), while a Burmese commentary was composed by NAnAvAsa (d.u.) in the fourteenth century during the reign of King Kittisīhasura (c. 1351); a Burmese vernacular translation was subsequently made during the eighteenth century.

AbhidharmakosabhAsya. (T. Chos mngon pa'i mdzod kyi bshad pa; C. Apidamo jushe lun; J. Abidatsuma kusharon; K. Abidalma kusa non 阿毘達磨倶舎論). In Sanskrit, "A Treasury of ABHIDHARMA, with Commentary"; an influential scholastic treatise attributed to VASUBANDHU (c. fourth or fifth century CE). The AbhidharmakosabhAsya consists of two texts: the root text of the Abhidharmakosa, composed in verse (kArikA), and its prose autocommentary (bhAsya); this dual verse-prose structure comes to be emblematic of later SARVASTIVADA abhidharma literature. As the title suggests, the work is mainly concerned with abhidharma theory as it was explicated in the ABHIDHARMAMAHAVIBHAsA, the principal scholastic treatise of the VAIBHAsIKAABHIDHARMIKAs in the SarvAstivAda school. In comparison to the MahAvibhAsA, however, the AbhidharmakosabhAsya presents a more systematic overview of SarvAstivAda positions. At various points in his expositions, Vasubandhu criticizes the SarvAstivAda doctrine from the standpoint of the more progressive SAUTRANTIKA offshoot of the SarvAstivAda school, which elicited a spirited response from later SarvAstivAda-VaibhAsika scholars, such as SAMGHABHADRA in his *NYAYANUSARA. The AbhidharmakosabhAsya has thus served as an invaluable tool in the study of the history of the later MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS. The Sanskrit texts of both the kArikA and the bhAsya were lost for centuries before being rediscovered in Tibet in 1934 and 1936, respectively. Two Chinese translations, by XUANZANG and PARAMARTHA, and one Tibetan translation of the work are extant. The Kosa is primarily concerned with a detailed elucidation of the polysemous term DHARMA, the causes (HETU) and conditions (PRATYAYA) that lead to continued rebirth in SAMSARA, and the soteriological stages of the path (MARGA) leading to enlightenment. The treatise is divided into eight major chapters, called kosasthAnas. (1) DhAtunirdesa, "Exposition on the Elements," divides dharmas into various categories, such as tainted (SASRAVA) and untainted (ANASRAVA), or compounded (SAMSKṚTA) and uncompounded (ASAMSKṚTA), and discusses the standard Buddhist classifications of the five aggregates (SKANDHA), twelve sense fields (AYATANA), and eighteen elements (DHATU). This chapter also includes extensive discussion of the theory of the four great elements (MAHABHuTA) that constitute materiality (RuPA) and the Buddhist theory of atoms or particles (PARAMAnU). (2) Indriyanirdesa, "Exposition on the Faculties," discusses a fivefold classification of dharmas into materiality (rupa), thought (CITTA), mental concomitants (CAITTA), forces dissociated from thought (CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKARA), and the uncompounded (ASAMSKṚTA). This chapter also has extensive discussions of the six causes (HETU), the four conditions (PRATYAYA), and the five effects or fruitions (PHALA). (3) Lokanirdesa, "Exposition on the Cosmos," describes the formation and structure of a world system (LOKA), the different types of sentient beings, the various levels of existence, and the principle of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA) that governs the process of rebirth, which is discussed here in connection with the three time periods (TRIKALA) of past, present, and future. (4) Karmanirdesa, "Exposition on Action," discusses the different types of action (KARMAN), including the peculiar type of action associated with unmanifest materiality (AVIJNAPTIRuPA). The ten wholesome and unwholesome "paths of action" (KUsALA-KARMAPATHA and AKUsALA-KARMAPATHA) also receive a lengthy description. (5) Anusayanirdesa, "Exposition on the Proclivities," treats the ninety-eight types of ANUsAYA in relation to their sources and qualities and the relationship between the anusayas and other categories of unwholesome qualities, such as afflictions (KLEsA), contaminants (ASRAVA), floods (OGHA), and yokes (yoga). (6) MArgapudgalanirdesa, "Exposition on the Path and the [Noble] Persons," outlines how either insight into the four noble truths and carefully following a series of soteriological steps can remove defilements and transform the ordinary person into one of the noble persons (ARYAPUDGALA). (7) JNAnanirdesa, "Exposition on Knowledge," offers a detailed account of the ten types of knowledge and the distinctive attributes of noble persons and buddhas. (8) SamApattinirdesa, "Exposition on Attainment," discusses different categories of concentration (SAMADHI) and the attainments (SAMAPATTI) that result from their perfection. (9) Appended to this main body is a ninth section, an independent treatise titled the Pudgalanirdesa, "Exposition of the Notion of a Person." Here, Vasubandhu offers a detailed critique of the theory of the self, scrutinizing both the Buddhist PUDGALAVADA/VATSĪPUTRĪYA "heresy" of the inexpressible (avAcya) "person" (PUDGALA) being conventionally real and Brahmanical theories of a perduring soul (ATMAN). Numerous commentaries to the Kosa, such as those composed by VASUMITRA, YAsOMITRA, STHIRAMATI, and Purnavardhana, attest to its continuing influence in Indian Buddhist thought. The Kosa was also the object of vigorous study in the scholastic traditions of East Asia and Tibet, which produced many indigenous commentaries on the text and its doctrinal positions.

AbhidharmamahAvibhAsA. (T. Chos mngon pa bye brag bshad pa chen po; C. Apidamo dapiposha lun; J. Abidatsuma daibibasharon; K. Abidalma taebibasa non 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論). In Sanskrit, "Great Exegesis of ABHIDHARMA," also commonly known as MahAvibhAsA; a massive VAIBHAsIKA treatise on SARVASTIVADA abhidharma translated into Chinese by the scholar-pilgrim XUANZANG and his translation bureau between 656 and 659 at XIMINGSI in the Tang capital of Chang'an. Although no Sanskrit version of this text is extant, earlier Chinese translations by Buddhavarman and others survive, albeit only in (equally massive) fragments. The complete Sanskrit text of the recension that Xuanzang used was in 100,000 slokas; his translation was in 200 rolls, making it one of the largest single works in the Buddhist canon. According to the account in Xuanzang's DA TANG XIYU JI, four hundred years after the Buddha's PARINIRVAnA, King KANIsKA gathered five hundred ARHATs to recite the Buddhist canon (TRIPItAKA). The ABHIDHARMAPItAKA of this canon, which is associated with the SarvAstivAda school, is said to have been redacted during this council (see COUNCIL, FOURTH). The central abhidharma treatise of the SarvAstivAda school is KATYAYANĪPUTRA's JNANAPRASTHANA, and the AbhidharmamahAvibhAsA purports to offer a comprehensive overview of varying views on the meaning of that seminal text by the five hundred arhats who were in attendance at the convocation. The comments of four major ABHIDHARMIKAs (Ghosa, DHARMATRATA, VASUMITRA, and Buddhadeva) are interwoven into the MahAvibhAsA's contextual analysis of KAtyAyanīputra's material from the JNAnaprasthAna, making the text a veritable encyclopedia of contemporary Buddhist scholasticism. Since the MahAvibhAsA also purports to be a commentary on the central text of the SarvAstivAda school, it therefore offers a comprehensive picture of the development of SarvAstivAda thought after the compilation of the JNAnaprasthAna. The MahAvibhAsA is divided into eight sections (grantha) and several chapters (varga), which systematically follow the eight sections and forty-three chapters of the JNAnaprasthAna in presenting its explication. Coverage of each topic begins with an overview of varying interpretations found in different Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools, detailed coverage of the positions of the four major SarvAstivAda Abhidharmikas, and finally the definitive judgment of the compilers, the KAsmīri followers of KAtyAyanĪputra, who call themselves the VibhAsAsAstrins. The MahAvibhAsA was the major influence on the systematic scholastic elaboration of SarvAstivAda doctrine that appears (though with occasional intrusions from the positions of the SarvAstivAda's more-progressive SAUTRANTIKA offshoot) in VASUBANDHU's influential ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, which itself elicited a spirited response from later SarvAstivAda-VaibhAsika scholars, such as SAMGHABHADRA in his *NYAYANUSARA. The MahAvibhAsa was not translated into Tibetan until the twentieth century, when a translation entitled Bye brag bshad mdzod chen mo was made at the Sino-Tibetan Institute by the Chinese monk FAZUN between 1946 and 1949. He presented a copy of the manuscript to the young fourteenth DALAI LAMA on the Dalai Lama's visit to Beijing in 1954, but it is not known whether it is still extant.

abhidharma. (P. abhidhamma; T. chos mngon pa; C. apidamo/duifa; J. abidatsuma/taiho; K. abidalma/taebop 阿毘達磨/對法). In Sanskrit, abhidharma is a prepositional compound composed of abhi- + dharma. The compound is typically glossed with abhi being interpreted as equivalent to uttama and meaning "highest" or "advanced" DHARMA (viz., doctrines or teachings), or abhi meaning "pertaining to" the dharma. The SARVASTIVADA Sanskrit tradition typically follows the latter etymology, while the THERAVADA PAli tradition prefers the former, as in BUDDHAGHOSA's gloss of the term meaning either "special dharma" or "supplementary dharma." These definitions suggest that abhidharma was conceived as a precise (P. nippariyAya), definitive (PARAMARTHA) assessment of the dharma that was presented in its discursive (P. sappariyAya), conventional (SAMVṚTI) form in the SuTRAS. Where the sutras offered more subjective presentations of the dharma, drawing on worldly parlance, simile, metaphor, and personal anecdote in order to appeal to their specific audiences, the abhidharma provided an objective, impersonal, and highly technical description of the specific characteristics of reality and the causal processes governing production and cessation. There are two divergent theories for the emergence of the abhidharma as a separate genre of Buddhist literature. In one theory, accepted by most Western scholars, the abhidharma is thought to have evolved out of the "matrices" (S. MATṚKA; P. mAtikA), or numerical lists of dharmas, that were used as mnemonic devices for organizing the teachings of the Buddha systematically. Such treatments of dharma are found even in the sutra literature and are probably an inevitable by-product of the oral quality of early Buddhist textual transmission. A second theory, favored by Japanese scholars, is that abhidharma evolved from catechistic discussions (abhidharmakathA) in which a dialogic format was used to clarify problematic issues in doctrine. The dialogic style also appears prominently in the sutras where, for example, the Buddha might give a brief statement of doctrine (uddesa; P. uddesa) whose meaning had to be drawn out through exegesis (NIRDEsA; P. niddesa); indeed, MAHAKATYAYANA, one of the ten major disciples of the Buddha, was noted for his skill in such explications. This same style was prominent enough in the sutras even to be listed as one of the nine or twelve genres of Buddhist literature (specifically, VYAKARAnA; P. veyyAkarana). According to tradition, the Buddha first taught the abhidharma to his mother MAHAMAYA, who had died shortly after his birth and been reborn as a god in TUsITA heaven. He met her in the heaven of the thirty-three (TRAYASTRIMsA), where he expounded the abhidharma to her and the other divinities there, repeating those teachings to sARIPUTRA when he descended each day to go on his alms-round. sAriputra was renowned as a master of the abhidharma. Abhidharma primarily sets forth the training in higher wisdom (ADHIPRAJNAsIKsA) and involves both analytical and synthetic modes of doctrinal exegesis. The body of scholastic literature that developed from this exegetical style was compiled into the ABHIDHARMAPItAKA, one of the three principal sections of the Buddhist canon, or TRIPItAKA, along with sutra and VINAYA, and is concerned primarily with scholastic discussions on epistemology, cosmology, psychology, KARMAN, rebirth, and the constituents of the process of enlightenment and the path (MARGA) to salvation. (In the MAHAYANA tradition, this abhidharmapitaka is sometimes redefined as a broader "treatise basket," or *sASTRAPItAKA.)

abhidharmapitaka. (P. abhidhammapitaka; T. chos mngon pa'i sde snod; C. lunzang; J. ronzo; K. nonjang 論藏). The third of the three "baskets" (PItAKA) of the Buddhist canon (TRIPItAKA). The abhidharmapitaka derives from attempts in the early Buddhist community to elucidate the definitive significance of the teachings of the Buddha, as compiled in the SuTRAs. Since the Buddha was well known to have adapted his message to fit the predilections and needs of his audience (cf. UPAYAKAUsALYA), there inevitably appeared inconsistencies in his teachings that needed to be resolved. The attempts to ferret out the definitive meaning of the BUDDHADHARMA through scholastic interpretation and exegesis eventually led to a new body of texts that ultimately were granted canonical status in their own right. These are the texts of the abhidharmapitaka. The earliest of these texts, such as the PAli VIBHAnGA and PUGGALAPANNATTI and the SARVASTIVADA SAMGĪTIPARYAYA and DHARMASKANDHA, are structured as commentaries to specific sutras or portions of sutras. These materials typically organized the teachings around elaborate doctrinal taxonomies, which were used as mnemonic devices or catechisms. Later texts move beyond individual sutras to systematize a wide range of doctrinal material, offering ever more complex analytical categorizations and discursive elaborations of the DHARMA. Ultimately, abhidharma texts emerge as a new genre of Buddhist literature in their own right, employing sophisticated philosophical speculation and sometimes even involving polemical attacks on the positions of rival factions within the SAMGHA. ¶ At least seven schools of Indian Buddhism transmitted their own recensions of abhidharma texts, but only two of these canons are extant in their entirety. The PAli abhidhammapitaka of the THERAVADA school, the only recension that survives in an Indian language, includes seven texts (the order of which often differs): (1) DHAMMASAnGAnI ("Enumeration of Dharmas") examines factors of mentality and materiality (NAMARuPA), arranged according to ethical quality; (2) VIBHAnGA ("Analysis") analyzes the aggregates (SKANDHA), conditioned origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA), and meditative development, each treatment culminating in a catechistic series of inquiries; (3) DHATUKATHA ("Discourse on Elements") categorizes all dharmas in terms of the skandhas and sense-fields (AYATANA); (4) PUGGALAPANNATTI ("Description of Human Types") analyzes different character types in terms of the three afflictions of greed (LOBHA), hatred (DVEsA), and delusion (MOHA) and various related subcategories; (5) KATHAVATTHU ("Points of Controversy") scrutinizes the views of rival schools of mainstream Buddhism and how they differ from the TheravAda; (6) YAMAKA ("Pairs") provides specific denotations of problematic terms through paired comparisons; (7) PAttHANA ("Conditions") treats extensively the full implications of conditioned origination. ¶ The abhidharmapitaka of the SARVASTIVADA school is extant only in Chinese translation, the definitive versions of which were prepared by XUANZANG's translation team in the seventh century. It also includes seven texts: (1) SAMGĪTIPARYAYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Discourse on Pronouncements") attributed to either MAHAKAUstHILA or sARIPUTRA, a commentary on the SaMgītisutra (see SAnGĪTISUTTA), where sAriputra sets out a series of dharma lists (MATṚKA), ordered from ones to elevens, to organize the Buddha's teachings systematically; (2) DHARMASKANDHA[PADAsASTRA] ("Aggregation of Dharmas"), attributed to sAriputra or MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA, discusses Buddhist soteriological practices, as well as the afflictions that hinder spiritual progress, drawn primarily from the AGAMAs; (3) PRAJNAPTIBHAsYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Treatise on Designations"), attributed to MaudgalyAyana, treats Buddhist cosmology (lokaprajNapti), causes (kArana), and action (KARMAN); (4) DHATUKAYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Collection on the Elements"), attributed to either PuRnA or VASUMITRA, discusses the mental concomitants (the meaning of DHATU in this treatise) and sets out specific sets of mental factors that are present in all moments of consciousness (viz., the ten MAHABHuMIKA) or all defiled states of mind (viz., the ten KLEsAMAHABHuMIKA); (5) VIJNANAKAYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Collection on Consciousness"), attributed to Devasarman, seeks to prove the veracity of the eponymous SarvAstivAda position that dharmas exist in all three time periods (TRIKALA) of past, present, and future, and the falsity of notions of the person (PUDGALA); it also provides the first listing of the four types of conditions (PRATYAYA); (6) PRAKARAnA[PADAsASTRA] ("Exposition"), attributed to VASUMITRA, first introduces the categorization of dharmas according to the more developed SarvAstivAda rubric of RuPA, CITTA, CAITTA, CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKARA, and ASAMSKṚTA dharmas; it also adds a new listing of KUsALAMAHABHuMIKA, or factors always associated with wholesome states of mind; (7) JNANAPRASTHANA ("Foundations of Knowledge"), attributed to KATYAYANĪPUTRA, an exhaustive survey of SarvAstivAda dharma theory and the school's exposition of psychological states, which forms the basis of the massive encyclopedia of SarvAstivAda-VaibhAsika abhidharma, the ABHIDHARMAMAHAVIBHAsA. In the traditional organization of the seven canonical books of the SarvAstivAda abhidharmapitaka, the JNANAPRASTHANA is treated as the "body" (sARĪRA), or central treatise of the canon, with its six "feet" (pAda), or ancillary treatises (pAdasAstra), listed in the following order: (1) PrakaranapAda, (2) VijNAnakAya, (3) Dharmaskandha, (4) PrajNaptibhAsya, (5) DhAtukAya, and (6) SaMgītiparyAya. Abhidharma exegetes later turned their attention to these canonical abhidharma materials and subjected them to the kind of rigorous scholarly analysis previously directed to the sutras. These led to the writing of innovative syntheses and synopses of abhidharma doctrine, in such texts as BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA and ANURUDDHA's ABHIDHAMMATTHASAnGAHA, VASUBANDHU's ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, and SAMGHABHADRA's *NYAYANUSARA. In East Asia, this third "basket" was eventually expanded to include the burgeoning scholastic literature of the MAHAYANA, transforming it from a strictly abhidharmapitaka into a broader "treatise basket" or *sASTRAPItAKA (C. lunzang).

Abhidina (Sanskrit) Abhiḍīna [from abhi towards + ḍīna flight from the verbal root ḍī to fly] One of the siddhis (occult powers) of a buddha; similar to khechara (skywalker, one who has the power of projecting his mayavi-rupa whither he will in the lower ranges of the cosmos), but on a more sublime scale. It is the power to transcend the limitations of the lower quaternary of the cosmos and to “fly” or ascend self-consciously into the spiritual planes of the universe and function there in full self-possession, with complete control of circumstances and time. One of the most mystical and least known teachings of esoteric Buddhism, it is closely connected with samma-sambodhi and nirvana.

Abhijna (Sanskrit) Abhijñā [from abhi towards + the verbal root jñā to know, have special knowledge of, mastery over; Pali abhiñña] Inner perception; in Buddhism the five or six transcendental powers, faculties, or superknowledges attained on reaching buddhahood. Gautama Buddha is said to have acquired the six abhijnas the night he attained enlightenment. Generally enumerated as: 1) divyachakshus (divine eye) instantaneous perception of whatever one wills to see; 2) divyasrotra (divine ear) instantaneous comprehension of all sounds on every plane; 3) riddhisakshatkriya, power of becoming visibly manifest at will, intuitive perception; 4) purvanivasajnana (power to know former existences) also called purvanivasanu-smritijnana (recollection of former existences); and 5) parachittajnana (knowledge of others’ thoughts) understanding of their minds and hearts.

abhimukhī. (T. mngon du 'gyur ba/mngon du phyogs pa; C. xianqian [di]; J. genzen[chi]; K. hyonjon [chi] 現前[地]). In Sanskrit, "manifest" or "evident"; used with reference to a twofold classification of phenomena as manifest (abhimukhī)-viz., those things that are evident to sense perception-and hidden (S. PAROKsA, T. lkog gyur)-viz., those things whose existence must be inferred through reasoning. ¶ Abhimukhī, as "immediacy" or "face-to-face," is the sixth of the ten stages (BHuMI) of the BODHISATTVA path described in the DAsABHuMIKASuTRA. The MAHAYANASuTRALAMKARA interprets this bhumi as "directly facing," or "face-to-face," implying that the bodhisattva at this stage of the path stands at the intersection between SAMSARA and NIRVAnA. The bodhisattva here realizes the equality of all phenomena (dharmasamatA), e.g., that all dharmas are signless and free of characteristics, unproduced and unoriginated, and free from the duality of existence and nonexistence. Turning away from the compounded dharmas of saMsAra, the bodhisattva turns to face the profound wisdom of the buddhas and is thus "face-to-face" with both the compounded (SAMSKṚTA) and uncompounded (ASAMSKṚTA) realms. This bhumi is typically correlated with mastery of the sixth perfection (PARAMITA), the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA).

Abhiniskramanasutra. (T. Mngon par 'byung ba'i mdo; C.Fo benxing ji jing; J. Butsuhongyojukkyo; K. Pul ponhaeng chip kyong 佛本行集經). In Sanskrit, "Sutra of the Great Renunciation"; this scripture relates the story of Prince SIDDHARTHA's "going forth" (abhiniskramana; P. abhinikkhamana) from his father's palace to pursue the life of a mendicant wanderer (sRAMAnA) in search of enlightenment. There are no extant Sanskrit versions of the SuTRA, but the work survives in Tibetan and in several distinct recensions available in Chinese translation, one dating to as early as the first century CE. The best-known Chinese translation is the Fo benxing ji jing, made by JNANAGUPTA around 587 CE, during the Sui dynasty. The text claims to be a DHARMAGUPTAKA recension of the JATAKA, or past lives of the Buddha. (Franklin Edgerton has suggested that this text may instead be a translation of the MAHAVASTU, "The Great Account," of the LOKOTTARAVADA offshoot of the MAHASAMGHIKA school.) JNAnagupta's recension has sixty chapters, in five major parts. The first part is an introduction to the work as a whole, which relates how rare it is for a buddha to appear in the world and why people should take advantage of this opportunity. Reference is made to the various meritorious roots (KUsALAMuLA) that sAKYAMUNI acquired throughout his many lifetimes of training, in order to prepare for this final life when he would finally attain enlightenment. The second part enumerates the entire lineage of the buddhas of antiquity, a lineage that sAkyamuni would soon join, and the third part follows with a genealogy of the sAKYA clan. The fourth part describes the decisive stages in sAkyamuni's life, from birth, through his awakening, to the first "turning of the wheel of the DHARMA" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA). The last part gives extended biographies (going even into their past lives) of his prominent disciples, of which the stories involving his longtime attendant, ANANDA, are particularly extensive. In 1876, SAMUEL BEAL translated this Chinese recension of the sutra into English as The Romantic Legend of sAkya Buddha.

abhiprAya. (T. dgongs pa; C. yiqu; J. ishu; K. ŭich'wi 意趣). In Sanskrit, "hidden intention" or "purpose"; a term used in hermeneutics to refer to the concealed intent the Buddha had in mind when he made a statement that was not literally true (see also ABHISAMDHI). In the MAHAYANASuTRALAMKARA, there are four abhiprAyas. (1) The Buddha may say that two things are the same when in fact they are similar in only one, albeit important, feature. Thus, sAKYAMUNI Buddha says that he is the past buddha VIPAsYIN, thinking of the fact that there is not the slightest difference in their DHARMAKAYAs. This is called the intention of sameness (samatAbhiprAya). (2) The Buddha may say one thing while intending something else (arthAntarAbhiprAya). This category is often invoked in YOGACARA exegesis to explain why the Buddha proclaimed the nonexistence of all phenomena in the PRAJNAPARAMITA sutras when he in fact did not intend this statement to be taken literally, thinking instead of the three natures (TRILAKsAnA) of all phenomena propounded by the YogAcAra. (3) The buddha may make a statement intending another time (kAlAntarAbhiprAya) than that suggested by his words. For example, he may assure lazy persons who are incapable of any virtuous practice whatsoever that they will be reborn in SUKHAVATĪ, the paradise of AMITABHA, if they will simply call on that buddha. He does this in order to encourage them to accumulate a modest amount of merit, although he knows that they will not be reborn there immediately or even in their next lifetime, but at some other time in the future. (4) The Buddha adjusts his teaching to the capacities of his students based on their dispositions (pudgalAntarAbhiprAya). For example, the Buddha will extol the benefits of the practice of charity (DANA) to a person who is disposed toward the accumulation of merit (PUnYA) but will underplay the importance of charity to a person who becomes complacently attached to that practice. See ABHISAMDHI; SANDHYABHAsA.

abhirati. (T. mngon dga'; C. miaoxi/abiluoti; J. myoki/abiradai; K. myohŭi/abiraje 妙喜/阿比羅提). In Sanskrit, "delight," "repose," or "wondrous joy"; the world system (LOKADHATU) and buddha-field (BUDDHAKsETRA) of the buddha AKsOBHYA, which is said to be located in the east. Abhirati is one of the earliest of the buddha-fields to appear in Buddhist literature and is depicted as an idealized form of our ordinary SAHA world. As its name implies, abhirati is a land of delight, the antithesis of the suffering that plagues our world, and its pleasures are the by-products of Aksobhya's immense merit and compassion. In his land, Aksobhya sits on a platform sheltered by a huge BODHI TREE, which is surrounded by row after row of palm trees and jasmine bushes. The soil is golden in color and as soft as cotton. Although abhirati, like our world, has a sun and moon, both pale next to the radiance of Aksobhya himself. In abhirati, there are gender distinctions, as in our world, but no physical sexuality. A man who entertains sexual thoughts toward a woman would instantly see this desire transformed into a DHYANA that derives from the meditation on impurity (AsUBHABHAVANA), while a woman can become pregnant by a man's glance (even though women do not experience menstruation). Food and drink appear spontaneously whenever a person is hungry or thirsty. Abhirati is designed to provide the optimal environment for Buddhist practice, and rebirth there is a direct result of an adept having planted meritorious roots (KUsALAMuLA), engaging in salutary actions, and then dedicating any merit deriving from those actions to his future rebirth in that land. Aksobhya will eventually attain PARINIRVAnA in abhirati through a final act of self-immolation (see SHESHEN). Abhirati is described in the AKsOBHYATATHAGATASYAVYuHA, an important precursor to the more famous SUKHAVATĪVYuHA that describes SUKHAVATĪ, the buddha-field of AMITABHA.

AbhirupA NandA. In PAli, "NandA the Lovely"; one of three prominent nuns named NandA mentioned in the PAli canon (the others being JANAPADAKALYAnĪ NANDA and SUNDARĪ NANDA), all of whom share similar stories. According to PAli sources, AbhirupA NandA was said to be the daughter of the SAkiyan (S. sAKYA) chieftain Khemaka and lived in Kapilavatthu (S. KAPILAVASTU). She was renowned for her extraordinary beauty, for which she was given the epithet AbhirupA (Lovely). So popular was she that her parents became vexed by the many suitors who sought her hand in marriage. As was the SAkiyan custom, NandA was entitled to choose her future husband, but on the day she was to wed, her fiancé died and her parents forced her into the monastic order against her will. Exceedingly proud of her beauty and having no real religious vocation, she avoided visiting the Buddha lest he rebuke her for her vanity. Learning of her reluctance, the Buddha instructed MahApajApatī (S. MAHAPRAJAPATĪ), his stepmother and head of the nuns' order, to arrange for every nun in her charge to come to him for instruction. NandA, in fear, sent a substitute in her place but the ruse was uncovered. When NandA was finally compelled to appear before the Buddha, he created an apparition of lovely women standing and fanning him. NandA was enthralled by the beauty of the conjured maidens, whom the Buddha then caused to age, grow decrepit, die, and rot, right before her eyes. The Buddha then preached to her about the fragility of physical beauty. Having been given a suitable subject of meditation (KAMMAttHANA), NandA eventually gained insight into the impermanence (ANITYA), suffering (DUḤKHA), and lack of self (ANATMAN) of all conditioned things and attained arahatship. The source for the stories related to AbhirupA NandA is the commentarial note to verses nineteen and twenty of the PAli THERĪGATHA, a text only known to the PAli tradition.

AbhisamayAlaMkAra. (T. Mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan). In Sanskrit, "Ornament of Realization"; a major scholastic treatise of the MAHAYANA, attributed to MAITREYANATHA (c. 350CE). Its full title is AbhisamayAlaMkAranAmaprajNApAramitopadesasAstra (T. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan) or "Treatise Setting Forth the Perfection of Wisdom called 'Ornament for Realization.'" In the Tibetan tradition, the AbhisamayAlaMkAra is counted among the five treatises of Maitreya (BYAMS CHOS SDE LNGA). The 273 verses of the AbhisamayAlaMkAra provide a schematic outline of the perfection of wisdom, or PRAJNAPARAMITA, approach to enlightenment, specifically as delineated in the PANCAVIMsATISAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA ("Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines"). This detailed delineation of the path is regarded as the "hidden teaching" of the prajNApAramitA sutras. Although hardly known in East Asian Buddhism (until the modern Chinese translation by FAZUN), the work was widely studied in Tibet, where it continues to hold a central place in the monastic curricula of all the major sects. It is especially important for the DGE LUGS sect, which takes it as the definitive description of the stages of realization achieved through the Buddhist path. The AbhisamayAlaMkAra treats the principal topics of the prajNApAramitA sutras by presenting them in terms of the stages of realizations achieved via the five paths (PANCAMARGA). The eight chapters of the text divide these realizations into eight types. The first three are types of knowledge that are essential to any type of practice and are generic to both the mainstream and MahAyAna schools. (1) The wisdom of knowing all modes (SARVAKARAJNATA), for the bodhisattva-adepts who are the putative target audience of the commentary, explains all the characteristics of the myriad dharmas, so that they will have comprehensive knowledge of what the attainment of enlightenment will bring. (2) The wisdom of knowing the paths (MARGAJNATA), viz., the paths perfected by the sRAVAKAs, is a prerequisite to achieving the wisdom of knowing all modes. (3) The wisdom of knowing all phenomena (SARVAJNATA) is, in turn, a prerequisite to achieving the wisdom of knowing the paths. With (4) the topic of the manifestly perfect realization of all aspects (sarvAkArAbhisambodha) starts the text's coverage of the path itself, here focused on gaining insight into all aspects, viz., characteristics of dharmas, paths, and types of beings. By reaching (5) the summit of realization (murdhAbhisamaya; see MuRDHAN), one arrives at the entrance to ultimate realization. All the realizations achieved up to this point are secured and commingled through (6) gradual realization (anupurvAbhisamaya). The perfection of this gradual realization and the consolidation of all previous realizations catalyze the (7) instantaneous realization (ekaksanAbhisamaya). The fruition of this instantaneous realization brings (8) realization of the dharma body, or DHARMAKAYA (dharmakAyAbhisambodha). The first three chapters thus describe the three wisdoms incumbent on the buddhas; the middle four chapters cover the four paths that take these wisdoms as their object; and the last chapter describes the resultant dharma body of the buddhas and their special attainments. The AbhisamayAlaMkAra provides a synopsis of the massive prajNApAramitA scriptures and a systematic outline of the comprehensive path of MahAyAna. The AbhisamayAlaMkAra spurred a long tradition of Indian commentaries and other exegetical works, twenty-one of which are preserved in the Tibetan canon. Notable among this literature are Arya VIMUKTISEnA's Vṛtti and the ABHISAMAYALAMKARALOKA and Vivṛti (called Don gsal in Tibetan) by HARIBHADRA. Later Tibetan commentaries include BU STON RIN CHEN GRUB's Lung gi snye ma and TSONG KHA PA's LEGS BSHAD GSER PHRENG.

AbhisamayAlaMkAravivṛti. (T. [Shes rab phar phyin man ngag gi bstan bcos] mngon rtogs rgyan gyi 'grel pa). In Sanskrit, "Commentary on the Ornament of Realization" by HARIBHADRA. The work in four bundles (T. bam po) is a digest (called 'grel chung, "short commentary") of his long detailed explanation of the AstASAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA ("Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines"), the AstASAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITAVYAKHYABHISAMAYALAMKARALOKA (called 'grel chen, "long commentary"). The AbhisamayAlaMkAravivṛti gained considerable importance in Tibet after RNGOG BLO LDAN SHES RAB supplemented his translation of it with a summary (bsdus don) of its contents, beginning a tradition of PRAJNAPARAMITA commentary that spread from GSANG PHU NE'U THOG monastery into all four Tibetan sects. This tradition, which continues down to the present, uses the ABHISAMAYALAMKARA and ABHISAMAYALAMKARAVIVṚTI as twin root texts to structure wide-ranging discussions of abhidharma, right philosophical view and proper praxis. There are two subcommentaries to the work, Dharmamitra's PRASPHUtAPADA and DHARMAKĪRTIsRĪ's DurbodhAloka. PRAJNAKARAMATI, RATNAKĪRTI, and BuddhajNAna wrote summaries of the work, all extant in Tibetan translation. See also SPHUtARTHA.

abhisaMdhi. (T. ldem por dgongs pa; C. miyi; J. mitchi/mitsui; K. mirŭi 密意). In Sanskrit, "implied intention," a term used in hermeneutics to classify the types of statements made by the Buddha. In the MAHAYANASuTRALAMKARA, there are four such abhisaMdhi listed. (1) The first is implied intention pertaining to entrance (avatAranAbhisaMdhi). The Buddha recognizes that if he were to teach HĪNAYANA disciples that, in addition to the nonexistence of the self (ANATMAN), DHARMAs also did not exist (DHARMANAIRATMYA), they would be so terrified that they would never enter the MAHAYANA. Therefore, in order to coax them toward the MahAyAna, he teaches them that a personal self does not exist while explaining that phenomena other than the person do exist. (2) The second is implied intention pertaining to the [three] natures (laksanAbhisaMdhi). When the Buddha said that all phenomena are without own-nature, he had in mind the imaginary nature (PARIKALPITA) of phenomena. When he said that they were neither produced nor destroyed, he had in mind their dependent nature (PARATANTRA). When he said that they were inherently free from suffering, he had in mind their consummate nature (PARINIsPANNA). (3) The third is implied intention pertaining to antidotes (pratipaksAbhisaMdhi). In the hīnayAna, the Buddha teaches specific antidotes (PRATIPAKsA) to various defilements. Thus, as an antidote to hatred, he teaches the cultivation of love; as an antidote to sensuality, he teaches meditation on the foul, such as a decomposing corpse; as an antidote to pride, he teaches meditation on dependent origination; and as an antidote to a wandering mind, he teaches meditation on the breath. He indicates that these faults can be completely destroyed with these antidotes, calling them a supreme vehicle (agrayAna). In fact, these faults are only completely destroyed with full insight into non-self. Thus, the Buddha intentionally overstated their potency. (4) The final type is implied intention pertaining to translation (parinAmanAbhisaMdhi). This category encompasses those statements that might be termed antiphrastic, i.e., appearing to say something quite contrary to the tenor of the doctrine, which cannot be construed as even provisionally true. A commonly cited example of such a statement is the declaration in the DHAMMAPADA (XXI.5-6) that one becomes pure through killing one's parents; the commentators explain that parents are to be understood here to mean negative mental states such as sensual desire. See also ABHIPRAYA; SANDHYABHAsA.

abhiseka. (P. abhiseka; T. dbang bskur; C. guanding; J. kanjo; K. kwanjong 灌頂). In Sanskrit, "anointment," "consecration," "empowerment," or "initiation"; a term originally used to refer to the anointment of an Indian king or the investiture of a crown prince, which by extension came to be applied to the anointment of a BODHISATTVA as a buddha. Just as a wheel-turning monarch (CAKRAVARTIN) invests the crown prince by sprinkling the crown of his head with fragrant water from all the four seas, so too do the buddhas anoint the crown of a bodhisattva when he makes his vow to achieve buddhahood. The Chinese translation, lit. "sprinkling the crown of the head," conveys this sense of anointment. In the MAHAVASTU, an early text associated with the LOKOTTARAVADA branch of the MAHASAMGHIKA school, the tenth and last stage (BHuMI) of the bodhisattva path is named abhiseka, rather than the more commonly known DHARMAMEGHABHuMI, indicating that the bodhisattva has then been initiated into the lineage of the buddhas. Abhiseka is used especially in tantric literature, such as the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA, to refer to an initiation ceremony that empowers disciples to "enter the MAndALA," where they are then allowed to learn the esoteric formulae (MANTRA) and gestures (MUDRA) and receive the instructions associated with a specific tantric deity. In ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, a series of four initiations or empowerments are described, the vase empowerment (KALAsABHIsEKA), the secret empowerment (GUHYABHIsEKA), the knowledge of the wisdom empowerment (PRAJNAJNANABHIsEKA), and the word empowerment (sabdAbhiseka), also known as the "fourth empowerment" (caturthAbhiseka). The vase empowerment is the only one of the four that is used in the three other tantras of KRIYATANTRA, CARYATANTRA, and YOGATANTRA. A special type of consecration ceremony, called a BUDDHABHIsEKA, is conducted at the time of the installation of a new buddha image, which vivifies the inert clay, metal, or wood of the image, invests the image with insight into the dharma (e.g., through reciting some version of the formula concerning causality, or PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA), and transforms the image into a living buddha.

AcalanAtha-VidyArAja. (T. Mi g.yo mgon po rig pa'i rgyal po; C. Budong mingwang; J. Fudo myoo; K. Pudong myongwang 不動明王). In Sanskrit, a wrathful DHARMAPALA of the VAJRAYANA pantheon and the chief of the eight VIDYARAJA. As described in the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA, he is the NIRMAnAKAYA of VAIROCANA, a protector of boundaries and vanquisher of obstacles. A late Indian deity, AcalanAtha-VidyArAja possibly originated from the YAKsA form of VAJRAPAnI, with whom he is associated in his form of AcalavajrapAni. Indian forms of the god from the eleventh century show him kneeling on his left leg, holding a sword (khadga). VajrayAna images show him standing with one or three faces and varied numbers of pairs of hands, identified by his raised sword, snare, and ACALASANA. The cult of AcalanAtha-VidyArAja entered China during the first millennium CE, and was brought to Japan by KuKAI in the ninth century, where the wrathful deity (known in Japanese as Fudo myoo) became important for the Shingon school (SHINGONSHu), even being listed by it as one of the thirteen buddhas. In East Asian iconography, AcalanAtha-VidyArAja holds the sword and a snare or lasso (pAsa), with which he binds evil spirits.

Achala (Sanskrit) Acala [from a not + the verbal root cal to be moved, agitated] Immovable, not moving. As a masculine noun, a mountain, rock; also the number seven. As a proper noun, a name of Siva. As a feminine noun, the earth; also one of the ten stages or degrees of a bodhisattva in his progress toward buddhahood. Used in the Bhagavad-Gita (2:24) to describe the self in contradistinction to the not-self: “He is eternal, all-pervading, unchanging and immovable (achala).” Also a heroic charioteer on the side of the Kurus slain by Arjuna.

acintya. (P. acinteyya; T. bsam gyis mi khyab pa; C. bukesiyi; J. fukashigi; K. pulgasaŭi 不可思議). In Sanskrit, "inconceivable"; a term used to describe the ultimate reality that is beyond all conceptualization. PAli and mainstream Buddhist materials refer to four specific types of "inconceivables" or "unfathomables" (P. acinteyya): the range or sphere of a buddha, e.g., the extent of his knowledge and power; the range of meditative absorption (DHYANA); the potential range of moral cause and effect (KARMAN and VIPAKA); and the range of the universe or world system (LOKA), i.e., issues of cosmogony, whether the universe is finite or infinite, eternal or transitory, etc. Such thoughts are not to be pursued, because they are not conducive to authentic religious progress or ultimately to NIRVAnA. See also AVYAKṚTA.

Acintyastava. (T. Bsam gyis mi khyab par bstod pa). In Sanskrit, "In Praise of the Inconceivable One"; an Indian philosophical work by the MADHYAMAKA master NAGARJUNA written in the form of a praise for the Buddha. In the Tibetan tradition, there are a large number of such praises (called STAVAKAYA) in contrast to the set of philosophical texts (called YUKTIKAYA) attributed to NAgArjuna. Among these praise works, the Acintyastava, LOKATĪTASTAVA, NIRAUPAMYASTAVA, and PARAMARTHASTAVA are extant in Sanskrit and are generally accepted to be his work; these four works together are known as the CATUḤSTAVA. It is less certain that he is the author of the DHARMADHATUSTAVA or DHARMADHATUSTOTRA ("Hymn to the Dharma Realm") of which only fragments are extant in the original Sanskrit. The Acintyastava contains fifty-nine stanzas, many of which are addressed to the Buddha. The first section provides a detailed discussion of why dependently originated phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature (NIḤSVABHAVA); this section has clear parallels to the MuLAMADHYAMAKAKARIKA. The forty-fifth verse makes reference to the term PARATANTRA, leading some scholars to believe that NAgArjuna was familiar with the LAnKAVATARASuTRA. The second section describes wisdom (JNANA); the third section sets forth the qualities of the true dharma (SADDHARMA); the fourth and final section extols the Buddha as the best of teachers (sASTṚ).

AdarsajNAna. [alt. mahAdarsajNAna] (T. me long lta bu'i ye shes; C. dayuanjing zhi; J. daienkyochi; K. taewon'gyong chi 大圓鏡智). In Sanskrit, "mirrorlike wisdom" or "great perfect mirror wisdom"; one of the five types of wisdom (PANCAJNANA) exclusive to a buddha according to the YOGACARA and tantric schools, along with the wisdom of equality (SAMATAJNANA), the wisdom of discriminating awareness (PRATYAVEKsAnAJNANA), the wisdom that one has accomplished what was to be done (KṚTYANUstHANAJNANA), and the wisdom of the nature of the DHARMADHATU (DHARMADHATUSVABHAVAJNANA). This specific type of wisdom is a transformation of the eighth consciousness, the ALAYAVIJNANA, in which the perfect interfusion between all things is seen as if reflected in a great mirror.

AdbhutadharmaparyAyasutra. (T. Rmad du byung ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs; C. Shen xiyou jing/Weicengyou jing; J. Jinkeukyo/Mizoukyo; K. Sim hŭiyu kyong/Mijŭngyu kyong 甚希有經/未曾有經). In Sanskrit, "Discourse on the Wondrous Teachings"; a MAHAYANA SuTRA best known for advocating that the merit deriving from worshipping the Buddha, such as sponsoring the production of a buddha image or a STuPA, surpasses that of all other activities. The sutra states, for example, that erecting even a tiny stupa containing the relics of a TATHAGATA is more meritorious than building a large monastery. This text is extant only in three Chinese translations: the "Scripture on the Miraculous" (Weicengyou jing); "Scripture on the Rarest of Things" (Shen xiyou jing), translated by XUANZANG (600/602-664); and the "Chapter on Relative Merits" (Xiaoliang gongde pin), the first chapter of the "Scripture on the Unexcelled Basis" (Fo shuo wushangyi jing, S. *AnuttarAsrayasutra), translated by PARAMARTHA (499-569).

Adepts in genuine archaic astrology know the peculiar qualities of the various stars and the influences they shed around them, and therefore likewise on earth and man; the tattered remnants of this knowledge have been handed down to modern astrologers. One branch concerns worship of the genii of the stars, the star-angels or -rishis especially — because of a certain occult mystery — the seven of the Great Bear. All entities, whether worlds or men, have each its own parent-star or mahadhyani-buddha; but this does not refer to the dominant star in merely natal astrology. There is an analogy and intimate connection between the celestial hierarchies of orbs and the hierarchies of human principles, for every star we see is one globe of a chain of six or eleven other star-globes, just as our earth is one globe of a planetary chain. Thus our sun is the visible representative of a solar or stellar chain, of which only the most physicalized, concreted globe is visible to us as our day-star. Every star or sun is the imbodiment of a conscious living being, pursuing its own pathways of destiny, and most intimately bound together not only with its own planetary family but with all the other stars and suns in the galaxy to which it belongs. This fact was the real basis of the wide diffusion of what is popularly called sun worship.

adhigamadharma. (T. rtogs pa'i chos; C. zhengfa; J. shoho; K. chŭngbop 證法). In Sanskrit, "realized dharma"; one of the two divisions of the dharma or teaching of the Buddha, together with the "scriptural dharma" (AGAMADHARMA). The adhigamadharma is the practice of the dharma, often identified in this context as the training in higher morality (ADHIsĪLAsIKsA), the training in higher meditation (ADHISAMADHIsIKsA), and the training in higher wisdom (ADHIPRAJNAsIKsA), which leads to direct realization (ADHIGAMA), rather than mere conceptual understanding. It is also identified with the truths of cessation and path within the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS. See also AGAMA; AGAMADHARMA.

adhimoksa. (P. adhimokkha; T. mos pa; C. shengjie; J. shoge; K. sŭnghae 勝解). In Sanskrit, "determination," "resolution," or "zeal"; a general term denoting an inclination toward a virtuous object, sometimes used to indicate a preliminary stage prior to the conviction that results from direct experience; also seen written as adhimukti. The adhimukticaryAbhumi incorporates the stages of the path of accumulation (SAMBHARAMARGA) and the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMARGA) prior to the path of vision (DARsANAMARGA). In a more technical sense, adhimoksa is a mental factor (CAITTA) that keeps consciousness intent on its object without straying to another object. It is listed among the ten major omnipresent mental concomitants (S. MAHABHuMIKA) that are present in all in the dharma taxonomy of the SARVASTIVADA school, among the five determinative mental concomitants (S. VINIYATA) in the YOGACARA dharma system, and one of the six secondary (P. pakinnaka) factors in the PAli ABHIDHAMMA. Adhimoksa is also used to describe the interests or dispositions of sentient beings, the knowledge of which contributes to a buddha's pedagogical skills.

adhisthAna. (P. adhitthAna; T. byin gyis brlabs pa; C. jiachi; J. kaji; K. kaji 加持). In Sanskrit, lit. "determination" or "decisive resolution" and commonly translated as "empowerment." Literally, the term has the connotation of "taking a stand," viz., the means by which the buddhas reveal enlightenment to the world, as well as the adept's reliance on the buddhas' empowerment through specific ritual practices. In the former sense, adhisthAna can refer to the magical power of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, in which contexts it is often translated as "blessing" or "empowerment." As the LAnKAVATARASuTRA notes, it is thanks to the buddhas' empowerment issuing from their own original vows (PRAnIDHANA) that BODHISATTVAS are able to undertake assiduous cultivation over three infinite eons (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) so that they may in turn become buddhas. The buddhas' empowerment sustains the bodhisattvas in their unremitting practice by both helping them to maintain tranquillity of mind throughout the infinity of time they are in training and, ultimately, once the bodhisattvas achieve the tenth and final stage (BHuMI) of their training, the cloud of dharma (DHARMAMEGHA), the buddhas appear from all the ten directions to anoint the bodhisattvas as buddhas in their own right (see ABHIsEKA). ¶ In mainstream Buddhist materials, adhisthAna refers to the first of a buddha's six or ten psychic powers (ṚDDHI), the ability to project mind-made bodies (MANOMAYAKAYA) of himself, viz., to replicate himself ad infinitum. In PAli materials, adhitthAna is also used to refer to the "determination" to extend the duration of meditative absorption (P. JHANA; S. DHYANA) and the derivative psychic powers (P. iddhi; S. ṚDDHI).

Adi-buddha (Sanskrit) Ādi-buddha [from ādi first, original + the verbal root budh to awaken, perceive, know] First or primeval buddha; the supreme being above all other buddhas and bodhisattvas in the later Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, Nepal, Java, and Japan. In theosophical writings, the highest aspect or subentity of the supreme Wondrous Being of our universe, existing in the most exalted dharmakaya state.

Adibuddha. (T. dang po'i sangs rgyas/ye nas sangs rgyas; C. benchu fo; J. honshobutsu; K. ponch'o pul 本初佛). In Sanskrit, "original buddha" or "primordial buddha"; the personification of innate enlightenment. The term seems to appear for the first time in the MAHAYANASuTRALAMKARA, where the existence of such a primordial buddha is refuted on the grounds that the achievement of buddhahood is impossible without the accumulation of merit (PUnYA) and wisdom (JNANA). However, the term reemerges in tantric literature, most prominently in the KALACAKRATANTRA. There, the term has two meanings, based on the reading of the term Adi. According to the first interpretation, Adi means "first" such that the Adibuddha was the first to attain buddhahood. According to the second interpretation, Adi means "primordial," which suggests an eternal and atemporal state of innate buddhahood. However, when the commentators on this tantra use the term in this second sense, they appear to be referring not to a person but to an innate wisdom that is present in the minds of all sentient beings and which is the fundamental basis of SAMSARA and NIRVAnA. In Tibetan Buddhism, the term Adibuddha is often used to describe the buddha SAMANTABHADRA (according to the RNYING MA sect) or VAJRADHARA (for the GSAR MA sects); in East Asia, by contrast, the Adibuddha is typically considered to be VAIROCANA.

Adi-buddhi (Sanskrit) Ādi-buddhi [from ādi first, original + buddhi from the verbal root budh to know, perceive, awaken] Original or primordial buddhi; the cosmic essence of divine intelligence imbodied in adi-buddha, the divine-spiritual head of the cosmic hierarchy of compassion, “the spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent root of divine intelligence” (SD 1:572). Adi-buddhi or dharmakaya is “the mystic, universally diffused essence . . . the all-pervading supreme and absolute intelligence with its periodically manifesting Divinity — ‘Avalokiteshvara’ . . . the aggregate intelligence of the universal intelligences including that of the Dhyan Chohans even of the highest order” (ML 90).

Adinatha (Sanskrit) Ādinātha [from ādi primeval, first + nātha protector, lord from the verbal root nāth to seek aid] Primordial protector or lord; occasionally applied to adi-buddha and other cosmic hierarchs, such as Siva. Adinatha is also known as Rishabha, the first of the 24 Tirthankaras or Jain teachers.

Adīnava. (T. nyes dmigs; C. guohuan; J. kagen; K. kwahwan 過患). In Sanskrit and PAli, "dangers." More generically, Adīnava refers to the evils that may befall a layperson who is made heedless (PRAMADA) by drinking, gambling, debauchery, and idleness. More specifically, however, the term comes to be used to designate a crucial stage in the process of meditative development (BHAVANA), in which the adept becomes so terrified of the "dangers" inherent in impermanent, compounded things that he turns away from this transitory world and instead turns toward the radical nonattachment that is NIRVAnA. In the so-called graduated discourse (P. ANUPUBBIKATHA) that the Buddha used to mold the understanding of his new adherents, the Buddha would outline in his elementary discourse the benefits of giving (dAnakathA), right conduct (sīlakathA), and the prospect of rebirth in the heavens (svargakathA). Once their minds were pliant and impressionable, the Buddha would then instruct his listeners in the dangers (Adīnava) inherent in sensuality (KAMA), in order to turn them away from the world and toward the advantages of renunciation (P. nekkhamme AnisaMsa; see NAIsKRAMYA). This pervasive sense of danger thence sustains the renunciatory drive that ultimately will lead to nirvAna. See also ADĪNAVANUPASSANANAnA.

AdittapariyAyasutta. (S. *AdityaparyAyasutra; C. Ranshao; J. Nensho; K. Yonso 燃燒). In PAli, lit. "Discourse on the Manner of Being Aflame," usually known in English as the "Fire Sermon"; the third sermon spoken by the Buddha following his enlightenment. After his conversion of the three matted-hair ascetics Uruvela-Kassapa, GayA-Kassapa, and Nadī-Kassapa, along with their one thousand disciples, the Buddha was traveling with them to GayAsīsa, where he delivered this sermon. Because of his new disciples' previous devotions to the Brahmanical fire sacrifice, once they were ordained the Buddha preached to these new monks a targeted discourse that he called the "Fire Sermon." The Buddha explains that all of the six sense bases, six sensory objects, and six sensory consciousnesses, along with the sensory contacts (phassa; S. SPARsA) and sensations (VEDANA) that accompany the senses, are burning with the fires of greed (LOBHA), hatred (P. dosa; S. DVEsA), and delusion (MOHA) and with the fires of all the various types of suffering (dukkha; S. DUḤKHA). Only through dispassion toward the senses (see INDRIYASAMVARA) will attachment diminish and liberation eventually be achieved. In the PAli tradition, the sermon appears in the MAHAVAGGA section of the PAli VINAYAPItAKA, on the history of the dispensation, not in the SUTTAPItAKA; a parallel SARVASTIVADA recension appears in the Chinese translation of the SAMYUKTAGAMA.

Adityabandhu. (P. Adiccabandhu; T. Nyi ma'i gnyen; C. Rizhong; J. Nisshu; K. Ilchong 日種). In Sanskrit, "Kinsman of the Sun"; one of the common epithets for sAKYAMUNI or GAUTAMA Buddha, from his lineage (GOTRA) name of Aditya. This epithet and gotra name led some early Western scholars, such as ÉMILE SENART, to presume (wrongly) that the Buddha was an Indian solar deity. Aditya is also the name of a past buddha.

Advaya (Sanskrit) Advaya [from a not + dvi two] Not two, without a second; unique. As a masculine noun, name of a buddha. As a neuter noun, nonduality, unity, identity — especially as applied to Brahman — with the universe, or of spirit and matter; hence ultimate truth.

Advent may also be used to signify the serial comings into the human sphere of a nirmanakaya who imbodies a dhyani-buddha — a perfected human being from a preceding manvantara — in order to enlighten the humanity of the current cycle. Such nirmanakayas work in the sphere of our earth as invisible or occasionally visible helpers of mankind.

Agamadharma. (T. lung gi chos; C. jiaofa, J. kyoho, K. kyobop 教法). In Sanskrit, "scriptural dharma"; one of the two divisions of the dharma or teaching of the Buddha, together with the "realized dharma" (ADHIGAMADHARMA). This term refers to the scriptural dharma as the teaching of the Buddha in its verbal form and is often identified with the TRIPItAKA or with the twelve divisions (DVADAsAnGA[PRAVACANA]) of the word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA).

Agama. (T. lung; C. ahan jing; J. agongyo; K. aham kyong 阿含經). In Sanskrit and PAli, "text" or "scripture"; a general term for received scriptural tradition. The term Agama is commonly paired with two other contrasting terms: Agama and YUKTI (reasoning) are the means of arriving at the truth; Agama and ADHIGAMA (realization) are the two divisions of the BUDDHADHARMA-the verbal or scriptural tradition and that which is manifested through practice. In its Sanskrit usage, the term Agama is also used to refer more specifically to the four scriptural collections of the mainstream tradition (now lost in Sanskrit but preserved in Chinese translation), attributed to the Buddha and his close disciples, which correspond to the four PAli NIKAYAs: (1) DĪRGHAGAMA or "Long Discourses," belonging to the DHARMAGUPTAKA school and corresponding to the PAli DĪGHANIKAYA; (2) MADHYAMAGAMA or "Medium Discourses," associated with the SARVASTIVADA school and corresponding to the PAli MAJJHIMANIKAYA; (3) SAMYUKTAGAMA or "Connected Discourses," belonging to the SarvAstivAda school (with a partial translation perhaps belonging to the KAsYAPĪYA school) and corresponding to the PAli SAMYUTTANIKAYA; and (4) EKOTTARAGAMA or "Numerically Arranged Discourses," variously ascribed to the Dharmaguptakas, or less plausibly to the MAHASAMGHIKA school or its PRAJNAPTIVADA offshoot, and corresponding to the PAli AnGUTTARANIKAYA. Despite the similarities in the titles of these collections, there are many differences between the contents of the Sanskrit Agamas and the PAli nikAyas. The KHUDDAKANIKAYA ("Miscellaneous Collection"), the fifth nikAya in the PAli canon, has no equivalent in the extant Chinese translations of the Agamas; such miscellanies, or "mixed baskets" (S. ksudrakapitaka), were however known to have existed in several of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS, including the Dharmaguptaka, MahAsAMghika, and MAHĪsASAKA.

Agantukaklesa. (P. Agantukakilesa; T. glo bur gyi nyon mongs; C. kechen fannao; J. kyakujin bonno; K. kaekchin ponnoe 客塵煩惱). In Sanskrit, "adventitious afflictions" or "adventitious defilements"; indicating that the KLEsA are accidental and extrinsic qualities of the mind, rather than natural and intrinsic. This notion builds on an ancient strand in Buddhist thought, such as in the oft-quoted passage in the PAli AnGUTTARANIKAYA: "The mind, O monks, is luminous but defiled by adventitious defilements" (pabhassaraM idaM bhikkave cittaM, taN ca kho Agantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilittham). Since defilements are introduced into the thought processes from without, the intrinsic purity of the mind (CITTA) can be restored through counteracting the influence of the klesa and overcoming the inveterate tendency toward attachment and its concomitant craving (LOBHA) and ill will (DVEsA), which empower them.This concept of Agantukaklesa is critical to the MAHAYANA doctrine of TATHAGATAGARBHA (embryo of buddhahood), where the mind is presumed to be innately enlightened, but that enlightenment is temporarily obscured or concealed by defilements (KLEsA) that are extrinsic to it.

  “A generic personification of a class of spiritual beings described as the embodiment of essential wisdom (Bodhi) and absolute purity. They dwell in the fourth Arupa Dhatu (formless world) or Buddhakshetra, and are the first or the highest hierarchy of the five orthodox Dhyani Buddhas. There was a Sramana (an Arhat) of this name (see Eitel’s Sansk. Chin. Dict.), a native of Kashmir, ‘who introduced Buddhism into Kustan and laboured in Tibet (in the seventh century of our era). He was the best translator of the semi-esoteric Canon of Northern Buddhism, and a contemporary of the great Samantabhadra . . .” (TG 358-9).

AggaNNasutta. (C. Xiaoyuan jing; J. Shoengyo; K. Soyon kyong 小經). In PAli, "Discourse on Origins" or "Sermon on Things Primeval"; the twenty-seventh sutta of the DĪGHANIKAYA (a separate DHARMAGUPTAKA recension appears as the fifth SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the DĪRGHAGAMA); the sutra provides a Buddhist account of the origins of the world and of human society. The Buddha preached the sermon at SAvatthi (sRAVASTĪ) to two ordinands, VAsettha and BhAradvAja, to disabuse them of the belief that the priestly brAhmana caste was superior to the Buddha's khattiya (KsATRIYA), or warrior, caste. The Buddha describes the fourfold caste system of traditional Indian society as a by-product of the devolution of sentient beings. In the beginning of the eon (KALPA), beings possess spiritual bodies that are luminous, able to travel through the air, and feed on joy. But out of greed for sensual gratification, they degenerate into physical beings with ever grosser propensities: e.g., the coarser the food they eat (first a cream on the surface of water, then creepers, then eventually rice), the coarser their bodies become, until the beings develop sex organs, begin to have intercourse, and in turn build dwellings in order to conceal their debauchery. As their bodies become ever more physical, their life spans in turn also decrease. Immorality, strife, and violence ensue until people finally realize they need a leader to save them from anarchy. They elect the first human king, named MahAsammata, who was also the first ksatriya. It was out of the ksatriya lineage deriving from this first king that the other three classes-brAhmana, vaisya, and sudra-also evolved. This account challenges the mainstream Indian belief that the brAhmana caste is congenitally superior (descending, it claims, from the mouth of the god BrahmA himself) and posits that the effort of moral and spiritual perfection, not the accident of birth, is the true standard of human superiority. Although the Buddhist tradition presumes that this sermon offers a distinctively Buddhistic account of the origin and development of both the universe and society, many of the topoi adopted in the story derive from Brahmanical cosmogonies, perhaps employed here as a satire of Brahmanical pretensions in Indian society. The scripture has also been treated by modern interpreters as offering an incipient Buddhist "environmentalism," wherein human actions, motivated by greed and lust, cause deleterious effects on the physical world, turning, for example, naturally growing rice into a rice that must be cultivated.

Agonshu. (阿含宗). In Japanese, "AGAMA School"; a Japanese "new religion" structured from elements drawn from esoteric Buddhism (MIKKYo) and indigenous Japanese religions; founded in 1970 by Kiriyama Seiyu (born Tsutsumi Masao in 1921). Kiriyama's teachings are presented first in his Henshin no genri ("Principles of Transformation"; 1975). Kiriyama believed he had been saved by the compassion of Kannon (AVALOKITEsVARA) and was told by that BODHISATTVA to teach others using the HOMA (J. goma) fire rituals drawn from Buddhist esoteric (MIKKYo) traditions. Later, while Kiriyama was reading the Agama (J. agon) scriptures, he realized that Buddhism as it was currently constituted in Japan did not correspond to the original teachings of the Buddha. In 1978, Kiriyama changed the name of his religious movement to Agon, the Japanese pronunciation of the transcription of Agama, positing that his teachings derived from the earliest scriptures of Buddhism and thus legitimizing them. His practices are fundamentally concerned with removing practitioners' karmic hindrances (KARMAVARAnA). Since many of these hindrances, he claims, are the result of neglecting one's ancestors or are inherited from them, much attention is also paid in the school to transforming the spirits of the dead into buddhas themselves, which in turn will also free the current generation from their karmic obstructions. Spiritual power in the school derives from the shinsei busshari (true sARĪRA [relics] of the Buddha), a sacred reliquary holding a bone fragment of the Buddha himself, given to Kiriyama in 1986 by the president of Sri Lanka. Individual adherents keep a miniature replica of the sarīra in their own homes, and the relic is said to have the transformational power to turn ancestors into buddhas. A "Star Festival" (Hoshi Matsuri) is held in Kyoto on each National Foundation Day (February 11), at which time two massive homa fires are lit, one liberating the spirits of the ancestors (and thus freeing the current generation from inherited karmic obstructions), the other helping to make the deepest wishes of its adherents come true. Adherents write millions of prayers on wooden sticks, which are cast into the two fires.

ahiMsA. (T. 'tshe ba med pa; C. buhai; J. fugai; K. purhae 不害). In Sanskrit and PAli, "absence of harmful intentions," "harmlessness," "noninjury," or "nonviolence." The religious ideal and ethical injunction of "harmlessness" toward all living beings was shared in some fashion by several of the Indian sRAMAnA traditions, including the Buddhists as well as the JAINAs, who made it a central tenet of their religion. Some of the corollaries of this idea included the precept against killing, the injunction to refrain from physically and verbally abusing sentient beings, and vegetarianism. The Jainas were especially stringent in their interpretation of "harmlessness" toward all living creatures, demanding strict vegetarianism from their followers in order to avoid injuring sentient creatures, a requirement that the Buddha rejected when his rival in the order, DEVADATTA, proposed it in his list of austerities (see DHUTAnGA). The Buddha's view was that monks were a "field of merit" (PUnYAKsETRA) for the laity and should accept all offerings made to them, including meat, unless the monk knew that the animal had been killed specifically to feed him, for example. The voluntary vegetarianism that is now prevalent in both MahAyAna Buddhism and wider Indian Hindu culture is almost certainly a result of Jaina influence and constitutes that religion's most enduring contribution to Indian religion. Buddhism treated "absence of harmful intentions" as one of the forty-six mental factors (CAITTA) according to the SARVASTIVADA-VAIBHAsIKA school of ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGACARA school, and one of the fifty-two CETASIKAs in the PAli ABHIDHAMMA. It is the opposite of "harmful intention" or "injury" (VIHIMSA, and is sometimes seen written as avihiMsA) and one of the states of mind comprising right intention (S. samyaksaMkalpa; P. sammAsankappa) in the noble eightfold path (ARYAstAnGIKAMARGA). "Absence of harmful intentions" is also traditionally taken to be a precondition for the cultivation of "compassion" (KARUnA). See VIHIMSA.

  “a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its inner divinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray; where, so to say, the personal man has put on the garments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now — that man is a Bodhisattva. His higher principles have nearly reached Nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a Buddha, a human Buddha, a Manushya-Buddha. Obviously, if such a Bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnation or in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a Manushya-Buddha. A Buddha, in the esoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached Nirvana and remain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the Bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the Nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a Nirmanakaya . . . a Bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a Dhyani-Buddha or Celestial Buddha — in other words one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own Divine Monad” (OG 19).

Aisvarika (Sanskrit) Aiśvarika [from īśvara lord, prince, master from the verbal root īś to be valid, powerful, master of] Relating to a lord or king; the hierarch or supreme spirit of a hierarchy. One of the four philosophical schools or systems in Nepal (the others being Karmika, Yatnika, and Svabhavika). In this system, adi-buddha is individualized as the cosmic spirit of our hierarchy, attention being centered on this individualization to an extent unusual in Buddhism. While it is true that the highest individualized manifestation of adi-buddhi is adi-buddha, which is the isvara or supreme hierarch of our own cosmic hierarchy, nevertheless both adi-buddhi and adi-buddha are abstract principles of the galactic spaces.

Aizen Myoo. (愛染明王) (S. RAgavidyArAja). In Japanese, lit. "Bright King of the Taint of Lust"; an esoteric deity considered to be the destroyer of vulgar passions. In stark contrast to the traditional Buddhist approach of suppressing the passions through various antidotes or counteractive techniques (PRATIPAKsA), this VIDYARAJA is believed to be able to transform attachment, desire, craving, and defilement directly into pure BODHICITTA. This deity became a principal deity of the heretical Tachikawa branch (TACHIKAWARYu) of the SHINGONSHu and was considered the deity of conception. As an emanation of the buddha MAHAVAIROCANA or the bodhisattva VAJRASATTVA, Aizen Myoo was favored by many followers of Shingon Buddhism in Japan and by various esoteric branches of the TENDAISHu. Aizen Myoo was also sometimes held to be a secret buddha (HIBUTSU) by these traditions. The NICHIRENSHu was the last to adopt him as an important deity, but he played an important role in the dissemination of its cult. Aizen Myoo is well known for his fierce appearance, which belies the love and affection he is presumed to convey. Aizen Myoo usually has three eyes (to see the three realms of existence) and holds a lotus in his hand, which is symbolic of the calming of the senses, among other things. Other attributes of this deity are the bow and arrows, VAJRAs, and weapons that he holds in his hands.

AjantA. A complex of some thirty caves and subsidiary structures in India, renowned for its exemplary Buddhist artwork. Named after a neighboring village, the caves are carved from the granite cliffs at a bend in the Wagurna River valley, northeast of AURANGABAD, in the modern Indian state of Maharashtra. The grottoes were excavated in two phases, the first of which lasted from approximately 100 BCE to 100 CE, the second from c. 462 to 480, and consist primarily of monastic cave residences (VIHARA) and sanctuaries (CAITYA). The sanctuaries include four large, pillared STuPA halls, each enshrining a central monumental buddha image, which renders the hall both a site for worship and a buddha's dwelling (GANDHAKUtĪ), where he presides over the activities of the monks in residence. The murals and sculpture located at AjantA include some of the best-preserved examples of ancient Buddhist art. Paintings throughout the complex are especially noted for their depiction of accounts from the Buddha's previous lives (JATAKA). Despite the presence of some AVALOKITEsVARA images at the site, it is Sanskrit texts of mainstream Buddhism, and especially the MuLASARVASTIVADA school, that are the source and inspiration for the paintings of AjantA. Indeed, almost all of AjantA's narrative paintings are based on accounts appearing in the MuLASARVASTIVADA VINAYA, as well as the poems of Aryasura and AsVAGHOsA. On the other hand, the most common type of sculptural image at AjantA (e.g., Cave 4) is a seated buddha making a variant of the gesture of turning the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRAMUDRA), flanked by the two bodhisattvas AVALOKITEsVARA and VAJRAPAnI. The deployment of this mudrA and the two flanking bodhisattvas indicates that these buddha images are of VAIROCANA and suggests that tantric elements that appear in the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA and the MANJUsRĪMuLAKALPA, both of which postdate the AjantA images, developed over an extended period of time and had precursors that influenced the iconography at AjantA. Inscriptions on the walls of the earliest part of the complex, primarily in Indian Prakrits, attest to an eclectic, even syncretic, pattern of religious observance and patronage. Later epigraphs found at the site associate various patrons with Harisena (r. 460-477), the last known monarch of the VAkAtaka royal family. VarAhadeva, for example, who patronized Cave 16, was one of Harisena's courtiers, while Cave 1 was donated by Harisena himself, and Cave 2 may have been patronized by a close relative, perhaps one of Harisena's wives. Cave 16's central image, a buddha seated on a royal throne with legs pendant (BHADRASANA), is the first stone sculpture in this iconographic form found in western India. Introduced to India through the tradition of KUSHAN royal portraiture, the bhadrAsana has been interpreted as a position associated with royalty and worldly action. This sculpture may thus have functioned as a portrait sculpture; it may even allegorize Harisena as the Buddha. In fact, it is possible that VarAhadeva may have originally intended to enshrine a buddha seated in the cross-legged lotus position (VAJRAPARYAnKA) but changed his plan midway in the wake of a regional war that placed Harisena's control over the AjantA region in jeopardy. Around 480, the constructions at AjantA came to a halt with the destruction of the VAkAtaka family. The caves were subsequently abandoned and became overgrown, only to be discovered in 1819 by a British officer hunting a tiger. They quickly became the object of great archaeological and art historical interest, and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

AjAtasatru. (P. AjAtasattu; T. Ma skyes dgra; C. Asheshi wang; J. Ajase o; K. Asase wang 阿闍世王). In Sanskrit, "Enemy While Still Unborn," the son of King BIMBISARA of Magadha and his successor as king. According to the PAli account, when BimbisAra's queen VAIDEHĪ (P. Videhī) was pregnant, she developed an overwhelming urge to drink blood from the king's right knee, a craving that the king's astrologers interpreted to mean that the son would eventually commit patricide and seize the throne. Despite several attempts to abort the fetus, the child was born and was given the name AjAtasatru. While a prince, AjAtasatru became devoted to the monk DEVADATTA, the Buddha's cousin and rival, because of Devadatta's mastery of yogic powers (ṚDDHI). Devadatta plotted to take revenge on the Buddha through manipulating AjAtasatru, whom he convinced to murder his father BimbisAra, a close lay disciple and patron of the Buddha, and seize the throne. AjAtasatru subsequently assisted Devadatta in several attempts on the Buddha's life. AjAtasatru is said to have later grown remorseful over his evil deeds and, on the advice of the physician JĪVAKA, sought the Buddha's forgiveness. The Buddha preached to him on the benefits of renunciation from the SAMANNAPHALASUTTA, and AjAtasatru became a lay disciple. Because he had committed patricide, one of the five most heinous of evil deeds that are said to bring immediate retribution (ANANTARYAKARMAN), AjAtasatru was precluded from attaining any degree of enlightenment during this lifetime and was destined for rebirth in the lohakumbhiya hell. Nevertheless, Sakka (S. sAKRA), the king of the gods, described AjAtasatru as the chief in piety among the Buddha's unenlightened disciples. When the Buddha passed away, AjAtasatru was overcome with grief and, along with other kings, was given a portion of the Buddha's relics (sARĪRA) for veneration. According to the PAli commentaries, AjAtasatru provided the material support for convening the first Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, FIRST) following the Buddha's death. The same sources state that, despite his piety, he will remain in hell for sixty thousand years but later will attain liberation as a solitary buddha (P. paccekabuddha; S. PRATYEKABUDDHA) named Viditavisesa. ¶ MahAyAna scriptures, such as the MAHAPARINIRVAnASuTRA and the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING ("Contemplation Sutra on the Buddha of Infinite Life"), give a slightly different account of AjAtasatru's story. BimbisAra was concerned that his queen, Vaidehī, had yet to bear him an heir. He consulted a soothsayer, who told him that an aging forest ascetic would eventually be reborn as BimbisAra's son. The king then decided to speed the process along and had the ascetic killed so he would take rebirth in Vaidehī's womb. After the queen had already conceived, however, the soothsayer prophesized that the child she would bear would become the king's enemy. After his birth, the king dropped him from a tall tower, but the child survived the fall, suffering only a broken finger. (In other versions of the story, Vaidehī is so mortified to learn that her unborn son will murder her husband the king that she tried to abort the fetus, but to no avail.) Devadatta later told AjAtasatru the story of his conception and the son then imprisoned his father, intending to starve him to death. But Vaidehī kept the king alive by smuggling food to him, smearing her body with flour-paste and hiding grape juice inside her jewelry. When AjAtasatru learned of her treachery, he drew his sword to murder her, but his vassals dissuaded him. The prince's subsequent guilt about his intended matricide caused his skin break out in oozing abscesses that emitted such a foul odor that no one except his mother was able to approach him and care for him. Despite her loving care, AjAtasatru did not improve and Vaidehī sought the Buddha's counsel. The Buddha was able to cure the prince by teaching him the "NirvAna Sutra," and the prince ultimately became one of the preeminent Buddhist monarchs of India. This version of the story of AjAtasatru was used by Kosawa Heisaku (1897-1968), one of the founding figures of Japanese psychoanalysis, and his successors to posit an "Ajase (AjAtasatru) Complex" that distinguished Eastern cultures from the "Oedipal Complex" described by Sigmund Freud in Western psychoanalysis. As Kosawa interpreted this story, Vaidehī's ambivalence or active antagonism toward her son and AjAtasatru's rancor toward his mother were examples of the pathological relationship that pertains between mother and son in Eastern cultures, in distinction to the competition between father and son that Freud posited in his Oedipal Complex. This pathological relationship can be healed only through the mother's love and forgiveness, which redeem the child and thus reunite them.

ajikan. (阿字観). In Japanese, "contemplation of the letter ‛A'"; a meditative exercise employed primarily within the the Japanese SHINGON school of esoteric Buddhism. The ajikan practice is also known as the "contemplation of the letter 'A' in the moon-wheel" (AJI GATSURINKAN). The letter "A" is the first letter in the Sanskrit SIDDHAM alphabet and is considered to be the "seed" (BĪJA) of MAHAVAIROCANA, the central divinity of the esoteric traditions. The letter "A" is also understood to be the "unborn" buddha-nature (FOXING) of the practitioner; hence, the identification of oneself with this letter serves as a catalyst to enlightenment. In ajikan meditation, the adept draws a picture of the full moon with an eight-petaled lotus flower at its center. The Siddham letter "A" is then superimposed over the lotus flower as a focus of visualization. As the visualization continues, the moon increases in size until it becomes coextensive with the universe itself. Through this visualization, the adept realizes the letter "A" that is originally uncreated (AJI HONPUSHo), which is the essence of all phenomena in the universe and the DHARMAKAYA of MAHAVAIROCANA Buddha.

Ajita. (T. Ma pham pa; C. Ayiduo; J. Aitta; K. Ailta 阿逸多). In Sanskrit and PAli, "Invincible"; proper name of several different figures in Buddhist literature. In the PAli tradition, Ajita is said to have been one of the sixteen mendicant disciples of the brAhmana ascetic BAvarĪ who visited the Buddha at the request of their teacher. Upon meeting the Buddha, Ajita saw that he was endowed with the thirty-two marks of a great man (MAHAPURUsALAKsAnA) and gained assurance that the Buddha's renown was well deserved. Starting with Ajita, all sixteen of the mendicants asked the Buddha questions. Ajita's question is preserved as the AjitamAnavapucchA in the ParAyanavagga of the SUTTANIPATA. At the end of the Buddha's explanations, Ajita and sixteen thousand followers are said to have become worthy ones (ARHAT) and entered the SAMGHA. Ajita returned to his old teacher BAvarī and recounted to him what happened. BAvarī himself converted and later became a nonreturner (ANAGAMIN). ¶ Another Ajita is Ajita-Kesakambala (Ajita of the Hair Blanket), a prominent leader of the LOKAYATA (Naturalist) school of Indian wandering religious (sRAMAnA) during the Buddha's time, who is mentioned occasionally in Buddhist scriptures. His doctrine is recounted in the PAli SAMANNAPHALASUTTA, where he is claimed to have denied the efficacy of moral cause and effect because of his materialist rejection of any prospect of transmigration or rebirth. ¶ An Ajita also traditionally appears as the fifteenth on the list of the sixteen ARHAT elders (sOdAsASTHAVIRA), who were charged by the Buddha with protecting his dispensation until the advent of the next buddha, MAITREYA. Ajita is said to reside on Mt. GṚDHRAKutA (Vulture Peak) with 1,500 disciples. He is known in Chinese as the "long-eyebrowed arhat" (changmei luohan) because he is said to have been born with long white eyebrows. In CHANYUE GUANXIU's standard Chinese depiction, Ajita is shown sitting on a rock, with both hands holding his right knee; his mouth is open, with his tongue and teeth exposed. East Asian images also sometimes show him leaning on a staff. In Tibetan iconography, he holds his two hands in his lap in DHYANAMUDRA. ¶ Ajita is finally a common epithet of the bodhisattva MAITREYA, used mostly when he is invoked in direct address.

Ajīvaka. [alt. AjīvakA; Ajīvika]. (T. 'Tsho ba can; C. Xieming waidao; J. Jamyo gedo; K. Samyong oedo 邪命外道) In Sanskrit and PAli, "Improper Livelihood"; one of the major early sects of Indian wandering religious (sRAMAnA) during the fifth century BCE. Makkhali GosAla (S. MASKARIN GOsALĪPUTRA) (d. c. 488 BCE), the leader of the Ajīvakas, was a contemporary of the Buddha. No Ajīvaka works survive, so what little we know about the school derives from descriptions filtered through Buddhist materials. Buddhist explications of Ajīvaka views are convoluted and contradictory; what does seem clear, however, is that the Ajīvakas adhered to a doctrine of strict determinism or fatalism. The Ajīvakas are described as believing that there is no immediate or ultimate cause for the purity or depravity of beings; all beings, souls, and existent things are instead directed along their course by fate (niyati), by the conditions of the species to which they belong, and by their own intrinsic natures. Thus, attainments or accomplishments of any kind are not a result of an individual's own action or the acts of others; rather, according to those beings' positions within the various stations of existence, they experience ease or pain. Makkhali GosAla is portrayed as advocating a theory of automatic purification through an essentially infinite number of transmigrations (saMsArasuddhi), by means of which all things would ultimately attain perfection. The Buddha is said to have regarded Makkhali GosAla's views as the most dangerous of heresies, which was capable of leading even the divinities (DEVA) to loss, discomfort, and suffering. BUDDHAGHOSA explains the perniciousness of his error by comparing the defects of Makkhali's views to those of the views of two other heretical teachers, Purana Kassapa (S. Purana KAsyapa) (d. c. 503 BCE), another Ajīvaka teacher, and AJITA-Kesakambala, a prominent teacher of the LOKAYATA (Naturalist) school, which maintained a materialist perspective toward the world. Purana asserted the existence of an unchanging passive soul that was unaffected by either wholesome or unwholesome action and thereby denied the efficacy of KARMAN; Ajita advocated an annihilationist theory that there is no afterlife or rebirth, which thereby denied any possibility of karmic retribution. Makkhali's doctrine of fate or noncausation, in denying both action and its result, was said to have combined the defects in both those systems of thought.

AjNAtakaundinya. (P. ANNAtakondaNNa / ANNAkondaNNa; T. Kun shes kaun di nya; C. Aruojiaochenru; J. Anyakyojinnyo; K. Ayakkyojinyo 阿若憍陳如). In Sanskrit, "Kaundinya (P. KondaNNa) who Knows"; the first person to understand the insights of the Buddha, as delivered in the first sermon, the DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANASuTRA (P. DHAMMACAKKAPPAVATTANASUTTA), and the first disciple to take ordination as a monk (BHIKsU), following the simple EHIBHIKsUKA (P. ehi bhikkhu), or "come, monk," formula: "Come, monk, the DHARMA is well proclaimed; live the holy life for the complete ending of suffering." Kaundinya was one of the group of five ascetics (BHADRAVARGĪYA) converted by the Buddha at the ṚsIPATANA (P. Isipatana) MṚGADAVA (Deer Park), located just north-east of the city of VArAnasī. According to the PAli account, he was a brAhmana older than the Buddha, who was especially renowned in physiognomy. After the birth of the infant GAUTAMA, he was one of eight brAhmanas invited to predict the infant's future and the only one to prophesize that the child would definitely become a buddha rather than a wheel-turning monarch (CAKRAVARTIN). He left the world as an ascetic in anticipation of the bodhisattva's own renunciation and was joined by the sons of four of the other eight brAhmanas. Kaundinya and the other four ascetics joined the bodhisattva in the practice of austerities, but when, after six years, the bodhisattva renounced extreme asceticism, they left him in disgust. After his enlightenment, the Buddha preached to the five ascetics at the Ṛsipatana deer park, and Kaundinya was the first to realize the truth of the Buddha's words. The PAli canon describes Kaundinya's enlightenment as proceeding in two stages: first, when the Buddha preached the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta, he attained the opening of the dharma eye (DHARMACAKsUS), the equivalent of stream-entry (SROTAAPANNA), and five days later, when the Buddha preached his second sermon, the ANATTALAKKHAnASUTTA, he attained the level of ARHAT. The Buddha praised him both times by exclaiming "Kaundinya knows!," in recognition of which AjNAta ("He Who Knows") was thereafter prefixed to his name. Later, at a large gathering of monks at JETAVANA grove in sRAVASTĪ, the Buddha declared AjNAtakaundinya to be preeminent among his disciples who first comprehended the dharma, and preeminent among his long-standing disciples. AjNAtakaundinya received permission from the Buddha to live a solitary life in the Chaddantavana forest and only returned after twelve years to take leave of the Buddha before his own PARINIRVAnA. After his cremation, AjNAtakaundinya's relics were given to the Buddha, who personally placed them in a silver reliquary (CAITYA) that spontaneously appeared from out of the earth.

akanistha. (P. akanittha; T. 'og min; C. sejiujing tian; J. shikikukyoten; K. saekkugyong ch'on 色究竟天). In Sanskrit, "highest"; akanistha is the eighth and highest level of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU), which is accessible only through experiencing the fourth meditative absorption (DHYANA); akanistha is thus one of the BRAHMALOKAS (see DEVA). akanistha is the fifth and highest class of the "pure abodes," or sUDDHAVASA (corresponding to the five highest heavens in the realm of subtle materiality), wherein abide "nonreturners" (ANAGAMIN)-viz., adepts who need never again return to the KAMADHATU-and some ARHATS. The pure abodes therefore serve as a way station for advanced spiritual beings (ARYA) in their last life before final liberation. According to some MahAyAna texts, akanistha is also the name of the abode of the enjoyment body (SAMBHOGAKAYA) of a buddha in general and of the buddha VAIROCANA in particular.

Akankheyyasutta. (C. Yuan jing; J. Gangyo; K. Won kyong 願經). In PAli, "Discourse on What One May Wish," the sixth sutta in the MAJJHIMANIKAYA (a separate SARVASTIVADA recension appears as SuTRA no. 105 in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMAGAMA, and a recension of uncertain affiliation in the Chinese translation of the EKOTTARAGAMA); preached by the Buddha to a group of disciples in the JETAVANA grove in the town of sRAVASTĪ. The Buddha describes how a monk who wishes for all good things to come to himself, his fellow monks, and his lay supporters should restrain his sense faculties by seeing danger (ADĪNAVA) in the slightest fault and by abiding by the dictates of the disciplinary codes (PRATIMOKsA). This restraint will allow him to develop morality (sĪLA), meditative concentration (SAMADHI), and liberating wisdom (PRAJNA), leading to the destruction of the contaminants (ASRAVAKsAYA).

AkAra. (T. rnam pa; C. xingxiang; J. gyoso; K. haengsang 行相). In Sanskrit, "aspect," "mode," "form," or "image"; a polysemous term that is notably employed in discussions of epistemology to describe an image cast by an object, which serves as the actual object of sense perception. At an early stage of its history (as Akṛti), the term refers to what a word articulates. Over time, it came to mean the content of a word (that may or may not be connected with an actual content in reality) and then the mediating mental image. Buddhist philosophical schools differ as to whether or not such an "aspect" is required in order for sense perception to occur. VAIBHAsIKAS are non-aspectarians (NIRAKARAVADA) who say mind knows objects directly; SAUTRANTIKAS are aspectarians (SAKARAVADA) who say mind knows through an image (AkAra) of the object that is taken into the mind. YOGACARAS are aspectarians insofar as they do not accept external objects; they are divided into satyAkAravAdin (T. rnam bden pa), or true aspectarians, who assert that appearances as gross objects exist and are not polluted by ignorance; and alīkAkAravAdin (T. rnam rdzun pa), or false aspectarians, who assert that appearances as gross objects do not exist and are polluted by ignorance. In SARVAKARAJNATA ("knowledge of all modes"), the name in the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA) literature for the omniscience of a buddha, AkAra is synonymous with DHARMAS. In the ABHISAMAYALAMKARA, there are 173 aspects that define the practice (prayoga) of a bodhisattva. They are the forms of a bodhisattva's knowledge (of impermanence that counteracts the mistaken apprehension of permanence, for example) informed by BODHICITTA and the knowledge that the knowledge itself has no essential nature (SVABHAVA).

AkAsagarbha. (T. Nam mkha'i snying po; C. Xukongzang pusa; J. Kokuzo bosatsu; K. Hogongjang posal 空藏菩薩). In Sanskrit, "Storehouse/Womb of Space"; a BODHISATTVA who is one of the MAHOPAPUTRA, whose position is the north; also known as CakrapAni. He is usually considered to be a form of AKsOBHYA, although sometimes he is instead said to be the emanation of VAIROCANA. He is depicted in bodhisattva form, with one face and two hands in various MUDRAS; his most common attribute is a sun disc. His consort is MAlA, and he is the counterpart to KsItIGARBHA, the "Womb of the Earth." The sutra that describes his attributes, the AkAsagarbhasutra, was first translated into Chinese by BUDDHAYAsAS at the beginning of the fifth century and again by Dharmamitra a few decades later.

AkAsAnantyAyatana. (P. AkAsAnaNcAyatana; T. nam mkha' mtha' yas skye mched; C. kong wubian chu; J. kumuhenjo; K. kong mubyon ch'o 空無邊處). In Sanskrit, "sphere of infinite space"; the first and lowest (in ascending order) of the four levels of the immaterial realm (ARuPYADHATU) and the first of the four immaterial absorptions (DHYANA). It is a realm of rebirth as well as a meditative state that is entirely immaterial (viz., there is no physical [RuPA] component to existence) in which the mind comes to an awareness of unlimited pervasive space (AKAsA) without the existence of material objects. Beings reborn in this realm are thought to live as long as forty thousand eons (KALPAS). However, as a state of being that is still subject to rebirth, even the realm of infinite space remains part of SAMSARA. Like the other levels of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU) and the immaterial realm, one is reborn in this state by achieving the specific level of meditative absorption of that state in the previous lifetime. One of the most famous and influential expositions on the subject of these immaterial states comes from the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA, written in the fifth century. Although there are numerous accounts of Buddhist meditators achieving immaterial states of SAMADHI, they are also used polemically in Buddhist literature to describe the attainments of non-Buddhist yogins, who mistakenly identify these exalted states within saMsAra as states of permanent liberation from rebirth. See also DHYANASAMAPATTI; DHYANOPAPATTI.

AkAsa. (T. nam mkha'; C. xukong; J. koku; K. hogong 虚空). In Sanskrit, "space" or "spatiality"; "sky," and "ether." In ABHIDHARMA analysis, AkAsa has two discrete denotations. First, as "spatiality," AkAsa is an absence that delimits forms; like the empty space inside a door frame, AkAsa is a hole that is itself empty but that defines, or is defined by, the material that surrounds it. Second, as the vast emptiness of "space," AkAsa comes also to be described as the absence of obstruction and is enumerated as one of the permanent phenomena (nityadharma) because it does not change from moment to moment. Space in this sense is also interpreted as being something akin to the Western conception of ether, a virtually immaterial, but glowing fluid that serves as the support for the four material elements (MAHABHuTA). (Because this ethereal form of AkAsa is thought to be glowing, it is sometimes used as a metaphor for buddhahood, which is said to be radiant like the sun or space.) In addition to these two abhidharma definitions, the sphere of infinite space (AKAsANANTYAYATANA) has a meditative context as well through its listing as the first of the four immaterial DHYANAS. AkAsa is recognized as one of the uncompounded dharmas (ASAMSKṚTADHARMA) in six of the mainstream Buddhist schools, including the SARVASTIVADA and the MAHASAMGHIKA, as well as the later YOGACARA; three others reject this interpretation, including the THERAVADA.

Also a great arhat Kshatriya (460?-534) who traveled to China, and was instrumental in disseminating Buddhist teachings there. His guru, Panyatara, is said to have given him the name Bodhidharma to mark his understanding (bodhi) of the Law (dharma) of the Buddha.

Also a sacred plant spoken of in Buddhist legends; and a name of a famous cave of seven chambers where Gautama Buddha taught esoteric truths to his select circle of arhats, located near Mount Baibhar in Rajagriha, the ancient capital of Mogadha; it was the Cheta cave of Fa-hian (SD 1:xx).

Also a title given a buddha because of his power over evil spirits and elementals. By the profane, a vajrapanin is worshiped as a god, but by initiates it is considered a subjective force. See also MANJUSRI

Also a title of Gautama Buddha referring to his perfect inner illumination.

Also used for the bodhisattvas of the celestial realms who are the shadows or spiritual living and self-conscious projections emanated by the dhyani-buddhas.

Although advancing steadily in spirituality and upwards towards a lower nirvana, and therefore evolving on a path which is not only not harmful to humanity and others, but in a sense is even passively beneficial, the Pratyeka Buddha, precisely because his thoughts are involved in spiritual freedom and benefits for himself, is really enwrapped in a spiritual selfishness; and hence in the intuitive, albeit popular, consideration of Northern Buddhism is called by such names as the Solitary or the Rhinoceros — applied in contrast to the Buddhas of Compassion, whose entire effort is to merge the individual into the universal, to expand their sympathies to include all that is, to follow the path of immortality (amrita), which is self-identification without loss of individuality with all that is. When the sacrifice of the lower personal and inferior self, with all its hoard of selfish thought and impulses, for the sake of bringing into full and unfettered activity the ineffable glorious faculties and powers and functions of the higher nature — not for the purpose of selfish personal advancement, but in order to become a helper of all that is — the consequence is that as time passes, the disciple so living and dedicating himself finds himself becoming the very incarnation of his inner divinity. He becomes, as it were, a man-god on earth. This, however, is not the objective, for holding such an objective as the goal to be attained would be in itself a proof that selfishness still abides in the nature.

Amilakha (Mongolian) The state of those beings who entered or animated human forms; referring especially to the dhyani-buddhas and divine bodhisattvas.

Amitabha Buddha ::: [in Buddhist legend "the Buddha of measureless splendour"] who turned away when his spirit was on the threshold of nirvana and took the vow never to cross its while a single being remained in the sorrow and the Ignorance.

Amitabha of the West, whose Tibetan name is Wod-pag-med (O-pa me) is the ruling deity of Sukhavati (the western paradise or pure land) and in China and Japan is universally worshiped as Amida-buddha. Esoterically, there are seven dhyani-buddhas (five only have manifested thus far) who represent “both cosmic entities and the rays or reflections of these cosmic originals which manifest in man as monads” (FSO 507; cf SD 1:108).

Amitabha (Sanskrit) Amitābha [from a not + the verbal root mā to measure + ābhā (ābha) splendor, light from ā-bhā to shine, irradiate] Unmeasured splendor; mystically, as boundless light or boundless space, one of the five dhyani-buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism, more often referred to as the five tathagathas or jinas (victorious ones). Originally these dhyani-buddhas represented cosmic spiritual attributes and influences emanating from adi-buddhi, but they have become mythologized as gods, ruling over the central realm as well as the four cardinal directions.

Amita-buddha (Sanskrit) Amita-buddha Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist name for universal, primeval wisdom or soul, equivalent to adi-buddha. Also the celestial name of Gautama Buddha. Tsong-kha-pa is considered a direct incarnation of Amita-buddha (BCW 14:425-8; SD 1:108&n).

A more mystical significance is founded in the fact that when a buddha or avatara appears or whenever an effort is made to aid mankind along spiritual lines, the powers of darkness automatically react along their own lines. This corresponding tendency to evil is the fundamental significance of Antichrist — Christos being the name of the high initiate in whom was imbodied a ray of the Logos.

Amrita-yana (Sanskrit) Amṛta-yāna [from a not + mṛta dead from the verbal root mṛ to die + yāna path, vehicle] The path of immortality; in The Voice of the Silence the path followed by the Buddhas of Compassion or of Perfection. It is the “secret path,” the arya (noble) path of the heart doctrine of esoteric wisdom. The Buddhas of Compassion instead of donning the dharmakaya vesture and then entering nirvana, as the Pratyeka Buddhas do, give up nirvana and assume the nirmanakaya robe, thus enabling them to work directly for all beings less evolved than they; and because of this great individual sacrifice, the nirmanakaya condition is in one sense the holiest of the trikaya (three vestures). The amrita-yana is thus a lofty spiritual pathway, and leads to the ineffable glories of self-conscious immortality in the cosmic manvantaric “eternity.”

anandabuddha ::: (van.i) expressing ananda on the mental plane. anandabuddha

Ananda (Sanskrit) Ānanda [from ā-nand to rejoice, be delighted] Bliss, joy, happiness; the favorite disciple of Gautama Buddha, who served his teacher with utmost devotion for twenty years and is credited with having recited, shortly after the Buddha’s parinibbana (great passing away), the entire buddhavachana (word of Buddha).

Anatta (Pali) Anattā [from an not + attā self, soul] Non-self, nonegoity; a Buddhist doctrine postulating that there is no unchanging, permanent self (atta, Sanskrit atman) in the human being, in contrast to the Upanishad view that the atman or inner essence of a human being is identic with Brahman, the Supreme, which pervades and is the universe. While Gautama Buddha stresses the nonreality of self, regarding as continuous only its attributes (the five khandas; Sanskrit skandhas) which return at rebirth, there is scriptural testimony in both Southern and Northern Schools that the Buddha recognized a fundamental selfhood in the human constitution (ET 593-4 3rd & rev ed).

Anatta-vada: (Pali) Theory (vada) of the non-existence of soul (anatta) one of the fundamental teachings of Gautama Buddha (q.v.) who regarded all ideas about the soul or self wrong, inadequate or illusory. -- K.F.L.

Apart from the remarkable learning that these earlier works display, two things are noteworthy about them. The first is that they are principally based on a single source language or Buddhist tradition. The second is that they are all at least a half-century old. Many things have changed in the field of Buddhist Studies over the past fifty years, some for the worse, some very much for the better. One looks back in awe at figures like Louis de la Vallée Poussin and his student Msgr. Étienne Lamotte, who were able to use sources in Sanskrit, PAli, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan with a high level of skill. Today, few scholars have the luxury of time to develop such expertise. Yet this change is not necessarily a sign of the decline of the dharma predicted by the Buddha; from several perspectives, we are now in the golden age of Buddhist Studies. A century ago, scholarship on Buddhism focused on the classical texts of India and, to a much lesser extent, China. Tibetan and Chinese sources were valued largely for the access they provided to Indian texts lost in the original Sanskrit. The Buddhism of Korea was seen as an appendage to the Buddhism of China or as a largely unacknowledged source of the Buddhism of Japan. Beyond the works of "the PAli canon," relatively little was known of the practice of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. All of this has changed for the better over the past half century. There are now many more scholars of Buddhism, there is a much higher level of specialization, and there is a larger body of important scholarship on each of the many Buddhist cultures of Asia. In addition, the number of adherents of Buddhism in the West has grown significantly, with many developing an extensive knowledge of a particular Buddhist tradition, whether or not they hold the academic credentials of a professional Buddhologist. It has been our good fortune to be able to draw upon this expanding body of scholarship in preparing The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.

Arahant (Pali) Arahant [from the verbal root arh to be worthy; or from ari foe + the verbal root han to slay] The worthy one; enemy, slayer. One who has attained the highest state next to being a buddha, especially one who has freed himself from the asavas (Sanskrit asrava) — intoxication or bewilderment of mind or sense. The term arahant, like the Sanskrit arhat, is often popularly used for individuals of less exalted grade. See also ARHAT; ARAHATTA

Architects [from Greek architektones master-builders] Among groups of the creators such as the cosmocratores, demiourgoi, and dhyani-chohans, architect applies to the designers, those possessing and using the ideational faculties, and the term builder applies to the workmen or those who execute the general design. “The architects form the higher or more spiritual side, and actually form the line of the luminous arc; and the builders or constructors form, on the other hand, the shadowy arc” (Fund 507-8). The architects are the dhyani-buddhas, the principle creators, the elohim, synthesized by demiourgus; they follow the plan of the inherent divine thought.

Arhat is both the way and the waygoer; and while the term is close philosophically to anagamin, the distinction between the two lies in their mystical connotations rather than in their etymological definitions. Arhat has a wider significance inasmuch as it applies to those noblest of the Buddha’s disciples who were “worthy” of receiving, because comprehending, the Tathagata’s heart doctrine, the more esoteric and mystical portions of his message.

Ariya Atthangika Magga (Pali) Ariya Aṭṭhaṅgika Magga [from ariya noble + aṭṭhaṅgika eight-limbed, eightfold from aṭṭha eight + aṇga limb, division + magga way, road from the verbal root mṛg to track, trace, investigate] Noble eightfold path; the fourth of the Four Noble Truths (chattari ariyasachchani) traditionally held to constitute the initial discourse of Gautama Buddha, comprising: 1) right insight (sammaditthi); 2) right resolve (sammasamkappa); 3) right speech (sammavacha); 4) right action (sammakammanta); 5) right living (sammajiva); 6) right effort (sammavayama); 7) right mindfulness, right recollection (sammasati); 8) right concentration (sammasamadhi). See also ARYASHTANGAMARGA (for Sanskrit equivalents).

Ariyasachcha (Pali) Ariyasacca [from ariya noble, distinguished, of high birth + sacca real, true] Noble truth; in the plural, the Four Noble Truths (chattari ariyasachchani) set forth by Gautama Buddha in his first sermon: 1) pain (duhkha); 2) cause, origin of pain (samudaya) is desire (panha); 3) destruction of desire eliminates pain (nirodha); and 4) the road or footpath (magga), the noble eightfold way (ariya atthangika magga). See also ARYASATYA (for Sanskrit equivalents)

Aryasangha (Sanskrit) Āryasaṃgha Founder of the first Yogacharya school, a direct disciple of Gautama Buddha; also a sage who lived in about the 5th or 6th century, who mixed Tantric worship with the Yogacharya system. The followers of the latter “claimed that he was the same Aryasangha, that had been a follower of Sakyamuni, and that he was 1,000 years old. Internal evidence alone is sufficient to show that the works written by him and translated about the year 600 of our era, works full of Tantra worship, ritualism, and tenets followed now considerably by the ‘red-cap’ sects in Sikhim, Bhutan, and Little Tibet, cannot be the same as the lofty system of the early Yogacharya school of pure Buddhism, which is neither northern or southern, but absolutely esoteric. Though none of the genuine Yogacharya books (the Narjol chodpa) have ever been made public or marketable, yet one finds in the Yogacharya Bhumi Shastra of the pseudo-Aryasangha a great deal from the older system, into the tenets of which he may have been initiated. It is, however, so mixed up with Sivaism and Tantrika magic and superstitions, that the work defeats its own end, notwithstanding its remarkable dialectical subtilty” (TG 323).

Aryasatyani: The Four Noble Truths (q.v.) taught by Gautama Buddha.

Aryashtangamarga (Sanskrit) Āryāṣṭāṅgamārga [from ārya holy, noble + aṣṭa eight + aṅga limb, division + mārga path, way from the verbal root mṛg to seek, strive to attain, investigate] Holy eight-limbed way; in Buddhism the Noble Eightfold Path enunciated by Gautama Buddha as the fourth of the Four Noble Truths (chattari aryasatyani). Consistent practice of aryashtangamarga leads the disciple ultimately to perfect wisdom, love, and liberation from samsara (the round of repetitive births and deaths). The Eightfold Path is enumerated as: 1) samyagdrishti (right insight); 2) samyaksamkalpa (right resolve); 3) samyagvach (right speech); 4) samyakkarmantra (right action); 5) samyagajiva (right living); 6) samyagvyayama (right exertion); 7) samyaksmriti (right recollection); and 8) samyaksamadhi (right concentration). See also ARIYA ATTHANGIKA MAGGA (for Pali equivalents)

As a noun, originally one who had fully attained his spiritual ideals. In Buddhism arhat (Pali arahant) is the title generally given to those of Gautama Buddha’s disciples who had progressed the farthest during his lifetime and immediately thereafter; more specifically to those who had attained nirvana, emancipation from earthly fetters and the attainment of full enlightenment. Arhat is broadly equivalent to the Egyptian hierophant, the Chaldean magus, and Hindu rishi, as well as being generally applicable to ascetics. On occasion it is used for the loftiest beings in a hierarchy: “The Arhats of the ‘fire-mist’ of the 7th run are but one remove from the Root-base of their Hierarchy — the highest on Earth, and our Terrestrial chain” (SD 1:207).

As a planetary deity Odin is connected with Mercury, and his day is Wednesday (Woden’s day). He has many names, each fitting the role he has to play. At the beginning of a life cycle he is named Ofner (opener), while at the end he is called Svafner (closer). Blavatsky refers to the human Odin as “one of these thirty-five Buddhas; one of the earliest, indeed, for the continent to which he and his race belonged, is also one of the earliest” (SD 2:423).

As cosmic evolution was taught in the Orphic Mysteries by allegory, so was the evolution of the individual soul or microcosm, centering in the mythos of Zagreus, later Zagreus-Dionysos, the Greek savior, which the Greek Dionysian Mysteries sought to unfold in dramatic and veiled or symbolic literary form. “Dionysos is one with Osiris, with Krishna, and with Buddha (the heavenly wise), and with the coming (tenth) Avatar, the glorified Spiritual Christos . . .” (SD 2:420).

As early as one hundred years after the Buddha died and had entered his parinirvana, differences in the doctrines and discipline of the Order become manifest. In the course of the centuries two basic trends developed into what has become popular to call the Hinayana (the lesser vehicle or path) or Theravada (doctrine of the elders), and Mahayana (the greater vehicle or path). The Theravada emphasized the fourfold path leading to nirvana, total liberation of the arhat from material concerns. The Mahayana held the bodhisattvayana as the ideal, the way of compassion for all sentient beings, culminating in renunciation of nirvana in order to return and inspire others “to awake and follow the dhamma.” It is this fundamental difference in goal that characterizes the Old Wisdom School (arhatship) from the New Wisdom School (bodhsattvahood). See also BUDDHA OF COMPASSION; PRATYEKA BUDDHA

A second meaning as a noun is one of the portions of Vedic literature containing rules for the proper chanting and usage of the mantras or hymns at sacrifices, and explanations in detail of what these sacrifices are, illustrated by legends and old stories. These Brahmanas are “pre-eminently occult works, hence used purposely as blinds. They were allowed to survive for public use and property only because they were and are absolutely unintelligible to the masses. Otherwise they would have disappeared from circulation as long ago as the days of Akbar” (SD 1:68). Though the Brahmanas are the oldest scholastic treatises on the primitive hymns, they themselves require a key for a proper understanding of them which Orientalists have hitherto failed to secure. Since the time of Gautama Buddha, the keys to the Brahmanical secret code have been in the possession of initiates alone, who guard their treasure with extreme and jealous care. There are indeed few, if any, individuals of the present-day Brahmanical cast in India who are even conscious that such keys exists; although no small number of them, possibly, have intimations or intuitions that a secret wisdom has been lost which is uniformly understood to have been in the possession of the ancient Indian rishis.

Ashta-siddhis (Sanskrit) Aṣṭa-siddhi-s [from aṣṭa eight + siddhi supernormal powers] The eight supernormal powers or faculties innate in man but at present generally latent or undeveloped, although attainable when a person reaches the status of a buddha. See also IDDHI; SIDDHI

A. The first vowel and letter in the Sanskrit alphabet. The phoneme "a" is thought to be the source of all other phonemes and its corresponding letter the origin of all other letters. As the basis of both the Sanskrit phonemic system and the written alphabet, the letter "a" thus comes to be invested with mystical significance as the source of truth, nondifferentiation, and emptiness (suNYATA), or even of the universe as a whole. The PRAJNAPARAMITASARVATATHAGATAMATA-EKAKsARA, the shortest of the perfection of wisdom scriptures, also describes how the entirety of the perfection of wisdom is subsumed by this one letter. The letter in the Sanskrit SIDDHAM alphabet gained special significance within the esoteric Buddhist traditions in Japan (MIKKYo), such as Shingon (see SHINGONSHu), which considered it to be the "seed" (BĪJA) of MAHAVAIROCANA, the central divinity of esoteric Buddhism, and used it in a distinctive type of meditation called AJIKAN ("contemplation of the letter 'a'"). The letter "a," which is said to be originally uncreated (AJI HONPUSHo), is interpreted to be the essence of all phenomena in the universe and the DHARMAKAYA of the buddha MahAvairocana. In the East Asian CHAN traditions, the letter "a" is also sometimes understood to represent the buddha-nature (FOXING, S. BUDDHADHATU) of all sentient beings.

Atonement Reconciliation brought about by a re-formation of the lower, so that it may become at one with the higher. Hence a number of Occidental mystics refer to the processes of atonement involving the foregoing idea as at-one-ment. In its best sense atonement means the becoming at one between the human ego and its spiritual counterpart, where the life or vitality of the lower personal man is offered up as a sacrifice, willing and utterly joyful, to the higher self. Thus the life which the hierophant is enjoined to offer is not his physical life, but the undesirable and imperfect life of his lower self, the selfish personality. The custom of sacrificing helpless animals — a custom protested against by Gautama Buddha in particular — is but an instance of the way in which lofty spiritual teachings or initiatory ceremonies can degenerate into repellent or cruel rites. Nevertheless, “the atonements by blood — blood-covenants and blood transferences from gods to men, and by men, as sacrifices to the gods — are the first keynote struck in every cosmogony and theogony; soul, life and blood were synonymous words in every language . . . The mystic meaning of the injunction, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves’ [John 6:53] . . . [has] to be interpreted with the help of three keys — one opening the psychic door, the second that of physiology, and the third that which unlocks the mystery of terrestrial being, by unveiling the inseparable blending of theogony with anthropology” (BCW 8:181-2).

Attavada (Pali) Attavāda [from attā self (Sanskrit ātman) + vāda theory, disputation from the verbal root vad to speak] Atmavada (Sanskrit) The theory of a persistent soul. A study of Buddhist sutras or suttas shows that Gautama Buddha intended the term to convey the meaning of the heresy of separateness, the belief that one’s self or soul is different and apart from the one universal self, Brahman. Its importance in philosophy and mystical thought, and its genuine Buddhist significance, lies in the fact that Buddhism does not deny the existence of a soul, but strongly emphasizes the fact that no such soul is either a special creation or in its essence different from and other than the cosmic self. Hence the meaning of the heresy of separateness, because those who hold this view are under the constant false impression that in themselves they are different from, and other than, the universe in which they live, move, and have all their being.

Aupapaduka(Sanskrit) ::: A compound term meaning "self-produced," "spontaneously generated." It is a term applied inBuddhism to a class of celestial beings called dhyani-buddhas; and because these dhyani-buddhas areconceived of as issuing forth from the bosom of Adi-buddhi or the kosmic mahat without intermediaryagency, are they mystically said to be, as H. P. Blavatsky puts it, "parentless" or "self-existing," i.e., bornwithout any parents or progenitors. They are therefore the originants or root from which the hierarchy ofbuddhas of various grades flows forth in mystical procession or emanation or evolution.There are variants of this word in Sanskrit literature, but they all have the same meaning. The termaupapaduka is actually a key word, opening a doctrine which is extremely difficult to set forth; but thedoctrine itself is inexpressibly sublime. Indeed, not only are there aupapaduka divinities of the solarsystem, but also of every organic entity, because the core of the core of any organic entity is such anaupapaduka divinity. It is, in fact, a very mystical way of stating the doctrine of the "inner god."[NOTE: Later research shows that anupapadaka, as found in Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-EnglishDictionary, is a misreading of aupapaduka. Cf. Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammarand Dictionary, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1953, 2:162. -- PUBLISHER]

Aupapaduka (Sanskrit) Aupapāduka Pali opapatika. Self-produced, spontaneously generated (research shows that anupapadaka, as found in Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary, is a misreading of aupapaduka. Cf. Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1953, 2:162). One who does not go or come (as others do): parentless, having no material parent. One who is self-born by reason of his own intrinsic energy, without parents or predecessors from which his existence or activities are derived, as is the usual case in line descent; applied therefore to certain self-evolving gods. In Buddhism, used with particular reference to the dhyani-buddhas, who issue forth from adi-buddha without intermediary agency.

Avaivartika (Sanskrit) Avaivartika [from a not + vi-vṛt to turn around, revolve] Non-revolving, nontransmigrating; in the case of a reimbodying entity, one who is advanced so far on the evolutionary path that he is no longer enslaved by, or enchained in, the whirling waves of samsara. Hence also translated “one who does not revolve any more,” applied to seventh round human beings, and therefore strictly referable to one who has reached nirvana. Also applied to every buddha “who turns no more back; who goes straight to Nirvana” (TG 44), for whether nirvana is entered as in the case of the Pratyeka Buddhas, or whether the avaivartika renounces that lofty state and remains in the nirmanakaya as a Buddha of Compassion, both classes of buddhas have passed beyond the necessity of “revolving” any more in this round.

Avalokitesvara(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word: avalokita, "perceived," "seen"; Isvara, "lord"; hence "the Lord who isperceived or cognized," i.e., the spiritual entity, whether in the kosmos or in the human being, whoseinfluence is perceived and felt; the higher self. This is a term commonly employed in Buddhism, andconcerning which a number of intricate and not easily understood teachings exist. The esoteric or occultinterpretation, however, sees in Avalokitesvara what Occidental philosophy calls the Third Logos, bothcelestial and human. In the solar system it is the Third Logos thereof; and in the human being it is thehigher self, a direct and active ray of the divine monad. Technically Avalokitesvara is thedhyani-bodhisattva of Amitabha-Buddha -- Amitabha-Buddha is the kosmic divine monad of which thedhyani-bodhisattva is the individualized spiritual ray, and of this latter again the manushya-buddha orhuman buddha is a ray or offspring.

Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit) Avalokiteśvara [from ava down, away from + the verbal root lok to look at, contemplate + īśvara lord] The lord who is perceived; the divinity or lord seen or contemplated in its inferior or “downward-seen” aspect. The essential meaning in theosophy is the Logos, whether considered in its kosmic aspect or in its function in an entity dwelling in such kosmos. “Simultaneously with the evolution of the Universal Mind, the concealed Wisdom of Adi-Buddha — the One Supreme and eternal — manifests itself as Avalokiteshwara (or manifested Iswara), which is the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Heavenly Man of the Hermetic philosopher, the Logos of the Platonists, and the Atman of the Vedantins” (SD 1:110).

“Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development—Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” Letters on Yoga

Avatar ::: We have to remark c
   refully that the upholding of Dharma in the world is not the only object of the descent of the Avatar, that great mystery of the Divine manifest in humanity; for the upholding of the Dharma is not an all-sufficient object in itself, not the supreme possible aim for the manifestation of a Christ, a Krishna, a Buddha, but is only the general condition of a higher aim and a more supreme and divine utility. For there are two aspects of the divine birth; one is a descent, the birth of God in humanity, the Godhead manifesting itself in the human form and nature, the eternal Avatar; the other is an ascent, the birth of man into the Godhead, man rising into the divine nature and consciousness, madbhavam agatah. ; it is the being born anew in a second birth of the soul. It is that new birth which Avatarhood and the upholding of the Dharma are intended to serve.
   Ref: CWSA Vol.19 , Page: 147-48


Bacchus (Greek) Used by both Greeks and Romans, also called Dionysos by the Greeks, Liber by the Romans, Zagreus in the Orphic mysteries, Sabazius in Phrygia and Thrace; the same as Iacchus (connected with Iao and Jehovah). Generally represented as the son of Zeus and Semele, he is spoken of sometimes as a solar and sometimes as a lunar deity; for, like many other personifications of cosmic powers, he has both a solar and lunar (masculine or feminine) aspect. As a solar deity he has a serpent for his symbol and is a man-savior, parallel with Adonis, Osiris, Krishna, Buddha, and Christos. He is often called the god of wine, natural fertility, etc.

Barhaspatyamana (Sanskrit) Bārhaspatyamāna [from bṛhaspati Jupiter + the verbal root mā to measure] Jupiter’s measure of time; a method of reckoning time based on the year of Jupiter, in which an earth-year is calculated as 361 days and 11 ghadias. One of the three methods of reckoning time used during the age when Gautama Buddha lived, especially in Magadha and by Pali writers in general, and still in use in parts of India.

Buddha ::: [a great sage, sometimes considered to be one of the avataras of Visnu]; the awakened spirit.

Buddha: An enlightened and wise individual who has attained perfect wisdom. Specifically applied to Gautama Siddhartha, founder of Buddhism in the sixth century B.C.

Buddha [Budh Avatar]

Buddhachchhaya (Sanskrit) Buddhacchāyā [from buddha awakened one + chāyā shadow] The shadow of the Buddha; during certain commemorative Buddhist celebrations, an image said to have appeared in the temples and in a certain cave visited by Hiuen-Tsang (c. 602 – 664), the famous Chinese traveler (IU 1:600-01).

Buddha Gautama. See GAUTAMA

Buddhakshetra (Sanskrit) Buddhakṣetra [from buddha awakened + kṣetra field, sphere of action] The sphere of action of an enlightened one. According to theosophy, there are four (or seven) buddhakshetras or fields in which the buddhas manifest and do their sublime work of benevolence which, counting from above, are: 1) the realms in which the dhyani-buddhas live and work; 2) the realms in which the dhyani-bodhisttvas live and work, called by Blavatsky “the domain of ideation”; 3) the realms of the manushya-buddhas, in which these work as nirmanakayas; and 4) the field of action in which the human buddhas work, the ordinary human world — our physical globe.

Buddhangums (Sanskrit) Buddhāṅga [from buddha enlightened + aṅga limb, science] Buddha-science or the essence of occult wisdom and knowledge.

Buddha of Compassion One who, having gained the right to nirvana, renounces it to return to help all living beings. “They are men who have raised themselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, the light of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the human soul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry and selfish: through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words, through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becoming god-men, man-gods — human divinities.

Buddhaphala (Sanskrit) Buddhaphala [from buddha enlightened + phala fruit] The fruit of the Buddha, which is won when the arhat has attained the fruition of arhatship (arhattvaphala).

Buddha (Sanskrit) Buddha [from the verbal root budh to perceive, awaken, recover consciousness] Awakened, enlightened; one who is spiritually awakened, who has become one with the supreme self (paramatman).

Buddha(Sanskrit) ::: The past participle of the root budh, meaning "to perceive," "to become cognizant of," also "toawaken," and "to recover consciousness." It signifies one who is spiritually awakened, no longer living"the living death" of ordinary men, but awakened to the spiritual influence from within or from "above."When man has awakened from the living death in which ordinary mortals live, when he has cast off thetoils of both mind and flesh and, to use the old Christian term, has put on the garments of eternity, thenhe has awakened, he is a buddha. He has become one with -- not "absorbed" as is constantly translatedbut has become one with -- the Self of selves, with the paramatman, the Supreme Self. (See also Bodhi,Buddhi)A buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in thismanvantara; they have reached nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lowercenters of consciousness of a buddha are in nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enablesa Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind's supreme guide andinstructor, living usually as a nirmanakaya.

Buddha-Siddhartha. See GAUTAMA

Buddha(s) of Compassion ::: One who, having won all, gained all -- gained the right to kosmic peace and bliss -- renounces it so thathe may return as a Son of Light in order to help humanity, and indeed all that is.The Buddhas of Compassion are the noblest flowers of the human race. They are men who have raisedthemselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, thelight of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the humansoul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry andselfish; through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words,through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becominggod-men, man-gods -- human divinities.They are called Buddhas of Compassion because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feelintimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, untilfinally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because itis at one with the universe. "The dewdrop slips into the shining sea" -- its origin.Feeling the urge of almighty love in their hearts, the Buddhas of Compassion advance forever steadilytowards still greater heights of spiritual achievement; and the reason is that they have become thevehicles of universal love and universal wisdom. As impersonal love is universal, their whole natureexpands consequently with the universal powers that are working through them. The Buddhas ofCompassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from theSilent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and evenbeyond themselves to their chelas or disciples. Spiritually and mystically they contrast strongly withwhat Asiatic occultism, through the medium of Buddhism, has called the Pratyeka Buddhas.

Buddhas of Contemplation. See DHYANI-BUDDHA

Buddha, which the mind of man seizes on for adoration. To be able to see a living form, a mental body, as it were, of the

Bhadra-kalpa (Sanskrit) Bhadra-kalpa [from bhadra auspicious, blessed + kalpa age] The time period of the sages; the present age, said exoterically to last 236 million years, so called because 1,000 buddhas or sages appear in the course of it. “The Bhadra Kalpa, or the ‘period of stability,’ is the name of our present Round, esoterically — its duration applying, of course, only to our globe (D), the ‘1,000’ Buddhas being thus in reality limited to but forty-nine in all” (TG 55-6).

Bhagavat, Bhagavan (Sanskrit) Bhagavat, Bhagavān Glorious, revered, divine; hence gracious lord, patron. Used of gods, demigods, and highly revered beings such as Gautama Buddha, Krishna, and Vishnu.

Bhutatathata: (Skr.) "So-ness", the highest state conceivable by the Vijnana-vada (s.v.) in which there is a complete coincidentia oppositorum of beings and elements of knowledge; directly identified with the Adi-Buddha, or eternal Buddha, in Vajrayana Buddhism. -- K.F.L.

Blavatsky says that “rebirths may be divided into three classes: the divine incarnations called Avataras; those of Adepts who give up Nirvana for the sake of helping on humanity — the Nirmanakayas; and the natural succession of rebirths for all — the common law. The Avatara . . . is a descent of the manifested Deity — whether under the specific name of Siva, Vishnu, or Adi-Buddha — into an illusive form of individuality, an appearance which to men on this illusive plane is objective, but it is not so in sober fact. That illusive form having neither past nor future, because it had neither previous incarnation nor will have subsequent rebirths, has naught to do with Karma, which has therefore no hold on it” (BCW 14:373-4).

Bodhi ::: A Sanskrit and Pali term used in Buddhism to refer to the fundamental understanding about the nature of causality. Etymologically it refers to an "awakening" and can sometimes be synonomously viewed as the understanding inculcated by the spiritual journey toward enlightenment. Can also refer to the Bodhi Tree under which the Buddha supposedly attained full enlightenment.

bodhi. ::: awakened; enlightenment; buddhahood

Bodhi is also a name for the mystical tree under which legend says Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment, known as the sacred fig tree of India. See also Asvattha

Bodhi (Sanskrit) Bodhi [from the verbal root budh to acquire understanding, awaken] Perfect wisdom or enlightenment; true divine wisdom. A state of consciousness in which one has so emptied the mind that it is filled only with the selfless selfhood of the eternal. In this state one realizes the ineffable visions of reality and of pure truth. Bodhi is a name for the enlightened intellect of buddha. “ ‘Bodhi’ is likewise the name of a particular state of trance condition, called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge” (SD 1:xix). The bodhi state is called a buddha, and the organ in and by which it is manifested is termed buddhi.

Bodhi(Sanskrit) ::: This word comes from the root budh, meaning "to awaken." It is the state when man has soemptied his mind that it is filled only with the self itself, with the selfless selfhood of the eternal. Then herealizes the ineffable visions of reality, of pure truth. The man who reaches this state is called a buddha,and the organ in and by which it is manifested, is termed buddhi.

Bodhisattva(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word: literally "he whose essence (sattva) has become intelligence (bodhi)." Asexplained exoterically, a bodhisattva means one who in another incarnation or in a few more incarnationswill become a buddha. A bodhisattva from the standpoint of the occult teachings is more than that. Whena man, a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its innerdivinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray -- where, so to say, the personal man has put on thegarments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now -- that man is a bodhisattva. Hishigher principles have nearly reached nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a buddha, a humanbuddha, a manushya-buddha. Obviously, if such a bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnationor in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a manushya-buddha. A buddha, in theesoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached nirvana andremain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine touse popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth outof pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a nirmanakaya. In a very mysticalpart of the esoteric philosophy, a bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a dhyani-buddha orcelestial buddha -- in other words, one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own divinemonad.

Bodhisattva (Sanskrit) Bodhisattva [from bodhi wisdom + sattva essence] He whose essence has become intelligence; exoterically, one who in one or a few more incarnations will become a buddha. Occultly, when

Bodhisattva: Sanskrit for existence in wisdom. In Buddhist terminology, one who has gone through the ten stages (dasa-bhumi —q.v.) to spiritual perfection and is qualified to enter Nirvana and become a Buddha, but prefers to remain a Buddha-to-be in order to work for the salvation and deification of all beings.

Bodhisattva: (Skr.) "Existence (sattva) in a state of wisdom (bodhi)", such as was attained by Gautama Buddha (s.v.); a Buddhist wise and holy man. -- K.F.L.

Bodhi Tree or Bo Tree The tree of wisdom or knowledge; the tree (Pippala or Ficus religiosa) “under which Sakyamuni meditated for seven years and then reached Buddhaship. It was originally 400 feet high, it is claimed; but when Hiouen-Tsang saw it, about the year 640 of our era, it was only 50 feet high. Its cuttings have been carried all over the Buddhist world and are planted in front of almost every Vihara or temple of fame in China, Siam, Ceylon, and Tibet” (TG 59).

Bon, Bön (Tibetan) [possible variation of bod Tibet, or an ancient word meaning invoker] Also pon and bhon. The Tibetan religion before the introduction of Buddhism in the latter half of the 8th century. The priest and adherents of Bon are called Bonpos (bon po), the ancient invokers for the pre-Buddhist and non-Buddhist kings and nobles of Tibet. The Bon religion, which survives today, seems based on at least four sources: 1) the ancient folk religions of the Tibetan people; 2) the tradition of the ancient “invokers”; 3) a conscious competition with Buddhism in terms of doctrine, texts, institutions, pantheon, and ritual; and 4) a number of non-Tibetan influences, including Hindu, Iranian, Central Asian, and other elements. Bon has been influenced by Buddhism to the extent that it has its own Kanjur and Tanjur, its own monks and monasteries, and its own “Buddha,” Shen-rab (gshen rab). All existing Bon literature was produced after the introduction of Buddhism, and shows the influence of and competition with Buddhism. Bon has also influenced Tibetan Buddhism, especially the Nyingmapa and Kargyupa sects.

boodh ::: n. --> Same as Buddha.

bo tree ::: --> The peepul tree; esp., the very ancient tree standing at Anurajahpoora in Ceylon, grown from a slip of the tree under which Gautama is said to have received the heavenly light and so to have become Buddha.

Bruno, Giordano: (1548-1600) A Dominican monk, eventually burned at the stake because of his opinions, he was converted from Christianity to a naturalistic and mystical pantheism by the Renaissance and particularly by the new Copernican astronomy. For him God and the universe were two names for one and the same Reality considered now as the creative essence of all things, now as the manifold of realized possibilities in which that essence manifests itself. As God, natura naturans, the Real is the whole, the one transcendent and ineffable. As the Real is the infinity of worlds and objects and events into which the whole divides itself and in which the one displays the infinite potentialities latent within it. The world-process is an ever-lasting going forth from itself and return into itself of the divine nature. The culmination of the outgoing creative activity is reached in the human mind, whose rational, philosophic search for the one in the many, simplicity in variety, and the changeless and eternal in the changing and temporal, marks also the reverse movement of the divine nature re-entering itself and regaining its primordial unity, homogeneity, and changelessness. The human soul, being as it were a kind of boomerang partaking of the ingrowing as well as the outgrowing process, may hope at death, not to be dissolved with the body, which is borne wholly upon the outgoing stream, but to return to God whence it came and to be reabsorbed in him. Cf. Rand, Modern Classical Philosophers, selection from Bruno's On Cause, The Principle and the One. G. Bruno: De l'infinito, universo e mundo, 1584; Spaccio della bestia trionfante, 1584; La cena delta ceneri, 1584; Deglieroici furori, 1585; De Monade, 1591. Cf. R. Honigswald, Giordano Bruno; G. Gentile, Bruno nella storia della cultura, 1907. -- B.A.G.F. Brunschvicg, Leon: (1869-) Professor of Philosophy at the Ecole Normale in Paris. Dismissed by the Nazis (1941). His philosophy is an idealistic synthesis of Spinoza, Kant and Schelling with special stress on the creative role of thought in cultural history as well as in sciences. Main works: Les etapes de la philosophie mathematique, 1913; L'experience humaine et la causalite physique, 1921; De la connaissance de soi, 1931. Buddhism: The multifarious forms, philosophic, religious, ethical and sociological, which the teachings of Gautama Buddha (q.v.) have produced. They centre around the main doctrine of the catvari arya-satyani(q.v.), the four noble truths, the last of which enables one in eight stages to reach nirvana (q.v.): Right views, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. In the absence of contemporary records of Buddha and Buddhistic teachings, much value was formerly attached to the palm leaf manuscripts in Pali, a Sanskrit dialect; but recently a good deal of weight has been given also the Buddhist tradition in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. Buddhism split into Mahayanism and Hinayanism (q.v.), each of which, but particularly the former, blossomed into a variety of teachings and practices. The main philosophic schools are the Madhyamaka or Sunyavada, Yogacara, Sautrantika, and Vaibhasika (q.v.). The basic assumptions in philosophy are a causal nexus in nature and man, of which the law of karma (q.v.) is but a specific application; the impermanence of things, and the illusory notion of substance and soul. Man is viewed realistically as a conglomeration of bodily forms (rupa), sensations (vedana), ideas (sanjna), latent karma (sanskaras), and consciousness (vijnana). The basic assumptions in ethics are the universality of suffering and the belief in a remedy. There is no god; each one may become a Buddha, an enlightened one. Also in art and esthetics Buddhism has contributed much throughout the Far East. -- K.F.L.

buddha. ::: an awakened one

buddha ::: mental; the mental plane, the plane of buddhi.

buddha ::: n. --> The title of an incarnation of self-abnegation, virtue, and wisdom, or a deified religious teacher of the Buddhists, esp. Gautama Siddartha or Sakya Sinha (or Muni), the founder of Buddhism.

BUDDHA (Skt, the awakened one) Title of a 42-self, initiate of the 8th degree. Gautama Buddha is the fourth buddha in the current eon. His three predecessors were called Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kashyapa (K 6.12.33)

buddha tapas ::: mental will-power; same as intellectual / mental tapas.

Buddhism ::: A philosophy and religion that encompasses a variety of traditions and practices but which has at its core the principles taught by the Buddha that lead to clarifying the nature of the self, liberating the idea of self from suffering, and reaching full enlightenment.

buddhism ::: n. --> The religion based upon the doctrine originally taught by the Hindoo sage Gautama Siddartha, surnamed Buddha, "the awakened or enlightened," in the sixth century b. c., and adopted as a religion by the greater part of the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Asia and the Indian Islands. Buddha&

Buddhism: The multifarious forms, philosophic, religious, ethical and sociological, which the teachings of Gautama Buddha have produced, and which form the religion of hundreds of millions in China, Japan, etc. They center around the main doctrine of the arya satyani, the four noble truths (q.v.), the last of which enables one in eight stages to reach nirvana (q.v.): Right views, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Buddhism ::: The teachings of Gautama the Buddha. Buddhism today is divided into two branches, the Northern andthe Southern. The Southern still retains the teachings of the "Buddha's brain," the "eye doctrine," that isto say his outer philosophy for the general world, sometimes inadequately called the doctrine of formsand ceremonies. The Northern still retains his "heart doctrine" -- that which is hid, the inner life, theheart-blood, of the religion: the doctrine of the inner heart of the teaching.The religious philosophy of the Buddha-Sakyamuni is incomparably nearer to the ancient wisdom, theesoteric philosophy of the archaic ages, than is Christianity. Its main fault today is that teachers later thanthe Buddha himself carried its doctrines too far along merely formal or exoteric lines; yet, with all that, tothis day it remains the purest and holiest of the exoteric religions on earth, and its teachings evenexoterically are true -- once they are properly understood. They need but the esoteric key in interpretationof them. As a matter of fact, the same may be said of all the great ancient world religions. Christianity,Brahmanism, Taoism, and others all have the same esoteric wisdom behind the outward veil of theexoteric formal faith.

Buddhism was introduced into Tibet in the latter half of the 8th century, but was colored by a Tantric element and Bon, the pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion, both of which were quite foreign to the teachings of Gautama Buddha. The state of the priesthood was then so low, and the religion so degraded, that the reforms instituted by Tsong-kha-pa were generally welcomed. A far stricter code of morals was laid down for the priests who were forbidden to marry or to drink wine; and to distinguish the Kah-dum-pas (those bound by ordinances), the wearing of yellow robes and hoods was inaugurated in contradistinction to the red robes and the black robes of the degenerate sects; hence following Chinese usage, the Gelukpas are commonly called the Yellow Caps, Yellow Hats, or Yellow Hoods.

buddhist ::: n. --> One who accepts the teachings of Buddhism. ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Buddha, Buddhism, or the Buddhists.

Buddhi uses manas as its garment, and in the former are likewise stored the fruitages of the many incarnations on earth; hence buddhi is often called both the seed and flower of manas. Buddhi is truly the center of spiritual consciousness and therefore its qualities are enduring. The purer and higher part of manas must awaken, by rising to it, this essential energy that inherently resides in buddhi so that the latter may become active in a person’s life. Buddha and Christ are examples of sages who had become human imbodiments of the usually latent qualities of buddhi. Buddhi becomes more or less conscious on this plane by the flowerings it draws from manas after every incarnation of the ego. “Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation” (Key 159-60).

Budha is also a name for the planet Mercury and its regent. Sirius was termed the star of Budha, “called the great instructor of mankind before other Buddhas” (SD 2:374).

Budhaism or Budhism [from Sanskrit budha wisdom] The anglicized form of the term for the teachings of divine philosophy, called in India budha (esoteric wisdom). It is equivalent to the Greek term theosophia. It must be distinguished from Buddhism, the philosophy of Gautama Buddha, although this is a direct and pure derivative from budhaism.

Budh Avatar (Buddha); Kalki Avatar. All these

Budh Avatar (Buddha)—the 9th of the 10

Caodaism: An esoteric religion and mystery cult founded in Indo-China in the 1920’s, claiming to have received its teaching from the Supreme Being (Cao Dai) through spiritualistic implements. It honors Christ, Buddha, Confucius and Lao-Tzu as saviors sent by the same deity. It teaches the existence of the soul, reincarnation and the law of Karma.

Catvari arya-satyani: (Skr.) "The four noble truths" of Gautama Buddha's (q.v.) teaching: Suffering exists; it has a cause; it may cease; there is a path leading to its cessation. -- K.F.L.

Celestial Buddhas. See DHYANI-BUDDHA

chaitanya &

Cheta or Che-ti (Chinese) Used in Chinese Buddhist works in reference to the famous Saptaparna Cave mentioned by a number of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and writers, such as Fa-hian and Hiuen-Tsang. This cave is supposed to be one of the spots where the brilliant shadow of Gautama Buddha may still be seen on the walls of the cave at certain times by those who are fit and ready to perceive it. It is stated that in this famous cave, Gautama Buddha used to meditate and teach his arhats and disciples.

Ching-fa-yin-Tsang (Chinese) The mystery of the eye of the good doctrine; in Chinese Buddhism, the esoteric teaching or interpretation of Gautama Buddha. However, “To any student of Buddhist Esotericism the term, ‘the Mystery of the Eye,’ would show the absence of any Esotericism” (BCW 14:444).

Choice, Moment of In theosophical literature, the point when the individual, on becoming a buddha, must decide either to renounce the world and its suffering and enter nirvana as a Pratyeka Buddha, or to return as a Buddha of Compassion to help others until all living beings reach nirvana. This decision will be determined by the aspirations and motives of the individual over many lives.

Chos (cho) (Tibetan) Translation of the Sanskrit dharma, in four main senses: 1) the teaching of the Buddha; 2) the reality or truth which the teaching points at; 3) in the plural, individual truths, realities, facts, events, distinguishable qualities or properties; and 4) a teaching in general, a religion.

Christos(Greek) Christos or "Christ" is a word literally signifying one who has been "anointed." This is a directreference, a direct allusion, to what happened during the celebration of the ancient Mysteries. Unction oranointing was one of the acts performed during the working of the rites of those ancient Mysteries in thecountries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The Hebrew word for an anointed one is mashiahh -"messiah" is a common way of misspelling the Hebrew word -- meaning exactly the same thing as theGreek word Christos.Each human being is an incarnation, an imbodiment, of a ray of his own inner god -- the divinity living inthe core of the core of each one. The modern Christians of a mystical bent of mind call it the ChristImmanent, the immanent Christos, and they are right as far as they go, but they do not carry the thoughtfar enough. Mystically speaking, the Christos is the deathless individuality; and when the strivingpersonal ego becomes united permanently with this stainless individuality, the resultant union is thehigher ego, "the living Christ" -- a Christ among men, or as the Buddhists would say, a human ormanushya-buddha.

Chutuktu, Hutukhtu (Mongolian) Also Khutukhtu, Houtouktou, etc. Saintly; same as the Tibetan tulku or chutuktu and the Chinese huo-fo (living buddha), rendered into Chinese by the ideographs tsai lai jen (the man who comes again, the one who returns), identic in meaning with the Buddhist tathagata. A high initiate or adept; those individuals who are, or are supposed to be, incarnations of a bodhisattva or some lower buddha; although these so-called incarnations may be not actual reimbodiments in the strict sense, but rather what may be described as overshadowings by a buddhic or buddha-power. The chutuktu is able, upon leaving his body at death, consciously to seek reimbodiment almost immediately in some child newly born, or at the moment of birth. Blavatsky states that it is commonly believed that there are “generally five manifesting and two secret Chutuktus among the high lamas” (TG 85).

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. Buddha and the Gospel of

Corresponding to the three Logoi in the Hindu scheme are Brahman, Brahma, and Isvara emanating originally from parabrahman-mulaprakriti. In the highly philosophical visioning of Mahayana Buddhism is adi-buddha, mahabuddhi, and the celestial buddha, occasionally indirectly called dharmakaya. On a scale of less magnitude, Hindu thought has developed the triad Brahma, the emanator or original emanation; Vishnu, the supporter or sustainer, a feminine characteristic nevertheless; and Siva at once the regenerator and producer in the sense of destroying but to regenerate. Still a third Hindu scheme is found in the series of paramatman, mahabuddhi or alaya, and mahat or cosmic creative mind.

Cosmocratores (Greek) Kosmokratores [from kosmos world + kratores lords] World lords; it occurs in Orphic literature, and in the New Testament Paul uses it of evil powers. In theosophy it is applied to the planetary regents who fabricated the solar system and who were hierarchically superior to the ones who fabricated our material earth (SD 2:23). The word is especially used in reference to three principal groups, corresponding to similar groups of dhyan-chohans and lipikas. The first group rebuilds worlds after pralaya, the second builds our planetary chain, and the third are the progenitors of humanity. Collectively they are the formative Logos, grouped under various names among different peoples, such as Osiris, Brahma-prajapati, Elohim, Adam-Qadmon, and Ormuzd. Again, “the Ases of Scandinavia, the rulers of the world which preceded ours, whose name means literally the ‘pillars of the world,’ its ‘supports,’ are thus identical with the Greek Cosmocratores, the ‘Seven Workmen or Rectors’ of Pymander, the seven Rishis and Pitris of India, the seven Chaldean gods and seven evil spirits, the seven Kabalistic Sephiroth synthesized by the upper triad, and even the seven Planetary Spirits of the Christian mystics” (SD 2:97). Following the plan of divine ideation they fashion systems out of primordial material, called aether, ilus, protyle, etc. The cosmocratores, as the Masons of the World, work in the vehicular or matter side of nature and receive the impress for their work from the hierarchy that works in the spirit side, the dhyani-buddhas or architects.

dagoba ::: n. --> A dome-shaped structure built over relics of Buddha or some Buddhist saint.

Dagoba (Singhalese) A dome-shaped structure (stupa) built over relics of Buddha or Buddhist saints.

Dakini (Sanskrit) Ḍākinī Female demons, vampires, and blood-drinkers, feeding on human flesh, attendant upon Kali, the consort of Siva; a type of evil elemental. Outside of mythologic explanations, the dakinis may be said to be one type of advanced elemental beings. “But with the Fourth Race we reach the purely human period. Those who were hitherto semi-divine Beings, self-imprisoned in bodies which were human only in appearance, became physiologically changed and took unto themselves wives who were entirely human and fair to look at, but in whom lower, more material, though sidereal, beings had incarnated. These beings in female forms (Lilith is the prototype of these in the Jewish traditions) are called in the esoteric accounts ‘Khado’ (Dakini, in Sanskrit). Allegorical legends call the chief of these Liliths, Sangye Khado (Buddha Dakini, in Sanskrit); all are credited with the art of ‘walking in the air,’ and the greatest kindness to mortals; but no mind — only animal instinct” (SD 2:284-5). See also LILITH

Dalada (Sanskrit) Daladā A relic of Gautama Buddha, his supposed left canine tooth, preserved at Kandy, Ceylon. “Unfortunately, the relic shown is not genuine. The latter has been securely secreted for several hundred years, ever since the shameful and bigoted attempt by the Portuguese (the then ruling power in Ceylon) to steal and make away with the real relic. That which is shown in the place of the real thing is the monstrous tooth of some animal” (TG 95).

Dambulla A huge rock in Ceylon, with several large, ancient cave-temples (viharas) cut in it. The Maharaja Vihara (172 by 75 ft) contains upwards of 50 figures of Buddha, most larger than life, formed from the solid rock. At the Mahadewiyo Vihara is a figure of the dead Gautama Buddha 47 feet long, reclining on a couch and pillow cut out of solid rock.

Dasa-bhumi: Sanskrit for ten stages. In Buddhist terminology, the ten stages of the spiritual development of a Bodhisattva (q.v.) toward Buddhahood. Each school of Buddhism has its own dasa-bhumi, but the most widely accepted set in Mahayana Buddhism is that set forth in the Dasa-bhumi Sastra, viz.: (1) The Stage of Joy, in which the Bodhisattva develops his holy nature and discards wrong views; (2) the Stage of Purity, in which he attains the Perfection of Morality; (3) the Stage of Illumination, in which he attains the Perfection of Patience or Humility, and also the deepest introspective insight; (4) the Stage of Flaming Wisdom, in which he achieves the Perfection of Meditation and realizes the harmony of the Worldly Truth and the Supreme Truth; (5) the Stage of Presence, in which he achieves the Perfection of Wisdom; (7) the Stage of Far-going, in which he attains the Perfection of Expediency by going afar and to save all beings; (8) the Stage of Immovability, in which he attains the Perfection of Vow and realizes the principle that all specific characters of elements (dharmas) are unreal; (9) the Stage of Good Wisdom, in which he achieves the Perfection of Effort, attains the Ten Holy Powers, and preaches both to the redeemable and the unredeemable; (10) the Stage of the Cloud of the Law, in which he attains mastery of Perfect Knowledge and preaches the Law to save all creatures, “like the cloud drops rain over all.”

Devachan (Tibetan) bDe-ba-can (de-wa-chen) [from bde-ba happiness + can possessing] The happy land; exoterically, a translation of the Sanskrit sukhavati, the happy Western Realm or Pure Land of the dhyani-buddha Amitabha of East Asian Buddhism. Certain Tibetan books contain glowing descriptions of devachan, such as the Mani Kambum (or Kumbum) and the Odpagmed kyi shing kod. The term was first employed in theosophical literature by the Mahatmas in their letters to A. P. Sinnett.

Devapi (Sanskrit) Devāpi [from deva god + āpi friend] Friend of the god; a rishi mentioned in the Rig-Veda as the son of Rishti-shena. In the Mahabharata and the Puranas he is described as a son of King Pratipa of the Kurus, who resigns his kingdom and retires into the woods, where he is still alive, awaiting with the sage Maru, at Kalapa or Katapa, the coming of Maitreya Buddha, the avatara who will come at the close of the kali yuga, according to legend.

Dhammapada (Pali) Dhammpada [from dhamma law, moral conduct (cf Sanskrit dharma) + pada a step, line, stanza] A fundamental text of Southern Buddhism: a collection of 423 verses believed to be the sayings of Gautama Buddha, gathered from older sources and strung together on 26 selected topics. Dealing with a wide range of philosophic and religious thought, with particular emphasis on ethics, they are often couched in beautiful imagery, so that they make a ready and profound appeal to the reader. Self-culture and self-control are forcibly inculcated, and when the precepts are followed they lead to the living of an exalted as well as useful life.

Dharma ::: Also "Dhamma". Refers in Buddhism and Hinduism to a sense of cosmic law and order that one's life should be guided by. In Buddhism it also refers to the teachings of the Buddha.

Dharmachakra, (Sanskrit) Dharmacakra [from dharma law + cakra wheel] The wheel of the law, or the range of the law. “The emblem of Buddhism as a system of cycles and rebirths or reincarnations” (TG 100), it also applies to the Buddha as the holder of the wheel of the law: he who sets a new cycle in motion and in consequence changes the course of destiny through his expounding of the teachings.

Dharmakaya (Sanskrit) Dharmakāya [from dharma law, continuance from the verbal root dhṛ to support, carry, continue + kāya body] Continuance-body, body of the law. One of the trikaya of Buddhism, which consists of 1) nirmanakaya, 2) sambhogakaya, and 3) dharmakaya. “It is that spiritual body or state of a high spiritual being in which the restricted sense of soulship and egoity has vanished into a universal (hierarchical) sense, and remains only in the seed, latent — if even so much. It is pure consciousness, pure bliss, pure intelligence, freed from all personalizing thought” (OG 38). In the dharmakaya vesture the initiate is on the threshold of nirvana or in the nirvanic state. Sometimes the dharmakaya is called the “nirvana without remains,” for once having reached that state the buddha or bodhisattva remains entirely outside of every earthly condition; he will return no more until the commencement of a new manvantara, for he has crossed the cycle of births. Dharmakaya state is that of parasamadhi, where no progress is possible — at least as long as the entity remains in it. Such entities may be said to be for the time being crystallized in purity and homogeneity. This is, likewise, one of the states of adi-buddha, and as such is called the mystic, universally diffused essence, the robe or vesture of luminous spirituality. See also TRIKAYA; TRISARANA

Dharmaprabhasa (Sanskrit) Dharmaprabhāsa [from dharma law + prabhāsa illuminator] Illuminator of the law; the name of a buddha who will appear during the seventh root-race (TG 100).

Dharmaraja (Sanskrit) Dharmarāja Just and righteous king; a title given to Gautama Buddha, and to Yama, the god of the dead, in the latter instance signifying the strict and utterly impartial justice karmically encountered by those who die.

Dharmasoka (Sanskrit) Dharmāśoka The Asoka of the dharma; a name given King Asoka, the grandson of King Chandragupta, because he devoted his life to the dharma, or law of the Buddha, and its propaganda.

Dhyana(Sanskrit) ::: A term signifying profound spiritualintellectual contemplation with utter detachment from allobjects of a sensuous and lower mental character. In Buddhism it is one of the six paramitas ofperfection. One who is adept or expert in the practice of dhyana, which by the way is a wonderfulspiritual exercise if the proper idea of it be grasped, is carried in thought entirely out of all relations withthe material and merely psychological spheres of being and of consciousness, and into lofty spiritualplanes. Instead of dhyana being a subtraction from the elements of consciousness, it is rather a throwingoff or casting aside of the crippling sheaths of ethereal matter which surround the consciousness, thusallowing the dhyanin, or practicer of this form of true yoga, to enter into the highest parts of his ownconstitution and temporarily to become at one with and, therefore, to commune with the gods. It is atemporary becoming at one with the upper triad of man considered as a septenary, in other words, withhis monadic essence. Man's consciousness in this state or condition becomes purely buddhi, or ratherbuddhic, with the highest parts of the manas acting as upadhi or vehicle for the retention of what theconsciousness therein experiences. From this term is drawn the phrase dhyani-chohans ordhyani-buddhas -- words so frequently used in theosophical literature and so frequently misconceived asto their real meaning. (See also Samadhi)

Dhyani-bodhisattva (Sanskrit) Dhyāni-bodhisattva [from the verbal root dhyai to meditate, contemplate + bodhisattva he whose essence is bodhi (wisdom)] A bodhisattva of meditation or contemplation; the sixth in the descending series of the Hierarchy of Compassion, the mind-born sons of the dhyani-buddhas.

Dhyani-buddha (Sanskrit) Dhyāni-buddha [from the verbal root dhyai to meditate, contemplate + buddha awakened one] Buddhas of contemplation or meditation; the fifth in the descending series in the enumeration of the Hierarchy of Compassion. Two general hierarchies of spiritual beings brought forth our cosmos: the dhyani-buddhas or architects who in their aggregate form the higher and more spiritual side, and actually compose the line of the luminous arc; and the dhyani-chohans or the builders or constructors who form the lower and relatively more material side, the line (from this viewpoint only) of the shadowy arc. Often the term dhyani-chohans is used for both these lines of beings.

dhyani buddha ::: [the meditating Buddha].

Dhyani-chohans (Sanskrit-Tibetan) [from Sanskrit dhyāni contemplation + Tibetan chohan lord] Lords of meditation. In theosophical literature, dhyani-buddhas are the intellectual architects, the higher and more spiritual beings of the god-world. Dhyani-chohans, as a generalizing term, includes both the higher classes which take a self-conscious, active part in the architectural ideation of the universe, and the lower classes, some of which are self-conscious, but in their lower representations progressively less on on a descending scale. The lowest of these builders are little more than merely conscious or semi-conscious beings following almost servilely the ideation of the cosmic spirit transmitted to them by the higher class of the architects.

Diamond, Diamond-heart The diamond is a symbol signifying the imperishable attributes of the cosmic quinta essentia — the fifth essence of medieval mystics. In Northern Buddhism, the unmanifest Logos, being too spiritual to manifest in material realms directly, sends into the world of manifestation its heart, the diamond heart (vajrasattva, dorjesempa) which is the manifest Logos, from which emanate the Third Logos which collectively is the seven cosmic dhyani-buddhas. Manushya-buddhas, when their personality has become merged in atma-buddhi, are also called diamond-souled because of their spiritual approach to their cosmic prototype; otherwise they are mahatmas of the highest class.

Dipamkara (Sanskrit) Dīpaṃkara [from dīpa light + kara maker, doer] Light-maker, a former buddha, regarded by Orientalists as mythical. Referring to the former buddha or to a high adept, the word signifies the bringer or maker of light — the typical initiator.

Divine Soul ::: In occultism the divine soul is the garment of the divine ego, as the divine ego is the garment or child ofthe divine monad. The divine monad we may call the inner god, and this would mean that the divine ego,its offspring, is the inner Buddha, or the inner Christ; and hence the divine soul is the expression of theinner Buddha or of the inner Christ in manifestation on earth as the manushya-buddha or christ-man.It should be stated here that of the several monads which in their combination form the entire septenaryconstitution of man each such monad has its own ego-child, and this latter has its own soul. It is thiscombination, mystic, wonderful, mysterious, which makes of man the complex entity he is, and whichentitles him to the term which the occultism of the archaic ages has always given to him: the microcosm,a reflection or copy in the small of the macrocosm or kosmic entity.

Divine Soul The vehicle or garment of the divine ego, which in its turn is the field or vehicle of the divine monad — terms referring to the human monadic centers. As the inner god corresponds to the divine monad and the inner buddha to the divine ego, so the divine soul may be said to be the expression of the buddha in manifestation on earth.

Divyachakshus, (Sanskrit) Divyacakṣus [from divya divine + cakṣus eye] The divine eye; in Buddhism the first of the divine faculties attained by a buddha: the power of seeing any object in any loka or plane of consciousness. It is one of the six or seven abhijnas (inner powers or faculties), divyachakshus being real spiritual clairvoyance, enabling one to see any object in the universe at whatever distance.

Divyasrotra (Sanskrit) Divyaśrotra [from divya divine + śrotra ear] The divine ear; in Buddhism the second of the abhijnas (powers attained by a buddha or high initiate), that of understanding all sounds on whatever loka or plane, including the understanding of all languages. It corresponds to real clairaudience.

Dolmas (Tibetan) sGrol-ma. Two virgins, said to have been incarnations of the blue light from the left eye of Amitabha Buddha, as Padmapani was the incarnation of the ray from the right eye, and who together abide within mankind. These virgins were given the power to enlighten the minds of living beings (BCW 12:518).

Dorjechang (Tibetan) rdo rje ’chang Equivalent of the Sanskrit vajradhara (wielder of the thunderbolt). The supreme buddha or adi-buddha; also the title of a buddha having reference to his highest or most spiritual part.

Dorjesempa (Tibetan) rdo-rje sems-dpa’ Equivalent to the Sanskrit vajrasattva, diamond-soul, diamond-being; referring to the soul’s indestructibility in the hereafter. Also a name of the celestial buddha.

Dzyu (Senzar) Real knowledge; “the one real (magical) knowledge, or Occult Wisdom; which, dealing with eternal truths and primal causes, becomes almost omnipotence when applied in the right direction. Its antithesis is Dzyu-mi, that which deals with illusions and false appearances only, as in our exoteric modern sciences. . . . Dzyu is the expression of the collective Wisdom of the Dhyani-Buddhas” (SD 1:108).

Each one of the trikaya (three bodies or vehicles) — the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya — has its respective place and function on and in the three highest of the buddhakshetra: the dharmakaya is the luminous or spiritual body or vehicle in which the dhyani-buddha lives and works on the first and highest buddhakshetra; the dhyani-bodhisattva similarly lives and works in the spiritual-intellectual body or vehicle called the sambhogakaya, on the second of the buddhakshetras; while the manushya-buddha, when working in the third buddhakshetras, does so in his nirmanakaya vesture or robe, vehicle, or body. The lowest buddhakshetra is the one in which the human buddha is found clothed in his body of flesh as an incarnate being.

Equivalent to Maitreya-Buddha of Northern Buddhism, Sosiosh of the Zoroastrians, and the Faithful and True on the white horse of Revelations.

ESOTERIC HISTORY BEFORE 1875 Members of this planetary hierarchy incarnated in mankind, eventually to make up what in the esoteric history has been called the &

Every incarnate buddha lives and works in the fourth or lowest buddhakshetra, as Gautama Buddha did; but at the same time, and more particularly when he has laid aside the physical body, he can live and work at will in the next higher buddhakshetra as a nirmanakaya; again as a dhyani-bodhisattva in his higher intermediate spiritual-psychological principle, he can at will function in the next higher buddhakshetra; while last, the dhyani-buddha within him lives and does its own sublime labor on the highest buddhakshetras as a dhyani-buddha. Here lies the true explanation of the many apparently conflicting statements made about the various kinds of buddhas and their various duties or functions, as found in the Buddhist scriptures, especially in the Mahayana writings of Central and Northern Asia.

Every true Mason is in search of the Lost Word, the secret knowledge or gupta-vidya, yet the lost secrets of the Royal Art can never be communicated to, because they cannot be comprehended by, one who does not recognize and in degree at least realize his own inner divinity, the immanent christos or buddha within, which is his true self; i.e., through initiation become, actually and in fact, a Christos, an Osiris, a Hiram Abif. Every degree of initiation into the Mysteries has its secrets, its Word, its sacred formula, which may be communicated only to those who, according to Masonic ritual “are duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified,” else the penalty is death to the one so revealing the Word or secrets.

Father in Heaven, Father in Secret Phrases used by Jesus in the New Testament for the human divine or spiritual monad, atman or in another context atma-buddhi; and in a smaller sense Father may be applied to the higher or reincarnating ego. In the case of an individual it is his own Absolute, the crown or summit of his constitutional hierarchy, the root or seed of all that he is. In this sense likewise, one may call the Father the paramatman, the person’s spiritual self, the ray from the dhyani-buddha with which the individual is in most intimate connection. For each person the Father is his own individual Wondrous Being. Jesus bids us invoke, not an imaginary image of God, but our own spiritual self, which is in its essence one with the universal self or cosmic paramatman.

Fo-chu, Fo-ch’ou (Chinese) [from fo Buddha + chu lord] A Buddha-lord, Buddha-teacher, a teacher of the doctrines of the buddhas.

Fohat (Tibetan-Mongolian) [from Mon pho, fo buddha, buddhi] Cosmic life or vitality; bipolar cosmic vital electricity, equivalent to the light of the Logos, daiviprakriti, eros, the fiery whirlwind, etc. As the bridge between spirit and matter, fohat is the collectivity of intelligent forces through which cosmic ideation impresses itself upon substance, thus forming the various worlds of manifestation. In the manifested universe, it “is that Occult, electric, vital power, which, under the Will of the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving them the first impulse which becomes in time law. . . . Fohat becomes the propelling force, the active Power which causes the One to become Two and Three . . . then Fohat is transformed into that force which brings together the elemental atoms and makes them aggregate and combine” (SD 1:109).

Foh-maeyu, Fo mai-yu (Chinese) [from fo buddha + miao temple] Buddha’s temple; a temple dedicated to Sakyamuni Buddha.

fo ::: n. --> The Chinese name of Buddha. html{color:

Four Noble Truths: The Aryani Satyani, the four basic principles of the teachings of Gautama Buddha: the Truth of Suffering, the Truth of the Cause of Suffering, the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, the Truth of the Path to the Ending of Suffering.

Further, each human monad has sprung from the essence of a dhyani-buddha.

Further, the Buddha meant is not any particular Buddha but Adi-Bodhi or the First Logos, “whose primordial ray is Mahabuddhi, the Universal Seal, Alaya, whose flame is ubiquitous, and whose influence has a different sphere on each of the three forms of existence, because, once again, it is Universal Being itself or the reflex of the Absolute” (TG 343).

Gangi (Sanskrit) Gaṅgi A renowned sorcerer, according to legend, in the time of Kasyapa Buddha, a predecessor of Gautama Buddha; regarded as an incarnation of Apalala, a naga who was the guardian spirit of the sources of the Subhavastu, a river in Udyana. Apalala is said to have been converted by Gautama Buddha and to have become an arhat.

Gauri (Sanskrit) Gaurī Feminine adjective brilliant, beautiful. Frequently used for feminine beings or entities, it means a maid; the earth; the goddess Parvati; consort of Siva and of Varuna; and likewise the Mother of Sakyamuni, Gautama Buddha.

Gautama Buddha: (Skr. Gautama, a patronymic, meaning of the tribe of Gotama; Buddha, the enlightened one) The founder of Buddhism. born about 563 B.C. into a royal house at Kapilavastu. As Prince Siddhartha (Siddhattha) he had all worldly goods and pleasures at his disposal, married, had a son, but was so stirred by sights of disease, old age, and death glimpsed on stolen drives through the city that he renounced all when but 29 years of age, became a mendicant, sought instruction in reaching an existence free from these evils and tortures, fruitlessly however, till at the end of seven years of search while sitting under the Bodhi-tree, he became the Buddha, the Awakened One, and attained the true insight. Much that is legendary and reminds one of the Christian mythos surrounds Buddha's life as retold in an extensive literature which also knows of his former and future existences. Mara, the Evil One, tempted Buddha to enter nirvana (s.v.) directly, withholding thus knowledge of the path of salvation from the world; but the Buddha was firm and taught the rightful path without venturing too far into metaphysics, setting all the while an example of a pure and holy life devoted to the alleviation of suffering. At the age of 80, having been offered and thus compelled to partake of pork, he fell ill and in dying attained nirvana. -- K.F.L.

Gautama (Sanskrit) Gautama Gotama (Pali) The sacerdotal name of the Sakya family, hence the name of Prince Siddhartha, the son of Suddhodana of Kapilavastu. Gautama Buddha was also called Sakyamuni, meaning the muni or sage of the Sakyas.

  “Gautama, the Buddha, would not have been a mortal man, had he not passed through hundreds and thousands of births previous to his last. Yet the detailed account of these, and the statement that during them he worked his way up through every stage of transmigration from the lowest animate and inanimate atom and insect, up to the highest — or man, contains simply the well-known occult aphorism: ‘a stone becomes a plant, a plant an animal, and an animal a man.’ Every human being who has ever existed, has passed through the same evolution. But the hidden symbolism in the sequence of these re-births (jataka) contains a perfect history of the evolution on this earth, pre and post human, and is a scientific exposition of natural facts. One truth not veiled but bare and open is found in their nomenclature, viz., that as soon as Gautama had reached the human form he began exhibiting in every personality the utmost unselfishness, self-sacrifice and charity” (TG 65).

Gaya (Sanskrit) Gayā A famous city of pilgrimage in Bihar, India, a little north of the modern Bodhgaya, where Sakyamuni reached buddhaship.

God-man Mankind after the change in the third root-race when animal humanity became incarnate devas because of the overshadowing incarnations of the manasaputras. Also manas (mind) in alliance with atma-buddhi, as contrasted with manas in alliance with the lower principles — the latter being simply and merely human. Sometimes used to describe the avataras appearing in the human race at periodic intervals, or again to describe buddhas or other spiritual-human beings.

Grand Architect of the Universe Masonic term for the maker of the universe; “the Greeks gave this Third or formative Logos the title Demiourgos, a word mystically signifying the supreme cosmic Architect of the universe. This same idea always has been held by the Christians as well as by modern speculative Freemasonry . . .” (FSO 183) Theosophically this Grand Architect is a collective way of presenting the forces of nature, the cosmocratores or cosmic builders, acting on the ideation laid down by still higher beings — dhyani-buddhas, referred to collectively as mahat or cosmic mind — rather than a personal god or entity; “but now the modern Masons make of their G. A. O. T. U. a personal and singular Deity” (TBL 40). See also MASTERS, THE THREE ANCIENT GREAT.

has the X nature (From Zen Buddhist koans of the form "Does an X have the Buddha-nature?") Common hacker construction for "is an X", used for humorous emphasis. "Anyone who can't even use a program with on-screen help embedded in it truly has the {loser} nature!" See also {the X that can be Y is not the true X}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-11)

has the X nature ::: (From Zen Buddhist koans of the form Does an X have the Buddha-nature?) Common hacker construction for is an X, used for humorous emphasis. Anyone who can't even use a program with on-screen help embedded in it truly has the loser nature! See also the X that can be Y is not the true X.[Jargon File] (1995-01-11)

Hence the ushnisha represents that radiant crown of buddhic fire that surrounds the head of initiates when they are in deep samadhi or meditation. The initiate’s head becomes surrounded with rays from the vital inner fire of the third eye, the spiritual organ of the brain, which likewise is the source from which radiates the spiritual, intellectual, and psychovital nimbus or aura surrounding the head — known to the iconographies of every religion. These rays thus form a glory around the head and sometimes even around the entire body. “They stream upwards from the back of the head, often symbolically represented in the buddha-iconography as one single, lambent flame soaring upwards from and over the top of the skull. In this case you may perhaps find that the ushnisha is missing, its place being taken by this flame issuing from the top of the head, a symbolic representation of the fire of the spirit and of the aroused and active buddhic faculty in which the man is at the time” (Fund 493).

Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy The hierarchy of spiritual beings extending from the highest solar or galactic monad, to the least element forming its vehicles or being. “It is built of divinities, demigods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and great and noble men, who serve as a living channel for the spiritual currents coming to this and every other planet of our system from the heart of the solar divinity, and who themselves shed glory and light and peace upon that pathway from the compassionate deeps of their own being. . . .

Hinayana (Sanskrit) Hīnayāna Little vehicle; the Theravada school of Southern Buddhism, with its representative in the Buddhism of the North; usually considered the exoteric school in contrast with the Mahayana (great vehicle), the so-called esoteric school. The Hinayana represents what Buddhist mystics have called the eye doctrine, that portion of the Buddha’s teaching which is exoteric or for the public, and therefore visible to the eye; while the Mahayana is called the heart doctrine, meaning that portion of the Buddha’s teaching which was hid, the secret or heart of the teaching. But there is also a distinctly esoteric side to the Hinayana when it is properly analyzed and understood.

However, certain human beings, because of a common monadic origin in an identic spiritual source, are by that fact of the same spiritual family, and in consequence have bonds among themselves of intensive sympathy, and sympathetic intellectual understanding and processes of mentation, which cause them to feel more at-one with each other than with human beings similarly united but not derivative from the same spiritual ray. Yet all these different cosmic dhyani-buddhas or spiritual rays themselves converge or coalesce on a still loftier plane into another kosmic entity still more sublime than the former ones; and this again is but one of many others who on a divine plane still loftier than the last, find their common point of origin in a kosmic individuality still grander.

Hsi-tsang (Chinese) [from hsi west + tsang (cf Tibet tsan) a central province of Tibet whose most important city is Shigatse] Blavatsky spells Si-dzang. The name for Tibet “mentioned in the MSS. of the sacred library of the province of Fo-Kien [Fu-chien], as the great seat of Occult learning from time immemorial, ages before Buddha” (SD 1:271n).

Iddhi (Pali) Iddhi [from the verbal root sidh to succeed, attain an objective, reach accomplishment] Equivalent to the Sanskrit siddhi, used to signify the powers or attributes of perfection: powers of various kinds, spiritual and intellectual as well as astral and physical, acquired through training, discipline, initiation, and individual holiness. In Buddhism it is generally rendered “occult power.” There are two classes of iddhis, the higher of which, according to the Digha-Nikaya and other Buddhist works, are eight in number: 1) the power to project mind-made images of oneself; 2) to become invisible; 3) to pass through solid things, such as a wall; 4) to penetrate solid ground as if it were water; 5) to walk on water; 6) to fly through the air; 7) to touch sun and moon; and 8) to ascend into the highest heavens. The same work represents the Buddha as saying: “It is because I see danger in the practice of these mystic wonders that I loathe and abhor and am ashamed thereof” (1:213) — a true statement although iddhis are powers of the most desirable kind when pertaining to the higher nature, for they are of spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychical character. It is only when iddhis or siddhis are limited to the meaning of the gross astral psychic attributes that the Buddha properly condemns them as being dangerous always, and to the ambitious and selfish person extremely perilous. Further, it was an offense against the regulations of the Brotherhood (Samgha) for any member to display any powers before the laity.

In addition to its more than five thousand main entries, this volume also contains a number of reference tools. Because the various historical periods and dynasties of India, China, Korea, and Japan appear repeatedly in the entries, historical chronologies of the Buddhist periods of those four countries have been provided. In order to compare what events were occurring across the Buddhist world at any given time, we have provided a timeline of Buddhism. Eight maps are provided, showing regions of the Buddhist world and of the traditional Buddhist cosmology. We have also included a List of Lists. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with Buddhism has been struck by the Buddhist propensity for making lists of almost anything. The MahAvyutpatti is in fact organized not alphabetically but by list, including such familiar lists as the four noble truths, the twelve links of dependent origination, and the thirty-two major marks of the Buddha, as well as less familiar lists, such as various kinds of grain (twenty items) and types of ornaments (sixty-four items). Here we have endeavored to include several of the most important lists, beginning with the one vehicle and ending with the one hundred dharmas of the YogAcAra school. After some discussion, we decided to forgo listing the 84,000 afflictions and their 84,000 antidotes.

  “In addition to this, there was still another class of Manasaputras who, as it were, started the whole thing going by inflaming . . . with their own fire of intelligent thought and self-consciousness those of the human race who, at that time, in the early part of the Third Root-Race in this Round, were ready, who caught the flame; and then their own mental apparatus, their own manasic powers, burst as it were into bloom as a rose unfolds rapidly its petals when the season comes for it to do so. And these Manasaputras . . . were the highly evolved entities from previous cosmic manvantaras, who deliberately, belonging as they do to the hierarchy of the Buddhas of Compassion, as it were left their own sublime spheres and descended among men and taught them — and then withdrew” (SOPh 468).

In a more restricted sense, applied to those rare but periodic appearances of spiritual beings in the human race, called by the ancient Hindus rishis, who are distinguished from avataras on the one hand and buddhas on the other hand — so that the compound in these last cases may be translated as rishis who are sons of devas or spiritual beings.

In ancient Egypt the various forms of the disk were favorite symbols, representing either the sun or moon. The deities specially connected with the solar disk were Amen-Ra, Aten, and Horus. In ancient India the disk or chakra was frequently associated with Vishnu; with the Buddhists it appears in the symbol of the wheel which every buddha is represented as turning or setting in motion.

In Buddhist writings Aruna is the name of 1) a Kshattriya king who sired Sikhi Buddha; 2) a class of gods; 3) a naga or serpent-king; 4) a king of Potali in Assaka who, being victorious in battle against the Kalinga king, won the latter’s four daughters; and 5) a pleasure ground near Anupama where the Buddha Vessabhu, a week after attaining enlightenment, delivered his first discourse.

Incarnation Imbodiments of an entity or monad in a body of flesh, usually human. It is also used of avataras, buddhas, etc., in treating of the manifold mystery of the union of godhood and humanhood. This mystery, both among Hindus and Christians, is a distorted and anthropomorphic understanding of the teaching as to the presence of the unseen cosmic principles throughout all nature and man, as symbolized by the circle and cross.

In China a sixth is listed as asravakshaya (stream-mastery, pain destruction), destruction of all ignorance and the entering of the stream of supernal knowledge. While these abhijnas may be acquired in the process of achieving spiritual progress, the Buddha frowned upon any attempt to develop them; and if they should spontaneously become manifest, then one must avoid any display of such extranormal powers.

Indian Aesthetics: Art in India is one of the most diversified subjects. Sanskrit silpa included all crafts, fine art, architecture and ornament, dancing, acting, music and even coquetry. Behind all these endeavors is a deeprooted sense of absolute values derived from Indian philosophy (q.v.) which teaches the incarnation of the divine (Krsna, Shiva, Buddha), the transitoriness of life (cf. samsara), the symbolism and conditional nature of the phenomenal (cf. maya). Love of splendour and exaggerated greatness, dating back to Vedic (q.v.) times mingled with a grand simplicity in the conception of ultimate being and a keen perception and nature observation. The latter is illustrated in examples of verisimilous execution in sculpture and painting, the detailed description in a wealth of drama and story material, and the universal love of simile. With an urge for expression associated itself the metaphysical in its practical and seemingly other-worldly aspects and, aided perhaps by the exigencies of climate, yielded the grotesque as illustrated by the cave temples of Ellora and Elephanta, the apparent barbarism of female ornament covering up all organic beauty, the exaggerated, symbol-laden representations of divine and thereanthropic beings, a music with minute subdivisions of scale, and the like. As Indian philosophy is dominated by a monistic, Vedantic (q.v.) outlook, so in Indian esthetics we can notice the prevalence of an introvert unitary, soul-centric, self-integrating tendency that treats the empirical suggestively and by way of simile, trying to stylize the natural in form, behavior, and expression. The popular belief in the immanence as well as transcendence of the Absolute precludes thus the possibility of a complete naturalism or imitation. The whole range of Indian art therefore demands a sharing and re-creation of absolute values glimpsed by the artist and professedly communicated imperfectly. Rules and discussions of the various aspects of art may be found in the Silpa-sastras, while theoretical treatments are available in such works as the Dasarupa in dramatics, the Nrtya-sastras in dancing, the Sukranitisara in the relation of art to state craft, etc. Periods and influences of Indian art, such as the Buddhist, Kushan, Gupta, etc., may be consulted in any history of Indian art. -- K.F.L.

In exoteric Buddhist literature, Manjusri is looked upon as the god of wisdom because the title is personalized or anthropomorphized as an individual, but “It is erroneous to take literally the worship of the human Bodhisattvas, or Manjusri. It is true that, exoterically, the Mahayana school teaches adoration of these without distinction, and that Hiuen-Tsang speaks of some disciples of Buddha as being worshipped. But esoterically it is not the disciple or the learned Manjusri personally that received honours, but the divine Bodhisattvas and Dhyani Buddhas that animated . . . the human forms” (SD 2:34n).

In Hindu literature this vajra is the scepter of Indra (similar to the thunderbolt of Zeus), with which he as the god of the skies was said to slay evildoers. In mystical Buddhism it is the magic scepter of priest-initiates and adepts, the symbol of the possessions of siddhis (superhuman powers), wielded during certain mystical ceremonies by initiated priests and theurgists. It is also the symbol of the Buddha’s power over evil spirits or elementals. The possessors of this scepter are called vajrapanins.

In later mythology Devaki became the anthropomorphized form of Aditi or cosmic space, just as the Hebrew Mary became a celestial entity. The seven sons of Devaki killed by Karsa before the birth of Krishna symbolize the seven human principles. We must rise above them before reaching the ideal, Krishna, the Christ or the Buddha state, thus centering ourselves in the highest, the seventh or first.

Inner God ::: Mystics of all the ages have united in teaching this fact of the existence and ever-present power of anindividual inner god in each human being, as the first principle or primordial energy governing theprogress of man out of material life into the spiritual. Indeed, the doctrine is so perfectly universal, and isso consistent with everything that man knows when he reflects over the matter of his own spiritual andintellectual nature, that it is small wonder that this doctrine should have acquired foremost place inhuman religious and philosophical consciousness. Indeed, it may be called the very foundation-stone onwhich were builded the great systems of religious and philosophical thinking of the past; and rightly so,because this doctrine is founded on nature herself.The inner god in man, man's own inner, essential divinity, is the root of him, whence flow forth ininspiring streams into the psychological apparatus of his constitution all the inspirations of genius, all theurgings to betterment. All powers, all faculties, all characteristics of individuality, which blossomthrough evolution into individual manifestation, are the fruitage of the working in man's constitution ofthose life-giving and inspiring streams of spiritual energy.The radiant light which streams forth from that immortal center or core of our inmost being, which is ourinner god, lightens the pathway of each one of us; and it is from this light that we obtain idealconceptions. It is by this radiant light in our hearts that we can guide our feet towards an ever largerfulfilling in daily life of the beautiful conceptions which we as mere human beings dimly or clearlyperceive, as the case may be.The divine fire which moves through universal Nature is the source of the individualized divine firecoming from man's inner god.The modern Christians of a mystical bent of mind call the inner god the Christ Immanent, the immanentChristos; in Buddhism it is called the living Buddha within; in Brahmanism it is spoken of as the Brahmain his Brahmapura or Brahma-city, which is the inner constitution.Hence, call it by what name you please, the reflective and mystical mind intuitively realizes that thereworks through him a divine flame, a divine life, a divine light, and that this by whatever name we maycall it, is himself, his essential SELF. (See also God)

In pre-Christian Greece one of the great seats of initiation was Eleusis, a Greek word meaning coming or advent. All the Mystery schools of antiquity taught and dramatized doctrines dealing with that which is to come: the mysteries of death, rebirth, and initiation — the birth or awakening of the inner Buddha or Christos in the neophyte. This was called the coming or advent of the god within.

In short, the kabeiroi, identical with the kumaras and rudras, classed with the dhyani-buddhas and with the ’elohim of Jewish theology, directing “the mind with which they endued men” to the arts and sciences that build civilization, and closely linked with solar and earthly fires, are no other than the kumara-agnishvatta-manasaputras of theosophy: kumaras in their unsoiled divinity; agnisvattas (those who have tasted the fire) or solar lhas; and manasaputras (sons of mind) who in pity took upon themselves the heavy cross of incarnation that they might help struggling humanity to come up higher. They are classed as three, four, or seven; the names of four being Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, and Kadmilos.

In Southern Buddhism, the word also means residue, relics (that which remains after the body has been cremated), and applied especially to the relics of the Buddha’s body alleged to have been collected after its cremation.

Instead of khadga, the ancient Buddhist writers frequently used eka-sringa (one-horned), likewise signifying rhinoceros with the reference to the one-pointed spiritual self-interest and spiritual selfishness, of the prayeka buddhas.

In the 3rd century BC the language used throughout Northern India was practically one, and it was derived directly from the speech of the Vedic Aryans, retaining many Vedic forms lost in the later classical Sanskrit. The basis of the language used in the Buddhist canon was that used in Ujjayini, the capital of the Avanti district. The chief doctrines of Buddhism are recorded in the works known as the Suttas (Sutras in Sanskrit) — there being four Nikayas consisting of 16 volumes; the fifth Nikaya being the Jatakas (birth stories of the Buddha).

In the Bhagavad-Gita Isvara is that which “dwelleth in the heart of every creature” and which “causeth all things and creatures to revolve mounted upon the universal wheel of time” (chs 43; 6l). It is the essence of the spiritual monad in any individualized evolving being, the spiritual root, the god within, and the source of the spiritual and vital streams in any being which bring about its unfolding in evolution and its peregrinations through the fields of experience. Equivalent to the Father in Heaven of Jesus, and hence the source of the inner Christos or Buddha. Thus in one sense it is the individualized dhyani-buddha of every being. See also LOGOS

In the Brahmanical zodiac Simha is dedicated to soma, the moon. Of two synonyms for Simha — Panchasyam and Hari — the first indicates that it represents the five Brahmas or Buddhas; and the second shows it to be Narayana, the Jivatman, or Pratyagatman, which the Advaitins regard as identical in essence with paramatman, and as the son of paramatman. This is the true cosmic christos, in which the elements of the phenomenal universe have only a potential existence, being combined into a unity, or indeed into a single cosmic entity.

“In the esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi-Buddha (Chogi dangpoi sangye), the One unknown, without beginning or end, identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its darkness.

In the humanity of that far-off time, the sixth principle (buddhi) will come into relatively full development. Mankind then will become a family of buddhas — for Gautama Buddha is known as a sixth rounder. Even the human physical body will have become greatly changed, and towards the end of the round will be an ovoid or globe emitting light.

In the Jewish Qabbalah the ’elohim, however, are the sixth hierarchical group in derivation from the first or Crown, Kether: cosmogonically they represent the manifested formers or weavers of the cosmos. In this Qabbalistic system, Jehovah was the third angelic potency (counting from the first, Kether). Blavatsky calls all these hierarchicies symbols “emblematic, mutually and correlatively, of Spirit, Soul and Body (man); of the circle transformed into Spirit, the Soul of the World, and its body (or Earth). Stepping out of the Circle of Infinity, that no man comprehendeth, Ain-Soph (the Kabalistic synonym for Parabrahm, for the Zeroana Akerne, of the Mazdeans, or for any other ‘Unknowable’) becomes ‘One’ — the Echos, the Eka, the Ahu — then he (or it) is transformed by evolution into the One in many, the Dhyani-Buddhas or the Elohim, or again the Amshaspends, his third Step being taken into generation of the flesh, or ‘Man.’ And from man, or Jah-Hova, ‘male female,’ the inner divine entity becomes, on the metaphysical planes, once more the Elohim” (SD 1:113).

In theosophical literature, the Hierarchy of Compassion of our solar system is sometimes given as: 1) adi-buddhi (primal wisdom), the mystic universally diffused essence; 2) mahabuddhi (universal buddhi), the Logos; 3) daiviprakriti (universal divine light), universal life, the Second Logos; 4) Sons of Light, the seven cosmic logoi, the logoi of cosmic life, the Third Logos; 5) dhyani-buddhas (buddhas of contemplation); 6) dhyani-bodhisattvas (bodhisattvas of contemplation); 7) manushya-buddhas (human buddhas), racial buddhas; 8) bodhisattvas; and 9) men. Here, the Sons of Light or the seven cosmic logoi emanating from the sun and working in its kingdom are the parents of the rectors or planetary spirits of the seven sacred planets. The seven dhyani-buddhas, also called the celestial buddhas or causal buddhas, through their emanated representatives each govern one round of the septenary cycles of evolution on a planetary chain. The seven dhyani-bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, similarly through their emanated representatives each govern one of the seven globes comprising a planetary chain. The manushya-buddhas are the buddhas which watch over the root-races in a round, two appearing in every race, one near the commencement and one near the midpoint of each root-race. Gautama Buddha was the second racial buddha of the fifth root-race. The bodhisattvas of earth are those spiritual and intellectually advanced human beings who leave the nirvana of buddhahood in order to remain on earth for their sublime work of aiding, stimulating, and guiding those hosts of entities, including humanity, trailing behind them.

In the seventh degree, theopathy (the suffering a god — suffering oneself to be one’s own inner god), the personal self has become permanently at-one with the inner divinity. The successful passing of the seventh trial resulted in the initiant’s becoming a glorified Christ, to be followed by the last or ultimate stage of this degree known in Buddhism as achieving buddhahood or nirvana. Since limits cannot be set to attainment, however, still loftier stages of spiritual and intellectual unfolding or initiation await those who have already attained the degree of buddhahood.

In this connection, the Kalki-avatara — stated to be the final incarnation of Vishnu in Hinduism or the incarnation of Maitreya-Buddha in Northern Buddhism — and the final great hero and savior of mankind of the Zoroastrians called Sosiosh, as well as the Faithful and True one of the Christian book of Revelation, all appear on a white horse. All these heroes or saviors are connected emblematically with horses of power because the horse has been from immemorial time a representation of solar, spiritual, and intellectual energies. See also ASVAMEDHA

Intuition The working of the inner vision, instant and direct cognition of truth. This spiritual faculty, though not yet in any sense fully developed in the human race, yet occasionally shows itself as hunches. Every human being is born with at least the rudiment of this inner sense. Plotinus taught that the secret gnosis has three degrees — opinion, science or knowledge, and illumination — and that the instrument of the third is intuition. To this, reason is subordinate, for intuition is absolute knowledge, founded on the identification of the mind with the object. Iamblichus wrote of intuition: “There is a faculty of the human mind, which is superior to all which is born or begotten. Through it we are enabled to attain union with the superior intelligences, to be transported beyond the scenes of this world, and to partake of the higher life and peculiar powers of the heavenly ones.” From another point of view, intuition may be described as spiritual wisdom, gathered into the storehouse of the spirit-soul through experiences in past lives; but this form may be described as automatic intuition. The higher intuition is a filling of the functional human mind with a ray from the divinity within, furnishing the mind with illumination, perfect wisdom and, in its most developed form, virtual omniscience for our solar system. This is the full functioning of the buddhic faculty in the human being; and when this faculty is thus aroused and working, it produces the manushya or human buddha.

  “is that ethereal form which one would assume when leaving his physical he would appear in his astral body — having in addition all the knowledge of an Adept. The Bodhisattva develops it in himself as he proceeds on the Path. Having reached the goal and refused its fruition, he remains on Earth, as an Adept; and when he dies, instead of going into Nirvana, he remains in that glorious body he has woven for himself, invisible to uninitiated mankind, to watch over and protect it. . . . to be enabled to help humanity, an Adept who has won the right to Nirvana, ‘renounces the Dharmakaya body’ in mystic parlance; keeps, of the Sambhogakaya, only the great and complete knowledge, and remains in his Nirmanakaya body. The esoteric school teaches that Gautama Buddha with several of his Arhats is such a Nirmanakaya . . .” (VS 96-7).

Isvara(Sanskrit) ::: Isvara means "lord," and is a term which is frequently applied in Hindu mythology not only tokosmic divinities, but to the expression of the cosmic spirit in the human being. Consequently, whenreference is had to the individual human being, Isvara is the divine individualized spirit in man -- man'sown personal god. It may be otherwise described as the divine ego, the child of the divine monad in aman, and in view of this fact also could be used with reference to the dhyani-buddha or to the immanentChrist in a man. In India it is a title frequently given to Siva and other gods of the Hindu pantheon.

It is the unfolding of these seven leaves during manvantara that furnishes the whole course of evolutionary development, from the beginning of the kosmic manvantara to its end, and from the beginning of the cycle of human evolution to its end in buddhahood or human divinity.

  “It is this dhyani-buddha of our fourth round, our Father in Heaven, who is the Wondrous Being, the Great Initiator, the Sacrifice, . . . The Ray running through all our individual being, from which we draw our spiritual life and spiritual sustenance, comes direct to us from this hierarchical Wondrous Being in whom we all are rooted. He to us, psychologically and spiritually, holds exactly the same place that the human ego, the man-ego, holds to the innumerable multitudes of elemental entities which compose his body . . .” (Fund 237-8).

Jacket Photograph: Buddha portrait. © Anna Jurkovska. Courtesy of Shutterstock.

Jains, Jainas [from jina victorious] Followers of the jinas; one of the major Indian religions. Scholars place their origin in the 5th century BC, believing them to be the last direct representatives of the philosophical schools which then flourished. Jainism, however, became overshadowed with the rise of Buddhism, which it closely resembles; but came to the front when the Buddhist fervor waned in India. The first recorded Jain teacher is Vaddhamana (known as Mahavira, “the great hero”), a contemporary of Gautama Buddha; the Jains themselves state that there was a succession of teachers antedating him, and enumerate 24 Jinas or Tirthankaras. Jains deny the authority of the Vedas and do not believe in any personal supreme god. They have a complex religious philosophy which includes belief in the eternity of matter, the periodicity of the universe, and the immortality of human’s and animal’s minds. They are particularly known for avoiding harming any living thing.

Jataka (Sanskrit) Jātaka [from the verbal root jan to be born] A birth story; the 550 Jataka tales form one of the books of the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Buddhist canon. These stories are supposed to have been related by the Buddha and are considered by some to be the accounts of his former lives, and by others to be a group of tales built of occult truth and past experiences of the Buddha and treated in an allegorical way by some of his first and greatest disciples in order to depict a synopsis of the evolutionary history of the human race.

Jetavaniya (Sanskrit) Jetavanīya [from Jetavana a grove near Sravasti where the Buddha at one time promulgated his doctrines] A Buddhist mystical school of Ceylon, which tradition alleges was founded about 247 BC by Katyayana, a favorite disciple of Gautama Buddha. One of the three divisions of an early Buddhist school called the Sthavirakaya founded some 300 BC.

Kanjur (Tibetan) bka’ ’gyur (kang-gyur, kan-jur) [from bka’ sacred word + ’gyur translation] The portion of the Tibetan Buddhist canon containing the sutras, the texts ascribed to the Buddha himself and called the “Buddha Word” (Sanskrit buddha-vachana). The second part of the Tibetan Buddhist cannon, the Tanjur, contains sastras or commentaries and other scholastic works. The Kanjur consists almost entirely of works translated from Sanskrit or other Indian languages. Although the texts contained in the Kanjur are overwhelmingly of Indian origin, the compilation of the Kanjur was done in Tibet, and in structure it differs greatly from the old Indian Tripitakas. Four more or less complete recensions of the Buddhist canon survive: the Pali, the Chinese, the Tibetan, and the Mongolian, this last, however, being a translation of the Tibetan. The first three recensions differ from each other in content and arrangement. The overall arrangement of the Kanjur is in three sections, giving the Sanskrit names: Vinaya (monastic discipline), Sutra (discourses of the Buddha), and Tantra (esoteric and ritual texts). The Sutra section is divided into several subsections. Each section or subsection contains numerous individual texts.

Kapilavastu (Sanskrit) Kapilavastu [from kapila yellow, golden + vastu substance] Golden substance; the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, the capital of his father, King Suddhodana. Mystically the birthplace of the inner buddha within each person, the home of our individual Father in heaven, and cosmically applying to our spiritual alliance in and with the sun — here called Kapilavastu. The whole legend of the Buddha’s life may be mystically interpreted through studying the symbolic meaning of the various names used there, because whatever actual historical fact may have been imbodied in these various names of his birth and later career, the names themselves were chosen likewise to portray his mystical birth. Thus his mother is called Mayadevi (goddess of illusion) or Mahamaya (great illusion), as every initiate, buddhas included, in a mystical sense is born from and out of cosmic illusion into the supernal truth of buddhahood.

Khadomas (Tibetan) mkha’ ’gro ma (kha-do-ma) [from mkha’ sky + ’gro going + ma female] Equivalent of Sanskrit dakini; in popular Tibetan folklore, deities having feminine characteristics, and hence often styled mothers, although regarded as demons. Blavatsky states that they are elementals, “occult and evil Forces of Nature,” and that Lilith is the Jewish equivalent: “Allegorical legends call the chief of these Liliths, Sangye Khado (Buddha Dakini, in Sanskrit); all are credited with the art of ‘walking in the air,’ and the greatest kindness to mortals; but no mind — only animal instinct” (TG 177; SD 2:285). Thus the khado or khadoma are equivalent to one of the classes of nature spirits recognized by the medieval Fire-philosophers.

Khobilgan (Mong) Also Khubilkhan. One spelling of the title given in Central Asia to the supposed incarnations of the Buddha-influence.

Khuddaka-patha (Pali) Khuddaka-pāṭha [from khuddaka little one + pāṭha reading, text] A Buddhist scripture given to neophytes upon joining the Samgha (the Buddhist brotherhood); first book in the Khuddaka-Nikaya — a collection of short canonical Buddhist books. This brief text contains some of the most beautiful poems in Buddhist literature, and the reverential feelings evoked by reading it are unquestionably the principal reason for its use. It opens with a profession of faith in the Buddha, in the Doctrine, and in the Order.

Kuen-lun-shan (Chinese) One of the sacred mountains in China, situated in the southwest between China and Tibet in the Keun-lun range which divides Tibet on the south from Eastern Turkestan. Every three years Buddhists assembled there, their observances climaxed by religious marvels produced by the hierophant (styled Foh-chu, “buddha-teacher”) under the Tree of Knowledge and Life (Sung-ming-shu).

Kusa-nagara (Sanskrit) Kuśa-nagara The town in which Gautama Buddha is said to have died.

Lakshana (Sanskrit) Lakṣaṇa Mark, sign, or symbol; the 32 lakshanas are the 32 bodily signs or marks of a buddha by which he is recognized.

Lalitavistara (Sanskrit) Lalitavistara A celebrated biography of Gautama Buddha by Dhrarmaraksha (308 AD); a Theravada work of the Mahasanghika school, written in Sanskrit.

Lamaism: A popular term for Tibetan esoteric Buddhism, not used by the Buddhists themselves. It designates the religious beliefs and institutions of Tibet, derived from Mahayana Buddhism (q.v.) which was first introduced in the seventh century by the chieftain Sron-tsan-gampo, superimposed on the native Shamais-tic Bon religion, resuscitated and mixed with Tantric (q.v.) elements by the mythic Hindu Padmasambhava, and reformed by the Bengalese Atisa in the 11th and Tsong-kha-pa at the turn of the 14th century. The strong admixture of elements of the exorcismal, highly magically charged and priest-ridden original Bon, has given Buddhism a turn away from its philosophic orientation and produced in Lamaism a form that places great emphasis on mantras (q.v.)—the most famous one being om mani padme hum —elaborate ritual, and the worship of subsidiary tutelary deities, high dignitaries, and living incarnations of the Buddha. This worship is institutionalized, incorporating a belief in the double incarnation of the Bodhisattva (q.v.) in the Dalai-Lama who resides with political powers at the capital Lhasa, and the more spiritual head Tashi-Lama who rules at Tashi-lhum-po.

Lineage ::: In Buddhism this is a line of transmission that makes up a tradition, school of thought, or set of practices. Theoretically the lineage can be traced back to the Buddha himself.

Living Buddhas. See TULKU

Lokanatha (Sanskrit) Lokanātha [from loka world + nātha refuge, protector] World refuge or world protector; law. A title of Gautama Buddha, conveying the idea that he is the spiritual refuge and protector of our world.

Mahavairocana: The Buddha of the Mystical School “who illumines the whole world as the sun does.” The universe is his Law-body (see trikaya) forever propagating his truth, and all phenomena are his manifestations.

Mahavihara-Vasinah (Sanskrit) Mahāvihāra-vāsinaḥ [from mahā great + vihāra monastery + vāsinaḥ plural of vāsin dweller] Dwellers of the great monastery; a highly mystical Buddhist school of Ceylon, founded by Katyayana, according to tradition a pupil of Gautama Buddha. One of the three divisions of an early Buddhist school called the Sthavirakaya. See also JETAVANIYA

Mahayana Buddhism: "Great Vehicle Buddhism", the Northern, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese form of Buddhism (q.v.), extending as far as Korea and Japan, whose central theme is that Buddhahood means devotion to the salvation of others and thus manifests itself in the worship of Buddha and Bodhisattvas (q.v.). Apart from absorbing beliefs of a more primitive strain, it has also evolved metaphysical and epistemological systems, such as the Sunya-vada (q.v.) and Vijnana-vada (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Mahayana Buddhism: “Great Vehicle Buddhism,” the Northern, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese form of Buddhism (q.v.), extending as far as Korea and Japan, whose central theme is that Buddhahood means devotion to the salvation of others and thus manifests itself in the worship of Buddha and Bodhisattvas (q.v.). Apart from absorbing beliefs of a more primitive strain, it has also evolved metaphysical and epistemological systems, such as the Sunya-vada (q.v.) and Vijnana-vada (q.v.).

Main works: Le fondemcnt de l'induction, 187; Psychologie et metaphysique, 1885; Etudes sur le syllogisme, 1907; Note sur le pari de Pascal. --L.W. Lamaism: (from Tibetan b La-ma, honorable title of a monk) The religious beliefs and institutions of Tibet, derived from Mahayana Buddhism (q.v.) which was first introduced in the 7th century by the chieftain Sron-tsan-gampo, superimposed on the native Shamaistic Bon religion, resuscitated and mixed with Tantric (q.v.) elements by the mythic Hindu Padmasambhava, and reformed by the Bengalese Atisa in the 11th and Tsong-kha-pa at the turn of the 14th century. The strong admixture of elements of the exorcismal, highly magically charged and priest-ridden original Bon, has given Buddhism a turn away from its philosophic orientation and produced in Lamaism a form that places great emphasis on mantras (q.v.) -- the most famous one being om mani padme hum) -- elaborate ritual, and the worship of subsidiary tutelary deities, high dignitaries, and living incarnations of the Buddha. This worship is institutionalized, with a semblance of the papacy, in the double incarnation of the Bodhisattva (q.v.) in the Dalai-Lama who resides with political powers at the capital Lhasa, and the more spiritual head Tashi-Lama who rules at Tashi-Ihum-po. Contacts with Indian and Chinese traditions have been maintained for centuries and the two canons of Lamaism, the Kan-jur of 108 books and the Tan-jur of 225 books represent many translations as well as original works, some of great philosophical value. -- K.F.L.

Manicheism: A mystical religio-philosophical doctrine, instituted in Persia by Mani (Manes or Manichaeus), a Magian who, upon conversion to Christianity, sought to synthesize the latter with the dualism of Zoroastrianism, and became a martyr to his faith. The Manicheist creed teaches that to combat the powers of darkness, the mother of light created the first man. As Buddha and Zoroaster, he worked illumination among men; as Jesus, the Son of Man, he had to suffer, become transfigured and symbolize salvation by his apparent death at the cross; as spirit of the sun he attracts all connatural light particles to himself. But final salvation from the throes of evil demons is accomplished by ascetic living, reminding of the Hindu code of ethics, and belief in Mani as the prophesied paraclete.

Manicheism, a religio-philosophical doctrine which spread from Persia to the West and was influential during the 3rd and 7th century, was instituted by Mani (Grk. Manes, Latinized: Manichaeus), a Magian who, upon conversion to Christianity, sought to synthesize the latter with the dualism of Zoroastrianism (q.v.), not without becoming a martyr to his faith. To combat the powers of darkness, the mother of light created the first man. As Buddha (q.v.) and Zoroaster he worked illumination among men ; as Jesus, the Son of Man, he had to suffer, become transfigured and symbolize salvation by his apparent death at the cross; as spirit of the sun he attracts all connatural light particles to himself. But final salvation from the throes of evil demons is accomplished by ascetic living, reminding of the Hindu code of ethics (see Indian Ethics), and belief in Mani as the prophesied paraclete (John 14.16-17). Revived once more in the Occident during the crusades by the Cathari. -- K.F.L.

Many statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas possess certain peculiar headgear called crowns or ushnishas. Hence ushnisha is also used in the sense of turban, because this particular headgear, given to these statues, somewhat resembles a turban of spiral conical form, somewhat like the spiral shell of some snails.

Mara ::: [in Buddhism: the Destroyer, the Evil One (who tempts man to indulge his passions and is the great enemy of the Buddha and of his religion)], conscious devil or self-existent principle of evil.

MCTB ::: "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book". Daniel Ingram's contemporary look at enlightenment theory, meditative practice, and the process of mastering the mind. My personal favorite work on understanding the nature of conscious experience and beginning to understand and integrate advanced meditative states and techniques.

Mean: In general, that which in some way mediates or occupies a middle position among various things or between two extremes. Hence (especially in the plural) that through which an end is attained; in mathematics the word is used for any one of various notions of average; in ethics it represents moderation, temperance, prudence, the middle way. In mathematics:   The arithmetic mean of two quantities is half their sum; the arithmetic mean of n quantities is the sum of the n quantities, divided by n. In the case of a function f(x) (say from real numbers to real numbers) the mean value of the function for the values x1, x2, . . . , xn of x is the arithmetic mean of f(x1), f(x2), . . . , f(xn). This notion is extended to the case of infinite sets of values of x by means of integration; thus the mean value of f(x) for values of x between a and b is ∫f(x)dx, with a and b as the limits of integration, divided by the difference between a and b.   The geometric mean of or between, or the mean proportional between, two quantities is the (positive) square root of their product. Thus if b is the geometric mean between a and c, c is as many times greater (or less) than b as b is than a. The geometric mean of n quantities is the nth root of their product.   The harmonic mean of two quantities is defined as the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of their reciprocals. Hence the harmonic mean of a and b is 2ab/(a + b).   The weighted mean or weighted average of a set of n quantities, each of which is associated with a certain number as weight, is obtained by multiplying each quantity by the associated weight, adding these products together, and then dividing by the sum of the weights. As under A, this may be extended to the case of an infinite set of quantities by means of integration. (The weights have the role of estimates of relative importance of the various quantities, and if all the weights are equal the weighted mean reduces to the simple arithmetic mean.)   In statistics, given a population (i.e., an aggregate of observed or observable quantities) and a variable x having the population as its range, we have:     The mean value of x is the weighted mean of the values of x, with the probability (frequency ratio) of each value taken as its weight. In the case of a finite population this is the same as the simple arithmetic mean of the population, provided that, in calculating the arithmetic mean, each value of x is counted as many times over as it occurs in the set of observations constituting the population.     In like manner, the mean value of a function f(x) of x is the weighted mean of the values of f(x), where the probability of each value of x is taken as the weight of the corresponding value of f(x).     The mode of the population is the most probable (most frequent) value of x, provided there is one such.     The median of the population is so chosen that the probability that x be less than the median (or the probability that x be greater than the median) is ½ (or as near ½ as possible). In the case of a finite population, if the values of x are arranged in order of magnitude     --repeating any one value of x as many times over as it occurs in the set of observations constituting the population     --then the middle term of this series, or the arithmetic mean of the two middle terms, is the median.     --A.C. In cosmology, the fundamental means (arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic) were used by the Greeks in describing or actualizing the process of becoming in nature. The Pythagoreans and the Platonists in particular made considerable use of these means (see the Philebus and the Timaeus more especially). These ratios are among the basic elements used by Plato in his doctrine of the mixtures. With the appearance of the qualitative physics of Aristotle, the means lost their cosmological importance and were thereafter used chiefly in mathematics. The modern mathematical theories of the universe make use of the whole range of means analyzed by the calculus of probability, the theory of errors, the calculus of variations, and the statistical methods. In ethics, the 'Doctrine of the Mean' is the moral theory of moderation, the development of the virtues, the determination of the wise course in action, the practice of temperance and prudence, the choice of the middle way between extreme or conflicting decisions. It has been developed principally by the Chinese, the Indians and the Greeks; it was used with caution by the Christian moralists on account of their rigorous application of the moral law.   In Chinese philosophy, the Doctrine of the Mean or of the Middle Way (the Chung Yung, literally 'Equilibrium and Harmony') involves the absence of immoderate pleasure, anger, sorrow or joy, and a conscious state in which those feelings have been stirred and act in their proper degree. This doctrine has been developed by Tzu Shu (V. C. B.C.), a grandson of Confucius who had already described the virtues of the 'superior man' according to his aphorism "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the mean". In matters of action, the superior man stands erect in the middle and strives to follow a course which does not incline on either side.   In Buddhist philosophy, the System of the Middle Way or Madhyamaka is ascribed more particularly to Nagarjuna (II c. A.D.). The Buddha had given his revelation as a mean or middle way, because he repudiated the two extremes of an exaggerated ascetlsm and of an easy secular life. This principle is also applied to knowledge and action in general, with the purpose of striking a happy medium between contradictory judgments and motives. The final objective is the realization of the nirvana or the complete absence of desire by the gradual destruction of feelings and thoughts. But while orthodox Buddhism teaches the unreality of the individual (who is merely a mass of causes and effects following one another in unbroken succession), the Madhyamaka denies also the existence of these causes and effects in themselves. For this system, "Everything is void", with the legitimate conclusion that "Absolute truth is silence". Thus the perfect mean is realized.   In Greek Ethics, the doctrine of the Right (Mean has been developed by Plato (Philebus) and Aristotle (Nic. Ethics II. 6-8) principally, on the Pythagorean analogy between the sound mind, the healthy body and the tuned string, which has inspired most of the Greek Moralists. Though it is known as the "Aristotelian Principle of the Mean", it is essentially a Platonic doctrine which is preformed in the Republic and the Statesman and expounded in the Philebus, where we are told that all good things in life belong to the class of the mixed (26 D). This doctrine states that in the application of intelligence to any kind of activity, the supreme wisdom is to know just where to stop, and to stop just there and nowhere else. Hence, the "right-mean" does not concern the quantitative measurement of magnitudes, but simply the qualitative comparison of values with respect to a standard which is the appropriate (prepon), the seasonable (kairos), the morally necessary (deon), or generally the moderate (metrion). The difference between these two kinds of metretics (metretike) is that the former is extrinsic and relative, while the latter is intrinsic and absolute. This explains the Platonic division of the sciences into two classes: those involving reference to relative quantities (mathematical or natural), and those requiring absolute values (ethics and aesthetics). The Aristotelian analysis of the "right mean" considers moral goodness as a fixed and habitual proportion in our appetitions and tempers, which can be reached by training them until they exhibit just the balance required by the right rule. This process of becoming good develops certain habits of virtues consisting in reasonable moderation where both excess and defect are avoided: the virtue of temperance (sophrosyne) is a typical example. In this sense, virtue occupies a middle position between extremes, and is said to be a mean; but it is not a static notion, as it leads to the development of a stable being, when man learns not to over-reach himself. This qualitative conception of the mean involves an adaptation of the agent, his conduct and his environment, similar to the harmony displayed in a work of art. Hence the aesthetic aspect of virtue, which is often overstressed by ancient and neo-pagan writers, at the expense of morality proper.   The ethical idea of the mean, stripped of the qualifications added to it by its Christian interpreters, has influenced many positivistic systems of ethics, and especially pragmatism and behaviourism (e.g., A. Huxley's rule of Balanced Excesses). It is maintained that it is also involved in the dialectical systems, such as Hegelianism, where it would have an application in the whole dialectical process as such: thus, it would correspond to the synthetic phase which blends together the thesis and the antithesis by the meeting of the opposites. --T.G. Mean, Doctrine of the: In Aristotle's ethics, the doctrine that each of the moral virtues is an intermediate state between extremes of excess and defect. -- O.R.M.

Medium ::: A word of curiously ill-defined significance, and used mostly if not exclusively by modern Spiritists. Thegeneral sense of the word would seem to be a person of unstable psychical temperament, or constitutionrather, who is supposed to act as a canal or channel of transmission, hence "medium," between humanbeings and the so-called spirits.A medium actually in the theosophical teaching is one whose inner constitution is in unstable balance, orperhaps even dislocated, so that at different times the sheaths of the inner parts of the medium'sconstitution function irregularly and in magnetic sympathy with currents and entities in the astral light,more particularly in kama-loka. It is an exceedingly unfortunate and dangerous condition to be in, despitewhat the Spiritists claim for it.Very different indeed from the medium is the mediator, a human being of relatively highly evolvedspiritual and intellectual and psychical nature who serves as an intermediary or mediator between themembers of the Great Brotherhood, the mahatmas, and ordinary humanity. There are also mediators of astill more lofty type who serve as channels of transmission for the passing down of divine and spiritualand highly intellectual powers to this sphere. Actually, every mahatma is such a mediator of this highertype, and so in even larger degree are the buddhas and the avataras. A mediator is one of highly evolvedconstitution, every portion of which is under the instant and direct control of the spiritual dominating willand the loftiest intelligence which the mediator is capable of exercising. Every human being should striveto be a mediator of this kind between his own inner god and his mere brain-mind. The more he succeeds,the grander he is as a man.Mediator, therefore, and medium are the polar antitheses of each other. The medium is irregular,negative, often irresponsible or quasi-irresponsible, and uncertain, and is not infrequently the victim orplaything of evil and degenerate entities whom theosophists call elementaries, having their habitat in theastral light of the earth; whereas the mediator is one more or less fully insouled or inspirited with divine,spiritual, and intellectual powers and their corresponding faculties and organs.

Mme. David-Neel writes: “the Lamas who belong to the Yellow Cap Sects acknowledge the superiority of their brethren in the various Red Cap Sects in all questions more or less connected with magic and occult science” (My Journey to Lhasa 181). This is a misinterpretation; there has always been a traditional antagonism between the reformed and unreformed sects, each sect having more or less contempt for the beliefs and practices of the other; yet each sect nevertheless holding the other in some respect and paying such deference as is in either case properly due. The Red Cap sects are very largely given over to tantric and other magical practices often partaking of sorcery. The tantric element predominating in this sect is wholly foreign to the pure teachings of Gautama Buddha. It is the higher, more educated, and the initiates of the Yellow Cap body who condemn these practices, although acknowledging their existence and efficacy in use: yet, it is the reformed body which is the true exponent of genuine occult sayings and spiritual magic, in no wise verging upon sorcery, necromancy, or similar modes of thought. Mme. David-Neel’s acquaintance was very largely among the frontier tribes and sects, where she would naturally have a better acquaintance with the practices of the Red Cap body than with those of the extremely reserved and reticent Yellow Caps. See also GELUKPAS

Moment of Choice The turning point in evolution, when the temporary balance between spirit and matter, or between upward and downward movements, has been reached. The evolving entity can then no longer remain neutral and undecided, but must choose definitely whether to continue upward or to enter upon a downward path. When the movement towards pralaya prevails, all the classes of evolving beings gravitate to their appropriate sphere: spirit to spirit, matter to matter, manas to mahat. But this dividing of the ways occurs for self-conscious entities at every step of the path, so that in this sense the moment of choice is continuous. Although this moment of choice is continuous for the individual, yet a point occurs in human evolution when the decision must definitely be made to follow the upward path or to follow the matter side of evolution. There is also the choice that must be made when the individual has reached the peak of human evolution on this globe, when the decision is finally to be made whether he will follow the path of the Buddhas of Compassion, or pursue the way of self and become a Pratyeka Buddha.

mu 1. "networking" The {country code} for Mauritius. 2. "philosophy" /moo/ The correct answer to the classic trick question "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?". Assuming that you have no wife or you have never beaten your wife, the answer "yes" is wrong because it implies that you used to beat your wife and then stopped, but "no" is worse because it suggests that you have one and are still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofstadter the correct answer is usually "mu", a Japanese word alleged to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions". Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical inadequacies in language, and many have adopted this suggestion with enthusiasm. The word "mu" is actually from Chinese, meaning "nothing"; it is used in mainstream Japanese in that sense, but native speakers do not recognise the Discordian question-denying use. It almost certainly derives from overgeneralisation of the answer in the following well-known Rinzei Zen teaching riddle: A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu retorted, "Mu!" See also {has the X nature}, {AI Koan}. [Douglas Hofstadter, "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid"]. [{Jargon File}] (2000-11-22)

Mystical School of Buddhism: That school in Buddhist philosophy which considers the universe itself to be the Great Sun Buddha (Mahavairocana).

Namas (Sanskrit) Namas [from nam to bow, make reverence; cf Pali namo] A reverence, consisting of an inclination of the body; both in act and in writing a reverential salutation. “The first word of a daily invocation among Buddhists, meaning ‘I humbly trust, or adore, or acknowledge’ the Lord, as: ‘Namo tasso Bhagavato Arahato’ etc., addressed to Lord Buddha. The priests are called ‘Masters of Namah’ [Namas] — both Buddhist and Taoist, because this word is used in liturgy and prayers, in the invocation of the Triratna, and with a slight change in the occult incantations to the Bodhisattvas and Nirmanakayas” (TG 224).

Nembutsu: In Japanese Buddhism, “thinking of Buddha,” the process of repeating the name of Buddha and meditating on him.

Nirmanakaya(Sanskrit) ::: A compound of two words: nirmana, a participle meaning "forming," "creating"; kaya, a wordmeaning "body," "robe," "vehicle"; thus, nirmanakaya means "formed-body." A nirmanakaya, however,is really a state assumed by or entered into by a bodhisattva -- an individual man made semi-divine who,to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the nirvana of a less degree, remains on earthout of pity and compassion for inferior beings, clothing himself in a nirmanakayic vesture. When thatstate is ended the nirmanakaya ends.A nirmanakaya is a complete man possessing all the principles of his constitution except the linga-sariraand its accompanying physical body. He is one who lives on the plane of being next superior to thephysical plane, and his purpose in so doing is to save men from themselves by being with them, and bycontinuously instilling thoughts of self-sacrifice, of self-forgetfulness, of spiritual and moral beauty, ofmutual help, of compassion, and of pity.Nirmanakaya is the third or lowest, exoterically speaking, of what is called in Sanskrit trikaya or "threebodies." The highest is the dharmakaya, in which state are the nirvanis and full pratyeka buddhas, etc.;the second state is the sambhogakaya, intermediate between the former and, thirdly, the nirmanakaya.The nirmanakaya vesture or condition enables one entering it to live in touch and sympathy with theworld of men. The sambhogakaya enables one in that state to be conscious indeed to a certain extent ofthe world of men and its griefs and sorrows, but with little power or impulse to render aid. Thedharmakaya vesture is so pure and holy, and indeed so high, that the one possessing the dharmakaya orwho is in it, is virtually out of all touch with anything inferior to himself. It is, therefore, in thenirmanakaya vesture if not in physical form that live and work the Buddhas of Compassion, the greatestsages and seers, and all the superholy men who through striving through ages of evolution bring forthinto manifestation and power and function the divinity within. The doctrine of the nirmanakayas is one ofthe most suggestive, profound, and beautiful teachings of the esoteric philosophy. (See also Dharmakaya,Sambhogakaya)

Nirvana(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound: nir, "out," and vana, the past participle passive of the root va, "to blow,"literallly meaning "blown out." So badly has the significance of the ancient Indian thought (and even its language, the Sanskrit) been understood, that for many years erudite European scholars were discussingwhether being "blown out" meant actual entitative annihilation or not. But the being blown out refersonly to the lower principles in man.Nirvana is a very different thing from the "heavens." Nirvana is a state of utter bliss and complete,untrammeled consciousness, a state of absorption in pure kosmic Being, and is the wondrous destiny ofthose who have reached superhuman knowledge and purity and spiritual illumination. It really ispersonal-individual absorption into or rather identification with the Self -- the highest SELF. It is also thestate of the monadic entities in the period that intervenes between minor manvantaras or rounds of aplanetary chain; and more fully so between each seven-round period or Day of Brahma, and thesucceeding day or new kalpa of a planetary chain. At these last times, starting forth from the seventhsphere in the seventh round, the monadic entities will have progressed far beyond even the highest stateof devachan. Too pure and too far advanced even for such a condition as the devachanic felicity, they goto their appropriate sphere and condition, which latter is the nirvana following the end of the seventhround.Devachan and nirvana are not localities. They are states, states of the beings in those respective spiritualconditions. Devachan is the intermediate state; nirvana is the superspiritual state; and avichi, popularlycalled the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beingshaving habitat in the lokas or talas, in the worlds of the kosmic egg.So far as the individual human being is concerned, the nirvanic state or condition may be attained to bygreat spiritual seers and sages, such as Gautama the Buddha, and even by men less progressed than he;because in these cases of the attaining of the nirvana even during a man's life on earth, the meaning isthat one so attaining has through evolution progressed so far along the path that all the lower personalpart of him is become thoroughly impersonalized, the personal has put on the garment of impersonality,and such a man thereafter lives in the nirvanic condition of the spiritual monad.As a concluding thought, it must be pointed out that nirvana, while the ultima thule of the perfection tobe attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than thecondition of the bodhisattva. For the bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of nirvana andseeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness inthe worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. Thebuddhas in their higher parts enter the nirvana, in other words, assume the dharmakaya state or vesture,whereas the bodhisattva assumes the nirmanakaya vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active andcompassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The buddha indeed may be said to act indirectlyand by long distance control, thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but thebodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for theworld and for individuals.

Nirvana, then, does not mean utter annihilation, nor did the Buddha teach utter annihilation or wiping out. Thus fundamental consciousness is uninterrupted from eternity to eternity, although undergoing continual change. But such change is not a difference of essence, but a continuously enlarging and ever greater unfolding of the inner essence.

  “Nirvana, while the Ultima Thule of the perfection to be attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than the condition of the Bodhisattva. For the Bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of Nirvana and seeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness in the worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. The Buddhas in their higher parts enter the Nirvana, in other words, assume the Dharmakaya-state or vesture, whereas the Bodhisattva assumes the Nirmanakaya-vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active and compassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The Buddha indeed may be said to act indirectly and by ‘long distance control,’ thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but the Bodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for the world and for individuals” (OG 116-17).

  “No purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle, — or the over-soul, — has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha)” (SD 1:17).

  “no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle — or the OVERSOUL — has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha)” (SD 1:17).

O-mi-to Fo, Amita Fo (Chinese) The Chinese form of Amita Buddha (Sanskrit, “boundless buddha”) a title given to the cosmic manifested buddhi or mahabuddhi, equivalent to the Second Logos, which is resident in the essence of every entity in the universe as its inspiring and guiding spiritual light.

Pali Canon ::: In Theravadan Buddhism, these are recognised as the canonical suttas of the Buddha. In other forms of Buddhism they are the main body of teachings and discourses that comprise the foundation for much of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

Pali The language spoken in the north of India from and before the 7th century BC to about the 5th century AD. It is still the literary sacred language of Burma, Thailand, and Ceylon. There were two factors which made Pali one of the most important literary languages of the world: first, with the rise of the Kosalas into a kingdom, the language of its capital (Savatthi, in Nepal) become the form of speech almost universally adopted. Secondly, Gautama Buddha, being of Kosalan by birth, probably used the Pali language in giving forth his teachings, and therefore the subsequent philosophical writings of his disciples were similarly couched in this language.

Panchasya (Sanskrit) Pañcāsya [from pañca five + āsya face] Five-faced, five-headed, five-pointed; as a noun, a lion, synonym for the zodiacal sign Simha or Leo, showing that the sign is intended to represent the five Buddhas or Brahmas — Isana, Aghora, Tatpurusha, Vamadeva, and Sadyojata (5YT 108).

Parallel with these developments was the growth of Buddhism in China, a story too long to relate here. Many Buddhist doctrines, latent in India, were developed in China. The nihilism of Madhyamika (Sun-lan, c. 450-c. 1000) to the effect that reality is Void in the sense of being "devoid" of any specific character, was brought to fullness, while the idealism of Vijnaptimatravada (Yogacara, Fahsiang, 563-c. 1000), which claimed that reality in its imaginary, dependent and absolute aspects is "representation-only," was pushed to the extreme. But these philosophies failed because their extreme positions were not consonant with the Chinese Ideal of the golden mean. In the meantime, China developed her own Buddhist philosophy consistent with her general philosophical outlook. We need only mention the Hua-yen school (Avatamisaka, 508) which offered a totalistic philosophy of "all in one" and "one in all," the T'ien-t'ai school (c. 550) which believes in the identity of the Void, Transitoriness, and the Mean, and in the "immanence of 3,000 worlds in one moment of thought," and the Chin-t'u school (Pure Land, c. 500) which bases its doctrine of salvation by faith and salvation for all on the philosophy of the universality of Buddha-nature. These schools have persisted because they accepted both noumenon and phenomenon, both ens and non-ens, and this "both-and" spirit is predominantly characteristic of Chinese philosophy.

Paramartha, in the view of Buddhist initiates, is that final or ultimate goal possible of attainment in the present sevenfold planetary manvantara by the striving and advancing adept. When he has overcome, subdued, and transformed the characteristics of the lower quaternary of his sevenfold constitution so that he lives in the highest part of the upper triad — when he has attained self-conscious living in his own monadic essence — he thereupon attains paramartha or that absolute consciousness which, because of its freedom from all human qualifications or characteristics, can equally be called absolute unconsciousness. Expressed in another way, it is conscious existence as a nirvani. It is the state into which the upper triad of the buddha passes, once the buddha state has been reached. This entrance of the buddha’s higher triad into nirvana by no means inhibits his lower quaternary from active service in the world, for his lower quaternary, being washed of all the characteristics of ordinary personality and overshadowed by the buddha’s higher triad, is a nirmanakaya of high degree.

Personality ::: Theosophists draw a clear and sharp distinction, not of essence but of quality, between personality andindividuality. Personality comes from the Latin word persona, which means a mask, through which theactor, the spiritual individuality, speaks. The personality is all the lower man: all the psychical and astraland physical impulses and thoughts and tendencies, and what not. It is the reflection in matter of theindividuality; but being a material thing it can lead us downwards, although it is in essence a reflection ofthe highest. Freeing ourselves from the domination of the person, the mask, the veil, through which theindividuality acts, then we show forth all the spiritual and so-called superhuman qualities; and this willhappen in the future, in the far distant aeons of the future, when every human being shall have become abuddha, a christ. Such is the destiny of the human race.In occultism the distinction between the personality and the immortal individuality is that drawn betweenthe lower quaternary or four lower principles of the human constitution and the three higher principles ofthe constitution or higher triad. The higher triad is the individuality; the personality is the lowerquaternary. The combination of these two into a unity during a lifetime on earth produces what we nowcall the human being. The personality comprises within its range all the characteristics and memories andimpulses and karmic attributes of one physical life; whereas the individuality is the aeonic ego,imperishable and deathless for the period of a solar manvantara. It is the individuality through its ray orhuman astral-vital monad which reincarnates time after time and thus clothes itself in one personalityafter another personality.

Pratyeka Buddha (Sanskrit) Pratyeka Buddha [from prati towards, for + eka one] Each one for himself; exalted and in one sense holy beings who crave spiritual enlightenment for themselves alone. They “are those Bodhisattvas who strive after and often reach the Dharmakaya robe after a series of lives. Caring nothing for the woes of mankind or to help it, but only for this own bliss, they enter Nirvana and — disappear from the sight and the hearts of men. In Northern Buddhism a ‘Pratyeka Buddha’ is a synonym of spiritual Selfishness”; “He, who becomes Pratyeka-Buddha, makes his obeisance but to his Self ” (VS 86, 43).

Pratyeka Buddha(Sanskrit) ::: Pratyeka is a compound of two words: prati, prepositional prefix meaning "towards" or "for";eka, the numeral "one"; thus we can translate the compound by the paraphrase "each one for himself."The Pratyeka Buddha, he who achieves buddhahood for himself, instead of feeling the call of almightylove to return and help those who have gone less far, goes ahead into the supernal light -- passes onwardsand enters the unspeakable bliss of nirvana -- and leaves mankind behind. Though exalted, neverthelesshe does not rank with the unutterable sublimity of the Buddha of Compassion.The Pratyeka Buddha concentrates his energies on the one objective -- spiritual self-advancement: heraises himself to the spiritual realm of his own inner being, enwraps himself therein and, so to speak,goes to sleep. The Buddha of Compassion raises himself, as does the Pratyeka Buddha, to the spiritualrealms of his own inner being, but does not stop there, because he expands continuously, becomes onewith All, or tries to, and in fact does so in time. When the Pratyeka Buddha in due course emerges fromthe nirvanic state in order to take up his evolutionary journey again, he will find himself far in the rear ofthe Buddha of Compassion.

Pratyeka-yana (Sanskrit) Pratyeka-yāna [from prati towards, for + eka one + yāna vehicle, path] The path of each one for himself, or the personal vehicle or ego, equivalent to the Pali pachcheka. Fully self-conscious being cannot ever be achieved by following the path for oneself, but solely by following the amrita-yana (immortal vehicle) or the path of self-consciousness in immortality, the spiritual path to a nirvana of high degree, the secret path as taught by the heart doctrine. The pratyeka-yana is the pathway of the personality, the vegetative or material path to a nirvana of a low degree, the open path, as taught by the eye doctrine. These two terms describe two kinds of advancement towards more spiritual things, and the two ultimate goals thereof: the amrita-yana of the Buddhas of Compassion, and the pratyeka-yana of the Pratyeka Buddhas.

Prayer flag: Small pennants made of fabric strung by the hundreds across the entrance gates to larger Tibetan cities. Each flutter of the flags in the wind is believed to cause a prayer to be carried across the skies to Buddha.

proper names: e.g., of historical figures, specific buddhas, bodhisattvas, and divinities;

Pure Land ::: Also "Buddha-Field". In Buddhism, these are realms of reality that have been created by highly realized Mahasiddhas for rebirth by those who practice phowa and attune to that particular world at the time of death. For eference, imagine a constructed world of your choosing that exists as an astral abode and imagine it at peak lucidity. Pure lands are like that but a stable home for the mind at much higher levels of bliss, clarity, and form freedom. These are the idealized afterlives of various traditions and religions.

Pushkala (Sanskrit) Puṣkala Complete, preeminent in perfected completion; a name of several entities or things, e.g., a son of Varuna, a rishi, a buddha, Siva, and an asura, as well as of Mount Meru, which is the most important meaning.

Pu-tsi-k’iun-ling (Chinese) The universal savior of all living beings; the inscription appearing over the statue of Kwan-shi-yin (Avalokitesvara). Also used as a title of the Buddha.

Race-Buddha, Racial Buddha On each globe of a planetary chain, as the life-wave touches it in a round, there appears a mahabuddha; and another mahabuddha appears when the life-wave leaves the globe after completing its round. For each root-race during such a globe-round there appears a racial buddha, each of these being one of seven rays from the mahabuddha who appears at the opening of the round. At the middle of the root-race the racial buddha pertaining to it overshadows a human vessel and a manushya-buddha is born — the latest of these known in history being Sakyamuni or Gautama.

Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is born in the Suryavansa, while Gautama Buddha belonged to the Chandravansa (TG 314).

Red Caps, Red Hats, Red Hoods Often applied, especially by Europeans to the adherents of the Unreformed Buddhist sects, called in Tibet the Ning-ma-pas, who wear red robes and hoods. This sect was founded in Tibet in the latter part of the 8th century during the reign of the Tibetan king Ti-song De-tsen, who was so impressed with the precepts of Buddhism that he summoned Padmasambhava from Udyayana in Northwest India to spread the religion of the Buddha in Tibet. But by this time the Buddhism of Northwest India and Nepal had become infected with tantric practices, and these practices predominated in Tibet until the great reformer Tsong-kha-pa (born 1358) founded the order of the Gelukpas or Yellow Caps.

Rhinoceros Used in the mystical schools of Northern Buddhism to signify a pratyeka buddha, a translation of the Sanskrit khadga. The nature of the rhinoceros is to be alone, walk alone, live alone, intent on its own affairs and more or less oblivious of what does not concern these. Transferring the idea of the solitary individual intent upon his own purposes, however spiritually high, to the pratyeka buddhas gives an outline of the entire Mahayana Buddhist doctrine.

Rohinila (Sanskrit) Rohiṇīlā [from rohiṇī red + nīlā blue] “The ancient name of a monastery visited by Buddha Sakyamuni, now called Roynallah, near Balgada, in Eastern Behar” (TG 279).

Root-race, Seventh The seventh and last root-race of any round on any globe of a planetary chain. Reference is nearly always to the seventh root-race of the fourth round on globe D of the earth-chain. It characteristics are analogous on a smaller scale to those of the seventh round, modified by the fact that it belongs to the fourth round. There is a return to conditions of purity which prevailed at the beginning of the round; but this return does not mean a going backward but an emanative evolutionary unfolding to the point where the cyclic motion brings all things back to the same plane, but on a higher subdivision. The great adepts and initiates — referring here specifically to the seventh root-race on globe D of the fourth round — will once more produce mind-born sons immaculately, and there will be a race of buddhas, sons of god, the purity of the krita-age being reestablished (SD 2:274, 483). The invisible north polar continent will once more become visible, and the bodhisattva Maitreya will appear (SD 1:328, 470). A seventh element will appear as a presentment, not however to be fully manifested until the seventh round. In this race some of the greatest adepts will return.

Sakwala (Sinhalese, Cakkavāḷa in Pali) Gautama Buddha uttered this “word” (bana) in his oral instructions to denote “a solar system, of which there is an infinite number in the universe, and which denotes that space to which the light of every sun extends. Each Sakwala contains earths, hells and heavens (meaning good and bad spheres, our earth being considered as hell, in Occultism); attains its prime, then falls into decay and is finally destroyed at regularly recurring periods, in virtue of one immutable law. Upon the earth, the Master taught that there have been already four great ‘continents’ (the Land of the Gods, Lemuria, Atlantis, and the present ‘continent’ divided into five parts of the Secret Doctrine), and that three more have to appear. The former ‘did not communicate with each other,’ a sentence showing that Buddha was not speaking of the actual continents known in his day (for Patala or America was perfectly familiar to the ancient Hindus), but of the four geological formations of the earth, with their four distinct root-races which had already disappeared” (TG 285). See also SAHA

Sakya Muni; Sakyamuni: Sanskrit for Great Sage. A name of Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism.

Sakyamuni (Sanskrit) Śākyamuni The Sakya sage, a name of Gautama Buddha.

Sakyamuni (Shakya-Muni) ::: "sage of the Sakyas", a name of the Buddha.

Samajna (Sanskrit) Samājña The enlightened one; a name of the Buddha; the famous vihara near Kustana (China) is called the Sangharama-Samajna (the monastery of the luminous sage). Also spelled Samadjna.

Samantabhadra (Sanskrit) Samantabhadra The universal sage, the wholly auspicious one; a name of Gautama Buddha, and also of one of the four bodhisattvas of the Yogacharya school of Mahayana philosophy. A Yogacharya legend states that there are three celestial and four terrestrial bodhisattvas — an allusion to the upper triad and the lower quaternary of the seven human principles. The four terrestrial bodhisattvas act only in the present races, yet in the middle of the fifth root-race has appeared the fifth terrestrial bodhisattva, the Buddha Siddhartha-Gautama. It is said that he appeared somewhat before his periodic time and was obliged to disappear bodily from the world for a while. The four terrestrial bodhisattvas refer to the four rounds thus far appearing in our present planetary chain — three rounds having been completed, and the fourth about half run. The three celestial bodhisattvas mentioned refer to the spiritual forces or powers of the three rounds still to come — the fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds. These bodhisattvas are in celestial spheres awaiting their turn to take their place in the septenary line of cosmic teachers. Once they appear on earth they become terrestrial bodhisattvas, although remaining nevertheless celestial or transcendent — as the four bodhisattvas who have already appeared have done or are.

Samantaprabhasa (Sanskrit) Samantaprabhāsa Universal or perfect splendor; according to Buddhist legend, this is the general name by which each of the 500 perfected arhats will reappear as individuals on our earth as a buddha.

Sambhala(Sanskrit) ::: A place-name of highly mystical significance. Many learned occidental Orientalists haveendeavored to identify this mystical and unknown locality with some well-known modern district ortown, but unsuccessfully. The name is mentioned in the Puranas and elsewhere, and it is stated that out ofSambhala will appear in due course of time the Kalki-Avatara of the future. The Kalki-Avatara is one ofthe manifestations or avataras of Vishnu. Among the Buddhists it is also stated that out of Sambhala willcome in due course of time the Maitreya-Buddha or next buddha.Sambhala, however, although no erudite Orientalist has yet succeeded in locating it geographically, is anactual land or district, the seat of the greatest brotherhood of spiritual adepts and their chiefs on earthtoday. From Sambhala at certain times in the history of the world, or more accurately of our own fifthroot-race, come forth the messengers or envoys for spiritual and intellectual work among men.This Great Brotherhood has branches in various parts of the world, but Sambhala is the center or chieflodge. We may tentatively locate it in a little-known and remote district of the high tablelands of centralAsia, more particularly in Tibet. A multitude of airplanes might fly over the place without "seeing" it, forits frontiers are very carefully guarded and protected against invasion, and will continue to be so until thekarmic destiny of our present fifth root-race brings about a change of location to some other spot on theearth, which then in its turn will be as carefully guarded as Sambhala now is.

Sambhala, Shambhala (Sanskrit) Śambhala A mystical and unknown locality, mentioned in the Puranas and elsewhere, from which will appear in due course the Kalki-avatara of Vishnu. Sometimes spelled Shambala. Buddhists state that out of Sambhala will come the next buddha, Maitreya. Sambhala

Sambhogakaya (Sanskrit) Sambhogakāya [from sambhoga enjoyment together, delightful participation + kāya body] Participation body; the second of the trikaya (three glorious vestures) of Buddhism, the highest being dharmakaya, and the lowest nirmanakaya. A buddha in the sambhogakaya state still retains his individual self-consciousness and sense of egoity, and is able to be conscious to a certain extent of the world of men and its griefs and sorrows, but has little power or impulse to render aid. See also TRIKAYA; TRISARANA; TRAILOKYA

Sambhogakaya(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound of two words meaning "enjoyment-body," or rather "participation-body";sambhoga meaning "enjoyment together," or "delightful participation," etc.; and kaya, meaning "body."This is the second of the glorious vestures, the other two being dharmakaya, the highest, andnirmanakaya, the lowest. The buddha in the sambhogakaya state still participates in, still retains more orless, his self-consciousness as an individual, his egoship and his individual soul-sense, though he is toofar above material or personal concerns to care about or to meddle with them. In consequence, a buddhain the sambhogakaya state would be virtually powerless here on our material earth.

Samma Sambuddha: A term used by Buddhist mystics for a person’s sudden remembering of all of his past incarnations, through the mastery of Yoga.

Samma-sambuddha (Pali) Sammā-sambuddha Used by mystic Buddhists and raja-yogins to signify the complete or perfected knowledge of the whole series of one’s past lives, a phenomenon of memory obtained through the practice of true inner yoga or self-control. More generally, full or complete awaking, in the sense that all the higher nature of the individual is thoroughly awakened and active, thus conferring virtual omniscience as regards our solar system; it likewise brings with it great spiritual and psychic powers. It is the full efflorescence and self-conscious activity of the spiritual monad in and through the one who has attained to this sublime degree in spiritual unfoldment, the becoming at one with the cosmic Logos.

Samyak-Sambuddha (Sanskrit) Samyaksambuddha [from samyak, perfect + the verbal root budh to awaken with the prefix sam meaning excellence] One who is “fully awakened” and hence a “teacher of perfection.” One of the titles of excellence and reverence given to Gautama the Buddha.

Samyutta-Nikaya (Pali) Saṃyutta-Nikāya One of the principal Buddhist works: one of five parts of the Suttanta-Pitaka — a collection of Suttas (dialogs between the Buddha and his disciples). Also spelled Samyuttaka-Nikaya.

Sanggyas (Tibetan) sangs rgyas (sang gye) Equivalent of Sanskrit buddha; one name of Gautama Buddha with a philosophical connection with Sanghai Dag-po. Sometimes panchen (the great ocean, great teacher) is added.

Sankaracharya (Sanskrit) Śaṅkarācārya, Śaṃkarācārya [from Saṅkara a personal name + ācarya teacher] The beneficent teacher; one of the greatest initiates of India. The Upanishads, Gautama Buddha, and Sankaracharya are considered by many to be the three lights of the wisdom of India. In a very mystical way Sankaracharya was Buddha’s esoteric successor. He was an avatara, as was Jesus. Sankaracharya set himself to preserve the wisdom previously lighted, or brought to men, by Gautama Buddha. By his pure living and high thinking, causing an outpouring of lofty spiritual and intellectual thought from his very soul-life, he kindled the truth in the hearts of many who had lost it through following dogmatic trends of religion, rather than holding to the inner spirit of the ancient teachings. Sankaracharya worked mostly with the Brahmin order — the highest caste in India — where the advantages of heredity, of ages of high ideals and rigid discipline, could most easily, if accepted, receive the pure truths, and also could best supply a body of men fitted by character and training to master the higher knowledge, sustain it, and pass it on.

Sapta-buddhaka (Sanskrit) Sapta-buddhaka The title of an “account in Mahanidana Sutra of Sapta Buddha, the seven Buddhas of our Round, of which Gautama Sakyamuni is esoterically the fifth, and exoterically, as a blind, the seventh” (TG 290).

Sapta-tathagatas (Sanskrit) Sapta-tathāgata-s [from sapta seven + tathāgata thus come and gone, name applied to the Buddha] “The chief seven Nirmanakayas among the numberless ancient world-guardians. Their names are inscribed on a heptagonal pillar kept in a secret chamber in almost all Buddhist temples in China and Tibet. The Orientalists are wrong in thinking that these are ‘the seven Buddhist substitutes for the Rishis of the Brahmans’ ” (TG 290). See also TATHAGATHA-GUPTA

Sarvada (Sanskrit) Sarvada [from sarva all + the verbal root dā to give] He who gives all, the all-sacrificing; title of Buddha, who in a former birth sacrificed everything to save others. Also a title of Siva.

Savior Applied to manasaputras, buddhas, bodhisattvas, avataras, messiahs, the Agathodaemon, etc. See also SALVATION

Second Coming. See MESSIAH; KALKI AVATARA; MAITREYA-BUDDHA

Sempe (Tibetan) sems dpa’. Mind-hero; a title of the celestial buddha, corresponding to the Sanskrit sattva (sentient being), especially in compounds like bodhisattva (Tibetan byang chub sems dpa’) and mahasattva (Tibetan sems dpa’ chen po). The Tibetan dor je sems dpa’ (dor-je sem-pa) translates the Sanskrit vajra-sattva.

Shaberon (Tibetan) zhabs dpad blon (shab-pe-lon) [from zhabs dpad lotus feet cf Sanskrit padmapada a title of respect + blon, blon po officer, minister] Exalted officer; often the head of a Tibetan monastery. The Shaberons are mentioned as occasionally possessing wonderful powers, but are not necessarily tulkus of the Buddha (as the Dalai Lama and Tashi Lama are generally believed to be). While the ordinary Lamaist and uninstructed Tibetan supposes these Buddha reincarnations to be those of Gautama Buddha, the instructed or initiated higher classes of the Tibetan hierarchy understand that in great men there is always a ray of the celestial buddha; and therefore that when these great men reincarnate, the buddha ray is likewise reimbodied.

Shakya-thub-pa (Tibetan-Sanskrit) Sakya the mighty one; a name of Gautama Buddha in Tibet, equivalent to the Sanskrit Sakyamuni (the Sakya sage); Sakya was Gautama’s clan name.

Shamanism Generally regarded as spirit worship, commonly and often unjustly classed with the religions of primitive peoples referring particularly to the beliefs of wandering tribes in Siberia, Tartary, and Mongolia. Belief in a supreme being is a prominent feature but this supreme being must be propitiated through secondary powers, both beneficent and malevolent, by means of intermediaries — priests or shamans. Blavatsky had contacted several shamans and wrote concerning it: “What is now generally known of Shamanism is very little; and that has been perverted, like the rest of the non-Christian religions. It is called the ‘heathenism’ of Mongolia, and wholly without reason, for it is one of the oldest religions of India. It is spirit-worship, or belief in the immortality of the souls, and that the latter are still the same men they were on earth, though their bodies have lost their objective form, and man has exchanged his physical for a spiritual nature. In its present shape, it is an offshoot of primitive theurgy, and a practical blending of the visible with the invisible world.” “The true Shamanism . . . can no more be judged by its degenerated scions among the Shamans of Siberia, then the religion of Gautama-Buddha can be interpreted by the fetishism of some of his followers in Siam and Burmah. It is in the chief lamaseries of Mongolia and Thibet that it has taken refuge” (IU 2:615-6).

Shingon: The Japanese sect of Buddhism which claims that its esoteric doctrine was inspired by Vairochana, the greatest of all Buddhas who came to this earth.

Siddhartha (Sanskrit) Siddhārtha [from siddha attained from the verbal root sidh to accomplish, attain, succeed + artha object, aim] One who has attained or accomplished his object, one who has fulfilled the object of his coming on earth; a name given to Gautama Buddha. See also GAUTAMA

Siddhas (Sanskrit) Siddha-s [from the verbal root sidh to attain] Perfected one, one who has attained relative perfection in this manvantara through self-devised efforts lasting through many imbodiments towards that end. A buddha is in this sense at times called a siddha. Generally, a hierarchy of dhyani-chohans who, according to Hindu mythology, inhabit the space between the earth and heaven (bhuvar-loka); the Vishnu-Purana states that there are 88,000 of them occupying the regions of the sky north of the sun and south of the seven rishis (the Great Bear). In later mythology they are confused with or take the place of the sadhyas, but in the Vedas the siddhas are those who are possessed from birth of superhuman powers — the eight siddhis — as also of knowledge and indifference to the world (Svetasvatara-Upanishad).

Some parallels from other religions are the luminous San-tusita (Bodhisat) appearing to Maya and announcing the coming birth of Gautama Buddha; the Hindu legend that there would be born the son of the Virgin (Krishna), the date of whose death marked the beginning of kali yuga; and in Egypt where scenes of an annunciation appear in the temple of Luxor.

Sosiosh, Soshyos (Persian) In Zoroastrianism, the deliverer of the world, who shall come on a white horse in a tornado of fire. According to the Avesta (Yast 19:89), he will be born from a maid near Lake Kasava; he will come from the region of the dawn to free the world from death and decay, from corruption and rottenness — ever living and ever thriving, the dead shall rise and immortality commence. This prophecy corresponds to that of the coming of Maitreya-Buddha, or of the Kalki-avatara of Vishnu, also repeated in the Christian Revelation of St. John.

Soulless Beings ::: "We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote H. P. Blavatsky. This is an actual fact. Thestatement does not mean that those whom we thus elbow have no soul. The significance is that thespiritual part of these human beings is sleeping, not awake. They are animate humans with an animateworking brain-mind, an animal mind, but otherwise "soulless" in the sense that the soul is inactive,sleeping; and this is also just what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the "living dead." They areeverywhere, these people. We elbow them, just as H. P. Blavatsky says, at every turn. The eyes may bephysically bright, and filled with the vital physical fire, but they lack soul; they lack tenderness, thefervid yet gentle warmth of the living flame of inspiration within. Sometimes impersonal love willawaken the soul in a man or in a woman; sometimes it will kill it if the love become selfish and gross.The streets are filled with such "soulless" people; but the phrase soulless people does not mean "lostsouls." The latter is again something else. The term soulless people therefore is a technical term. It meansmen and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritualessence within them, but who are not self-consciously so connected. They live very largely in thebrain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness. They turn with pleasure to the frivolities of life.They have the ordinary feelings of honor, etc., because it is conventional and good breeding so to havethem; but the deep inner fire of yearning, the living warmth that comes from being more or less at onewith the god within, they know not. Hence, they are "soulless," because the soul is not working with fieryenergy in and through them.A lost soul, on the other hand, means an entity who through various rebirths, it may be a dozen, or moreor less, has been slowly following the "easy descent to Avernus," and in whom the threads ofcommunication with the spirit within have been snapped one after the other. Vice will do this, continuousvice. Hate snaps these spiritual threads more quickly than anything else perhaps. Selfishness, the parentof hate, is the root of all human evil; and therefore a lost soul is one who is not merely soulless in theordinary theosophical usage of the word, but is one who has lost the last link, the last delicate thread ofconsciousness, connecting him with his inner god. He will continue "the easy descent," passing fromhuman birth to an inferior human birth, and then to one still more inferior, until finally the degenerateastral monad -- all that remains of the human being that once was -- may even enter the body of somebeast to which it feels attracted (and this is one side of the teaching of transmigration, which has been sobadly misunderstood in the Occident); some finally go even to plants perhaps, at the last, and willultimately vanish. The astral monad will then have faded out. Such lost souls are exceedingly rare,fortunately; but they are not what we call soulless people.If the student will remember the fact that when a human being is filled with the living spiritual andintellectual fiery energies flowing into his brain-mind from his inner god, he is then an insouled being, hewill readily understand that when these fiery energies can no longer reach the brain-mind and manifest ina man's life, there is thus produced what is called a soulless being. A good man, honorable, loyal,compassionate, aspiring, gentle, and true-hearted, and a student of wisdom, is an "insouled" man; abuddha is one who is fully, completely insouled; and there are all the intermediate grades between.

Spiritual Powers Generally used in contradistinction to psychic powers; for while psychic powers pertain to the intermediate, psychomental part of human nature, the spiritual powers pertain to the higher part. Hence the psychic powers, precisely because intermediaries, may become the instrument either of our higher or of our lower nature, being vehicular products in themselves and subject to influx from above or below. The spiritual powers cannot be used for selfish and personal ends because their svabhava is universality and impersonality, attributes which link man with the surrounding universe. They emanate from the spiritual monad, atma-buddhi. We are able to use spiritual powers when our manas acts in conjunction with the spiritual monad. Such powers cannot be evoked by personal ambition or any form of acquisitiveness, because they do not rise above the intermediate or psychic nature and make no appeal to the spirit above; in fact, spiritual powers are the fruit of renunciation, of the replacing of the personal with the universal, the resigning of the limited for the virtually limitless, the giving up of the small for the great. Spiritual powers consist in a clear intuition of the truth, leading to right conduct, an ability to help and teach others — the powers which we attribute to a Buddha or Christ.

Spiritual Soul ::: The spiritual soul is the vehicle of the individual monad, the jivatman or spiritual ego; in the case ofman's principles it is essentially of the nature of atma-buddhi. This spiritual ego is the center or seed orroot of the reincarnating ego. It is that portion of our spiritual constitution which is deathless as anindividualized entity -- deathless until the end of the maha-manvantara of the cosmic solar system.The spiritual soul and the divine soul, or atman, combined, are the inner god -- the inner buddha, theinner christ.

Sramana (Sanskrit) Śramaṇa [from the verbal root śram to exert] Making effort or exertion; toiling, laboring; one who performs acts of penance and mortification — an ascetic of such type. Particularly applied to Buddhist monks or mendicants, to Buddha, or to a Jain ascetic.

Sravaka (Sanskrit) Śrāvaka [from the verbal root śrū to hear] One who listens or attends to the esoteric instructions, a disciple or chela. In Buddhism, a student of the exoteric teaching of Gautama Buddha, and a practicer of the four great truths of Buddhism.

Sri Aurobindo: "Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development — Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” *Letters on Yoga

Sripada (Sanskrit) Śrīpāda [from śrī holy one + pāda foot] The Lord’s foot; the supposed impression of the Buddha’s foot; also the name of several men.

Sthavira or Sthavirakaya (Sanskrit) Sthāvira, Sthāvirakāya [from sthāvira old; an old and venerable bhikṣu] The school of the elder, president, or chohan; one of the earliest philosophical contemplative schools, founded in 300 BC, distinctly Buddhist in character. In 247 BC, it split into three divisions: the Mahavihara (dweller of the great monasteries); Jetavaniyah; and Abhaya-giri-vasinah. It is one of the four branches of the Vaibhashika school founded by Katyayana, one of the disciples of Gautama Buddha and author of the Abhidharma-Jnana-Prasthana-Sastra. All these schools are highly mystical, although frequently stated to be materialistic, which may be the fact in later times when they had degenerated and literalism took the place of the original mystical intent and significance of their teachings. See also ABHAYAGIRI

Stupa (Sanskrit) Stūpa A conical monument, sometimes domed, in India and Ceylon, erected over relics of the Buddha, of arhats, or other great men.

  “Such is the Arya Path, Path of the Buddhas of perfection” (VS 69-70).

Sudarsana (Sanskrit) Sudarśana Good-looking, beautiful; the chakra or circular weapon of Vishnu-Krishna, a flaming weapon called the disc of the sun. Occultly, it is that power possessed by the highest initiates and semi-divine men, avataras, buddhas, etc., which is an emanation or out-pouring from their spiritually intellectual or buddhi-manasic principle. Intellect in its smooth and magical operations is sudarsana (beautiful to consider), and of immense power even among men on our low plane. When used as a power or “weapon” by god-men or similar beings it is virtually irresistible.

Suddhodana (Sanskrit) Śuddhodana [from śuddha pure + udana water, flow] Pure flow; the King of Kapilavastu, father of Gautama Buddha. The name — whether actual or given him in later years for reverential considerations — bears the idea of the pure flow of the spirit or spiritual wisdom giving birth to its offspring, the Buddha.

Sugata (Sanskrit) Sugata One who has fared well, one who has “gone” in accordance with the immemorial Buddha tradition; a name given to Gautama Buddha, similar to Tathagatha.

Sukhavati, Sukhavati (Sanskrit) Sukhavatī, Sukhāvatī The heaven of Buddha-Amitabha, exoterically situated in the West; equivalent to devachan (cf ML 99-100).

Surukaya (Sanskrit) Surukāya [from svar the sun + kāya robe, vesture] The sun-robe; one of the seven buddhas (sapta-tathagatas), also equivalent to “clothed with the sun.” Likewise a consequence of one phase in the initiatory cycle.

Sutala (Sanskrit) Sutala [from su good, excellent + tala sphere, place] Good place, i.e., still better for matter; the third counting downwards of the seven talas. Its corresponding loka or pole is janarloka. Sutala is a differentiated state of highly ethereal astral substance, corresponding with sabda (sound) and with the higher manas in man, and therefore with the higher ego; likewise with the Manushya-buddha state, like that of Gautama on earth. Sutala is the abode of the hierarchies of some of the manasaputras, every one in this series of seven talas having its own respective inhabitants; and due to the evolutionary ascents and descents that take place through the ages, there is a more or less continual intercourse between tala and tala.

Sutrantaka (Sanskrit) Sūtrāntaka [from sūtra maxim, precept + anta inner meaning, final meaning] One who follows the inner and spiritual meaning of the Buddhist Sutras or teachings. Everywhere Buddhism predominates, there are two distinct classes of Buddhists: those who adhere closely to the spirit of the Buddha’s original teachings, and those who not only make the teaching popular, but who perhaps also are followers of their letter. These are another phase of the two methods said to have been taught by the Buddha, called the heart doctrine and the eye doctrine: the former was the doctrine of occult wisdom and deep mystery; the latter, containing the same teaching but expressed in such a way as to be more easily understood, was the outer teaching, and came to be called the doctrine of the Buddha’s eye. Likewise these two aspects might be called the doctrine of the spirit, and the doctrine of the intellect. To one who understands both, and coalesces the two into a single unity, full illumination comes regarding the complete content of the archaic wisdom-religion which Gautama Buddha taught.

Sutras: The second part of the Buddhist Tripitaka (q.v.), containing the teachings of Gautama Buddha. They consist of 250 chapters, divided in five nikayas.

Sutta ::: A discourse or teaching passed down in various religious and spritual traditions originating on the Indian subcontinent. Most commonly seen in reference to Buddhism as the collected aphorisms and discourses of the Buddha and the various spiritual figureheads of Buddhism. Sometimes this is used to refer solely to the canonical records of the Buddha's teachings: the Pali Canon.

Sutta-pitaka (Pali) Sutta-piṭaka [from sutta (Sanskrit sūtra) dialogue, originally a thread + piṭaka basket] The third section of the Buddhist canon (the Tripitaka or Three Baskets) treating on the dialogs (suttas) of the Buddha and his disciples, especially those in the style of discourses and narratives.

Svabhavika (Sanskrit) Svābhāvika [from svabhāva self-becoming] The Svabhavika school, perhaps the oldest existing school of Buddhism, is one of the principal Buddhist philosophical system and is still prevalent in Nepal. Its teachings are highly mystical, and when properly understood may be said to have remained faithful in large degree to the esoteric teachings of Gautama Buddha. The Svabhavika philosophers teach the becoming or unfolding of the self by inner impulse or evolution of the inherent seeds of individuality lying latent in every monad or jiva.

tadbuddhayas tadatmanah ::: one in thought and self with That. [Gita 5.17]

Tanha (Pali) Taṇhā Thirst; in Buddhism the thirst or longing for material existence, the desire to return to the familiar scenes of earth-life. It is “the lower Ego, or personal Self . . . with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a Senseless life (Tanha), which is ‘the maker of the tabernacle,’ as Buddha calls it in Dhammapada” (SD 2:110). This desire to live and the clinging to life on earth is the effectual cause producing rebirth. Equivalent to the Sanskrit trishna.

Tanjur (Tibetan) Bstan-hgyur, bstan ’gyur (ten-gyur, ten-jur) Translation of the sastras; the second part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, the first part being the Kanjur (both words came into Western languages via Mongolian). The Tanjur is divided into three parts: a one-volume collection of hymns or praises to the Buddha, and two voluminous collections of sastras: tantra commentaries and sutra commentaries. Although called commentaries, these also include independent treatises, and the sutra-commentaries section also includes miscellaneous works such as letters, dictionaries, grammars, medical works, etc. The Tanjur is even larger than the Kanjur, containing up to 225 volumes. Four editions are known in the West: Narthang, Peking, Derge, and Cone (cho-ne) — all 18th century blockprints, although the Tanjur is much older as a manuscript collection. The Tanjur contains works assumed to be Tibetan translations of the works of Indian Buddhist masters, other than the Buddha himself. Compositions by Tibetan masters, however authoritative, are not included in the Tanjur.

Tathagata-gupta (Sanskrit) Tathāgata-gupta [from tathāgata thus gone, thus come, a name applied to Buddha + gupta secret, concealed] The secret or concealed tathagata; “the ‘guardian’ protecting Buddhas” (TG 322), used of the nirmanakayas.

Tathagata (Sanskrit) Tathāgata [from tathā thus + gata gone; or + agata arrived, come] Thus come or thus gone; a title given to the long serial line of the Buddhas of Compassion as they appear each after his predecessor among mankind; likewise a title of Gautama Buddha, the last of this line of buddhas to have appeared thus far. It is a beautifully exact expression illustrating the common spiritual character of the great ones who have gone before ourselves as well as of those destined to come in the future. As a title of the buddhas, it signifies also “one who has followed the inward way, the inner pathway, the still small path coming down, so to say, from the universal self, passing through the human constitution onward until it disappears again in the heart of being from which we came” (Fund 625).

Teachers In theosophical writings, often used to designate masters of wisdom, adepts, mahatmas, or messengers qualified to instruct and guide pupils on the path of wisdom. Teachers are of various grades, belonging to different degrees of different benevolent hierarchies; at the summit are those buddhas and manus who serve as inspirers and light-bringers to the races of mankind. Below these highest come lesser teachers, pertaining to the lesser cycles of time. The mythology of ancient peoples contains reference to divine instructors of various ranks.

Teachers succeed one another and thus pass on the teachings from age to age; as in the succession of the buddhas and especially of the bodhisattvas in Buddhism; the guruparampara chain in Brahmanism; and even in exoteric life in ancient times, and in far less degree, there were the hierophants in the various Mystery schools, such as in the Eleusinia.

Tehmi: “The hour just before dawn. The Gods awake with the dawn in the Veda. The Gods are called ‘Ushabuddha, ‘those who awake with the dawn’. All the gods are sons of light except Agni who burns also in the light and the darkness.”

Ten-brel chug-nyi is the Tibetan expression of the causal relations inherent in and affecting peregrinating monads, which bring about manifestation in successive imbodiments; this Buddhist teaching shows a somewhat more elaborate philosophical development in the Tibetan doctrine than elsewhere. Freedom from the entangling relations affecting consciousness is to be found by an earnest and strict following of the Four Noble Truths leading into the Noble Eightfold Path; yet the essence of the religion of the buddhas is in the words of Gautama Buddha: “To cease from all evil or wrong doing; to become enamored of virtue; to cleanse one’s own heart or nature — here is the religion of the Buddhas.” See also NIDANA

Tendai: The Japanese “Pure Land” sect of Buddhism, which regards Amitabha the greatest of all Buddhas and centers its doctrine around him.

That an initiate could never be married is true of the highest class of adepts, but history shows that both men and women initiates, although very rarely of the highest rank, have been married. It is likewise to be remembered that one of the grandest initiates known to human history, Gautama Buddha, married and had a child.

Theanthropism [from Greek theos god + anthropos man] The state of being both man and god, such as are the buddhas and the higher bodhisattvas; less correctly, the ascription of human attributes to a god, or anthropomorphism; the common belief in a divine incarnation or avatara.

The appearance of these buddhas, particularly of the mahabuddhas, is identic in more than one way with the appearances of the manus, whether of a round, a globe, or indeed a race. A manu opening the drama of life is called the root-manu, and the manu ending the drama for whatever period it may be is called the seed-manu. See also MAITREYA-BUDDHA; MANUSHA-BUDDHA

The astral light is the tablet of memory of earth and of its child the animal-man; while akasa is the tablet of memory of the hierarchy of the planetary spirits controlling our chain of globes, and likewise of their child, each spiritual ego. The astral light is simply the dregs or lowers vehicles of akasa. Gautama Buddha held only two things as eternal: akasa and nirvana. In the Chandogya Upanishad (7:12:1-2) akasa (ether, space) is equated with Brahman.

"The Avatar comes as the manifestation of the divine nature in the human nature, the apocalypse of its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood, in order that the human nature may by moulding its principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the lines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself into the divine. The law, the Dharma which the Avatar establishes is given for that purpose chiefly; the Christ, Krishna, Buddha stands in its centre as the gate, he makes through himself the way men shall follow.” Essays on the Gita

“The Avatar comes as the manifestation of the divine nature in the human nature, the apocalypse of its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood, in order that the human nature may by moulding its principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the lines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself into the divine. The law, the Dharma which the Avatar establishes is given for that purpose chiefly; the Christ, Krishna, Buddha stands in its centre as the gate, he makes through himself the way men shall follow.” Essays on the Gita

"The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption, — as did Christ, — secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature, — as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross," or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease, — as a dog dieth, — knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita

“The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption,—as did Christ,—secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature,—as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross,’ or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease,—as a dog dieth,—knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita

The Buddha ::: Generally refers to Siddhartha Gautama, whose explorations of mind and teachings helped establish the philosophical and spiritual system of Buddhism which established a path for all beings to untangle the causal nature of suffering and reach enlightenment. Although he is referred to as "The Buddha", all beings can reach full enlightenment and perfect the clarity of self-nature and hence become a buddha and reach a state of Buddhahood.

The Buddha’s statement that “nothing composite endures and consequently that as man is a composite entity there is in him no immortal and unchanging ‘soul,’ is the key. The ‘soul’ of man is changing from instant to instant — learning, growing, expanding, evolving — so that at no two consecutive seconds of time or of experience is it the same. Therefore it is not immortal. For immortality means enduring continually as you are. If you evolve you change, and therefore you cannot be immortal in the part which evolves, because you are growing into something greater” (FSO 385). In this sense, portions of an entity may endure for long periods of time, and thus be called immortal; but they are not immortal in the sense of continuing to exist unchanged or in a state identical to what they are now.

The Christian Gospels appear to have originated in mystery-dramas, beautiful and often sublime in their inner significances, in which were depicted the experiences of the neophyte and adept in his union with the Logos, and hence such unified individual was called a Logos incarnate as a man, the Logos itself being variously named as Christos or Dionysos, and to have been by stages adapted and given a semi-historical guise, as has happened in other instances besides the Christian mythos. Christ therefore, or the Christos, is not a particular man or an especial incarnation of divinity, but a generic term for the divine as incarnated in all human beings, although Jesus was undoubtedly the name of this great Jewish initiate-avatara as an individual. Hence this universal allegory in its Christian version has a true historical peg to hang from; for there did appear, sometime before the Christian era, a special cyclic messenger who was due to come on the change of the ecliptic point from one sign of the celestial zodiac to another, from the sign of Aries to Pisces. In theosophical literature, Jesus is considered to be an avatara, the messenger for the European Messianic or Piscean cycle. As such, Jesus represented a ray sent from the Wondrous Being or spiritual hierarch of the earth into the soul of a pure human being, while the racial buddha, Gautama Buddha, supplied the intermediate or psychological nature in this act of white magic.

The dhyani-buddhas who each watch over one of the rounds and the great root-races on the different globes of our planetary chain, are said to send their bodhisattvas, their spiritual or human correspondents, during every round and race.

The difficulty lies in the misuse of the adjective free, which is apparently understood to mean a will free from the cosmic unity, and all too often envisaged as running more or less wild if not contrary to the cosmic structure. Man is but a child of the universe, and is so in all his parts, but precisely because the part must contain everything that exists in the whole, therefore there is in man and in every other entity, an inseparable union with the cosmic root. Reluctance by man to acknowledge and to perform in his life the silent mandates of cosmic law induces the varieties of evil, disharmony, and even disease with which human life is all too often cursed; and the way to freedom, spiritual peace, wisdom, and love is by subordinating the individual human will to harmony with the divine. In such cases man becomes a Buddha or Christ, a conscious and willing instrument of divinity.

  “The double triangle — the Satkiri Chakram of Vishnu — or the six-pointed star, is the perfect seven. In all the old Sanskrit works — Vedic and Tantrik — you find the number 6 mentioned more often than the 7 — this last figure, the central point being implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix. . . . the central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha — endless space — for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense, both are viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the Macrocosm and the microcosm. The interlaced triangles — the upper pointing one — is Wisdom concealed, and the downward pointing one — Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world). The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the Universal Principle which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. As the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced — they are identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and Avidya — (illusion and ignorance) — one is separated from the other by the manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three gunas — finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma (the 7th principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the manifested ‘Voice’ (or Logos), the germ point of manifested activity; — hence — in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists ‘the Son of the Father and Mother,’ and agreeably to ours — ‘the Self manifested in Self’ — Yih-sin, the ‘one form of existence,’ the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female. Parabrahm or ‘Adi-Buddha’ while acting through that germ point outwardly as an active force, reacts from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but latent Potency. The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active; the male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a Trinity because presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in its straight lines: Gnanam — (Knowledge); Gnata — (the Knower); and Gnayam — (that which is known). The black — form, colour, and substance, also the creative, preservative, and destructive forces and are mutually correlating . . .” (ML 345-6).

  “The exoteric teaching which says that every Dhyani-Buddha has the faculty of creating from himself, an equally celestial son — a Dhyani-Bodhisattva — who, after the decease of the Manushi (human) Buddha, has to carry out the work of the latter, rests on the fact that owing to the highest initiation performed by one overshadowed by the ‘Spirit of Buddha’ . . . a candidate becomes virtually a Bodhisattva, created such by the High Initiator” (SD 1:109).

The Great Brotherhood of the mahatmas on earth, through their chief, the Mahachohan, is the representative on our globe of adi-buddha. Because of this, Tibetan Buddhism recognizes the continuous “reincarnations of Buddha” — not that Gautama Buddha is thus reimbodied but that adi-buddha through its human ray perpetuates itself by reflection in fit and chosen human beings. As adi-buddha is the individualized divine ideation of our universe, all-permeant and omnipresent, those individuals who raise themselves to become self-consciously at one with a ray from adi-buddha are de facto “reincarnations,” greater or minor imbodiments of the cosmic buddha. Adi-buddha manifests through the hierarchy of the celestial buddhas or dhyani-buddhas, these again manifest through the manushya-buddhas and in lesser degree through human individuals who, though great, are inferior to the manushya-buddhas.

The Hinayana school is the oldest, while the Mahayana is of a later period, having originated after the death of Buddha. Yet the tenets of the latter are ancient indeed, and both schools in reality teach the same doctrine. The Mahayana system exists in different schools varying among themselves to a greater or less degree as regards interpretation of fundamental tenets which all these subordinate schools nevertheless accept.

The idea conveyed is the unity of all who accept the doctrine of the Lord, i.e., Buddhists. More mystically applied by Buddhist initiates to signify likewise the unity or universal brotherhood of all human beings at any time or place, who through knowledge or natural intuition follow the law of the Buddhas, the law of right and compassion.

The kings and pontiffs of modern times are the feeble imitators of former king-initiates, whose insignia comprised the crown, representative of the glory or buddhic splendor, which actually encircled the head of the initiate as a nimbus, as it does in the case of the yogi in samadhi and of the buddha. The ceremony of coronation was performed in the Mysteries as the outward symbol of the completion of this attainment; and that ceremony is still perpetuated. The later Roman emperors adopted the Eastern royal fillet, which they called by the Greek name diadema; the Papal tiara goes back through it to the Persian royal headdress of that name. The American Indian wears feathers imitating the rays of light from the head.

The most strange development was Ch'an (Meditation, Zen, c. 500). It is basically a method of "direct intuition into the heart to find Buddha-nature," a method based, on the one hand, on the eightfold negation of production and extinction, annihilation and permanence, unity and diversity, and coming and departing, and, on the other hand, on the affirmation of the reality of the Buddha-nature in all things. Its sole reliance on meditation was most un-Chinese, but it imposed on the Chinese mind a severe mental and spiritual discipline which was invigorating as well as fascinating. For this reason, it exerted tremendous influence not only on Taoism which had much in common with it and imitated it in every way, but also on Neo-Confucianism, which stood in diametrical opposition to it.

  “The philosopher of the Yoga-charya School would say — as well he could — ‘Dharma is not a person but an unconditioned and underived entity, combining in itself the spiritual and material principles of the universe, whilst from Dharma proceeded, by emanation, Buddha [’reflected’ Bodhi rather] as the creative energy which produced, in conjunction with Dharma, the third factor in the trinity, viz., “Samgha,” which is the comprehensive sum total of all real life.’ Samgha, then, is not and cannot be that which it is now understood to be, namely, the actual ‘priesthood’; for the latter is not the sum total of all real life, but only of religious life. The real primitive significance of the word Samgha or ‘Sangha’ applies to the Arhats or Bhikshus, or the ‘initiates,’ alone, that is to say to the real exponents of Dharma — the divine law and wisdom, coming to them as a reflex light from the one ‘boundless light’ ” (TG 342).

  “The Pratyeka Buddha is a degree which belongs exclusively to the Yogacharya school, yet it is only one of high intellectual development with no true spirituality. It is the dead-letter of the Yoga laws, in which intellect and comprehension play the greatest part, added to the strict carrying out of the rules of the inner development. It is one of the three paths to Nirvana, and the lowest, in which a Yogi — ‘without teacher and without saving others’ — by the mere force of will and technical observances, attains to a kind of nominal Buddhaship individually; doing no good to anyone, but working selfishly for his own salvation and himself alone. The Pratyekas are respected outwardly but are despised inwardly by those of keen or spiritual appreciation. A Pratyeka is generally compared to a ‘Khadga’ or solitary rhinoceros and called Ekashringa Rishi, a selfish solitary Rishi (or saint)” (TG 261).

Thera (Pali) Thera A Buddhist priest, especially a bhikkhu of Gautama Buddha’s community; specifically a senior member. Three grades were distinguished: thera bhikkhu (a senior); majjhima bhikkhu (middle or secondary disciple); and nava bhikkhu (novice). Four characteristics are mentioned, however, making a man a thera: high character, knowing the essential doctrines by heart, practicing the four jhanas (stages of meditation), and being conscious of having attained at least relative freedom through the destruction of the mental intoxications. A senior woman was termed theri or therika.

There appears to have been no question in antiquity as to the actual historical existence of a godlike man who founded the Orphic religion or Mysteries, and whose work was continued by others in direct line, some of whom took his name, for no less than six different teachers by the name of Orpheus were known. When we add to the historic account the story of Orpheus as the Magician-Bard, and the legends of his divinity, his marriage with Eurydice (esoteric wisdom), his teaching, his agony and passion, and finally his martyr’s death — legends almost identical with some of those attached to world-saviors such as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Mithra — it is clear that he was not only a great teacher in himself, but an important link in the Hermetic Chain of esoteric succession.

There are innumerable instances of sevening — the seven days of the week, the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the musical scale — while special emphasis is placed upon the seven human and cosmic principles; the seven senses (five senses now in manifestation and two more to be attained in the future through evolutionary unfolding); the seven cosmic elements; the seven root-races and seven subraces; the seven kingdoms, human and below; the seven rounds; the seven lokas and talas; the seven manifested globes of the planetary chain; the seven sacred planets; the seven racial buddhas; the seven dhyani-bodhisattvas and -buddhas; the seven Logoi; etc.

There are seven dhyani-buddhas, so that for each round of a septenary planetary chain there is a presiding dhyani-buddha or causal buddha. Our present fourth round is under the care and supervision of the dhyani-buddha belonging to the fourth degree of this celestial hierarchy. The dhyani-bodhisattvas who watch over the globes of the planetary chain in each round are rays from the dhyani-buddha of the round.

The “second advent,” referring to a second coming of Christ, was considered imminent by some early Christian sects, and is still expected by certain sects today. This echoes the archaic teaching concerning the advent of Maitreya-Buddha — the next great Buddha to appear in the long line of Buddha-succession — as well as the second coming of Elijah among the Jews, and the coming of the Kalki-avatara among the Hindus.

  “These Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from themselves, by virtue of Dhyana, celestial Selves — the super-human Bodhisattvas. These incarnating at the beginning of every human cycle on earth as mortal men, become occasionally, owing to their personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after which they may re-appear as Manushi (human) Buddhas” (SD 1:571).

These dhyani-buddhas furnished humankind with divine kings and leaders, who taught humanity the arts and sciences, and who “revealed to the incarnated Monads that had just shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms — and who had, therefore, lost every recollection of their divine origin — the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds” (SD 1:267).

These kumaras are sometimes also called rudras, adityas, gandharvas, asuras, maruts, and vedhas. The seven kumaras — both as groups and as aggregated individuals — are intimately connected with the dhyani-buddhas who watch over the seven rounds of our planetary chain. The four groups of kumaras generally spoken of are connected equally intimately with the four celestial bodhisattvas of the four globes of our round, and by correspondence with the four completed root-races of our earth. They are identical with the angels of the seven planets, and their name shows their connection with the constellation Makara or Capricorn. Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual microcosm, and the death or dissolution of the physical universe (its passage into the realm of the spiritual) as are the kumaras. Mara is the god of darkness, the Fallen one, and death, i.e., death of every physical thing; but through the karmic lessons learned also the quickener of the birth of the spiritual. The kumaras are connected also with the sage Narada. An allegory in the Puranas says that the kumaras, the first progeny of Brahma, were without desire or passion, inspired with the holy wisdom, and undesirous of progeny. They refused to create, but were compelled later on to complete divine man by incarnating in him. The barhishads or lunar pitris formed the “senseless” astral-physical humanity of the early root-races. Those beings possessing the living spiritual fire were the agnishvattas or solar pitris. The sons of Brahma, the kumaras, being originally themselves unconscious (in our sense) could be of no use in supplying the mental and kamic principles, as they did not possess them: they had attained no individual karmic elevation in merit of their own as had the agnishvattas. The perfection of the kumaras was passive and negative (nirguna). The kumaras eventually “sacrifice” themselves by incarnating in mankind, thus corresponding to the manasaputras and fallen angels cast into hell (material spheres, our earth).

These very mysterious and powerful divinities of the archaic ages, whatever name may be given to them, are in the cosmic hierarchies the same as the dhyani-buddhas and the dhyanis of modern theosophy, equivalent to the archangels and angels of the Christian hierarchical scheme. Thus they are the children of cosmic spiritual fire, this fire in its turn being equivalent to the luminous and warming effulgence of action of the hierarchies of cosmic mind. They are the most occult divinities of the archaic wisdom-religion, and the worship of them under whatever name they were known was invariably marked by a high degree of spiritual and philosophic profundity and deep religious devotion.

The solstices and equinoxes mark the four corners of the esoteric year, each associated with particular psychospiritual events in the initiation cycle. The winter solstice is associated with the birth of the inner Christ or Buddha; the summer solstice with the great renunciation of personal progress made by those of the hierarchy of compassion.

“The term Anupadaka, ‘parentless,’ or without progenitors, is a mystical designation having several meanings in the philosophy. By this name celestial beings, the Dhyan-Chohans or Dhyani-Buddhas, are generally meant. But as these correspond mystically to the human Buddhas and Bodhisattwas, known as the ‘Manushi (or human) Buddhas,’ the latter are also designated ‘Anupadaka,’ once that their whole personality is merged in their compound sixth and seventh principles — or Atma-Buddhi, and that they have become the ‘diamond-souled’ (Vajra-sattvas), the full Mahatmas. . . . The mystery in the hierarchy of the Anupadaka is great, its apex being the universal Spirit-Soul, and the lower rung the Manushi-Buddha; and even every Soul-endowed man is an Anupadaka in a latent state. Hence, when speaking of the Universe in its formless, eternal, or absolute condition, before it was fashioned by the ‘Builders’ — the expression, ‘the Universe was Anupadaka’ ” (SD 1:52).

“The term Triyana is also used to denote the three schools of mysticism [in India] — the Mahayana, the Madhyimayana and Hinayana schools; of which the first is the ‘Greater,’ and the second the ‘Middle,’ and the last the ‘Lesser’ Vehicle. All and every system between the Greater and the Lesser Vehicles are considered ‘useless.’ Therefore the Pratyeka Buddha is made to correspond with the Madhyimayana. For, as explained, ‘this (the Pratyeka Buddha state) refers to him who lives all for himself and very little for others, occupying the middle of the vehicle, filling it all and leaving no room for others.’ Such is the selfish candidate for Nirvana” (TG 344-5).

  “The ‘triads’ born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or ‘twin-souls,’ on this Earth.

  “The Upanishads must be far more ancient than the days of Buddhism, as they show no preference for, nor do they uphold, the superiority of the Brahmans as a caste. On the contrary, it is the (now) second caste, the Kshatriya, or warrior class, who are exalted in the oldest of them. As stated by Professor Cowell in Elphinstone’s History of India — ‘they breathe a freedom of spirit unknown to any earlier work except the Rig-Veda . . . The great teachers of the higher knowledge and Brahmans are continually represented as going to Kshatriya Kings to become their pupils.’ The ‘Kshatriya Kings’ were in the olden times, like the King-Hierophants of Egypt, the receptacles of the highest divine knowledge and wisdom, the Elect and the incarnations of the primordial divine Instructors — the Dhyani Buddhas or Kumaras. There was a time, aeons before the Brahmans became a caste, or even the Upanishads were written, when there was on earth but one ‘lip,’ one religion and one science, namely, the speech of the gods, the Wisdom-Religion and Truth. This was before the fair fields of the latter, overrun by nations of many languages, became overgrown with the weeds of intentional deception, and national creeds invented by ambition, cruelty and selfishness, broke the one sacred Truth into thousands of fragments” (TG 354).

The Wondrous Being or hierarch manifests in three forms, the highest being in direct spiritual intercommunion with cosmic adi-buddha, and this highest aspect or form is the dharmakaya state in which, at least in the inferior portions of it, the dhyani-buddha abides; the second form or state is that of the dhyani-bodhisattva, who is in the sambhogakaya state in direct intercommunion with the lower part of the dhyani-buddha just above it in abstruse power and consciousness; the third and lowest form or aspect, yet in one sense the highest morally on account of the immense, willing self-sacrifice involved, is the manusha-buddha who lives and works in the nirmanakaya state.

They achieve nirvana automatically as it were, and leave the world in its misery behind. Though exalted, nevertheless they do not rank with the unutterable sublimity, wisdom, and pity of the Buddhas of Compassion.

  “They are called ‘Buddhas of Compassion’ because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feel intimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, until finally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because it is at one with the universe. ‘The dewdrop slips into the shining sea’ — its origin. . . . The Buddhas of Compassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from the Silent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and even beyond themselves to their chelas or disciples” (OG 23-4).

They are in contrast to the Pratyeka Buddhas, whose goal is to win spiritual liberation for themselves alone and who do not renounce nirvana.

This contrast is an exoteric rather than an esoteric one. It is a recognition of the fact that the religion of Gautama Buddha has separated into two general paths of action; but both the Hinayana and the Mahayana are recognized because known to possess each one its own particular value in training. The combination of the two is what one might call the esoteric path. The Hinayana is that portion of the esoteric path in which the mystic traveler takes the lower passional and elemental sides of himself into strict discipline and self-control, the while following certain simple rules of day-to-day procedure; whereas the Mahayana aspect includes rather the training of the spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic parts of the human constitution, such as is brought about by a profound study of philosophy, of the truths of nature, the mystical side of religion, and the higher parts of kosmic philosophy — all these collected together around the heart of the Mahayana which is mystical study and aspiration.

“This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also called Dorjechang). As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart — the ‘diamond heart,’ Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa)” (SD 1:571). Adi-buddha is the individualized monadic focus of adi-buddhi, primordial cosmic wisdom or intelligence, synonymous with mahabuddhi or mahat (universal mind). Otherwise expressed, adi-buddha is the supreme being heading the hierarchy of compassion and our solar universe; the fountain of light running through all subordinate hierarchies and thus the supreme lord and initiator of the wisdom side of our universe.

This legend of the enormous height attained by the fig tree under which the Buddha obtained enlightenment, illustrates how soon the spiritual vision of the real meaning of the bodhi tree became involved in mythologic wonder.

  “This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: ‘I and my Father are one,’ said Jesus (John x. 30). When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father,’ . . . It was simply to show that the group of his disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, ‘Star,’ or ‘Father,’ again of the same planetary realm and division as He did” (SD 1:574).

Thus the monad in any person is his inner god, the celestial buddha of his own septenary constitution, or again his individual Immanent Christ.

Thus when Jesus speaks of my Father and your Father, he means the cosmic paramatman or universal spirit presiding over our universe, of which every monad in the present solar manvantara — except those peregrinating through our solar system as visitors — is an offspring or spark; furthermore, every class of adepts has its own bond of spiritual communion which knits them together, because of identity of origin in a dhyani-buddha of our universe; and thus it is that every buddha, indeed every great adept, meets at his last initiation all the great adepts who had reached buddhahood during the preceding ages. “Such communion is only possible between persons whose souls derive their life and sustenance from the same divine ray” (Subba Row in SD 1:574). The awareness of such a community of origin pertains to planes of being far above the personal self, and it has nothing to do with so transitory a phase of human evolution as sex.

  “To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the real self and learn not to separate it from all other selves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all; to reach a complete detachment from all that is evanescent and finite, and live while yet on Earth in the immortal and the everlasting alone, in a supreme state of holiness” (TG 64-5).

Trikaya: Sanskrit for triple body. That school in Buddhist mysticism which conceives of the Buddha as having three bodies, viz.: The Law-Body (Dharma-kaya) which is the soul of Buddha, the Enjoyment-Body (Sambhogakaya) which is the embodiment of Wisdom, and the Transformation-Body (Nirmana-kaya) which is the embodiment of compassion.

Trikaya (Sanskrit) Trikāya [from tri three + kāya vesture, body] The three glorious vestures or states in which the consciousness of an adept clothes itself: 1) the nirmanakaya (Tibetan pru-lpai-ku) in which the bodhisattva after entering the path to nirvana by the six paramitas appears to mankind in order to teach and which thus is associated with the Buddhas of Compassion; 2) the sambhogakaya (Tibetan dzog-pai-ku) the body of bliss impervious to all material sensations assumed by one who has fulfilled the three conditions of spiritual, intellectual, and moral perfection; and 3) the dharmakaya (Tibetan chos-ku) the nirvanic body or robe in which all nirvanis and full Pratyeka Buddhas exist.

Tripitaka: "The Three Baskets", the Buddhistic Canon as finally adopted by the Council of Sthaviras, or elders, held under the auspices of Emperor Asoka, about 245 B.C., at Pataliputra, consisting of three parts "The basket of discipline", "the basket of (Buddha's) sermons", and "the basket of metaphysics." -- K.F.L.

Tripitaka: “The Three Baskets,” the Buddhistic Canon as finally adopted by the Council of Sthaviras, or elders, held under the auspices of Emperor Asoka, about 245 B.C., at Pataliputra, consisting of three parts: “The basket of discipline” (Vinaya), “the basket of (Buddha’s) sermons” (Sutras), and “the basket of metaphysics” (Abidharma).

Trisarana (Sanskrit) Triśaraṇa The three refuges or protections, also called triratna or ratnatraya (three jewels); the Buddhist formula Buddha, dharma, sangha or samgha. Originally bodhi, dharma, and sangha (wisdom, its laws, and its priests or spiritual exponents).

Trividha-dvara (Sanskrit) Trividha-dvāra [from trividha triple, threefold + dvāra door, gate, entrance, opening] The threefold gate, which is “body, mouth, and mind; or purity of body, purity of speech, purity of thought — the three virtues requisite for becoming a Buddha” (TG 344).

Triyana (Sanskrit) Triyāna [from tri three + yāna vehicle, way] The three vehicles, ways, conditions, or degrees by which the neophyte, and later adept, crosses the ocean of births, deaths, and rebirths or samsara. The three vehicles are likewise three degrees of yoga known as sravaka, pratyeka-buddha, and bodhisattva.

Tulku is of many different kinds and very closely parallels the Hindu doctrine of avatara. Taking Jesus as an example: here was a life-long tulku, a ray from a divinity; a tulku of that divinity so far as that ray goes, a divine manifestation, and hence a true avatara in the Brahmanical sense. Again, Gautama Buddha was tulku of his own inner buddha or inner god. The average person, however, is merely overshadowed occasionally, if he really aspires, by a touch of the divine flame from within the higher parts of his own constitution, and yet even for these fugitive instants such person is tulku. But when Gautama attained buddhahood, he was relatively infilled with his own inner buddha, and therefore was that god’s human tulku. That was for Siddhartha the man, nirvana; he then entered dharmakaya and this portion of him was then known of men no more: that portion of him was a man become divine.

Tulku (Tibetan) sprul sku [short for sprul pa’i sku (tul-pe-ku) from sprul pa phantom, disembodied spirit; cf Sanskrit nirmāṇakāya body of magical transformation] Applied to a lama of high rank, often to the head abbot of a monastery; specifically, to those lamas who have proved their ability of remembering their office and standing in a former incarnation, e.g., by selecting articles belonging previously to themselves, describing details of a former life, surroundings, etc. The two most important tulkus in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy are the Tashi and Dalai Lamas. Tulku is often referred to as an incarnation but, outside of the many varieties of an incarnating or imbodying power or energy, incarnation in popular usage is the direct continuance of a previous imbodiment. These so-called living buddhas of Tibet are one kind of tulku — the transmission of a spiritual power or energy from one Buddha-lama of a Tibetan monastery when he dies, to a child or adult successor. If the transmission is successful, the result is tulku.

Turiya (Sanskrit) Turīya The fourth; the state of consciousness which the Buddhas and Christs, and occasionally great but less evolved people, reach in their times of spiritual ecstasy — high samadhi. It is the fourth state of the famous Taraka-Raja-Yoga system in India, equivalent to a raising and temporary coalescence of the human consciousness with the atman, otherwise called nirvana. In this turiya state the divine self is perceived by the individual entitative self as its parent; and the atman thus is realized to be in its essence free of any mayavi distinction from its universal divine source. Turiya, the highest of all the states into which the consciousness may cast itself or be cast, “which is a practical annihilation of the ordinary human consciousness, is an attainment of union with atma-buddhi overshadowing or working through the higher manas. Actually, therefore, it is becoming at one with the monadic essence” (OG 72).

Tushitas (Sanskrit) Tuṣita-s [from the verbal root tuṣ to become calm, be satisfied or pleased] One name of the Hindu adityas, planetary regents because of their intimate connection with the sun, the son of Aditi, called Martanda. Hence in esoteric Northern Buddhism, the tushitas are a class of divinities of great purity said to have a deva-loka (celestial region) of their own, but in the highest parts of the material plane where all the bodhisattvas are reborn before they descend on this earth as future buddhas. See also JAYA

Twenty generations later, another king of the same name reigned at Videha, famed for his good works, knowledge, and sanctity, also called Siradhvaja (he of the plow-banner) for, as related in the Ramayana, when the king was preparing the ground for a sacrifice for obtaining offspring, a maiden, Sita, sprang up ready formed from the furrow which he had made with his plow. Through his righteous life he became a Brahmin and one of the Rajarshis — referred to in the Bagavad-Gita (ch 3). It is also related that he and his preceptor-adviser, Yajnavalkya, prepared the way for the Buddha.

Twin-Souls To quote Blavatsky: “The star under which a human Entity is born . . . will remain for ever its star, throughout the whole cycle of its incarnations in one Manvantara. But this is not his astrological star. The latter is concerned and connected with the personality, the former with the individuality. The ‘Angel’ of that Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be either the guiding or simply the presiding ‘Angel,’ so to say, in every new rebirth of the monad, which is part of his own essence, through [though] his vehicle, man, may remain for ever ignorant of this fact. The adepts have each their Dhyani-Buddha, their elder ‘twin Soul,’ and they know it, calling it ‘Father-Soul,’ and ‘Father-Fire’ ” (SD 1:572-3).

Uchchaih-sravas (Sanskrit) Uccaiḥ-śravas [from uccaiḥ aloft, high above + śravas ear] Long-eared, he who hears what is above, one having spiritual or inner hearing; the white horse of Indra, one of the 14 precious things that issued from the waters churned by the gods in Hindu legend, regarded as the prototype and king of horses. In this connection one is reminded of the many statues of the buddhas with pendant ears, symbolizing a spiritual power — he who hears the cries of all.

Udara Ramaputra (Sanskrit) Udāra rāmaputra The illustrious Ramaputra or Rudraka, one of the gurus of Gautama Buddha.

Udayana-raja (Sanskrit) Udayana-rāja A king of Kausambi, called Vatsaraja, who was the first to have a statue of Buddha made before his death (TG 351).

Upasika (Sanskrit) Upāsikā A woman votary of the Buddha, as distinguished from a bhikshuni — a Buddhist mendicant or nun. The title was given to Blavatsky by the Mahatmas.

Ushnisha (Sanskrit) Uṣṇīṣa [from the verbal root uṣ to be warm, flaming; mystically warmth through inner light, intuition, vision] A turban, diadem, or crown; also a kind of “excrescence” on the head of a buddha. Like the long ears so often seen in figures of the buddhas, the meaning of the ushnisha is entirely occult, and was in no sense whatsoever intended to signify a tuft of hair, nor any fleshly excrescence on the skull, but was a way of suggesting the radiating power of the eye of Siva or organ of vision and of intuition, working at relatively full power within the skull of a great adept. The eye of Siva is the pineal gland; originally an external and active eye in the head of primitive mankind during this fourth round on earth, it gradually retreated within the skull, which grew to cover its place with bones, skin, and hair. As this presently so-called third eye retreated within the skull, its place was progressively taken by the two present organs of vision. At this period of our racial development it is buddhas, avataras, and other initiates of relatively high status who alone use the organ of spiritual vision, for in them the pineal gland has become active and is to some extent physiologically enlarged; although in everyone else it is more or less nonfunctional, yet to some degree functional.

Utpala-varna (Sanskrit) Utpala-varṇā [from utpala flower of the blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) from ut-pal to move upwards + varṇā color, from the verbal root varṇ to color] A woman, said in some accounts to be one of the three wives of Gautama Buddha, along with Gopa and Yasodhara. But these are names for three mystical powers which are possessed by every initiated adept.

Vaisakha (Sanskrit) Vaiśākhā “A celebrated female ascetic, born at Sravasti, and called sudatta, ‘virtuous donor.’ She was the mother-abbess of a Vihara, or convent of female Upasikas [students], and is known as the builder of a Vihara for Sakyamuni Buddha. She is regarded as the patroness of all the Buddhist female ascetics” (TG 359).

Vajradhara (Sanskrit) Vajradhara Diamond-holder; the First Logos, supreme buddha, or adi-buddha, equivalent to the Tibetan dorjechang. “As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart — the ‘diamond heart,’ Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa)” (SD 1:571). Vajra here expresses the indestructibility and spiritually adamantine quality of this “One unknown, without beginning or end” — unknown to the average worldly person, but recognized by full initiates as the source of their divine inspiration and intuitions.

Vajrapanin (Sanskrit) Vajrapāṇin [from vajra diamond, thunderbolt + pāṇi hand] Holder of the diamond-thunderbolt, an epithet of the dhyani-bodhisattvas, the guardians and Silent Watchers of the globes of our planetary chain, the spiritual reflections or sons of the dhyani-buddhas. They are born directly from their predecessors subjectively, and have a subjective form of existence.

Vajrasattva (Sanskrit) Vajrasattva [from vajra diamond + sattva essence, reality] Diamond-heart, diamond-essence; a title given to mahatmas of the highest grade, or to bodhisattvas whose whole personality as a living essence is merged in their compound sixth and seventh principles (atman-buddhi). Vajra here expresses the spiritual adamantine quality of the inner natures of these glorious beings. Vajrasattva is a manifestation of the heart of vajradhara, the First Logos or adi-buddha; hence vajrasattva is “the second logos of creation, from whom emanate the seven (in the exoteric blind the five) Dhyani Buddhas, called the Anupadaka, ‘the parentless,’ ” (SD 1:571). Dorjesempa is the Tibetan equivalent.

Vishnu as the giver of life is the source of one line of avataras. The ten mythical avataras of Vishnu are: Matsya, the Fish; Kurma, the Tortoise; Varaha, the Boar; Narasimha, the Man-lion (last animal stage); Vamana, the Dwarf (first step toward the human form); Parasu-rama, Rama with the axe (a hero); Rama-chandra, the hero of the Ramayana; Krishna, son of Devaki; Gautama Buddha; and finally, Kalki, the avatara who is to appear at the end of the Kali yuga “mounted on a white horse” and inaugurate a new reign of righteousness upon earth.

Vishnu as the supporter of life is the source of one line of avataras so often spoken of in Hindu legends. These ten avataras of Vishnu are: 1) Matsya the fish; 2) Kurma the tortoise; 3) Varaha the boar; 4) Narasimha the man-lion (last of animal stage); 5) Vamana the dwarf (first step toward the human form); 6) Parasu-Rama, Rama with the axe (a hero); 7) Rama-chandra, the hero of the Ramayana; 8) Krishna, son of Devaki; 9) Gautama Buddha; and 10) Kalki, the avatara who is to appear at the end of the kali yuga mounted on a white horse, inaugurating a new reign of righteousness on earth. A horse has from immemorial time been a symbol of the spiritual as well as vital energies of the inner solar orb. Hence, when the next avatara is said to come riding a white horse, the meaning is that he comes infilled with the solar light or splendor — an avatara or manifestation of a spiritual and intellectual solar energy which will carry all before it on earth.

Water Lily In the West equivalent to the Eastern symbol of the lotus, especially in the Greek and Latin Churches. It particularly signifies spiritual productions or manifestations, thus the Archangel Gabriel is sometimes represented as appearing before the Virgin Mary bearing a lily or a bunch of water lilies. “This spray typifying fire and water, or the idea of creation and generation, symbolizes precisely the same idea as the lotus in the hand of the Bodhisat who announces to Maha-Maya, Gautama’s mother, the birth of the world’s Saviour, Buddha. Thus also, Osiris and Horus were represented by the Egyptians constantly in association with the lotus-flower . . .” (SD 1:379n).

What is here called selfishness corresponds in the minds of Buddhist philosophers and scholars to the ideas they disputed grouped about the word atman. They never intended to deny the fundamental meaning of atman or selfhood, and yet this misconception of ancient Buddhist teaching has brought about the false idea that Gautama Buddha and his followers taught that man has no essential self or selfhood. Because selfishness was popularly considered the permanent soulhood in man, the doctrine of anatma (in Pali, anatta) was strongly and continuously taught. The deduction shows clearly that even in India at the time of the Buddha, selfhood in its popular sense of concentration on the lower self and its interests was as popular and widespread as today. It is a paradox that in selflessness is found the noblest and highest emanation of self-expression of the atman or spiritual self in man.

Wheel of prayer: A small barrel-shaped device, made of a metal (often silver) or wood, used in Tibet. Written prayers to Buddha are stuffed into the hollow of the device. Each turn of the wheel is believed to repeat all the prayers inserted to Buddha again and again. (Large wheels of prayer are used for community purposes.)

When a sravaka from theory goes into the actual practice of self-control in all its senses, he becomes a sramana, a practicer of the esoteric instructions. Mere asceticism, however, apart from strict spiritual aspiration and intellectual training, is of little value, and too often distracts the attention of the student merely to care for the body and its appetites. The story of the Buddha himself well illustrates this, for the time came when he abandoned ascetic mortification of the body and turned his entire attention to the far greater and more difficult spiritual and intellectual discipline and evolution.

  “When our great Buddha — the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and the codifier of the occult system, reached first Nirvana on earth, he became a Planetary Spirit; i.e. — his spirit could at one and the same time rove the interstellar spaces in full consciousness, and continue at will on Earth in his original and individual body. For the divine Self had so completely disfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an inner substitute for itself, and leaving it in the human form for days, weeks, sometimes years, affect in no wise by the change either the vital principle or the physical mind of its body. By the way, that is the highest form of adeptship men can hope for on our planet. But it is as rare as the Buddhas themselves . . .” (ML 43).

While the historical legend of the Buddha obtaining omniscience under the bodhi tree may be correct historically, it is also a usage of the mystical language of the Mysteries — Gautama attaining supreme wisdom and knowledge under the “wisdom tree” is but another way of saying that through initiation into the highest grades of the Mysteries, he reached the stage of buddhahood because he was already a buddha through inner evolution. Again, in India adepts of both the right- and left-hand were often referred to as trees, the path indicated by whether the tree named was beneficent or maleficent. See also ASVATTHA

With the advent of each root-race a new cosmic element comes into proportionate manifestation, and a new physical sense apparatus appears: thus humanity in the sixth root-race will develop what is meant by a sixth sense. The fifth cosmic element (often named aether or akasa-tattva) will reach a development proportionate to the evolution of mankind during the fifth root-race in this fourth round; and after the same manner, a sixth cosmic element will make its appearance during the course of human evolution during the sixth root-race. Furthermore, just as a manushya-buddha comes to lead mankind in each root-race, so will one appear during the sixth root-race of the future.

Word In religious and philosophical usage, a translation of the Greek logos or Latin verbum. Its meaning here is that of reason manifested, employed mainly in a cosmogonic sense. “The esoteric meaning of the word Logos (speech or word, Verbum) is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting divine mind, and the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the esse of that Universe. As the Logos reflects all in the Universe of Pleroma, so man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in his Universe, the Earth” (SD 2:25). This word was chosen because human thought, or immanent conscious intelligence or mind, manifests itself through words. It is familiar to Christians through the opening verse of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (1:1, 14). In the former quotation the meaning is entirely cosmogonic; in the latter, it has been diminished to signify the innate Word or divinity in man, which when in full control of the human adept can, by a stretch of metaphor, mean that the innate Christ, Buddha, or god in man so controls the human personality as to have become the latter, and thus to manifest among men.

Yasodhara (Sanskrit) Yaśodharā [from yaśas glory, splendor + dhāra bearing from the verbal root dhṛ to bear, support] Bearer of glory. The wife of Prince Siddhartha who became Gautama Buddha, and the mother of his son Rahula. She was the daughter of a Koliyan chief and was wedded to her cousin in his 19th year. Subba Row states that the name stands for one of three mystical powers (cf utpala-varna).

Yet on the upward arc of an evolutionary cycle, partaking of this sacred ambrosial food signifies initiation, the partaking by the initiant in the Mysteries of the “drink” of spiritual immortality. This drink is symbolized by the cup and its contained liquid, but actually is the receiving into the consciousness from the inner nature of the life-giving streams, the draught of everlasting life, or the elixir of life. After partaking of this ambrosial elixir, brought about by lives of selflessness and by final initiation, the adept learns to live in the minor and intermediate spheres of the solar system as a fully self-conscious co-laborer with the gods in their cosmic work. Such are the higher nirmanakayas, true buddhas, etc.

“Zarathushtra is the Divine Universal Force that directs everything within the universe towards perfection. This force is known as Amesha-Spenta” (Shahrestani, Al-Melal Va Al-Nehal). This force is equivalent to the Gnostic primeval ruler or governor, the closest being to the creator; the active mind or intellect which is the source of divine bliss and providence, with the Manichaen pure or holy spirits; the Hebrew elohim, the Arabic Malaeka (angels); the Koranic soul within the angels; and the theosophic dhyani-chohans or dhyani-buddhas. They are the rulers of the seven globes of the earth-chain.

Zen Buddhism: The Japanese “mediation school” of Buddhism, based on the theories of the “universality of Buddha-nature” and the possibility of “becoming a Buddha in this very body.” It teaches the way of attaining Buddhahood fundamentally by meditation.



QUOTES [116 / 116 - 1500 / 3250]


KEYS (10k)

   34 Buddha
   8 Chamtrul Rinpoche
   7 Bodhidharma
   5 The Buddha
   4 Ken Wilber
   4 Dogen Zenji
   3 Joseph Campbell
   2 Taigu Ryokan
   2 Patrul Rinpoche
   2 Leo Tolstoy
   2 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
   2 Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
   2 Dhammapada
   2 Sri Aurobindo
   2 Kobayashi Issa
   2 Jetsun Milarepa
   1 Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
   1 Thich Nhat Hanh
   1 The Sutra on the Buddha's Bequeathed Teaching
   1 Tenzin Palmo
   1 Stephen Batchelor
   1 Sri Chidananda
   1 Sogyal Rinpoche
   1 Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
   1 Shunryu Suzuki
   1 Sheng yen
   1 Sengcan
   1 Robert M. Pirsig
   1 Osho
   1 M J Ryan
   1 Mingyur Rinpoche
   1 Manly P Hall
   1 Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
   1 Judith Simmer-Brown
   1 Jon Kabat-Zinn
   1 John Myrdhin
   1 Je Tsongkhapa
   1 Hymns of Guru Nanak
   1 Huang Po
   1 Guru Nanak
   1 Gautama Buddha
   1 Fritjof Capra
   1 Ernest Holmes
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   1 Chogyam Trungpa
   1 Buddhacharita
   1 Bankei
   1 Santoka Taneda
   1 Nichiren

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

  983 Gautama Buddha
   66 Buddha
   26 Bodhidharma
   17 Thich Nhat Hanh
   15 Teachings of the Buddha
   12 Frederick Lenz
   10 Tenzin Palmo
   10 Dogen
   9 Jack Kornfield
   8 Nhat Hanh
   8 Eckhart Tolle
   7 Swami Vivekananda
   7 Kobayashi Issa
   7 Dalai Lama
   6 Shunryu Suzuki
   6 Rajneesh
   6 Osho
   6 Anonymous
   5 Sogyal Rinpoche
   5 Jack Kerouac

1:A jug fills drop by drop. ~ Buddha,
2:kindness protects him. ~ The Buddha,
3:Be greatly aware of the present." ~ Buddha,
4:Quiet the mind and the soul will speak." ~ Buddha,
5:The mind protected brings ease. ~ Dhammapada, Buddha,
6:whom others can't split from you.- Hiri Sutta ~ Buddha,
7:Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
   ~ Buddha,
8:The work never finishes; there is no end to this work. ~ Buddha,
9:Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except yourself." ~ Buddha,
10:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." ~ Buddha,
11:Let a man conquer anger by love, let him subdue evil by good. ~ Buddha,
12:Truly, those who are good people are thankful and grateful. ~ The Buddha,
13:Wherever a person goes, his deeds, like a shadow, will follow. ~ The Buddha,
14:The self is in a fever; the self is forever changing, like a dream. ~ Buddha,
15:Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
   ~ Buddha,
16:I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
   ~ Buddha,
17:Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
   ~ Buddha,
18:Never underestimate your potential. Buddha nature is always there. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
19:It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.
   ~ Buddha,
20:If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure. ~ Bodhidharma,
21:There is more joy in one desire conquered than in a thousand desires satisfied
   ~ Buddha,
22:Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. ~ Buddha,
23:If you have devotion, the Buddha is always right in front of you. ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche,
24:Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves. ~ Dogen Zenji,
25:Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water." ~ Buddha,
26:No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
   ~ Buddha,
27:A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." ~ Bodhidharma,
28:picking
the nameless flower
I offer it to buddha ~ Santoka Taneda,
29:The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live." ~ Buddha,
30:Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~ Buddha,
31:If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil. ~ Dogen Zenji,
32:Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. ~ Siddhartha Gautama Buddha,
33:A Buddha is an idle person. He doesn't run around after fortune and fame." ~ Bodhidharma,
34:Destroy the darkness of delusion with the brightness of wisdom. ~ The Sutra on the Buddha's Bequeathed Teaching,
35:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
   ~ Buddha,
36:Let the wise man fight Mara with the sword of wisdom. He should now protect what he has won, without attachment. ~ Buddha,
37:The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech. ~ Dogen Zenji,
38:However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
   ~ Buddha,
39:By endeavor, diligence, discipline, and self-mastery, let the wise man make of himself an island that no flood can overwhelm. ~ Buddha,
40:Distraction is the main problem for us all - what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind." ~ Tenzin Palmo,
41:Just as a silver smith step by step, moment to moment, blows away the impurities of molten silver - so the wise man, his own. ~ Buddha,
42:As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world." ~ Buddha,
43:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either." ~ Bodhidharma,
44:But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.
   ~ Bodhidharma,
45:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
   ~ Bodhidharma,
46:A fool, though he lives in the company of the wise, understands nothing of the true doctrine, as a spoon tastes not the flavor of the soup.
   ~ Buddha,
47:Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ The Buddha,
48:just say, 'Not Two!'' ~ Sengcan, (died 606) Third Chinese Patriarch of Chán after Bodhidharma and thirtieth Patriarch after Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha, Wikipedia.,
49:Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
50:The Great spiritual geniuses, whether it was Moses, Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Jesus, or Emerson... have taught man to look within himself to find God.
   ~ Ernest Holmes,
51:Persevere in thy quest and thou shalt find what thou seekest. Pursue thy aim unswervingly and thou shalt gain victory. Struggle earnestly and thou shalt triumph. ~ Buddha,
52:I have to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament. This is also necessary for all people. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
53:I have to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament. This is also necessary for all people.
   ~ Leo Tolstoy,
54:It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
   ~ Buddha,
55:For all who think of him with faith
The Buddha is there in front of them
And will give empowerments and blessings.
~ Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, [T5],
56:At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ M J Ryan, A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles,
57:As you start to see your own potential, you will also begin to recognize it in every being around you. Buddha nature is not a special quality available to just a privileged few. ~ Mingyur Rinpoche,
58:Going for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha means that we apply effort to receiving Buddha's blessings, to putting Dharma into practice, and to receiving help from Sangha. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
59:Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom.
   ~ Buddha,
60:The whole effort of Jesus or a Buddha or a Bodhidharma is nothing but how to undo that which society has done to you." ~ Osho, (1931 - 1990), Indian godman, Wikipedia. Quote from "ZEN the Path of Paradox,", (2001).,
61:Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Vision of the World-Spirit - Time the Destroyer,
62:I am the owner of my actions (kamma), inheritor of my actions, born of my actions, created by my actions, and have my own actions as my judge! Whatever I do, good or evil, I will feel the resulting effects of that … ~ The Buddha,
63:Buddha's discourse 'Turning the Wheel of Dhamma' can be boiled down to: Embrace, Let Go, Stop, Act! This template can be applied to every situation in life." ~ Stephen Batchelor, (b. 1953) "Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist,", (2010), p. 6.,
64:A Nirmita (sprul-pa) is an emanation or a manifestation. A Buddha or other realized being is able to project many such Nirmitas simultaneously in an infinite variety of forms. ~ John Myrdhin, The Golden Letters: The Three Statements of Garab Dorje,
65:If you can practice the dharma with as much energy that you have been giving to your samsaric existence, sooner or later you will definitely become a buddha. It is your choice. You have been shown the way. Nobody can do it for you. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
66:This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain." ~ Buddha,
67:When the wind blows the clouds disappear, and all of space is filled with the light of the sun. Likewise, through the power of dharma practice, our obscurations will disappear, revealing what has been there since beginningless time; a buddha. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
68:Flying out from the Great Buddha's nose: a swallow." ~ Kobayashi Issa, (1763 - 1828) Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest, known for his haiku poems and journals, better known as simply Issa, a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea, Wikipedia.,
69:Bhagavan, bodhisattvas should not learn many teachings. Bhagavan, if bodhisattvas grasp and know one teaching, they will have all of the Buddha's teachings in the palm of their hand. What is this one teaching? It is great compassion. ~ Je Tsongkhapa, Lamrim Chenmo,
70:The Buddha taught for forty-five years. He is said to have said that all of his teachings could be encapsulated in one sentence… "Nothing is to be clung to as 'I,' 'me,' or 'mine.'" ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn, (b. 1944), Wikipedia. Quote from "Mindfulness for Beginners,", (2016).,
71:Do not accept any of my words on faith, believing them just because I said them. Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns, and critically examines his product for authenticity. Only accept what passes the test by proving useful and beneficial in your life. ~ Buddha,
72:He who has made the Buddha his refuge
Cannot be killed by ten million demons;
Though he transgress his vows or be tormented in mind,
It is certain that he will go beyond rebirth.
~ Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Sutra of the Heart of the Sun,
73:You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
   ~ Buddha,
74:Flint has the potential to produce fire, and gems have intrinsic value.
We ordinary people can see neither our own eyelashes, which are so close, nor the heavens in the distance.
Likewise, we do not see that the Buddha exists in our own hearts. ~ Nichiren,
75:No matter how insignificant you feel, no matter what problems you have, and no matter how many afflictive emotions fill your mind, never underestimate your potential for a single moment. Like a diamond covered by dirt, your buddha nature is there, waiting to be discovered. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
76:If you can remember that all beings have buddha nature, it will help you cultivate equanimity, because it will feel like everybody is your family. The greater your equanimity, the greater your love and compassion towards them, no matter who they are, or what they have done. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
77:Studying the dharma is a vital part of our path. But if we never practice what we have studied, it is as if we have built a great ship, and then left it on dry land. The ship must set sail. That is the only way that we can cross the ocean of samsara to the enlightened state of a buddha. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
78:The great and rare mystics of the past (from Buddha to Christ, from al-Hallaj to Lady Tsogyal, from Hui-neng to Hildegard) were, in fact, ahead of their time, and are still ahead of ours. In other words, they most definitely are not figures of the past. They are figures of the future. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality,
79:Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to buddhahood. You can't say that suffering is buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain. ~ Bodhidharma,
80:In The Morning :::
In the morning, bowing to all;
In the evening, bowing to all.
Respecting others is my only duty--
Hail to the Never-despising Bodhisattva.

In heaven and earth he stands alone.

A real monk
Needs
Only one thing--
a heart like
Never-despising Buddha. ~ Taigu Ryokan,
81:Priding oneself on the strengths or accomplishments of one's practice as well as lamenting one's inability to measure up to the practice are both egotistical attitudes. They are riddled with self-centeredness. The proper way to practice Buddha-mindfulness is to try to nourish the spiritual qualities that the Buddha represents. ~ Sheng yen,
82:As a student who has no idea of dharma and no mind training, you decide to commit to the path and to train yourself. As you train your mind, you begin to see all kinds of things. What you see is not so much the inspiration of a glimpse of enlightenment, or buddha nature. Instead, the first thing you see is what is wrong with samsara. ~ Chogyam Trungpa,
83:The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself. ~ Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values,
84:You are a Buddha, and so is everyone else. I didn't make that up. It was the Buddha himself who said so. He said that all beings had the potential to become awakened. To practice walking meditation is to practice living in mindfulness. Mindfulness and enlightenment are one. Enlightenment leads to mindfulness and mindfulness leads to enlightenment. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
85:It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between mans unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,
86:Quoting Dudjom Rinpoche on the buddha-nature: No words can describe it No example can point to it Samsara does not make it worse Nirvana does not make it better It has never been born It has never ceased It has never been liberated It has never been deluded It has never existed It has never been nonexistent It has no limits at all It does not fall into any kind of category ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,
87:A practice that is suitable for one person is not necessarily suitable for someone else, and a practice that is appropriate for one person at one time is not necessarily appropriate for that same person at another time. Buddha did not expect us to put all his teachings into practice right away--they are intended for a great variety of practitioners of different levels and dispositions. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
88:The guru is the equal of all the buddhas. To make any connection with him, whether through seeing him, hearing his voice, remembering him or being touched by his hand, will lead us toward liberation. To have full confidence in him is the sure way to progress toward enlightenment. The warmth of his wisdom and compassion will melt the ore of our being and release the gold of the buddha-nature within. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,
89:There are these four ways of answering questions. Which four? There are questions that should be answered categorically [straightforwardly yes, no, this, that]. There are questions that should be answered with an analytical (qualified) answer [defining or redefining the terms]. There are questions that should be answered with a counter-question. There are questions that should be put aside. These are the four ways of answering questions. ~ Buddha, Sutta Pitaka,
90:IN THE entire ten quarters of the Buddha land
There is only one vehicle.
When we see clearly, there is no difference in all the teachings.
What is there to lose? What is there to gain?
If we gain something, it was there from the beginning.
If we lose anything, it is hidden nearby.
Look at the ball in the sleeve of my robe.
Surely it has great value.
[ The first sentence of this poem quotes a famous line from the Lotus Sutra.] ~ Taigu Ryokan,
91:Scientists, therefore, are responsible for their research, not only intellectually but also morally. This responsibility has become an important issue in many of today's sciences, but especially so in physics, in which the results of quantum mechanics and relativity theory have opened up two very different paths for physicists to pursue. They may lead us - to put it in extreme terms - to the Buddha or to the Bomb, and it is up to each of us to decide which path to take. ~ Fritjof Capra,
92:I would like to tell you that an enlightened essence is present in everyone. It is present in every state, both samsara and nirvana, and in all sentient beings; there is no exception. Experience your buddha nature, make it your constant practice, and you will reach enlightenment. In my lifetime I have known many, many people who attained such and enlightened state, both male and female. Awakening to enlightenment is not an ancient fable. It is not mythology. It actually does happen. Bring the oral instructions into your own practical experience and enlightenment is indeed possible; it is not just a fairy tale. ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche,
93:To take the last issue, the difficult issue, first. The first great Dharma systems, East and West, all arose, without exception, in the so-called "axial period" (Karl Jaspers), that rather extraordinary period beginning around the 6th century B.C. (plus or minus several centuries), a period that saw the birth of Gautama Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Moses, Plato, Patanjali—a period that would soon give way, over the next few centuries, to include Ashvaghosa, Nagarjuna, Plotinus, Jesus, Philo, Valentinus…. Virtually all of the major tenets of the perennial philosophy were first laid down during this amazing era (in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity….) ~ Ken Wilber, Integral Life, right-bucks,
94:Where can you find anyone who steals because his karma is deep or his sins heavy? Stealing is the karma, stealing is the sin! If it weren't for stealing, that sin and karma couldn't exist. Whether you steal or whether you don't depends on the present state of your own mind, not on your past karma. And what I'm telling you now doesn't go only for stealing. Generally speaking, all delusions are just the same as stealing. Whether you're going to be deluded or you're not going to, all depends on the present state of your own mind. When you're deluded, you're an unenlightened being; when you're not deluded, you're a buddha. There's no special shortcut to being a buddha beyond this. Isn't it so? Everyone, realize this conclusively!" ~ Bankei,
95:Certainly we have had our Napoleons and our Hitlers, but we have also had Jesus and Buddha. We have had tyrants, but also great humanitarians. We have had corrupt politicians, but also noble rulers. Even in the most selfish of times, the world has brought forth idealists, philanthropists, great artists, musicians, and poets. If we have inherited ages of feuding and intolerance, we have also inherited the magnificence of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. For each tyrant who has profaned the pages of history, there have been thousands, even millions, of gentle people who have lived unhonored and unknown, keeping principles and living convictions under the most difficult situations. To see this good, and to know it, is to find a new courage and a new faith. ~ Manly P Hall, PRS Journal Summer 1961, p.7,
96:There are a vast amount of Buddhas already, and each one manifests countless forms simultaneously throughout all of the planes of cyclic existence for the benefit of all beings. However, at any given time, each individual being will have a stronger karmic connection with certain Buddhas, compared to other Buddhas.

   Likewise, if you were a Buddha, since a huge number of beings throughout cyclic existence would have a stronger karmic connection with you during certain times, you would be able to benefit them much more directly than the many other Buddhas would be able to. Do not forget this.

   The deeper you realise this, the greater your bodhicitta motivation becomes - in other words, the greater your compassionate wish to attain the enlightened state of a Buddha for the benefit of all beings, as soon as possible!
   ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
97:11. The Ultimate Boon:The gods and goddesses then are to be understood as embodiments and custodians of the elixir of Imperishable Being but not themselves the Ultimate in its primary state. What the hero seeks through his intercourse with them is therefore not finally themselves, but their grace, i.e., the power of their sustaining substance. This miraculous energy-substance and this alone is the Imperishable; the names and forms of the deities who everywhere embody, dispense, and represent it come and go. This is the miraculous energy of the thunderbolts of Zeus, Yahweh, and the Supreme Buddha, the fertility of the rain of Viracocha, the virtue announced by the bell rung in the Mass at the consecration, and the light of the ultimate illumination of the saint and sage. Its guardians dare release it only to the duly proven. ~ Joseph Campbell,
98:The thunderbolt (vajra) is one of the major symbols in Buddhist iconography, signifying the spiritual power of Buddhahood (indestructible enlightenment) which shatters the illusory realities of the world. The Absolute, or Adi Buddha, is represented in the images of Tibet as Vajra-Dhara (Tibetan: Dorje-Chang) "Holder of the Adamantine Bolt.
...
We know also that among primitive peoples warriors may speak of their weapons as thunderbolts. Sicut in coelo et in terra: the initiated warrior is an agent of the divine will; his training is not only in manual but also in spiritual skills. Magic (the supernatural power of the thunderbolt), as well as physical force and chemical poison, gives the lethal energy to his blows. A consummate master would require no physical weapon at all; the power of his magic word would suffice. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces,
99:Part 3 - Return
12. Refusal of the Return:When the hero-quest has been accomplished, through penetration to the source, or through the grace of some male or female, human or animal, personification, the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting trophy. The full round, the norm of the monomyth, requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess, back into the kingdom of humanity, where the boon may redound to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet or the ten thousand worlds. But the responsibility has been frequently refused. Even Gautama Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have died while in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being. ~ Joseph Campbell,
100:Turn your thoughts now, and lift up your thoughts to a devout and joyous contemplation on sage Vyasa and Vasishtha, on Narda and Valmiki. Contemplate on the glorious Lord Buddha, Jesus the Christ, prophet Mohammed, the noble Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), Lord Mahavira, the holy Guru Nanak. Think of the great saints and sages of all ages, like Yajnavalkya, Dattatreya, Sulabha and Gargi, Anasooya and Sabari, Lord Gauranga, Mirabai, Saint Theresa and Francis of Assisi. Remember St. Augustine, Jallaludin Rumi, Kabir, Tukaram, Ramdas, Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Vivekananda and Rama Tirtha. Adore in thy heart the sacred memory of Mahatma Gandhi, sage Ramana Maharishi, Aurobindo Ghosh, Gurudev Sivananda and Swami Ramdas. They verily are the inspirers of humanity towards a life of purity, goodness and godliness. Their lives, their lofty examples, their great teachings constitute the real wealth and greatest treasure of mankind today.
   ~ Sri Chidananda, Advices On Spiritual Living,
101:Attain The Way ::: If students of the way are mistaken about their own real Mind they will indulge in various achievements and practices, expecting to attain realization by such gradual practices. However, even after aeons of diligent searching they will not be able to attain the Way. These methods cannot be compared to the sudden elimination of conceptual thought in this moment; the certain knowledge that there is nothing at all which has absolute existence, nothing on which to lay hold, nothing on which to rely, nothing in which to abide, nothing subjective or objective. It is by preventing the rise of conceptual thought that you will realize Bodhi. When you do, you will just be realizing the Buddha who has always existed in your own Mind.

If students of the Way wish to become Buddhas, they don't need to study any doctrines. They need only learn how to avoid seeking for and attaching themselves to anything. Relinquishment of everything is the Dharma and they who understand this are Buddhas. Only know that the relinquishment of ALL delusions leaves no Dharma on which to lay hold. ~ Huang Po, Attain the Way,
102:You should not be tilted sideways, backwards, or forwards. You should be sitting straight up as if you were supporting the sky with your head. This is not just form or breathing. It expresses the key point of Buddhism. It is a perfect expression of your Buddha nature. If you want true understanding of Buddhism, you should practice this way.

   These forms are not a means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture itself is the purpose of our practice. When you have this posture, you have the right state of mind, so there is no need to try to attain some special state.

   When you try to attain something, your mind starts to wander about somewhere else. When you do not try to attain anything, you have your own body and mind right here. A Zen master would say, "Kill the Buddha!" Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature. Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. This is the fundamental teaching expressed in the forms we observe. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginners Mind,
103:I accept, will not give up, and will practice each of the Three Jewels,
   And will not let go of my guru or my yidam deity.
   As the samaya of the Buddha, first among the Three Jewels,
   I will apply myself to the true, essential reality.
   As the samaya of sacred Dharma, second among the Three Jewels,
   I will distill the very essence of all the vehicles' teachings.
   As the samaya of the Sangha, the third and final Jewel,
   I will look upon reality; I will behold pure awareness.
   And as the samaya of the guru and the yidam deity,
   I will take my very own mind, my pure mind, as a witness.
  
   Generally speaking, the Three Jewels should be regarded as the ultimate place to take refuge. As was taught in the section on taking refuge, your mind should be focused one-pointedly, with all your hopes and trust placed in their care. The gurus are a lamp that dispels the darkness of ignorance.
   As the guides who lead you along the path to liberation, they are your sole source of refuge and protection, from now until you attain enlightenment.
   For these reasons, you should act with unwavering faith, pure view and devotion, and engage in the approach and accomplishment of the divine yidam deity. ~ Dzogchen Rinpoche III, Great Perfection Outer and Inner Preliminaries,
104:Ordinarily, man is limited in all these parts of his being and he can grasp at first only so much of the divine truth as has some large correspondence to his own nature and its past development and associations. Therefore God meets us first in different limited affirmations of his divine qualities and nature; he presents himself to the seeker as an absolute of the things he can understand and to which his will and heart can respond; he discloses some name and aspect of his Godhead.

This is what is called in Yoga the is.t.a-devata, the name and form elected by our nature for its worship. In order that the human being may embrace this Godhead with every part of himself, it is represented with a form that answers to its aspects and qualities and which becomes the living body of God to the adorer. These are those forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Kali, Durga, Christ, Buddha, which the mind of man seizes on for adoration. Even the monotheist who worships a formless Godhead, yet gives to him some form of quality, some mental form or form of Nature by which he envisages and approaches him. But to be able to see a living form, a mental body, as it were, of the Divine gives to the approach a greater closeness and sweetness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Mystery of Love,
105:The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, "My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru," and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation.
   On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all others, unified all Avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the Avatar, welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom.
   Nor should he forget the aim of these external aids which is to awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been finally accomplished if that has not been accomplished. It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between man's unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,
106:CHAPTER V
The Actual Practice:The Yoga of Meditative Equipoise
Part II

The Yoga of the Speech Recitation
The next section explains the yoga of vajra recitation in seven parts:
(1) general understanding, (2) the particular necessity for practice, (3) the actual nature of the recitation, (4) different types of recitation, (5) the manner of reciting the mantra, (6) number of recitations and (7) activity upon completion.
General Understanding
A general understanding of the yoga of vajra recitation is approached by considering the object that needs to be purified by the yoga, the means of purification and the result. The object that needs to be purified through the yoga of speech is the habit of perceiving all sounds-names, words, syllables and anything that is spoken-as merely ordinary sounds with ordinary meanings.
Simply stated, the object to purify is your present, obscured experience of speech and the habitual instincts that accompany it.
The practice of mantra recitation purifies this impure experience and results in pure, vajra-like speech. One achieves the Sambhogakaya and becomes imbued with the sixty qualities of the Buddha's speech. All of one's words become pleasing, meaningful and helpful. The means of purification is to recite the mantra, the pure sounds which the buddhas have given to us, over and over until they are like a spinning wheel of sound. ~ Gyatrul Rinpoche, Generating the DeityZ,
107:The Song Of View, Practice, And Action :::
Oh, my Guru! The Exemplar of the View, Practice, and Action,
Pray vouchsafe me your grace, and enable me
To be absorbed in the realm of Self-nature!

For the View, Practice, Action, and Accomplishment
There are three Key-points you should know:

All the manifestation, the Universe itself, is contained in the mind;
The nature of Mind is the realm of illumination
Which can neither be conceived nor touched.
These are the Key-points of the View.

Errant thoughts are liberated in the Dharmakaya;
The awareness, the illumination, is always blissful;
Meditate in a manner of non-doing and non-effort.
These are the Key-points of Practice.

In the action of naturalness
The Ten Virtues spontaneously grow;
All the Ten Vices are thus purified.
By corrections or remedies
The Illuminating Void is ne'er disturbed.
These are the Key-points of Action.

There is no Nivana to attain beyond;
There is no Samsara here to renounce;
Truly to know the Self-mind
It is to be the Buddha Himself.
These are the Key-points of Accomplishment.

Reduce inwardly the Three Key-points to One.
This One is the Void Nature of Being,
Which only a wondrous Guru
Can clearly illustrate.

Much activity is of no avail;
If one sees the Simultaneously Born Wisdom,
He reaches the goal.

For all practioners of Dharma
The preaching is a precious gem;
It is my direct experience from yogic meditation.
Think carefully and bear it in your minds,
Oh, my children and disciples. ~ Jetsun Milarepa,
108:
   How can one "learn of pure delight"?

First of all, to begin with, one must through an attentive observation grow aware that desires and the satisfaction of desires give only a vague, uncertain pleasure, mixed, fugitive and altogether unsatisfactory. That is usually the starting-point.

   Then, if one is a reasonable being, one must learn to discern what is desire and refrain from doing anything that may satisfy one's desires. One must reject them without trying to satisfy them. And so the first result is exactly one of the first observations stated by the Buddha in his teaching: there is an infinitely greater delight in conquering and eliminating a desire than in satisfying it. Every sincere and steadfast seeker will realise after some time, sooner or later, at times very soon, that this is an absolute truth, and that the delight felt in overcoming a desire is incomparably higher than the small pleasure, so fleeting and mixed, which may be found in the satisfaction of his desires. That is the second step.

   Naturally, with this continuous discipline, in a very short time the desires will keep their distance and will no longer bother you. So you will be free to enter a little more deeply into your being and open yourself in an aspiration to... the Giver of Delight, the divine Element, the divine Grace. And if this is done with a sincere self-giving - something that gives itself, offers itself and expects nothing in exchange for its offering - one will feel that kind of sweet warmth, comfortable, intimate, radiant, which fills the heart and is the herald of Delight.    After this, the path is easy.
   ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958,
109:[God is] The Hindu discipline of spirituality provides for this need of the soul by the conceptions of the Ishta Devata, the Avatar and the Guru. By the Ishta Devata, the chosen deity, is meant, - not some inferior Power, but a name and form of the transcendent and universal Godhead. Almost all religions either have as their base or make use of some such name and form of the Divine. Its necessity for the human soul is evident. God is the All and more than the All. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? And even the All is at first too hard for him; for he himself in his active consciousness is a limited and selective formation and can open himself only to that which is in harmony with his limited nature. There are things in the All which are too hard for his comprehension or seem too terrible to his sensitive emotions and cowering sensations. Or, simply, he cannot conceive as the Divine, cannot approach or cannot recognise something that is too much out of the circle of his ignorant or partial conceptions. It is necessary for him to conceive God in his own image or in some form that is beyond himself but consonant with his highest tendencies and seizable by his feelings or his intelligence. Otherwise it would be difficult for him to come into contact and communion with the Divine.
   Even then his nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar - Krishna, Christ, Buddha.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids, 65 [T9],
110:There is a story I would like to tell you about a woman who practices the invocation of the Buddha Amitabha's name. She is very tough, and she practices the invocation three times daily, using a wooden drum and a bell, reciting, "Namo Amitabha Buddha" for one hour each time. When she arrives at one thousand times, she invites the bell to sound. (In Vietnamese, we don't say "strike" or "hit" a bell.) Although she has been doing this for ten years, her personality has not changed. She is still quite mean, shouting at people all the time.

A friend wanted to teach her a lesson, so one afternoon when she had just lit the incense, invited the bell to sound three times, and was beginning to recite "Namo Amitabha Buddha," he came to her door, and said, "Mrs. Nguyen, Mrs. Nguyen!" She found it very annoying because this was her time of practice, but he just stood at the front gate shouting her name. She said to herself, "I have to struggle against my anger, so I will ignore that," and she went on, "Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Amitabha Buddha."

The gentleman continued to shout her name, and her anger became more and more oppressive. She struggled against it, wondering, "Should I stop my recitation and go and give him a piece of my mind?" But she continued chanting, and she struggled very hard. Fire mounted in her, but she still tried to chant "Namo Amitabha Buddha." The gentleman knew it, and he continued to shout, "Mrs. Nguyen! Mrs. Nguyen!"

She could not bear it any longer. She threw away the bell and the drum. She slammed the door, went out to the gate and said, "Why, why do you behave like that? Why do you call my name hundreds of times like that?" The gentleman smiled at her and said, "I just called your name for ten minutes, and you are so angry. You have been calling the Buddha's name for ten years. Think how angry he must be! ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
111:Self-Abuse by Drugs
Not a drop of alcohol is to be brought into this temple.
Master Bassui (1327-1387)1
(His dying instructions: first rule)
In swinging between liberal tolerance one moment and outraged repression the next,
modern societies seem chronically incapable of reaching consistent attitudes about
drugs.
Stephen Batchelor2
Drugs won't show you the truth. Drugs will only show you what it's like to be on drugs.
Brad Warner3

Implicit in the authentic Buddhist Path is sila. It is the time-honored practice
of exercising sensible restraints [Z:73-74]. Sila's ethical guidelines provide the
bedrock foundation for one's personal behavior in daily life. At the core of every
religion are some self-disciplined renunciations corresponding to sila. Yet, a profound irony has been reshaping the human condition in most cultures during the
last half century. It dates from the years when psychoactive drugs became readily
available. During this era, many naturally curious persons could try psychedelic
short-cuts and experience the way their consciousness might seem to ''expand.'' A
fortunate few of these experimenters would become motivated to follow the nondrug meditative route when they pursued various spiritual paths.
One fact is often overlooked. Meditation itself has many mind-expanding, psychedelic properties [Z:418-426]. These meditative experiences can also stimulate a
drug-free spiritual quest.
Meanwhile, we live in a drug culture. It is increasingly a drugged culture, for which overprescribing physicians must shoulder part of the blame. Do
drugs have any place along the spiritual path? This issue will always be hotly
debated.4
In Zen, the central issue is not whether each spiritual aspirant has the ''right''
to exercise their own curiosity, or the ''right'' to experiment on their own brains in
the name of freedom of religion. It is a free country. Drugs are out there. The real
questions are:
 Can you exercise the requisite self-discipline to follow the Zen Buddhist Path?
 Do you already have enough common sense to ask that seemingly naive question,

''What would Buddha do?'' (WWBD).
~ James Austin, Zen-Brain_Reflections,_Reviewing_Recent_Developments_in_Meditation_and_States_of_Consciousness,
112:reading :::
   Self-Help Reading List:
   James Allen As a Man Thinketh (1904)
   Marcus Aurelius Meditations (2nd Century)
   The Bhagavad-Gita
   The Bible
   Robert Bly Iron John (1990)
   Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy (6thC)
   Alain de Botton How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997)
   William Bridges Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes (1980)
   David Brooks The Road to Character (2015)
   Brené Brown Daring Greatly (2012)
   David D Burns The New Mood Therapy (1980)
   Joseph Campbell (with Bill Moyers) The Power of Myth (1988)
   Richard Carlson Don't Sweat The Small Stuff (1997)
   Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
   Deepak Chopra The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (1994)
   Clayton Christensen How Will You Measure Your Life? (2012)
   Paulo Coelho The Alchemist (1988)
   Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989)
   Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1991)
   The Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler The Art of Happiness (1999)
   The Dhammapada (Buddha's teachings)
   Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit (2011)
   Wayne Dyer Real Magic (1992)
   Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance (1841)
   Clarissa Pinkola Estes Women Who Run With The Wolves (1996)
   Viktor Frankl Man's Search For Meaning (1959)
   Benjamin Franklin Autobiography (1790)
   Shakti Gawain Creative Visualization (1982)
   Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence (1995)
   John Gray Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (1992)
   Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life (1984)
   James Hillman The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling (1996)
   Susan Jeffers Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway (1987)
   Richard Koch The 80/20 Principle (1998)
   Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2014)
   Ellen Langer Mindfulness: Choice and Control in Everyday Life (1989)
   Lao-Tzu Tao-te Ching (The Way of Power)
   Maxwell Maltz Psycho-Cybernetics (1960)
   Abraham Maslow Motivation and Personality (1954)
   Thomas Moore Care of the Soul (1992)
   Joseph Murphy The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (1963)
   Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)
   M Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled (1990)
   Anthony Robbins Awaken The Giant Within (1991)
   Florence Scovell-Shinn The Game of Life and How To Play It (1923)
   Martin Seligman Learned Optimism (1991)
   Samuel Smiles Self-Help (1859)
   Pierre Teilhard de Chardin The Phenomenon of Man (1955)
   Henry David Thoreau Walden (1854)
   Marianne Williamson A Return To Love (1993)
   ~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Self-Help,
113:The Song Of Food And Dwelling :::
I bow down at the feet of the wish-fulfilling Guru.
Pray vouchsafe me your grace in bestowing beneficial food,
Pray make me realize my own body as the house of Buddha,
Pray grant me this knowledge.

I built the house through fear,
The house of Sunyata, the void nature of being;
Now I have no fear of its collapsing.
I, the Yogi with the wish-fulfilling gem,
Feel happiness and joy where'er I stay.

Because of the fear of cold, I sought for clothes;
The clothing I found is the Ah Shea Vital Heat.
Now I have no fear of coldness.

Because of the fear of poverty, I sought for riches;
The riches I found are the inexhaustible Seven Holy Jewels.
Now I have no fear of poverty.

Because of the fear of hunger, I sought for food;
The food I found is the Samadhi of Suchness.
Now I have no fear of hunger.

Because of the fear of thirst, I sought for drink;
The heavenly drink I found is the wine of mindfulness.
Now I have no fear of thirst.

Because of the fear of loneliness, I searched for a friend;
The friend I found is the bliss of perpetual Sunyata.
Now I have no fear of loneliness.

Because of the fear of going astray,
I sought for the right path to follow.
The wide path I found is the Path of Two-in-One.
Now I do not fear to lose my way.

I am a yogi with all desirable possessions,
A man always happy where'er he stays.

Here at Yolmo Tagpu Senge Tson,
The tigress howling with a pathetic, trembling cry,
Reminds me that her helpless cubs are innocently playing.
I cannot help but feel a great compassion for them,
I cannot help but practice more diligently,
I cannot help but augment thus my Bodhi-Mind.

The touching cry of the monkey,
So impressive and so moving,
Cannot help but raise in me deep pity.
The little monkey's chattering is amusing and pathetic;
As I hear it, I cannot but think of it with compassion.

The voice of the cuckoo is so moving,
And so tuneful is the lark's sweet singing,
That when I hear them I cannot help but listen
When I listen to them,
I cannot help but shed tears.

The varied cries and cawings of the crow,
Are a good and helpful friend unto the yogi.
Even without a single friend,
To remain here is a pleasure.
With joy flowing from my heart, I sing this happy song;
May the dark shadow of all men's sorrows
Be dispelled by my joyful singing. ~ Jetsun Milarepa,
114:Something happened to you before you were born, and this is what it was:
   STAGE ONE: THE CHIKHAI
   The events of the 49-day Bardo period are divided into three major stages, the Chikhai, the Chonyid, and the Sidpa (in that order). Immediately following physical death, the soul enters the Chikhai, which is simply the state of the immaculate and luminous Dharmakaya, the ultimate Consciousness, the BrahmanAtman. This ultimate state is given, as a gift, to all individuals: they are plunged straight into ultimate reality and exist as the ultimate Dharmakaya. "At this moment," says the Bardo Thotrol, "the first glimpsing of the Bardo of the Clear Light of Reality, which is the Infallible Mind of the Dharmakaya, is experienced by all sentient beings.''110 Or, to put it a different way, the Thotrol tells us that "Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light-Buddha Amitabha. Knowing this is sufficient. Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood ... is to keep thyself in the Divine Mind."110 In short, immediately following physical death, the soul is absorbed in and as the ultimate-causal body (if we may treat them together).
   Interspersed with this brief summary of the Bardo Thotrol, I will add my commentaries on involution and on the nature of the Atman project in involution. And we begin by noting that at the start of the Bardo experience, the soul is elevated to the utter heights of Being, to the ultimate state of Oneness-that is, he starts his Bardo career at the top. But, at the top is usually not where he remains, and the Thotrol tells us why. In Evans-Wentz's words, "In the realm of the Clear Light [the highest Chikhai stage] the mentality of a person . . . momentarily enjoys a condition of balance, of perfect equilibrium, and of [ultimate] oneness. Owing to unfamiliarity with such a state, which is an ecstatic state of non-ego, of [causal] consciousness, the . . . average human being lacks the power to function in it; karmic propensities becloud the consciousness-principle with thoughts of personality, of individualized being, of dualism, and, losing equilibrium, the consciousness-principle falls away from the Clear Light."
   The soul falls away from the ultimate Oneness because "karmic propensities cloud consciousness"-"karmic propensities'' means seeking, grasping, desiring; means, in fact, Eros. And as this Erosseeking develops, the state of perfect Oneness starts to "break down" (illusorily). Or, from a different angle, because the individual cannot stand the intensity of pure Oneness ("owing to unfamiliarity with such a state"), he contracts away from it, tries to ''dilute it," tries to extricate himself from Perfect Intensity in Atman. Contracting in the face of infinity, he turns instead to forms of seeking, desire, karma, and grasping, trying to "search out" a state of equilibrium. Contraction and Eros-these karmic propensities couple and conspire to drive the soul away from pure consciousness and downwards into multiplicity, into less intense and less real states of being. ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project,
115:Apotheosis ::: One of the most powerful and beloved of the Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, China, and Japan is the Lotus Bearer, Avalokiteshvara, "The Lord Looking Down in Pity," so called because he regards with compassion all sentient creatures suffering the evils of existence. To him goes the millionfold repeated prayer of the prayer wheels and temple gongs of Tibet: Om mani padme hum, "The jewel is in the lotus." To him go perhaps more prayers per minute than to any single divinity known to man; for when, during his final life on earth as a human being, he shattered for himself the bounds of the last threshold (which moment opened to him the timelessness of the void beyond the frustrating mirage-enigmas of the named and bounded cosmos), he paused: he made a vow that before entering the void he would bring all creatures without exception to enlightenment; and since then he has permeated the whole texture of existence with the divine grace of his assisting presence, so that the least prayer addressed to him, throughout the vast spiritual empire of the Buddha, is graciously heard. Under differing forms he traverses the ten thousand worlds, and appears in the hour of need and prayer. He reveals himself in human form with two arms, in superhuman forms with four arms, or with six, or twelve, or a thousand, and he holds in one of his left hands the lotus of the world.

Like the Buddha himself, this godlike being is a pattern of the divine state to which the human hero attains who has gone beyond the last terrors of ignorance. "When the envelopment of consciousness has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all fear, beyond the reach of change." This is the release potential within us all, and which anyone can attain-through herohood; for, as we read: "All things are Buddha-things"; or again (and this is the other way of making the same statement) : "All beings are without self."

The world is filled and illumined by, but does not hold, the Bodhisattva ("he whose being is enlightenment"); rather, it is he who holds the world, the lotus. Pain and pleasure do not enclose him, he encloses them-and with profound repose. And since he is what all of us may be, his presence, his image, the mere naming of him, helps. "He wears a garland of eight thousand rays, in which is seen fully reflected a state of perfect beauty.

The color of his body is purple gold. His palms have the mixed color of five hundred lotuses, while each finger tip has eighty-four thousand signet-marks, and each mark eighty-four thousand colors; each color has eighty-four thousand rays which are soft and mild and shine over all things that exist. With these jewel hands he draws and embraces all beings. The halo surrounding his head is studded with five hundred Buddhas, miraculously transformed, each attended by five hundred Bodhisattvas, who are attended, in turn, by numberless gods. And when he puts his feet down to the ground, the flowers of diamonds and jewels that are scattered cover everything in all directions. The color of his face is gold. While in his towering crown of gems stands a Buddha, two hundred and fifty miles high." - Amitayur-Dhyana Sutra, 19; ibid., pp. 182-183. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Apotheosis,
116:GURU YOGA
   Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master.
   What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
   In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
   The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
   Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
  
The Practice
   After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
   Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
   When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind.
   After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa.
   There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.
   ~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep, [T3],

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:All things must pass. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
2:A jug fills drop by drop. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
3:Make of yourself a light. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
4:Nothing remains without change. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
5:The greatest prayer is patience. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
6:You only lose what you cling to. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
7:He is able who thinks he is able. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
8:Look for Buddha outside your own mind, ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
9:All babies are Buddha babies. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove
10:Doubt everything. Find your own light. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
11:Meditate. Live purely. Quiet the mind. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
12:It is better to travel well than to arrive. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
13:Wear your ego like a loose-fitting garment. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
14:The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
15:Hindus believe Buddha to be an Avatara. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
16:To understand everything is to forgive everything. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
17:May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
18:The mind is everything. What you think you become.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
19:All descriptions of reality are temporary hypotheses. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
20:If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
21:Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
22:The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
23:Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
24:There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
25:The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
26:People with opinions just go around bothering one another. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
27:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
28:Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
29:It's much better to become a Buddha than a Buddhist. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove
30:The tongue like a sharp knife … Kills without drawing blood. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
31:To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
32:To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
33:Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
34:Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
35:Be a lamp unto yourself. Work out your liberation with diligence. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
36:If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
37:If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
38:There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
39:Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
40:Life is a river always flowing. Do not hold onto things. Work hard. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
41:Look for Buddha outside your own mind, and Buddha becomes the devil. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
42:You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
43:Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to others.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
44:If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
45:What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
46:Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
47:If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
48:Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
49:Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
50:If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
51:And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
52:Do not practice buddha-dharma with the thought that it is to benefit others. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
53:Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
54:Whoever sees me sees the teaching, and whoever sees the teaching sees me.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
55:It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
56:Without the mind there is no Buddha. Without the Buddha there's no mind. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
57:Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
58:You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
59:Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
60:Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
61:The mind has become freed from conditioning: the end of craving has been reached. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
62:If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
63:... to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind.    ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
64:The mind, the Buddha, living creatures - these are not three different things. ~ jianzhi-sengcan, @wisdomtrove
65:The path of awakening begins with a step the Buddha called right understanding. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove
66:All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
67:Even as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or blame. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
68:Since everything is already the Supreme Buddha Nature, where are you going to find it? ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove
69:The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
70:There isn't enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
71:No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
72:You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
73:When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
74:The Buddha is not a person but a (state of) realization to which anyone can attain. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
75:To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
76:Without health life is not life; it is only a state of languor and suffering an image of death. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
77:Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
78:Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
79:There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
80:The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
81:Conquer anger by love, evil by good; conquer the miser with liberality, and the liar with truth.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
82:There is no self, yet we all exist. All phenomena are "empty," yet they have Buddha nature. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
83:But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
84:We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
85:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
86:Christ, Buddha, and Krishna are but waves in the Ocean of Infinite Consciousness that I am! ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
87:If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
88:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
89:An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
90:To me, it has no purpose - as little as when the Buddha said, &
91:Zen was an attempt to get back to the purest teachings of the Buddha -enlightenment without strings. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
92:To keep the body in good health is a duty … otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
93:Buddha indicated that the self, that part of you that incarnates from lifetime to lifetime was causal. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
94:Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
95:Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
96:Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
97:The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
98:The words of the Buddha offer this truth: ∼ Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove
99:In the end, these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?    ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
100:I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
101:Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
102:However, many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
103:To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
104:Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
105:As Buddha points out, you should not rely on the opinions of others for validation of your internal progression. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
106:If you find yourself in some difficulty, step aside, and allow Buddha to take your place. The Buddha is in you. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
107:It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
108:We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
109:To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
110:The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
111:When you come upon a path that brings benefit and happiness to all, follow this course as the moon journeys through the stars. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
112:A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
113:Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
114:As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgements but rain your kindness equally on all. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
115:In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
116:To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back after you have crossed the river. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
117:The Buddha gave his first talks, and three or four ascetics became his first disciples. They recognized his enlightenment. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
118:To be a good Zen Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove
119:Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
120:In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
121:Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
122:In Buddha we had the great, universal heart and infinite patience, making religion practical and bringing it to everyone's door. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
123:Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
124:Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
125:We do not realize that as soon as our thoughts cease and all attempts at forming ideas are forgotten the Buddha reveals himself before us. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove
126:An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
127:Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind; delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
128:The perfect human being is uninteresting - the Buddha who leaves the world, you know. It is the imperfections of life that are lovable.  ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove
129:Handle even a single leaf of green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifest through the leaf. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
130:Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
131:An ancient buddha said, Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
132:The Buddha said that if we know how to look deeply into our suffering and recognize what feeds it, we are already on the path of emancipation. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
133:Built on the foundation of concentration is the third aspect of the Buddha’s path of awakening: clarity of vision and the development of wisdom. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove
134:Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
135:In religion all words are dirty words. Anybody who gets eloquent about Buddha, or God, or Christ, ought to have his mouth washed out with carbolic soap. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove
136:Following the Noble Path is like entering a dark room with a light in the hand; the darkness will all be cleared away, and the room will be filled with light.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
137:You can talk about people like Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Confucius, but the thing that convinced me that such people existed were the conversations with Bohr. ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove
138:Christ didn't have to. Buddha didn't have to. They came back to teach. They came back to die, to suffer, when it was no longer necessary for them to do so. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
139:Compassion allows us to accept everything. That's why there's always a tear in the eye of the Buddha that no one sees, for the pain and suffering of others. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
140:I have to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament. This is also necessary for all people. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove
141:What is the way of the Buddha? It is to study the self. What is the study of the self? It is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to enlightened by everything in the world. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
142:The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
143:Zen was a reaction. Just as Buddha came into the world and spoke against the fall of Vedanta, so Buddhism lost its essence and became ritual. Zen was a reaction to that. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
144:The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
145:But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
146:The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion.     ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove
147:When you dig a well, there's no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow, said Buddha.   ~ deepak-chopra, @wisdomtrove
148:We want today that bright sun of intellectuality joined with the heart of Buddha, the wonderful infinite heart of love and mercy. This union will give us the highest philosophy. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
149:Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
150:... virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
151:As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Gautama Buddha ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
152:The buddha called suffering a holy truth, because our suffering has the capacity of showing us the path to liberation. Embrace your suffering and let it reveal to you the way to peace. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
153:The Christ-symbol is of the greatest importance for psychology in so far as it is perhaps the most highly developed and differentiated symbol of the self, apart from the figure of the Buddha. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove
154:Look at the big picture of the wheel of life. Above it, there is a Buddha. He is pointing, not towards the wheel, but away from it. He is indicating that there is something else - nirvana. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
155:Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you. They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
156:On life’s journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
157:The Buddha always reminds us that our afflictions, including our fear and our desiring, are born from our ignorance. That is why in order to dissipate fear, we have to remove wrong perception. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
158:The Buddha's teachings on love are clear. It is possible to live twenty- four hours a day in a state of love. Every movement, every glance, every thought, and every word can be infused with love. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
159:As your awareness of the riches available to you in your everyday life grows, you are on the way to becoming the laughing Buddha. Life is joyous. Life is Light. Life is happy. You are awake at last. ~ susan-jeffers, @wisdomtrove
160:The moment that you are willing to step outside of tomorrow, outside of needing more time, or having more time, everything becomes possible. And you may finally notice where the Buddha has always been. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove
161:As your awareness of the riches available to you in your everyday life grows, you are on the way to becoming the laughing Buddha. Life is joyous.  Life is Light.  Life is happy.  You are awake at last. ~ susan-jeffers, @wisdomtrove
162:Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent... this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove
163:Awareness is an emptiness that contains the world. And this is why the Buddhists say that to know our true Buddha-nature is to experience the void of nirvana within which the appearances of samsara are arising. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove
164:If grief or anger arises, Let there be grief or anger. This is the Buddha in all forms,Sun Buddha, Moon Buddha, Happy Buddha, Sad Buddha. It is the universe offering all things to awaken and open our heart. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove
165:Buddha said: ‘Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love,’ and a misunderstanding is never ended by an argument but by tact, diplomacy, conciliation and a sympathetic desire to see the other person’s viewpoint. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove
166:Awareness is our essential being. The Hindus call it the atman, which means &
167:Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
168:All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
169:Rage is a powerful energy that with diligent practice can be transformed into fierce compassion. However much we disagree with our enemies, our task is to identify with them. They too feel justified in their point of view.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
170:The claim of the Zen followers that they are transmitting the essence of Buddhism is based on their belief that Zen takes hold of the enlivening spirit of the Buddha, stripped of all its historical and doctrinal garments. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove
171:There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
172:Perhaps you're not the next Buddha. Perhaps you're not the Maitreya. Perhaps that's not your job in this incarnation. Perhaps you have to enjoy life and learn about life through whatever way that you find yourself going. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
173:To feel that you are the Buddha of all times and places and that in some way the salvation of anyone, including yourself, depends upon you, I think there's a lot of ego involved in such a view, not much self-transcendence. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
174:Buddha called himself &
175:May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians give strength to you to carry out your noble idea. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
176:Whether you believe in God or not does not matter much, whether you believe in Buddha or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life.   ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove
177:If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
178:The root-word "buddha" means to wake up, to know, to understand; and he or she who wakes up and understands is call a Buddha. It is as simple as that. The capacity to wake up, to understand, and to love is called Buddha nature. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
179:Truth is the same always. Whoever ponders it will get the same answer. Buddha got it. Patanjali got it. Jesus got it. Mohammed got it. The answer is the same, but the method of working it out may vary this way or that. ~ swami-satchidananda-saraswati, @wisdomtrove
180:Words do not express thoughts very well; everything immediately becomes a little different, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom of one man seems nonsense to another. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
181:Every sin already carries grace within in, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people - eternal life. The Buddha exists in the robber and dice player; the robber exists in the Brahmin. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove
182:Whether it's a fully enlightened Christ or Buddha, or just a more aware Martin Luther King, Kennedy or Gandhi, what did they do with them here? They shoot them, crucify them, and get them out of the way because people are afraid of truth. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
183:Buddha and Christ were second-rate heroes. The greatest men that ever live pass away unknown. They put forth no claims for themselves, establish no schools or systems in their name. They never create any stir but just melt down in love. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
184:There have been many Buddhas before me and there will be many Buddhas in the future. All living beings have the Buddha nature and can become Buddhas.  Gautama Buddha ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
185:[C]ontinence is a very important part of yoga. If a handful of people come forward with strong wills, nothing is impossible. One Buddha changed half the globe; one Jesus, three quarters of the world. We all have that capacity. ~ swami-satchidananda-saraswati, @wisdomtrove
186:I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, "You shall be my disciple."I looked at him and said, "Who was Buddha's teacher?" He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter and handed me a piece of clover. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove
187:“A man asked Gautama Buddha, "I want happiness."  Buddha said, "First remove "I," that's Ego, then remove "want," that's Desire.  See now you are left with only "Happiness.” ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
188:No book can give you the brain of a Buddha, but by better understanding the mind and brain of people who’ve gone a long way down this path, you can develop more of their joyful, caring, and insightful qualities within your own mind and brain as well. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove
189:No one asks you to throw Mozart out of the window. Keep Mozart. Cherish him. Keep Moses too, and Buddha and Lao Tzu and Christ. Keep them in your heart. But make room for the others, the coming ones, the ones who are already scratching on the window-panes. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove
190:To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.   ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
191:You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
192:Buddha taught kindness towards lower beings; and since then there has not been a sect in India that has not taught charity to all beings, even to animals. This kindness, this mercy, this charity - greater than any doctrine - are what Buddhism left to us. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
193:Thus Gotama [Buddha] walked toward the town to gather alms, and the two samanas recognized him solely by the perfection of his repose, by the calmness of his figure, in which there was no trace of seeking, desiring, imitating, or striving, only light and peace ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove
194:The teachings on love given by the Buddha are clear, scientific, and applicable... Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity are the very nature of an enlightened person. They are the four aspects of true love within ourselves and within everyone and everything. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
195:Jehovah, Allah, the Trinity, Jesus, Buddha, are names for a great variety of human virtues, human mystical experiences, human remorses, human compensatory fantasies, human terrors, human cruelties. If all men were alike, all the world would worship the same God. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove
196:A disciple was one day recalling how Buddha , Jesus , Mohammed were branded as rebels and heretics by their contemporaries. Said the Master, Nobody can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth until a thousand sincere people have denounced him for blasphemy . ~ anthony-de-mello, @wisdomtrove
197:Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and pitying those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation - this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
198:All sentient beings - all holons in fact - contain Buddha-nature - contain depth, consciousness, intrinsic value, Spirit - and thus we are all members of the council of all beings... And the ultimate objective truth is that all beings are perfect manifestations of Spirit or Emptiness ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove
199:Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity own to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the of the inquiring constructive mind. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove
200:I hold that all the Teachers of the world have attained that Life which is the fulfilment of life. Hence, whenever anyone enters that Life, which is the culmination of all life, then he is ipso facto the Buddha, the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, because there is no distinction there. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove
201:These Sutras are reminiscent of the Four Noble Truths of Lord Buddha: the misery of the world, the cause of misery, the removal of that misery, and the method used to remove it. Patanjali tells us that pain can be avoided. He further tells us that its cause is ignorance. ~ swami-satchidananda-saraswati, @wisdomtrove
202:You only need to walk in mindfulness, making peaceful, happy steps on our planet. Breathe deeply, and enjoy your breathing. Be aware that the sky is blue and the birds' songs are beautiful. Enjoy being alive and you will help the living Christ and the living Buddha continue for a long, long time. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
203:A buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad. Such is his power that karma can't hold him. No matter what kind of karma, a buddha transforms it. Heaven and hell are nothing to him. But the awareness of a mortal is dim compared to that of a buddha, who penetrates everything, inside and out. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
204:In doing zazen it is desirable to have a quiet room. You should be temperate in eating and drinking, forsaking all delusive relationships. Setting everything aside, think of neither good nor evil, right nor wrong. Thus having stopped the various functions of your mind, five up even the idea of becoming a Buddha. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
205:When a buddha is painted, not only a clay altar or lump of earth is used, but the thirty-two marks, a blade of grass, and the cultivation of wisdom for incalculable eons are used. As a Buddha has been painted on a single scroll in this way, all buddhas are painted buddhas, and all painted buddhas are actual buddhas. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
206:Studying the Buddha way is studying oneself. Studying oneself is forgetting oneself. Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things. Being enlightened by all things is to shed the body-mind of oneself, and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment continues endlessly. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
207:The one and only thing required is to free oneself from the bondage of mind and body alike, putting the Buddha's own seal upon yourself. If you do this as you sit in ecstatic meditation, the whole universe itself scattered through the infinity of space turns into enlightenment. This is what I mean by the Buddha's seal. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
208:Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha... . Using the mind to reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
209:To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
210:All that you seek is already within you. In Hinduism it is called the Atman, in Buddhism the pure Buddha-Mind. Christ said, &
211:&
212:Often, we feel that we need a leader outside of ourselves -a Buddha, a Gandhi, or a Martin Luther King, Jr.- to show the way. But we have the Buddha inside of us. We have Gandhi and King inside of us as well. We are interconnected. We don't need to wait for some other person to be the change we want to see in the world. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
213:I have come to deal with principles. I have only to preach that God comes again and again, and that He came in India as Krishna, Rama, and Buddha, and that He will come again. It can almost be demonstrated that after each 500 years the world sinks, and a tremendous spiritual wave comes, and on the top of the wave is a Christ. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
214:Religion is not an imitation of Jesus or Mohammed. Even if an imitation is good, it is never genuine. Be not an imitation of Jesus, but be Jesus, You are quite as great as Jesus, Buddha, or anybody else. If we are not ... we must struggle and be. I would not be exactly like Jesus. It is unnecessary that I should be born a Jew. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
215:The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It's like space. You can't hold it. It's not the mind of materialists or nihilists. If you don't see your own miraculously aware nature, you'll never find a Buddha, even if you break your body into atoms. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
216:There is a simple way to become buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
217:There is a simple way to become buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else.” ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
218:The Buddha said, &
219:Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
220:The Buddha's insight into the middle way is not simply about a balance between extremes. This conventional understanding misses the deeper revelation of the middle way as being the very nature of unexcelled enlightenment. The middle way is an invitation to leap beyond nirvana and samsara and to realize the unborn Buddha mind right in the middle of everywhere. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove
221:By work alone, men may get to where Buddha got largely by meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a working Jnani, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by both of them. Good motives, sincerity, and infinite love can conquer the world. One single soul possessed of these virtues can destroy the dark designs of millions of hypocrites and brutes. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
222:Did Buddha teach that the many was real and the ego unreal, while orthodox Hinduism regards the One as the real, and the many as unreal?" the Swami was asked. "Yes", answered the Swami. "And what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and I have added to this is, that the Many and the One are the same Reality, perceived by the same mind at different times and in different attitudes. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
223:Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavour. It is not introspection. Do not desire to become a buddha; let sitting or lying down drop away. Be moderate in eating and drinking. Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
224:Do not be concerned with the faults of other persons. Do not see others' faults with a hateful mind. There is an old saying that if you stop seeing others' faults, then naturally seniors and venerated and juniors are revered. Do not imitate others' faults; just cultivate virtue. Buddha prohibited unwholesome actions, but did not tell us to hate those who practice unwholesome actions. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove
225:It is often said that the Buddha's teaching is only a raft to help you cross the river, a finger pointing to the moon. Don't aistake the finger for the moon. The raft is not the shore. If we cling to the raft, if we cling to the finger, we miss everything. We cannot, in the name of the finger or the raft kill each other. Human life is more precious than any ideology, any doctrine. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
226:To find Buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory, keeping precepts results in good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings-but no Buddha. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
227:No thought about the past or future can pull you away from your present peace and joy. The universe exists in this present moment. No desire can pull you away from this present peace, not even the desire to become a Buddha or the desire to save all beings. Know that to become a Buddha and to save all beings can only be realized on the foundation of the pure peace of the present moment. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
228:Richard and I both believe that something transcendental is involved with the mind, consciousness, and the path of awakening—call it God, Spirit, Buddha-nature, the Ground, or by no name at all. Whatever it is, by definition it’s beyond the physical universe. Since it cannot be proven one way or another, it is important—and consistent with the spirit of science—to respect it as a possibility. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove
229:Begin this moment, wherever you find yourself, and take no thought of the morrow. Look not to Russia, China, India, not to Washington, not to the adjoining county, city or state, but to your immediate surroundings. Forget Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and all the others. Do your part to the best of your ability, regardless of the consequences. Above all, do not wait for the next man to follow suit. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove
230:Every successful man must have behind him somewhere tremendous integrity, tremendous sincerity, and that is the cause of his signal success in life. He may not have been perfectly unselfish; yet he was tending towards it. If he had been perfectly unselfish, his would have been as great a success as that of the Buddha or of the Christ. The degree of unselfishness marks the degree of success everywhere. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
231:Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning it was not a Word, but a chirrup. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove
232:To make any problem better, you need to understand its causes. That’s why all the great physicians, psychologists, and spiritual teachers have been master diagnosticians. For example, in his Four Noble Truths, the Buddha identified an ailment (suffering), diagnosed its cause (craving: a compelling sense of need for something), specified its cure (freedom from craving), and prescribed a treatment (the Eightfold Path). ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove
233:It is always advisable to obtain a mantra from a self-realized master. Until then we may use one of the mantras of our beloved deity like &
234:Most ignorances are vincible, and in the greater number of cases stupidity is what the Buddha pronounced it to be, a sin. For, consciously, or subconsciously, it is with deliberation that we do not know or fail to understand-because incomprehension allows us, with a good conscience, to evade unpleasant obligations and responsibilities, because ignorance is the best excuse for going on doing what one likes, but ought not, to do. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove
235:When I said that I am the Buddha, the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, and more, it was not a question of superiority or inferiority. I added that phrase &
236:You have everything in you that Buddha has, that Christ has. You've got it all. But only when you start to acknowledge it is it going to get interesting. Your problem is you're afraid to acknowledge your own beauty. You're too busy holding on to your own unworthiness. You'd rather be a schnook sitting before some great man. That fits in more with who you think you are. Well, enough already. I sit before you and I look and I see your beauty, even if you don't. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove
237:After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove
238:Scientists, therefore, are responsible for their research, not only intellectually but also morally. This responsibility has become an important issue in many of today's sciences, but especially so in physics, in which the results of quantum mechanics and relativity theory have opened up two very different paths for physicists to pursue. They may lead us - to put it in extreme terms - to the Buddha or to the Bomb, and it is up to each of us to decide which path to take. ~ fritjof-capra, @wisdomtrove
239:. . . the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage . . . the sutras say, "Mind is the teaching." But people of no understanding don't believe in their own mind or that by understanding this teaching they can become a sage. They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove
240:Our allegiance is to the principles always, and not to the persons. Persons are but the embodiments, the illustrations of the principles. If the principles are there, the persons will come by the thousands and millions. If the principle is safe, persons like Buddha will be born by the hundreds and thousands. But if the principle is lost and forgotten and the whole of national life tries to cling round a so-called historical person, woe unto that religion, danger unto that religion! ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove
241:[Buddhism and Christianity] are in one sense parallel and equal; as a mound and a hollow, as a valley and a hill. There is a sense in which that sublime despair is the only alternative to that divine audacity. It is even true that the truly spiritual and intellectual man sees it as sort of dilemma; a very hard and terrible choice. There is little else on earth that can compare with these for completeness. And he who does not climb the mountain of Christ does indeed fall into the abyss of Buddha. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove
242:The great secret found at the heart of all the major spiritual traditions of the world is this. If you pay close attention to your identity, you will discover your subjective nature as awareness. This is your deep I. It is what the Hindu philosophers call the ‘atman’, the Buddhist masters call your ‘buddha-nature’, and the Christian mystics call your ‘spirit’. The word ‘spirit’ means essence. The word ‘essence’ comes from the Latin ‘esse’ meaning ‘to be’. Your deep I is your being. It is what you are. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove
243:Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
244:The Buddha spoke gently, "Once a person is caught by belief in a doctrine, one loses all one's freedom. When one becomes dogmatic, that person believes his or her doctrine is the only truth and that all other doctrines are heresy.  Disputes and conflicts all arise from narrow views.  They can extend endlessly, wasting precious time and sometimes even leading to war.  Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.  Bound to narrow views, one becomes so entangled that it is no longer possible to let the door of truth open. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
245:Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
246:A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.  Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove
247:Recently, one friend asked me, "How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn't natural." I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on then we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can not let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove
248:Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. When the Illustrious Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana, illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise, there is no other method for those who teach. But the world itself, being in and around us, is never one-sided. Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana; never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that time is something real. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove
249:The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:Believe nothing, ~ Gautama Buddha,
2:Christ and Buddha, ~ Joe Haldeman,
3:Embrace nothing: ~ Gautama Buddha,
4:Speak the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
5:Be your own lamp. ~ Gautama Buddha,
6:Greater in battle ~ Gautama Buddha,
7:A jug fills drop by drop. ~ Buddha,
8:You are all Buddhas. ~ Gautama Buddha,
9:All life is temporary ~ Gautama Buddha,
10:We are what we think. ~ Gautama Buddha,
11:You are all the Buddha. ~ Gautama Buddha,
12:A jug fill drop by drop. ~ Gautama Buddha,
13:Be a lamp unto yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
14:I have the body of a GOD ~ Gautama Buddha,
15:You only lose what you cling to. ~ Buddha,
16:A jug fills drop by drop. ~ Gautama Buddha,
17:Be a light unto yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
18:Live like a mighty river. ~ Gautama Buddha,
19:Make of yourself a light. ~ Gautama Buddha,
20:Suffering is an illusion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
21:What we think, we become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
22:When you come upon a path ~ Gautama Buddha,
23:Conquer a liar with truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
24:Know what you do not know. ~ Gautama Buddha,
25:The non-doing of any evil, ~ Gautama Buddha,
26:What you think you become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
27:Pain is the outcome of sin. ~ Gautama Buddha,
28:See the truth, and you will see me. ~ Buddha,
29:True loveis bornfrom understanding. ~ Buddha,
30:Consider Others as Yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
31:The fiercest fire is hatred. ~ Gautama Buddha,
32:I am always at the beginning. ~ Gautama Buddha,
33:Look for Buddha outside your own mind, ~ Dogen,
34:There is no fire like passion ~ Gautama Buddha,
35:What we think, we become.” —Buddha ~ Anonymous,
36:You are what you think about. ~ Gautama Buddha,
37:All babies are Buddha babies. ~ Joseph Campbell,
38:Attachment leads to suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
39:Conquer the angry man by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
40:Live joyfully, without desire. ~ Gautama Buddha,
41:Once a Buddha, always a Buddha. ~ Roger Zelazny,
42:Seek not revenge, but the Buddha. ~ Neil Gaiman,
43:Fill your mind with compassion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
44:Hate is only conquered by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
45:He who slings mud loses ground. ~ Gautama Buddha,
46:I am moonlighting for the Buddha. ~ John Burdett,
47:The darkest night is ignorance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
48:We see as we are,” said the Buddha, ~ Rolf Potts,
49:Be greatly aware of the present. ~ Gautama Buddha,
50:be greatly aware of the present. ~ Gautama Buddha,
51:Be the witness of your thoughts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
52:He is able who think he is able. ~ Gautama Buddha,
53:May I hold myself in compassion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
54:The greatest prayer is patience. ~ Gautama Buddha,
55:Winter always turns into Spring. ~ Gautama Buddha,
56:You only lose what you cling to. ~ Gautama Buddha,
57:After enlightenment, the laundry. ~ Gautama Buddha,
58:A lotus for you. A Buddha to be. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
59:Be calm. Be Zen. You are Buddha. ~ James Patterson,
60:He is able who thinks he is able. ~ Gautama Buddha,
61:Let a man overcome anger by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
62:Look within, thou art the Buddha. ~ Gautama Buddha,
63:Nothing is forever except change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
64:The good news is that we are Buddha. ~ Albert Low,
65:contentment is the greatest wealth ~ Gautama Buddha,
66:Don't just do something, be there. ~ Gautama Buddha,
67:He who is grateful doesn't suffer. ~ Gautama Buddha,
68:Live in joy, in love, in health, in peace. ~ Buddha,
69:Believe there is good in the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
70:Born out of concern for all beings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
71:How deeply did you learn to let go? ~ Gautama Buddha,
72:Our life is a creation of our mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
73:Patience is the highest asceticism. ~ Gautama Buddha,
74:Rule your mind or it will rule you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
75:See the truth, and you will see me. ~ Gautama Buddha,
76:The root of suffering is attachment ~ Gautama Buddha,
77:You create what you defend against. ~ Gautama Buddha,
78:A disciplined mind brings happiness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
79:After 48 years, I have said nothing. ~ Gautama Buddha,
80:Awakening is natural,delusion is not ~ Gautama Buddha,
81:Form is emptiness, emptiness is form ~ Gautama Buddha,
82:Hate never ends hate. Only love can. ~ Gautama Buddha,
83:Life is uncertain; death is certain. ~ Gautama Buddha,
84:The mind contains all possibilities. ~ Gautama Buddha,
85:To forgive others is to be good to yourself. ~ Buddha,
86:With our thoughts we make the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
87:You can only lose what you cling to. ~ Gautama Buddha,
88:Don't quote the Buddha. Be the Buddha. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
89:From a withered tree, a flower blooms ~ Gautama Buddha,
90:I would like Epicurus and Buddha to become one. ~ Osho,
91:Jesus and Buddha cannot both be right ~ Ravi Zacharias,
92:Learn to ne happy with what you have. ~ Gautama Buddha,
93:The vast silence of Buddha overtakes ~ Denise Levertov,
94:True love is born from understanding. ~ Gautama Buddha,
95:Doubt everything. Find your own light. ~ Gautama Buddha,
96:Doubt everything; find your own light. ~ Gautama Buddha,
97:Flower and thorn are in the same stem. ~ Gautama Buddha,
98:It is better to travel, than to arrive ~ Gautama Buddha,
99:Regard this fleeting world like this: ~ Gautama Buddha,
100:What is most needed is a loving heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
101:Your actions are your only belongings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
102:Your worst enemy is your best teacher. ~ Gautama Buddha,
103:Drink deeply. Live in serenity and joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
104:It is our minds that create this world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
105:It is your mind that creates the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
106:Pain is certain, suffering is optional. ~ Gautama Buddha,
107:The end of desire is the end of sorrow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
108:The trouble is you think you have time. ~ Gautama Buddha,
109:‎You only lose that which you cling to. ~ Gautama Buddha,
110:If a string has one end, it has another. ~ Gautama Buddha,
111:It is better to travel well then arrive. ~ Gautama Buddha,
112:Joyful is the accumulation of good work. ~ Gautama Buddha,
113:Rely on the teaching, not on the person; ~ Gautama Buddha,
114:Suffering, if it does not diminish love, ~ Gautama Buddha,
115:The trouble is, you think you have time. ~ Gautama Buddha,
116:Your enemy can be your greatest teacher. ~ Gautama Buddha,
117:Happiness never decreases by being shared ~ Gautama Buddha,
118:If Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed ~ Brian D McLaren,
119:Mindfulness of the body leads to nirvana. ~ Gautama Buddha,
120:Resolutely train yourself to attain peace ~ Gautama Buddha,
121:The Gift of Truth excels all other Gifts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
122:The gift of truth excels all other gifts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
123:The seeker is that which is being sought. ~ Gautama Buddha,
124:The word “buddha” means one who is awake. ~ Jack Kornfield,
125:To have everything is to possess nothing. ~ Gautama Buddha,
126:Your greatest weapon is your enemy's mind ~ Gautama Buddha,
127:A person creates what they defend against. ~ Gautama Buddha,
128:Attachment is the source of all suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
129:"Everybody has Buddha-nature." ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche,
130:Happiness never decreased by being shared. ~ Gautama Buddha,
131:Hindus believe Buddha to be an Avatara. ~ Swami Vivekananda,
132:Holy fucking Christ Buddha badger fuck, ~ M Todd Gallowglas,
133:Is it timely? Is it necessary? Is it kind? ~ Gautama Buddha,
134:Not even death can wipe out our good deeds ~ Gautama Buddha,
135:Nothing is to be clung to as I, me or mine ~ Gautama Buddha,
136:Resolutely train yourself to attain peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
137:To know and not to use is not yet to know! ~ Gautama Buddha,
138:War ends only when people love each other. ~ Gautama Buddha,
139:Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. ~ Gautama Buddha,
140:All fear violence, all are afraid of death. ~ Gautama Buddha,
141:Come and see...place no head above your own ~ Gautama Buddha,
142:Concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
143:Conquer yourself and you'llwin thousand of battles. ~ Buddha,
144:Hunger (for things) is the supreme disease. ~ Gautama Buddha,
145:If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. ~ Linji Yixuan,
146:Love and serve the world through your work. ~ Gautama Buddha,
147:May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ Buddha,
148:May you live like the lotus—at ease in muddy water. ~ Buddha,
149:My whole life, I never spoke a single-word. ~ Gautama Buddha,
150:Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
   ~ Buddha,
151:Wear your ego like a loose fitting garment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
152:Your actions are your only true belongings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
153:From the very beginning all beings are Buddha. ~ Hakuin Ekaku,
154:Give thanks for what had been given to you, ~ Gautama Buddha,
155:Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
156:Love lasts when the relationship comes first ~ Gautama Buddha,
157:Man should make himself a lot of good karma. ~ Gautama Buddha,
158:The Buddha and all sentient beings are not two. ~ Takuan Soho,
159:The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness. ~ Buddha,
160:Do not speak - unless it improves on silence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
161:Emotion arise from Desire, hence an Illusion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
162:If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure. ~ Bodhidharma,
163:In compassion lies the world's true strength. ~ Gautama Buddha,
164:I teach about suffering and the way to end it ~ Gautama Buddha,
165:It is in this way that I went forth to teach. ~ Gautama Buddha,
166:Let yourself be open and life will be easier. ~ Gautama Buddha,
167:Mind is everything. What we think, we become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
168:The greatest victory is the one over oneself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
169:Wisdom makes light the darkness of ignorance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
170:All composite things decay. Strive diligently. ~ Gautama Buddha,
171:"Buddha Nature is here, there, and everywhere." ~ B. D. Schiers,
172:Dispassion is the best of mental states. . . . ~ Gautama Buddha,
173:Even loss and betrayal can bring us awakening. ~ Gautama Buddha,
174:He who is kind to animals heaven will protect. ~ Gautama Buddha,
175:If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart. ~ Buddha,
176:If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure. ~ Bodhidharma,
177:Joyously participate in the sorrows of others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
178:Live every act fully, as if it were your last. ~ Gautama Buddha,
179:The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. ~ Bodhidharma,
180:The Ill-directed mind can do to you even worse ~ Gautama Buddha,
181:An outside enemy exists only if there is anger ~ Gautama Buddha,
182:In every trial Let understanding fight for you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
183:No matter what path you choose, really walk it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
184:the boy was a quiet Buddha to the world’s chaos. ~ Chris Dietzel,
185:The hunger of passions is the greatest disease. ~ Gautama Buddha,
186:To abstain from lying is essentially wholesome. ~ Gautama Buddha,
187:Understand the suffering of worldly existence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
188:What's done to the children is done to society. ~ Gautama Buddha,
189:And more importantly - what we have chosen to do ~ Gautama Buddha,
190:Do not learn how to react. Learn how to respond. ~ Gautama Buddha,
191:"Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except yourself." ~ Buddha,
192:Greater still is the truth of our connectedness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
193:"If your mind is pure, everyone is a Buddha." ~ Trulshik Rinpoche,
194:Pain in life is inevitable but suffering is not. ~ Gautama Buddha,
195:take Buddha. The central idea [is] sacrifice. ~ Swami Vivekananda,
196:The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind. ~ Bodhidharma,
197:The world is continuous flux and is impermanent. ~ Gautama Buddha,
198:To meditate is to listen with a receptive heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
199:All rising to great places is by a winding stair. ~ Gautama Buddha,
200:If you hold yourself dear, protect yourself well. ~ Gautama Buddha,
201:O seeker! Rely on nothing until you want nothing. ~ Gautama Buddha,
202:Peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without. ~ Gautama Buddha,
203:Remembering a wrong is like carryinga burden on the mind. ~ Buddha,
204:Suffering is temporary, enlightenment is forever. ~ Gautama Buddha,
205:The Buddha laughed in silence from the mantelpiece. ~ Lauren Groff,
206:The cause of all pain and suffering is ignorance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
207:The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. ~ Gautama Buddha,
208:The mind is everyting, what you think you become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
209:The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
210:When you have great joy, you will become Buddhas! ~ Gautama Buddha,
211:Buddha, much like everyone else has good and bad days. ~ Todd Barry,
212:Explanation of the unspeakable cannot be finished. ~ Gautama Buddha,
213:Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds. ~ Gautama Buddha,
214:Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
215:May all that have life be delivered from suffering ~ Gautama Buddha,
216:One Buddha is not enough; we need to have many Buddhas. ~ Nhat Hanh,
217:Remember that the only constant in life is change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
218:The mind is everything. What you think you become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
219:The mind is everything. What you think, you become ~ Gautama Buddha,
220:The teaching is simple. Do what is right. Be Pure. ~ Gautama Buddha,
221:Through countless births in the cycle of existence ~ Gautama Buddha,
222:To understand everything is to forgive everything. ~ Gautama Buddha,
223:A great gift - a gift of Dharma conquers all gifts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
224:Attachment,” Buddha had said, “is the cause of grief. ~ Pearl S Buck,
225:Everything changes, nothing remains without change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
226:He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
227:However young, the seeker who sets out upon the way ~ Gautama Buddha,
228:If a man seeks the Buddha, that man loses the Buddha. ~ Alan W Watts,
229:It is possible to live 24 hours in a state of love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
230:Joy and openness come from our own contented heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
231:Let all-embracing thoughts for all beings be yours. ~ Gautama Buddha,
232:May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
233:May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water. ~ Gautama Buddha,
234:Pointing directly at your own heart, you find Buddha. ~ Pema Ch dr n,
235:The no-mind not-thinks no-thoughts about no-things. ~ Gautama Buddha,
236:The Way is not in the sky; the Way is in the heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
237:Those who consider the inessential to be essential ~ Gautama Buddha,
238:Wherever you live is your temple, if you treat it like one. ~ Buddha,
239:All that we are is a result of what we have thought. ~ Gautama Buddha,
240:Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life. ~ Gautama Buddha,
241:If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him. ~ Gautama Buddha,
242:If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball. ~ Phil Jackson,
243:It's much better to become a Buddha than a Buddhist. ~ Jack Kornfield,
244:Let your mind become clear like a still forest pool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
245:Religion is a cow. It gives milk, but it also kicks. ~ Gautama Buddha,
246:The less you have, the less you have to worry about. ~ Gautama Buddha,
247:The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
248:To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature. ~ Bodhidharma,
249:All descriptions of reality are temporary hypotheses. ~ Gautama Buddha,
250:I, um… I’m not perfect. I have a little Buddha belly. ~ Kristen Ashley,
251:"Pointing directly at your own heart, you find Buddha." ~ Pema Chödron,
252:Suffering is wishing things were other than they are. ~ Gautama Buddha,
253:There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path. ~ Gautama Buddha,
254:Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,
255:When action comes out of nothing it creates no karma. ~ Gautama Buddha,
256:Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
257:You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
258:All created things are impermanent. Strive diligently. ~ Gautama Buddha,
259:Better is to speak unpleasant truth than to tell lies. ~ Gautama Buddha,
260:Better than a long speech is a single quietening word. ~ Gautama Buddha,
261:Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts ~ Gautama Buddha,
262:Buddha’s words are everywhere, in every sound of the universe. ~ Ha Jin,
263:He’s a bad-ass, that Buddha is. Tear your nuts right off. ~ Steve Perry,
264:If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
265:If there be one righteous person, the rain falls for his sake. ~ Buddha,
266:If you do not follow the right path, you will be lost. ~ Gautama Buddha,
267:Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. ~ Gautama Buddha,
268:Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child. ~ Gautama Buddha,
269:One should refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs. ~ Gautama Buddha,
270:Our good and bad deeds follow us almost like a shadow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
271:A truly wise man does not play leapfrog with a unicorn. ~ Gautama Buddha,
272:At the end of the way is freedom. Until then, patience. ~ Gautama Buddha,
273:Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
274:Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self. ~ Gautama Buddha,
275:Don't pray for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs. ~ Gautama Buddha,
276:Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves. ~ D gen,
277:Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves. ~ Dogen,
278:If desires are not uprooted, sorrows grow again in you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
279:May all sentient beings be happy and free of suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
280:Peace comes from within; do not try to seek it without. ~ Gautama Buddha,
281:The Buddha always emphased the important of good friends. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
282:There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. ~ Gautama Buddha,
283:You must use the hook of precepts to quickly remove it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
284:All sentient beings have the seed of the Buddha within them. ~ Dalai Lama,
285:If getting out was good for Buddha, it’s good for you too. ~ Guy Kawasaki,
286:Love yourself and watch --- today, tomorrow, and always. ~ Gautama Buddha,
287:Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. ~ Gautama Buddha,
288:Right perspective is no perspective or all perspectives. ~ Gautama Buddha,
289:The current philosophy was that Buddha was a communist. ~ Colin Cotterill,
290:This is the answer: live moment to moment and you become a buddha. ~ Osho,
291:Through one all are known, through one all are also seen ~ Gautama Buddha,
292:Beings are owners of their action, heirs of their action. ~ Gautama Buddha,
293:Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. ~ Gautama Buddha,
294:Buddha said: “Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love, ~ Dale Carnegie,
295:equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha ~ Jack Kerouac,
296:Heaven and Hell are imaginary creation of ignorant minds. ~ Gautama Buddha,
297:He who causes suffering shall suffer. There is no escape. ~ Gautama Buddha,
298:I know what I gave them; I don't know what they received. ~ Gautama Buddha,
299:Know well what holds you back, and what moves you forward ~ Gautama Buddha,
300:People with opinions just go around bothering each other. ~ Gautama Buddha,
301:The mind that perceives the limitation is the limitation. ~ Gautama Buddha,
302:Want what you have and you will always get what you want. ~ Gautama Buddha,
303:Your suffering is my suffering andyour happiness is my happiness. ~ Buddha,
304:You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
305:A good horse runs with seeing just the shadow of the whip. ~ Gautama Buddha,
306:Ambition is like love, impatient of both delays and rivals ~ Gautama Buddha,
307:A person is ruined by taking the measure of other persons. ~ Gautama Buddha,
308:If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another. ~ Gautama Buddha,
309:Nonfear is the cream of the Buddha’s teaching. Practicing ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
310:People with opinions just go around bothering one another. ~ Gautama Buddha,
311:picking
the nameless flower
I offer it to buddha ~ Santoka Taneda,
312:Remembering a wrong is like carrying a burden on the mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
313:Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
314:Teach you? I cannot teach you. Go; experience for yourself ~ Gautama Buddha,
315:The Buddha said anger has a “poisoned root and honeyed tip. ~ Robert Wright,
316:A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad. ~ Bodhidharma,
317:All the time I pray to Buddha I keep on killing mosquitoes. ~ Kobayashi Issa,
318:A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha. ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
319:Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals. ~ Gautama Buddha,
320:Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace. ~ Buddha,
321:Crying with the wise is better than laughing with the fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
322:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. ~ Gautama Buddha,
323:I do not fight with the world but the world fights with me. ~ Gautama Buddha,
324:Life is so very difficult. How can we be anything but kind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
325:"Pure awareness of nowness is the real Buddha." ~ Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje,
326:The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of Great Kindness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
327:The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways. ~ Gautama Buddha,
328:The ignorant man is an ox. He grows in size, not in wisdom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
329:There is no fire like passion: there is no evil and hatred. ~ Gautama Buddha,
330:Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
331:What you have become is the result of what you have thought ~ Gautama Buddha,
332:When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. ~ Buddha,
333:When the sleeping snake is gone, then you can rest at ease. ~ Gautama Buddha,
334:Wherever you live is your temple, if you treat it like one. ~ Gautama Buddha,
335:You too shall pass away. Knowing this, how can you quarrel? ~ Gautama Buddha,
336:All living beings have Buddha nature and can become Buddhas. ~ Gautama Buddha,
337:All that we are is the result of what we have thought,’ Buddha. ~ H P Mallory,
338:Doubt is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills. ~ Buddha,
339:Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. ~ Buddha#buddha,
340:Noble friends and companions are the whole of the holy life. ~ Gautama Buddha,
341:Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded. ~ Gautama Buddha,
342:Our buddha nature is as good as any buddha’s buddha nature. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,
343:Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think. ~ Gautama Buddha,
344:People walking? Karma walking ... Buddha nature walking..! ~ Frederick Franck,
345:Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help ~ Miyamoto Musashi,
346:The heavens and the earth may be captured by the mind's eye. ~ Gautama Buddha,
347:To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
348:When we free ourselves of desire, we will know serenity and freedom. ~ Buddha,
349:You throw thorns, falling in my silence they become flowers. ~ Gautama Buddha,
350:"A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." ~ Bodhidharma,
351:As Buddha said, “All that we are is determined by our thoughts. ~ Peter Kreeft,
352:Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus with thy hand! ~ Gautama Buddha,
353:Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. ~ Gautama Buddha,
354:Every human being is the author of its own health or disease, ~ Gautama Buddha,
355:How can one ever know anything if they are too busy thinking? ~ Gautama Buddha,
356:I will teach you the Truth and the Path leading to the Truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
357:Mirror mirror on the wall, show the real me or naught at all. ~ Gautama Buddha,
358:No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again. -Buddha ~ Donya Lynne,
359:The more fully we give our energy, the more it returns to us. ~ Gautama Buddha,
360:The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood. ~ Gautama Buddha,
361:Those which arise dependently are free of inherent existence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
362:those which arise dependently are free of inherent existence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
363:To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others. ~ Gautam Buddha ~,
364:When words are both true and kind, they can change the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
365:Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.” -Buddha ~ Angela Roquet,
366:Always be mindful of the kindness and not the faults of others ~ Gautama Buddha,
367:As soon as we think we are safe, something unexpected happens. ~ Gautama Buddha,
368:Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
   ~ Buddha,
369:Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves. ~ Dogen Zenji,
370:Free your heart. Travel like the moon among the stars. —BUDDHA ~ Jack Kornfield,
371:If there be one righteous person, the rain falls for his sake. ~ Gautama Buddha,
372:I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
   ~ Buddha,
373:Karma grows from our hearts. Karma terminates from our hearts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
374:The tongue like a sharp knife ... Kills without drawing blood. ~ Gautama Buddha,
375:The worlds originate so that truth may come and dwell therein. ~ Gautama Buddha,
376:Things are not what they appear to be: nor are they otherwise. ~ Gautama Buddha,
377:To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family. ~ Gautama Buddha,
378:Told you that Buddha belly of yours was hot,” she reminded me. ~ Kristen Ashley,
379:Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. ~ Gautama Buddha,
380:Water surrounds the lotus flower, but does not wet its petals. ~ Gautama Buddha,
381:Wherever a person goes, his deeds, like a shadow, will follow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
382:You must take action yourself, for Buddhas only teach the way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
383:All phenomena link together in a mutually conditioning network. ~ Gautama Buddha,
384:Harm no other beings. They are just your brothers and sisters. ~ Gautama Buddha,
385:If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil. ~ Dogen,
386:In Buddhism, there are three gems: Buddha, the awakened one; Dharma, ~ Nhat Hanh,
387:" No other pleasure is bigger than peace." ~ Buddha ❤#Buddha #buddhaquote #Peace,
388:One moment, ten thousand years. Ten thousand years, one moment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
389:Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha. ~ Tara Brach,
390:Those who act with few desires are calm, without worry or fear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
391:To do a little good is more than to accomplish great conquests. ~ Gautama Buddha,
392:Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation. ~ Gautama Buddha,
393:You don't gather the beauty of a flower by plucking her petals. ~ Gautama Buddha,
394:All beings wish for happiness, so extend your compassion to all. ~ Gautama Buddha,
395:Forgive and be free. Forget that you have forgiven and be freer. ~ Gautama Buddha,
396:It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. ~ Gautama Buddha,
397:Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do. ~ Gautama Buddha,
398:There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
399:Vsetko co sme, je dosledkom je dosledkom toho, co sme si mysleli ~ Gautama Buddha,
400:All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
killing mosquitoes. ~ Kobayashi Issa,
401:Be a lamp unto yourself. Work out your liberation with diligence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
402:Change is never painful, only the resistance to change is painful ~ Gautama Buddha,
403:Don't keep searching for the truth, just let go of your opinions. ~ Gautama Buddha,
404:I call it nirvana, the complete destruction of old age and dying. ~ Gautama Buddha,
405:If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha. ~ Bodhidharma,
406:Kindness should become the natural way of life,not the exception. ~ Gautama Buddha,
407:Let a man avoid evil deeds as a man who loves life avoids poison. ~ Gautama Buddha,
408:Mind is buddha. This is not our brain; it's not our head. ~ Geoffrey Shugen Arnold,
409:Only those who go where few have gone can see what few have seen. ~ Gautama Buddha,
410:Purity or impurity depends on oneself, no one can purify another. ~ Gautama Buddha,
411:Regard everyone you meet as the Buddha and you will know 10,000 Buddhas. ~ Gampopa,
412:Thought-habits can harden into character. So watch your thoughts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
413:You can not travel the path until you have become the path itself ~ Gautama Buddha,
414:All compounded things are subject to decay. Strive with diligence! ~ Gautama Buddha,
415:Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
416:Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. ~ Gautama Buddha,
417:Each day of my life I am sowing seeds that one day I will harvest. ~ Gautama Buddha,
418:Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
   ~ Buddha,
419:Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
420:If you don't see God in the next person you meet, look no further. ~ Gautama Buddha,
421:If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. ~ Gautama Buddha,
422:Silence is an empty space, space is the home of the awakened mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
423:Stop, stop. Do not speak. The ultimate truth is not even to think. ~ Gautama Buddha,
424:We do not learn by experience, but by our capacity for experience. ~ Gautama Buddha,
425:When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble. ~ Gautama Buddha,
426:When there is a crack in the Cosmic Egg, Buddha is about to be born. ~ Alan W Watts,
427:Will not be punished for your anger, your anger is the punishment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
428:You must make the effort yourself. The Masters only point the way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
429:Your suffering is my suffering and your happiness is my happiness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
430:And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares. ~ Bodhidharma,
431:Do not practice buddha-dharma with the thought that it is to benefit others. ~ Dogen,
432:If you want to find Buddha nature, love someone and care for them. ~ Dainin Katagiri,
433:I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done. ~ Gautama Buddha,
434:It is our own thoughts that lead us into trouble, not other people. ~ Gautama Buddha,
435:Life is a river always flowing. do not hold onto things. work hard. ~ Gautama Buddha,
436:life is a river always flowing. do not hold onto things. work hard. ~ Gautama Buddha,
437:No light is brighter than wisdom. Wisdom is the light in the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
438:The 1,000 Buddha, to me, is almost like a contemporary art piece. ~ Hiroshi Sugimoto,
439:The greatest impurity is ignorance. Free yourself from it. Be pure. ~ Gautama Buddha,
440:The mystery of Buddha’s cure is this: What you seek you already are. ~ Deepak Chopra,
441:The virtuous man delights in this world and he delights in the next ~ Gautama Buddha,
442:Thousands upon thousands of lights is inferior to a light of heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
443:"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." ~ The Buddha,
444:Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. ~ Bodhidharma,
445:When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. ~ Gautama Buddha,
446:And so, with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
447:As you travel though life, offer good wishes to each being you meet. ~ Gautama Buddha,
448:Buddha said that you have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy. ~ Rhonda Byrne,
449:Buddha’s simple definition of enlightenment as “the end of suffering. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
450:Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
451:friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
452:He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes. ~ Gautama Buddha,
453:If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading ~ Gautama Buddha,
454:It is easy to see the faults of others... it is hard to see our own. ~ Gautama Buddha,
455:Purity or impurity depends on oneself,
No one can purify another. ~ Gautama Buddha,
456:The wise man makes an island of himself that no flood can overwhelm. ~ Gautama Buddha,
457:Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
458:When we free ourselves of desire, we will know serenity and freedom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
459:When you go into the space of nothingness, everything becomes known. ~ Gautama Buddha,
460:A mantra is like meeting the Buddha or Bodhisattva himself. ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche,
461:Anger is the punishment we give ourselves for someone else's mistake. ~ Gautama Buddha,
462:Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
463:He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
464:If a man's mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure. ~ Gautama Buddha,
465:If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance. ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
466:Like the mother of the world, touch each being as your beloved child. ~ Gautama Buddha,
467:Read as few words as you like, and speak fewer, but act upon the law. ~ Gautama Buddha,
468:The secret of happiness lies in the mind's release from worldly ties. ~ Gautama Buddha,
469:The universe itself is change and life itself is but what you deem it ~ Gautama Buddha,
470:Without the mind there is no Buddha. Without the Buddha there's no mind. ~ Bodhidharma,
471:A buddha is an idle person. He doesn't run around after fortune and fame. ~ Bodhidharma,
472:By your own efforts waken yourself, watch yourself. And live joyfully. ~ Gautama Buddha,
473:Destroy the man of wicked thoughts, Like a bamboo-tree with its fruit. ~ Gautama Buddha,
474:Happiness comes when your words are of benefit to yourself and others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
475:I am not the I that you see. Most of these quotes do not belong to me. ~ Gautama Buddha,
476:If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil. ~ Dogen Zenji,
477:"Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
478:Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove. ~ Gautama Buddha,
479:Never in the world does hatred cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
480:Never underestimate your potential. Buddha nature is always there. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,
481:Rather than continuing to seek the truth, simply let go of your views. ~ Gautama Buddha,
482:The Buddhas do but tell the way; it is for you to swelter at the task. ~ Gautama Buddha,
483:The deluding passions are inexhaustible. I vow to extinguish them all. ~ Gautama Buddha,
484:The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. ~ Gautama Buddha,
485:What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now. ~ Gautama Buddha,
486:Ye must leave righteous ways behind, not to speak of unrighteous ways. ~ Gautama Buddha,
487:You, as much as anyone in the universe, deserve your love and respect. ~ Gautama Buddha,
488:A man becomes a Buddha the moment he accepts all that life brings with gratitude. ~ Osho,
489:Do not say anything harsh: what you have said will be said back to you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
490:Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. ~ Gautama Buddha,
491:Give thanksFor what had been given to you,However little.Be pure, never falter. ~ Buddha,
492:I am a finger pointing to the moon. Don't look at me; look at the moon. ~ Gautama Buddha,
493:It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.
   ~ Buddha,
494:Success isn't the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success. ~ Gautama Buddha,
495:The mind, the Buddha, living creatures - these are not three different things. ~ Sengcan,
496:The wise have mastered body, word, and mind. They are the true masters. ~ Gautama Buddha,
497:This is deathless: the liberation of the mind through lack of clinging. ~ Gautama Buddha,
498:Though this body be just six feet tall, in it is contained the entire universe. ~ Buddha,
499:To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana. ~ Gautama Buddha,
500:You are the source of all purity and impurity. No one purifies another. ~ Gautama Buddha,
501:"A Buddha is an idle person. He doesn't run around after fortune and fame." ~ Bodhidharma,
502:As the Buddha says, “Suffering comes from both ignorance and denial.” One ~ Judith Orloff,
503:By your own folly you will be brought as low as your worst enemy wishes. ~ Gautama Buddha,
504:Love is a gift of one's inner most soul to another so both can be whole. ~ Gautama Buddha,
505:May everyone be happy and safe, and may their hearts be filled with joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
506:There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now. ~ Gautama Buddha,
507:To stop suffering, stop greediness. Greediness is a source of suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
508:Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
509:A fool learns nothing from a wise man; but a wise man learns from a fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
510:Buddha was not a Christian, but Jesus would have made a good Buddhist. ~ Ray Wylie Hubbard,
511:Free from passion and desire, you have stripped the thorns from the stem. ~ Gautama Buddha,
512:Happiness or sorrow- whatever befalls you, walk on untouched, unattached. ~ Gautama Buddha,
513:If we could see D miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change. ~ Buddha,
514:It is because of their tranquil thoughts That creatures go to prosperity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
515:My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience... ~ Gautama Buddha,
516:Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form. ~ Bodhidharma,
517:There is more joy in one desire conquered than in a thousand desires satisfied
   ~ Buddha,
518:Wherever we go, wherever we remain, the results of our actions follow us. ~ Gautama Buddha,
519:Whoever sees me sees the teaching, and whoever sees the teaching sees me. ~ Gautama Buddha,
520:Beware of the anger of the mouth. Master your words. Let them serve truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
521:How wonderful! How wonderful! All things are perfect, exactly as they are. ~ Gautama Buddha,
522:If you are happy at the expense of another man's happiness, you are forever bound. ~ Buddha,
523:It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. ~ Gautama Buddha,
524:It is impossible to underestimate the significance of your today's choices ~ Gautama Buddha,
525:Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again. ~ Gautama Buddha,
526:Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
527:Overcoming yourself is better than overcoming a million enemies in battle. ~ Gautama Buddha,
528:Sustaining a loving heart, even for a moment, makes one a spiritual being. ~ Gautama Buddha,
529:Whoever doesn't flare up at someone who's angry wins a battle hard to win. ~ Gautama Buddha,
530:A man becomes a Buddha the moment he accepts all that life brings with gratitude. ~ Rajneesh,
531:At the bottom of things, most people want to be understood and appreciated. ~ Gautama Buddha,
532:Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond. ~ Natalie Goldberg,
533:Suffering does not befall him who is without attachment to names and forms. ~ Gautama Buddha,
534:The only way to bring peace to the earth is to learn to make our own life peaceful. ~ Buddha,
535:Through zeal, knowledge is gotten; through lack of zeal, knowledge is lost. ~ Gautama Buddha,
536:Treat others with respect. How you treat others will be how they treat you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
537:When wishes are few, the heart is happy. When craving ends, there is peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
538:Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care. ~ Gautama Buddha,
539:Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. ~ Gautama Buddha,
540:If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change. ~ Buddha,
541:If we fail to look after others when they need help, who will look after us? ~ Gautama Buddha,
542:I teach one thing and one only: that is, suffering and the end of suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
543:It is impossible for a man who is bogged to extricate another who is bogged. ~ Gautama Buddha,
544:Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. ~ Buddha,
545:Life is dear to all beings, they have the right to live the same that we do. ~ Gautama Buddha,
546:One who is unrestrained in life-delusion overcomes; as the wind a weak tree. ~ Gautama Buddha,
547:Penktadienio citata: ,,Esame tai, ką mąstome. Savo mintimis kuriame pasaulį. ~ Gautama Buddha,
548:She who knows life flows, feels no wear or tear, needs no mending or repair. ~ Gautama Buddha,
549:The growth of wisdom may be measured exactly by the diminution of ill temper ~ Gautama Buddha,
550:Tiga hal yang tidak bisa lama tersembunyi : Matahari , bulan , dan kebenaran ~ Gautama Buddha,
551:To master the pride of defiant selfhood, that in truth is the highest bliss. ~ Gautama Buddha,
552:Transient are conditioned things. Try to accomplish your aim with diligence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
553:"We do not learn by experience,but by our capacity for experience." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
554:You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. ~ Gautama Buddha,
555:A man who will be the public leader, must know how to be the public follower. ~ Gautama Buddha,
556:How easy it is to see your brother's faults, How hard it is to face your own. ~ Gautama Buddha,
557:It is in a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that leads him to evil ways. ~ Gautama Buddha,
558:Learn this from water: loud splashes the brook but the oceans depth are calm. ~ Gautama Buddha,
559:This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world: ~ Gautama Buddha,
560:True charity occurs only when there are no notions of giving, giver, or gift. ~ Gautama Buddha,
561:All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
562:All things that are born must die. Work hard for your own freedom from sorrow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
563:A noble person is mindful and thankful for the favors he receives from others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
564:Hadn't another wise man, the Buddha himself, warned about the evils of attachment? ~ Manil Suri,
565:He who, calm and clear as the moon, hankers no more for continuity-he is holy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
566:I don't want enlightenment, I want him. Sorry Buddha, I loved him more than you. ~ John Burdett,
567:If you have devotion, the Buddha is always right in front of you. ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche,
568:Inner freedom is not guided by our efforts; it comes from seeing what is true. ~ Gautama Buddha,
569:Seeing the similarity to oneself, one should not use violence or have it used. ~ Gautama Buddha,
570:There have been many Buddhas before me and will be many Buddhas in the future. ~ Gautama Buddha,
571:The wind cannot shake a mountain. Neither praise nor blame moves the wise man. ~ Gautama Buddha,
572:Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. ~ Buddha#buddha #peace #buddhaquote,
573:Understand that the body is merely the foam of a wave, the shadow of a shadow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
574:After Buddha was dead, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
575:All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is. ~ Gautama Buddha,
576:All that we are is the result of what we have thought; what we think we become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
577:As the Buddha said, “People with opinions just go around bothering one another. ~ Jack Kornfield,
578:Be lamps unto yourselves; be your own confidence. Hold truth within yourselves. ~ Gautama Buddha,
579:Buddha is in our hearts. Buddha is in our mouths. Buddha is in our daily lives. ~ Gautama Buddha,
580:Buddha urged people to investigate things - he didn't just command them to believe. ~ Dalai Lama,
581:Fools wait for a lucky day, but everyday is a lucky day for an industrious man. ~ Gautama Buddha,
582:If dresses would have qualified people, then whores would have ruled the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
583:"If you light a lamp for someone elseit will also brighten your path." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
584:It is during our darkest moments.That we must focus to see the light. ~ Buddha.#Buddha #Buddhism,
585:The path of awakening begins with a step the Buddha called right understanding. ~ Jack Kornfield,
586:To awaken, sit calmly, letting each breath clear your mind and open your heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
587:Turn away from mischief. Again and again, turn away. Before sorrow befalls you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
588:When mindfulness is present, the Buddha and the Holy Spirit are already there, ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
589:Anyone who is not working toward the truth is missing the whole point of living. ~ Gautama Buddha,
590:By your own efforts.Waken yourself, watch yourself.And live joyfully.You are the master. ~ Buddha,
591:For all mortals, birth is suffering, ageing is suffering, sickness is suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
592:Four noble truths ~ Buddha #JoyTrain #Joy #Love #Peace #Spiritual #SuperSoulSunday RT @jaisandhir,
593:Holding on to anger is like poisoning yourself and hoping someone else will die. ~ Gautama Buddha,
594:If you are facing in the right direction, all you need to do is keep on walking. ~ Gautama Buddha,
595:Look not for refuge to anyone beside yourself. Heed fast to the truth as a lamp. ~ Gautama Buddha,
596:Q. Was the Buddha God? A. No. Buddha Dharma teaches no "divine" incarnation. ~ Henry Steel Olcott,
597:By your own folly you will be brought as low as your worst enemy wishes. ~ Buddha #Buddha #gautama,
598:Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. ~ Gautama Buddha,
599:"Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
600:Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. ~ Gautama Buddha,
601:"Hatred does not cease through hatredbut through love alone they cease." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
602:No one outside ourselves can rule us inwardly. When we know this, we become free. ~ Gautama Buddha,
603:Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. ~ Gautama Buddha,
604:Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living. ~ Gautama Buddha,
605:Three things cannot hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.” ― Gautama Buddha ~ Penny Reid,
606:Joy comes not through possession or ownership but through a wise and loving heart. ~ Gautama Buddha,
607:Kevin Eastman is like a Buddha, like the coolest thing in the world, like a rock star. ~ Greg Cipes,
608:No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. ~ Buddha,
609:Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everythiong else. ~ Gautama Buddha,
610:Only he who crosses the stream of life wishes to know what is known as unknowable. ~ Gautama Buddha,
611:Since everything is already the Supreme Buddha Nature, where are you going to find it? ~ Adyashanti,
612:The Buddha said that all conscious beings possess an enlightened nature. ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche,
613:The worship of the Buddha by non-Buddhists remained largely formal and deferential. ~ Romila Thapar,
614:We will develop love, we will practice it, we will make it both a way and a basis. ~ Gautama Buddha,
615:Whether you can see the Buddha or not depends on you, on the state of your being. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
616:Wish I am free from barriers when I die, and Buddha will welcome me from far away. ~ Gautama Buddha,
617:You yourself must earnestly practice, the enlightened ones only proclaim the path. ~ Gautama Buddha,
618:An ignorant man ages like an ox. His flesh may increase, but not his understanding. ~ Gautama Buddha,
619:Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe ~ Gautama Buddha,
620:Delight in meditation and solitude. Compose yourself, be happy. You are a seeker. ~ Gautama Buddha,
621:Desire, said the Buddha, is the cause of suffering. But without desire, what delight? ~ Edward Abbey,
622:Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully through this world and on beyond. ~ Gautama Buddha,
623:How does one practice mindfulness? Sit in meditation. Be aware of only your breath. ~ Gautama Buddha,
624:If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
625:"Let go of anger. Let go of pride. When you are bound by nothing you go beyond sorrow." ~ The Buddha,
626:Stay centered, do not overstretch. Extend from your center, return to your center. ~ Gautama Buddha,
627:The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech. ~ Dogen,
628:The only way to bring peace to the earth is to learn to make our own life peaceful. ~ Gautama Buddha,
629:There are three things that cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
630:When your mind is set in meditative equipoise, you can see reality exactly as it is ~ Gautama Buddha,
631:As long as one feels that he is the doer, he cannot escape from the wheel of births. ~ Gautama Buddha,
632:Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe. ~ Gautama Buddha,
633:If the mind be fixed on the acquirement of any object, that object will be attained. ~ Gautama Buddha,
634:Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. ~ Gautama Buddha,
635:Many do not realize that we here must die. For those who realize this, quarrels end. ~ Gautama Buddha,
636:The Buddha said that samsara by its nature is painful. He didn't say it was a joyride. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
637:the object of Buddha's meditation and his teachings was to free humanity from sufferings. ~ Anonymous,
638:To avoid causing terror to living beings, let the disciple refrain from eating meat. ~ Gautama Buddha,
639:Tune as the sitthar, neither high nor low, and we will dance away the hearts of men. ~ Gautama Buddha,
640:All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain ~ Gautama Buddha,
641:Do not judge yourself harshly. Without mercy for ourselves we cannot love the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
642:If you propose to speak always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
643:I will not look at another's bowl intent on finding fault: a training to be observed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
644:Let go of anger. Let go of pride. When you are bound by nothing You go beyond sorrow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
645:Mutual respect and mutual listening are the foundations of harmony within the family. ~ Gautama Buddha,
646:No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
   ~ Buddha,
647:The mind of the Buddha is perfect because it is empty and yet it contains all things. ~ Frederick Lenz,
648:The true master lives in truth,In goodness and restraint,Non-violence, moderation and purity. ~ Buddha,
649:To be completely enlightened means that you're a Buddha.I don't speak of enlightenment. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
650:To eat meat is just a habit after we were born. In fact, we are not born to eat meat. ~ Gautama Buddha,
651:Until he has unconditional and unbiased love for all beings, man will not find peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
652:Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it ~ Gautama Buddha,
653:A karate practitioner should possess two things : wicked hands, and Buddha's heart ~ Soke Behzad Ahmadi,
654:All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is. —BUDDHA ~ Gay Hendricks,
655:All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain? ~ Gautama Buddha,
656:As long as one feels that he is the doer, he cannot escape from the wheel of births.”—Buddha ~ Ram Dass,
657:Be a lamp unto yourself, be a refuge to yourself. Take yourself to no external refuge. ~ Gautama Buddha,
658:Don't rely on logic alone, nor speculation. Don't infer or be deceived by appearances. ~ Gautama Buddha,
659:Since everything is a reflection of our minds, everything can be changed by our minds. ~ Gautama Buddha,
660:The Buddha is not a person but a (state of) realization to which anyone can attain. ~ Swami Vivekananda,
661:The easiest beneficence is a smile. The simplest release is to have a vegetarian meal. ~ Gautama Buddha,
662:To share happiness, and to have done something good before leaving this life is sweet. ~ Gautama Buddha,
663:Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
664:Be quick to do good. If you are slow, the mind, delighting in mischief, will catch you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
665:Do not be jealous of others' good qualities, but out of admiration adopt them yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
666:"Existence is sorrow." Understand, and go beyond sorrow. This is the way of brightness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
667:If you find someone with wisdom, good judgment, and good actions; make him a companion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
668:Offensive acts come back upon the evil doer, like dust that is thrown against the wind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
669:The Buddha said, “When you are walking, walk. When you are sitting, sit. Don’t wobble. ~ Eknath Easwaran,
670:By defilement of mind, beings are defiled; by purification of mind, beings are purified. ~ Gautama Buddha,
671:Dharma is not upheld by talking about it. Dharma is upheld by living in harmony with it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
672:Ideas are made by masters, dogma by disciples, and the Buddha is always killed on the road. ~ Tom Robbins,
673:In protecting oneself, others are protected; In protecting others, oneself is protected. ~ Gautama Buddha,
674:No sufferings overtake him who neither clings to mind-and-body nor claims anything of the world. ~ Buddha,
675:One moment can change a day, One day can change a life and One life can change the world ~ Gautama Buddha,
676:one moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world ~ Gautama Buddha,
677:Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable. ~ Gautama Buddha,
678:The compassionate actions of a Buddha are essential to reforming and revitalizing society. ~ Vinessa Shaw,
679:The kingdom of heaven is closer than the brow above the eye but mankind does not see it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
680:Through effort you will cross any raging flood, through energy you will pass any sorrow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
681:Yet the Teaching is simple. Do what is right. Be pure. At the end of the way is freedom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
682:You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. —The Buddha ~ Timber Hawkeye,
683:Apply yourself to solitude. One who is given to solitude knows things as they really are. ~ Gautama Buddha,
684:Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~ Buddha,
685:Dwell not on the faults and shortcomings of others; instead, seek clarity about your own. ~ Gautama Buddha,
686:For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
687:Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. ~ Buddha,
688:♥️If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart. ~ Buddha♥️(¯`'·.¸(♥)¸.·'´¯) #Lotus #buddha #heart,
689:Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
690:The mind precedes all things, the mind dominates all things, the mind creates all things. ~ Gautama Buddha,
691:The more completely we give of ourselves, the more completely the world gives back to us. ~ Gautama Buddha,
692:The person who masters himself through self-control and discipline is truly undefeatable. ~ Gautama Buddha,
693:There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way. ~ Dogen,
694:There isn't enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle. ~ Gautama Buddha,
695:To utter pleasant words without practicing them, is like a fine flower without fragrance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
696:"True freedom comes when we follow our Buddha nature, the natural goodness of our heart." ~ Jack Kornfield,
697:You will not be punished for your anger, Buddha had said. You will be punished by your anger. ~ Ramez Naam,
698:As solid rock remains unmoved by the wind, so the wise remain unmoved by blame and praise. ~ Gautama Buddha,
699:Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. ~ Gautama Buddha,
700:Even as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or blame. ~ Gautama Buddha,
701:In his ignorance of the whole truth, each person maintains his own arrogant point of view. ~ Gautama Buddha,
702:Mankind have love, animals have affection. The harmonious and beautiful world is revealed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
703:Most problems, if you give them enough time and space, will eventually wear themselves out ~ Gautama Buddha,
704:No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. ~ Gautama Buddha,
705:The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech. ~ Dogen Zenji,
706:The Gautama Buddha instructs me to walk away from illness. But he wasn't attached to a drip. ~ Derek Jarman,
707:They who imagine truth in untruth and see untruth in truth will never arrive at the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
708:When you like a flower, you just pluck it. But when you love a flower, you water it daily. ~ Gautama Buddha,
709:Buddha taught that the root of suffering is to be found in our constant wanting and craving. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
710:For he that is delighted by concord, And who abideth in the Law, Falleth not from Security. ~ Gautama Buddha,
711:Hatred does not cease in this world by hating, but by not hating; this is an eternal truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
712:If you can keep as silent as a broken gong, then you have attained, when you know no anger. ~ Gautama Buddha,
713:Many do not realize that
We here must die
For those who realize this
Quarrels end. ~ Gautama Buddha,
714:Pity arises when we are sorry for someone.Compassion is when we understand and help wisely. ~ Gautama Buddha,
715:So also is the case if I don’t care the one abusing me. He is the one going to be demeaned. ~ Gautama Buddha,
716:There are two obstacles to enlightenment: 1. Thinking you know. 2 Thinking you don't know. ~ Gautama Buddha,
717:There is no self, yet we all exist. All phenomena are "empty," yet they have Buddha nature. ~ Frederick Lenz,
718:(They) were responsible for spreading the Buddhist religion throughout India and East Asia. ~ Gautama Buddha,
719:What you think, you become.
What you feel, you attract.
What you imagine, you create. ~ Gautama Buddha,
720:As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life. ~ Gautama Buddha,
721:Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
722:Health, contentment, and trust are your greatest possessions. And freedom your greatest joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
723:He who wrongs the innocent must bear the fruit of his act, like dust flung against the wind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
724:"I teach one thing and one only: suffering and the end of suffering." ~ Teachings of the Buddha, Sutta Nipata,
725:Life can only take place in the present moment. If we lose the present moment, we lose life. ~ Gautama Buddha,
726:Never tell a lie. Anyone who can tell you the slightest of lies is also capable of any evil. ~ Gautama Buddha,
727:Realizing the doctrine of dependent-arising, the wise do not at all partake of extreme views ~ Gautama Buddha,
728:The fool is his own enemy. Seeking wealth, he destroys himself. Seek rather the other shore. ~ Gautama Buddha,
729:The moment you see how important it is to love yourself, you will stop making others suffer. ~ Gautama Buddha,
730:When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky ~ Gautama Buddha,
731:Within this moment, the only moment that exists, the past, present and future are contained. ~ Gautama Buddha,
732:You can search the entire universe and not find a single being more worthy of love than you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
733:But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside. ~ Bodhidharma,
734:"Christ like Buddha is an embodiment of the self . . . Both stood for an overcoming of the world." ~ Carl Jung,
735:It is better to do nothing Than to do what is wrong. For whatever you do, you do to yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
736:Más grande que la conquista en batalla de mil veces mil hombres es la conquista de uno mismo. ~ Gautama Buddha,
737:Never by hatred is hatred appeased, but it is appeased by kindness. This is an eternal truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
738:People always snap and think they're Jesus. How come no one ever snaps and thinks they're Buddha? ~ Bill Hicks,
739:Some do not understand that we must die, But those who do realize this settle their quarrels. ~ Gautama Buddha,
740:Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace. ~ Buddha,
741:The Buddha’s teaching is never about blind belief, but about the wisdom of our own inquiry. ~ Joseph Goldstein,
742:To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
743:Truth is always truth, untruth is always untruth. This is what matters, this is right desire. ~ Gautama Buddha,
744:When you like a flower, you just pluck it.
But when you love a flower, you water it daily. ~ Gautama Buddha,
745:"All conditioned things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence." ~ The Buddha's last words,
746:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either. ~ Bodhidharma,
747:Christ, Buddha, and Krishna are but waves in the Ocean of Infinite Consciousness that I am! ~ Swami Vivekananda,
748:Freedom and happiness are found in the flexibility and ease with which we move through change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
749:Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are, it solely relies on what you think. ~ Gautama Buddha,
750:He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings & all beings in his own self. ~ Buddha,
751:If there is a God, it is inconceivable that he would be concerned about my day to day affairs. ~ Gautama Buddha,
752:Live in joy and love even among those who hate; live in joy and peace even among the troubled. ~ Gautama Buddha,
753:"The basics teachings of Buddha are about understanding what we are, who we are, why we are." ~ Chögyam Trungpa,
754:The big belly can accommodate all kinds of things. The benevolence is never let a dust behind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
755:The Buddha gave equal opportunities to women. But we, even as followers of Buddha, neglected that. ~ Dalai Lama,
756:There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now. ~ Buddha☀️Sunshine, Love & Lightღ☼,
757:The secret of health for both mind and body is...live the present moment wisely and earnestly. ~ Gautama Buddha,
758:With gentleness overcome anger. With generosity overcome meanness. With truth overcome deceit. ~ Gautama Buddha,
759:Your worst enemy cannot hurt you as much as your own thoughts, when you haven’t mastered them. ~ Gautama Buddha,
760:A man should first direct himself in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
761:As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha ~ Bodhidharma,
762:Buddha taught that we should not merely not be evil, but that we should be positively good. ~ Henry Steel Olcott,
763:Hatreds never cease by hatreds in this world. By love alone they cease. This is an ancient Law. ~ Gautama Buddha,
764:In separateness lies the world's greatest misery; in compassion lies the world's true strength. ~ Gautama Buddha,
765:It is the fool who is haunted by fears, dread of dangers, oppression of mind, not the wise man. ~ Gautama Buddha,
766:Just as a picture is drawn by an artist, surroundings are created by the activities of the mind ~ Gautama Buddha,
767:Just awaken to the one Mind, and there is absolutely nothing to be attained. This is the real Buddha. ~ Huang Po,
768:"Let go of anger. Let go of pride. When you are bound by nothing you go beyond sorrow." ~ Teaching of the Buddha,
769:Like the lotus mankind can glow into radiant brightness if he can save himself from the debris of life. ~ Buddha,
770:May all beings everywhere plaguedwith sufferings of body and mindquickly be freed from their illnesses. ~ Buddha,
771:The fool who thinks he is wise is just a fool. The fool who knows he is a fool is wise indeed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
772:The right time to show your good character is when you are pestered by someone weaker than you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
773:Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two. ~ Gautama Buddha,
774:When the Aggregates arise, decay and die, O bhikkhu, every moment you are born, decay, and die. ~ Gautama Buddha,
775:"Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either." ~ Bodhidharma,
776:But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.
   ~ Bodhidharma,
777:Conquer anger by love, evil by good; Conquer the miser with liberality, and the liar with truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
778:If we destroy something around us we destroy ourselves. If we cheat another, we cheat ourselves. ~ Gautama Buddha,
779:In our interactions with others,  gentleness,  kindness,  respectare the source of harmony ~ Gautama Buddha,
780:It is by fighting and triumphing over the enemies of the Buddha that we ourselves become Buddhas. ~ Daisaku Ikeda,
781:Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little ~ Gautama Buddha,
782:The Buddha’s dharma didn’t teach peace and relaxation; it taught awakening—often rude awakening. ~ Jay Michaelson,
783:The true master lives in truth, in goodness and restraint, non-violence, moderation, and purity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
784:To serve one's parentsto look after one's familyto be peaceful in one's actionsthese R DHighest Welfares ~ Buddha,
785:We are all mother's of the Buddha because we are all pregnant with the potential for awakening. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
786:Birth is suffering, aging is suffering and sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering. ~ Buddha,
787:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
   ~ Bodhidharma,
788:Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
789:Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do. ~ Gautama Buddha,
790:Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. ~ Gautama Buddha,
791:If a viper lives in your room and you wish to have a peaceful sleep, you must first chase it out. ~ Gautama Buddha,
792:Meditate, Ānanda, do not delay, or else you will regret it later. This is our instruction to you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
793:The mind is pure and luminous by nature. It is defiled only by adventitious thoughts and emotions ~ Gautama Buddha,
794:The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve. ~ Gautama Buddha,
795:We will be thankful and grateful. Not even the last thing that is done for us shall be forgotten. ~ Gautama Buddha,
796:Where the dance of Meera and the silence of Buddha meet, blossoms the true philosophy of Rajneesh. ~ Amrita Pritam,
797:Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha. ~ Nhat Hanh,
798:Destroy the darkness of delusion with the brightness of wisdom. ~ The Sutra on the Buddha's Bequeathed Teaching,
799:If there is only empty space, with no suns nor planets in it, then space loses its substantiality. ~ Gautama Buddha,
800:Live happily, not hating even those who are hostile. Live peacefully even amongst those that hate. ~ Gautama Buddha,
801:More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm. ~ Gautama Buddha,
802:Nothing burns in hell but ego" says Tauler. Does anything live but Buddha Nature, Christ Spirit? ~ Frederick Franck,
803:O how sweet it is to enjoy life, Living in honesty and strength! And wisdom is sweet, And freedom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
804:One is not called noble who harms living beings. By not harming living beings one is called noble. ~ Gautama Buddha,
805:Was the Buddha married? His wife would say, "Are you just going to sit around like that all day?" ~ Garry Shandling,
806:When one feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no evil, I tell you, he will not do. ~ Gautama Buddha,
807:As the Buddha said: "I have shown you the way to liberation,
now you must take it for yourself. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,
808:Be a lamp unto yourselves! Work out your liberation with diligence! Fill your mind with compassion! ~ Gautama Buddha,
809:Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. A ~ Gautama Buddha,
810:If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world. ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
811:Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
812:Looking deeply at life as it is in this very moment, the meditator dwells in stability and freedom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
813:So what is keeping you out of the Garden? Your fear and desire: that which the Buddha transcended. ~ Joseph Campbell,
814:The world is on fire! And you are laughing? You are deep in the dark. Will you not ask for a light? ~ Gautama Buddha,
815:True and lasting inner peace can never be found in external things. It can only be found within. ~ Buddha Shakyamuni,
816:...we and all sentient beings fundamentally have the buddha nature as our innermost essence. . . . ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,
817:Whenever anyone, Buddhist or not, sees a Temple or an image of Buddha they receive blessings. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
818:A generous heart, kind speech, & a life of service & compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
819:As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
820:Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained and using well spoken words; This is good luck. ~ Gautama Buddha,
821:Follow the truth of the way. Reflect upon it. Make it your own. Live it. It will always sustain you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
822:Health, contentment and trust Are your greatest possessions, And freedom your greatest joy. —Buddha ~ Kimberly Snyder,
823:However many holy words u read, however many u speak, what good will they do u If U do not act on upon them? ~ Buddha,
824:If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given. ~ Gautama Buddha,
825:It is not life and wealth and power that enslave men, but the cleaving to life and wealth and power. ~ Gautama Buddha,
826:Love is the true God—not the God of theologians, but the God of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, the God of the Sufis. ~ Osho,
827:Reverence, humility, contentment, gratitude and hearing the good Dhamma, this is the best good luck. ~ Gautama Buddha,
828:Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, jasmine - the fragrance of virtue is unrivalled by such kinds of perfume. ~ Gautama Buddha,
829:Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ Gautama Buddha,
830:Whatever a person frequently thinks and reflects on, that will become the inclination of their mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
831:...you must revere the becoming, the possible, the concealed Buddha in him, in yourself, in everyone. ~ Hermann Hesse,
832:Zen was an attempt to get back to the purest teachings of the Buddha -enlightenment without strings. ~ Frederick Lenz,
833:Become a Buddha? The mind can't do it. The body can't do it. Only what can't become a Buddha becomes a Buddha. ~ Ikkyu,
834:I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. ~ Nhat Hanh,
835:"No one saves us but ourselves, no one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
836:Once you know the nature of anger and joy is empty and you let them go, you free yourself from karma. ~ Gautama Buddha,
837:Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
838:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
   ~ Buddha,
839:We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
840:When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.” —Buddha ~ Camron Wright,
841:As I am,so Rothers;as others are,so am I.Having thus identified self&others,harm no1 nor have them harmed. ~ Buddha,
842:Buddha indicated that the self, that part of you that incarnates from lifetime to lifetime was causal. ~ Frederick Lenz,
843:Do not let pleasure distract you from meditation, from the way. Free yourself from pleasure and pain. ~ Gautama Buddha,
844:Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame. ~ Gautama Buddha,
845:Remember, the greatest gift to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest. ~ Gautama Buddha,
846:The words of the Buddha offer this truth: ∼ Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed. ~ Jack Kornfield,
847:You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. —The Buddha ~ Timber Hawkeye,
848:A good friend who points out mistakes is to be respected, as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure. ~ Gautama Buddha,
849:All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. ~ Gautama Buddha,
850:Before you've seen it, and when you first see it, it is the greatest thing; afterwards, it is ordinary. ~ Gautama Buddha,
851:Better than chanting a thousand words in a dead language is one soothing word spoken in the vernacular. ~ Gautama Buddha,
852:Buddha's teachings are scientific methods to solve the problems of all living beings permanently. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
853:Dignity and quiet joy in all that we do are the expression of perfect concentration and perfect wisdom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
854:For innumerable reasons, Mahamati, the Bodhisattva, whose nature is compassion, is not to eat any meat. ~ Gautama Buddha,
855:It is good to have companions when occasion arises, and it is good to be contented with whatever comes. ~ Gautama Buddha,
856:«Me injurió; me hirió; me derrotó; me despojó.» En los que albergan tales rencores, nunca cesa el odio. ~ Gautama Buddha,
857:Seseorang harus mencarikan kebahagiaan untuk orang lain sama seperti yang diinginkan untuk diri sendiri ~ Gautama Buddha,
858:Taking refuge means that you align and orient your life toward Buddha's example and toward enlightenment. ~ Reb Anderson,
859:When one sees that everything exists as an illusion, one can live in a higher sphere than ordinary man. ~ Gautama Buddha,
860:A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
861:Believe, meditate, see. Be harmless, be blameless. Awake to the law. And from all sorrows free yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
862:Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
863:If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. ~ Gautama Buddha,
864:I know who you are,” I said. “Buddha would say that you lose that knowledge as soon as you speak it.” “I’m ~ Mike Resnick,
865:Instead of quoting the Buddha, be the Buddha, be “the awakened one,” which is what the word buddha means. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
866:The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal. ~ S N Goenka,
867:Through vigilance, restraint and control the wise will construct and island that no flood will overcome. ~ Gautama Buddha,
868:Times of luxury do not last long, but pass away very quickly; nothing in this world can be long enjoyed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
869:To be selfish, greedy and unwilling to help the needy gives rise to future starvation and clothlessness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
870:To refrain from evil and from strong drink and to be always, steadfast in virtue; this is the good luck. ~ Gautama Buddha,
871:To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue. ~ Gautama Buddha,
872:"All conditioned things are impermanent" - when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
873:Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold on to the truth within yourself as to the only truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
874:Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion. ~ Gautama Buddha,
875:Even if everyone elseIs not doing good,I alone will.Even if everyone elseis doing wrong,I alone will not. ~ Gautama Buddha,
876:From the passions arise worry, and from worry arises fear. Away with the passions, and no fear, no worry. ~ Gautama Buddha,
877:Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law. ~ Gautama Buddha,
878:If a man does what is good, let him do it again; let him delight in it; happiness is the outcome of good. ~ Gautama Buddha,
879:If you want to know the past, look at your present. If you want to know the future, look at your present. ~ Gautama Buddha,
880:Irrigators channel waters; fletchers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; the wise master themselves. ~ Gautama Buddha,
881:Just as you have come to know, the false discrimination of yourself, apply this mentally to all phenomena ~ Gautama Buddha,
882:Sit Rest Work. Alone with yourself, Never weary. On the edge of the forest Live joyfully, Without desire. ~ Gautama Buddha,
883:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. ~ Buddha#buddha,
884:To cease from evil, to do good, and to purify the mind yourself, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas. ~ Gautama Buddha,
885:Watch the thought and its ways with care, and let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
886:Whatever an enemy might do to an enemy, or a foe to a foe, the ill-directed mind can do to you even worse ~ Gautama Buddha,
887:When giving to others do not linger on thoughts of a giving, what was given, or the one who has received. ~ Gautama Buddha,
888:Your mind is a powerful thing. When you filter it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
889:Be your own lamps. Be your own shelters. Hang on to the truth as a lamp. Hang on to the truth as a refuge. ~ Gautama Buddha,
890:Buddha never rejected Hinduism, but he broadened its base. He gave it a new life and a new interpretation. ~ Mahatma Gandhi,
891:He whose evil deeds are removed by good deeds done, brightens up this world, like the moon when freed from clouds. ~ Buddha,
892:If you find yourself in some difficulty, step aside, and allow Buddha to take your place. The Buddha is in you. ~ Nhat Hanh,
893:India is the land of Buddha and Gandhi. Equal respect for all religions must be in the DNA of every Indian. ~ Narendra Modi,
894:Like fresh milk a bad deed does not turn at once. It follows a fool scorching him like a smouldering fire. ~ Gautama Buddha,
895:Neither my life of luxury in the palace -nor- my life as ascetic in the forest were ways to enlightenment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
896:Perfect wisdom, Perfect tranquility,Perfect compassion,arise fromOur love,Our sincerity.Our understanding. ~ Gautama Buddha,
897:Since we are already Buddhas, happy and suffering Buddhas, wise and confused Buddhas, we are already Buddha. ~ Joan Halifax,
898:The Buddha himself said, "I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it." And that's the Buddha. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
899:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. ~ Gautama Buddha,
900:This I tell you: decay is inherent in all conditioned things. Work out your own salvation, with diligence. ~ Gautama Buddha,
901:Those who walk in the Way should avoid sensualism as those who carry hay would avoid coming near the fire. ~ Gautama Buddha,
902:Victory breeds hatred; the defeated live in pain. The peaceful live happily, giving up victory and defeat. ~ Gautama Buddha,
903:Whatever an enemy might do to an enemy, or a foe to a foe, the ill-directed mind can do to you even worse. ~ Gautama Buddha,
904:A fool acquires knowledge only to his own disadvantage. It destroys what good he has, and turns his brains. ~ Gautama Buddha,
905:a root cause of suffering, according to the Buddha, is our fierce sense of self-centredness. Interestingly, ~ Paul B Gilbert,
906:Buddha first taught metta meditation as an antidote: as a way of surmounting terrible fear when it arises. ~ Sharon Salzberg,
907:Buddha had said: "Each of us is a God. Each of us knows all. We need only open our minds to hear our own wisdom. ~ Dan Brown,
908:Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
909:I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
910:I was reminded of a proverb: 'When a clay Buddha statue sails across the river, it can hardly protect itself. ~ Qiu Xiaolong,
911:Speak only the speech that neither torments self nor does harm to others. That speech is truly well spoken. ~ Gautama Buddha,
912:There is no fire like passion. There are no chains like hate. Illusion is a net, Desire is a rushing river. ~ Gautama Buddha,
913:To live a single day and hear a good teaching is better than to live a hundred years without knowing such teaching. ~ Buddha,
914:When watching after yourself, you watch after others. When watching after others, you watch after yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
915:"All is passing". When one realises this, he sits loose to this world of sorrow : This is the way of purity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
916:As an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse. ~ Gautama Buddha,
917:As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.” Gautama Buddha ~ Helena Hunting,
918:Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
919:Give the people - confidence. Give the people - delight. Give the people - hope. Give the people - the best. ~ Gautama Buddha,
920:human being who has transcended his intellect, the discriminatory and logical dimensions of his life, is a Buddha. ~ Sadhguru,
921:I call wise man who, while he is innocent , endures insults and blows with a patience equal to its strength. ~ Gautama Buddha,
922:If I had even a slight awareness, and practiced the Great Way, what I would fear would be deviating from it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
923:If one man kills a hundred men, and another man masters himself, the second man is the much greater warrior. ~ Gautama Buddha,
924:No one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be disappointed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
925:Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; rather, seek what they sought.1 —Gautama Buddha ~ Barbara Brown Taylor,
926:Speak only endearing speech, speech that is welcomed. Speech, when it brings no evil to others, is pleasant. ~ Gautama Buddha,
927:that stone Buddha deserves all the
birdshit it gets
I wave my skinny arms like a tall
flower in the wind ~ Ikkyu,
928:"The object of Buddhism is to perfect the person, the body-mind. There is no Buddha outside of the human being." ~ Kozan Kato,
929:There's a treasury full of jade and jewels; It is in you. Don't go searching far from home for it-it's here. ~ Gautama Buddha,
930:Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
931:And being a buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,
932:"Buddha's doctrine: man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are impermanent." ~ Alan Watts,
933:Buddhism is all about finding your own way, not imitating the ways of others or even the ways of Buddha himself. ~ Brad Warner,
934:Craving brings pain; craving brings fear. If you do not yield to craving, you will be free from pain and fear ~ Gautama Buddha,
935:Goodwill toward all beings is the true religion; cherish in your hearts boundless goodwill to all that lives. ~ Gautama Buddha,
936:He could've had Jesus, Buddha, he could have had every God in his corner, it wouldn't have helped him against me. ~ David Haye,
937:Love in the past is only a memory. Love in the future is only a fantasy. True love lives in the here and now. ~ Gautama Buddha,
938:One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand on the battlefield. ~ Gautama Buddha,
939:Truth remains hidden to the man filled with desire and hatred” (Buddha)…. Which is to say, to every man alive. ~ Emil M Cioran,
940:Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain. Happily the peaceful live,
giving up victory and defeat. ~ Gautama Buddha,
941:A man may conquer a million men in battle but one who conquers himself is, indeed, the greatest of conquerors. ~ Gautama Buddha,
942:Being generous, just helping one's relatives and being blameless in one's actions; this is the best good luck. ~ Gautama Buddha,
943:Do not carry with you your mistakes. Do not carry your cares. Travel on alone. Like an elephant in the forest. ~ Gautama Buddha,
944:Establish your mind as necessary for knowledge and remembrance. Establish a mind free of grasping to anything. ~ Gautama Buddha,
945:Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
946:Innumerable Buddhas Enlightened... innumerable Christs crucified... always the same Christ, the same Buddha! ~ Frederick Franck,
947:In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go? ~ Gautama Buddha,
948:Just as gold is burnt, cut and rubbed, Examine my words carefully and Do not accept them simply out of respect ~ Gautama Buddha,
949:Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train. ~ Gautama Buddha,
950:The fragrance of sandalwood and rosebay does not travel far. But the fragrance of virtue rises to the heavens. ~ Gautama Buddha,
951:"The winner sows hatred ... the loser suffers.Let go of winning and losing and find joy." ~ Teachings of the Buddha, Dhammapada,
952:Todo lo que somos es el resultado de lo que hemos pensado; está fundado y está hecho de nuestros pensamientos. ~ Gautama Buddha,
953:To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
954:Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
955:A raft needed to cross the river is discarded when the other shore is reached, not carried about on one's head. ~ Gautama Buddha,
956:Buddha going down with the ship, while the bed gradually swamped, and the cold seawater lapped up over his knees. ~ Lev Grossman,
957:Buddha had said to make a light of yourself, and if Laurie had anything to say about it, one day he’d glow. ~ Christopher Barzak,
958:Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village. ~ Gautama Buddha,
959:Ennui has made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair. ~ Gautama Buddha,
960:Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side. ~ Gautama Buddha,
961:However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
   ~ Buddha,
962:In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner - not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are. ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
963:Mindfulness, the aware, balanced acceptance of present experience, is at the heart of what the Buddha taught. ~ Sylvia Boorstein,
964:Sound health is the greatest of gifts; contentedness, the greatest of riches; trust, the greatest of qualities. ~ Gautama Buddha,
965:"The Buddha's teachings on love are clear. It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state of love." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
966:The world is afflicted by death and decay. But the wise do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
967:To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings. ~ Bodhidharma,
968:What does it mean to become a Buddha? “Bu” means “Buddhi,” the intellect. One who is above his intellect is a Buddha. ~ Sadhguru,
969:Who do you think was smarter, Jesus or Buddha? I mean, just in terms of not letting themselves get crucified. ~ Anthony Jeselnik,
970:You are far from the end of your journey. The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. See how you love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
971:As Buddha points out, you should not rely on the opinions of others for validation of your internal progression. ~ Frederick Lenz,
972:As the Buddha taught, the cause of suffering is attachment; the end of attachment will mean the end of suffering. ~ Caroline Myss,
973:Do not look at the faults of what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done or not done. ~ Gautama Buddha,
974:From craving is born grief, from craving is born fear. For one freed from craving there's no grief- so how fear? ~ Gautama Buddha,
975:Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal. ~ Gautama Buddha,
976:I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment. ~ Gautama Buddha,
977:In this world Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible. ~ Gautama Buddha,
978:It is wrong to think that misfortunes come from the east or from the west; they originate within one's own mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
979:Kindnessis giving others happiness.Compassionis removing others' bitterness.Joyis freeing others from suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
980:Like a broken gong be still, be silent. Know the stillness of freedom where there is no more striving.” —THE BUDDHA ~ J T Ellison,
981:Maintain a state of balance between physical acts and inner serenity,like a lute whose strings are finely tuned. ~ Gautama Buddha,
982:Never in this world can hatred be stilled by hatred; it will be stifled by non-hatred - this is the law Eternal. ~ Gautama Buddha,
983:The teaching of the Buddha is called the Dhamma. He did not teach Buddhism, any more than Jesus taught Christianity. ~ Ayya Khema,
984:The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast. ~ Gautama Buddha,
985:We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. — Buddha ~ Alberto Villoldo,
986:You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger... Let a man overcome anger by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
987:And he who lives a hundred years, idle and weak, a life of one day is better if a man has attained firm strength. ~ Gautama Buddha,
988:As a mountain is unshaken by the wind, so the heart of a wise person is unmoved by all the changes on this earth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
989:Believe nothing, no matter who said it, even if I said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense ~ Gautama Buddha,
990:Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes. ~ Gautama Buddha,
991:Everything aids everything, because all things are a reflection of the Buddha mind, of the mind of Enlightenment. ~ Frederick Lenz,
992:From craving is born grief, from craving is born fear. For one freed from craving there's no grief - so how fear? ~ Gautama Buddha,
993:Full of love for all things in the world, practicing virtue, in order to benefit others, this man alone is happy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
994:If a man who enjoys a lesser happiness beholds a greater one, let him leave aside the lesser to gain the greater. ~ Gautama Buddha,
995:If you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone. There is no companionship with the immature. ~ Gautama Buddha,
996:The one who has conquered himself is a far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men. ~ Gautama Buddha,
997:The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
998:There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
999:The whole effort of a Jesus or a Buddha or a Bodhidharma is nothing but how to undo that which society has done to you. ~ Rajneesh,
1000:The Zen expression “Kill the Buddha!” means to kill any concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself. ~ Peter Matthiessen,
1001:Welcome to thee,
O sword of eternity!
Through Buddha
And through Daruma alike
Thou hast cleft thy way. ~ Kakuz Okakura,
1002:As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts.” —THE BUDDHA ~ Anthony Robbins,
1003:Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1004:Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Socrates wrote a book, for to do so is to exchange life for a logical process. ~ William Butler Yeats,
1005:On Buddha's deathday,
wrinkled tough old hands pray
the prayer beads' sound

~ Matsuo Basho, on buddhas deathbed
,
1006:One is not low because of birth nor does birth make one holy. Deeds alone make one low, deeds alone make one holy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1007:Seeker, empty the boat, lighten the load, be free of craving and judgment and hatred, and feel the joy of the way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1008:You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away? ~ Shunryu Suzuki,
1009:Do not breathing in the chronological, do not dream of the later, drain the intellect on the bring about twinkling. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1010:If one is the master of oneself, one is the resort one can depend on; therefore, one should control oneself of all. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1011:It is because I perceive the danger in the practice of mystic wonders, that I loath, abhor, and am ashamed thereof. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1012:Journey over, sorrowless, freed in every way, and with all bonds broken - for such a man there is no more distress. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1013:Love is a fleeting emotion, to reach true nirvana one must know themselves and forsake love, for it breeds contempt ~ Gautama Buddha,
1014:Love is beauty and beauty is truth, and that is why in the beauty of a flower we can see the truth of the universe. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1015:Love is the saving grace. It’s the buddha in you standing up and saying, “Even though it’s dark, I have this jewel. ~ Sakyong Mipham,
1016:"On the altar in my hermitage are images of Buddha and Jesus, and I touch both of them as my spiritual ancestors." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1017:To be concerned with the issue; soul versus non-soul, is to be in bondage to craving for becoming and non-becoming. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1018:To live a single day and hear a good teaching is better than to live a hundred years without knowing such teaching. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1019:We are what we think. All that we are arises With our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world.” —THE BUDDHA ~ Anthony Robbins,
1020:After much seeking for truth and knowledge the profoundness of reality came to me with a clarity never before known. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1021:At the end of meditation period we always bow and we touch our head to the floor and say "Buddha's name be praised." ~ Frederick Lenz,
1022:Como pez fuera del agua, arrojado a terreno seco, este espíritu brinca intentando escapar del reino de la aflicción. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1023:Distraction is the main problem for us all - what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind. ~ Tenzin Palmo,
1024:However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1025:However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1026:If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1027:In this world, hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible. —BUDDHA ~ Mark Nepo,
1028:Learn this from the waters: in mountain clefts and chasms, loud gush the streamlets, but great rivers flow silently. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1029:Love is a fleeting emotion, to reach true nirvana one must know themselves and forsake love, for it breeds contempt. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1030:We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1031:Why cling to the pain and the wrongs of yesterday? Why hold on to the very things that keep you from hope and love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1032:But Buddha didn’t teach that life hurts because of pain; it hurts because the cause of suffering hasn’t been examined. ~ Deepak Chopra,
1033:Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1034:He who never thinks of anything as 'mine' does not feel the lack of anything: he is never worried by a sense of loss. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1035:Religion helps you relate with the universe. Buddha was indifferent to the concept of god yet he gave us values. ~ Asghar Ali Engineer,
1036:"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle,and the life of the candle will not be shortened." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
1037:'As I am, so are these. As are these, so am I.' Drawing the parallel to yourself, neither kill nor get others to kill. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1038:A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1039:If the traveler cannot find master or friend to go with him, let him travel alone rather than with a fool for company. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1040:If you knew what I know about the power of giving you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1041:It came to me that I should teach this truth for it is real happiness and joy. The cessation of suffering is possible. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1042:The Buddha over and over again spoke clearly and definitely on post-mortem states - as in his conversation with Vasetta. ~ Annie Besant,
1043:The grudge you hold on to is like a hot coal that you intend to throw at someone, only you're the one who gets burned. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1044:Your days pass like rainbows, like a flash of lightning, like a star at dawn. Your life is short. How can you quarrel? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1045:Zen people love Buddha so tremendously that they can even play jokes upon him. It is out of great love; they are not afraid. ~ Rajneesh,
1046:As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust,Do not burden your heart with judgementsBut rain your kindness equally on all. ~ Buddha,
1047:Better than a meaningless story of a thousand words is a single word of deep meaning which, when heard, produces peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1048:From craving is born grief, from craving is born fear. For one freed from craving, there’s no grief—so how fear? —Buddha ~ Daniel G Amen,
1049:Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1050:His success may be great, but be it ever so great the wheel of fortune may turn again and bring him down into the dust. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1051:I don't know why I feel so crazy...I feel like I'm going through a stargate. Maybe it's the diet pills. Maybe it's Buddha. ~ Dawn French,
1052:If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1053:The Buddha said many times. "My teaching is like a finger pointing to the moon. Do not mistake the finger for the Moon ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1054:The gift of Truthovercomes all gifts.The joy of Truthovercomes all pleasures.The taste of Truthovercomes all sweetness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1055:Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1056:Why do what you will regret? Why bring tears upon yourself? Do only what you do not regret, And fill yourself with joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1057:All that has been hidden is rising, there is no stopping it! These things you cannot hide: the sun, the moon, and TRUTH. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1058:Analyzing through special insight and realizing the lack of inherent existence constitute understanding of the signless. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1059:analyzing through special insight and realizing the lack of inherent existence constitute understanding of the signless. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1060:As I am, so are others as others are, so am I. Having thus identified self and others, harm no one nor have them harmed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1061:Como bella flor plena de color y también fragante, las palabras bien dichas dan fruto en aquel que las pone en práctica. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1062:Do not think lightly of good, that nothing will come of it. A whole water pot will fill up from dripping drops of water. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1063:Follow not after the vain, understand the ills of sense pleasures. One who is vigilant and meditative, obtains deep joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1064:For those who are always courteous and respectful of elders, four things increase: life, beauty, happiness and strength. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1065:Like a lovely flower full of color but lacking in fragrance, are the words of those who do not practice what they teach. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1066:Of all footprints, that of the elephant is supreme. Similarly, of all mindfulness meditations, that on death is supreme. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1067:One who is wise and disciplined, always kind and intelligent, humble and free from pride. One like this will be praised. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1068:Pure-limbed, white-canopied, one-wheeled, the cart roles on. See him that cometh: faultless, stream-cutter, bondless he. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1069:rice seedlings-- the old Buddha's weary face - from the website http://haikuguy.com/issa/

~ Kobayashi Issa, rice seedlings
,
1070:The Buddha said many times, “My teaching is like a finger pointing to the moon. Do not mistake the finger for the moon. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1071:The good shine from afar Like the snowy Himalayas. The bad don't appear Even when near, Like arrows shot into the night. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1072:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” —Buddha ~ Mimi Jean Pamfiloff,
1073:To force oneself to believe and to accept a thing without understanding is political, and not spiritual or intellectual. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1074:You are your own master, you make your own future. Therefore discipline yourself as a horse-dealer trains a thoroughbred ~ Gautama Buddha,
1075:As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgements but rain your kindness equally on all. ~ Buddha,
1076:Being generous and kindly in speech, doing a good turn for others, and treating all alike. One like this will be praised. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1077:If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise man leave the small pleasure, and look to the great. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1078:Keeping away for all evil deeds, cultivation of life by doing good deeds and purification of mind from mental impunities. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1079:The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief. ~ Pema Chodron,
1080:Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1081:Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps As if he were already dead, But the master is awake And he lives forever. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1082:By whomsoever no evil is done in deed, or word, or thought, him I call a Brahmin (holy man) who is guarded in these three. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1083:Even the sadistic misogyny of Buddha and Christ was nothing but an attempt to gain the better of a vastly superior opponent. ~ Fumiko Enchi,
1084:Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life... ~ Swami Vivekananda,
1085:Men who are addicted to the passions are like the torch-carrier running against the wind; his hands are sure to be burned. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1086:Of what I know, I have told you only a little. Why have I not told you the rest? Because it would not lead you to Nirvana. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1087:Pay no attention 2 D faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone. ~ Buddha,
1088:Radiate boundless love towards the entire world - above, below, and across - unhindered, without ill will, without enmity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1089:The Buddha gave his first talks, and three or four ascetics became his first disciples. They recognized his enlightenment. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1090:The essence of the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) is about identifying the cause of our suffering & alleviating it. ~ Allan Lokos,
1091:The fool who recognizes his foolishness, is a wise man. But the fool who believes himself a wise man, he really is a fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1092:The glorious chariots of kings wear out, and the body wears out and grows old; but the virtue of the good never grows old. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1093:This life of separateness may be compared to a dream, a phantasm, a bubble, a shadow, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1094:Through our senses the world appears. Through our reactions we create delusions.Without reactions the world becomes clear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1095:Through true honestydeeply believethat all sentient-beings are one.That all beings have the sametrue nature,wisdom,virtue. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1096:We living beings, right down to crickets, ants, mosquitoes , and flies, all possess life that is without beginning or end. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1097:As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, Dwise shape their minds. ~ Buddha,
1098:From craving arises sorrow, from craving arises fear, but he who is freed from craving has no sorrow and certainly no fear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1099:“Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.” ~ Buddha#buddha,
1100:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”   —BUDDHA ~ Jacqueline Novogratz,
1101:There are only two mistakes on the way to truth,” the Buddha taught. “One is not going far enough and the other is not starting. ~ Anonymous,
1102:There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1103:"To be a good Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience." ~ D.T. Suzuki,
1104:To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1105:We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1106:Whatever the hateful do to the hateful, or an enemy to an enemy, worse is the harm of a misguided mind directed at oneself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1107:When u move ur focus from competition to contribution life becomes a celebration. Never try 2defeat people, just win their hearts. ~ Buddha,
1108:Who have not led the holy life
nor riches won while young,
they linger on as aged cranes
around a fished-out pond. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1109:All too soon this body
Will lie on the ground,
Cast aside, deprived of consciousness,
Like a useless scrap of wood. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1110:I am, I am not, I will be, I will not be are vein thoughts which is a sickness and once all are eliminated no desire arises. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1111:If you're respectful by habit, constantly honoring the worthy, four things increase: long life, beauty, happiness, strength. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1112:It took me forty years of dealing with buddhism to finally realize that actually Buddha's discovery was happiness and bliss. ~ Robert Thurman,
1113:now begins the Future Buddha's reign... spring pines - from the website http://haikuguy.com/issa/

~ Kobayashi Issa, now begins
,
1114:That is the ultimate synthesis - when Zorba becomes a Buddha. I am trying to create here not Zorba the Greek but Zorba the Buddha. ~ Rajneesh,
1115:The Buddha takes no position on gods, he suggests they may exist or they may not, but either way you can live a moral life. ~ Robert M Pirsig,
1116:The Buddha taught that most problems - if only you give them enough time and space - will eventually wear themselves out. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert,
1117:To be a good Zen Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience. ~ D T Suzuki,
1118:We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1119:"We have to understand the middle path: We have a false, ignorant side, but we also have a beautiful potential – Buddha nature." ~ Lama Yeshe,
1120:All Beings are owners of their Karma. Whatever volitional actions they do, good or evil, of those they shall become the heir. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1121:All paths lead to God, and it doesn’t matter if you call him Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, or even if you believe that he is a she. ~ Heather Graham,
1122:"All that we are is a result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
1123:Do not be the judge of people; do not make assumptions about others. A person is destroyed by holding judgments about others. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1124:Each step along the Buddha's path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life. ~ Henepola Gunaratana,
1125:I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1126:If you let cloudy water settle, it will become clear. If you let your upset mind settle, your course will also become clear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1127:Observe the life by cause and consequence. Explore the life by wisdom. Treat the life by equality. Complete the life by love. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1128:One act of pure love in saving life is greater than spending the whole of one's time in religious offerings to the gods . . . ~ Gautama Buddha,
1129:Only within our body, with its heart and mind, can bondage and suffering be found, and only here can we find true liberation. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1130:The Buddha taught that flexibility and openness bring strength and that running from groundlessness weakens us and brings pain. ~ Pema Ch dr n,
1131:The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment ~ Gautama Buddha,
1132:A fool thinks it like honey so long as the bad deed does not bear fruit, but when it does bear fruit he experiences suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1133:As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color & fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1134:As the bee collects nectar and departs without injuring the flower, or its color or fragrance, so let the sage dwell on earth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1135:Buddha also said that the Dharma, like a bird, needs two wings to fly, and that the wing that balances Wisdom is compassion. ~ Sylvia Boorstein,
1136:Foolish, ignorant people indulge in careless lives, whereas a clever man guards his attention as his most precious possession. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1137:Health is the first benefit. Content is the first fortune. Friendliness is the first kindness. Nirvana is the first happiness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1138:If a man going down into a river, swollen and swiftly flowing, is carried away by the current - how can he help others across? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1139:"Just as a mighty boulder stirs not with the wind, so the wise are never moved either by praise or blame." ~ Teaching of the Buddha, Dhammapada,
1140:Of all animals, the cat alone attains to the comtemplative life. He regards the wheel of existence from without, like the Buddha. ~ Andrew Lang,
1141:The Buddha captured it well when he said that anger, which can be so seductive at first, has “a honeyed tip” but a “poisoned root. ~ Dan Harris,
1142:The Buddha taught complete honesty, with the extra instruction that everything a person says should be truthful and helpful. ~ Sylvia Boorstein,
1143:There is only one law in the universe that never changes—that all things change, and that all things are impermanent.” —BUDDHA ~ Carol Cassella,
1144:Watering the flowers and the trees, whispering to them, talking to them. Then, they will grow to be more bright and luxuriant. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1145:A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1146:a dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. a man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1147:As an irrigator guides water to his fields, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1148:Focusnot on the rudeness of others,not on what they've done or left undone,but on what you have done and have not doneyourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1149:Happy indeed are the arahants! No craving can be found in them. Cut off is the conceit 'I am,' Burst asunder is delusion's net. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1150:I am a steadfast follower of the doctrine of non-violence which was first preached by Lord Buddha, whose divine wisdom is absolute. ~ Dalai Lama,
1151:if we are free of the past, free of the future, we can touch the kingdom of God, the Pure Land of the Buddha, with every step. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1152:I love the Buddha’s simple definition of enlightenment as “the end of suffering.” There is nothing superhuman in that, is there? ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1153:I trust that some may be as near and dear to Buddha, or Christ, or Swedenborg, who are without the pale of their churches. ~ Henry David Thoreau,
1154:Not by mere eloquence, nor by handsome appearance, does a man become good-natured, should he be jealous, selfish and deceitful. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1155:Overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1156:The mind that realizes its own Buddha nature is said to be like clear space—it is empty and all-pervasive but also vividly aware. ~ Mark Epstein,
1157:Though thousand times a thousand in battle one may conquer, yet should one conquer just oneself, one is the greatest conqueror. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1158:When desire flows,
Pleasure arises.
Attached to happiness, seeking enjoyment,
People are subject to birth and old age. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1159:All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1160:A practice can be helpful, but didn't the Buddha compare it to a raft, suggesting it be abandoned when you reach the other shore? ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1161:As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgments but rain your kindness equally on all. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1162:By oneself the evil is done, and it is oneself who suffers: by oneself the evil is not done, and by one's Self one becomes pure. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1163:Delightful are forests
Where the public does not delight.
There the passion-free delight,
Not seeking sensual pleasure. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1164:"Don't talk about enlightenment," Buddha would say. He was saying don't talk about the nagual. He'd talk about how to get to it. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1165:Happy are those who have overcome their egos; happy are those who have attained peace; happy are those who have found the Truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1166:Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1167:Let us live in joy, never falling sick like those who hate us. Let us live in freedom, without hatred even among those who hate. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1168:Should a person do good, let him do it again and again. Let him find pleasure therein, for blissful is the accumulation of good. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1169:There are no chains like hate...dwelling on your brother's faults multiplies your own. You are far from the end of your journey. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1170:With his chubby face and his grumpy expression, he looked like a Buddha who’d achieved enlightenment and wasn’t thrilled about it. ~ Rick Riordan,
1171:An evil deed, like fresh milk, does not go bad suddenly. Smouldering, like fire covered by ashes, the evil deed follows the fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1172:As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgements but rain your kindness equally on all. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1173:Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. The elephant hauls himself from the mud. In the same way drag yourself out of your sloth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1174:Dogs change lives. Half Buddha, half Bozo, they keep us tethered to the earth, and teach us to fly. Our dogs are our sanity keepers. ~ Pam Houston,
1175:Don't indulge in careless behaviour. Don't be the friend of sensual pleasures. He who meditates attentively attains abundant joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1176:He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after his death. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1177:Meditate.
Live purely. Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out
from behind the clouds!
Shine ~ Gautama Buddha,
1178:Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts. No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1179:Right now, get down on your hands and knees and pray to God or Allah or Buddha or whoever if you are an unsophisticated investor. ~ James Altucher,
1180:There are three ways to correct our faults:We can change through behavior We can change through understanding We can change heart ~ Gautama Buddha,
1181:Those who by form did see me and those who followed me by voice. Wrong the efforts they engaged in, those people will not see me. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1182:To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering. ~ Benjamin Hoff,
1183:To enter the Buddha Way is to stop discriminating between good and evil and to cast aside the mind that says this is good and that is bad. ~ D gen,
1184:To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back after you have crossed the river. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1185:We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't stand up to experimentation, Buddha`s own words must be rejected. ~ Dalai Lama,
1186:You can search the world over and you will find no one who is more deserving of your kindness and well wishing than you yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1187:[A less-enlightened personage once asked Ummon What is the God-nature/Buddha/Central Truth> Ummon answered him A dried shit-stick] ~ Dan Simmons,
1188:As a flower that is lovely and beautiful, but is scentless, even so fruitless is the well-spoken word of one who practices it not. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1189:I read in some book that if you try to hold people back too much when they’re dying it keeps them from being reborn as a Buddha, ~ Banana Yoshimoto,
1190:“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” ~ Buddha,
1191:The more we come to terms with our own separateness, taught the Buddha, the more we can feel the connections that are already there. ~ Mark Epstein,
1192:The rain could turn to gold and still your thirst would not be slaked. Desire is unquenchable or it ends in tears, even in heaven. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1193:There are no perfect human beings and even those who we pray such as Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna among others, were not perfect. ~ Santosh Kalwar,
1194:As from a large heap of flowers many garlands and wreaths are made, so by a mortal in this life there is much good work to be done. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1195:Do not be thoughtless, always be mindful, watch your thoughts! Draw yourself out of the path of evil, like an elephant sunk in mud. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1196:Easy to do are things that are bad and harmful to oneself. But exceedingly difficult to do are things that are good and beneficial. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1197:If you are poor, live wisely. If you have riches, live wisely. It is not your station in life but your heart that brings blessings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1198:In Buddha we had the great, universal heart and infinite patience, making religion practical and bringing it to everyone's door. ~ Swami Vivekananda,
1199:In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into the mind that has not been practising meditation. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1200:I shall live here in the rains,
There in winter,
Elsewhere in summer," muses the fool,
Not aware of the nearness of death. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1201:"Listening to talks about the dharma, or the teachings of Buddha, or practicing meditation is nothing other than studying ourselves." ~ Pema Chödrön,
1202:The fool thinks he has won a battle when he bullies with harsh speech, but knowing how to be forbearing alone makes one victorious. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1203:The world is a looking glass. It gives back to every man a true reflection of his own thoughts. Rule your mind or it will rule you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1204:Though through all his life a fool associates with a wise man, he yet understands not the Dharma, as the spoon, the flavor of soup. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1205:When faced with the vicissitudes of life, one's mind remains unshaken, sorrow-less, stainless, secure; this is the greatest welfare ~ Gautama Buddha,
1206:Whoever has done harmful actions but later covers them up with good is like the moon which, freed from clouds, lights up the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1207:Winning gives birth to hostility Losing, one lies down in pain. The calmed lie down with ease, having set winning and losing aside. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1208:With his mind free from the inflow of thoughts and from restlessness, by abandoning both good and evil, an alert man knows no fear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1209:All beings are not only the parents in the past. They will become the Buddha in the future. If you free their lives, you are Buddha. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1210:Are we to execrate our age- or all ages?

Do we think of Buddha as withdrawing from the world on account of his contemporaries? ~ Emil M Cioran,
1211:Care about your children. Just bless them instead of worrying, as every child is the little Buddha who helps his parents to grow up. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1212:Everything that happens to us is the result of what we ourselves have thought, said, or done.We alone are responsible for our lives. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1213:For the wakeful one whose mind is quiet, whose thoughts are undisturbed, who has relinquished judgement and blame, there is no fear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1214:For those who are ready the door to the deathless state is open. If you have ears give up the conditions that bind you and enter in. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1215:If we develop a good heart we will progress to true compassion, and awaken Bodhicitta. This is the way of the Buddha's method. ~ Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo,
1216:Ignorance, according to the Buddha, is our basic difficulty. Psychedelics and the process of aging make that clear to me all the time. ~ Laura Huxley,
1217:Inflowing thoughts come to an end in those who are ever alert of mind, training themselves night and day, and ever intent on nirvana ~ Gautama Buddha,
1218:Just as the bee takes the nectar and leaves without damaging the color or scent of the flowers, so should the sage act in a village. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1219:Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1220:Love yourself and watch - Today, tomorrow, always. To straighten the crooked You must first do a harder thing - Straighten yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1221:Of bones the city is made,
Plastered with flesh and blood,
Where decay and death are deposited,
And pride, and ingratitude. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1222:The fool worries, thinking, "I have sons, I have wealth." Indeed, when he himself is not his own, whence are sons, whence is wealth? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1223:When you realize how perfect [or at least better than it could be] everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1224:He who harms living beings is, for that reason, not an ariya (a Noble One); he who does not harm any living being is called an ariya. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1225:If a person does not harm any living being...and does not kill or cause others to kill - that person is a true spiritual practitioner ~ Gautama Buddha,
1226:Let your diet be spare, your wants moderate, your needs few. So, living modestly, with no distracting desires, you will find content. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1227:One should strive to understand what underlies sufferings and diseases - and aim for health and well-being while gaining in the Path. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1228:Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1229:Reality is devoid of any intrinsic identity that can be captured by any one single proposition - that is what Buddha meant by "voidness." ~ Dalai Lama,
1230:Shape I may take, converse I may, but neither god nor Buddha am I, rather an insensate being whose heart thus differs from that of man. ~ Ueda Akinari,
1231:The Buddha told him, "When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating, ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1232:To support mother and father, to cherish wife and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation - this is the greatest blessing. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1233:We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't stand up to experimentation, Buddha's own words must be rejected. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
1234:A fool, though he lives in the company of the wise, understands nothing of the true doctrine, as a spoon tastes not the flavor of the soup.
   ~ Buddha,
1235:A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1236:As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1237:Buddha was not a Buddhist. Jesus was not a Christian. Muhammad was not a Muslim. They were teachers who taught Love…Love was their religion ~ Anonymous,
1238:For behold your body —
A painted puppet, a toy,
Jointed, sick and full of false
imaginings,
A shadow that shifts and fade. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1239:If a man offend a harmless, pure, and innocent person, the evil falls back upon that fool, like light dust thrown up against the wind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1240:If you put Buddha, Jesus Christ, Socrates, Shakespeare, Arjuna, Krishna at a dinner table together, I can't see them having an argument. ~ Hugh Jackman,
1241:Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline has one taste, the taste of liberation. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1242:My faculty for disappointment surpasses understanding. It is what lets me comprehend Buddha, but also what keeps me from following him. ~ Emil M Cioran,
1243:The Buddha says that pain or suffering arises through desire or craving and that to be free of pain we need to cut the bonds of desire. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1244:The perfect human being is uninteresting-the Buddha who leaves the world, you know. It is the imperfections of life that are lovable. ~ Joseph Campbell,
1245:"There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
1246:Those who speak much are blamed, those who speak little are blamed. In this world there are none who are not blamed. Try not to blame. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1247:We do not realize that as soon as our thoughts cease and all attempts at forming ideas are forgotten the Buddha reveals himself before us. ~ D T Suzuki,
1248:When one is overcome by this wretched, clinging desire in the world, one's sorrows increase like grass growing up after a lot of rain. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1249:Better than a thousand hollow words Is one word that brings peace. Better than a thousand hollow verses Is one verse that brings peace. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1250:Here will I live in the rainy season, here in the autumn and in the summer: thus muses the fool. He realizes not the danger (of death). ~ Gautama Buddha,
1251:I manifested in a dreamlike way to dreamlike beings and gave a dreamlike Dharma, but in reality I never taught and never actually came. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1252:"Just as the great ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so too, this teaching has but one taste, the taste of freedom." ~ Teachings of the Buddha,
1253:Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others. But let one see one's own acts, done and undone. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1254:Let us live most happily, free from hatred in the midst of the hateful; Let us remain free from hatred in the midst of people who hate. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1255:Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1256:the Buddha’s main thesis was that in a world where everything is constantly changing, we suffer because we cling to things that won’t last. ~ Dan Harris,
1257:The Buddha who stares back at us from the texts will be too much a reflection of ourselves, too little an image of the Enlightened One. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
1258:The self of which you speak, whether it is the great self or the small self, is only a concept that does not correspond to any reality. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1259:When a monk complained about the world's evil, the Buddha stretched his hand toward the Earth: "on this Earth I attained Liberation". ~ Frederick Franck,
1260:Why don't the names of Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius offend people? The reason is that these others didn't claim to be God, but Jesus did. ~ Josh McDowell,
1261:All beings tremble before violence. All love life. All fear death. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1262:Because of barriers of knowledge, barriers of state, and barriers of action, seeing your own buddha nature is like seeing color at night. ~ Thomas Cleary,
1263:Do not blindly believe what others say. See for yourself what brings contentment, clarity and peace. That is the path for you to follow. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1264:Hard to restrain, unstable is this mind; it flits wherever it lists. Good it is to control the mind. A controlled mind brings happiness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1265:There are these two kinds of gifts: a gift of material things & a gift of the Dhamma. Of the two, this is supreme: a gift of the Dhamma. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1266:the screen. “Let me leave you with these words: ‘Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow death comes.’ The Buddha.” She ~ Liane Moriarty,
1267:Though all one's life a fool associates with a wise person,one no more comprehends the Truth than a spoon tastes the flavor of the soup. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1268:When you move your focus from competition to contribution life becomes a celebration. Never try to defeat people, just win their hearts. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1269:As a single drop of water fills a bucket, so do small deeds of evil; as a single drop of water fills a bucket, so do small deeds of good. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1270:Besides the respect of the lives of human beings, all the animals and plants should be on the list too. That is the real humanitarianism. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1271:Buddha said, ‘Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.’ Do ~ Camron Wright,
1272:Buddha says there are two kinds of suffering: the kind that leads to more suffering and the kind that brings an end to suffering. ~ Terry Tempest Williams,
1273:Do not disregard the accumulation of goodness, saying, 'This will come to nothing.' By the gradual falling of raindrops, a jar is filled. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1274:Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. THE BUDDHA ~ Phil Jackson,
1275:In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create disticntions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1276:In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1277:Jesus, Buddha, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Mother Teresa. ~ Wayne W Dyer,
1278:Life at home is cramped and dirty, it is difficult to live a spiritual life completely, perfect and pure in all its parts while cabinned. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1279:Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1280:The Buddha said that if we know how to look deeply into our suffering and recognize what feeds it, we are already on the path of emancipation. ~ Nhat Hanh,
1281:The Buddha’s last words instructed us to be heedful—to see our actions as important and to keep that importance in mind at all times. ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu,
1282:The Buddha teaches respect for all life.”
“Oh.” She considered this. “Are you a Buddhist?”
“No. I’m an asshole. But I keep trying. ~ Scott Hawkins,
1283:When one, abandoning greed, feels no greed for what would merit greed, greed gets shed from him - like a drop of water from a lotus leaf. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1284:With good will for the entire cosmos, cultivate a limitless heart: above, below, and all around, unobstructed, without hostility or hate. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1285:Abstain from all sinful, unwholesome actions, perform only pious wholesome ones, purify the mind; this is the teaching of enlightened ones ~ Gautama Buddha,
1286:As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.” ― Gautama Buddha   ~ Penny ReidDuane~ Penny Reid ~ Penny Reid,
1287:At its highest, love is a religious state of consciousness. I love you too, Buddha loves, Jesus loves, but their love demands nothing in return. ~ Rajneesh,
1288:If you don't disturb yourself, like a broken gong does not vibrate, then you have achieved nirvana. Irritability no longer exists for you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1289:In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1290:Mudface is the mud in your goatface. What would you say if someone was asked the question 'Does a dog have a Buddha nature?' and said 'Woof! ~ Jack Kerouac,
1291:The man who wears the yellow-dyed robe but is not free from stains himself, without self-restraint and integrity, is unworthy of the robe. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1292:The other world is hidden in this world. The Buddha is asleep in the Zorba. It has to be awakened. And nobody can awaken you except life itself. ~ Rajneesh,
1293:When I was a young man, near the beginning of my life, I looked around with true mindfulness and saw that all things are subject to decay. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1294:Buddham Saranam Gocchami, I take refuge in the Buddha, Sangham, I take refuge in the church, Dhammam, I take refuge in the Dharma, the truth. ~ Jack Kerouac,
1295:Don't give way to heedlessness or to intimacy with sensual delight - for a heedful person, absorbed in jhana, attains an abundance of ease. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1296:One who previously made bad karma, but who reforms and creates good karma, brightens the world like the moon appearing from behind a cloud. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1297:Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1298:The creative thought principle is very important, for as Gautama Buddha declared, “The mind is everything; what you think you become. ~ Norman Vincent Peale,
1299:The discipline which I have imparted to you will lead you when I am gone. Practice mindfulness diligently, to attain the goal of awakening. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1300:The wind cannot overturn a mountain. Temptation cannot touch the man Who is awake, strong and humble, Who masters hiself and minds the law. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1301:To have much learning, to be skillful in handicraft, well-trained in discipline, and to be of good speech -- this is the greatest blessing. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1302:As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, does not adhere, so the sage does not adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1303:But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one's sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1304:Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1305:It’s your road…and yours alone… Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. No matter what path you choose, really walk it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1306:One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1307:Our mind is full of anger, jealousy and other negative feelings. Yet we do not realize that these are incompatible with inner peace and joy. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1308:Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all ~ Gautama Buddha,
1309:Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like) ; fletchers bend the arrow ; carpenters bend a log of wood ; wise people fashion themselves. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1310:You yourself must make an effort. Buddhas are only show the way. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of defilements. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1311:Better it is to live one day seeing the rise and fall of things than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the rise and fall of things. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1312:Careful amidst the careless, amongst the sleeping wide-awake, the intelligent man leaves them all behind, like a race-horse does a mere hack. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1313:I don't believe in magic ... I don't believe in Jesus ... I don't believe in Buddha ... I don't believe in Elvis ... I don't believe in Beatles. ~ John Lennon,
1314:It is more important to prevent animal suffering, rather than sit to contemplate the evils of the universe praying in the company of priests. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1315:On a long journey of human life, faith is the best of companions; it is the best refreshment on the journey; and it is the greatest property. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1316:One of the Buddha’s most widely quoted phrases is attadipa saranam, which means taking refuge (saranam) in the island (dipa) of self (atta). ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1317:Though he should conquer a thousand men in the battlefield a thousand times, yet he, indeed, who would conquer himself is the noblest victor. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1318:To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1319:Uno podría conquistar a un millón de hombres en batalla, pero debería conquistarse sólo a sí mismo. Ése en verdad es el conquistador supremo. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1320:At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha. ~ Hakuin Ekaku,
1321:Bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya:

For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1322:Can't you just see all those enlightened monkey men sitting around a roaring woodfire around their Buddha saying nothing and knowing everything? ~ Jack Kerouac,
1323:Greater than all the joys
Of heaven and earth,
Greater still than dominion
Over all the worlds,
Is the joy of reaching the stream. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1324:In Buddha’s opinion, to train in staying open and curious—to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs—is the best use of our human lives. ~ Pema Ch dr n,
1325:It is better to spend one day contemplating the birth and death of all things than a hundred years never contemplating beginnings and endings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1326:Just as the dawn is the forerunner of the arising of the sun, so true friendship is the forerunner of the arising of the noble eightfold path. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1327:"The gift of Dharma excels all gifts.The taste of Dharma excels all tastes.The delight in Dharma excels all delights." ~ Teachings of the Buddha, Dhammapda 354,
1328:The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what's skillful,
the cleansing of one's own mind:
this is the teaching of the Awakened. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1329:The shallow is easy to embrace, but the profound is difficult. To discard the shallow and seek the profound is the way of a person of courage. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1330:When you come upon a path
that brings benefit
and happiness to all,
follow this course
as the moon
journeys through the stars. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1331:A contemplative should pay equal attention to concentration, energetic effort and equanimity, and not exclusively to one of these factors only. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1332:A mind unruffled by the vagaries of fortune, from sorrow freed, from defilements cleansed, from fear liberated - this is the greatest blessing. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1333:An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1334:As a bee without harming the flower, its colour or scent, flies away, collecting only the honey, even so should the sage wander in the village. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1335:Better it is to live alone; there is no fellowship with a fool. Live alone and do no evil; be carefree like an elephant in the elephant forest. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1336:Handle even a single leaf of green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifest through the leaf. ~ Dogen,
1337:Like a beautiful flower that is colorful but has no fragrance, even well spoken words bear no fruit in one who does not put them into practice. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1338:Should a seeker not find a companion who is better or equal, let him resolutely pursue a solitary course; there is no fellowship with the fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1339:Speak the truth do not become angered and give when asked, even be it a little. By these three conditions one goes to the presence of the gods. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1340:A kind man who makes good use of wealth is rightly said to possess a great treasure; but the miser who hoards up his riches will have no profit. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1341:Ama Buddha der ki:"Başkalarının hatırı için ,merhamet için ,kendinde öyle bir merhamet duygusu yarat ki biraz daha uzun kalıp insanlara yardım edebilesin. ~ Osho,
1342:An ancient buddha said, “Mountains are mountains; waters are waters.” These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains. ~ Dogen,
1343:Built on the foundation of concentration is the third aspect of the Buddha’s path of awakening: clarity of vision and the development of wisdom. ~ Jack Kornfield,
1344:Its face crinkled up grotesquely, the eyes narrowing like those of a laughing Buddha, the lips peeling back to expose a sickle of brilliant teeth. ~ Clive Barker,
1345:Manopubbangama dhamma
manosettha manomaya
manasa ce padutthena
bhasati va karoti va
tato nam dukkhamanveti
cakkamva vahato padam. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1346:Meat-eating is condemned by the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Sravakas; if one devours meat out of shamelessness he will always be devoid of sense. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1347:na kalamat va na anche k bayan mikonand hich yek vagheiate bartar nist.zira bartarin vagheiat chizist k ba mohavere natavan b omghe an rah yaft. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1348:Open-minded people tend to be interested in Buddhism because Buddha urged people to investigate things - he didn't just command them to believe. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
1349:Rising early and scorning laziness, remaining calm in time of strife, faultless in conduct and clever in actions. One like this will be praised. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1350:Those who, relying upon themselves only, not looking for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who will reach the top-most height. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1351:Though one should live a hundred years without wisdom and control, yet better, indeed, is a single day's life of one who is wise and meditative. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1352:Though one should live a hundred years without wisdom and control, yet better, indeed, is a single day’s life of one who is wise and meditative. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1353:Thoughtfulness is the way to deathlessness, thoughtlessness the way to death. The thoughtful do not die: the thoughtless are as if dead already. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1354:Ultimately one must abandon the path to enlightenment. If you still define yourself as a Buddhist, you are not a buddha yet. ~ Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche,
1355:What is the noble truth of suffering? Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering and sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1356:A fool suffers, thinking,
"I have children! I have wealth!"
One's self is not even one's own.
How then are children? How then is wealth? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1357:Being able to make friends and keep them, welcoming others and sharing with them, a guide, philosopher and friend. One like this will be praised. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1358:Fearless, free of craving, and without blemish,
Having reached the goal
And destroyed the arrows of becoming
One is in one's final body. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1359:Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind; delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1360:Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who gets burnt. –Gautama Buddha In ~ Preeti Shenoy,
1361:How fortunate Buddha, Mahomed, and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not cure them of their ecstasy and their inspiration ~ Anton Chekhov,
1362:Oh-do be careful with that! That's my Buddha hand grenade. Twist the head twice and throw it and anyone within ten yards can say their prayers. ~ Anthony Horowitz,
1363:The Buddha taught three cycles of teachings. His first cycle of teachings cover the basics, the prerequisites. This would include the Dharmapada. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1364:The fool says, "These are my sons, this is my land, this is my money." In reality, the fool does not own himself, much less sons, land, or money. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1365:This is my child, this is my wealth: such thoughts are the preoccupations of fools. If we are unable to own even ourselves, why make such claims? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1366:What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind. ~ Buddha#buddha,
1367:Any material form, or thought, or feeling, past or present, should be regarded as, 'This is not mine, this is not what I am, this is not my self.' ~ Gautama Buddha,
1368:AS one instructs others,
So should one do oneself:
Only the self-controlled should restrain others.
Truly, it's hard to restrain oneself. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1369:Attention leads to immortality. Carelessness leads to death. Those who pay attention will not die, while the careless are as good as dead already. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1370:Buddha’s words: A tree is a wondrous thing that shelters, feeds, and protects all living things. It even offers shade to the axmen who destroy it. ~ Richard Powers,
1371:Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1372:Do not underestimate what you specific conventional, nor covetousness others. He who envies others does not terra firma organization of intellect. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1373:Every day and every night, I dance with Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad & all personal Gods: Krishna, Shiva & Buddha. You are welcome too ! ~ Santosh Kalwar,
1374:How long the night to the watchman, How long the road to the weary traveller, How long the wandering of many lives To the fool who misses the way. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1375:Like the Buddha and Jesus, who knew they couldn’t control our lives, but could infuse lives with their selves, we have been graced with a few people. ~ Anne Lamott,
1376:Look not to the faults of others, nor to their omissions and commissions. But rather look to your own acts, to what you have done and left undone. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1377:Our problems are not solved  by physical force,  by hatred,  by warOur problems are solved  by loving kindness  by gentleness,  by joy ~ Gautama Buddha,
1378:The Buddha is like space, with no inherent nature; appearing in the world to benefit the living, his features and refinements are like reflections. ~ Thomas Cleary,
1379:The good renounce everything. The pure don't babble about sensual desires. Whether touched by pleasure or pain, the wise show no change of temper. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1380:The point is that it’s you being destroyed by your hate. Not him. This is what the Buddha called picking up a hot coal to hurl at your enemy. ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde,
1381:Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1382:You have to do your own work; Enlightened Ones will only show the way. Those who practise meditation will free themselves from the chains of death ~ Gautama Buddha,
1383:As the Buddha taught, “He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way. Company with fools…is always painful; company with the wise is pleasure. ~ Anonymous,
1384:Buddha believed that the less you judge things—including the contents of your mind—the more clearly you’ll see them, and the less deluded you’ll be. ~ Robert Wright,
1385:Comparing oneself to others in such terms as "Just as I am so are they, just as they are so am I," he should neither kill nor cause others to kill. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1386:We are the same as plants, as trees, as other people, as the rain that falls. We consist of that which is around us, we are the same as everything. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1387:Who needs to go the horror movies? Just go outside or turn on the TV. Buddha called it the "nightmare of the day." Welcome to incarnate experience. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1388:Would a panel of the wise—Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and Socrates—conceivably approve of our current way of life? ~ William Ophuls,
1389:A fool who recognises his own ignorance is thereby in fact a wise man, but a fool who considers himself wise - that is what one really calls a fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1390:Buddha left a road map, Jesus left a road map, Krishna left a road map, Rand McNally left a road map. But you still have to travel the road yourself ~ Stephen Levine,
1391:Do not speak harshly to any one; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful: blows for blows will touch thee. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1392:He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1393:He who has renounced all violence towards all living beings, weak or strong, who neither kills nor causes others to kill - him I do call a holy man. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1394:If a man can control his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal flesh and wearing animal products, I say he will really be liberated. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1395:♥️If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart. ~ BuddhaArt by Diane Lynn HixHealing Buddha Love ♥️ #buddha #buddhaheart #healingbuddha #art #heart toliveby,
1396:In life we cannot avoid change, we cannot avoid loss. Freedom and happiness are found in the flexibility and ease with which we move through change. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1397:I read that Buddha was able to see all of his past lives, and I realized the only way any of these people could do that is by being outside of time. ~ Fred Alan Wolf,
1398:Just as one can make a lot of garlands from a heap of flowers, so man, subject to birth and death as he is, should make himself a lot of good karma. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1399:Like the Buddha, we too have come from suchness, remain in suchness, and will return to suchness. We have come from nowhere and have nowhere to go. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1400:The Buddha said that if we know how to look deeply into our suffering and recognize its source of food, we are already on the path of emancipation. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1401:Who leaves behind all human bonds
And has cast off the bonds of heaven,
Detached from all bonds everywhere:
He is the one I call a brahmin. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1402:A person is not learned nor wise because he talks much; the person who is patient, free from hatred and fear, that person is called learned and wise. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1403:Cea mai mare întâlnire din viaţa mea: Bach. După el, Dostoievski; apoi scepticii greci, apoi Buddha... pe urmă, dar ce mai contează ce vine pe urmă... ~ Emil M Cioran,
1404:I guess if I had to pick a spiritual figurehead to possess the deed to the entirety of Earth, I'd go with Buddha, but only because he wouldn't want it. ~ Sarah Vowell,
1405:Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those that a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1406:The Buddha says that pain or suffering arises through desire or craving and that to be free of pain we need to cut the bonds of desire."-Eckhart Tolle ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1407:There are two things that we should avoid, oh disciple! A life of pleasures, that is low and vain. A life of mortification, that is useless and vain. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1408:There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1409:Trauma is a basic fact of life, according to the Buddha. It is not just an occasional thing that happens only to some people; it is there all the time. ~ Mark Epstein,
1410:All phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependent-arisings. All phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependently imputed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1411:All phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependent-arisings. all phenomena do not inherently exist because of being dependently imputed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1412:Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live in is to love - to love as Christ loved, as Buddha loved. ~ Isadora Duncan,
1413:A victor only breeds hatred, while a defeated man lives in misery, but a man at peace within lives happily, abandoning up ideas of victory and defeat. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1414:I have marvelous dreams! I meet Buddha, I meet Jesus, I meet Mohammed. I constantly dream of space, stars and planets: we are the children of stardust. ~ Brian Blessed,
1415:Let him the intelligent man admonish, let him teach, let him forbid what is improper ! - he will be beloved of the good, by the bad he will be hated. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1416:Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1417:The great spiritual geniuses, whether it was Moses, Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Jesus, or Emerson..... have taught man to look within himself to find God. ~ Ernest Holmes,
1418:The ocean, king of mountains and the mighty continents Are not heavy burdens to bear when compared To the burden of not repaying the world's kindness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1419:You are the community now. Be a lamp for yourselves. Be your own refuge. Seek for no other. All things must pass. Strive on diligently. Don’t give up. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1420:15. La buena gente brilla de lejos, como las montañas nevadas; los que no son buenos no se ven aquí, a semejanza de las flechas disparadas en la noche. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1421:"As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world." ~ Teachings of the Buddha, Dhammapada,
1422:assembly called the sangha – the same name the Buddha would later give to his monastic order, one of the earliest democratic institutions in the world. When ~ Anonymous,
1423:Dear God, Buddha, Allah, (basically all gods out there in the universe), I believe this Gorgeous Greek God will be the death of me! Amen P.S. Thank you!   ~ Emily McKee,
1424:For fear of causing terror to living beings, Mahamati, let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating flesh. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1425:"If a man going down into a river, swollen and swiftly flowing, is carried away by the current — how can he help others across?" ~ Teachings of the Buddha, Sutta Nipata,
1426:If we can look upon our work not for self-benefit,but as a means to benefit society,we will be practicing appreciation and patience in our daily lives. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1427:In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1428:In religion all words are dirty words. Anybody who gets eloquent about Buddha, or God, or Christ, ought to have his mouth washed out with carbolic soap. ~ Aldous Huxley,
1429:It is much nicer to live in perfect mind, free from pain and agony. How painful it is to be unenlightened. Buddha called it "the nightmare of the day." ~ Frederick Lenz,
1430:It makes no difference whether you worship God, Jehovah, Allah, Mohammed, Buddha, Christ or Krishna- it is still and always one and the same God. ~ Satyananda Saraswati,
1431:It takes hundred of years sitting together in the same boat. It takes thousand of years sharing the same bed with. It calls : the predestined affinity. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1432:Tak ada yang tahu apakah prajurit-prajurit itu Syiwa atau Wisynu, boleh jadi bahkan Buddha. Tidak ada yang mengetahui hati manusia secara tepat. ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
1433:the Buddha whimsically pointed out that seeking happiness in one’s material desires is as absurd as “suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes. ~ Rolf Potts,
1434:The evils of the body are murder, theft, and adultery; of the tongue, lying, slander, abuse and idle talk; of the mind, covetousness, hatred and error. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1435:The Great spiritual geniuses, whether it was Moses, Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Jesus, or Emerson... have taught man to look within himself to find God.
   ~ Ernest Holmes,
1436:There is a way to be purified, to overcome sorrows and grief, to release suffering, to secure the right path to realize nirvana. This is to be mindful. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1437:Even if a fool lived with a wise man all his life, he would still not recognise the truth, like a wooden spoon cannot recognise the flavour of the soup. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1438:People should learn to see and so avoid all danger. Just as a wise man keeps away from mad dogs, so one should not make friends with evil men.” —Buddha ~ Gavin de Becker,
1439:Some consider me as a living Buddha. That's nonsense. That's silly. That's wrong. If they consider me a simple Buddhist monk, however, that's probably okay. ~ Dalai Lama,
1440:We don’t have to choose between Buddha or badass. The idea is to be both. Indeed, sometimes the only way to be effective at one is to master the other. ~ Vishen Lakhiani,
1441:What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind. ~ Albert Einstein,
1442:Whatsoever misfortunes there are Here in this world or in the next, They all have their root in Ignorance And in the accumulation of Longing and Desire. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1443:Before giving, the mind of the giver is happy; while giving, the mind of the giver is made peaceful; and having given, the mind of the giver is uplifted. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1444:Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree and Jesus wrestling with demons in the desert are symbolic of the same drama of the soul that you were born to repeat. ~ Deepak Chopra,
1445:I like Muhammad a lot, because he's like us more than anybody else. Jesus is just so exalted, and Buddha is just so exalted, it's almost beyond our reach. ~ Deepak Chopra,
1446:I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1447:In Aryans' Discipline, to build a friendship is to build wealth, To maintain a friendship is to maintain wealth and To end a friendship is to end wealth. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1448:Oneself, indeed, is one's own protector.
One does, indeed [make] one's own destiny.
Therefore, control yourself
As a merchant does a fine horse. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1449:Sri Krishna's message is the message of anyone who comes from far away. His message is the same as Buddha, Lao Tsu, Bodhidharma, Milarepa, Padmasambhava. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1450:After his great awakening, the Buddha continued to meditate and to devote himself to others; otherwise his vision would have receded into a pleasant memory. ~ Huston Smith,
1451:Buddha was speaking about reality. Reality may be one, in its deepest essence, but Buddha also stated that all propositions about reality are only contingent. ~ Dalai Lama,
1452:Don't give yourself to negligence,
Don't devote yourself to sensual pleasure,
Vigilant and absorbed in meditation
One attains abundant happiness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1453:Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.” Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC) ~ Rhonda Byrne,
1454:If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1455:Jesus was a strange hobo who walked on water.-
Buddha was also a hobo who paid no attention to the other hobo.-
Chief Rain-In-The-Face, weirder even.- ~ Jack Kerouac,
1456:Like a beautiful flower, full of colour, but without scent, are wise words when spoken, but fruitless these words are when not carried out by the speaker. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1457:Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1458:The goal of the Buddha’s teaching is Nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvāṇa). Literally translated, that means “not burning,” or in other words, the loss of all passions. ~ Ayya Khema,
1459:The root of suffering is attachment. ~ Buddha#gautamabuddha #buddha #buda #buddhabless#buddhism #religion #buddhaquote #quote #namobuddhay #BuddhaBlessings #namaste #peace,
1460:The word Buddha comes from the Sanskrit word Budh, meaning, to be awake. So Buddha is not a name and ultimately not a person, but a state of consciousness. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1461:Venez, contemplez ce monde, multicolore comme les chars royaux, dans lequel les sots se plongent, et avec lequel les sages ne conservent point d’attaches. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1462:What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind. —BUDDHA ~ Jonathan Haidt,
1463:Which do you think is more my friend, the water in the four great oceans or the tears that you have shed on this long way of taking birth again and again? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1464:All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death.
All love life.

See yourself in others.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1465:Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1466:Christ didn't have to. Buddha didn't have to. They came back to teach. They came back to die, to suffer, when it was no longer necessary for them to do so. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1467:Opinion, O disciples, is a disease; opinion is a tumour; opinion is a sore. He who has overcome all opinion, O disciples, is called a saint, one who knows. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1468:There is no meditation without wisdom, and there is no wisdom without meditation. When a man has both meditation and wisdom, he is indeed close to nirvana. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1469:Compassion allows us to accept everything. That's why there's always a tear in the eye of the Buddha that no one sees, for the pain and suffering of others. ~ Frederick Lenz,
1470:I have to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament. This is also necessary for all people. ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1471:Jesus was a strange hobo who walked on water.-
Buddha was also a hobo who paid no attention to the other hobo.-
Chief Rain-In-The-Face, weirder even.- ~ John Steinbeck,
1472:The man that is dominated by Anger Doth not know what is seemly and seeth not the Law; That man whom Hate doth accompany, Becometh like unto murky darkness. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1473:The way to happiness is: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, give much. Fill your life with love. Do as you would be done by. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1474:"A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise." ~ Teachings of the Buddha, Dhammapada,
1475:Don't be a spiritualist and don't be a materialist: be both. Don't be a Zorba and don't be a Buddha; be both: Zorba the Buddha. Enjoy all that God has showered on you. ~ Osho,
1476:He who lives with his senses well controlled, moderate in his food and drink, he will not be overthrown, any more than the wind throws down a rocky mountain. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1477:Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1478:One is not a great one because one defeats or harms other living beings. One is so called because one refrains from defeating or harming other living beings. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1479:ou run, you do your crunches, I don’t give a fuck. But you lose any of that ass, those tits, those hips or your Buddha belly, just sayin’, babe, you lose me. ~ Kristen Ashley,
1480:The Beautiful chariots of kings wear out, This body too undergoes decay. But the Dhamma of the good does not decay: So the good proclaim along with the good. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1481:Therefore, do not eat meat which will cause terror among people, because it hinders the truth of emancipation; not to eat meat? this is the mark of the wise. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1482:But when we are able to see the extent of our own fears and desires, there is something in us, recognized by both Buddha and Freud, which is able to break free. ~ Mark Epstein,
1483:Following the Noble Path is like entering a dark room with a light in the hand; the darkness will all be cleared away, and the room will be filled with light. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1484:There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1485:What we are today comes
from our thoughts of yesterday,
and present thoughts build
our life of tomorrow: our life is the
creation of our own mind ~ Gautama Buddha,
1486:First and foremost the Buddha taught a method (“dharma practice”) rather than another “-ism.” The dharma is not something to believe in but something to do. ~ Stephen Batchelor,
1487:If you have done good, set your mind upon it so that it may be repeated over and over again. Allow yourself to be pleased by good. Accumulating good is joyful. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1488:I have to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament. This is also necessary for all people.
   ~ Leo Tolstoy,
1489:It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
   ~ Buddha,
1490:No one can make us suffer without our consent. As the famous and wise saying commonly attributed to Buddha goes, “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. ~ Aletheia Luna,
1491:the Buddha may well have been the original psychoanalyst, or, at least, the first to use the mode of analytic inquiry that Freud was later to codify and develop. ~ Mark Epstein,
1492:There is pleasure And there is bliss. Forgo the first to possess the second. If you are happy At the expense of another man's happiness, You are forever bound. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1493:Why are you so sure parallel lines exist? Believe nothing, merely because you have been told it, or because it is traditional, or because you have imagined it. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1494:According to the Buddha, we have three habitual responses to everything we experience. We want it, reject it, or we zone out. Cookies: I want. Mosquitoes: I reject. ~ Dan Harris,
1495:A person writing at night may put out the lamp, but the words he has written will remain. It is the same with the destiny we create for ourselves in this world. ~ Gautama Buddha,
1496:"Become present. Be there as the observer of the mind. Instead of quoting the Buddha, be the Buddha, be "the awakened one," which is what the word buddha means." ~ Eckhart Tolle,
1497:Buddha says: "Do not flatter your benefactor!". Let one repeat this saying in a Christian church : it immediately purifies the air of everything Christian. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
1498:'I've got children', 'I've got wealth.' This is the way a fool brings suffering on himself. He does not even own himself, so how can he have children or wealth? ~ Gautama Buddha,
1499:The mind always moves on and on. Whatsoever you get becomes useless. The moment you get it, it is useless. This is desire. Buddha has called it trishna: this is becoming. ~ Osho,
1500:Those who recognize the existence of suffering, its cause, its remedy, and its cessation, have fathomed the four noble truths. They will walk in the right path. ~ Gautama Buddha,

IN CHAPTERS [150/411]



  176 Integral Yoga
   54 Poetry
   25 Occultism
   21 Philosophy
   20 Yoga
   13 Buddhism
   12 Psychology
   4 Zen
   3 Mythology
   2 Theosophy
   2 Mysticism
   1 Thelema
   1 Science
   1 Integral Theory
   1 Hinduism
   1 Fiction
   1 Christianity


   63 Nolini Kanta Gupta
   62 Sri Aurobindo
   61 The Mother
   34 Satprem
   19 Aldous Huxley
   17 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
   17 Aleister Crowley
   14 Sri Ramakrishna
   11 A B Purani
   6 Thubten Chodron
   6 Carl Jung
   5 Kobayashi Issa
   5 Bokar Rinpoche
   4 Jordan Peterson
   4 Jetsun Milarepa
   4 George Van Vrekhem
   3 Yuan Mei
   3 Walt Whitman
   3 Swami Vivekananda
   3 Swami Krishnananda
   3 Sri Ramana Maharshi
   3 Ken Wilber
   3 Joseph Campbell
   3 Hakuin
   2 William Butler Yeats
   2 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
   2 Nirodbaran
   2 Naropa
   2 Muso Soseki
   2 Mahendranath Gupta
   2 James George Frazer
   2 Friedrich Nietzsche
   2 Alice Bailey


   19 The Perennial Philosophy
   13 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
   11 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
   11 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
   11 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
   9 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
   9 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
   9 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
   8 The Life Divine
   8 The Blue Cliff Records
   8 Magick Without Tears
   8 Liber ABA
   8 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
   8 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
   7 Words Of Long Ago
   7 Record of Yoga
   7 Essays On The Gita
   6 Questions And Answers 1956
   6 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
   6 Letters On Yoga II
   6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
   5 The Secret Doctrine
   5 Tara - The Feminine Divine
   5 Questions And Answers 1953
   5 Agenda Vol 02
   4 Vedic and Philological Studies
   4 The Synthesis Of Yoga
   4 The Gateless Gate
   4 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
   4 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
   4 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
   4 Preparing for the Miraculous
   4 Milarepa - Poems
   4 Maps of Meaning
   4 Letters On Yoga I
   4 Agenda Vol 06
   4 Agenda Vol 04
   3 Whitman - Poems
   3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
   3 The Study and Practice of Yoga
   3 The Lotus Sutra
   3 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
   3 Talks
   3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
   3 Letters On Yoga IV
   3 Agenda Vol 07
   3 Agenda Vol 05
   2 Yeats - Poems
   2 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
   2 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
   2 The Golden Bough
   2 Some Answers From The Mother
   2 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
   2 Questions And Answers 1955
   2 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
   2 On the Way to Supermanhood
   2 Naropa - Poems
   2 Isha Upanishad
   2 Essays Divine And Human
   2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
   2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
   2 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
   2 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
   2 Agenda Vol 13
   2 Agenda Vol 10
   2 Agenda Vol 08
   2 Agenda Vol 03
   2 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah


00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The third boon is the secret of secrets, for it is the knowledge and realisation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the universal? The release of the individual into the cosmic existence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be the nature of that thing? What is there outside creation, outside manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? Is there existence or non-existence (utter dissolution or extinctionDeath in his supreme and absolute status)? King Yama did not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to dissuade Nachiketas from pursuing the question over which people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much discussed problem in those days. Buddha was asked the same question and he evaded it, saying that the pragmatic man should attend to practical and immediate realities and not, waste time and energy in discussing things ultimate and beyond that have hardly any relation to the present and the actual.
   But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Mastersarvabhtntartm, antarymis called brahmajam, born of the Brahman. Yama teaches the process of transcendence. Apart from the knowledge and experience first of the individual and then of the cosmic Brahman, there is a definite line along which the human consciousness (or unconsciousness, as it is at present) is to ascend and evolve. The first step is to learn to distinguish between the Good and the Pleasurable (reya and preya). The line of pleasure leads to the external, the superficial, the false: while the other path leads towards the inner and the higher truth. So the second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness from the physical and the sensual and even the mental preoccupation and focussing it upon what is certain and permanent. In the midst of the death-ridden consciousness in the heart of all that is unstable and fleetingone has to look for Agni, the eternal godhead, the Immortal in mortality, the Timeless in time through whom lies the passage to Immortality beyond Time.

0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
   When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of his ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya — was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And these noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of them was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each successive trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national life. All demonstrated that the life current of India is spirituality. This truth was revealed to Gadadhar through that inner vision which scans past and future in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was unaware of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.
   Hindu society during the eighteenth century had been passing through a period of decadence. It was the twilight of the Mussalman rule. There were anarchy and confusion in all spheres. Superstitious practices dominated the religious life of the people. Rites and rituals passed for the essence of spirituality. Greedy priests became the custodians of heaven. True philosophy was supplanted by dogmatic opinions. The pundits took delight in vain polemics.
  --
   When Sri Ramakrishna told Mathur what the Brahmani had said about him, Mathur shook his head in doubt. He was reluctant to accept him as an Incarnation of God, an Avatar comparable to Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Chaitanya, though he admitted Sri Ramakrishna's extraordinary spirituality. Whereupon the Brahmani asked Mathur to arrange a conference of scholars who should discuss the matter with her. He agreed to the proposal and the meeting was arranged. It was to be held in the natmandir in front of the Kali temple.
   Two famous pundits of the time were invited: Vaishnavcharan, the leader of the Vaishnava society, and Gauri. The first to arrive was Vaishnavcharan, with a distinguished company of scholars and devotees. The Brahmani, like a proud mother, proclaimed her view before him and supported it with quotations from the scriptures. As the pundits discussed the deep theological question, Sri Ramakrishna, perfectly indifferent to everything happening around him, sat in their midst like a child, immersed in his own thoughts, sometimes smiling, sometimes chewing a pinch of spices from a pouch, or again saying to Vaishnavcharan with a nudge: "Look here. Sometimes I feel like this, too." Presently Vaishnavcharan arose to declare himself in total agreement with the view of the Brahmani. He declared that Sri Ramakrishna had undoubtedly experienced mahabhava and that this was the certain sign of the rare manifestation of God in a man. The people assembled
  --
   Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion. He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (This expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child. Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion. The figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light emanating from them entered his soul. The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mother! What are You doing to me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul: "Behold the Christ, who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." The Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him. Sri Ramakrishna krishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others — Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.
   --- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
   Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used to point out the similarity of his teachings to those of the Upanishads. He also showed great respect for the Tirthankaras, who founded Jainism, and for the ten Gurus of Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations. He was heard to say that the Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India. He kept in his room at Dakshineswar a small statue of Tirthankara Mahavira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening.
   Without being formally initiated into their doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna thus realized the ideals of religions other than Hinduism. He did not need to follow any doctrine. All barriers were removed by his overwhelming love of God. So he became a Master who could speak with authority regarding the ideas and ideals of the various religions of the world. "I have practised", said he, "all religions — Hinduism, Islam, Christianity — and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion — Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well — the same Rama with a thousand names. A lake has several ghats. At one the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it 'jal'; at another the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it pani'. At a third the Christians call it 'water'. Can we imagine that it is not 'jal', but only 'pani' or 'water'? How ridiculous! The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him."
  --
   Mahendranath Gupta, better known as "M.", arrived at Dakshineswar in March 1882. He belonged to the Brahmo Samaj and was headmaster of the Vidyasagar High School at Syambazar, Calcutta. At the very first sight the Master recognized him as one of his "marked" disciples. Mahendra recorded in his diary Sri Ramakrishna's conversations with his devotees. These are the first directly recorded words, in the spiritual history of the world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Christ. The present volume is a translation of this diary. Mahendra was instrumental, through his personal contacts, in spreading the Master's message among many young and aspiring souls.
   --- NAG MAHASHAY

0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
    How Buddhahood would battle with The Booze!
    My certainty that destiny is "good"
    Rests on its picking me for Buddhahood.
    Were I a drunkard, I should think I had
  --
     lated Buddha, come ye to me? I have a trick to
     make you silent, O ye foamers-at-the mouth!
  --
     Buddha, but it's (if anything) too dull for me.
    Viens, beau negre! Donne-moi tes levres encore!

0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  In the spiritual firmament Sri Ramakrishna is a waxing crescent. Within one hundred years of his birth and fifty years of his death his message has spread across land and sea. Romain Rolland has described him as the fulfilment of the spiritual aspirations of the three hundred millions of Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi has written: "His life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ.
  The life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna have redirected the thoughts of the denationalized Hindus to the spiritual ideals of their forefa thers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century his was the time-honoured role of the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. His teachings played an important part in liberalizing the minds of orthodox pundits and hermits. Even now he is the silent force that is moulding the spiritual destiny of India. His great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu missionary to preach the message of Indian culture to the enlightened minds of Europe and America. The full consequence of Swami Vivekn and work is still in the womb of the future.

01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   For, till now Mind has been the last term of the evolutionary consciousness Mind as developed in man is the highest instrument built up and organised by Nature through which the self-conscious being can express itself. That is why the Buddha said: Mind is the first of all principles, Mind is the highest of all principles: indeed Mind is the constituent of all principlesmana puvvangam dhamm1. The consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element in the life upon earth; it has been glimpsed or entered into in varying degrees and modes by saints and seers; it has cast its derivative illuminations in the creative activities of poets and artists, in the finer and nobler urges of heroes and great men of action. But the utmost that has been achieved, the summit reached in that direction, as exampled in spiritual disciplines, involves a withdrawal from the evolutionary cycle, a merging and an absorption into the static status that is altogether beyond it, that lies, as it were, at the other extreme the Spirit in itself, Atman, Brahman, Sachchidananda, Nirvana, the One without a second, the Zero without a first.
   The first contact that one has with this static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is established through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. The Overmind dissolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individualised formation bounded by an outward and narrow frame or sheath of mind, life and body; it reveals the universal Self and Spirit, the cosmic godhead and its myriad forces throwing up myriad forms; the world-existence there appears as a play of ever-shifting veils upon the face of one ineffable reality, as a mysterious cycle of perpetual creation and destructionit is the overwhelming vision given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which this cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.

01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The heart and its urges, the vital and its surges, the physical impulsesit is these of which the poets sang in their infinite variations. But the mind proper, that is to say, the higher reflective ideative mind, was not given the right of citizenship in the domain of poetry. I am not forgetting the so-called Metaphysicals. The element of metaphysics among the Metaphysicals has already been called into question. There is here, no doubt, some theology, a good dose of mental cleverness or conceit, but a modern intellectual or rather rational intelligence is something other, something more than that. Even the metaphysics that was commandeered here had more or less a decorative value, it could not be taken into the pith and substance of poetic truth and beauty. It was a decoration, but not unoften a drag. I referred to the Upanishads, but these strike quite a different, almost an opposite line in this connection. They are in a sense truly metaphysical: they bypass the mind and the mental powers, get hold of a higher mode of consciousness, make a direct contact with truth and beauty and reality. It was Buddha's credit to have forged this missing link in man's spiritual consciousness, to have brought into play the power of the rational intellect and used it in support of the spiritual experience. That is not to say that he was the very first person, the originator who initiated the movement; but at least this seems to be true that in him and his au thentic followers the movement came to the forefront of human consciousness and attained the proportions of a major member of man's psychological constitution. We may remember here that Socrates, who started a similar movement of rationalisation in his own way in Europe, was almost a contemporary of the Buddha.
   Poetry as an expression of thought-power, poetry weighted with intelligence and rationalised knowledge that seems to me to be the end and drive, the secret sense of all the mystery of modern technique. The combination is risky, but not impossible. In the spiritual domain the Gita achieved this miracle to a considerable degree. Still, the power of intelligence and reason shown by Vyasa is of a special order: it is a sublimated function of the faculty, something aloof and other-worldly"introvert", a modern mind would term it that is to say, something a priori, standing in its own au thenticity and self-sufficiency. A modern intelligence would be more scientific, let us use the word, more matter-of-fact and sense-based: the mental light should not be confined in its ivory tower, however high that may be, but brought down and placed at the service of our perception and appreciation and explanation of things human and terrestrial; made immanent in the mundane and the ephemeral, as they are commonly called. This is not an impossibility. Sri Aurobindo seems to have done the thing. In him we find the three terms of human consciousness arriving at an absolute fusion and his poetry is a wonderful example of that fusion. The three terms are the spiritual, the intellectual or philosophical and the physical or sensational. The intellectual, or more generally, the mental, is the intermediary, the Paraclete, as he himself will call it later on in a poem9 magnificently exemplifying the point we are trying to make out the agent who negotiates, bridges and harmonises the two other firmaments usually supposed to be antagonistic and incompatible.

01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he- creates, so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am. If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that you have no genius at all. Be and become yourselfma gridhah kasyachit dhanam, says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular delight the self-determination of the spirit within you and not in the desire for your neighbours riches. The world has become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else. Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief.
   In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a god-head. Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for the most wondrous symphony. Once a man knows what he is and holds fast to it, refusing to be drawn away by any necessity or temptation, he begins to uncover himself, to do what his inmost nature demands and takes joy in, that is to say, begins to create. Indeed there may be much difference in the forms that different souls take. But because each is itself, therefore each is grounded upon the fundamental equality of things. All our valuations are in reference to some standard or other set up with a particular end in view, but that is a question of the practical world which in no way takes away from the intrinsic value of the greatness of the soul. So long as the thing is there, the how of it does not matter. Infinite are the ways of manifestation and all of them the very highest and the most sublime, provided they are a manifestation of the soul itself, provided they rise and flow from the same level. Whether it is Agni or Indra, Varuna, Mitra or the Aswins, it is the same supreme and divine inflatus.

01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Evidently the eminent politician and his school of activism are labouring under a Himalayan confusion: when they speak of Sri Aurobindo, they really have in their mind some of the old schools of spiritual discipline. But one of the marked aspects of Sri Aurobindo's teaching and practice has been precisely his insistence on putting aside the inert and life-shunning quietism, illusionism, asceticism and monasticism of a latter-day and decadent India. These ideals are perhaps as much obstacles in his way as in the way of the activistic school. Only Sri Aurobindo has not had the temerity to say that it is a weakness to seek refuge in contemplation or to suggest that a Buddha was a weakling or a Shankara a poltroon.
   This much as regards what Sri Aurobindo is not doing; let us now turn and try to understand what he is doing. The distinguished man of action speaks of conquering Nature and fighting her. Adopting this war-like imagery, we can affirm that Sri Aurobindo's work is just such a battle and conquest. But the question is, what is nature and what is the kind of conquest that is sought, how are we to fight and what are the required arms and implements? A good general should foresee all this, frame his plan of campaign accordingly and then only take the field. The above-mentioned leader proposes ceaseless and unselfish action as the way to fight and conquer Nature. He who speaks thus does not know and cannot mean what he says.

0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Christ and Buddha have come and gone but it is Rudra who still
  holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the

01.10 - Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Eastern spirituality does not view sorrow and sufferingevilas an integral part of the Divine Consciousness. It is born out of the Divine, no doubt, as nothing can be outside the Divine, but it is a local and temporal formation; it is a disposition consequent upon certain conditions and with the absence or elimination of those conditions, this disposition too disappears. God and the Divine Consciousness can only be purity, light, immortality and delight. The compassion that a Buddha feels for the suffering humanity is not at all a feeling of suffering; pain or any such normal human reaction does not enter into its composition; it is the movement of a transcendent consciousness which is beyond and purified of the normal reactions, yet overarching them and entering into them as a soothing and illumining and vivifying presence. The healer knows and understands the pain and suffering of his patient but is not touched by them; he need not contract the illness of his patient in order to be in sympathy with him. The Divine the Soulcan be in flesh and yet not smirched with its mire; the flesh is not essentially or irrevocably the ooze it is under certain given conditions. The divine physical body is composed of radiant matter and one can speak of it even as of the soul that weapons cannot pierce it nor can fire burn it.
   ***

01.10 - Principle and Personality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The world is full of ikons and archons; we cannot escape them, even if we try the world itself being a great ikon and as great an archon. Those who swear by principles, swear always by some personality or other, if not by a living creature then by a lifeless book, if not by Religion then by Science, if not by the East then by the West, if not by Buddha or Christ then by Bentham or Voltaire. Only they do it unwittingly they change one set of personalities for another and believe they have rejected them all. The veils of Maya are a thousand-fold tangle and you think you have entirely escaped her when you have only run away from one fold to fall into another. The wise do not attempt to reject and negate Maya, but consciously accept herfreedom lies in a knowing affirmation. So we too have accepted and affirmed an icon, but we have done it consciously and knowingly; we are not bound by our idol, we see the truth of it, and we serve and utilise it as best as we may.
   ***

01.11 - Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   "'Listen to this!' shouted Monkey. 'After all the trouble we had getting here from China, and after you specially ordered that we were to be given the scriptures, Ananda and Kasyapa made a fraudulent delivery of goods. They gave us blank copies to take away; I ask you, what is the good of that to us?' 'You needn't shout,' said the Buddha, smiling. 'As a matter of fact, it is such blank scrolls as these that are the true scriptures. But I quite see that the people of China are too foolish and ignorant to believe this, so there is nothing for it but to give them copies with some writing on.' "
   A sage can smile and smile delightfully! The parable illustrates the well-known Biblical phrase, 'the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life'. The monkey is symbolical of the ignorant, arrogant, fussy human mind. There is another Buddhistic story about the monkey quoted in the book and it is as delightful; but being somewhat long, we cannot reproduce it here. It tells how the mind-monkey is terribly agile, quick, clever, competent, moving lightning-fast, imagining that it can easily go to the end of the world, to Paradise itself, to Brahmic status. But alas! when he thought he was speeding straight like a rocket or an arrow and arrive right at the target, he found that he was spinning like a top at the same spot, and what he very likely took to be the very fragrance of the topmost supreme heaven was nothing but the aroma of his own urine.

01.11 - The Basis of Unity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   However, coming to historical times, we see wave after wave of the most heterogeneous and disparate elementsSakas and Huns and Greeks, each bringing its quota of exotic materialenter into the oceanic Indian life and culture, lose their separate foreign identity and become part and parcel of the common whole. Even so,a single unitary body was formed out of such varied and shifting materialsnot in the political, but in a socio-religious sense. For a catholic religious spirit, not being solely doctrinal and personal, admitted and embraced in its supple and wide texture almost an infinite variety of approaches to the Divine, of forms and norms of apprehending the Beyond. It has been called Hinduism: it is a vast synthesis of multiple affiliations. It expresses the characteristic genius of India and hence Hinduism and Indianism came to be looked upon as synonymous terms. And the same could be defined also as Vedic religion and culture, for its invariable basis the bed-rock on which it stood firm and erectwas the Vedas, the Knowledge seen by the sages. But there had already risen a voice of dissidence and discord that of Buddha, not so much, perhaps, of Buddha as of Buddhism. The Buddhistic enlightenment and discipline did not admit the supreme authority of the Vedas; it sought other bases of truth and reality. It was a great denial; and it meant and worked for a vital schism. The denial of the Vedas by itself, perhaps, would not be serious, but it became so, as it was symptomatic of a deeper divergence. Denying the Vedas, the Buddhistic spirit denied life. It was quite a new thing in the Indian consciousness and spiritual discipline. And it left such a stamp there that even today it stands as the dominant character of the Indian outlook. However, India's synthetic genius rose to the occasion and knew how to bridge the chasm, close up the fissure, and present again a body whole and entire. Buddha became one of the Avataras: the discipline of Nirvana and Maya was reserved as the last duty to be performed at the end of life, as the culmination of a full-length span of action and achievement; the way to Moksha lay through Dharma and Artha and Kama, Sannyasa had to be built upon Brahmacharya and Garhasthya. The integral ideal was epitomized by Kalidasa in his famous lines about the character of the Raghus:
   They devoted themselves to study in their boyhood, in youth they pursued the objects of life; when old they took to spiritual austerities, and in the end they died united with the higher consciousness.

0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The Buddha said that Nirvana results in the cessation
  of rebirth. But isn't the Divine always free to send back
  --
  body, the Buddha himself has returned to work in the earthatmosphere.
  26 July 1968

0 1960-10-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
   Yesterday, I suddenly saw a huge living head of blue lightthis blue light which is the force, the powerful force in material Nature (this is the light the tantrics use). The head was made entirely of this light, and it wore a sort of tiaraa big head, so big (Mother indicates the length of her forearm); its eyes werent closed, but rather lowered, like this. The immobility of eternity, absolutely the repose, the immobility of eternity. A magnificent head, quite similar to the way the gods here are represented, but even better; something between certain heads of the Buddha and (these heads most probably come to the artists). Everything else was lost in a kind of cloud.
   I felt that this kind of yes, immobility came from there: everything stops, absolutely everything stops. Silence, immobility truly, you enter into eternity.I told him it wasnt time!

0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It is quite elementary: never take notice of evil, never speak of the evil present in others, never perpetuate the vibrations of evil by observation, criticism or giving undue attention to the evil deed. This is what Buddha taught: each time you mention an evil you help spread it.
   This skirts the issue.

0 1961-07-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   But the problem remains: Buddha and all the rest have FIRST realized, then resumed contact with the world. That makes it very simple. But for the total realization of what I envisage, isnt it indispensable to remain in the world?
   (Mother is absorbed for a while, gazing into the distance)

0 1961-08-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Even Buddha said that if you have a vibration of desire, this vibration goes all around the terrestrial atmosphere. The opposite is whats impossible! Its impossible to separate yourself. You can have the idea of being separate, but you cant be separate in reality. In fact, if you are trying to eliminate the Subconscient in yourself your movement must necessarily be general; it cant be personal, you would never get anywhere.
   Yes, of course, but these vibrations are ceaselessly re-created.

0 1961-08-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   No. Are you thinking of Buddha? (Ah, I thought of this two or three days ago; it came suddenly and I wondered why!) I remembered that before Buddha left his home, he passed through the rooms of the palace and saw his wife and parents sleeping and it felt to him as though they were dead. Thats where we hear of sleep being like death.
   But isnt it like death? When you are asleep, you arent in your body: everything else goes out just as it does at the time of death, doesnt it?

0 1961-10-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   He is there and the atmosphere is full of a sort of concentration of force, and there are these two things: This is how legends come into being how legends begin. The beginning of the legend. I hear this. And there is also a kind of analogy to the old stories of Buddha, of Christ. Its strange.
   I seemed to be looking back into the present from some thousands of years ahead (its no longer now, but as if I were propelled somewhere several thousand years ahead, looking backwards) and its the beginning of the legend.
  --
   I got the impression of there being the same difference between the physical fact of Christ or the physical fact of Buddha and everything we know and say and think and feel about them todayas there is between what we now know of Sri Aurobindo and what will be known of him in the time I was propelled into.
   This book was like the initiator of the legend. Sri Aurobindo was there, Sri Aurobindo as I know him now the eternal Sri Aurobindo I know now.

0 1962-10-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The Buddha, you know, was deeply shocked by the impermanence of things the impermanence of the whole creation, that there was nothing permanent anywhere. That was the starting point of his quest, when he saw that nothing was permanentconstant and permanen thence there was nothing one could call forever. Thats what shocked him, and he felt he had to find something permanent, and in his quest for the Permanent he came upon Nothingness. So his conclusion ran something like this: Only one thing is permanentNothingness. As soon as theres creation, its impermanent.
   Why did he object to impermanence? That, I dont knowa question of temperament, I suppose. But as far as he was concerned, thats what Nothingness is good for: its permanent.

0 1962-11-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   One day, I dont remember on what occasion, I saw what had motivated the forefa thers who wrote the Vedas: it was the need for immortality; they were in quest of immortality.6 From there, I went on to Buddha and saw what had set the Buddha on his way: this kind of need for permanence, purely and simply; the vision of the impermanence of things had profoundly troubled him, and he felt the need for Permanence. His whole quest was to find the Permanent (why was he so anxious to have the Permanent?). There are a few things like that in human nature, in the deep human need. And then I saw another such need: a need for the Certitude which is security. I dont know how to explain it. Because I had the experience of it, I saw it was one of the human needs; and I understood it very intensely, for when I met Sri Aurobindo, this Certitude is what made me feel I had found the Truth I needed. And I didnt realize how DEEP this need was until he left his bodyjust then, at the moment of the transition. Then the entire physical consciousness felt its certitude and security collapse. At that moment I saw (we spoke about it with Nolini a year later and he had had exactly the same impression), I saw this was similar to Buddhas experience when he realized that everything was impermanent and so all of life collapsed in other words, Something Else HAD to be found. Well, at that moment. Id already had all my experiences, but with Sri Aurobindo, for the thirty years I lived with him (a little more than thirty years), I lived in an absolute, an absolute of securitya sense of total security, even physical, even the most material security. A sense of absolute security, because Sri Aurobindo was there. And it held me up, you know, like this (gesture of being carried): not for ONE MINUTE in those thirty years did it leave me. That was why I could do my work with a Base, really, a Base of absolutenessof eternity and absoluteness. I realized it when he left: THAT suddenly collapsed.
   And then I understood that it is one of lifes needs (there are several); and its what spurs the human being to get out of his present state and find another one. These needs are (whats the word?) the seeds, the germs of evolution. They compel us to progress. The whole time Sri Aurobindo was here, as I said, individual progress was automatic: all the progress Sri Aurobindo made, I made. But I was in a state of eternity, of absoluteness, with a feeling of such security, in every circumstance. Nothing, nothing unfortunate could happen, for he was there. So when he left, all at oncea fall into a pit. And thats what projected me wholly (Mother gestures forward).

0 1963-03-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Buddha wanted Permanence.
   Then I looked, wondering, And what was Christs path? Basically, he always said, Love thy neighbor, in other words brotherhood (but thats a modern translation). For him, the idea was compassion, charity (the Christians say its the law of Love, but were not yet there that will come much later). So I wrote:
  --
   The nations of the world legitimize that destructive madness of the arms race by saying its a way to prevent destruction through fear thats futile. As an argument, its futile, but thats the way they think. Its part of that same thirst or need for Security: nothing can be achieved except in peace, nothing can be arrived at except in peace, nothing can be realized except in peacewe need peace, individually, collectively, globally. So lets make horrifying weapons of destruction so that men will be so frightened that nothing will happenhow childish! But thats the current state of mind. It is still one of those in English they say device, a ploy (its not a ploy, its a meansbetween ploy and means) to urge the human race on towards its evolutionary goal. And for that, we must catch hold of the Divine: its a means of catching hold of the Divine. For there is nothingnothing, nothing exists from the point of view of Security, except the Supreme. If we ARE the Supreme, that is to say, the supreme Consciousness, supreme Power, supreme Existence, then there is Securityoutside of that, there is none. Because everything is in perpetual motion. What exists at one moment in time, as Sri Aurobindo says (time is an unbroken succession of moments), what exists at a given moment no longer exists the next, so theres no security. Its the same experience, seen from another angle, as that of Buddha, who said there was no permanence. And basically, the Rishis saw only from the angle of human existence, thats why they were after Immortality. It all boils down to the same thing.
   (Mother remains in contemplation)

0 1963-05-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Thats exactly what made a sharp division in the whole spiritual thought or spiritual will of mankind. The point doesnt seem to have been understood. Some, like Buddha and that whole line, have declared that the world is incorrigible, that the only thing to do is to get out of it, and that it can never be otherwiseit changes, but really remains the same. The result is a certain attitude of perfect acceptance. So, for them, the goal is to get out that is, you escape: you leave the world as it is and escape. Then there are the others, who sense a perfection towards which men strive indefinitely and which is realized progressively. And I see more and more that the two movements complement each other, and not only complement each other but are almost indispensable to each other.
   In other words, the change that arises from a refusal to accept the world as it is has no force, no power: what is needed is an acceptance not only total but comprehensive, joyousto find supreme joy in things in order to have (its not a question of right or power) in order to make it possible for things to change.

0 1963-07-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   What seems bizarre to those who have gone beyond the petty, purely terrestrial limitshuman terrestrial limitsis that belief in a SINGLE divine manifestation on the earth; all the religions are based on that, everyone says, Christ was the only one, or Buddha was the only one, or elsewhere Mohammed was the only one, and so forth. Well, that only one is something IMPOSSIBLE as soon as you rise a little above the ordinary earth atmosphere it appears childish. You can understand the thing and accept it only as a sort of recurrent movement of the divine Consciousness on the earth.
   Of course, officially there is only Christ; maybe for this man [Paul VI], he is still the greatest, but I would be surprised if he thought Christ was the only one. Only, Christ has to be the only oneyoud cut out your own tongue rather than say hes not!

0 1963-09-28, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It would be as Buddha said: its attachment or desire that keeps you here, otherwise theres no reason for you to stay here.
   It would be as Buddha said: its attachment or desire that keeps you here, otherwise theres no reason for you to stay here.
   (Satprem protests wordlessly)
  --
   What he announces, and what I am sure of, is that the Victory will be won on the earth and that the earth will become a progressive being (eternally progressive) in the Lord thats understood. But it doesnt preclude the other possibility. The future of the earth he has announced clearly, and its understood that such is the future of the earth; only, if that possibility [of death as an exclusively earthly phenomenon] is what we could term historically correct, it would sort of legitimize the attitude of those who get away from it. How is it that Buddha, who undeniably was an Avatar, laid so much stress on Deliverance as the conclusion of things? He who stayed behind only to help others to get away faster. Then that means he saw only one side of the problem?
   Oh, yes!
  --
   But Buddha represented only one stage of consciousness. AT THAT TIME it was good to follow that path, therefore
   We can conceive it was a particular necessity within the whole, of course. But these are all conceptions, its still something mental I recently had in my hands a quotation from Sri Aurobindo in which he said that there is no problem the human mind cannot solve if it wants to. (Laughing) There is no problem that the mind cannot solve if it applies itself to it! But I dont care, I have no need of mental logicno need. And it would have no effect on my action thats not what I want, not at all! Its only because there is that increasingly acute contradiction between the Truth and what is. Its becoming painfully acute. You know, that suffering, that general misery is becoming almost unbearable.

0 1964-07-22, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It is said that divine Love doesnt manifest because, in the worlds present state of imperfection, the result would be a catastrophe thats a human vision. Divine Love manifests, has manifested eternally, will manifest eternally, and its the incapacity of the material world not only of the material world, but of the vital world and the mental world, and of many other worlds that arent ready, that are incapable but HE is there, He is there, right there! He is there permanently: its THE Permanence. The Permanence Buddha sought is there. He claims he found it in Nirvanait is there, in Love.
   (silence)

0 1964-09-16, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It was Buddhas wisdom when he said, The middle path: not too much on this side, not too much on that side, dont fall on this side, dont fall on that sidea bit of everything, and a balanced but PURE path.
   Purity and sincerity are the same thing.

0 1964-10-17, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   You see, it is said that Shiva lived on earth, that Krishna lived on earth. As for Buddha and Christ, we know they lived on earthit raised enough rumpus! People even made more fuss about Christs death than about his life. As for Buddha, he professed himself in favor of going away for good (although he didnt actually). But the others? They have of course told the story of Krishnas death but they have told many stories.
   Its too old.

0 1965-02-24, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   That woman is eating herself away. Every time I had the opportunity, I spoke to her about Buddhas love; I told her, But Buddha was full of love! And that makes her blood boil!
   Well.

0 1965-03-20, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   And the Maitreya Buddha, too.
   Yes, but it seems we should be more cautious about him. According to Alexandra David-Neel, its not a truly au thentic text, it came afterwards, after Buddhas descendants: it isnt what Buddha himself is said to have preached. There is a controversy here. Of course, Alexandra belonged to the Buddhism of the South, which is very rigid and absolutely rejects all the fancies of the Buddhism of the North with its innumerable bodhisattvas and all the stories (theyve got so many stories! pulp novels). And she rejected all that, saying it wasnt part of Buddhas au thentic teaching.
   Buddha said that the world, this terrestrial world (maybe the universe, I dont know, the point isnt very clear), in any case the terrestrial world is the result of Desire (but I know someone who used to say [laughing], Yes, its Gods desire to manifest!), and that when Desire disappears, the world will disappear and there will be Nirvana. In other words, once the desire to manifest has disappeared, there is no Manifestation anymore.
   I dont think Buddha was ignorant; I think he knew very well the existence of invisible beings, of immortal beings (what men call gods) and probably the existence of a supreme God, toohe very likely knew it. But he didnt want people to think about it because it appeared to contradict his opinion that the world was the result of Desire and that, once Desire was withdrawn, the world withdrewif there is an immortal world, things cannot happen that way.
   Basically, the further one goes, the more one realizes that all human teachings are opportunistic: they are told with an aim in view; one thing is told, and the other (not that its not known) is deliberately ignored. It seems hard to me to find a different explanation, because as soon as you have passed beyond the Mind (and those people appear to have done so), all knowledge is (whats the word?) available, obtainable.
  --
   I told him, thats why people who very much tried to find, but in vain, spoke of Gods Will; but that (Mother shakes her head) that seems to be irreconcilable with, as I said, the knowledge you have when you have passed beyond the Mind. The Mind can say that to itself in order to give itself peace, but its thoroughly, thoroughly unsatisfying, because it postulates an unacceptable arbitrariness, which is felt as contrary to the Truth. But then, how do you explain those kinds of reversals? Naturally, others, like Buddha, spoke about Ignorance; they said, You are ignorant; you think you know, but you are ignorant. But the key he gave isnt satisfying, either. Because when you have taken care to establish down to the cells of the body an apparently unshakable equanimity, how can you accept the ignorance factor?
   Which means that the further you go, the nearer you draw to the Goal, the more inexplicable it appears to be.

0 1965-05-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I looked at the problem when I tried to understand the position of Buddha, who reproached the Manifestation for its impermanence; to him, perfection and permanence were one and the same thing. In his contact with the manifested universe, he had observed a perpetual change, and so his conclusion was that the manifested world was imperfect and had to disappear. And the change (the impermanence) does not exist in the Nonmanifest, therefore the Nonmanifest is the true Divine. When I looked and concentrated on this point, I saw that his observation was indeed correct: the Manifestation is absolutely impermanent, its a perpetual transformation.
   But in the Manifestation, perfection is to have a movement of transformation or unfolding identical to the divine Movement, the essential Movement. Whereas all that belongs to the unconscious or tamasic1 creation tries to keep its existence unchanged, instead of lasting by constant transformation.

0 1965-08-25, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   No real peace can be till the heart of man deserves peace; the law of Vishnu cannot prevail till the debt to Rudra is paid. To turn aside then and preach to a still unevolved mankind the law of love and oneness? Teachers of the law of love and oneness there must be, for by that way must come the ultimate salvation. But not till the Time-Spirit in man is ready, can the inner and ultimate prevail over the outer and immediate reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the fierce forward labour of mankind tormented and oppressed by the powers that are profiteers of egoistic force and their servants cries for the sword of the Hero of the struggle and the word of its prophet.
   (Essays on the Gita, XIII.372)

0 1966-10-22, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The work keeps increasing (for everyone); the mail is something unbelievable! Its pouring in from everywhere. I got (Mother laughs) a letter from America, from someone I dont know at all, who listened to phonograph records of my voice. And, I dont know, its people who seem to have occult experiences or perhaps practice spiritualism, and he writes to tell me that he hears my voice and I am giving him revelations about himself. But then (laughing) fantastic revelations! He says its my voice, he doesnt doubt it (he accepts even the seemingly most fanciful things), but still, for safetys sake hed like to ask me (!) if I am indeed the one who has told him those things. And among the things I am supposed to have told him, I seem to have declared that he is a combined reincarnation of Buddha, Christ, Archangel Gabriel, Napoleon and Charlemagne! I am going to answer him that those five characters belong to different lines of manifestation and therefore they are rather unlikely to be combined in a single being (a single human being)!
   Its obviously little vital entities having fun. They have fun, and the more fanciful, the greater the fun, of course!

0 1966-10-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Once at the balcony, I was Buddha, absolutely! It lasted a minute or two. And quite a few people told me, Oh, you were Buddha. If a photo had been taken, it would have been visible.
   But it comes constantly like that, like a sort of merry-go-round of people coming by (same gesture of a round dance), and hup! they manifest and go away, hup! they manifest and go away. And in those photos, I have several times recognized someone, but without being able to put a name.

0 1966-11-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Buddha represented the height of abolition. He led to abolition and represented the height of abolition. Very well, but Thats when the summit was reached, when the summit was seen. But we must come back down.
   They dont understand, they are still up above, all of them.
  --
   But, you know, I am desperately struggling against all those who conceive of spiritual life as brrt! you go off. Thats just the beginning. As for me, I always answer with the story of Buddha: as he was about to enter Nirvana, he suddenly realized that the earth had to be changed and stayed on.
   I remember, once, it was with Madame David-Neel. Its very interesting. She came to give a lecture (I wasnt acquainted with her, thats where I met her for the first time), I think it was at the Theosophical Society (I forget). I went to the lecture, and while she was speaking, I saw Buddha I saw him clearly: not above her head, a little to the side. He was present. So after the lecture, I was introduced to her (I didnt know the kind of woman she was!), and I said to her, Oh, Madam, during your speech I saw Buddha present. She answered me (in a furious tone), Impossible! Buddha is in Nirvana! (Mother laughs) Oho! Better keep quiet! I thought.
   But he really was there, whatever she thought!

0 1967-08-12, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   You know, it came to me as a discovery. The whole religion, instead of being seen like this (gesture from below), was seen like that (gesture from above). Here is what I mean: the ordinary idea of Christianity is that the son (to use their language), the son of God came to give his message (a message of love, unity, fraternity and charity) to the earth; and the earth, that is, those who govern, who werent ready, sacrificed him, and his Father, the supreme Lord, let him be sacrificed in order that his sacrifice would have the power to save the world. That is how they see Christianity, in its most comprehensive idea the vast majority of Christians dont understand anything whatsoever, but I mean that among them there may be (perhaps, its possible), among the cardinals for instance who have studied occultism and the deeper symbols of things, some who understand a little better anyway. But according to my vision (Mother points to her note on Christianity), what happened was that in the history of the evolution of the earth, when the human race, the human species, began to question and rebel against suffering, which was a necessity to emerge more consciously from inertia (its very clear in animals, it has become very clear already: suffering was the means to make them emerge from inertia), but man, on the other hand, went beyond that stage and began to rebel against suffering, naturally also to revolt against the Power that permits and perhaps uses (perhaps uses, to his mind) this suffering as a means of domination. So that is the place of Christianity. There was already before it a fairly long earth historywe shouldnt forget that before Christianity, there was Hinduism, which accepted that everything, including destruction, suffering, death and all calamities, are part of the one Divine, the one God (its the image of the Gita, the God who swallows the world and its creatures). There is that, here in India. There was the Buddha, who on the other hand, was horrified by suffering in all its forms, decay in all its forms, and the impermanence of all things, and in trying to find a remedy, concluded that the only true remedy is the disappearance of the creation. Such was the terrestrial situation when Christianity arrived. So there had been a whole period before it, and a great number of people beginning to rebel against suffering and wanting to escape from it like that. Others deified it and thus bore it as an inescapable calamity. Then came the necessity to bring down on earth the concept of a deified, divine suffering, a divine suffering as the supreme means to make the whole human consciousness emerge from Unconsciousness and Ignorance and lead it towards its realization of divine beatitude, but notnot by refusing to collaborate with life, but IN life itself: accepting suffering (the crucifixion) in life itself as a means of transformation in order to lead human beings and the entire creation to its divine Origin.
   That gives a place to all religions in the development from the Inconscient to the divine Consciousness.

0 1967-09-20, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Only an observation, which is really very interesting: its that everyone has said the same thing, all those who have had the Experience have said the same thing but each one in his own way, so it looks like something different. Yesterday it was so clear, and again the whole morning, from early morning: this way, that way, this one here, that one there (Mother shows different facets), the philosophers, founders of religions, sages of all countries they have always said the same thing. For instance, the Buddhas teaching and, say, the Christian teaching, seem to be so different, but its always the same thing. That is to say, there is ONE state (if you catch hold of it), ONE state in which you are conscious of the divine Consciousness (not conscious of: conscious through or conscious with, I dont know how to explain its the divine Consciousness which is conscious, that is, the Consciousness in its essence), and there are no more problems there, no more complications, no more explanations, nothing anymoreeverything is as clear as can be. So then, each one has tried to explain that, and naturally it has become confused, incomplete, incorrect, with one explanation clashing with anotherwhile everyone is talking about the same thing!
   It came yesterday in relation to a boy who sent me the letter from one of his friends, in which he said the usual nonsense: I dont believe in God because I cant see him. The usual little stupidity. And in that connection, I saw (I looked, like that, looked for a long time), I saw that the one who rejects, the one who asserts, the one all that, all of it is (how could I put it?) variations on the same theme, even when it appears to be saying the contrary.

0 1969-05-24, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I always think of Buddha and all of them: well go and merge with the Lord, and then therell be nothing left! (Mother takes her head in her hands)
   So then, for their theory to be credible, they say (laughing) that its all an error. And they dont see the stupidity of their theory: that the Supreme Lord should have been capable of an error and then should have repented and withdrawn from it!

0 1969-05-31, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   But the process to change this back into That is what I dont know The process is abdication (what word should we use?), self-giving (thats not it). But the body felt everything, everything to be so horrible. There was a very, very difficult day.2 And curiously, I knew at that time that it was the exact repetition of the experience Buddha Siddhartha had, and that it was IN this experience that he said, There is only one way out: Nirvana. And at the SAME TIME, I had the true state of consciousness: his solution and the true one. That was really interesting. How the Buddhistic solution is only ONE step taken on the pathone step. And BEYOND that (not on another path, but BEYOND that) is where the true solution lies. It was a decisive experience.
   (long silence)

0 1972-09-06, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Thats certainly how Buddha saw things, and why he said that life was a falsehood and had to disappear but I know better! I KNOW it isnt a falsehood. But it must change must change. But in the meantime.
   Only when I am (gesture, hands open) absolutely silent within and everywhere does it becomes tolerable.

0 1973-01-20, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   He gave me this (Mother shows a Tibetan Buddha in brass). Its a Buddha. Is there something written there [under the statue]?
   Yes, Mother, there are some inscriptions.

02.06 - The Integral Yoga and Other Yogas, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  As for the depreciation of all the old Yogas as something quite easy, unimportant and worthless, and the consequent depreciation of Buddha and Yajnavalkya and other great spiritual figures of the past, is it not evidently absurd on the face of it?
  Wonderful! The realisation of the Self which includes the liberation from ego, the consciousness of the One in all, the established and consummated transcendence out of the universal

03.01 - Humanism and Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The Upanishadic summit is not suffused with humanism or touched by it, because it is supra-human, not because there is a lack or want or deficiency in the human feeling, but because there is a heightening and a transcendence in the consciousness and being. To man, to human valuation, the Boddhisattwa may appear to be greater than the Buddha; even so to the sick a physician or a nurse may seem to be a diviner angel than any saint or sage or perhaps God Himself but that is an inferior viewpoint, that of particular or local interest.
   It is sometimes said that to turn away from the things of human concern, to seek liberation and annihilation in the Self and the Beyond is selfishness, egoism; on the contrary, to sacrifice the personal delight of losing oneself in the Impersonal so that one may live and even suffer in the company of ordinary humanity in order to succour and serve it is the nobler aim. But we may ask if it is egoism and selfishness to seek delight in one's own salvation beyond, would it be less selfish and egoistic to enjoy the pleasure of living on a level with humanity with the idea of aiding and uplifting it? Indeed, in either case, the truth discovered by Yajnavalkya, to which we have already referred, stands always justified, that it is not for the sake of this or that that one loves this or that but for the sake of the self that one loves this or that.

03.06 - Divine Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The Upanishadic summit is not suffused with humanism or touched by it, because it is supra-human, not because there is a lack or deficiency in the human feeling, but because there is a heightening and a transcendence in the consciousness and being. To man, to human valuation, the Bodhisattva may appear to be greater than the Buddha; even so to the sick a physician or a nurse may seem to be a diviner angel than any saint or sage or perhaps God himself but that is an inferior view-point, that of particular or local interest.
   It is sometimes said that to turn away from the things of human concern, to seek liberation and annihilation in the Self and the Beyond, is selfishness, egoism; on the contrary, to sacrifice the personal delight of losing oneself in the Impersonal so that one may live and even suffer in the company of ordinary humanity, in order to succour and serve it, is the nobler aim. But one may ask, if it is egoism and selfishness to seek delight in one's own salvation beyond, would it be less selfish and egoistic to enjoy the pleasure of living on a level with humanity with the idea of aiding and uplifting it? Indeed, in either case, the truth discovered by Yajnavalkya, to which we have already referred, stands always justified,that it is not for the sake of this or that thing that one loves this or that thing, but for the sake of the Self that one loves this or that thing.

03.06 - The Pact and its Sanction, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The whole difficulty centres upon the question: who rouses whom, and what is the principle that is meant to rouse. There is a slogan that incited the Red Terror of the French Revolution; there is the other one which inspired the Nazis; there is still another one rampant that had the seal and sanction of Stalin and his politburo. These have spread their dark wings and covered the saviour light. On the other hand, the voice of the Vedic Rishi that hymned the community of faith and speech and act, the kindly light that Buddha carried to suffering humanity, the love and sacrifice of Christ showing and embleming the way of redemption, the saints and sages in our own epoch who have visioned the ideal of human unity in a divine humanity, even secular leaders who labour for "one world", "a brave new world"all point to the other line of growth and development that man can follow and must and shall follow. The choice has to be made and the right direction given. In India today, there are these two voices put against each other and clear in their call: one asks for unity and harmony, wideness and truth, the other its contrary working for separativeness, disintegration, narrowness, and make-believe and falsehood. One must have the courage and the sagacity to fix one's loyalty and adhesion.
   A true covenant there can be only between parties that work for the light, are inspired by the same divine purpose. Otherwise if there is a fundamental difference in the motive, in the soul-impulse, then it is no longer a pact between comrades, but a patchwork of irreconcilable elements. I have spoken of the threefold sanction of the covenant. The sanction from the top initiates, plans and supports, the sanction from the bottom establishes and furnishes the field, but it is the sanction from the mid-region that inspires, executes, makes a living reality of what is no more than an idea, a possibility. On one side are the Elders, the seasoned statesmen, the wise ones; on the other, the general body of mankind waiting to be moved and guided; in between is the army of young enthusiasts, enlightened or illumined (not necessarily young in age) who form the pra, the vital sheath of the body politic. Allby far the largest part of itdepends upon the dreams that the Prana has been initiated and trained to dream.

03.08 - The Democracy of Tomorrow, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   In India the spiritual life, it is true, was more or less the individual's free venture to the unknown. The Buddha said, Be thy own light; and the Gita too said, Raise thy self by thy own self. Yet here too, in the end, the individual did not stand, it rose but to get merged in the non-individual the universal, the Vast and the Infinite. The highest spiritual injunction is that God only existed and man has to annul his existence in Him.
   The great mantra of individual liberty, in the social and political domain, was given by Rousseau in that famous opening line of his famous book,The Social Contract, almost the Bible of an age; Man is born free. And the first considerable mass rising seeking to vindicate and realise that ideal came with the toxin of the mighty French Revolution. It was really an awakening or rebirth of the individual that was the true source and sense of that miraculous movement. It meant the advent of democracy in politics and romanticism in art. The century that followed was a period of great experiment: for the central theme of that experiment was the search for the individual. In honouring the individual and giving it full and free scope the movement went far and even too far: liberty threatened to lead towards licence, democracy towards anarchy and disintegration; the final consequence of romanticism was surrealism, the deification of individual reason culminated in solipsism or ego-centricism. Naturally there came a reaction and we are in this century, still, on the high tide of this movement of reaction. Totalitarianism in one form or another continues to be the watchword and although neither Hitler nor Mussolini is there, a very living ghost of theirs stalks the human stage. The liberty of the individual, it is said and is found to be so by experience, is another name of the individual's erraticism and can produce only division and mutual clash and strife, and, in the end, social disintegration. A strong centralised power is necessary to hold together the warring elements of a group. Indeed, it is asserted, the group is the true reality and to maintain it and make it great the component individuals must be steamrollered into a compact mass. Evidently this is a poise that cannot stand long: the repressed individual rises in revolt and again we are on the move the other way round. Thus a never-ending see-saw, a cyclic recurrence of the same sequence of movements appears to be an inevitable law governing human society: it seems to have almost the absolutism of a law of Nature.1

03.09 - Buddhism and Hinduism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Hinduism, one may even say, Indianism, has cast Buddhism out of India, the mother country, to the wonder of many. Buddhism came to rub out the dead deposits and accretions on the parent body and in doing so it often rubbed on the raw and against the grain. Hinduism had to accept the corrections; in the process it had to absorb, however, many elements contrary to its nature, even antipathic to its soul. Buddha was accepted as an Avatar; he was given a divine status in the Hindu Pantheon. Divested, apparently, of all heterodoxical and controversial appendages, he was anointed with the sole sufficing aspect of supreme kindness, universal compassion. Even so, in and through this Assumption, not a little of the peculiarly Buddhist inspiration entered the original organism. The most drastic and of far-reaching consequence was the inauguration and idolisation of monastic life, which has become since then in Indian conception, the summum bonum, the supreme goal of human existence. It was not without reason that India's older and truer tradition cried out against Shankara being a crypto-Buddhist (pracchanna bauddha), who was yet one of the most consistent and violent critics of Buddhism.
   Life is an expression of the Divine Presence, earth is the field of labour for the godssuch was the original old-world Vedic view. It was the Buddhist dispensation that made life an inferior truth, a complex of unreality and decreed that the highest aim of man is to disappear from life after life's fitful fever to sleep well that seems to have been the motto given.
  --
   The Buddha says, take off the elements that compose the creation one by one, nothing would remain in the end. Creation is only an agglomeration of discrete elements; there is nothing behind them or within them that is permanent and holding them together. When names and forms go, at the end there is only dissolution, pure and simple, Nothing, Nihil.
   (III) This metaphysical position is faithfully translated, one may point out here, in their respective logical positions of the two.
  --
   (IV) The Vedic Rishis declared with one voice that all existence is built upon delight, all things are born out of delight and move from delight to delight, and delight is their final culmination. Buddha said misery is the hallmark of things created; sorrow is the marrow and pith and the great secret of existence. Sabbe samkhara anichcha. Sabbe samkhara dukkha. Sabbe dhamma anatta.1
   Dhammapada, 278.

03.10 - The Mission of Buddhism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Yes, it was the age, almost a golden age, when man lived with his sense married to the Dawn, spontaneous in his reflexes, prime-sautier, intuitive and imaginative, full of a natural, unspoilt, unsophisticated happiness and hopefulness. But the Age of Reason had to come, and man's maturer nature, perhaps some "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought". Such an age of Reason and Ratiocination and pure brain power was ushered in by Buddha in India, and almost contemporaneously by Socrates in Greece and Confucius in China. The rational, that is to say, the scientific or analytical attitude to things appeared in the human consciousness for the first time in its fullness and almost exclusive sway. Neither the Vedas nor the Upanishads knew of logic as an instrumenta necessary instrument for knowledge and expression. The old-world method was, as I said, intuitive, experiential, empirical, dogmatic. Also the atmosphere of that world, the stress of the consciousness was theocratic; what the new world brought in was what is called humanistic.
   We say then that it was a necessity: it was a necessity that the rational, logical, ratiocinative, analytic mentality should be brought out and given its play and place. It is perhaps an inferior power of the mind or consciousness, but it is a strong power and has its use and utility. It is the power that gives the form and pattern for the display of consciousness and intelligence in outward expression and external living; it is a firm weapon that gives control over these inferior ranges of consciousness. The leap from the sense-consciousness or the elements of consciousness, from a mental growth just adequate and not too specialised, straight into the supra-sensuous and the transcendent had been an inevitable necessity, so that the human consciousness might get the first taste of its supreme status and value: a similar necessity brought to the fore this element of the mind, the mind's own powerof judgement and willso that there might be a greater and wider integration of human nature and also that the higher realities may be captured in our normal consciousness. Even for the withdrawal of the mind from the outer objects to the inner sources, the mind itself can be used with much effect. And Buddha showed it magnificently. And of course, Shankara too who followed in his footsteps.
   To abrogate the matter of fact, rational view of life in order to view it spiritually, to regard it wholly as an expression or embodiment or vibration of consciousness-delight was possible to the Vedic discipline which saw and adored the Immanent Godhead. It was not possible to Buddha and Buddhistic consciousness; for the Immanent Divine was ignored in the Buddhistic scheme. Philosophically, in regard to ultimate principles, Buddhism was another name for nihilism, creation being merely an assemblage of particles of consciousness that is desire; the particles scattered and dissolved, remains only the supreme incomparable Nirvana. But pragmatically Buddhism was supremely humanistic.
   As it took man as a rational animal, at least as a starting-point, even so it gave a sober human value to things human. A rationalist's eye made him see and recognise the normal misery of mankind; and the great compassion goaded him to find the way out of the misery. It was not a dispassionate quest into the ultimate truth and reality nor an all-consuming zeal to meet the Divine that set Buddha on the Path; it was the everyday problem of the ordinary man which troubled his mind, and for which he sought a solution, a permanent radical solution. The Vedanist saw only delight and ecstasy and beatitude; forhim the dark shadow did not exist at all or did not matter; it was the product of illusion or wrong view of things; one was asked to ignore or turn away from this and look towards That. Such was not the Buddha's procedure.
   These are the two primarytruthsrya saryawhich Buddha's illumination meant and for which he has become one of the great divine leaders of humanity. First, he has discovered man's rationality, and second, he has discovered man's humanity. Since his advent two thousand and five hundred years ago till the present day, in this what may pertinently be called the Buddhist age of humanity, the entire growth, development and preoccupation of mankind was centred upon the twofold truth. Science and religion today are the highest expressions of that achievement.
   They speak of the coming of a new Buddha (Maitreya) with the close of the cycle now, ushering another cycle of new growth and achievement. It is said also that humanity has reached its apex, a great change-over is inevitable: seers and savants have declared that man will have to surpass himself and become superman in order to fulfil what was expected of him since his advent upon earth. If we say that the preparation for such a consummation was taken up at the last stage by the Buddha and Buddhism, and the Buddhistic inspiration, we will not be wrong. It was a cycle of ascending tapasya for the human vehicle: it was a seeking for the pure spirit which meant a clearance of the many ignorances that shrouded it. It was also an urge of the spirit to encompass in its fold a larger and larger circle of humanity: it meant that the spiritual consciousness is no more an aristocratic or hermetic virtue, but a need in which the people, the large mass, have also their share, maybe in varying degrees.
   A new humanity broad-based to encompass the whole earth, expressing and embodying the light and power and joy of spiritual heights, forming a happy world state, may very well announce in the new age the descent of a supreme truth and principle of existence here below.

03.11 - Modernist Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   In general, however, and as we come down to more and more recent times we find we have missed the track. As in the material field today, we seek to create and achieve by science and organisation, by a Teutonic regimentation, as in the moral life we try to save our souls by attending to rules and regulations, codes and codicils of conduct, even so a like habit and practice we have brought over into our sthetic world. But we must remember that Napoleon became the invincible military genius he was, not because he followed the art of war in accordance with laws and canons set down by military experts; neither did Buddha become the Enlightened because of his scrupulous adherence to the edicts which Asoka engraved centuries later on rocks and pillars, nor was Jesus the Christ because of his being an exemplar of the Sermon on the Mount.
   The truth of the matter is that the spirit bloweth where it listeth. It is the soul's realisation and dynamic perception that expresses itself inevitably in a living and au thentic manner in all that the soul creates. Let the modernist possess a soul, let it find out its own inmost being and he will have all the newness and novelty that he needs and seeks. If the soul-consciousness is burdened with a special and unique vision, it will find its play in the most categorically imperative manner.

03.13 - Human Destiny, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   But, as we have said, man seems to have yet retained his youthfulness. He always just falls short of the perfect perfection, that is to say, in any single form or expression of life. Life did become stereotyped, mechanised, and therefore fossilised, more or less, in Egypt of the later Dynasties; in India too life did not become less inert and vegetative during two long periods, once just preceding the advent of the Buddha,.
   and a second time just preceding the Moslem adventand a third time perhaps just preceding the British advent. And yet man has survived all falls and has been reborn and rejuvenated every time he seems to be off the stage.

03.14 - Mater Dolorosa, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   This is a counsel of perfection, one would say. But there is no other way out. If humanity is to be saved, if it is at all to progress, it can be only in this direction. Buddha's was no less a counsel of perfection. He saw the misery of man, the three great maladies inherent in life and his supreme compassion led him to the discovery of a remedy, a radical remedy,indeed it could remove the malady altogether, for it removed the patient also. What we propose is, in this sense, something less drastic. Ours is not a path of escape, although that too needs heroism, but of battle and conquest and lordship.
   It is not to say that other remediesless radical but more normal to human naturecannot be undertaken in the meanwhile. The higher truths do not rule out the lower. These too have their place and utility in Nature's integral economy. An organisation based on science and ethicism can be of help as a palliative and measure of relief; it may be even immediately necessary under the circumstances, but however imperative at the moment it does not go to the root of the matter.

03.15 - Towards the Future, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Pursuing the mathematical imagery we may describe the Buddhist equation as desire raised to the power of zero equals Nirvana: D=Zero. Buddha thought like that. He thought annihilation of desire means annihilation of existence, for he equated desire with existence. But mathematics tells us that anything raised to the power of zero is not zero but one, that is, the unit, the pure existenceSat (or Sachchidananda as the Vedantists say.
   Science and mathematics tell us today of a truth or just point to a truth which a spiritual realisation reveals. It is, as I have already said, the mystery of transformation, or transubstantiation as the Christian faith figures it.

04.01 - The March of Civilisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   These larger human movements are in a sense anonymous. They are not essentially the creation of a single man as are some of the well-known religious movements. They throw up great aspiring souls, strong men of action, indeed, but as part of themselves, in their various aspects, facets, centres of expression, lines of expansion. An Augustus, a Pericles, a Leo X, a Louis XIV, or a Vikramaditya are not more than nuclei, as I have already said, centres of reference round which their respective epoch crystallises as a peak culture unit. They are not creators or originators; they are rather organisers. A Buddha, a Christ or a Mohammed or even a Napoleon or Caesar or Alexander are truly creators: they bring with them somethingsome truth, some dynamic revelation that was not there before. They realise and embody each a particular principle of being, a unique mode of consciousnessa new gift to earth and mankind. Movements truly anonymous, however, have no single nucleus or centre of reference: they are multi-nuclear. The names that adorn the Renaissance are many, it had no single head; the men through whom the great French Revolution unrolled itself were many in number, that is to say, the chiefs, who represented each a face or phase of the surging movement.
   The cosmic spirit works itself out in the world and in human affairs in either of these forms:(1) as embodied in a single personality and (2) as an impersonal movement, sometimes through many personalities, sometimes through a few outstanding personalities and sometimes even quite anonymously as a mass movement. Either mode has each its own special purpose, its function in the cosmic labour, its contri bution to the growth and unfoldment of the human consciousness upon earth as a whole. Generally, we may say, when it is an intensive work, when it is a new truth that has to be disclosed and set in man's heart and consciousness, then the individual is called up and undertakes the work: when, however, the truth already somehow found or near at hand is to be spread wide and made familiar to men and established upon earth, then the larger anonymous movements are born and have sway.
  --
   Turning to India we find a fuller and completerif not a globalpicture of the whole movement. India, we may say, is the spiritual world itself: and she epitomised the curve of human progress in a clearer and more significant manner. Indian history, not its political but its cultural and spiritual history, divides itself naturally into great movements with corresponding epochs each dwelling upon and dealing with one domain in the hierarchy of man's consciousness. The stages and epochs are well known: they are(l) Vedic, (2) Upanishadic, (3) Darshanasroughly from Buddha to Shankara, (4) Puranic, (5) Bhagavataor the Age of Bhakti, and finally (6) the Tantric. The last does not mean that it is the latest revelation, the nearest to us in time, but that it represents a kind of complementary movement, it was there all along, for long at least, and in which the others find their fruition and consummation. We shall explain presently. The force of consciousness that came and moved and moulded the first and the earliest epoch was Revelation. It was a power of direct vision and occult will and cosmic perception. Its physical seat is somewhere behind and or just beyond the crown of the head: the peak of man's manifest being that received the first touch of Surya Savitri (the supreme Creative Consciousness) to whom it bowed down uttering the invocation mantra of Gayatri. The Ray then entered the head at the crown and illumined it: the force of consciousness that ruled there is Intuition, the immediate perception of truth and reality, the cosmic consciousness gathered and concentrated at that peak. That is Upanishadic knowledge. If the source and foundation of the Vedic initiation was occult vision, the Upanishad meant a pure and direct Ideation. The next stage in the coming down or propagation of the Light was when it reached further down into the brain and the philosophical outlook grew with rational understanding and discursive argumentation as the channel for expression, the power to be cultivated and the limb to be developed. The Age of the Darshanas or Systems of Philosophy started with the Buddha and continued till it reached its peak in Shankaracharya. The age sought to give a bright and strong mental, even an intellectual body to the spiritual light, the consciousness of the highest truth and reality. In the Puranic Age the vital being was touched by the light of the spirit and principally on the highest, the mental level of that domain. It meant the advent of the element of feeling and emotiveness and imagination into the play of the Light, the beginning of their reclamation. This was rendered more concrete and more vibrant and intense in the next stage of the movement. The whole emotional being was taken up into the travailing crucible of consciousness. We may name it also as the age of the Bhagavatas, god-lovers, Bhaktas. It reached its climax in Chaitanya whose physical passion for God denoted that the lower ranges of the vital being (its physical foundations) were now stirred in man to awake and to receive the Light. Finally remains the physical, the most material to be worked upon and made conscious and illumined. That was the task of the Tantras. Viewed in that light one can easily understand why especial stress was laid in that system upon the esoteric discipline of the five m's (pancha makra),all preoccupied with the handling and harnessing of the grossest physical instincts and the most material instruments. The Tantric discipline bases itself upon Nature Power coiled up in Matter: the release of that all-conquering force through a purification and opening into the consciousness of the Divine Mother, the transcendent creatrix of the universe. The dynamic materialising aspect of consciousness was what inspired the Tantras: the others forming the Vedantic line, on the whole, were based on the primacy of the static being, the Purusha, aloof and withdrawing.
   The Indian consciousness, we say, presented the movement as an intensive and inner, a spiritual process: it dealt with the substance itself, man's very nature and sought to know it from within and shape it consciously. In Europe where the frontal consciousness is more stressed and valued, the more characteristic feature of its history is the unfoldment and metamorphosis of the forms and expressions, the residuary powers, as it were, of man's evolving personality, individual and social.

04.02 - A Chapter of Human Evolution, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   In India we meet a characteristic movement. As I said the Vedas represented the Mythic Age, the age when knowledge was gained or life moulded and developed through Vision and Revelation (Sruti, direct Hearing). The Upanishadic Age followed next. Here we may say the descending light touched the higher reaches of the Mind, the mind of pure, fundamental, typical ideas. The consciousness divested itself of much of the mythic and parabolic apparel and, although supremely immediate and intuitive, yet was bathed with the light of the day, the clear sunshine of the normal wakeful state. The first burgeoning of the Rational Mind proper, the stress of intellect and intellectuality started towards the end of the Upanishadic Age with the Mahabharata, for example and the Brahmanas. It flowered in full vigour, however, in the earlier philosophical schools, the Sankhyas perhaps, and in the great Buddhist illumination Buddha being, we note with interest, almost a contemporary of Socrates and also of the Chinese philosopher or moralist Confuciusa triumvirate almost of mighty mental intelligence ruling over the whole globe and moulding for an entire cycle human culture and destiny. The very name Buddha is significant. It means, no doubt, the Awakened, but awakened in and through the intelligence, the mental Reason, buddhi. The Buddhist tradition is that the Buddhist cycle, the cycle over which Buddha reigns is for two thousand and five hundred years since his withdrawal which takes us, it seems, to about 1956 A.D.
   The Veda speaks of Indra who became later on the king of the gods. And Zeus too occupies the same place in Greek Pantheon. Indra is, as has been pointed out by Sri Aurobindo, the Divine Mind, the leader of thought-gods (Maruts), the creator of perfect forms, in which to clo the our truth-realisations in life. The later traditional Indra in India and the Greek Zeus seem to be formulations on a lower level of the original archetypal Indra, where the consciousness was more mentalised, intellectualised, made more rational, sense-bound, external, pragmatic. The legend of Athena being born straight out of the head of Zeus is a pointer as to the nature and character of the gods. The Roman name for Athena, Minerva, is significantly derived by scholars from Latin mens, which means, as we all know, mind.

04.03 - Consciousness as Energy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Man, we thus see, is an infinitely composite being. We have referred to the four or five major chords in him, but each one has again innumerable gradations of vibration. Man is a bundle or dynamo of energy and this energy is nothing but the force of consciousness. To different modes or potentials of this energy different names are given. And what makes the thing still more complex is that all these elements exist simultaneously and act simultaneously, although in various degrees and stresses. They act upon each other, and severally and collectively impress upon the nature and character of the individual being and mould and direct his physical status and pragmatic life. A man can, however, take consciously a definite position and status, identify himself with a particular form and force of consciousness and build his being and life in the truth and rhythm of that consciousness. Naturally the limits and the limitation of that consciousness mark also the limits and limitation of the disposition he can effect in his life. When it is said that the spiritual force is not effective on the physical plane in mundane affairs Buddha, it is said, for example, has not been able to rid the earth or age, disease and death (although it was not Buddha's intention to do so, his purpose was to show a way of escape, of bypassing the ills of life, and in that he wholly succeeded)it only means that the right mode or potential of spiritual energy has not been found; for that matter even the mightiest mundane forces are not sovereignly effective in mundane affairs, otherwise the Nazi-Force would have been ruling the world today.
   Still it must be remembered that all these apparently diverse layers and degrees of being or consciousness or energy form essentially one indivisible unity and identity. What is called the highest and what is called the lowest are not in reality absolutely disparate and incommensurable entities: everywhere it is the highest that lies secreted and reigns supreme. The lowest is the highest itself seen from the reverse side, as it were: the norms and typal truths that obtain in the superconsciousness are also the very guiding formulas and principles in the secret heart of the Inconscience too, only they appear externally as deformations and caricatures of their true reality. But even here we can tap and release the full force of a superconscient energy. A particle of dead matter, we know today, is a mass of stilled energy, electrical and radiant in nature; even so an apparently inconscient entity is a packet of Superconsciousness in its highest potential of energy. The secret of releasing this atomic energy of the Spirit is found in the Science of Yoga.

04.05 - The Immortal Nation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   One may note three or four crises, practically rebirths, in India's life history. They correspond roughly with the great racial infiltrations or what is described as such by anthropologists, what others may describe as operations of blood transfusion. There was an original autochthonous people, the early humanity out of the stone age, usually called proto-Dravidians, whose remnants are still found among the older and cruder aboriginal tribes. Then the Dravidian infusion which culminated in the humanity, the Indian humanity, of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Next the Aryan avatar. One usually begins Indian history with the Dravido-Aryan civilisation which is taken as the basic foundation, the general layout of the whole structure. The first shock or blow the edifice received was from the Greeks and then the Huns and Scythians the Tartars something that struck at the most essential element of Indian culture and character. Psychologically the new leaven was brought in and injected by Gautama Buddha the un-Vedic Buddha the external invasion and penetration was possible because of this opening already made from within. This injection was necessary as an antidote to the decline and fall that had set in sometime between the passing of Sri Krishna and the advent of Buddha. But traditional India absorbed this new leaven and came out with a renewed and enriched personality. The next major shaking came with the Islamic inundation. This meant or would have meant a great and even catastrophic reversal, but this too in the course of centuries succeeded only in invigorating and enlarging the life and consciousness of eternal India. The last and perhaps the most dangerous assault came from the Europeans, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and finally, most of all, from the British. An absolutely matter-of-fact vitalistic Europe overran and overwhelmed a predominantly otherworldly spirit and almost succeeded in obliterating that spirit and replacing it by a replica of its own life-pattern and Weltanschauung. Even such a blow India could survive, not only so, could utilise it for her own purpose, for the greater fulfilment of her mission in life. She is coming out of that ordeal a towering personality, a godhead for the remoulding of humanity and earth-life.
   It may be argued that all nations and peoples are a mixture of various races and foreign strands which are gradually, soldered and unified together in course of time. The British nation, for example, is built upon a base of Celtic blood and culture (the original Briton), to which were added one by one the German (Angles and the Saxon), the Danish, the French. But what is to be noted is that the resultant is at the end some-thing very different from the start something unrecognisable when compared with the original pattern and genius. The resultant seems to be arrived at not by a gradual evolution and continuous transformation but by disparate echelons or , breaks, as it were, in the line. In France also or in Italy the growth and the unification were achieved through violent revolutions, eruptions and irruptions. In the former, a Gaelic and Iberian base and in the latter an Etruscan were all but swept off by the Roman rule which again saw its end at the hand of the Barbarians. The history of Greece offers a typical picture of the destiny of these peoples. Her life-line is sundered completely at three different epochs giving us not one but three different personalities or peoples: at the outset there was the original classical Greece, then the first and milder although sufficiently serious break came with the Roman conquest; the second catastrophic change was wrought by the Goths and Vandals which was stabilised in the Byzantine Empire and the third avatar appeared with the Turkish regime. At the present time, she is acquiring another life and body.

05.08 - True Charity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Charity is commonly understood to consist in rendering material help to your fellow men, giving alms to the poor, medicine to the sick, money or material to those who need them and physical service also where that is required. All this is well and good. The world is ridden with diseases and privations and calamities. And if something is done to alleviate them, it is as it should be, activities in that direction deserve full encouragement. But this does not go far enough, does not touch the root of the matter. It is the human way of dealing with things and must naturally be very limited in its scope and efficacy. There is a higher, a diviner way the way of the Spirit for the cure of earthly ills, cure and not mere alleviation. That was the secret inspiration behind the message of the Christ and the Buddha.
   It is not true that when one's wants are met, one always becomes or remains happy; all paupers are not unhappy, nor are the affluent invariably happy. Happiness is a quality that depends upon something else and comes from elsewhere: it is not directly proportional to material well-being. Unhappiness too is a psychological entity and consists in a special vibration of mind and vitality and consequently of the physical beingdue to a warp in the consciousness itself, in the core of the inner personality. The material conditions serve only to manifest it, maintain or aggravate it, but do not create ittruly they are created by it. That is why the spiritual healers always refer to the bliss of the Spirit as the sole remedy for physical ills even, for disease, misery and death. And the unhappy mortals are always called to turn to the Divine alone in their distressbhajasva mm.
  --
   This condition is attained, fully and sovereignly, when there is absolute egolessness, when there is no consciousness of a separate person, the dual consciousness of the helper and the helped, the reformer and the reformed, the doctor and the patient. The normal human sense of values is based upon such a division, upon egohood, mamatvam. A philanthropic man helps others through a sense of sympathy giving rise to a sense of duty and obligation. This feeling of pity, of commiseration is dangerous, for it puts you in a frame of mind that tends to make you look down upon, take a superior air towards your object of pity. You become self-conscious, with the consciousness of your inferior self, that you are helping others, doing good to the world, doing something that raises your value: this sense of personal merit is only another name for vanity. Vanity and ambition are the motive powers that lie behind the philanthropical spirit born of sympathy. To denote a shade of meaning different from what is usually conveyed by the word sympathy, modern psychology has I found another wordempathy. Sympathy may be said to be the relation or contact between two egos; it is a link or bridge between two separate and independent entities; empathy, on the other hand, means the entering into the I very being and consciousness of another, becoming that other one; it is identification and identity. This again is what I spiritual consciousness alone can do. Sympathy leads to! philanthropy, empathy is the origin of true charity, the spiritual I compassion of a Buddha or a Christ. Philanthropy is human, I charity (caritas) is divine.
   ***

05.29 - Vengeance is Mine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   One who seeks to live in God's consciousness cannot take the law into his own hands; he must leave it all to God. When he takes up the self-appointed task of remedying the situation, "resisting evil" as Christ termed it, he invites resistance from the other side which takes up its own counter-measures. The principle of revancheor vendetta, practised by nations and families, has not been a success, as history has amply proved. It is a seesaw movement, a vicious circle without issue. Not only so, the movement gathers momentum and increases in violence and confusion the farther it proceeds on its career. That is why Christ uttered his warning: and Buddha too declared that enmity cannot be appeased by enmity, it can be appeased only by the want of enmity. The truth is true not only in respect of two enemy forces of the same quality and on the same plane, but also with regard to the antagonism between higher and lower forces, between Good and Evil.
   Do we then propose taking it all lying down, it may be asked? Is martyrdom then our ideal? Not so, for we do not believe that evil forces can be appeased or conquered or transformed by yielding to them, letting them free to have their own way. Otherwise Krishna would not have enjoined and inspired (almost incited) Arjuna to enter on a bloody battle. Still forces, whether good or bad, are conquered or quelled or transformed truly and permanently by forces that belong not to the same level of being or consciousness, but to a higher one. Instead of working in a parallelogram of forces, we must take recourse, as it were, to a pyramid of forces. We know of the ideal of soul-force standing against and seeking to persuade or peacefully subdue brute force. It is not an impossibility; only we must be able really to get to the true soul and not a semblance or substitute of it. The true soul is .man's spiritual or divine being the consciousness in which man is one in substance and nature with God. It is not a mere thought formation, a mental and moral ideal. The only force that can succeed against a lower or undivine force is God's own force and the success can be complete and absolute by the calling in or intervention of God's force in its highest status. Anything less than that will be no more than a temporary lull or adjustment.

06.08 - The Individual and the Collective, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   An integral sadhana cannot be confined to the individual alone; an element of collectivity must enter into it. An individual is not an isolated being in any way. There are, of course, schools of Yoga and philosophy that seek to isolate the individual, consider him as an entity hemmed in by his own consciousness; indeed they view the individuals as all distinct and separate, each a closed circle or sphere, they may barely touch each other but never interpenetrate or inter-communicate. Each stands as a solitary island, all together forming the vast archipelago of the universe. This is a position; no doubt, that can be acquired by a kind of discipline of the consciousness, though not to a great perfection; but it is not a natural or necessary poise. Normally, individuals do merge into each other and form one weft of give and take. A desire, an impulse, even a thought that rises in you, goes out of you, overflows you and spreads around even to the extreme limit of the earth, like a Hertzian wave. Again, any movement in any person anywhere in the world would come to you, penetrate you, raise a similar vibration in you, even though you may not so recognise it but consider it as something exclusively personal to you. You send out vibrations into the world and the world sends out vibrations into you. Individual life is the meeting-ground of these outgoing and incoming forces. It is precisely to avoid this circle or cycle of world-vibrations that the older Yogis used to leave the world, away from society, retire to mountain-tops, into the virgin forest where they hoped to find themselves alone and aloof, to be single with the Single Self. This is a way out, but it is not the only or the best solution. It is not the best solution, for although apparent-ly one is alone on the hill-top, in the desert crypt, or the forest womb, one always carries with oneself a whole world within, the normal nature with all its instincts and impulses, reactions, memories and hopes: you cut away the outside, run away from it, but what about the outside that is within you? The taste for a tasty thing does not drop with the removal of the object. Secondly, such an individual solution, even if it were possible, would still be a purely personal matter and, in the ultimate analysis, egoistic. It is why the Buddha refused to enter definitely into Nirvana and withdrew from the brink to work among men. Indeed, the real solution is else-where. It is not to withdraw or go away but to find within the orbit here a centre, a focus of consciousness which is not controlled by the outside forces but can control them, which is not coloured by them but can lend them its own luminosity. That is the soul or the psychic centre.
   And this centre is not an isolated entity in its nature: it is, as it were, a universal centre, that is to say, it links itself indissolubly in a secret sense of identity with all other centres. For this self is only one of the selves through which the One Self has multiplied itself for a varied self-objectification. The light that shines here, the fire that burns here and the delight that flows here illumine, purify and revitalise not only the individual in which it dwells, but move abroad and extend into the other individuals with which it lives in spiritual identity.

06.23 - Here or Elsewhere, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   It is easy and comfortable to go within and in an inner consciousness find and maintain a union, even a close union with the Divine. It is because of such a state of peace and bliss that many, nay, most who go there do not want to come back, to normal life upon this earth. And teachers, great or small, almost invariably, have taught that in the end it is best like that, and perhaps the only thing to do under the circumstances. For this life and this earth mean the very opposite of that inner heaven and that highest good. But some are not given this comfortable solution of the difficulty. They are asked to turn back and live the life of the earth. They are not allowed to remain cosy in a narrow room and be busy always with themselves alone. Indeed, is it not narrow egoism to seek only one's own salvation? When one has saved himself, is it not his duty the logical outcome and implication of his personal freedom that he should seek to help others in their salvation? Such was in fact the attitude of the Amitabha Buddha.
   A house is on fire. It has a tarred roof. One can easily understand the fury of the fire. Some inmates who were trapped have managed to come out in time, although some-what bruised and scalded. But there were others, some children, left inside. One of those who came out rushes back again through the flames and comes and goes till all are saved. He is badly burnt, he has risked his life: he did not mind and could not remain at a safe distance. He could not be contented with saving himself, which was to be sure a sufficient gain in one respect. This soul had a consciousness of his wider self.

07.08 - The Divine Truth Its Name and Form, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   You expect to see a divine form in each and all things? It may happen so. But I am not sure; I have the impression that there is a large part of imagination in such experiences. You may, for example, see the form of Krishna or Christ or Buddha in every being or thing. But I say that much of human conception enters into this perception. Otherwise what I was telling you just now would not be true. I said all who have the consciousness of the Divine, all who get the contact with the Divine, wherever one may be, to whatever age or country he may belong, all have the same essential experience. If it were not so, the Hindus would always see one of their gods, the Europeans one of theirs, the Japanese a third variety and so on. This may be an addition of each one's own mental formation, but it would not be the Reality in its essence or purity which is beyond all form. One can have a perception of the Divine Presence, a very concrete perception, one can have even a personal contact with the Divine, but it need not happen in and through the kind of form you imagine; it is something inexpressible, beyond all explanation or definition, it is evident only to one who has the experience. It may be as you are suddenly lifted up into a peculiar condition, you find yourself in the presence of the Divine which takes a form familiar to you, a form you have been accustomed to associate with the Divine, because of your education, your up-bringing and tradition. But, as I say, it is not the supreme essence of the experience: the form gives after all a limitation to the experience, takes away from it its universality and a large measure of its power.
   ***

07.19 - Bad Thought-Formation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   There are many things in the world you do not approve of. Some people who, as they put it, wish to have the knowledge, want to find out why it is so. It is a line of knowledge. But I say it is much more important to find out how to make things otherwise than they are at present. That is exactly the problem Buddha set before himself. He sat under a tree and continued till he found the solution. The solution, however, is not very satisfactory: You say, the world is bad, let us then do away with the world; but to whose profit, as Sri Aurobindo asks very pertinently? The world will no longer be bad, since it will exist no more. The world will have to be rolled back into its origin, the original pure existence or non-existence. Then man will be, in Sri Aurobindo's words, the all-powerful master of something that does not exist, an emperor without an empire, a king without a kingdom. It is a solution. But there are others, which are better. We consider ours to be the best. There are some who say, like the Buddha, evil comes from ignorance, remove the ignorance and evil will disappear. Others say that evil comes from division, from separation; if the universe were not separated from its origin, there would be no evil. Others again declare that it is an evil will that is the cause of all, of separation and ignorance. Then the question is, where does this bad will come from? If it were at the origin of things, it must have been in the origin itself. And then some question the bad will itself,there is no such thing, essentially, fundamentally, it is pure illusion.
   Do animals have a bad will?

08.18 - The Origin of Desire, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   From where does desire come? Buddha said that it came from Ignorance. It is almost that. Desire is something in the being which imagines that it requires an object other than itself for its satisfaction. This is sheer ignorance, proved by the fact that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred when one has the thing desired, one no more cares for it.
   At its very origin, I think, it was an obscure need for growth or increase. In the lowest forms of life we find love transformed into an instinctive and irresistible need for enlarging, swelling, absorbing, adding to it another body. This need to take in is desire. So perhaps if you go back far enough into the last depths of inconscience, you will see that the ultimate source of desire is love: it is love in its most dark and inconscient form. It is, as I said, a need for accretion, an attraction for an outside object in order to embrace it, swallow it, make it part of itself and so grow bigger. Now, suppose you have before you something beautiful, harmonious, pleasing: if you have the true consciousness, you enjoy and are happy to the full, by simply looking at the thing, by having an inner contact in consciousness with the beauty and harmony that is there. And there the matter ends. You have the joy and that is all. Such a movement is very common in the artist. He sees a beautiful person, he has the joy of observing the grace of the form, the harmony of the movements and all that. But it does not go beyond. He is perfectly happy, perfectly satisfied when he has seen something beautiful.
  --
   Buddha also said that there was a greater joy in overcoming a desire than in satisfying it. Everybody can make this experiment and have the experience. It is quite interesting to do so.
   When you give up a desire, there occurs at the moment an inner communion with your psychic being and that is why one gets a greater joy in rejecting a desire than in fulfilling it. Besides, when you do satisfy your desire always there is a bitter aftertaste somewhere. There is no desire which when satisfied does not leave this bitterness in you, as when you have taken something very sweet, the mouth becomes full of a bitter taste. The nature of desire is like that. You must try to throw it away, but sincerely. You must not pretend doing it and keep the thing in a comer. In that case it will surely bring misery to you.

08.35 - Love Divine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   To Melt into the Divine Buddha and Shankara
   Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Part EightLove Divine
  --
   To Melt into the Divine Buddha and Shankara

08.36 - Buddha and Shankara, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
  object:08.36 - Buddha and Shankara
  author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
  --
   Buddha and Shankara
   I
   To escape from life is a teaching based on the view that life is an illusion. The teaching began with Buddha. Buddha said that life or existence is the fruit of desire and that there was only one way of getting out of the misery, namely, to go out of existence. Shankara continued in that line. He added, however, that existence was not merely the fruit of desire, but that it was altogether an illusion and that so long as one lives in that illusion, one cannot realise the Divine. For him the Divine the Supreme Divinedid not exist. I believe his view was something to that effect. In any case, for the Buddha there was no God.
   Both of them came in contact with something true and real. Buddha had surely an inner contact with something which, in relation to the outer life, appeared to him as non-existence and in this non-existence all the consequences of existence disappeared. There is indeed such a state. And it is said that if you remain in that state for more than twenty days, you are sure to lose your body. I believe it is so, if the condition becomes exclusive. But also it can be an experience that remains behind, exists in a conscious way and yet not exclusively. In other words, the contact with the world and the outer consciousness is maintained and supported by something which is independent of them and free. It is a state in which you can make truly a great progress in your external consciousness; for then you can detach yourself from everything and act without attachment, without preference, in an inner freedom that expresses itself in the outer life. Once you have attained the inner freedom, this conscious contact with the eternal and the infinite, you must return to action without losing that consciousness and allow it to influence the whole of the consciousness turned to action.
   That is what Sri Aurobindo calls bringing down the Force from above. That way lies the only chance of changing the world; for you seek there a new Force, a new domain, a new consciousness and you put that in contact with the external world. Its presence and its action will bring changes inevitably, a total transformation, we hope, in the external world.
  --
   There is no doubt that Buddha had the first part of the experience; but he never thought of the second part, for it was contrary to his own theory. That theory was that one must escape. And it is obvious that there is only one way of escaping and that is to die. And yet, as he had said it himself very well, one may die and yet remain attached to life and continue to be in the cycle of rebirths without having the liberation. As a matter of fact, it is through the successive sojourns upon earth that one grows till one arrives at this liberation. For him the ideal is that where the world exists no longer. It is as if he accused God of having committed an error by creating a world and the only thing to be done is to repair the error by annulling it. Naturally, being thoroughly reasonable and logical, he did not admit the existence of God. But then by whom was the error committed? When and how did it come about? He never answered these questionings. He simply said that the world began with desire and with the end of desire it must end.
   He was on the verge of saying that the world was purely subjective, that is to say, a collective illusion, and if the illusion ceased the world would also cease. But he did not go so far. It was Shankara who took up the line and completed the teaching.
  --
   It is without doubt since the teaching of Buddha that the idea of escape came in; and that has gradually undermined the vitality of the country for it meant an endeavour to cut oneself away from life. The outward reality became a false illusion and one should have nothing to do with it. The natural result was that one cut oneself away from the universal energy and so vitality went on diminishing, and with diminishing vitality, all possibility of terrestrial realisation also diminished.
   III
   Some say that the Buddha was an Avatar, others say he was not.
   To use the names as known in India, I think it is the Avataras of Vishnu (the aspect of the Divine that builds and preserves), who come to prove that the Divine can live upon earth; whereas, each time that Shiva has manifested (the aspect that works to transform and destroy), it was in persons who have tried to fight against illusion and demolish what existed.
   I have reasons to think that 'the Buddha manifested something of the Shiva power. It was the same compassion and comprehension of all misery and it was the same force that destroys, evidently with the intention of transforming, but destroying more than constructing.
   His work does not seem to have been very constructive indeed. It was necessary to give a practical training to man not to be egoistic. In that way it proved to be useful.
  --
   And as to the existence or manifestation of the Divine upon earth, they who believed in Buddha have now made him a God. You have only to look at the Buddhist temples and all their divinities to know that human nature has always the tendency to deify what it admires.
   ***

08.37 - The Significance of Dates, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Buddha and Shankara The Value of Money
   Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Part EightThe Significance of Dates
  --
   Buddha and Shankara The Value of Money

10.02 - Beyond Vedanta, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   An earlier form of this humanised love was given in Buddha's Compassion. The transcendent Delight (Ananda) was made terrestrial and human in Buddha. But Buddha's compassion was a universal feeling and had no personal frame as it were. Vaishnavism gave it a personal frame and a human form. Radha and Krishna are not figures of an allegory but concrete realities. Vrindavan is not merely the land of heart's desire, a garden of paradise but real habitation in a real and concrete consciousness and life. The human frame assumed by Radha and Krishna is not merely an assumption, an illusion but an eternal reality in an eternal domain. The gradation of the spiritual domains is thus sometimes given as (1) Brahmaloka of the Vedantin, (2) Shivaloka of the Tantrik and finally (3) Goloka of the Vaishnava.
   The relation between the Supreme (over and above the creation) and the individual in the creation representing the creation is sometimes described in human terms to give it a concrete and graphic form. This relationship characteristically indicates the fundamental nature of the Reality it deals with. Thus in the Vedantic tradition the Supreme is worshipped as the Father (pit no asi). It is also a relation of Master and disciple, the leader and the led. Ii brings out into prominence the Purusha aspect of the Reality. In the Tantra the relation is as between Mother and child. The supreme Reality is the Divine Mother holding the universe in her arms. The individual worships and adores the Supreme Prakriti as a human child does. The Vaishnava makes the relation as between the lover and the beloved, and the love depicted is intensely vital and even physical, as intense and poignant as the ordinary ignorant human passion. It is to show that the Love Divine can beat the human love on its own ground, that is to say, it can be or it is as passionately sweet and as intensely intimate as any human love. It is why Bhakta Prahlad said to his beloved Vishnu "O Lord, what ordinary men feel and enjoy in and through their physical senses, may I have the same enjoyment in and through Thee."

10.07 - The World is One, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Coming next to Mind, the unity here too, is quite marked, clearly discernible. There is only one Mind that rules the myriad mentalities of this world. Thoughts and ideas are not in reality personal creations, they are various formulations of the one universal Mind; they enter into and possess individual minds as receptacles, and no doubt in the process undergo particular modifications in their general character. It is a very common experience to see the same or very similar ideas and thoughts expressed by individuals (or groups) living far from each other, having practically no mutual contact. We have known of "independent discoveries" of the same truth or fact and innumerable instances of this kind has history provided for us. It is not a freak of nature that we find Socrates and Buddha and Confucius as contemporaries. Contemporaries also were India's Akbar, England's Elizabeth and Italy's Leo X. Also the year 1905 has been known as Annus Mirabilis, a year of seminal importance the sowing of the seed of a new earth-lifesignificant for the whole human race, for the East and for the West, particularly for India, for Japan, for Russia and even for England. And today's world has indeed become a world of compact unity in human achievement and also alas, in human distress!
   Now if one goes to the very source, the very root of the matter, the cardinal fact of unity is that of the supreme Consciousness, the original oneness of the one Divine Existence. It is the Ultimate One, inviolate, inviolableekam sat. That unity is transferred or translated or imaged on all the levels and strands of creation. That is the basic reality that holds together all tiered multiplicities. True, there has been side by side a movement of aberration, denial, disjunction in the multiple formulations and translations of the One. A reunion remains to be achieved conveying and embodying the basic unity.

1.00a - Introduction, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
  Please refrain from the obvious retort: "Then, in the long run, you can't possibly go wrong: so it doesn't matter what you do." Perfectly true, of course! (There is no single grain of dust that shall not attain to Buddhahood:" with some such words did the debauched old reprobate seek to console himself when Time began to take its revenge.) But the answer is simple enough: you happen to be the kind of being that thinks it does matter what course you steer; or, still more haughtily, you enjoy the pleasure of sailing.
  No, there is this factor in all success: self-confidence. If we analyze this, we find that it means that one is aware that all one's mental and physical faculties are working harmoniously. The deadliest and subtlest enemy of that feeling is anxiety about the result; the finest gauze of doubt is enough to dim one's vision, to throw the entire field out of focus. Hence, even to be aware that there is a result in prospect must militate against that serenity of spirit which is the essence of self-confidence. As you will know, all our automatic physiological functions are deranged if one is aware of This then, is the difficulty, to enjoy consciously while not disturbing the process involved. The obvious physical case is the sexual act: perhaps its chief importance is just that it is a type of this exceptional spiritual-mental condition. I hope, however, that you will remember what I have said on the subject in paragraphs 1517 of my 3rd Lecture on Yoga for Yellowbellies (pp. 71-72); there is a way of obtaining ecstacy from the most insignificant physiological function. Observe that in transferring the whole consciousness to (say) one's little finger or big toe is not trying to interfere with the normal exercise of its activities, but only to realize what is going on in the organism, the exquisite pleasure of a function in its normal activity. With a little imagination one can conceive the analogical case of the Universe itself; and, still less fettered by even the mildest limitation which material symbols necessarily (however little) suggest, "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; ..." (AL, II, 9).

1.00b - DIVISION B - THE PERSONALITY RAY AND FIRE BY FRICTION, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
  At this point in the treatise we are confining our attention to the Ray of Active Matter, or to that latent heat in substance which underlies its activity and is the cause of its motion. If we think with sincerity and with clarity we will see how closely therefore the Lipika Lords or the Lords of Karma are associated with this work. Three of Them are closely connected with Karma as it concerns one or other of the three great Rays, or the three FIRES, while the fourth Lipika Lord synthesizes the work of his three Brothers and attends to the uniform blending and merging of the three fires. On our planet, the Earth, They find Their points of contact through the three " Buddhas of Activity," [xxx]30 (the correspondence should be noted here) and the fourth Kumara, the Lord of the World. Therefore, we arrive at the realisation that the personality Ray, in its relation to the fire of matter, is directly influenced and adjusted in its working by one of the Buddhas of Activity.
  [75]

1.00e - DIVISION E - MOTION ON THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
  Once in every world period it is subjected to a similar process as that of the lesser Rod, only this time it is recharged by the direct action of the Logos Himself,the Logos of the solar system. The location of this Rod is known only to the Lord of the World, and to the Chohans of the Rays, and (being the talisman of this evolution) the Chohan of the second Ray isunder the Lord of the Worldits main guardian, aided by the deva Lord of the second plane. The Buddhas of activity are responsible for its custody, and under them the Chohan of the Ray. It is produced only at stated times when specific work has to be done. It is used not only at the initiating of men, but at certain planetary functions, of which nothing as yet has been given out. It has its place and function in certain ceremonies connected with the inner round [xciii]91 and the triangle formed by the Earth, Mars [212] and Mercury. But more about this is not at this time permissible.

1.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
  And since those conditions are difficult to meet here on earth, we speak of "God," of "spirituality," of Christ, of Buddha, and the whole lineage of great religious founders; all are ways of finding permanence. But it may be that we are not religious or spiritual men,
  but just men, tired of dogmas, who believe in the earth and who are suspicious of big words. We also may be somewhat weary of too much intelligent thinking; all we want is our own little river flowing into the Infinite. There was a great saint in India who, for many years before he found peace, used to ask whomever he met: "Have you seen God? Have you seen God?" He would always go away frustrated and angry because people told him stories. He wanted to see. He wasn't wrong, considering all the deception men have heaped onto this world,

1.00 - Preliminary Remarks, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
  What is there in common between Christ, Buddha, and Mohammed? Is there any one point upon which all three are in accord?
  No point of doctrine, no point of ethics, no theory of a hereafter do they share, and yet in the history of their lives we find one identity amid many diversities.
  --
  Elaborate lives of each have been written by devotees, and there is one thing common to all threean omission. We hear nothing of Christ between the ages of twelve and thirty. Mohammed disappeared into a cave. Buddha left his palace, and went for a long while into the desert.
  Each of them, perfectly silent up to the time of the disappearance, came back and immediately began to preach a new law.
  --
  There is no difficulty in our assuming that these men themselves did not understand clearly what happened to them. The only one who explains his system thoroughly is Buddha, and Buddha is the only one that is not dogmatic. We may also suppose that the others thought it inadvisible to explain too clearly to their followers; St. Paul evidently took this line.
  Our best document will therefore be the system of Buddha;1 but it is so complex that no immediate summary will serve; and in the case of the others, if we have not the account of the Masters, we have those of their immediate followers.
  The methods advised by all these people have a startling resemblance to one another. They recommend virtue (of various kinds), solitude, absence of excitement, moderation it diet, and finally a practice which some call prayer and some call meditation.
  --
  Such at least was the attitude which Gotama Buddha adopted. Nor shall he be alone.
  Again it may be pointed out that the contemplative life is generally opposed to the active life, and it must require an extremely careful balance to prevent the one absorbing the other.

10.10 - A Poem, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  You are the absolute Vaishnava, do the Buddha-hymn
  Vishnu Rudra is one body, different form
  --
  This is not the idea of the Buddha Maya-free slow
  Mahabir is also the greatest ascetic

1.01f - Introduction, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
  Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was staying in the city of Rjagha, on the mountain called Gdhraka, together with a great assembly of twelve thousand monks, all of whom were arhats whose corruption was at an end, who were free from the confusion of desire, who had achieved their own goals, shattered the bonds of existence, and attained complete mental discipline. Their names were jtakauinya, Mahkyapa, Uruvilvakyapa,
  Gaykyapa, Nadkyapa, riputra, Mahmaudgalyyana, Mahktyyana, Aniruddha, Kapphia, Gavpati, Revata, Pilindavatsa, Bakkula,
  --
  There were also eighty thousand bodhisattva mahsattvas, all of whom were irreversible from highest, complete enlightenment (anuttar samyaksabodhi). They had obtained the dhras, were established in eloquence, and had turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma. Each had paid homage to countless hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, planted roots of merit in their presence, and had always been praised by those Buddhas. They had also cultivated compassion within themselves, skillfully caused others to enter the wisdom of a Buddha, obtained great wisdom, and reached the other shore. All of them were famous throughout countless worlds and had saved innumerable hundreds of thousands of sentient beings. They were Majur, Avalokitevara, Mahsthmaprpta, Nityodyukta, Anikiptadhura, Ratnapni,
  Bhaiajyarja, Pradnara, Ratnacandra, Candraprabha, Pracandra,
  --
  Ajtaatru, Vaidehs son, was also there with several hundreds of thousands of his attendants. Each of them, after having bowed at the Buddhas feet, withdrew and sat to one side.
  At that time the Bhagavat was respectfully surrounded by the fourfold assembly (i.e., monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen), paid homage, honored, and praised. He then taught the bodhisattvas the Mahayana sutra called
  Immeasurable Meanings (Mahnirdea), the instruction for the bodhisattvas and the treasured lore of the Buddhas. After having taught this sutra, the
   Buddha sat cross-legged, entered the samdhi called the abode of immeasurable meanings (ananta-nirdea-pratihna) and remained unmoving in both body and mind. Mndrava and great mndrava owers, majaka and great majaka owers then fell like rain from the sky, scattering upon the Buddha and all of his attendants; and the whole Buddha world quaked in six ways. At that time, that whole assembly of such humans and nonhumans as monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen, the devas, ngas, yakas, gandharvas, asuras, garuas, kinaras, mahoragas, kings, and noble emperors, having
   experienced something unprecedented, were lled with joy, and with their palms pressed together they gazed attentively at the Buddha.
  Then the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the tuft of white hair between his eyebrows. It illuminated all the eighteen thousand worlds in the east, down as far as the lowest hell, Avci, and up as high as the Akaniha Heaven.
  All the sentient beings in those worlds living in the six transmigratory states became visible from this world. The Buddhas in those worlds were also seen, and the Dharma they were teaching could be heard. The monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen and those who had practiced and achieved the path were also to be seen, while the bodhisattva mahsattvas, of various background causes and conditions, endowed in various degrees with the willingness to understand and having various appearances, were also seen practicing the bodhisattva path. All of the Buddhas who had achieved parinirva were seen, as well as their relic stupas made of the seven precious treasures.
  At that moment it occurred to Bodhisattva Maitreya: The Bhagavat has now manifested the sign of great transcendent power. What could be the reason for this marvel? The Buddha, the Bhagavat, has now entered samdhi.
  Whom should I ask about this wonderful marvel? Who would be able to answer my question?
  Then he thought further: This Majur, Prince of the Dharma, has closely attended and paid homage to innumerable Buddhas of the past. He must certainly have seen such a marvelous sign before. I should ask him now.
  At the same time it occurred to the monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen, devas, ngas, yakas, and others: Now whom should we ask about the illumination and marvelous sign of this Buddha?
  Then Bodhisattva Maitreya, wanting to clear up his own confusion, and knowing the minds of the fourfold assembly of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen and of the ngas, yakas, and other beings in that gathering, asked
  Majur: What is the reason for this marvelous sign, this great ray of light that illuminates the eighteen thousand worlds in the east and renders visible the adornments of all the Buddha worlds?
  Thereupon Bodhisattva Maitreya, wanting to elaborate the meaning of this further, spoke to Majur in verse:
  --
  The Buddhas, the Sage Lord (Narendrasih),
  Who teach the subtle and supreme sutra
  --
  They illuminate the Buddha-Dharma
  And enlighten sentient beings
  --
  Have paid homage to the Buddhas
  And seek the excellent Dharma,
  --
  To those heirs of the Buddhas
  Who have practiced in various ways
  --
  Seeking the path of the Buddhas
  According to their various situations.
  --
  To the path of the Buddhas,
  Wishing to obtain this vehicle
  --
  And praised by all the Buddhas.
  Other bodhisattvas give gifts
  --
  While searching for the wisdom of the Buddhas.
  O Majur!
  I see kings making pilgrimages to the Buddhas,
  Asking about the highest path,
  --
  And contemplating the Buddha path.
  I see some abandoning worldly desires,
  --
  Asking the Buddhas questions,
  Listening carefully and retaining everything.
  Furthermore, I see heirs of the Buddhas,
  Endowed with concentration and wisdom,
  --
  And causing them to enter the Buddha path.
  I also see heirs of the Buddhas
  Who have never fallen asleep,
  --
  In search of the Buddha path.
  I see some who are pure like jewels,
  --
  In search of the Buddha path.
  Furthermore, I see heirs of the Buddhas
  In search of the Buddha path,
  Who have the power of perseverance
  --
  Who have been searching for the Buddha path
  3b
  --
  To the Buddha and the sangha.
  They give superb garments and clothing
  --
  To the Buddha and the sangha.
  They give thousands of myriads of kois
  --
  To the Buddha and the sangha.
  They give clean garden groves
  --
  To the Buddha and the sangha.
  Thus they give such various excellent things,
  --
  I also see heirs of the Buddhas
  Who are seeking the highest path
  --
  Who pay homage to the relics (arras) of the Buddhas
  After their parinirvas.
  I also see heirs of the Buddhas
  Who have built stupas
  --
  With which to decorate the Buddha worlds.
  These jeweled stupas are magnicent
  --
  The heirs of the Buddhas
  Have decorated the stupas
  --
  Because the Buddha has emitted this ray of light,
  I and those with me in the assembly can see
  --
  Of all the Buddhas are extraordinary;
  By emitting a single ray of light
  --
  O Majur, Heir of the Buddhas!
  We entreat you to rid us of our confusion!
  --
  O Heir of the Buddhas, now answer!
  Resolve our confusion and gladden us!
  --
  Will the Buddha teach us the True Dharma
  That he obtained while he sat
  --
  That all the Buddha lands, ornamented
  With various jewels,
  And all the Buddhas have been made visible.
  O Majur!
  --
  O sons of a virtuous family! I have seen Buddhas in the past who have shown this marvel and have taught the great Dharma immediately after emitting a ray of light. Therefore, you should know that in the very same way the Buddha has now emitted this light and has shown this marvel in order to cause all sentient beings to hear and understand the Dharma which in all the worlds is difficult to understand.
  O sons of a virtuous family! In the past, more than innumerable, unthinkable, incalculable kalpas ago, there was a Buddha called Candrasryapradpa,
   a Tathgata, Arhat, Completely Enlightened, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Departed, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Humans,
  Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, Bhagavat. He taught the True
  Dharma that was good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end. It was profound in meaning, elegant in speech, and endowed with the character of the pure path of discipline and integrity.
  --
  Then there was another Buddha named Candrasryapradpa, and after him another Buddha also named Candrasryapradpa. And so in this way twenty thousand Buddhas all had the same name Candrasryapradpa. They also had the same family name Bharadvja.
  O Maitreya! You should know that these Buddhas, beginning from the
  rst up to the last, all had the same name Candrasryapradpa, endowed with the ten epithets. The Dharma that they taught was good in the beginning, the middle, and the end.
  The last Buddha fathered eight princes before he renounced household life. The rst was called Mati, the second Sumati, the third Anantamati, the fourth Ratimati, the fth was called Vieamati, the sixth Vimatisamudghtin, the seventh Ghoamati, and the eighth was called Dharmamati. These eight princes were endowed with dignity and power, and each of them ruled over four great continents. Having heard that their father had renounced household life and obtained highest, complete enlightenment, all of them abandoned their kingdoms and also renounced household life. Each caused the spirit of the Mahayana to arise within him, practiced the pure path of discipline and integrity, and became an expounder of the Dharma. They all planted roots of good merit under many thousands of myriads of Buddhas.
  At that time, the Buddha Candrasryapradpa taught the Mahayana sutra called Immeasurable Meanings, the instruction for the bodhisattvas and treasured lore of the Buddhas. Having taught this sutra, he sat down
   cross-legged, undisturbed in body and mind among the great assembly and entered the samdhi called the abode of immeasurable meanings.
  Then mndrava and great mndrava owers, majaka and great majaka owers fell like rain from the sky, scattering over the Buddha and all of his attendants. And the whole Buddha world quaked in six ways.
  At that time all in that assembly of humans and nonhumansmonks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, devas, ngas, yakas, gandharvas, asuras, garuas, kinaras, mahoragas, kings, and noble emperorshaving experienced such an unprecedented marvel, were lled with joy and pressing their palms together they gazed attentively at the Buddha.
  Then the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the tuft of white hair between his eyebrows which completely illuminated all the eighteen thousand worlds in the east, in the same way that all of these Buddha worlds are visible now.
  O Maitreya! You should know that at that time there were twenty kois of bodhisattvas in the assembly who wanted to hear the Dharma. All of these bodhisattvas, having seen all the Buddha worlds completely illuminated by this ray of light, were struck with wonder and wanted to know why it was emitted.
  A bodhisattva named Varaprabha was there with his eight hundred disciples. At that time the Buddha Candrasryapradpa, having emerged from samdhi, remained sitting for sixty intermediate kalpas and revealed to Bodhisattva Varaprabha the Mahayana sutra called Saddharmapuarka, the White
  Lotus of the Marvelous Law (hereafter Lotus Sutra), which was the instruction for bodhisattvas and the treasured lore of the Buddhas. The assembly also sat there undisturbed in body and mind listening to the Buddhas exposition for sixty intermediate kalpas as if only a single mealtime had passed; during that time not a single person among them experienced fatigue of body or mind.
  Having taught this sutra for sixty intermediate kalpas, the Buddha Candrasryapradpa made this proclamation to the assembly of Brahmas, mras,
  rmaas, brahmans, devas, humans, and asuras, saying:
  --
  Then the Buddha Candrasryapradpa gave this prediction to a bodhisattva called rgarbha. Addressing the monks, he said:
  This Bodhisattva rgarbha will become the next Buddha after me. He will be called Vimal
  ganetra, a Tathgata, Arhat, Completely Enlightened.
  The Buddha, after having made this prediction, entered nirvana without residue during the middle of the night. After the Buddha passed into extinction, Bodhisattva Varaprabha, having preserved the Lotus Sutra, taught it to humans for the full period of eighty intermediate kalpas.
  This Bodhisattva Varaprabha was made the teacher for the Buddha
  Candrasryapradpas eight princes. Varaprabha led and inspired them and caused them to be rm in highest, complete enlightenment.
  After paying homage to innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of Buddhas, all these princes attained the path of the Buddhas.
  The last of these to become enlightened was named Dpakara.
  --
  But because he had also planted various roots of good merit, he was able to meet innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of Buddhas whom he rendered homage to, honored, revered, and praised.
  O Maitreya! You should know that Bodhisattva Varaprabha at that time was none other than myself, and Bodhisattva Yaaskma was none other than you. The marvel we see here is exactly the same as the previous one. Therefore I am certain that today the Tathgata will teach the Mahayana sutra called the Lotus Sutra, the instruction for bodhisattvas and treasured lore of the Buddhas.
  Thereupon Majur, wanting to explain the meaning of this further, spoke to the great assembly in verse:
  --
  There was a Buddha, the Best of Humans,
  Called Candrasryapradpa.
  --
  To attain the wisdom of the Buddhas.
  Before renouncing household life
  The Buddha fathered eight princes.
  Having seen the Great Sage
  --
  At that time the Buddha taught
  And extensively illuminated the Mahayana sutra
  --
  The Buddha sat down cross-legged
  On the seat of Dharma and entered the samdhi
  --
  All of the Buddha worlds suddenly quaked greatly.
  And the Buddha emitted a ray of light
  From the tuft between his eyebrows
  --
  The eighteen thousand Buddha worlds in the east
  And revealed the conditions
  --
  Through this light of the Buddha
  All the Buddha worlds appeared
  As if they were decorated with various jewels
  --
  Were each seen paying homage to the Buddhas.
  All the Tathgatas, who had spontaneously attained
  The path of the Buddhas,
  Looked majestic and very beautiful
  --
  In each of the Buddha worlds,
  And they saw all the great assemblies
  Because of the light of the Buddha.
  There were also monks
  --
  Who also became visible through the light of the Buddha.
  There were bodhisattvas, who,
  --
  And seeking the path of the Buddhas
  In each of the Buddha worlds.
  At that time the fourfold assembly,
  Having seen the Buddha Candrasryapradpa
  Manifest these great transcendent powers,
  --
  That was taught by the Buddha.
  After having taught this Lotus Sutra
  --
  The Buddha told the assembly of devas and humans:
  I have already taught you the meaning
  --
  The Buddhas are extremely hard to meet
  And can be encountered only once
  --
  On hearing that the Buddha was to enter nirvana,
  Became sad, thinking:
  Why will the Buddha enter nirvana so soon?
  The Noble Lord, the King of the Dharma,
  --
  A Buddha named Vimal
  ganetra.
  --
  And that night the Buddha entered nirvana,
  Like a re that goes out when the wood is exhausted.
  --
  Possessed of the treasure house of the Buddha,
  Extensively proclaimed the Lotus Sutra
  --
  And met innumerable Buddhas.
  After having paid homage to the Buddhas
  And following them in their practice of the great path,
  --
  Becoming Buddhas in succession.
  The last Buddha, the Highest of Devas,
  Was called Dpakara,
  --
  He was able to meet innumerable Buddhas.
  He paid homage to all these Buddhas
  And having practiced the great path after them,
  --
  He shall subsequently become a Buddha called Maitreya
  Who will extensively bring
  --
  When I saw the Buddha Dpakara
  He also revealed this marvel of light.
  That is why I know that this Buddha
  Will now teach the Lotus Sutra.
  --
  It is the skillful means of all the Buddhas.
  The Buddha has now emitted this ray of light
  In order to reveal
  --
  The Buddha will satisfy those seeking the path.
  If there is anyone seeking the three vehicles
  --
  The Buddha will completely remove them,
  Extinguishing them with none left over.

1.01 - Tara the Divine, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  mind, as an expression of the Buddhas to help us in
  our progress, because of our dualistic thinking.
  --
  of view of a Buddha, there is no I and no other. This
  means that a Buddha does not think he or she must
  produce Bodies of Enjoyment or must help others. As
  --
  Question: The Absolute Body of a Buddha is emptiness in
  essence and is not subject to interruption. Does the Body of
  --
  expression of a Buddha or clarity of the nature of
  mind are infinite. This is why the forms of the Body of
  --
  awakened beings, such as the Buddhas, spontaneously
  assume, in a nonintentional way, various forms on the
  --
  activity of the Buddhas. If the deities have a feminine
  appearance, they are called goddesses.
  --
  in fact, equivalent terms. All past Buddhas have
  attained Buddhahood by realizing emptiness (or
  realizing the nature of the mind). It is the same for
  present Buddhas and it will be the same for future
   Buddhas. Thus, Tara- the Tara beyond time, space,
  and all concepts-is the mother of all Buddhas.
  FROM WOMAN TO DEITY
  --
  devotion to this Buddha. For many years, she made
  immense offerings to this Buddha and his entourage
  of monks.
  --
  in the presence of the Buddha Drum Sound, that is, to
  promise to attain awakening to benefit beings in
  --
  when Buddha Amoghasiddhi lived, Tara entered
  another state of concentration to protect beings from
  --
  empowerment of compassion of all the Buddhas'
  - 20 -
  --
  (Chenrezig). The five Victors, the Buddhas who reign
  over the five families of awakening, gave him a special
  --
  accomplish the Buddhas' wishes and work at
  benefiting beings during that kalpa. (In some versions,
  --
  transcends this world, incarnated by the Buddhas and
  bodhisattvas, can give us. Particularly, the activity of
  all the Buddhas directed toward elimination of fear
  and danger is found within the divine person of Tara.
  --
  mother of all Buddhas and her compassion for all
  beings .is uninterrupted.

1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  The lower gate is that preferred by strictly practical teachersmen who, like Gautama Buddha, have no use for speculation and whose primary concern is to put out in mens hearts the hideous fires of greed, resentment and infatuation. Through the upper gate go those whose vocation it is to think and speculate the born philosophers and theologians. The middle gate gives entrance to the exponents of what has been called spiritual religion the devout contemplatives of India, the Sufis of Islam, the Catholic mystics of the later Middle Ages, and, in the Protestant tradition, such men as Denk and Franck and Castellio, as Everard and John Smith and the first Quakers and William Law.
  It is through this central door, and just because it is central, that we shall make our entry into the subject matter of this book. The psychology of the Perennial Philosophy has its source in metaphysics and issues logically in a characteristic way of life and system of ethics. Starting from this midpoint of doctrine, it is easy for the mind to move in either direction.
  --
  The self realized in your inmost consciousness appears in its purity; this is the Tathagata-garbha (literally, Buddha-womb), which is not the realm of those given over to mere reasoning
  Pure in its own nature and free from the category of finite and infinite, Universal Mind is the undefiled Buddha-womb, which is wrongly apprehended by sentient beings.
  Lankavatara Sutra
  --
  The Dharma-body (the Absolute) of all the Buddhas enters into my own being.
  And my own being is found in union with theirs.
  --
  I am not competent, nor is this the place to discuss the doctrinal differences between Buddhism and Hinduism. Let it suffice to point out that, when he insisted that human beings are by nature non-Atman, the Buddha was evidently speaking about the personal self and not the universal Self. The Brahman controversialists, who appear in certain of the Pali scriptures, never so much as mention the Vedanta doctrine of the identity of Atman and Godhead and the non-identity of ego and Atman. What they maintain and Gautama denies is the substantial nature and eternal persistence of the individual psyche. As an unintelligent man seeks for the abode of music in the body of the lute, so does he look for a soul within the skandhas (the material and psychic aggregates, of which the individual mind-body is composed). About the existence of the Atman that is Brahman, as about most other metaphysical matters, the Buddha declines to speak, on the ground that such discussions do not tend to edification or spiritual progress among the members of a monastic order, such as he had founded. But though it has its dangers, though it may become the most absorbing, because the most serious and noblest, of distractions, metaphysical thinking is unavoidable and finally necessary. Even the Hinayanists found this, and the later Mahayanists were to develop, in connection with the practice of their religion, a splendid and imposing system of cosmological, ethical and psychological thought. This system was based upon the postulates of a strict idealism and professed to dispense with the idea of God. But moral and spiritual experience was too strong for philosophical theory, and under the inspiration of direct experience, the writers of the Mahayana sutras found themselves using all their ingenuity to explain why the Tathagata and the Bodhisattvas display an infinite charity towards beings that do not really exist. At the same time they stretched the framework of subjective idealism so as to make room for Universal Mind; qualified the idea of soullessness with the doctrine that, if purified, the individual mind can identify itself with the Universal Mind or Buddha-womb; and, while maintaining godlessness, asserted that this realizable Universal Mind is the inner consciousness of the eternal Buddha and that the Buddha-mind is associated with a great compassionate heart which desires the liberation of every sentient being and bestows divine grace on all who make a serious effort to achieve mans final end. In a word, despite their inauspicious vocabulary, the best of the Mahayana sutras contain an au thentic formulation of the Perennial Philosophya formulation which in some respects (as we shall see when we come to the section, God in the World) is more complete than any other.
  In India, as in Persia, Mohammedan thought came to be enriched by the doctrine that God is immanent as well as transcendent, while to Mohammedan practice were added the moral disciplines and spiritual exercises, by means of which the soul is prepared for contemplation or the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. It is a significant historical fact that the poet-saint Kabir is claimed as a co-religionist both by Moslems and Hindus. The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecuting and make the wars.

1.01 - the Call to Adventure, #The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #Joseph Campbell, #Mythology
  the supremely concentrated Future Buddha breaking past the
  last horizons of the created world, the same archetypal images
  --
  Sakyamuni, the Future Buddha, had been protected by his fa
  ther from all knowledge of age, sickness, death, or monkhood,
  --
  a world emperor or a Buddha. The kingprejudiced in favor
  of the royal vocationprovided his son with three palaces
  --
  "Now on a certain day the Future Buddha wished to go to the
  park, and told his charioteer to make ready the chariot. Accord
  --
  nounced to the Future Buddha that everything was ready. And
  the Future Buddha mounted the chariot, which was like to a
  palace of the gods, and proceeded toward the park.
  --
  on a staff, and trembling, and showed him to the Future Buddha,
  but so that only he and the charioteer saw him.
  "Then said the Future Buddha to the charioteer, 'Friend,
  pray, who is this man? Even his hair is not like that of other
  --
  "Again on a certain day, as the Future Buddha was going to
  the park, he saw a diseased man whom the gods had fashioned;
  --
  "And again on a certain day, as the Future Buddha was going
  to the park, he saw a dead man whom the gods had fashioned;
  --
  "And again on a certain day, as the Future Buddha was going
  to the park, he saw a monk, carefully and decently clad, whom
  --
  world was a pleasing one to the Future Buddha."
  This first stage of the mythological journeywhich we have

1.01 - The Four Aids, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  27:Even then his nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar-Krishna, Christ, Buddha. Or if this is too hard for him to conceive, the Divine represents himself through a less marvellous intermediary, -- Prophet or Teacher. For many who cannot conceive or are unwilling to accept the Divine Man, are ready to open themselves to the supreme man, terming him not incarnation but world-teacher or divine representative.
  28:This also is not enough; a living influence, a living example, a present instruction is needed. For it is only the few who can make the past Teacher and his teaching, the past Incarnation and his example and influence a living force in their lives. For this need also the Hindu discipline provides in the relation of the Guru and the disciple. The Guru may sometimes be the Incarnation or World-Teacher; but it is sufficient that he should represent to the disciple the divine wisdom, convey to him something of the divine ideal or make him feel the realised relation of the human soul with the Eternal.
  --
  31:Nor should he forget the aim of these external aids which is to awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been finally accomplished if that has not been accomplished. It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between man's unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him.
  32:The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may the method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence, -- these are the three instruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel.

1.01 - The Highest Meaning of the Holy Truths, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  the Buddha Mind Seal."11 The Emperor felt regretful, so he
  wanted to send an emissary to go invite (Bodhidharma to re
  --
  nature and fulfill Buddhahood. If you can see this way, then
  you will have your share of freedom. Never again will you be
  --
  gold. He studied the Path and humbly served the Buddha, issu
  ing orders through out his realm to build temples and ordain
  --
  called him the Buddha Heart Emperor.
  When Bodhidharma first met Emperor Wu, the Emperor
  --
  transmitting the Buddha Mind Seal." The Emperor felt regret
  and was going to send an emissary to bring Bodhidharma back.
  --
  vara transmitting the Buddha Mind Seal," if Wu had driven
  him out of the country, this would have amounted to some

1.01 - The Unexpected, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
  In the clear morning light I could have a good view of Sri Aurobindo as he was lying on his bed, almost motionless and straight. I asked myself; "Is he enjoying a bit of sweet sleep since he had none the whole night? Or is he simply keeping quiet and bearing the severe pain with equanimity?" It was the latter, as he told us afterwards. Only the Mother's visit, to make some enquiries or to offer some drink, showed flickers of life in his otherwise trance-like mood. I could now observe him from close at hand and the room he had been living in for the last twelve years! Since then, it has undergone such a tremendous change that just a faint memory of its original state is all that remains today. The wooden bed (on which Sri Aurobindo was lying) was rather large, the upper part being slightly raised, and he filled almost the entire breadth the broad chest and the head large and round, the fine silken hair parted in the middle. As for the rest of the room, it was very plain, almost austerely furnished, except for the carpet, one small box-wood table at either end of the room, a semicircular table in the middle; notebooks, and odds and ends of papers lying scattered on one of the tables; a big almirah containing a small number of books: on the top shelf, the bound volumes of the Arya. On the next one, the Collected Works of Shakespeare and Shelley and books presented by writers such as Radhakrishnan, James Cousins, etc. There were two paintings, one Chinese and the other of Amitabha Buddha with the lotus in his hand; a few wood carvings; a couch for the Mother opposite Sri Aurobindo's bed. The only furniture of luxury was a long cane chair in the adjacent room, in which he could recline and have some repose.
  When Dr. Manilal arrived after his breakfast, he asked Sri Aurobindo how he felt. There was no complaint and the answer was brief. Soon after, Dr. Rao arrived. On hearing the story of the fall he proposed that an orthopaedic surgeon from Madras be called for consultation. He had a friend Dr. Narasimha Ayer, well known for his efficiency. The Mother approved and he left for Madras.

1.01 - To Watanabe Sukefusa, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  After I left the temple, word reached me that the gods and Buddhas had protected him and that his life was no longer in danger. But his eyes had been destroyed, his hearing was gone, and he seemed to have lost his desire to live.
  In ancient China, there was a gentleman named Shu-liang who lived at a place called Han-yin with his mother, wife, and son. He was extremely quick-tempered, and would often fly off the handle, venting his spleen on his wife and mother, causing them great distress. No matter how ferocious a tiger is, it does not devour its cubs; it cares for them lovingly, as though they were precious jewels.
  --
  Good deeds, no matter how many you perform, need no repentance. But evil deeds, even minor ones, are a cause of endless regret and heartache. According to what is written in the sutras, even if a person erects a pagoda twenty yojanas in height, adorns it with the seven precious gems, and enshrines Buddha relics in it, so that every arhat in the world comes to revere it, the arising in his mind of even a single angry thought becomes a fire that will at once turn into a great, all-consuming conflagration. The fires of wrath and anger consume entire forests of merit and virtue.
  Until now, your mother could not devote herself to good works because from the time you were born she lavished her every moment on you, caring for you and seeing that you were provided with everything necessary for your upbringing. If she did find time to enter the family altar room, the sutras and dharanis she recited were always dedicated to your good health and long life, without a thought for her own karmic future, and heedless of her own physical exhaustion. Now, having retired in recent years from her former busy life, she has time to spend quietly on Buddhist devotions-but you come around, hatching your malicious schemes to frustrate and upset her, spreading silly rumors at the yearend cleaning, thinking up ways to anger her at the busy year-end season. What a bitterly cruel thing to do.

1.01 - Who is Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  What is a Buddha?
  Tara is a Buddha. Anybody who has become a Buddha and there are many
   Buddhashas an omniscient mind. The qualities of all these enlightened
  ones are the same. Buddhas have eliminated all delements, both afictive
  obscurations that keep us locked in cyclic existenceignorance, anger,
  --
  the appearance of inherent existence that they cause. Any Buddha has totally
  abandoned everything to be abandoned and completely developed all good
  --
  Tara, like Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani, and others, is a Buddha.
  A Buddha is not a creator God. A Buddha does not manage the universe, controlling sentient beings destiny, rewarding some and punishing others.
  Those of us who were not raised Buddhist can easily bring our previous reli-
  --
  gious conditioning into Buddhist practice and substitute Buddha for God.
  Since this would create many difculties in our spiritual practice, lets be
  --
  qualities onto a Buddha. Tara is not a concrete, self-existent person with a
  personality, and for this reason, we train our minds to see her as an emanation
  --
  A Buddha has two main bodies: a dharmakaya or truth body, and a
  rupakaya or form body. Here, body doesnt mean physical body but a collection of qualities. The omniscient mind the fully enlightened mind that
  has eliminated all delements and realized all good qualitiesis the dharmakaya. The rupakaya or form body allows a Buddha to communicate with
  beings who are not yet Buddhas. Because our minds are obscured, we cannot
  directly know the Buddhas omniscient mind, and so the Buddhas appear in
  various forms out of compassion in order to benet us. All of the different
  forms in which a Buddha appears are called form bodies.
  Form bodies are further divided into two types. The sambhogakaya, or
  --
  enjoyment body is the form that a Buddha takes to teach high-level bodhisattvas. The nirmanakaya, or emanation body, is the form that a Buddha
  takes when he appears in our impure world. For example, Shakyamuni Buddha appeared as a historical person nearly 2,600 years ago. He was a nirmanakaya Buddha, an emanation body manifesting as a monk giving
  teachings in ancient India. A modern-day example of an emanation body is
  --
  us, Buddhas manifest in our world and appear to us as ordinary beings in
  forms that resemble ours. They may seem to have ups and downs in life just
  --
  A bodhisattva is someone training to become a Buddha. This person is
  red by bodhichitta, the aspiration to become fully enlightened in order to
  --
  then actualized that intention by becoming a Buddha. Second, she is a manifestation of awakened qualities; and third, she is our Buddha-potential in its
  future fully puried and evolved form. We may alternate between these
  --
  the Three Jewels the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. She understood the
  unsatisfactory nature of cyclic existence and thus determined to be free from
  --
  lives, Tara refused, pointing out that many Buddhas had already manifested
  in male bodies. She vowed to attain full enlightenment in a womans body
  --
  Just like us, she was once an ordinary being with problems, stress, and disturbing emotions. But by training her mind in the Buddhas teachings, she
  attained full enlightenment. Likewise, if we practice the Dharma with joyful
  --
  enlightened qualities. Anyone who has attained Buddhahood can appear in
  the form of any of the deities. There isnt just one Green Tara, or ThousandArmed Avalokiteshvara, or one Manjushri, or one Vajrapani. These are simply
  --
  A Buddhas mind is beyond our present limited perceptual or conceptual
  abilities. All enlightened beings practiced for eons to purify their minds and
  --
  objects of the senses, the compassionate Buddhas appear in various forms in
  order to communicate with us. Tara, like other meditation deities, is one of
  --
  the wisdom of bliss and emptiness of all Buddhas inspires us to cultivate constructive attitudes and actions. By understanding the symbolic meaning of
  Taras physical characteristics, we gain condence in and are moved to follow
  --
  If we think about the qualities of a Buddha, how would those qualities
  look if they appeared in color, shape, and form? Even though all Buddhas
  have the same internal traits and qualities, they appear in different manifestations to emphasize certain characteristics. For example, an artist or a musician has an internal feeling or meaning he wants to express. In order to
  communicate it, he draws a picture with color and shape or creates a symphony with sound to express whats going on inside. In a similar way, Buddhas express their realizations in different external forms.
  When we look at Tara, what kind of feeling does Tara give us? Think of
  --
  spiritual potential or Buddha-nature and wants to nurture it. We feel that
  we can easily entrust ourselves to the path she teaches. In this way her female
  --
  such wisdom. Thus she is called the mother of all the Buddhas, for the wisdom realizing reality that she embodies gives birth to full enlightenment,
  the state of freedom from self-grasping ignorance and its attendant, self-centeredness.
  --
  specically embodies the enlightening inuence by which the Buddhas act to
  benet and guide us. In addition, she represents the puried aspect of the
  --
  represents the Buddhas of the future, the fully opened lotus symbolizes the
   Buddhas of the past, and the blossoming lotus is the Buddhas of the present.
  On Taras crown is Amitabha Buddha, peaceful and smiling. As Taras spiritual mentor, he represents the importance of having a fully qualied, wise,
  and compassionate guide on the path. By keeping her mentor on her crown,
  --
  respectively, a Buddhas physical, verbal, and mental faculties. They also represent respectively the Sangha, Dharma, and Buddha Jewels of refuge. These
  syllables serve as subtle objects upon which a meditator may focus; they also
  --
  practicing the Buddhas teaching. In this way, each characteristic of Taras
  form illustrates the path to Buddhahood and its resultant qualities.
  Tara as the Resultant Buddha
  A third way to view Tara is as the reection of our present Buddha-potential
  in its future fully developed state. How do we attain Buddhahood? In brief,
  we follow a path in which we generate: rst, the determination to be free
  --
  the fully enlightened body and mind of a Buddha. When we visualize Tara and
  regard her as the resultant Tara that we will become, we are inspired to train

10.20 - Short Notes - 3- Emptying and Replenishment, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The body is composed of cells, living cells. These cells from the standpoint of consciousness are desire-cells, that is to say particles of desire, concrete and consolidated packets of hunger and thirst. A string of such innumerable packets of hunger and thirst is life the Buddha said. The cells are to be emptied completely. Emptiness of cells is Nirvana.
   Not necessarily. For one may empty the cells of their obscure contents but replenish them with something of a purer order. This is a possibility we envisage and which we are working for. The Divine life empties the cells of desire but fills it with the energy of solar Light.

10.23 - Prayers and Meditations of the Mother, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   How many and different are the degrees of consciousness! This word should be reserved for that which, in a being, is illumined by Thy Presence, identifies itself with Thee and participates in Thy absolute Consciousness, for that which has knowledge, which is "perfectly awakened" as says the Buddha.
   Outside this state, there are infinite degrees of consciousness descending down to the complete darkness, the veritable inconscience which may be a domain not yet touched by the light of Thy divine love (but that appears improbable in physical substance), or which is by reason of some ignorance, outside our individual region of perception.

1.02 - Karmayoga, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There have been others in the past which have powerfully influenced the national mind and there is no reason why there should not be a yet more perfect synthesis in the future. It is such a synthesis, embracing all life and action in its scope, that the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda have been preparing. What is dimly beginning now is a repetition on a wider stage of what happened once before in India, more rapidly but to smaller issues, when the Buddha lived and taught his philosophy and ethics to the Aryan nations. Then as now a mighty spirit, it matters not whether Avatar or Vibhuti, the full expression of God in man or a great outpouring of the divine energy, came down among men and brought into their daily life and practice the force and impulse of utter spirituality. And this time it is the full light and not a noble part, unlike Buddhism which, expressing Vedantic morality, yet ignored a fundamental reality of Vedanta and was therefore expelled from its prime seat and cradle. The material result was then what it will be now, a great political, moral and social revolution which made India
  Karmayoga

1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  maturing Buddha and that encapsulated the Hebrew Eden. Conversely, however, the Great Father is the
  tyrant who forbids the emergence (or even the hypothetical existence) of anything new. The Archetypal

1.02 - Meditating on Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  of the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Then we take refuge in the
  Three Jewels and generate the altruistic intention of bodhichitta. Contemplating these, we clarify our spiritual direction and our motivation for following it.
  --
  Tara is a fully enlightened Buddha; she doesnt need our worship or offerings. We dont do these practices for the sake of the enlightened beings, to
  win their favor or soo the their wrath. As a Buddha, Tara is free from ego needs
  and only experiences innite bliss. Rather, bowing, making offerings, reciting mantra, and so on generate special feelings within our own mind. We do
  --
  naturally. Once the Buddha encountered a person who suffered from extreme
  meditating on tara
  --
  miserliness. The Buddha asked her to practice giving a carrot from her left
  hand to her right hand to become familiar with giving. I can identify with this
  --
  Going for refuge means entrusting our spiritual guidance to the Buddha,
  Dharma, and Sangha. That is, we have examined Buddhist teachings and are
  --
  As followers of the Buddhas path, we should not criticize other religions
  or utter blanket statements of intolerance. The existence of many religions in
  --
  existence, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the wisdom realizing emptiness can become a bodhisattva and a Buddha. It doesnt matter
  what they call themselves. We have to look at what a person believes and
  --
  correspond to what the Buddha taught? We must look inside and investigate
  if we really hold Buddhist views. We may say that were a Buddhist but not
  actually know or agree with what the Buddha taught. For example, some people say, Im Buddhist, but they dont want to hear teachings on the sutras
  spoken by the Buddha. They just want to receive blessings and initiations
  from high lamas. They think some external force or realized being will tap
  --
  Whatever the Buddha believed is right, and then blindly follow what other
  people tell us the Buddha said. Making loyalty statements to the Buddha is
  not a quality of a sincere practitioner. Rather, the Buddha wants us to listen
  to the teachings, think about them, meditate on them, and put them into
  --
  functions. Thus, faith and condence in the Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha
  come from examination of the teachings and conviction that they show a
  --
  love that Tara has. A Buddhas love remains constant. It is shared with everyone, no matter how they treat that Buddha. Taras love and compassion do
  not depend upon whether other people like her or not, whether others praise
  --
  limbs, requesting the Buddhas and our spiritual mentors to remain in our
  world and to teach us the Dharma, purify any harm or disrespect we may
  --
  Like a child who dresses up and pretends to be a reman, thereby developing the condence to become one, we imagine ourselves to be a Buddha
  who relates to people as a fully enlightened being doeswithout ignorance,
  hostility, or clinging attachment and with immeasurable wisdom, compassion, and skill. In this way, we train our mind to think and act like a Buddha
  by bringing the Tara we will become in the future into the present moment
  --
  Sanskrit syllables uttered by a Buddha when in deep meditative equipoise on
  the nature of reality. We recite a mantra in order to calm our energies, concentrate our mind, and approach a state of meditative equipoise. In Green

1.02 - Pranayama, Mantrayoga, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
    3. O the Jewel in the Lotus! Amen! -- Refers to Buddha and Harpocrates; but also the symbolism of the Rosy Cross.
    4. Gives the cycle of creation. Peace manifesting as Power, Power dissolving in Peace.

1.02 - Skillful Means, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
  At that time the Bhagavat arose tranquilly with insight out of samdhi and addressed riputra: Profound and immeasurable is the wisdom of the Buddhas. The gate to their wisdom is hard to enter and difficult to understand.
  None of the rvakas and pratyeka Buddhas may be capable of understanding it. Why is this? The Buddhas have closely attended innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of other Buddhas. They have exhaustively carried out practices with courage and persistence under uncountable numbers of Buddhas, their names becoming universally renowned. They have perfected this profound and unprecedented Dharma, and their intention in adapting their explanations to what is appropriate is difficult to understand.
  O riputra! After attaining Buddhahood I expounded the teaching extensively with various explanations and illustrations, and with skillful means (upya) led sentient beings to rid themselves of their attachments.
  Why is this? Because all the Tathgatas have attained perfect mastery of skillful means, wisdom, and insight.
  --
  O riputra! To put it briey, the Buddhas have attained this immeasurable, limitless, and unprecedented Dharma. Enough, O riputra, I will speak no further. Why is this? Because the Dharma that the Buddhas have attained is foremost, unique, and difficult to understand. No one but the Buddhas can completely know the real aspects of all dharmas that is to say their character, nature, substance, potential, function, cause, condition, result, effect, and essential unity.
  23
  --
  Other attributes of the Buddhas.
  Formerly, under innumerable Buddhas,
  They have fully accomplished their practices
  --
  I and the Buddhas of the ten directions
  Know such matters,
  --
  Even the multitude of the Buddhas disciples,
  Who have formerly paid homage to all the Buddhas,
  Who have put an end to all their corruption
  --
  The wisdom of the Buddhas.
  Again, even if the worlds of the ten directions
  --
  To comprehend the wisdom of the Buddhas,
  Still they would not understand it in the least.
  --
  Who had paid homage to innumerable Buddhas
  Though they fully understood the meaning
  --
  The wisdom of the Buddhas.
  Even if bodhisattvas,
  --
  The Buddha, still speaking to riputra, said:
  I have already attained the profound and subtle Dharma
  --
  Only I and the Buddhas of the ten directions know this.
  O riputra! You should know that the words
  Of the Buddhas are never inconsistent.
  You should trust fully in the Dharma
  That the Buddha expounds;
  The Dharma of the Bhagavat
  --
  With the power of the skillful means of the Buddhas
  So as to free the sentient beings
  --
  At that time it occurred to the great assembly of twelve hundred rvakas, arhats free from corruption, beginning with jtakauinya, and the other monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen who had set out to become rvakas and pratyeka Buddhas: Why has the Bhagavat just now so earnestly praised skillful means? For what reason has he declared that the Dharma that the Buddhas have attained is very profound and difficult to understand? Why has he said that their intention in adapting their teaching to what is appropriate is so difficult to comprehend that all the rvakas and pratyeka Buddhas are not able to understand it?
  As long as the Buddha taught the meaning of the single liberation we thought we had attained that Dharma and achieved nirvana. But now we do not understand what he means.
  At that time riputra, aware of the confusion of the fourfold assemblies and himself also feeling confused, addressed the Buddha saying: O
  Bhagavat! For what reason and on what grounds have you so earnestly praised
   the unique skillful means of the Buddhas and the profound and subtle Dharma that is difficult to understand? Never before have I heard such a thing from the Buddha. Now Bhagavat, I entreat you to explain this because the fourfold assemblies are confused. O Bhagavat! Why have you so earnestly praised the Dharma that is profound, subtle, and difficult to understand?
  Thereupon riputra, wanting to further explain what he meant, spoke these verses:
  --
  The wisdom the Buddhas have attained
  Is extremely subtle!
  --
  Why has the Buddha said this?
  Those seeking to become pratyeka Buddhas,
  --
  O Buddha! We entreat you to explain why this is so!
  The Buddha has said that I am the foremost
  Among the rvakas, yet now I am confused
  --
  The sons born from the mouths of the Buddhas
  Stand waiting with palms pressed together,
  Looking at the Buddha.
  I entreat you to proclaim the truth,
  --
  Who are seeking Buddhahood, and noble emperors
  Who have come from myriads of kois of countries,
  --
  Then the Buddha addressed riputra, saying: Enough, enough! Speak no more! If I explained this matter, the devas and humans in all the worlds would be astounded.
  Then riputra again addressed the Buddha: O Bhagavat! Please explain it! I entreat you to explain it, because in this assembly there are innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of incalculable sentient beings, sharp in faculties and possessed of wisdom, who have previously encountered the Buddhas. When they hear the teaching of the Buddha they will trust, believe, and accept it.
  Thereupon riputra spoke in verse to explain this again:
  --
  Then the Buddha again tried to dissuade riputra, saying: If I explain
   it, the devas, humans, and asuras in all the worlds will be astounded, and arrogant monks will certainly go to their downfall.
  --
  And again riputra addressed the Buddha, saying: O Bhagavat! Please explain it! Please explain it! In this assembly there are people like me and others, numbering into the hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of beings, who have been led and inspired by the Buddhas in their former existences. Such people will certainly trust, believe, and accept it. And they will benet, prot, and receive solace from it for a very long time.
  Thereupon riputra spoke these verses to elaborate on what he meant:
  --
  I am the eldest son of the Buddha.
  Please illuminate and explain it!
  --
  Because the Buddha in former existences
  Led and inspired such people.
  --
  To the words of the Buddha.
  I entreat you to illuminate and explain it
  --
  And the others seeking Buddhahood.
  When they hear this Dharma
  --
  When he said this, ve thousand monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen in the assembly immediately got up from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and left. What was the reason for this? Because the roots of error among this group had been deeply planted and they were arrogant, thinking they had attained what they had not attained and had realized what they had not realized. Because of such defects they did not stay. And the Bhagavat remained silent and did not stop them.
  Then the Buddha addressed riputra: My assembly here is free of useless twigs and leaves; only the pure essence remains.
  O riputra! Let the arrogant ones go! Listen carefully and I will explain it to you.
  --
  Then the Buddha addressed riputra: Only very rarely do the Buddha
  Tathgatas teach such a True Dharma as this, as rarely as the uumbara
  --
  O riputra! Trust and accept what the Buddha teaches! My words are never false.
  O riputra! The real intention of all the Buddhas in adapting their explanations to what is appropriate is difficult to understand. Why is this?
  Because I have expounded the teachings with innumerable skillful means and various kinds of explanations and illustrations. Yet this Dharma is beyond reason and discernment. Only the Buddhas can understand it. Why is this?
  Because the Buddha Bhagavats appear in this world for one great purpose alone. O riputra! Now I will explain why I said that the Buddha Bhagavats appear in this world for only one great purpose.
  The Buddha Bhagavat appear in this world to cause sentient beings to aspire toward purity and the wisdom and insight of the Buddhas. They appear in this world to manifest the wisdom and insight of the Buddhas to sentient beings. They appear in this world to cause sentient beings to attain the wisdom and insight of a Buddhas enlightenment. They appear in this world in order to cause sentient beings to enter the path of the wisdom and insight of a Buddha.
  O riputra! For this one great reason alone the Buddhas have appeared in this world.
  The Buddha addressed riputra, saying: The Buddha Tathgatas lead and inspire only bodhisattvas. All the acts of a Buddha are always for one purpose. The Buddhas manifest their wisdom and insight solely to inspire sentient beings to enlightenment.
  O riputra! A Tathgata teaches sentient beings the Dharma only through the single Buddha vehicle. There is no other, neither a second nor a third.
  O riputra! The true nature of all the Buddhas of the ten directions is exactly like this.
  O riputra! All the Buddhas of the past expounded the teachings for the sake of sentient beings, using incalculable and innumerable skillful means and various explanations and illustrations. These teachings were all for the sake of the single Buddha vehicle. All these sentient beings, hearing the
  Dharma from the Buddhas, nally attained omniscience.
  O riputra! All the future Buddhas who will appear in the world will expound the teachings for the sake of sentient beings, using incalculable and innumerable skillful means and various explanations and illustrations. These teachings will all be for the single Buddha vehicle. All sentient beings who hear this Dharma from these Buddhas will ultimately attain omniscience.
  O riputra! All the Buddha Bhagavats of the present, in immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of Buddha worlds of the ten directions, teach the Dharma to sentient beings using incalculable and innumerable skillful means with various explanations and illustrations to benet many of them and cause them to feel at peace. These Dharmas are all of the single Buddha vehicle. All the sentient beings who hear the Dharma from these Buddhas will ultimately attain omniscience.
  O riputra! These Buddhas lead and inspire only bodhisattvas, because they want to teach sentient beings with the wisdom and insight of the Buddha, to enlighten sentient beings with the wisdom and insight of the Buddha, and to cause sentient beings to enter the path of the wisdom and insight of the
   Buddha.
  --
  O riputra! I do this in order to cause them to attain the omniscience of the single Buddha vehicle.
  O riputra! Since there is no second vehicle in the worlds of the ten directions, how could there be a third!
  O riputra! The Buddhas appear in the troubled world of the ve delements, which are the delement of the kalpa, the delement through desires confusion, the delement of sentient beings, the delement of views, and the delement of lifespan. Therefore, O riputra, in the period of the decadent kalpa, because sentient beings are lthy, greedy, jealous, and develop roots of error, all the Buddhas illuminate the three [vehicles] with the power of skillful means in order to teach the single Buddha vehicle.
  O riputra! If any of my disciples declare that they are arhats or pratyeka Buddhas, and do not listen or comprehend that all the Buddha Tathgatas teach only the bodhisattvas, they are not disciples of the Buddhas, nor are they arhats or pratyeka Buddhas.
  Again, O riputra! If there are any monks or nuns who would declare that they have attained arhatship, that they are bearing their last bodies and are destined for complete nirvana, and yet who have not sought highest, complete enlightenment, they should be considered arrogant people.
  --
   Buddha has entered parinirva and there is no Buddha present.
  What is the reason for this? Because after the parinirva of the Buddha it is hard to nd people who preserve, recite, and understand the meaning of the sutras like this. But if they should meet other Buddhas they will immediately understand this teaching.
  O riputra! You should wholeheartedly accept and preserve the words of the Buddha. The words of the Buddha Tathgatas are never false. There are no other vehicles, only the single Buddha vehicle.
  Thereupon the Bhagavat, wanting to elaborate the meaning of this further, uttered these verses:
  --
  Through the virtuous dignity of the Buddha
  The dregs of the assembly have departed.
  --
  All the Buddhas teach the Dharma
  That they have attained
  --
  The Buddha gladdens all sentient beings
  With the power of words and skillful means,
  --
  The Buddha teaches by means of sutras, verses,
  Stories of his past deeds, and of past events,
  --
  The Buddha teaches nirvana
  To those with dull faculties,
  --
  In the presence of innumerable Buddhas
  And are confused by suffering.
  --
  I enable them to enter the wisdom of the Buddhas.
  But I have never said
  --
  The path of the Buddhas.
  I have never said this
  --
  To those heirs of the Buddhas
  Who are pure in mind, mild, and receptive,
  --
  Under immeasurable Buddhas.
  I predict that such people
  Will attain the path of the Buddhas
  In their future lives,
  Because they keep the Buddhas in mind
  With profound thoughts
  --
  Hearing that they shall attain Buddhahood
  They will be lled with great joy;
  Because a Buddha knows their intentions
  He teaches the Mahayana.
  --
  Will all become Buddhas.
  There can be no doubt about it.
  In the Buddha worlds of the ten directions
  There is only the Dharma of the single vehicle.
  Apart from the skillful means of the Buddhas,
  There is neither a second nor a third [vehicle].
  A Buddha merely uses provisional words
  In order to lead sentient beings.
  All the Buddhas appear in the world
  To teach the wisdom of the Buddhas.
  Only this one thing is real,
  --
  A Buddha does not save sentient beings
  Through an inferior vehicle.
  The Buddhas themselves
  Abide in the Mahayana;
  --
  If anyone takes refuge in the Buddha,
  The Tathgata will not deceive him.
  --
  That is why the Buddhas of the ten directions
  Are the only ones who have no fear.
  Having a body adorned with the marks of a Buddha,
  Emitting a ray of light that illuminates the worlds
  --
  And cause them to enter the path of the Buddhas.
  If I met sentient beings
  And taught them till the end the path of the Buddhas,
  Those with little understanding
  --
  Nor the True Dharma of the Buddhas
  For thousands of myriads of kois of kalpas.
  --
  The heirs of the Buddhas who practice this path
  Will thereafter become Buddhas in the future.
  With the power of skillful means
  --
  The words of the Buddhas are not inconsistent.
  There is only the single vehicle;
  --
  There appeared immeasurable and incalculable Buddhas,
  Hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois in number,
  --
  And enabled them to enter the path of the Buddhas.
  Understanding the deepest desires of the entire world
  --
  Of the Buddhas of the past,
  And who accumulated various merits
  --
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  And after the parinirva of the Buddhas,
  Those sentient beings with well-governed minds
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  After the Buddhas attained parinirva,
  All those who paid homage to the relics,
  --
  All those who made Buddha stupas
  Out of piles of earth in desolate places;
  --
  Who made Buddha stupas out of heaps of sand
  All such people have certainly attained
  The path of the Buddhas.
  And all those who made images of the Buddhas
  Carved with their extraordinary marks
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  All those who made Buddha images
  Out of the seven treasures,
  --
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  All those who made or had others make Buddha images
  Painted with the one hundred embellishing
  --
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  This even includes children in play
  Who have drawn a Buddha image
  With a blade of grass or a twig,
  --
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  Leading and inspiring the bodhisattvas,
  --
  Those who joyfully praised the qualities of the Buddhas
  With various songs or
  --
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  Those who, even with distracted minds
  --
  Will in time see innumerable Buddhas.
  Or those who have done obeisance to images,
  --
  Will in due time see immeasurable Buddhas.
  They will attain the highest path
  --
  And chanted but once, Homage to the Buddha!
  Have certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  Anyone who heard this teaching,
  Either in the presence of a past Buddha
  Or after their parinirva,
  Has certainly attained the path of the Buddhas.
  The future Bhagavats, Tathgatas,
  --
  Causing them to enter the wisdom of the Buddhas
  That is free from corruption.
  --
  Who will not become a Buddha.
  The original vow of the Buddhas
  Was to cause all sentient beings to universally
  Attain the very same Buddha path
  That I have practiced.
  Even though the Buddhas of the future
  Will teach hundreds of thousands of kois
  --
  All the Buddhas, the Best of Humans,
  Know that all dharmas are ever without substance
  And that the Buddha-seeds germinate
  Through dependent origination.
  --
  The present Buddhas of the ten directions,
  As numerous as the sands of the Ganges River,
  --
  Their teachings are actually for the Buddha vehicle.
  Knowing the character of sentient beings
  --
  The Buddhas teach with skillful means
  Using various explanations, illustrations, and words,
  --
  Now I too reveal the path of the Buddhas
  Through various paths to the Dharma
  --
  You should know that through the Buddha-eye
  I see beings wandering in the six states of existence
  --
  They do not seek the Buddha who has great power,
  Nor the Dharma that cuts off suffering.
  --
  If I only praise the Buddha vehicles,
  Those beings who are submerged in suffering
  --
  Practiced by past Buddhas.
  This path that I have attained
  --
  The Buddhas of the ten directions appeared
  And with beautiful voices praised me saying:
  --
  Following all the other Buddhas.
  We too have attained the best and utmost Dharma
  --
  And do not believe that they will become Buddhas.
  That is why we use skillful means
  --
  I chanted with joy, Homage to the Buddhas!
  And I thought:
  --
  I will follow the other Buddhas
  And expound what they have expounded.
  --
  Of the Buddhas heirs,
  Who, having set out for the Buddha path,
  And heard the Dharma explained with skillful means,
  Have respectfully come before the Buddha.
  Then I thought:
  --
  To explain the wisdom of the Buddhas.
  Now is precisely the right time for this!
  --
  Will all become Buddhas.
  Just as the Buddhas in the three periods
  Of the past, present, and future,
  --
  All the Buddhas
  Appear in worlds far away
  --
  Happily praise the Buddhas
  By uttering even a single word
  Have already paid homage to all Buddhas
  Of the three periods.
  --
  Of all the Buddhas.
  In the troubled worlds of the ve kinds of delement,
  --
  And ultimately do not seek the path of the Buddhas.
  In the future the impure will hear
  The Buddha teach the single vehicle,
  But they will be confused and will not accept it.
  --
  And seek the path of the Buddhas,
  I will praise extensively
  --
  Of all the Buddhas is like this.
  They teach the Dharma
  --
  Of the Buddhas, the Teachers of the World,
  That are expounded in accordance
  --
  And know that you will all become Buddhas!
  46

1.02 - Taras Tantra, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  where the Buddha takes an aspect of the Enjoyment
  Body and addresses human beings less than gods,
  --
  omniscience of the Buddhas who utter a tantra as it is
  needed in a given epoch. Therefore, it is impossible to
  --
  knowledge of the Buddhas, had already been revealed
  during many past kalpas before being revealed in our
  --
  of Shakyamuni Buddha.
  - 51 -
  --
  conflict epoch when Shaky amun i Buddha had not yet
  appea red in this world .
  UTIER ING OF THE TANTR A BY SHAK YAMU NI Buddha
  These Tara Tantras uttere d by Avalokiteshvara are not
  --
  and stopp ed them from doing harm. The Buddha then
  - 52-
  --
  after Shakyamuni Buddha's passing away (around the
  3rd century BeE).
  --
  From the eternal omniscience of the Buddhas to
  their transmission in the Land of Snow, passing
  --
  not date from the Buddha's lifetime, that when they
  appeared, several hundred years had passed since the
  --
  of the Buddha. For them, Buddha was a man, a man
  like any other, even if he was endowed with great
  --
  It is a narrow vision of what a Buddha is. It is said
  that the nature of a Buddha is an "inconceivable
  - 60 -
  --
  a Buddha.
  'Outside of a spiritual way, the efforts of thinking

1.02 - The Development of Sri Aurobindos Thought, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone. But it is
  Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand.

1.02 - The Divine Teacher, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  HE PECULIARITY of the Gita among the great religious books of the world is that it does not stand apart as a work by itself, the fruit of the spiritual life of a creative personality like Christ, Mahomed or Buddha or of an epoch of pure spiritual searching like the Veda and Upanishads, but is given as an episode in an epic history of nations and their wars and men and their deeds and arises out of a critical moment in the soul of one of its leading personages face to face with the crowning action of his life, a work terrible, violent and sanguinary, at the point when he must either recoil from it altogether or carry it through to its inexorable completion. It matters little whether or no, as modern criticism supposes, the Gita is a later composition inserted into the mass of the Mahabharata by its author in order to invest its teaching with the authority and popularity of the great national epic. There seem to me to be strong grounds against this supposition for which, besides, the evidence, extrinsic or internal, is in the last degree scanty and insufficient. But even if it be sound, there remains the fact that the author has not only taken pains to interweave his work inextricably into the vast web of the larger poem, but is careful again and again to remind us of the situation from which the teaching has arisen; he returns to it prominently, not only at the end, but in the middle of his profoundest philosophical disquisitions. We must accept the insistence of the author and give its full importance to this recurrent preoccupation of the Teacher and the disciple.
  The teaching of the Gita must therefore be regarded not merely in the light of a general spiritual philosophy or ethical doctrine, but as bearing upon a practical crisis in the application of ethics and spirituality to human life. For what that crisis stands, what is the significance of the battle of Kurukshetra and its effect on

1.02 - THE NATURE OF THE GROUND, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  Mahayana Buddhism teaches these same metaphysical doctrines in terms of the Three Bodies of Buddha the absolute Dharmakaya, known also as the Primordial Buddha, or Mind, or the Clear Light of the Void; the Sambhogakaya, corresponding to Isvara or the personal God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and finally the Nirmanakaya, the material body, in which the Logos is incarnated upon earth as a living, historical Buddha.
  Among the Sufis, Al Haqq, the Real, seems to be thought of as the abyss of Godhead underlying the personal Allah, while the Prophet is taken out of history and regarded as the incarnation of the Logos.

1.02 - The Ultimate Path is Without Difficulty, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  damental vehicle of transcendence. Even the Buddhas of the
  three times can only know it for themselves; the successive
  --
  sixteen-foot golden body (of Buddha); sometimes I take the
  sixteen-foot golden body and use it as a blade of grass.
  --
  studies the majestic conduct of Buddhas for a thousand aeons
  and studies the refined practices of Buddhas for ten thousand
  aeons before finally fulfilling Buddhahood. On the other hand,
  the "southern devils" at this time were saying "Mind itself is

1.037 - Preventing the Fall in Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  We may doubt the existence of God Himself this is something that is not unexpected. "After all, is there such a thing called God? Buddha does not believe in God. Perhaps Buddha may be right. He never uttered a word about God. So why am I crying for Brahma, Vishnu, Siva and all that? They may not be there at all." These doubts also will arise. "If they are not there, why am I praying to them? And if they are there, why didn't Buddha mention them? Buddha was not a fool. And there are other religious teachers who do not mention these things. They have other methods, such as upasana meditation, vipasana meditation, and are all sorts of things.
  So we change the technique, and this change of technique, this change of initiation and Guru can be compared to digging a well a foot deep, in one thousand places, for water. We have dug only one foot, and we do not find water anywhere, and so we go on digging for a lifetime. In the same way, one thousand Gurus will bring us nothing. This is what will happen. This has happened to many people, and nobody can be exempted from this possibility, because doubts do not come like extraneous factors. They are internal illnesses that are conditions of the mind itself.

1.03 - A Parable, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
  Thereupon riputra stood up ecstatic and joyful, pressed his palms together and, gazing at the Buddha, the Bhagavat, said: Now, hearing the words of this Dharma from the Bhagavat, my heart is full of joy for I have experienced something unprecedented. What is the reason for this? In the past when
  I heard this Dharma from the Buddha and saw the bodhisattvas receive their predictions, I was not included. I grieved because I thought I had been deprived of the immeasurable wisdom and insight of the Tathgata.
  O Bhagavat! While I was dwelling alone under forest trees, whether sitting or walking, I was constantly thinking this: Since we have also realized the true nature of the Dharma, why has the Tathgata tried to save us with the teachings of the inferior vehicle?
  --
  Mahayana. However, we did not understand that you were teaching with skillful means, according to what is appropriate to us. When we rst heard the Buddhas teaching, we immediately accepted, contemplated, and understood it.
  O Bhagavat! Since long ago I have reproached myself incessantly day and night. But now from the Buddha we have heard the unprecedented Dharma that we have never heard before, and it has removed all our doubts.
  I have obtained peace and tranquility in body and mind. Today I have
  nally realized that I am truly the heir of the Buddha, born from the mouth of the Buddha, incarnated from the Dharma, and that I have inherited a part of the Buddha-Dharma.
  Then riputra, wanting to elaborate this meaning, spoke again in verse:
  --
  The teaching of the Buddha,
  I have not lost the Mahayana.
  The words of the Buddhas are extremely rare
  And are capable of ridding sentient beings
  --
  By hearing the Buddhas voice,
  I have also been rid of my anxiety.
  --
  I am also the heir of the Buddhas,
  Having entered the same incorruptible Dharma.
  --
  I saw the Buddha in the great assembly
  Filling the ten directions with his fame
  --
  Now I have heard the words of the Buddha,
  Explaining to sentient beings
  --
  When I become a Buddha
  I shall be endowed with the thirty-two marks,
  --
  The Buddha has proclaimed
  That I will become a Buddha.
  After hearing these words of the Dharma,
  --
  When I rst heard this teaching of the Buddhas,
  I was greatly startled and thought:
  I wonder if Mra, acting like the Buddha,
  Is confusing me!
  But the Buddha, who teaches skillfully
  By means of various explanations and illustrations,
  --
  The Buddha has said that immeasurable Buddhas
  Who have attained parinirva in the past,
  --
  Immeasurable Buddhas in the present and future
  Will also teach this Dharma
  --
  That it was not Mra acting like the Buddha.
  Because I fell into a web of doubt,
  I thought that Mra was impersonating the Buddha.
  When I heard the voice of the Buddha,
  Profound and very subtle,
  --
  I will denitely become a Buddha,
  Honored by devas and humans.
  --
  At that time the Buddha said to riputra: I will now reveal to you before the great assembly of devas, humans, rmaas, and brahmans that in the past, in the presence of two hundred thousand kois of Buddhas, I led and inspired you constantly for the sake of the highest path. You have followed my instructions for a long time. Because I led you with skillful means, you were born in my Dharma.
  O riputra! In the past I inspired you to seek the Buddha path. Yet just now you had completely forgotten this and considered yourself to have attained nirvana. Now, because I want you to remember the path that you practiced according to your original vow in the past, I will teach the rvakas the Mahayana sutra called the Lotus Sutra, the instruction for the bodhisattvas and treasured lore of the Buddhas.
  O riputra! In the future after immeasurable, limitless, and inconceivable kalpas, you will have paid homage to thousands of myriads of kois of Buddhas, preserved the True Dharma, and mastered the path practiced by the bodhisattvas. You will become a Buddha called Padmaprabha, a Tathgata, Arhat, Completely Enlightened, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct,
  Well-Departed, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Humans,
  Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, Bhagavat.
  Your land will be called Viraja. Its earth will be level and pure, ornamented, peaceful, and rich. The devas and humans will prosper. The earth will be made of lapis lazuli with a well-planned network of roads like a chessboard bordered with golden cords. Rows of seven-jeweled trees, which are always full of owers and fruits, will line the borders of these roads. The
  --
  O riputra! When that Buddha appears, even though his will not be a troubled world, he will teach the three vehicles because of his original vow.
  11c
  --
  Great Jewels. Why will it be called Mahratnapratimaita? Because in that world the bodhisattvas will be like great jewels. The number of these bodhisattvas will be immeasurable, limitless, inconceivable, and beyond all comparison, known only by those with the power of the Buddhas wisdom.
  When they want to walk they will step on jeweled owers. And these bodhisattvas will not be those who are just setting out. Over a long time they will have planted roots of good merit and practiced the pure path of discipline and integrity in the presence of immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of Buddhas. They will always be praised by the Buddhas and continually practice the Buddha wisdom. They will be endowed with transcendent powers and know well all the teachings of the Dharma. They will be honest, without falsity, and rm in recollection. That world will be
  lled with bodhisattvas like these.
  O riputra! The lifespan of this Buddha Padmaprabha will be twelve intermediate kalpas, not including the period after he becomes a prince and before he becomes a Buddha; and the lifespan of the people in that world will be eight intermediate kalpas.
  After these twelve intermediate kalpas have passed, the Tathgata
  --
  This Bodhisattva Dhtiparipra will become the next Buddha after me. His name will be Padmavabhavikrama, a Tathgata, Arhat, Completely Enlightened. His Buddha world will also be like this one.
  O riputra! After the parinirva of the Buddha Padmaprabha the
  True Dharma will remain in the world for thirty-two intermediate kalpas and the Semblance Dharma will also remain in the world for thirty-two intermediate kalpas.
  --
  You will become a Buddha of universal wisdom
  Named Padmaprabha,
  --
  Having paid homage to innumerable Buddhas,
  Perfected the bodhisattva practice,
  --
  In the presence of innumerable Buddhas.
  Such mahasattvas as these
  Will be led and inspired by the Buddha Padmaprabha.
  When this Buddha becomes a prince
  He will abdicate his kingship
  --
  And attain the path of the Buddha.
  This Buddha Padmaprabha will live in the world
  For twelve intermediate kalpas.
  --
  After the parinirva of this Buddha,
  The True Dharma will last in the world
  --
  The relics of the Buddha
  Will be distributed widely
  --
  All that the Buddha Padmaprabha does
  Will be exactly like this.
  --
  At that time the fourfold assembly of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen and the great assembly of devas, ngas, yakas, gandharvas, asuras, garuas, kinaras, and mahoragas saw riputra receive his prediction of highest, complete enlightenment in the presence of the Buddha. They rejoiced greatly and became immeasurably happy. All of them removed their outer garments and proffered them to the Buddha as offerings.
  akra, the lord of devas, and Brahma, together with innumerable devaputras also made offerings to the Buddha of their heavenly beautiful garments, heavenly mndrava owers, and great mndrava owers. Their heavenly garments oated and uttered in the air, while in the sky the devas played hundreds of thousands of myriads of kinds of music together at one time. They rained down various heavenly owers and said: In the past the
   Buddha turned the wheel of the Dharma for the rst time in Vras. Now he has turned the wheel of the utmost and greatest Dharma again.
  --
  Shall certainly become Buddhas.
  We shall become peerless,
  --
  The path of the Buddha,
  Which is difficult to understand,
  --
  And those acquired in meeting the Buddha,
  Be completely transferred to the Buddha path.
  12b
  At that time riputra said this to the Buddha: O Bhagavat! I now have no further doubts. I have received the prediction of the highest supreme enlightenment in the presence of the Buddha.
  When all those twelve hundred who have attained complete mental discipline were still under training in the past, the Buddha constantly led and inspired them, saying: My teaching overcomes birth, old age, illness, and death and it leads to nirvana. Both those who were still in training and those who were not thought that they were free from false views about the self, existence and nonexistence, and declared that they had attained nirvana.
  Yet now, in the presence of the Bhagavat, they have heard what they have never heard before and have fallen into doubt.
  --
  Then the Buddha said to riputra: Did I not previously tell you that all the Buddha Bhagavats explain the Dharma with various explanations and illustrations using skillful means, all for the sake of highest, complete enlightenment!? All of these teachings are for leading and inspiring the bodhisattvas.
  Moreover, riputra, I will now clarify what I mean with illustrations.
  --
  The Buddha said to riputra: Splendid, splendid! It is exactly as you have said. O riputra, the Tathgata is also just like this. That is to say, as
   the father of the entire world, he permanently dispels fear, distress, anxiety, ignorance, and blindness. He has attained immeasurable wisdom, insight, power, and fearlessness, as well as great transcendent powers and the power of wisdom. He has attained the perfection of skillful means and of wisdom.
  --
  O riputra! Seeing these things the Buddha thought:
  Since I am the father of sentient beings I must rid them of their immeasurable suffering and distress. I will cause them to rejoice through the immeasurable and limitless pleasure of the Buddha wisdom.
  O riputra! The Tathgata further thought:
  --
  How would they be able to understand the Buddhas wisdom?
  O riputra! Although that afuent man had physical strength he did not use it. He only earnestly employed skillful means to save his children from the disaster of the burning house, and later he gave each of them a large cart decorated with precious treasures. The Tathgata is exactly like this.
  --
  rvakas, pratyeka Buddhas, and the Buddhas, saying:
  Do not take pleasure in living in this burning house of the triple world.
  And do not thirst after inferior objects, sounds, smells, avors, and tangibles. If you are attached to these objects and have desires, then you will be burned. Leave the triple world in haste and you will obtain the three vehicles the vehicles for the rvakas, pratyeka Buddhas, and Buddhas. I denitely guarantee this to you. In the end it will come true. You should be diligent and persistent!
  The Tathgata attracts sentient beings through this skillful means, saying further:
  --
  O riputra! Those beings, wise by nature, who accept the Dharma from the Buddha Bhagavat, who are diligent, persistent, and wish to escape from the triple world quickly, and who are seeking nirvana, are all practicing the rvaka vehicle. They are like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to a sheep.
  Those beings who accept the Dharma of the Buddha Bhagavat, who are diligent and persevere in seeking the wisdom of the Self-generated One and enjoy tranquility for themselves, who profoundly know the causes of and reasons for existence, are all practicing the pratyeka Buddha vehicle.
  They are just like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to a deer.
  Those beings who accept the Dharma of the Buddha Bhagavat, who are diligent and persevere in seeking the wisdom of the Omniscient One, the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Self-generated One, the wisdom acquired without a teacher, the wisdom and insight, powers, and fearlessness of the Tathgata; who are compassionate, put immeasurable sentient beings at ease, benet devas and humans, and save all beings, are all practicing the Mahayana. Bodhisattvas are called mahsattvas (great beings) because they seek this vehicle. They are just like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to an ox.
  O riputra! That afuent man saw his children leave the burning house safely and arrive at a safe place. Knowing that he had immeasurable wealth, he gave a large cart equally to each child. The Tathgata is exactly like this.
  As the father of all sentient beings he sees that immeasurable thousands of kois of sentient beings escape from the dangers, sufferings, and fears of the triple world through the gates of the Buddhas teaching and attain the pleasure of nirvana.
  Then the Tathgata thought:
  Because I possess the treasure house of the Dharma of all the Buddhas, which contains immeasurable limitless wisdom, power, and fearlessness, and because all sentient beings are my children, I will give them equally the Mahayana. I will not allow anyone to attain nirvana merely for himself but will cause everyone to attain it through the Tathgatas nirvana.
  I will give sentient beings who have escaped from the triple world all the toys of the Buddhas meditations and liberations, which are of one character and one kind, are praised by the Noble Ones, and which produce pure and supreme pleasure.
  O riputra! At rst that afuent man attracted his children with three kinds of carts, then later gave them only the safest and best large [ox]cart,
  --
  O riputra! You should know that the Buddhas, with the power of skillful means, teach the single Buddha vehicle, dividing and teaching it as three.
  Then the Buddha, wanting to elaborate on the meaning of this again, spoke these verses:
  Suppose there were an afuent man
  --
  The Buddha said to riputra:
  I am also like this.
  --
  I explain the single Buddha vehicle
  To sentient beings, using this illustration.
  --
  You will all attain the Buddha path.
  This vehicle is subtle, pure, and peerless.
  --
  This is what the Buddha enjoys.
  All the sentient beings should praise,
  --
  Wisdoms, and other attributes of the Buddha.
  I cause my children to obtain such a vehicle
  --
  The skillful means of the Buddhas,
  Even if one seeks in all the ten directions.
  --
  The wisdom of the Buddha.
  If there are any bodhisattvas in this assembly,
  --
  To the real teaching of all the Buddhas.
  Those sentient beings
  Whom the Buddha Bhagavats
  Lead and inspire with skillful means
  --
  The truth of suffering taught by the Buddha
  Is nothing but the truth.
  --
  The Buddha has explained that these people
  Have not actually attained nirvana:
  --
  Have formerly seen the Buddhas in the past,
  Honored, and paid homage to them,
  --
  Because they believe the Buddhas teaching,
  But it is beyond their intellectual comprehension.
  --
  Will consequently destroy the seed of the Buddha
  In the entire world.
  --
  Of the Buddhas presence in this world
  Or after his parinirva, disparage this sutra,
  --
  The seed of the Buddha,
  They will suffer the consequences
  --
  The Buddha, the king of seers,
  Preaching the Dharma and leading and inspiring people.
  --
  The Buddha said to riputra:
  If one were to explain
  --
  And are seeking the Buddha path.
  You should teach it to those who have seen
  Hundreds of thousands of kois of Buddhas,
  Who have planted good roots, and are resolute.
  --
  Teach it to the heirs of the Buddha
  Who have good conduct, are as pure as jewels,
  --
  And who honor all the Buddhas.
  Teach it to the heirs of the Buddha
  In the great assembly,
  --
  As intently as they seek for the relics of the Buddha,
  Who after obtaining it will accept it
  --
  Who seek the Buddha path,
  Though a kalpa would not suffice to do so in full.

1.03 - Bloodstream Sermon, #The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, #Bodhidharma, #Buddhism
  the mind.8 Hence Buddhas9 of the past and future teach mind to
  mind without bothering about definitions.10
  --
  real mind, that's your real Buddha. This mind is the Buddha12 says
  the same thing. Beyond this mind you'll never find another Buddha.
  To search for enlightenment13 or nirvana14 beyond this mind is
  --
  You might think you can find a Buddha or enlightenment some
  where beyond the mind, but such a place doesn't exist.
  Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to
  grab space. Space has a name but no form. It's not something you
  --
  this mind you'll never see a Buddha. The Buddha is a product of
  your mind. Why look for a Buddha beyond this mind?
   Buddhas of the past and future only talk about this mind.
  The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind. Beyond the
  mind there's no Buddha, and beyond the Buddha there's no mind.
  If you think there's a Buddha beyond the mind, where is he? There's
  no Buddha beyond the mind, so why envision one? You can't know
  your real mind as long as you deceive yourself. As long as you're
  --
  me, deceiving yourself won't help. It's not the Buddha's fault.
  People, though, are deluded. They're unaware that their own mind
  is the Buddha. Otherwise they wouldn't look for a Buddha outside
  the mind.
   Buddhas don't save Buddhas. If you use your mind to look
  for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha. As long as you look for a
   Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the
   Buddha. Don't use a Buddha to worship a Buddha. And don't use
  the mind to invoke a Buddha!6 Buddhas don't recite sutras.17 Bud
  dhas don't keep precepts.18 And Buddhas don't break precepts.
   Buddhas don't keep or break anything. Buddhas don't do good or
  evil.
  To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.19 Whoever
  sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking
   Buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts
  are all useless. Invoking Buddhas results in good karma, reciting
  sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a
  --
  no Buddha.
  If you don't understand by yourself, you'll have to find a
  --
  To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature. Your
  nature is the Buddha. And the Buddha is the person who's free: free
  of plans, free of cares. If you don't see your nature and run around
  all day looking somewhere else, you'll never find a Buddha. The
  truth is, there's nothing to find. But to reach such an understanding
  --
  It's true, you have the Buddha-nature. But without the help of a
  teacher you'll never know it. Only one person in a million becomes
  --
  stands what the Buddha meant, that person doesn't need a teacher.
  Such a person has a natural awareness superior to anything taught.
  --
  from black.25 Falsely proclaiming the Buddhadharma, such persons
  in fact blaspheme the Buddha and subvert the Dharma. They
  preach as if they were bringing rain. But theirs is the preaching of
  devils,26 not of Buddhas. Their teacher is the King of Devils and
  their disciples are the Devil's minions. Deluded people who follow
  --
  is to Mara, not to the Buddha. Unable to distinguish white from
  black, how can they escape birth and death?
  Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha; whoever doesn't is a
  mortal. But if you can find your Buddha-nature apart from your
  IJ
  mortal nature, where is it? Our mortal nature is our Buddha
  nature. Beyond this nature there's no Buddha. T he Buddha is our
  nature. There's no Buddha besides this nature. And there's no
  nature besides the Buddha.
  But suppose I don't see my nature, can't I still attain enlight
  enment by invoking Buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings,
  observing precepts, practicing devotions, or doing good works?
  --
  your nature, all this talk about cause and effect is nonsense. Buddhas
  don't practice nonsense. A Buddha is free of karma,27 free of cause
  and effect. To say he attains anything at all is to slander a Buddha.
  What could he possibly attain? Even focusing on a mind, a power,
  an understanding, or a view is impossible for a Buddha. A Buddha
  isn't one-sided. T he nature of his mind is basically empty, neither
  --
  A Buddha doesn't observe precepts. A Buddha doesn't do
  good or evil. A Buddha isn't energetic or lazy. A Buddha is someone
  who does nothing, someone who can't even focus his mind on a
   Buddha. A Buddha isn't a Buddha. Don't think about Buddhas. If
  I7
  --
  novice, a sage or a fool, a Buddha or a mortal. It strives for no
  realization and suffers no karma. It has no strength or form. It's
  --
  The Buddha said people are deluded. This is why when they
  2I
  --
  movement of his own hands and feet. The Buddha wasn't mistaken.
  Deluded people don't know who they are. Something so hard to
  fathom is known by a Buddha and no one else. Only the wise know
  this mind, this mind called dharma-nature, this mind called libera
  --
  not its essence. Buddhas vary too, but none leaves his own mind.
  The mind's capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are
  --
  say, "People should realize that the Buddha-nature is something
  they have always had." Kashyapa32 only realized his own nature.
  --
  nature is the same as the mind of all Buddhas. Buddhas of the past
  and future only transmit this mind. Beyond this mind there's no
  --
  mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside. They never stop
  invoking Buddhas or worshipping Buddhas and wondering Where
  is the Buddha? Don't indulge in such illusions. Just know your
  mind. Beyond your mind there's no other Buddha. The sutras say,
  "Everything that has form is an illusion." They also say, "Wherever
  you are, there's a Buddha." Your mind is the Buddha. Don't use a
   Buddha to worship a Buddha.
  Even if a Buddha or bodhisattva33 should suddenly appear
  before you, there's no need for reverence. This mind of ours is
  --
  basic nature of a Buddha has no such form. Keep this in mind, even
  if something unusual should appear. Don't embrace it, and don't
  --
  If you envision a Buddha, a dharma, or a bodhisattva35 and
  conceive respect for them, you relegate yourself to the realm of
  --
  appearances, and you'll be of one mind with the Buddha. The
  sutras say, "That which is free of all form is the Buddha."
  But why shouldn't we worship Buddhas and bodhisattvas?
  Devils and demons possess the power of manifestation. They
  --
  they're false. None of them are Buddhas. The Buddha is your own
  mind. Don't misdirect your worship.
  --
  nature. And this nature is the mind. And the mind is the Buddha.
  And the Buddha is the path. And the path is zen.36 But the word
  zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals and sages. Seeing
  --
  not a Buddha. The true Way is sublime. It can't be expressed in
  language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his
  --
  who sees his nature is a Buddha. And since a Buddha's body is
  intrinsically pure and unsullied, and everything he says is an ex
  pression of his mind, being basically empty, a Buddha can't be
  found in words or anywhere in the Twelvefold Canon.
  --
  any of its myriad forms, is a mortal. A Buddha is someone who
  finds freedom in good fortune and bad. Such is his power that
  --
  karma can't hold him. No matter what kind of karma, a Buddha
  transforms it. Heaven and hell39 are nothing to him. But the aware
  ness of a mortal is dim compared to that of a Buddha, who pene
  trates everything, inside and out.
  --
  invoke Buddhas. Erudition and knowledge are not only useless but
  also cloud your awareness. Doctrines are only for pointing to the
  --
  To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to
  karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings. If
  --
  Way. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself. Buddhas move
  freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.
  --
  understand what the Buddha meant. And the harder they try, the
  farther they get from the Sage's meaning. All day long they invoke
  --
  A Buddha is an idle person. He doesn't run around after
  fortune and fame. W hat good are such things in the end? People
  --
  blaspheme the Dharma. Buddhas of the past and future only talk
  about seeing your nature. All practices are impermanent. Unless
  --
  foremost in learning. But he didn't know the Buddha. All he did
  was study and memorize. Arhats44 don't know the Buddha. All
  they know are so many practices for realization, and they become
  --
  such people blaspheme the Buddha. Killing them would not be
  wrong. The sutras say, "Since icchantikas45 are incapable of belief,
  --
  the state of Buddhahood."
  Unless you see your nature, you shouldn't go around criticizing
  --
  People who see that their mind is the Buddha don't need to
  shave their head.47 Laymen are Buddhas too. Unless they see their
  nature, people who shave their head are simply fanatics.
  --
  become Buddhas?
  I only talk about seeing your nature. I don't talk about sex
  --
  you're a Buddha even if you work as a butcher.
  But butchers create karma
  --
  they be Buddhas?
  I only talk about seeing your nature. I don't talk about
  --
  karma. If he doesn't see his nature, invoking Buddhas won't release
  him from his karma, regardless of whether or not he's a butcher.
  --
  is the Buddha. I don't talk about precepts, devotions or ascetic
  practices such as immersing yourself in water and fire, treading a
  --
  ing, miraculously aware nature, yours is the mind of all Buddhas.
   Buddhas of the past and future only talk about transmitting the
  --
  ing, even if he's illiterate he's a Buddha. If you don't see your own
  miraculously aware nature, you'll never find a Buddha even if you
  break your body into atoms.52
  The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind
  has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or

1.03 - Invocation of Tara, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  such as those addressed to Shakyamuni Buddha or
  Baisajaguru (Sangye Menla, Medicine Buddha).
  The Vajrayana tradition is divided into four groups
  --
  - homage to all Buddhas and all bodhisattvas as an
  anti~~~~~
  --
  - praying for the Buddhas to remain present as an
  antidote for erroneous views. One of the erroneous
  views is to believe that the Buddhas' activity could be
  intermittent, that while present in a physical body,
  --
  requesting the Buddhas to remain present among us
  with or without a body, we rid ourselves of the
  thought that death places an end to the Buddhas'
  activity.
  --
  to Tara, Buddhas, and bodhisattvas the totality of the
  universe gathered in the form of a mandala. The
  --
  Answer: The Buddhas and bodhisattvas' dedication is
  entirely directed to benefiting beings. Buddhas and
  bodhisattvas have three great qualities: knowledge of
  --
  who represent above all the Buddha's activity, we
  consider that, even if one has not received the

1.03 - Man - Slave or Free?, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The exclusive pursuit of Yoga by men who seclude themselves either physically or mentally from the contact of the world has led to an erroneous view of this science as something mystic, far-off and unreal. The secrecy which has been observed with regard to Yogic practices,a necessary secrecy in the former stages of human evolution,has stereotyped this error. Practices followed by men who form secret circles and confine the instruction in the mysteries strictly to those who have a certain preparatory fitness, inevitably bear the stamp to the outside world of occultism. In reality there is nothing intrinsically hidden, occult or mystic about Yoga. Yoga is based upon certain laws of human psychology, a certain knowledge about the power of the mind over the body and the inner spirit over the mind which are not generally realised and have hitherto been considered by those in the secret too momentous in their consequences for disclosure until men should be trained to use them aright. Just as a set of men who had discovered and tested the uttermost possibilities of mesmerism and hypnotism might hesitate to divulge them freely to the world lest the hypnotic power should be misused by ignorance or perversity or abused in the interests of selfishness and crime, so the Yogins have usually preserved the knowledge of these much greater forces within us in a secrecy broken only when they were sure of the previous ethical and spiritual training of the neophyte and his physical and moral fitness for the Yogic practices. It became therefore an established rule for the learner to observe strict reserve as to the inner experiences of Yoga and for the developed Yogin as far as possible to conceal himself. This has not prevented treatises and manuals from being published dealing with the physical or with the moral and intellectual sides of Yoga. Nor has it prevented great spirits who have gained their Yoga not by the ordinary careful and scientific methods but by their own strength and the special grace of God, from revealing themselves and their spiritual knowledge to mankind and in their intense love for humanity imparting something of their power to the world. Such were Buddha, Christ, Mahomed, Chaitanya, such have been Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. It is still the orthodox view that the experiences of Yoga must not be revealed to the uninitiated. But a new era dawns upon us in which the old laws must be modified Already the West is beginning to discover the secrets of Yoga. Some of its laws have revealed themselves however dimly and imperfectly to the scientists of Europe while others through Spiritualism, Christian Science, clairvoyance, telepathy and other modern forms of occultism are being almost discovered by accident as if by men groping in the dark and stumbling over truths they cannot understand. The time has almost come when India can no longer keep her light to herself but must pour it out upon the world. Yoga must be revealed to mankind because without it mankind cannot take the next step in the human evolution.
  The psychology of the human race has not yet been discovered by Science. All creation is essentially the same and proceeds by similar though not identical laws. If therefore we see in the outside material world that all phenomena proceed from and can be reduced to a single causal substance from which they were born, in which they move and to which they return, the same truth is likely to hold good in the psychical world. The unity of the material universe has now been acknowledged by the scientific intellect of Europe and the high priests of atheism and materialism in Germany have declared the ekam evdvityam in matter with no uncertain voice. In so doing they have merely reaffirmed the discovery made by Indian masters of the Yogic science thousands of years ago. But the European scientists have not discovered any sure and certain methods, such as they have in dealing with gross matter, for investigating psychical phenomena. They can only observe the most external manifestations of mind in action. But in these manifestations the mind is so much enveloped in the action of the outer objects and seems so dependent on them that it is very difficult for the observer to find out the springs of its action or any regularity in its workings. The European scientists have therefore come to the conclusion that it is the stimulations of outside objects which are the cause of psychical phenomena, and that even when the mind seems to act of itself and on its own material it is only associating, grouping together and manipulating the recorded experiences from outside objects. The very nature of mind is, according to them, a creation of past material experience transmitted by heredity with such persistence that we have grown steadily from the savage with his rudimentary mind to the civilised man of the twentieth century. As a natural result of these materialistic theories, science has found it difficult to discover any true psychical centre for the multifarious phenomena of mind and has therefore fixed upon the brain, the material organ of thought, as the only real centre. From this materialistic philosophy have resulted certain theories very dangerous to the moral future of mankind. First, man is a creation and slave of matter. He can only master matter by obeying it Secondly, the mind itself is a form of gross matter and not independent of and master of the senses. Thirdly, there is no real free will, because all our action is determined by two great forces, heredity and environment. We are the slaves of our nature, and where we seem to be free from its mastery, it is because we are yet worse slaves of our environment, worked on by the forces that surround and manipulate us.

1.03 - Master Ma is Unwell, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  recent days?"2 The Great Master said, "Sun Face Buddha,
  Moon Face Buddha."3.a
  NOTES
  --
  in recent days?" The Great Master replied, "Sun Face Buddha,
  Moon Face Buddha." If the patriarchal teachers had not dealt
  with others on the basis of the fundamental matter, how could
  --
  This "Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha" is extremely
  difficult to seei even Hsueh Tou finds it difficult to versify this.
  --
  Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha;
  **When he opens his mouth you see his guts.
  --
  First Hsueh Tou quotes: "Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face
   Buddha." Having brought this up, then he says, "What kind of
  --
  According to the Buddha Name Scripture, a Sun Face Buddha
  lives in the world for eighteen hundred years, whereas a Moon
  Face Buddha enters extinction after a day and a night. Tenkei
  Denson says, "But is everyone's own Sun Face Buddha Moon Face
   Buddha something long or short?"

1.03 - PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  The biographies of the saints testify unequivocally to the fact that spiritual training leads to a transcendence of personality, not merely in the special circumstances of battle, but in all circumstances and in relation to all creatures, so that the saint loves his enemies or, if he is a Buddhist, does not even recognize the existence of enemies, but treats all sentient beings, sub-human as well as human, with the same compassion and disinterested good will. Those who win through to the unitive knowledge of God set out upon their course from the most diverse starting points. One is a man, another a woman; one a born active, another a born contemplative. No two of them inherit the same temperament and physical constitution, and their lives are passed in material, moral and intellectual environments that are profoundly dissimilar. Nevertheless, insofar as they are saints, insofar as they possess the unitive knowledge that makes them perfect as their Father which is in heaven is perfect, they are all astonishingly alike. Their actions are uniformly selfless and they are constantly recollected, so that at every moment they know who they are and what is their true relation to the universe and its spiritual Ground. Of even plain average people it may be said that their name is Legionmuch more so of exceptionally complex personalities, who identify themselves with a wide diversity of moods, cravings and opinions. Saints, on the contrary, are neither double-minded nor half-hearted, but single and, however great their intellectual gifts, profoundly simple. The multiplicity of Legion has given place to one-pointedness not to any of those evil one-pointednesses of ambition or covetousness, or lust for power and fame, not even to any of the nobler, but still all too human one-pointednesses of art, scholarship and science, regarded as ends in themselves, but to the supreme, more than human one-pointedness that is the very being of those souls who consciously and consistently pursue mans final end, the knowledge of eternal Reality. In one of the Pali scriptures there is a significant anecdote about the Brahman Drona who, seeing the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a tree, asked him, Are you a deva? And the Exalted One answered, I am not. Are you a gandharva? I am not, Are you a yaksha? I am not. Are you a man? I am not a man. On the Brahman asking what he might be, the Blessed One replied, Those evil influences, those cravings, whose non-destruction would have individualized me as a deva, a gandharva, a yaksha (three types of supernatural being), or a man, I have completely annihilated. Know therefore that I am Buddha.
  Here we may remark in passing that it is only the one-pointed, who are truly capable of worshipping one God. Monotheism as a theory can be entertained even by a person whose name is Legion. But when it comes to passing from theory to practice, from discursive knowledge about to immediate acquaintance with the one God, there cannot be monotheism except where there is singleness of heart. Knowledge is in the knower according to the mode of the knower. Where the knower is poly-psychic the universe he knows by immediate experience is polytheistic. The Buddha declined to make any statement in regard to the ultimate divine Reality. All he would talk about was Nirvana, which is the name of the experience that comes to the totally selfless and one-pointed. To this same experience others have given the name of union with Brahman, with Al Haqq, with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. Maintaining, in this matter, the attitude of a strict operationalist, the Buddha would speak only of the spiritual experience, not of the metaphysical entity presumed by the theologians of other religions, as also of later Buddhism, to be the object and (since in contemplation the knower, the known and the knowledge are all one) at the same time the subject and substance of that experience.
  When a man lacks discrimination, his will wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims. Those who lack discrimination may quote the letter of the scripture; but they are really denying its inner truth. They are full of worldly desires and hungry for the rewards of heaven. They use beautiful figures of speech; they teach elaborate rituals, which are supposed to obtain pleasure and power for those who practice them. But, actually, they understand nothing except the law of Karma that chains men to rebirth.
  --
  Then the Blessed One spoke and said: Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face The Truth does he proclaim both in its letter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its purity and in all its perfectness.
  Tevigga Sutta
  Krishna is an incarnation of Brahman, Gautama Buddha of what the Mahayanists called the Dharmakaya, Suchness, Mind, the spiritual Ground of all being. The Christian doctrine of the incarnation of the Godhead in human form differs from that of India and the Far East inasmuch as it affirms that there has been and can be only one Avatar.
  What we do depends in large measure upon what we think, and if what we do is evil, there is good empirical reason for supposing that our thought patterns are inadequate to material. mental or spiritual reality. Because Christians believed that there had been only one Avatar, Christian history has been disgraced by more and bloother crusades, interdenominational wars, persecutions and proselytizing imperialism than has the history of Hinduism and Buddhism. Absurd and idolatrous doctrines, affirming the quasi-divine nature of sovereign states and their rulers, have led oriental, no less than Western, peoples into innumerable political wars; but because they have not believed in an exclusive revelation at one sole instant of time, or in the quasi-divinity of an ecclesiastical organization, oriental peoples have kept remarkably clear of the mass murder for religions sake, which has been so dreadfully frequent in Christendom. And while, in this important respect, the level of public morality has been lower in the West than in the East, the levels of exceptional sanctity and of ordinary individual morality have not, so far as one can judge from the available evidence, been any higher. If the tree is indeed known by its fruits, Christianitys departure from the norm of the Perennial Philosophy would seem to be philosophically unjustifiable.
  --
  In the West, the mystics went some way towards liberating Christianity from its unfortunate servitude to historic fact. (or, to be more accurate, to those various mixtures of contemporary record with subsequent inference and phantasy, which have, at different epochs, been accepted as historic fact). From the writings of Eckhart, Tauler and Ruysbroeck, of Boehme, William Law and the Quakers, it would be possible to extract a spiritualized and universalized Christianity, whose narratives should refer, not to history as it was, or as someone afterwards thought it ought to be, but to processes forever unfolded in the heart of man. But unfortunately the influence of the mystics was never powerful enough to bring about a radical Mahayanist revolution in the West. In spite of them, Christianity has remained a religion in which the pure Perennial Philosophy has been overlaid, now more, now less, by an idolatrous preoccupation with events and things in timeevents and things regarded not merely as useful means, but as ends, intrinsically sacred and indeed divine. Moreover such improvements on history as were made in the course of centuries were, most imprudently, treated as though they themselves were a part of historya procedure which put a powerful weapon into the hands of Protestant and, later, of Rationalist controversialists. How much wiser it would have been to admit the perfectly avowable fact that, when the sternness of Christ the Judge had been unduly emphasized, men and women felt the need of personifying the divine compassion in a new form, with the result that the figure of the Virgin, mediatrix to the mediator, came into increased prominence. And when, in course of time, the Queen of Heaven was felt to be too awe-inspiring, compassion was re-personified in the homely figure of St. Joseph, who thus became me thator to the me thatrix to the me thator. In exactly the same way Buddhist worshippers felt that the historic Sakyamuni, with his insistence on recollectedness, discrimination and a total dying to self as the principal means of liberation, was too stern and too intellectual. The result was that the love and compassion which Sakyamuni had also inculcated came to be personified in Buddhas such as Amida and Maitreyadivine characters completely removed from history, inasmuch as their temporal career was situated somewhere in the distant past or distant future. Here it may be remarked that the vast numbers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, of whom the Mahayanist theologians speak, are commensurate with the vastness of their cosmology. Time, for them, is beginningless, and the innumerable universes, every one of them supporting sentient beings of every possible variety, are born, evolve, decay and the, only to repeat the same cycleagain and again, until the final inconceivably remote consummation, when every sentient being in all the worlds shall have won to deliverance out of time into eternal Suchness or Buddhahood This cosmological background to Buddhism has affinities with the world picture of modern astronomyespecially with that version of it offered in the recently published theory of Dr. Weiszcker regarding the formation of planets. If the Weiszcker hypothesis is correct, the production of a planetary system would be a normal episode in the life of every star. There are forty thousand million stars in our own galactic system alone, and beyond our galaxy other galaxies, indefinitely. If, as we have no choice but to believe, spiritual laws governing consciousness are uniform throughout the whole planet-bearing and presumably life-supporting universe, then certainly there is plenty of room, and at the same time, no doubt, the most agonizing and desperate need, for those innumerable redemptive incarnations of Suchness, upon whose shining multitudes the Mahayanists love to dwell.
  For my part, I think the chief reason which prompted the invisible God to become visible in the flesh and to hold converse with men was to lead carnal men, who are only able to love carnally, to the healthful love of his flesh, and afterwards, little by little, to spiritual love.
  --
  When not enlightened, Buddhas are no other than ordinary beings; when there is enlightenment, ordinary beings at once turn into Buddhas.
  Hui. Neng

1.03 - Tara, Liberator from the Eight Dangers, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  antidotes that the Buddha taught rst to subdue and nally to eradicate them
  so that they never reappear in our mind.
  --
  full-length prostrations. While prostrating, we contemplate the good qualities of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which makes respect and admiration
  arise in our mind. This reduces any embellishment we may have regarding our
  --
  parage the Buddha and the Dharma teachings when they dont agree with
  our opinions or our likes and dislikes. This is very harmful to our spiritual
  --
  or disagree with it. For example, the Buddha would not support assisted suicide. Saying that the Buddha taught us to be open-minded and that therefore
  assisted suicide is ne is not correct. Similarly, it is not suitable to use the
  --
  We may have a subconscious tendency to believe that the Buddha would
  agree with our political and social views, but this is our self-centeredness
  --
  enlightened being. Who ever heard of a stingy Buddha?
  The Flood of Attachment
  --
  we progress through the stages of the bodhisattva path to Buddhahood.
  Reecting on the disadvantages of cyclic existence is another antidote. If
  --
  existence the process of being born repeatedly under the inuence of ignorance, attachment, and hostilityto be comfortable, we wont seek liberation. For this reason, the Buddha, in his teaching on the Four Noble Truths,
  asked us rst to reect on the unsatisfactory nature of our existence and its
  --
  Next, we must study the Buddhas teachings and learn to think logically
  and clearly so that we can investigate them and reach accurate conclusions.
  --
  Long life is important so that we are able to study and practice the Buddhas
  teachings for a long time. Positive potential enables us to die without regret
  and propels us toward fortunate rebirths in which we can continue our spiritual practice. It also fertilizes our mind so that we will understand the meaning of the Buddhas teachings easily and be able to integrate them into our
  lives. Material wealth provides us with necessities so we can practice without

1.03 - THE GRAND OPTION, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  progress of civilization had come to an end at the time of Buddha,
  or in the first centuries of the Christian era. Can we believe that

1.03 - To Layman Ishii, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  "Suddenly the moment arrives when they become one with their questing mind. Mind and koan both disappear. Breathing itself seems to cease. This, although they are not aware of it, is the moment when the tortoise shell cracks and fissures, when the Luan-bird emerges from its egg. They are experiencing the auspicious signs that appear when a person is about to attain the Buddha Way.
  "What a shame if at such a critical moment someone who is supposed to be their good friend and teacher succumbs to tender emotions, indulges them in grandmo therly kindness, and serves them up various intellectual explanations that knock them back into the old familiar nest of conceptual understanding, that drag them down into the cavernous old den of darkness and delusion. That,
  --
  Preserve and protect it with care.' The trouble is, the roots binding the students to life are still not severed. The gardens of the patriarchs still lie beyond their farthest horizons. Any teacher who does this, though he may love his student dearly, causes him irreparable harm. For their part, the students start dancing around, rolling their heads this way and that way, wagging their tails joyfully, eagerly lapping away at the fox slobber doled out to them, completely unaware it is a virulent poison they consume.e They waste their entire lives stuck in a half-drunken, half-sober state of delusion. Not even the hand of a Buddha can cure them.
  "A foolish man long ago heard that if you put a leech out under the sun in very hot weather, it would transform into a dragonfly and soar into the sky. One summer day, he decided to put it to the test. Wading into a marsh, he poked around until he found a particularly large old leech. Throwing it on the hot ground, he watched very carefully as the worm squirmed and writhed in agony. Suddenly, it flipped over on its back, split in two, and transformed into a ugly creature with a hundred legs like a centipede. It scowled furiously at him, snapping its fangs in anger. Ahh! This creature that was supposed to soar freely through the skies had turned into a repulsive worm that could only crawl miserably over the ground. A truly terrifying turn of events!
  --
   forked lightning of the Dragon Gate.g They enter realization at the utterance of a single word. They attain cessation at the sound of a single shout. If those who call themselves teachers all behave like dead otters2 and those who call themselves students all behave like dumb sheep,3 the halls of Zen throughout the land, training grounds where Buddhas are singled out, will be rendered utterly useless
  -they'll be no better than coffins for the dead-and the assertions of the perverse silent-illumination
  --
  "Yet Lin-chi went three times to ask Huang-po about the cardinal meaning of the Buddha Dharma.
  Each time he received painful blows from Huang-po's stick, and withdrew in tears. But he was still not liberated, so he set out to see Master Ta-yu. Huang-po did not offer him the least bit of help. After experiencing a significant understanding at Ta-yu's, Lin-chi returned to Huang-po and reported what
  --
  'Why is that?' asked the monk. 'I won't say. I won't say,' replied Tao-wu. p Tao-wu did not refuse to speak because he was reluctant to teach the monk. He was trying to protect him. Anything he had tried to teach him would only have harmed him. In fact, there is no way a teacher can teach the Buddhapatriarchs' marvelous, untransmittable Dharma to others. If a priest tells you he has liberated students by teaching them the Dharma, you can be sure of two things: he has not penetrated the source, and he is not a genuine Zen teacher. But for you what is essential is not whether he is genuine or not. What is essential is to pledge that you will never have anything to do with false teachers like him. Zen practice must be true and au thentic, and it must be practiced under a true and au thentic teacher. Could you call Zen sages like Bodhidharma, Hui-neng, Huang-po, Hsueh-feng, and Tao-wu dead otters?
  Would you charac-terize venerable teachers like Hui-k'o, Nan-yueh, Lin-chi, Hsuan-sha, and Hsiangyen as dumb sheep?
  --
   Buddha-patriarchs, and there are students who achieve great and final cessation by following a teacher's advice. By comparing them to inhabitants of Uttarakuru, people addicted to worldly wisdom and skillful words, to lump them with the dried buds and dead seeds of the Two Vehicles-wouldn't that mean they have no hope of ever attaining the Buddha's Dharma? s Surely there should be some expedient means within the Dharma that could be used to help them?"
  I sighed and replied, "The ocean of true reality is boundless and profoundly deep. The Buddha
  Way is immeasurably vast. Some priests do nothing but seek fame and success until their dying day, never showing the slightest interest in the path of Zen or the Buddha's Dharma. Others become enthralled in literary pursuits or become addicted to sake or women, oblivious of the hell fires
  32
  --
  "Next there are students who move forward in their koan practice until they gain strength that is almost mature. Thanks to a word or phrase of the Buddha-patriarchs or perhaps some advice from a good friend, they suddenly achieve kensh, breakthrough into satori. Let us call them "initial penetrators." Their penetration is complete in some areas, but not in others. They have a sure grasp of
  Dharma utterances of the hosshin type, words such as 'White waves rise on the mountain peak. Red dust dances at the bottom of a well.'t But when they come up against the vital matter of the more advanced koans, they are as the deaf and dumb. As long as they are sitting quietly doing zazen, the principle of true reality is perfectly clear and the true form of things immediately manifested. But the minute they return into the everyday world and begin dealing with some worrisome matter or other, this clarity disappears. It withers away amid the constant disparity between the meditative and active aspects of their life, their inner wisdom and their ordinary activity.
  --
   thoroughly both in the activities of everyday life and amid the tranquillity of zazen: In the realm of active life is the mind different from the way it is during meditation? Do they hesitate or have any trouble in penetrating the various meanings of the words of the Buddha-patriarchs? Someone who has thoroughly grasped the marrow of the Buddha-patriarchs could not possibly fail to understand their words and sayings.'aa
  "Therefore to patricians engaged in boring into the secret depths, I say: 'Those of you who have already achieved kensh should place yourselves in the hands of a genuine teacher, and follow and seek occasional advice from seasoned monks with deep experience as you continue the day-to-day refining of your attainment, concentrating yourself single-mindedly on exhausting the secret mysteries and penetrating completely through the bottomless source. Those who have not yet achieved kensh should be grappling with one of those meaningless koans. You might concentrate on Lin-chi's "person who is standing right here listening to me preach."bb Bore into him at all times, whether you are in a quiet place doing zazen or actively engaged in the activities of everyday life. Grasp the person who is engaged in this nonstop seeking. Where is he? What is the mind that at this very moment seeks him?
  --
   Buddha who manifested himself in the human world as a good teacher for eighty lifetimes in order to help others" (cited in Trei's Snake Legs for Kaien-fusetsu, 21v). k The head monk in Huang-po's assembly at this time is not identified in the standard accounts of this episode in Record of Lin-chi and Records of the Lamp. He is given as Chen Tsun-su (Mu-chou Taotsung, n.d.) in some other accounts. In none of the versions does he utter such words directly to Linchi. l A winged tiger would be even more formidable. m In the Record of Lin-chi account (also Blue Cliff Record, Case 11), the head monk in Huang-po's assembly tells Lin-chi to ask Huang-po about the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma. He goes to
  Huang-po three times, each time receiving blows, and he decides to leave the temple. The head monk tells Huang-po, "That young fellow who's been coming to you [Lin-chi] is a real Dharma vessel. If he comes and tells you he's going to leave, please use your expedient means in dealing with him. I'm sure that if he can continue to bore his way through, he will become a great tree that will provide cool shade to all the world." Huang-po suggests to Lin-chi that he might visit Ta-yu. At Ta-yu's temple,
  --
  Blue Cliff Record, Case 55). q These are some of the eighteen types of questions Zen students are said to ask their teachers. This is a formulation by Fen-yang (947-1024) in The Eye of Men and Gods. r Free up the cicada's wings . Although a similar expression is used in the Book of Latter Han to describe a lord showing great partiality to a favorite, here it refers to the statement made earlier about a teacher ruining a student's chances by stepping in to help the student prematurely. s Two of eight difficult places or situations (hachinan) in which it is difficult for people to encounter a Buddha, hear him preach the Dharma, and attain liberation: Uttarakuru, the continent to the north of
  Mount Sumeru, because inhabitants enjoy lives of interminable pleasure; and being enthralled in the worldly wisdom and skillful words (sechibens) of secular life. Dried buds and dead seeds (shge haishu) is a term of reproach directed at followers of the Two Vehicles, who are said to have no possibility for attaining complete enlightenment. t In the system of koan study that developed in later Hakuin Zen, hosshin or Dharmakaya koans are used in the beginning stages of practice (see Zen Dust, 46-50). The lines Hakuin quotes here are not found in the Poems of Han-shan (Han-shan shih). They are attributed to Han-shan in Compendium of the Five Lamps (ch. 15, chapter on Tung-shan Mu-ts'ung): "The master ascended the teaching seat and said, 'Han-shan said that "Red dust dances at the bottom of the well. / White waves rise on the mountain peaks. / The stone woman gives birth to a stone child. / Fur on the tortoise grows longer by the day." If you want to know the Bodhi-mind, all you have to do is to behold these sights.'" The lines are included in a Japanese edition of the work published during Hakuin's lifetime. u The Ten Ox-herding Pictures are a series of illustrations, accompanied by verses, showing the Zen student's progress to final enlightenment. The Five Ranks, comprising five modes of the particular and universal, are a teaching device formulated by Tung-shan of the Sto tradition. v Records of the Lamp, ch. 10. w Liu Hsiu (first century) was a descendant of Western Han royalty who defeated the usurper Wang
  --
   mon) Trei explains the Zen terms "gains you half" (literally, "raises it up halfway") and "gaining it all" as follows: "'Raising it totally up' refers to grasping the treasury of the Buddha's true Dharma eye and making it one's own activity. 'Raising it partially up' refers to not having yet achieved this total attainment; to having achieved only half, or only one tenth" (hoz, 7:157-58). aa No source has been found for this quotation; it may have been written by Hakuin. bb "If you cease your mind from its constant strivings, you are no different from the Buddhas and patriarchs. You want to grasp the Buddhas and patriarchs, but you yourself, the person listening to my teaching at this moment, are the Buddha-patriarch" (see Record of Lin-chi, 23).
  NOTES TO CHAPTER 3
  --
  2. "Not even Buddhas and patriarchs can cure misunderstanding as gross as this. Every day these people seek out places of peace and quiet, but they're dead otters today, they'll be dead otters tomorrow, they'll be dead otters even after endless kalpas have passed. Utterly useless to themselves or to anyone else. The Buddha compared people like this to mangy foxes. Angulimala despised them as people with the intelligence of earthworms. Vimalakirti placed them among the blasted buds and rotten seeds. They are the ones Ch'ang-sha said were unable to leap from the tip of a hundred-foot pole, the ones Lin-chi said lived at the bottom of a deep black pit" (Oradegama; Zen Master Hakuin,
  115).
  3. "These people will tell you that there is no Buddha to seek and there is no Way to practice other than dwelling in a state of no-self, no-thought, and no-mind and doing nothing, good or bad. They themselves doze their lives away doing zazen, their minds devoid of wisdom or understanding. This is a state that from long in the past has been described as a deep dark pit, or as the realm of dead otters" (HHZ, 6:254-56).
  3. Dumb sheep Zen is said to refer to monks who are unable to tell good from bad and without sense enough to correct their mistakes. Hakuin generally applies the term to "do-nothing" Zennists, that is to say, those who do not actively seek kensh through koan study.

1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  The Mind is no other than the Buddha, and Buddha is no other than sentient being. When Mind assumes the form of a sentient being, it has suffered no decrease; when it has become a Buddha, it has added nothing to itself.
  Huang Po
  --
  What is meant by the Dhyana practised by the ignorant? It is the one resorted to by the Yogins who exercise themselves in the disciplines of Sravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas (contemplatives and solitary Buddhas of the Hinayana school), who perceiving that there is no ego substance, that the body is a shadow and a skeleton which is transient, impure and full of suffering, persistently cling to these notions, which are regarded as just so and not otherwise, and who, starting from them, advance by stages until they reach the cessation, where there are no thoughts. This is called the Dhyana practised by the ignorant.
  What then is the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning? It is the one practised by those who, having gone beyond the egolessness of things, beyond individuality and generality, beyond the untenability of such ideas as self, other and both, which are held by the philosophers, proceed to examine and follow up the meaning of the various aspects of Bodhisattvahood. This is the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning.
  --
  The Sravaka (literally hearer, the name given by Mahayana Buddhists to contemplatives of the Hinayana school) fails to perceive that Mind, as it is in itself, has no stages, no causation. Disciplining himself in the cause, he has attained the result and abides in the samadhi (contemplation) of Emptiness for ever so many aeons. However enlightened in this way, the Sravaka is not at all on the right track. From the point of view of the Bodhisattva, this is like suffering the torture of hell. The Sravaka has buried himself in Emptiness and does not know how to get out of his quiet contemplation, for he has no insight into the Buddha-nature itself.
  Mo Tsu
  --
  There is no seed of Buddhahood where there is no consciousness.
  Mark well how varied are the aspects of the immovable one,
  --
  And this body is the body of the Buddha.
  Hakuin
  --
  That Nirvana and Samsara are one is a fact about the nature of the universe; but it is a fact which cannot be fully realized or directly experienced, except by souls far advanced in spirituality. For ordinary, nice, unregenerate people to accept this truth by hearsay, and to act upon it in practice, is merely to court disaster. All the dismal story of antinomianism is there to warn us of what happens when men and women make practical applications of a merely intellectual and unrealized theory that all is God and God is all. And hardly less depressing than the spectacle of antinomianism is that of the earnestly respectable well-rounded life of good citizens who do their best to live sacramentally, but dont in fact have any direct acquaintance with that for which the sacramental activity really stands. Dr. Oman, in his The Natural and the Supernatural, writes at length on the theme that reconciliation to the evanescent is revelation of the eternal; and in a recent volume, Science, Religion and the Future, Canon Raven applauds Dr. Oman for having stated the principles of a theology, in which there could be no ultimate antithesis between nature and grace, science and religion, in which, indeed, the worlds of the scientist and the theologian are seen to be one and the same. All this is in full accord with Taoism and Zen Buddhism and with such Christian teachings as St. Augustines Ama et fac quod vis and Father Lallemants advice to theocentric contemplatives to go out and act in the world, since their actions are the only ones capable of doing any real good to the world. But what neither Dr. Oman nor Canon Raven makes sufficiently clear is that nature and grace, Samsara and Nirvana, perpetual perishing and eternity, are really and experientially one only to persons who have fulfilled certain conditions. Fac quod vis in the temporal world but only when you have learnt the infinitely difficult art of loving God with all your mind and heart and your neighbor as yourself. If you havent learnt this lesson, you will either be an antinomian eccentric or criminal or else a respectable well-rounded-lifer, who has left himself no time to understand either nature or grace. The Gospels are perfectly clear about the process by which, and by which alone, a man may gain the right to live in the world as though he were at home in it: he must make a total denial of selfhood, submit to a complete and absolute mortification. At one period of his career, Jesus himself seems to have undertaken austerities, not merely of the mind, but of the body. There is the record of his forty days fast and his statement, evidently drawn from personal experience, that some demons cannot be cast out except by those who have fasted much as well as prayed. (The Cur dArs, whose knowledge of miracles and corporal penance was based on personal experience, insists on the close correlation between severe bodily austerities and the power to get petitionary prayer answered in ways that are sometimes supernormal.) The Pharisees reproached Jesus because he came eating and drinking, and associated with publicans and sinners; they ignored, or were unaware of, the fact that this apparently worldly prophet had at one time rivalled the physical austerities of John the Baptist and was practising the spiritual mortifications which he consistently preached. The pattern of Jesus life is essentially similar to that of the ideal sage, whose career is traced in the Oxherding Pictures, so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolizing the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transformed from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time the ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the full-orbed moon, symbolizing Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world of men, riding on the back of his ox. Because he now loves, loves to the extent of being identified with the divine object of his love, he can do what he likes; for what he likes is what the Nature of Things likes. He is found in company with wine-bibbers and butchers; he and they are all converted into Buddhas. For him, there is complete reconciliation to the evanescent and, through that reconciliation, revelation of the eternal. But for nice ordinary unregenerate people the only reconciliation to the evanescent is that of indulged passions, of distractions submitted to and enjoyed. To tell such persons that evanescence and eternity are the same, and not immediately to qualify the statement, is positively fatalfor, in practice, they are not the same except to the saint; and there is no record that anybody ever came to sanctity, who did not, at the outset of his or her career, behave as if evanescence and eternity, nature and grace, were profoundly different and in many respects incompatible. As always, the path of spirituality is a knife-edge between abysses. On one side is the danger of mere rejection and escape, on the other the danger of mere acceptance and the enjoyment of things which should only be used as instruments or symbols. The versified caption which accompanies the last of the Oxherding Pictures runs as follows.
  Even beyond the ultimate limits there extends a passageway,
  --
  It is in the Indian and Far Eastern formulations of the Perennial Philosophy that this subject is most systematically treated. What is prescribed is a process of conscious discrimination between the personal self and the Self that is identical with Brahman, between the individual ego and the Buddha-womb or Universal Mind. The result of this discrimination is a more or less sudden and complete revulsion of consciousness, and the realization of a state of no-mind, which may be described as the freedom from perceptual and intellectual attachment to the ego-principle. This state of no-mind exists, as it were, on a knife-edge between the carelessness of the average sensual man and the strained over-eagerness of the zealot for salvation. To achieve it, one must walk delicately and, to maintain it, must learn to combine the most intense alertness with a tranquil and self-denying passivity, the most indomitable determination with a perfect submission to the leadings of the spirit. When no-mind is sought after by a mind, says Huang Po, that is making it a particular object of thought. There is only testimony of silence; it goes beyond thinking. In other words, we, as separate individuals, must not try to think it, but rather permit ourselves to be thought by it. Similarly, in the Diamond Sutra we read that if a Bodhisattva, in his attempt to realize Suchness, retains the thought of an ego, a person, a separate being, or a soul, he is no longer a Bodhisattva. Al Ghazzali, the philosopher of Sufism, also stresses the need for intellectual humbleness and docility. If the thought that he is effaced from self occurs to one who is in fana (a term roughly corresponding to Zens no-mind, or mushin), that is a defect. The highest state is to be effaced from effacement. There is an ecstatic effacement-from-effacement in the interior heights of the Atman-Brahman; and there is another, more comprehensive effacement-from-effacement, not only in the inner heights, but also in and through the world, in the waking, everyday knowledge of God in his fulness.
  A man must become truly poor and as free from his own creaturely will as he was when he was born. And I tell you, by the eternal truth, that so long as you desire to fulfill the will of God and have any hankering after eternity and God, for just so long you are not truly poor. He alone has true spiritual poverty who wills nothing, knows nothing, desires nothing.

1.04 - Homage to the Twenty-one Taras, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  Then the Bhagavan Buddha, a victorious, perfected, and transcendent
  lord, spoke to Manjughosha, the immortal bodhisattva of wisdom,
  O Manjushri, the female form symbolizes the source of the Buddhas
  of the three times. Therefore, O Manjushri, as all the Buddhas of the
  past, present, and future sing this praise of her, you also should do so
  --
  4. Homage to you who crowns all Buddhas,
  Whose action subdues without limit;

1.04 - KAI VALYA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  Buddhistic scriptures sums up what is meant by the Buddha
  (which is the name of a state). It defines it as infinite

1.04 - Reality Omnipresent, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  9:Pure Being is the affirmation by the Unknowable of Itself as the free base of all cosmic existence. We give the name of Non-Being to a contrary affirmation of Its freedom from all cosmic existence, - freedom, that is to say, from all positive terms of actual existence which consciousness in the universe can formulate to itself, even from the most abstract, even from the most transcendent. It does not deny them as a real expression of Itself, but It denies Its limitation by all expression or any expression whatsoever. The Non-Being permits the Being, even as the Silence permits the Activity. By this simultaneous negation and affirmation, not mutually destructive, but complementary to each other like all contraries, the simultaneous awareness of conscious Self-being as a reality and the Unknowable beyond as the same Reality becomes realisable to the awakened human soul. Thus was it possible for the Buddha to attain the state of Nirvana and yet act puissantly in the world, impersonal in his inner consciousness, in his action the most powerful personality that we know of as having lived and produced results upon earth.
  10:When we ponder on these things, we begin to perceive how feeble in their self-assertive violence and how confusing in their misleading distinctness are the words that we use. We begin also to perceive that the limitations we impose on the Brahman arise from a narrowness of experience in the individual mind which concentrates itself on one aspect of the Unknowable and proceeds forthwith to deny or disparage all the rest. We tend always to translate too rigidly what we can conceive or know of the Absolute into the terms of our own particular relativity. We affirm the One and Identical by passionately discriminating and asserting the egoism of our own opinions and partial experiences against the opinions and partial experiences of others. It is wiser to wait, to learn, to grow, and, since we are obliged for the sake of our self-perfection to speak of these things which no human speech can express, to search for the widest, the most flexible, the most catholic affirmation possible and found on it the largest and most comprehensive harmony.
  11:We recognise, then, that it is possible for the consciousness in the individual to enter into a state in which relative existence appears to be dissolved and even Self seems to be an inadequate conception. It is possible to pass into a Silence beyond the Silence. But this is not the whole of our ultimate experience, nor the single and all-excluding truth. For we find that this Nirvana, this self-extinction, while it gives an absolute peace and freedom to the soul within is yet consistent in practice with a desireless but effective action without. This possibility of an entire motionless impersonality and void Calm within doing outwardly the works of the eternal verities, Love, Truth and Righteousness, was perhaps the real gist of the Buddha's teaching, - this superiority to ego and to the chain of personal workings and to the identification with mutable form and idea, not the petty ideal of an escape from the trouble and suffering of the physical birth. In any case, as the perfect man would combine in himself the silence and the activity, so also would the completely conscious soul reach back to the absolute freedom of the Non-Being without therefore losing its hold on Existence and the universe. It would thus reproduce in itself perpetually the eternal miracle of the divine Existence, in the universe, yet always beyond it and even, as it were, beyond itself. The opposite experience could only be a concentration of mentality in the individual upon Non-existence with the result of an oblivion and personal withdrawal from a cosmic activity still and always proceeding in the consciousness of the Eternal Being.
  12:Thus, after reconciling Spirit and Matter in the cosmic consciousness, we perceive the reconciliation, in the transcendental consciousness, of the final assertion of all and its negation. We discover that all affirmations are assertions of status or activity in the Unknowable; all the corresponding negations are assertions of Its freedom both from and in that status or activity. The Unknowable is Something to us supreme, wonderful and ineffable which continually formulates Itself to our consciousness and continually escapes from the formulation It has made. This it does not as some malicious spirit or freakish magician leading us from falsehood to greater falsehood and so to a final negation of all things, but as even here the Wise beyond our wisdom guiding us from reality to ever profounder and vaster reality until we find the profoundest and vastest of which we are capable. An omnipresent reality is the Brahman, not an omnipresent cause of persistent illusions.

1.04 - Te Shan Carrying His Bundle, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  the Buddhas and reviling the Patriarchs."16
  Hsueh Tou added the comment, "He adds frost to snow."17
  --
  sixteen-foot golden body (of Buddha); sometimes I take the
  sixteen-foot golden body and use it as a blade of grass.
  --
  studies the majestic conduct of Buddhas for a thousand aeons
  and studies the refined practices of Buddhas for ten thousand
  aeons before finally fulfilling Buddhahood. On the other hand,
  the "southern devils" at this time were saying "Mind itself is
  --
  you try to become Buddha without an eye like this, how will
  you ever do it, even in a thousand years?"
  --
  adept before you will be able to see. Why? In the Buddha
  Dharma there are not so many complicationsi where can you
  --
  and go on scolding the Buddhas and reviling the Patriarchs."
  But say, what was his meaning? Old man Kuei Shan was not
  --
  a man without blinking an eye can you then become Buddha
  right where you stand. Someone who can fulfill Buddhahood
  right where he stands naturally kills people without blinking
  --
  peak, build himself a grass hut, and go on scolding the Buddhas
  and reviling the Patriarchs." When did he ever let him go?

1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  The father of Prince Gautama, the Buddha, savior of the Orient, determined to protect his son from
  desperate knowledge and tragic awareness, built for him an enclosed pavilion, a walled garden of earthly
  --
  Figure 53: The (Voluntary) Descent of the Buddha
  The myth of the Buddha is the story of individual development, considered in the ideal. The story opens
  with Gautamas father, shielding his child from the dangers of the world much as any child in a healthy
  --
  action and representation, for existence as a true individual. The future Buddhas encounter with his
  intrinsic mortal limitations destroys his childhood paradise, tragically but propels him out into the world
  --
  (Voluntary) Descent of the Buddha. The story of Gautamas maturation details the consequential
  contamination of existence with unbearable anxiety; describes the association, in potential, even of beauty
  --
  the ultimate punishment. The Buddhas struggle with and eventual victory over his emergent tragic selfconsciousness comprises the rest of the great tale: first, Gautama incorporates the knowledge of his
  ancestors; then, he transcends and restructures that knowledge.
  --
  perhaps the most interesting. The Buddha attains nirvana, perfection, as a consequence of his ordeal, and is
  offered the option of remaining in that state by the God of Death. The offer is rejected: Buddha returns to
  the world, accepting his mortal condition, so that he can disseminate the knowledge he has acquired. It is
  --
  salvation for one in the presence of the continued suffering of all. It is Buddhas return from the heaven that
  is in his grasp that makes him truly great.
  The story of the Buddha is perhaps the greatest literary production of the East. It is of great interest to
  note, therefore, that its theme also informs the most fundamental levels of Western sensibility. The JudeoChristian tale of redemption is predicated upon representation of the individual subject, marred with
  --
  that the Buddha is the awakened one. Our expanding brain, designed to produce adaptation, instead
  sees risk and opportunity everywhere. The circuitry designed to explore anomaly, and then to cease its
  --
  knowledge. Fate arranges the future Buddhas introduction to old age, sickness, and death but he chooses,
  voluntarily, to leave the confines of the paradise his father endeavored to render perfect. It is the expansive
  --
  this reason, the stories of Genesis and of the Buddha are predicated on the implicit assumption that contact
  with the unbearable, in the course of maturation, is predetermined, inevitable and desired, catastrophic

1.04 - The Core of the Teaching, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  An inner situation may even arise, as with the Buddha, in which
  The Core of the Teaching
  --
  Sakya State, or would direct a Ramakrishna to become a Pundit in a vernacular school and disinterestedly teach little boys their lessons, or bind down a Vivekananda to support his family and for that to follow dispassionately the law or medicine or journalism. The Gita does not teach the disinterested performance of duties but the following of the divine life, the abandonment of all dharmas, sarvadharman, to take refuge in the Supreme alone, and the divine activity of a Buddha, a Ramakrishna, a
  Vivekananda is perfectly in consonance with this teaching. Nay, although the Gita prefers action to inaction, it does not rule out the renunciation of works, but accepts it as one of the ways to the Divine. If that can only be attained by renouncing works and life and all duties and the call is strong within us, then into the bonfire they must go, and there is no help for it. The call of God is imperative and cannot be weighed against any other considerations.
  --
  We must remember that duty is an idea which in practice rests upon social conceptions. We may extend the term beyond its proper connotation and talk of our duty to ourselves or we may, if we like, say in a transcendent sense that it was Buddha's duty to abandon all, or even that it is the ascetic's duty to sit motionless in a cave! But this is obviously to play with words.
  Duty is a relative term and depends upon our relation to others. It is a father's duty, as a father, to nurture and educate his children; a lawyer's to do his best for his client even if he knows him to be guilty and his defence to be a lie; a soldier's to fight and shoot to order even if he kill his own kin and countrymen; a judge's to send the guilty to prison and hang the murderer.

1.04 - The Crossing of the First Threshold, #The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #Joseph Campbell, #Mythology
  young hero was none other than the Future Buddha, in an earlier
  50
  --
  Prince Five-weapons go. The Future Buddha preached the Doc
  trine to him, subdued him, made him self-denying, and then
  --
  gans, Sticky-hair was subdued only when the Future Buddha, no
  longer protected by the five weapons of his momentary name and
  --
  phy, signifying the spiritual power of Buddhahood (indestructible enlighten
  ment) which shatters the illusory realities of the world. The Absolute, or Adi

1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  We have therefore as a result of a long and careful examination the clear conviction that certainly in this poem of Madhuchchhanda, probably in others of his hymns, perhaps in all we have an invocation to subjective Nature powers, a symbolic sacrifice, a spiritual, moral & subjective effort & purpose. And if many other suktas in this & other Mandalas confirm the evidence of this third hymn of the Rigveda, shall we not say that here we have the true Veda as the Rishis understood it and that this was the reason why all the ancient thinkers looked on the hymns with so deep-seated a reverence that even after they came to be used merely as ceremonial liturgies at a material sacrifice, even after the Buddha impatiently flung them aside, the writer of the Gita had to look beyond them & Shankara respectfully put them on the shelf of neglect as useless for spiritual purposes, even after they have ceased to be used and almost to be read, the most spiritual nation on the face of the earth still tenaciously, by a sort of divine instinct, clings to them as its supreme Scriptures & refers back all its spirituality and higher knowledge to the Vedas? Let us proceed and see whether this is not the truest as well as the noblest reading of the riddle the real root of Gods purpose in maintaining this our ancient faith and millennial tradition.
  ***

1.04 - The Praise, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  of canonical texts ga the ring the words of the Buddha.
  Many commentaries have been writte n to elucidate
  --
  all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The quality of her
  body, speech, and mind are infinite. Therefore, she is
  --
  Tara's praise was uttered by the Buddha (Blessed One)
  Vairochana, not from his mouth but from the crown
  --
  the Buddhas (Conquerors).
   ALL PERFECTIONS: designates the ten paramitas, that
  --
  eliminated with attaining Buddhahood.
  Stanza 9
  --
  Three Jewels" (The Three Jewels being the Buddha,
  Dharma, and Sangha). The mudra symbol of the Three
  --
  Amitabha Buddha (whose name means Infinite Light)
  proclaiming that Tara belongs to the lotus family ruled
  --
  awakening, Buddhahood.
   ESTABLISHED: these three vajras are the primordial

1.04 - Wake-Up Sermon, #The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, #Bodhidharma, #Buddhism
  reach the Way of Enlightenment and are therefore called Buddhas.
  The sutras say, "Those who free themselves from all appearances
  are called Buddhas." The appearance of appearance as no appear
  ance can't be seen visually but can only be known by means of
  --
  and delusion is the Buddha-nature. Beyond greed, anger, and delu
  sion there is no other Buddha-nature. The sutras say, " Buddhas
  have only become Buddhas while living with the three poisons and
  nourishing themselves on the pure Dharma." The three poisons are
  --
  vehicle of Buddhas. T he sutras say, "No vehicle is the vehicle of
   Buddhas."
  --
  anywhere in the body, understands the language of Buddhas. The
  sutras say, "T he cave of five aggregates is the hall of zen. The
  --
  To know that the mind is empty is to see the Buddha. T he Buddhas
  of the ten directions56 have no mind. To see no mind is to see the
  --
  Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddha
  hood. They're not the same. And they're not different. It's just that
  --
  Dharma is only practiced by great bodhisattvas and Buddhas. To
  look on life as different from death or on motion as different from
  --
  sions don't exist, Buddhas reach nirvana. Where afflictions don't
  exist, bodhisattvas enter the place of enlightenment.59
  --
  bodhisattvas and Buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. This
  is what's meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist.
  --
  When the mortal mind appears, Buddhahood disappears.
  When the mortal mind disappears, Buddhahood appears. When
  the mind appears, reality disappears. When the mind disappears,
  --
  When you're deluded, Buddhahood exists. W hen you're aware, it
  doesn't exist. This is because awareness is Buddhahood.
  If you're looking for the Way, the Way won't appear until
  --
  When delusions are absent, the mind is the land of Buddhas.
  When delusions are present, the mind is hell. Mortals create delu
  --
  the land of Buddhas. If you don't use your mind to create mind,
  every state of mind is empty and every thought is still. You go from
  one Buddha-land67 to another. If you use your mind to create mind,
  every state of mind is disturbed and every thought is in motion.
  --
  Every suffering is a Buddha-seed, because suffering impels
  mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives
  rise to Buddhahood. You can't say that suffering is Buddhahood.
  Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the
  sprout, and Buddhahood the grain.
  The Buddha in the mind is like a fragrance in a tree. The
   Buddha comes from a mind free of suffering, just as a fragrance
  --
  tree and no Buddha without the mind. If there's a fragrance without
  a tree, it's a different fragrance. If there's a Buddha without your
  mind, it's a different Buddha.
  When the three poisons are present in your mind, you live in
  --
  impurity and filth, no Buddha will ever appear." Impurity and filth
  refer to delusion and the other poisons. A Buddha refers to a pure
  and awakened mind.
  --
  Without the mind there's no Buddha. Without the Buddha
  there's no mind. Likewise, without water there's no ice, and without
  --
  The sutras say, "When you see no appearance, you see the Buddha."
  This is what's meant by being free from appearances of the mind.
  Without the mind there's no Buddha means that the Buddha
  comes from the mind. T he mind gives birth to the Buddha. But
  although the Buddha comes from the mind, the mind doesn't come
  from the Buddha, just as fish come from water, but water doesn't
  come from fish. Whoever wants to see a fish sees the water before
  he sees the fish. And whoever wants to see a Buddha sees the mind
  before he sees the Buddha. Once you've seen the fish, you forget
  about the water. And once you've seen the Buddha, you forget
  about the mind. If you don't forget about the mind, the mind will
  --
  Mortality and Buddhahood are like water and ice. To be
  afflicted by the three poisons is mortality. To be purified by the
  three releases71 is Buddhahood. T hat which freezes into ice in
  winter melts into water in summer. Eliminate ice and there's no
  more water. Get rid of mortality and there's no more Buddhahood.
  Clearly, the nature of ice is the nature of water. And the nature of
  --
  of Buddhahood. Mortality and Buddhahood share the same nature,
  just as wutou and futzu72 share the same root but not the same
  --
  the words mortality and Buddha hood. When a snake becomes a
  dragon, it doesn't change its scales. And when a mortal becomes a
  --
  Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals. This
  is what's meant by impartiality. Mortals liberate Buddhas because
  affliction creates awareness. And Buddhas liberate mortals because
  awareness negates affliction. There can't help but be affliction. And
  --
  deluded, Buddhas liberate mortals. When you're aware, mortals
  liberate Buddhas. Buddhas don't become Buddhas on their own.
  They're liberated by mortals. Buddhas regard delusion as their
  father and greed as their mother. Delusion and greed are different
  --
  and mortals are on this shore. On the other shore is Buddhahood.
   Buddhas have three bodies:73 a transformation body, a reward
  --
  perfectly still. But actually, there's not even one Buddha-body, much
  less three. This talk of three bodies is simply based on human
  --
  blessings and mistake the transformation body for the Buddha.
  People of moderate understanding imagine they're putting an end
  to suffering and mistake the reward body for the Buddha. And
  people of deep understanding imagi ne they're experiencing Buddha
  hood and mistake the real body for the Buddha. But people of the
  deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a
  clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha
  without using the mind. The three bodies, like all other things, are
  --
  don't liberate mortals. And they don't experience Buddhahood."
  This is what I mean.
  --
  The sutras say, "Despite believing in Buddhas, people who
  same holds for those who imagine that Buddhas are subject to
  73
  --
  for things in space, Buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They
  fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity.

1.04 - What Arjuna Saw - the Dark Side of the Force, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  Christ and the Buddha had come and were gone.
  It is not enough that our own hands should remain

1.052 - Yoga Practice - A Series of Positive Steps, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  While indulgence in the objects of sense is bad, overemphasis on excessive austerity beyond its limit also is bad. Moderation is to be properly understood. It is difficult to know what moderation is, because we have never been accustomed to it. We have always excesses in our behaviours in life. There is always an emphasis shifted to a particular point of view, and then that becomes an exclusive occupation of the mind. The difficulties and the problems encountered by great masters like Buddha, for example, in their austerities, are instances on hand.
  Enthusiasts in yoga are mostly under the impression that to take to yoga is to mortify but it is not. The subjection of the personality to undue pain is not the intention of yoga. The intention is quite different altogether. It is a healthy growth of the personality that is intended, and the obviating of those unnecessary factors which intrude in this process of healthy growth of the personality just as eating is necessary, but overeating is bad, and not eating at all is also bad. We have to understand what it is to eat without overeating or going to the other extreme of not eating at all.

1.05 - Buddhism and Women, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
  - a Buddha must have manifested on Earth
  - He or she must have taught the dharma
  --
  that these affirmations were made by the Buddha 2500
  years ago, at a time when women's condition-as we
  --
  this context, the Buddha did not have to spare
  people's sensibilities; however, from the point of view
  --
  At the time of the Buddha, it is probable that many
  female disciples attained arhathoodP There were
  --
  received teachings from Vajradhara Buddha.
  Instructions left by Sukhasiddhi and Niguma have
  --
  holy Buddha statue presently sheltered in the Jokhang
  in Lhassa, which all the Tibetans simply call Jowo, the
  --
  also brought with her a statue of Akshobya Buddha,
  and it is kept in another temple of Lhassa, the
  --
  of the sacred letter AH, symbol of the Buddha's
  speech, spontaneously appeared on her tongue.
  --
  of the Buddha, it was considered that ethics must be
  stricter for women than for men.

1.05 - Consciousness, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  overhanging Buddha's head.) The detailed features of these centers are of interest only to professional clairvoyants; we will discuss later some details of general interest. A complete study on the question can be found in the remarkable work of Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), The Serpent Power (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1913).
  We will not dwell here on the description of these centers as tradition refers to them, for it is better to experience things oneself rather than to talk about them, nor will we discuss their positions in the body; the seeker will feel them himself without any difficulty as soon as he becomes a little clear. Suffice it to say that these centers (called Chakras in India) are not located in our physical body but in another dimension, though their concentration may at times become so intense that we have an acute, localized physical sensation. Some of them, though not all, are in fact quite close to the body's nervous plexuses. Roughly speaking, there are seven centers distributed in four zones: (1) The Superconscient, with one center slightly above the top of the head,44 which controls our thinking mind and communicates with higher mental realms: illumined mind, intuitive mind, overmind,

1.05 - Hsueh Feng's Grain of Rice, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  out blinking an eye can one become Buddha right where he
  stands. Therefore his illumination and function are simultane
  --
  that ancient master; this is called "spilling Buddha's blood."
  The Ancients weren't like people today with their spurious
  --
  the life of the Buddhas, they would spit out a word or half a
  phrase which would spontaneously cut off the tongues of

1.05 - Some Results of Initiation, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
   further news which does not tally with the previous information. I am thereby obliged to reverse my previous judgment. The result is an unfavorable influence upon my sixteen-petalled lotus. Quite the contrary would have been the case had I, in the first place, suspended judgment, and remained silent both inwardly in thought and outwardly in word concerning the whole affair, until I had acquired reliable grounds for forming my judgment. Caution in the formation and pronouncement of judgments becomes, by degrees, the special characteristic of the student. On the other hand his receptivity for impressions and experiences increases; he lets them pass over him silently, so as to collect and have the largest possible number of facts at his disposal when the time comes to form his opinions. Bluish-red and reddish-pink shades color the lotus flower as the result of such circumspection, whereas in the opposite case dark red and orange shades appear. (Students will recognize in the conditions attached to the development of the sixteen-petalled lotus the instructions given by the Buddha to his disciples for the Path. Yet there is no question here of teaching Buddhism,
   p. 146
   but of describing conditions governing development which are the natural outcome of spiritual science. The fact that these conditions correspond with certain teachings of the Buddha is no reason for not finding them true in themselves.)
  The twelve-petalled lotus situated in the region of the heart is developed in a similar way. Half its petals, too, were already existent and in active use in a remote stage of human evolution. Hence these six petals need not now be especially developed in esoteric training; they appear of themselves and begin to revolve when the student sets to work on the other six. Here again he learns to promote this development by consciously controlling and directing certain inner activities in a special way.
  --
  At this point the spiritual world is entered. If the student has advanced so far, he acquires a new understanding for all that the great teachers of humanity have uttered. The sayings of the Buddha and the Gospels, for instance, produce a new effect on him. They pervade him with a rapture of which he had not dreamed before. For the tone of their words follows the movements and rhythms which he has himself formed within himself. He can now have positive knowledge that a Buddha or the Evangelists did not utter their own revelations but those which flowed into them from the inmost being of all things. A fact must here be pointed out which can only be understood in the light of what has been said above. The many repetitions in the sayings of the Buddha are not comprehensible to people of our present evolutionary stage. For the esoteric student,
   p. 171
   however, they become a force on which he gladly lets his inner senses rest, for they correspond with certain movements in the etheric body. Devotional surrender to them, with perfect inner peace, creates an inner harmony with these movements; and because the latter are an image of certain cosmic rhythms which also at certain points repeat themselves and revert to former modes, the student listening to the wisdom of the Buddha unites his life with that of the cosmic mysteries.
  In esoteric training there is question of four attri butes which must be acquired on the so-called preparatory path for the attainment of higher knowledge. The first is the faculty of discriminating in thoughts between truth and appearance or mere opinion. The second attri bute is the correct estimation of what is inwardly true and real, as against what is merely apparent. The third rests in the practice of the six qualities already mentioned in the preceding pages: thought-control, control of actions, perseverance, tolerance, faith and equanimity. The fourth attri bute is the love of inner freedom.

1.05 - The Destiny of the Individual, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  17:The liberation of the individual soul is therefore the keynote of the definitive divine action; it is the primary divine necessity and the pivot on which all else turns. It is the point of Light at which the intended complete self-manifestation in the Many begins to emerge. But the liberated soul extends its perception of unity horizontally as well as vertically. Its unity with the transcendent One is incomplete without its unity with the cosmic Many. And that lateral unity translates itself by a multiplication, a reproduction of its own liberated state at other points in the Multiplicity. The divine soul reproduces itself in similar liberated souls as the animal reproduces itself in similar bodies. Therefore, whenever even a single soul is liberated, there is a tendency to an extension and even to an outburst of the same divine self-consciousness in other individual souls of our terrestrial humanity and, - who knows? - perhaps even beyond the terrestrial consciousness. Where shall we fix the limit of that extension? Is it altogether a legend which says of the Buddha that as he stood on the threshold of Nirvana, of the Non-Being, his soul turned back and took the vow never to make the irrevocable crossing so long as there was a single being upon earth undelivered from the knot of the suffering, from the bondage of the ego?
  18:But we can attain to the highest without blotting ourselves out from the cosmic extension. Brahman preserves always Its two terms of liberty within and of formation without, of expression and of freedom from the expression. We also, being That, can attain to the same divine self-possession. The harmony of the two tendencies is the condition of all life that aims at being really divine. Liberty pursued by exclusion of the thing exceeded leads along the path of negation to the refusal of that which God has accepted. Activity pursued by absorption in the act and the energy leads to an inferior affirmation and the denial of the Highest. But what God combines and synthetises, wherefore should man insist on divorcing? To be perfect as He is perfect is the condition of His integral attainment.

1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  for example (and Gautama Buddha) are tempted constantly and potently towards evil, but choose to reject
  it. Angra Mainyu and Satan accept evil, by contrast, and revel in it (despite evidence that it produces their
  --
  Schopenhauer, Solomon, and the Buddha. They see neither the dragon that awaits them nor the mice
  gnawing away at the branch they cling to; they simply lick the drops of honey. But they lick these drops
  --
  forget what left the Buddha with no peace: the inevitability of sickness, old age, and death, which if not
  today then tomorrow will destroy all these pleasures. The fact that some of these people maintain that
  --
  corrupted will to come near a diagnosis. Hence Jesus was not simply the compassionate Jesus as Buddha
  was the compassionate Buddha. His work, though it includes teaching the ways of enlightenment, does
  not stop there, but goes through a martyrdom and a descent into death. Two implications here are of
  --
  stone is the journey of Buddha through the complete sensory, erotic, and philosophical realms, prior to
  his attainment of enlightenment. The ritual of pilgrimage the journey to the holy city constitutes halfritual, half-dramatic enactment of this idea. The pilgrim voluntarily places him or herself outside the
  --
  the second stage of the heros journey is return to the community. This is equivalent to Buddhas
  determination to retire from the state of Nirvana, until all who were living could make their home there; is
  tantamount to the Buddhas belief that the redemption of the one was impossible, in the presence of the
  unredeemed many. The reunion of the united mind with the body is inculcation of proper attitude in action
  --
  preconditions of adult enlightenment (the name of the Buddha Siddhartha literally means goal
  attained 665). The enlightened one, whose mode of being in the world transcends the suffering in that
  --
  of the Buddha. Figure 68: The Eternal Return of the Boddhisatva 666 portrays this spirit, forever dominant
  over the mass of mankind and the great and terrible mother. The bodhisattva, the central character in this
  --
  (1982). Vol. 2. From Gautama Buddha to the triumph of Christianity.
  (1985). Vol. 3. From Muhammad to the age of reforms.

1.06 - Dhyana, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
  1:THIS word has two quite distinct and mutually exclusive meanings. The first refers to the result itself. Dhyana is the same word as the Pali "Jhana." The Buddha counted eight Jhanas, which are evidently different degrees and kinds of trance. The Hindu also speaks of Dhyana as a lesser form of Samadhi. Others, however, treat it as if it were merely an intensification of Dharana. Patanjali says: "Dhrana is holding the mind on to some particular object. An unbroken flow of knowledge in that subject is Dhyana. When that, giving up all forms, reflects only the meaning, it is Samadhi." He combines these three into Samyama.
  2:We shall treat of Dhyana as a result rather than as a method. Up to this point ancient authorities have been fairly reliable guides, except with regard to their crabbed ethics; but when they get on the subject of results of meditation, they completely lose their heads.

1.06 - MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  Mortification is not, as many people seem to imagine, a matter, primarily, of severe physical austerities. It is possible that, for certain persons in certain circumstances, the practice of severe physical austerities may prove helpful in advance towards mans final end. In most cases, however, it would seem that what is gained by such austerities is not liberation, but something quite different the achievement of psychic powers. The ability to get petitionary prayer answered, the power to heal and work other miracles, the knack of looking into the future or into other peoples mindsthese, it would seem, are often related in some kind of causal connection with fasting, watching and the self-infliction of pain. Most of the great theocentric saints and spiritual teachers have admitted the existence of supernormal powers, only, however, to deplore them. To think that such Siddhis, as the Indians call them, have anything to do with liberation is, they say, a dangerous illusion. These things are either irrelevant to the main issue of life, or, if too much prized and attended to, an obstacle in the way of spiritual advance. Nor are these the only objections to physical austerities. Carried to extremes, they may be dangerous to health and without health the steady persistence of effort required by the spiritual life is very difficult of achievement. And being difficult, painful and generally conspicuous, physical austerities are a standing temptation to vanity and the competitive spirit of record breaking. When thou didst give thyself up to physical mortification, thou wast great, thou wast admired. So writes Suso of his own experiencesexperiences which led him, just as Gautama Buddha had been led many centuries before, to give up his course of bodily penance. And St. Teresa remarks how much easier it is to impose great penances upon oneself than to suffer in patience, charity and humbleness the ordinary everyday crosses of family life (which did not prevent her, incidentally, from practising, to the very day of her death, the most excruciating forms of self-torture. Whether these austerities really helped her to come to the unitive knowledge of God, or whether they were prized and persisted in because of the psychic powers they helped to develop, there is no means of determining).
  Our dear Saint (Franois de Sales) disapproved of immoderate fasting. He used to say that the spirit could not endure the body when overfed, but that, if underfed, the body could not endure the spirit.
  --
  How admirably acute and subtle this is! One of the most extraordinary, because most gratuitous, pieces of twentieth-century vanity is the assumption that nobody knew anything about psychology before the days of Freud. But the real truth is that most modern psychologists understand human beings less well than did the ablest of their predecessors. Fnelon and La Rochefoucauld knew all about the surface rationalization of deep, discreditable motives in the subconscious, and were fully aware that sexuality and the will to power were, all too often, the effective forces at work under the polite mask of the persona. Machiavelli had drawn Paretos distinction between residues and derivationsbetween the real, self-interested motives for political action and the fancy theories, principles and ideals in terms of which such action is explained and justified to the credulous public. Like Buddhas and St. Augustines, Pascals view of human virtue and rationality could not have been more realistically low. But all these men, even La Rochefoucauld, even Machiavelli, were aware of certain facts which twentieth-century psychologists have chosen to ignore the fact that human nature is tripartite, consisting of a spirit as well as of a mind and body; the fact that we live on the border-line between two worlds, the temporal and the eternal, the physical-vital-human and the divine; the fact that, though nothing in himself, man is a nothing surrounded by God, indigent of God, capable of God and filled with God, if he so desires.
  The Christian simplicity, of which Grou and Fnelon write, is the same thing as the virtue so much admired by Lao Tzu and his successors. According to these Chinese sages, personal sins and social maladjustments are all due to the fact that men have separated themselves from their divine source and live according to their own will and notions, not according to Taowhich is the Great Way, the Logos, the Nature of Things, as it manifests itself on every plane from the physical, up through the animal and the mental, to the spiritual. Enlightenment comes when we give up self-will and make ourselves docile to the workings of Tao in the world around us and in our own bodies, minds and spirits. Sometimes the Taoist philosophers write as though they believed in Rousseaus Noble Savage, and (being Chinese and therefore much more concerned with the concrete and the practical than with the merely speculative) they are fond of prescribing methods by which rulers may reduce the complexity of civilization and so preserve their subjects from the corrupting influences of man-made and therefore Tao-eclipsing conventions of thought, feeling and action. But the rulers who are to perform this task for the masses must themselves be sages; and to become a sage, one must get rid of all the rigidities of unregenerate adulthood and become again as a little child. For only that which is soft and docile is truly alive; that which conquers and outlives everything is that which adapts itself to everything, that which always seeks the lowest placenot the hard rock, but the water that wears away the everlasting hills. The simplicity and spontaneity of the perfect sage are the fruits of mortificationmortification of the will and, by recollectedness and meditation, of the mind. Only the most highly disciplined artist can recapture, on a higher level, the spontaneity of the child with its first paint-box. Nothing is more difficult than to be simple.
  --
  In the first seven branches of his Eightfold Path the Buddha describes the conditions that must be fulfilled by anyone who desires to come to that right contemplation which is the eighth and final branch. The fulfilment of these conditions entails the undertaking of a course of the most searching and comprehensive mortificationmortification of intellect and will, craving and emotion, thought, speech, action and, finally, means of livelihood. Certain professions are more or less completely incompatible with the achievement of mans final end; and there are certain ways of making a living which do so much physical and, above all, so much moral, intellectual and spiritual harm that, even if they could be practised in a non-attached spirit (which is generally impossible), they would still have to be eschewed by anyone dedicated to the task of liberating, not only himself, but others. The exponents of the Perennial Philosophy are not content to avoid and forbid the practice of criminal professions, such as brothel-keeping, forgery, racketeering and the like; they also avoid themselves, and warn others against, a number of ways of livelihood commonly regarded as legitimate. Thus, in many Buddhist societies, the manufacture of arms, the concoction of intoxicating liquors and the wholesale purveying of butchers meat were not, as in contemporary Christendom, rewarded by wealth, peerages and political influence; they were deplored as businesses which, it was thought, made it particularly difficult for their practitioners and for other members of the communities in which they were practised to achieve enlightenment and liberation. Similarly, in mediaeval Europe, Christians were forbidden to make a living by the taking of interest on money or by cornering the market. As Tawney and others have shown, it was only after the Reformation that coupon-clipping, usury and gambling in stocks and commodities became respectable and received ecclesiastical approval.
  For the Quakers, soldiering was and is a form of wrong livelihoodwar being, in their eyes, anti-Christian, not so much because it causes suffering as because it propagates hatred, puts a premium on fraud and cruelty, infects whole societies with anger, fear, pride and uncharitableness. Such passions eclipse the Inner Light, and therefore the wars by which they are aroused and intensified, must be regarded, whatever their immediate political outcome, as crusades to make the world safe for spiritual darkness.

1.06 - The Literal Qabalah, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  In this connection, however, I recall to mind a saying attri buted to the Buddha, I believe, that only an Arahat can fully comprehend the excellence of the Dhamma. The implication of this statement applies likewise and with even greater emphasis to the Qabalah. The writer is of the firm opinion, and most intelligent students will also concur therein, that only an Adept or a Tsaddik within whose heart has been enkindled the light of the Knowledge and
  116

1.06 - Yun Men's Every Day is a Good Day, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  is Buddha?" Hsueh Feng said, "Don't talk in your sleep." Yun
  Men then bowed. He dwelt there for three years. One day
  --
  (a living Buddha) is the head monk in the hall." Having under
  stood Ling Shu's inner meaning, the Lord of Kuang thereupon
  --
  fore the Buddha; when you kill the Buddha and Patriarchs,
  where do you turn to repent?" Yun Men said, 11Exposed." Again
  --
  see that there are any Buddhas above, don't see that there are
  sentient beings below; don't see that there are mountains, riv
  --
  scious of contact. When the Buddha's brilliance shines forth,
  then she manifests her body. When you get to be like Shunyata,

1.070 - The Seven Stages of Perfection, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  These stages directly correspond to the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, what the Buddha taught originally as his gospel. The stages of yoga are nothing but these, mentioned here in a new language altogether.
  There is an awareness of the presence of a state beyond all suffering; and when the existence of this state beyond suffering becomes an object of ones awareness, coupled with a feeling that there is a way to it that is the beginning of the actual freedom of the soul. Then, there is a complete shaking up from the very roots of ones being. The internal organ, the mind, whose purpose is to bring about bhoga and aparvarga to consciousness, begins to withdraw its sway over consciousness. The power that the mind has over us gets lessened, and instead of our being mastered by it, we seem to have a chance of gaining mastery over it. This awareness arises only when experiences in the world which are to be undergone in this span of life are about to be exhausted. Until that time, the awareness itself will not be there.

1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  I take refuge in you, Tara; like you, no Buddha could ever deceive me.
  But understanding the odd character of these times, most Buddhas
  have gone into the bliss of nirvana. Even though they have great compassion, we have no connection. Since for me there are no other
  --
  attain Buddhahood for the benet of all.
  Empower me to actualize as much as possible the most subtle vows
  --
  have a close relationship with all Buddhas and bodhisattvas, and they
  will hold you dear. If you recite the Homage to the Twenty-one
  --
  Tara is called the mother of all Buddhas because she is the embodiment
  of the wisdom realizing emptiness; this wisdom is what gives birth to all Buddhas. Calling her Mother also indicates feelings of closeness and trust. We
  feel comfortable with Tara; we can relax around her and dont put on a good
  --
  Rather, we know that as a Buddha, she wont judge us, so we are totally honest with Tara. This lets us be nourished by her wisdom and compassion.
  Symbolically, the right side of the body correlates with the method or
  --
  All Buddhas have both wisdom and compassion. Calling her the essence of
  reflections on a song of longing for tara, the infallible
  --
  Here, her mind represents the Buddha, her speech the Dharma, and her body
  the Sangha. This is one way of seeing the Three Jewels as gathered into that
  --
  endowed with all qualities, she is also the Buddha.
  From now until I reach enlightenment, hook me with your great love
  --
  twelve. And, by the way, I want to become a Buddha. Oh my gosh, look what
  time it is. Id better say this prayer quickly. I take refuge. Okay, nished.
  --
  hook with her wisdom and compassion. We might ask, If Tara is a Buddha,
  why do we have to request her to hook us? Why do we have to request her to
  guide us and assist us? She became a Buddha to do this. She spent all those
  eons working to purify her mind and gain all the good qualities of a Buddha.
  Spontaneously and effortlessly, she manifests to benet beings, so why do I
  --
  offerings and requests to Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava. This little rinpoche asked my friend, Why do we request the Buddha over and over again
  Please grant me blessings and inspire me?
  --
  and sincerity. Thats part of the equation. The Buddhas actions dont work
  independently of us. Theres a cooperative process, so we have to come forth
  --
  engage in the practice. The more open we are, the more the Buddhas and
  bodhisattvas have something to work with.
  --
  worldly concerns, even if all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the universe
  appeared before us, we would ignore them.
  --
  teachings of the Buddha can enter and grow.
  Tara doesnt need us to ask for her help, but we need to ask for help
  --
  mindstream was labeled Milarepa for a while, and it, too, became enlightened. But neither of these persons existed inherently. Nor do the Buddhas
  they became exist inherently. They exist dependent upon causes and conditions, parts, and the mind that conceives and labels them.
  Thinking of Buddhas and bodhisattvas as beings can inspire us, because
  it reminds us that we can become like them. There are different ways of seeing them, and when we see them as beings with a conventional self, its
  --
  I once asked His Holiness, How does requesting the Buddhas to bless
  and inspire our minds work? Can they inspire and bless us? His Holiness
  said that the Buddhas worked very hard to cultivate the path and attain special spiritual qualities that others dont possess, so they should be able to do
  things that ordinary beings cant. If we visualized President Roosevelt and
  --
  That made me think. There is a purpose for becoming a Buddha. Someone who has developed unbiased love and compassion toward all beings and
  who directly perceives the nature of reality has abilities that the rest of us
  dont. If I dont think that the Buddhas can benet sentient beings in a myriad of ways, including inspiring their minds, why am I practicing the Dharma
  in order to become one? I saw that having the bodhichitta motivation meant
  believing in the four bodies of a Buddha and in their capabilities.
  The mind is very powerful. Before I started meditating, I didnt think the
  --
  and feelings of a Buddha. That energy would stimulate our wholesome
  thoughts and feelings and increase them. When we make requests to Tara, we
  --
  asking the Buddhas to transform our minds into magnicence. How that
  happens isnt by the Buddha going in and pulling some switches inside our
  mind. Because our mind is conditioned and changing, the mental energy of
  the Buddhas realizations can affect our energy, so to speak. Conditioned
  phenomena affect each other, so the force of Taras realizations can positively
  --
  mental state that the Buddhas can inuence. Were not asking them to do
  something for us while we relax and drink tea. Were generating mental states
  that are beginning to correlate with those of the Buddhas.
  When His Holiness says that he doesnt believe in prayer, hes trying to
  --
  In terms of how karma works, if we practice the Dharma, the Buddhas
  and bodhisattvas have a reason to manifest and remain in our world, and our
  --
  Precepts are wonderful guidelines that the Buddha gave to help us live
  together in a mutually benecial way. Abandoning actions such as killing,
  --
  By the witness of the Three Jewels means were asking the Buddha,
  Dharma, and Sangha to witness what were saying. Since we respect the
  --
  her face. What is Taras face? What does seeing Tara mean? The Buddha said,
  Those who see the Dharma see me. Seeing the Dharma means realizing
  --
  know what the Buddha is and what Tara is. Seeing Tara doesnt mean having
  a vision of Tara. It means accessing the way that things exist by understanding emptiness. Seeing Tara involves experiencing the same wisdom that is
  --
  because you feel close to the Buddha, thats benecial. If you have a vision
  and get attached to it, thinking that now youre someone special, thats opposite to the Dharma. Whether the vision actually was Tara or not doesnt matter. Whats more important is how we relate to the vision. If we have an
  --
  Grant me the nectar of your speech. They say that the way the Buddha
  helps us the most is through teaching the Dharma, that the speech of the
  --
  speech, and mind of the Buddha, which do you think is most signicant for
  us? One person might say the Buddhas mind because that is his realizations;
  another might say the Buddhas body because she would like to have a vision
  of it. But neither of these is the most important aspect for us sentient
  beings. A Buddhas speech is most crucial for us, because the Buddha leads
  us on the path to enlightenment by teaching the Dharma. Without the
  --
  hear the Dharma. This is why the Buddhas speech is more important for us
  than his body or mind.
  --
  teachings. Some people mix non-Buddhist teachings with Buddhist practices and call it Buddhism. Others misunderstand the Buddhas teachings but
  dont realize that theyve misunderstood it, and teach their misunderstanding as if it were what the Buddha taught. Some people have a spectacular
  dream or an unusual experience in meditation and think they have attained
  --
  For students interested in Buddhadharma, made-up teachings are those
  that lack a lineage back to the Buddha. We want to study with teachers who
  have received teachings from a qualied teacher who received his or her training from another qualied teacher, all the way back to the Buddha. This is one
  way to ensure that we receive valid teachings.
  --
  For example, someone may say, Buddha didnt teach a complete path to
  enlightenment. You also need psycho therapy to get enlightened, or You
  --
  I love the story of the Buddha asking a stingy person to give a carrot from
  one hand to the other. Sometimes we can practice giving from the right hand
  --
  That doesnt mean the happiness of this life is bad or wrong. The Buddha
  did not say that we should suffer in this life so that well get our reward in
  --
  When we say to Tara, you are my principal guru, it means that the wisdom of the Buddha is our principal guru. Inspire me, Divine Mother, essence
  of love. Arouse the great power of your compassion and think of me. Here,
  --
  I take refuge in you, Tara; like you, no Buddha could ever deceive me. But
  understanding the odd character of these times, most Buddhas have gone into
  the bliss of nirvana. Even though they have great compassion, we have no
  --
  to relate to Buddhas and meditation deities (yidams). The following verse concerns our relationship with protectors. These are the principal relationships
  we have with realized beings when we practice.
  No Buddha could ever deceive us. Buddhas have eliminated all delements from their mindstreams. They are totally free from selshness and thus
  have no motivation to deceive us. Since they are free from ignorance, they
  --
  Understanding the odd character of these times, most Buddhas have
  gone into the bliss of nirvana means that we live in a degenerate age where
  --
  beings dont practice, when they lack positive potential, then there is no reason for the Buddhas to remain in our world because theres not much they
  can do to lead us on the path. Our merit hooks the Buddhas; it causes teachers to appear. But when we are unreceptive, there is no causal energy to
  receive spiritual guidance.
  --
  depends on our practice. The presence of teachers, Buddhas, bodhisattvas,
  and Dharma friends in our life depends on our positive potential. Actually, it
  --
  the Dharma to exist in the world, for the Buddhas to appear, for spiritual
  mentors to teach us. If we havent valued creating positive potential by practicing whatever Dharma we have learned, many of Buddhas will pass into the
  bliss of nirvana. In other words, their manifestations absorb back into blissemptiness.
  --
  doesnt mean we only practice Tara and forget the other Buddhas. This means
  that besides the blissful omniscient mind that manifests in the form of Tara,
  --
  high-level bodhisattvas and Buddhas for example, Palden Lhamo and
  Mahakala. Why would they be tired of those who invoke them and not act?
  --
  A friend told me a joke: Sam goes to the Buddha and prays, Please Buddha,
  may I win the lottery, but the Buddha remains silent. Going back the next
  day, Sam again requests, Please Buddha, may I win the lottery! Again, the
   Buddha is silent. This continues for a week. Finally, after the person requests
  again, the Buddha says, Go buy a ticket!
  In other words, we can pray and pray and pray, but if we dont do what
  needs to be done from our side, what can the Buddhas do? This could be
  another reason why the Dharma protectors dont actbecause from our own
  --
  who are not bodhisattvas or Buddhas. They have not entered the path or realized emptiness. When Dharma rst went to Tibet, local spirits caused so
  many obstacles. When they were building Samye, the rst monastery, whatever the Tibetans built during the day, the naughty spirits tore down at night.
  --
  we dont take refuge in the Three Jewels and observe karma, even if the Buddha holds our hand when we die, he cant do anything because we havent
  created the causes for goodness. Real refuge comes down to our own practice. Its not about asking others to protect our reputation, worldly power,
  --
  tremendous Buddha-potential instead is used in the service of the eight
  worldly concerns.
  --
  According to the Buddha, we have incredible human potential that we
  dont see at the moment, the potential to become a fully enlightened Buddha.
  Think about it. We have the potential to open our heart and love everybody
  --
  Our mind has Buddha-nature. What incredible potential! When we think
  about our human potential and see how we are easily and consistently distracted from it, how we waste our time chasing after things and worrying
  --
  and instead worship Tara, but meanwhile we grasp at Tara as inherently existent. We must remember that everythingincluding Tara, the Buddhas,
  Dharma, Sangha, and our Dharma teachersare empty of inherent existence.
  --
  desire is to attain the truth body and form body of a Buddha. Can a wishfullling gem do that? No, only Dharma practice can. We are the ones who
  make ourselves into Buddhas by practicing what the Buddha taught us. We
  depend on the guidance of others, but we are the ones who must practice
  --
  a Buddha can manifest as physical objects. Rather, it means we give up clinging to the eight worldly concerns and clo the ourselves in wisdom and compassion. In other words, practicing Dharma is the meaning of my life;
  Dharma is the focus of all my energy.
  --
  vows made by the Medicine Buddha and Amitabha, and the dedication to
  enlighten all sentient beings by yourself alone are too fantastic! How can you
  --
  and al-Qaeda has the potential to become a fully enlightened Buddha and
  manifest millions of emanation bodies for the benet of all beings, then we
  --
  that doesnt mean we endorse their horric actions. Instead, we view the situation with compassion: Here are beings who have Buddha-potential but
  whose minds are so overpowered by wrong views that they think killing others brings happiness. Thats a tragedy for them as well as for the people they
  --
  help anyone. The Buddha said that hatred is not cured by hatred, but only by
  love. Meditating on love and compassion enables us to see the tremendous
  --
  thinking of just my own happiness. Let me wish to attain Buddhahood for the
  benet of all.
  --
  Dont think that Buddhas and bodhisattvas only manifest to Buddhists,
  and to Mahayana Buddhists in particular. They seek to benet everyone! Do
  --
  Tibetan cultural event. It isnt Buddhism, although it doesnt contradict Buddhas teachings. The Tibetans invented this system of looking for and recognizing incarnations of great masters. These tulkus received excellent
  education and guidance when they were young. This system was also a way
  --
  The way that bodhisattvas and Buddhas work is beyond our comprehension; we cant always tell whats benecial and whats not. Sometimes its
  better if we just let go of our judgments about how we think things are or
  --
  Someone once asked, Since Buddhas appear in so many forms, can it be
  helpful to regard people who have been very inuential in our lives as manifestations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas? In some situations, it can be. That
  doesnt mean we see everything that person does as perfect, but we realize
  --
  that for us, that person is like a Buddha in the sense that he or she has instilled
  many good values and has prepared us for the path.
  --
  Let me wish to attain Buddhahood for the benet of all. That sums up
  everything: The meaning and goal of our life, our motivation day and night
  is to attain Buddhahood for the benet of everybody. With that aspiration,
  our life will be joyful. Well be optimistic and in touch with our potential.
  --
  on the fourth day gave a Medicine Buddha initiation. Several thousand more
  people came for the Medicine Buddha initiation than for the Heart Sutra
  teachings. His Holiness was not happy about that situation. He bluntly said
  --
  about the Buddhas omniscient minds that they know everything going on
  with us and still look at us with kindness then from whom are we trying to
  hide things? How are we ever going to hide anything from a Buddha?
  The bottom line is that each of us wants to be understood, accepted, and
  --
  way. Here we admit our own fallibility. While we aspire to practice the Buddhas teachings, we acknowledge that our practice is incomplete. We are com-
  reflections on a song of longing for tara, the infallible
  --
  through gaining all the realizations of the path up to Buddhahood. The wisdom, compassion, and skillful means we develop through practice will enable
  us to benet sentient beings most effectively. The kindness others have
  --
  Saying we are unable to follow the Buddhas teachings isnt a statement
  of low self-esteem. We dont hate ourselves or feel guilty because we havent
  --
  have shown us, get in touch with our deep aspiration to become a Buddha,
  and yet frankly admit our limitations that sometimes were lazy, rationalize our harmful actions, neglect our precepts, or are rude. Still, we aspire to
  --
  qualities and subdue the harmful ones. Aware that we have Buddha-nature,
  we dont fall into low self-esteem or self-hatred.

1.07 - Hui Ch'ao Asks about Buddha, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
  object:1.07 - Hui Ch'ao Asks about Buddha
  class:chapter
  --
  Hui Ch'ao Asks about Buddha
  POINTER
  --
  illumine it." Where there is no Buddha and you alone are called
  the Honored One, for the first time you've amounted to some
  --
  Teacher, what is Buddha?"2
  Fa Yen said, "You are Hui Ch'ao."3
  --
  interpretations. Some say, "Hui Ch'ao is himself Buddha; that
  is why Fa Yen answered as he did." Some say, "It's much like
  --
  minator of the Buddha's race. As for Ch'an traveller Hui
  Ch'ao's awakening here, he was constantly engrossed in pene
  --
   Buddha, yet I went on searching for Buddha." Fa Yen said,
  "Sure enough, the Superintendent has misunderstood." Con
  --
  answer you." Thereupon Tse asked, "What is Buddha?" Fa Yen
  said, "The Fire God comes looking for fire." At these words Tse
  --
  hundred. At this time the Buddha Dharma flourished greatly.
  At this time the (future) National Teacher Te Shao had spent a
  --
  Thus, when the monk asked Fa Yen, "What is Buddha?" Fa
  Yen said, "You are Hui Ch'ao." Is there any contradiction here?
  --
  (Hui Ch'ao) asked, "What is Buddha?" Fa Yen answered,
  "You are Hui Ch'ao." Hsueh Tou says, "In the river country
  --
  the flawless Buddha-essence by intellectual, emotional interpre
  tations. Tenkei Denson says, "Fa Yen's answer 'You're Hui

1.07 - Incarnate Human Gods, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  in imitation of Buddha, who, before being advanced to the rank of a
  divinity, had quitted his royal palace and seraglio and retired from
  --
  thousand years assigned for the observance of the law of Buddha were
  now elapsed, and that he himself was the god who was destined to
  --
  great number of living Buddhas, who officiate as Grand Lamas at the
  head of the most important monasteries. When one of these Grand
  --
  its immortal head." In whatever way the birthplace of the Buddha is
  revealed, whether by the Buddha's own avowal or by the sign in the
  sky, tents are struck, and the joyful pilgrims, often headed by the

1.07 - The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
  First and foremost, if this higher unfolding is to be called "religious" or "spiritual," it is a very far cry from what is ordinarily meant by those terms. We have spent several chapters painstakingly reviewing the earlier developments of the archaic, magic, and mythic structures (which are usually associated with the world's great religions), precisely because those structures are what transpersonal and contemplative development is not. And here we can definitely agree with Campbell: if 99.9 percent of people want to call magic and mythic "real religion," then so be it for them (that is a legitimate use);10 but that is not what the world's greatest yogis, saints, and sages mean by mystical or "really religious" development, and in any event is not what I have in mind. Campbell, however, is quite right that a very, very few individuals, during the magic and mythic and rational eras, were indeed able to go beyond magic, beyond mythic, and beyond rational-into the transrational and transpersonal domains. And even if their teachings (such as those of Buddha, Christ, Patanjali, Padmasambhava, Rumi, and Chih-i) were snapped up by the masses and translated downward into magic and mythic and egoic terms-"the salvation of the individual soul"-that is not what their teachings clearly and even blatantly stated, nor did they intentionally lend any support to such endeavors. Their teachings were about the release from individuality, and not about its everlasting perpetuation, a grotesque notion that was equated flat-out with hell or samsara. Their teachings, and their contemplative endeavors, were (and are) transrational through and through. That is, although all of the contemplative traditions aim at going within and beyond reason, they all start with reason, start with the notion that truth is to be established by evidence, that truth is the result of experimental methods, that truth is to be tested in the laboratory of personal experience, that these truths are open to all those who wish to try the experiment and thus disclose for themselves the truth or falsity of the spiritual claims-and that dogmas or given beliefs are precisely what hinder the emergence of deeper truths and wider visions.
  Thus, each of these spiritual or transpersonal endeavors (which we will carefully examine) claims that there exist higher domains of awareness, embrace, love, identity, reality, self, and truth. But these claims are not dogmatic; they are not believed in merely because an authority proclaimed them, or because sociocentric tradition hands them down, or because salvation depends upon being a "true believer." Rather, the claims about these higher domains are a conclusion based on hundreds of years of experimental introspection and communal verification. False claims are rejected on the basis of consensual evidence, and further evidence is used to adjust and fine-tune the experimental conclusions.
  --
  I could of course describe one to you, but the word will be meaningless unless there are some points of shared experience that will allow you to "call up" in your mind the same signified that I mean with the signifier "dog." (Substitute the word Buddha-nature for dog and you can see the importance of this line of thought for mystical experience, which we will explore in a minute.) The hermeneuticists are quite right in that regard: the same linguistic structures that you and I share are not enough, in themselves, to give you the proper signified. You and I have to share a common lived experience in order to assume identical signification.
  Further, the actual experience of seeing a dog is not itself a merely linguistic experience. The signifier, the word dog, is not the actual dog, not the actual referent. Obviously, the total experience of the real dog cannot itself be put into words, put into signifiers. But the fact that the real dog can't be fully captured in words does not mean that the real dog doesn't exist or isn't real. It means only that the signifier has sense only if you and I have had a similar experience, a common shared lifeworld experience, and then I will know what you mean when you say, "That dog scared me."
  --
  Several examples of referents and worldspaces: rocks exist in the sensorimotor worldspace; animistic clouds exist in the magic worldspace; Santa Claus exists in the mythic worldspace; the square root of a negative one exists in the rational worldspace; archetypes exist in the subtle worldspace, and so on-not as pregiven objects, but as the product of all four quadrants. And thus, in order to understand the referents represented by those signifiers (from "rocks" to "archetypes") one must possess the requisite depth through one's own interior development (so that those signifiers can evoke the appropriate signified: when you read "the square root of a negative one," you know what that means, what that signifies, but only if you have developed to formop). Just so, the words Buddha-nature and Godhead and Spirit and Dharmakaya are signifiers whose referents exist only in the transpersonal or spiritual worldspace, and they therefore require, for their understanding, a developmental signified, an appropriately developed interior or Left-Hand dimension corresponding with the exterior word, or else they remain only words, like the unseen dog, this unseen Spirit. And without the developmental signified, words will capture neither the dog nor the Spirit.
  And note: I can run around until I find a dog and show you the dog, because we both exist in the sensorimotor worldspace and there is no developmental reason why you can't spot a dog. Or, in the other example, there is no reason you can't understand an as-if dog, whose referent exists in the rational worldspace. We already share that worldspace. We have already transformed to that level of depth: an entire and shared world of referents are therefore lying around for us to apprehend (because we have already created the worldspace or the opening in which they can manifest).
  But I can't run around and find Buddha and show you that, unless you have developed the requisite cognitions that will allow you to resonate with the signifier whose referent exists only in the spiritual worldspace and whose signified exists only in the consciousness of those who have awakened to that space.
  VALIDITY CLAIMS OF MYSTICISM:

1.07 - The Three Schools of Magick 2, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
  The Black School of Magick, which must by no means be confused with the School of Black Magick or Sorcery, which latter is a perversion of the White tradition, is distinguished fundamentally from the Yellow School in that it considers the Universe not as neutral, but as definitely a curse. Its primary theorem is the "First Noble Truth" of the Buddha "Everything is Sorrow." In the primitive classics of this School the idea of sorrow is confused with that of sin. (This idea of universal lamentation is presumably responsible for the choice of black as its symbolic colour. And yet? Is not white the Chinese hue of mourning?)
  The analysis of the philosophers of this School refers every phenomenon to the category of sorrow. It is quite useless to point out to them that certain events are accompanied with joy: they continue their ruthless calculations, and prove to your satisfaction, or rather dissatisfaction, that the more apparently pleasant an event is, the more malignantly deceptive is its fascination. There is only one way of escape even conceivable, and this way is quite simple, annihilation. (Shallow critics of Buddhism have wasted a great deal of stupid ingenuity on trying to make out that Nirvana or Nibbana means something different from what etymology, tradition and the evidence of the Classics combine to define it. The word means, quite simply, cessation: and it stands to reason that, if everything is sorrow, the only thing which is not sorrow is nothing, and that therefore to escape from sorrow is the attainment of nothingness.)
  --
  The philosophers of this School, seeking, naturally enough, to amend the evil at the root, inquire into the cause of this existence which is sorrow, and arrive immediately at the "Second Noble Truth" of the Buddha: "The Cause of Sorrow is Desire." They follow up with the endless concatenation of causes, of which the final root is Ignorance. (I am not concerned to defend the logic of this School: I merely state their doctrine.) The practical issue of all this is that every kind of action is both unavoidable and a crime. I must digress to explain that the confusion of thought in this doctrine is constantly recurrent. That is part of the blackness of the Ignorance which they confess to be the foundation of their Universe. (And after all, everyone has surely the right to have his own Universe the way he wants it.)
  This School being debased by nature, is not so far removed from conventional religion as either the White or the Yellow. Most primitive fetishistic religions may, in fact, be considered fairly faithful representatives of this philosophy. Where animism holds sway, the "medicine-man" personifies this universal evil, and seeks to propitiate it by human sacrifice. The early forms of Judaism, and that type of Christianity which we associate with the Salvation Army, Billy Sunday and the Fundamentalists of the back-blocks of America, are sufficiently simple cases of religion whose essence is the propitiation of a malignant demon.
  --
  A fairly pure example of the first stage of this type of thought is to be found in the Vedas, of the second stage, in the Upanishads. But the answer to the question, "How is the illusion of evil to be destroyed?", depends on another point of theory. We may postulate a Parabrahm infinitely good, etc. etc. etc., in which case we consider the destruction of the illusion of evil as the reuniting of the consciousness with Parabrahm. The unfortunate part of this scheme of things is that on seeking to define Parabrahm for the purpose of returning to Its purity, it is discovered sooner or later, that It possesses no qualities at all! In other words, as the farmer said, on being shown the elephant: There ain't no sich animile. It was Gautama Buddha who perceived the inutility of dragging in this imaginary pachyderm. Since our Parabrahm, he said to the Hindu philosophers, is actually nothing, why not stick to or original perception that everything is sorrow, and admit that the only way to escape from sorrow is to arrive at nothingness?
  We may complete the whole tradition of the Indian peninsula very simply. To the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Tripitaka of the Buddhists, we have only to add the Tantras of what are called the Vamacharya Schools. Paradoxical as it may sound the Tantrics are in reality the most advanced of the Hindus. Their theory is, in its philosophical ultimatum, a primitive stage of the White tradition, for the essence of the Tantric cults is that by the performance of certain rites of Magick, one does not only escape disaster, but obtains positive benediction. The Tantric is not obsessed by the will-to-die. It is a difficult business, no doubt, to get any fun out of existence; but at least it is not impossible. In other words, he implicitly denies the fundamental proposition that existence is sorrow, and he formulates the essential postulate of the White School of Magick, that means exist by which the universal sorrow (apparent indeed to all ordinary observation) may be unmasked, even as at the initiatory rite of Isis in the ancient days of Khem. There, a Neophyte presenting his mouth, under compulsion, to the pouting buttocks of the Goat of Mendez, found himself caressed by the chaste lips of a virginal priestess of that Goddess at the base of whose shrine is written that No man has lifted her veil.
  --
    O Buddha! couldst thou nowhere rest
    A pivot for the universe?

1.07 - TRUTH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  The Buddha playfully let words escape from his golden mouth;
  Heaven and earth are filled, ever since, with entangling briars.
  --
  The truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing that one has to realize it within oneself.
  Sutralamkara
  --
  You neednt shout, said the Buddha smiling. As a matter of fact, it is such blank scrolls as these that are the true scriptures. But I quite see that the people of China are too foolish and ignorant to believe this, so there is nothing for it but to give them copies with some writing on.
  Wu Chng-n
  --
  What is known as the teaching of the Buddha is not the teaching of the Buddha.
  Diamond Sutra
  --
  In later Buddhist philosophy words are regarded as one of the prime determining factors in the creative evolution of human beings. In this philosophy five categories of being are recognizedName, Appearance, Discrimination, Right Knowledge. Suchness. The first three are related for evil, the last two for good. Appearances are discriminated by the sense organs, then reified by naming, so that words are taken for things and symbols are used as the measure of reality. According to this view, language is a main source of the sense of separateness and the blasphemous idea of individual self-sufficiency, with their inevitable corollaries of greed, envy, lust for power, anger and cruelty. And from these evil passions there springs the necessity of an indefinitely protracted and repeated separate existence under the same, self-perpetuated conditions of craving and infatuation. The only escape is through a creative act of the will, assisted by Buddha-grace, leading through selflessness to Right Knowledge, which consists, among other things, in a proper appraisal of Names, Appearances and Discrimination. In and through Right Knowledge, one emerges from the infatuating delusion of I, me, mine, and, resisting the temptation to deny the world in a state of premature and one-sided ecstasy, or to affirm it by living like the average sensual man, one comes at last to the transfiguring awareness that samsara and nirvana are one, to the unitive apprehension of pure Suchness the ultimate Ground, which can only be indicated, never adequately described in verbal symbols.
  In connection with the Mahayanist view that words play an important and even creative part in the evolution of unregenerate human nature, we may mention Humes arguments against the reality of causation. These arguments start from the postulate that all events are loose and separate from one another and proceed with faultless logic to a conclusion that makes complete nonsense of all organized thought or purposive action. The fallacy, as Professor Stout has pointed out, lies in the preliminary postulate. And when we ask ourselves what it was that induced Hume to make this odd and quite unrealistic assumption that events are loose and separate, we see that his only reason for flying in the face of immediate experience was the fact that things and happenings are symbolically represented in our thought by nouns, verbs and adjectives, and that these words are, in effect, loose and separate from one another in a way which the events and things they stand for quite obviously are not. Taking words as the measure of things, instead of using things as the measure of words, Hume imposed the discrete and, so to say, pointilliste pattern of language upon the continuum of actual experiencewith the impossibly paradoxical results with which we are all familiar. Most human beings are not philosophers and care not at all for consistency in thought or action. Thus, in some circumstances they take it for granted that events are not loose and separate, but co-exist or follow one another within the organized and organizing field of a cosmic whole. But on other occasions, where the opposite view is more nearly in accord with their passions or interests, they adopt, all unconsciously, the Humian position and treat events as though they were as independent of one another and the rest of the world as the words by which they are symbolized. This is generally true of all occurrences involving I, me, mine. Reifying the loose and separate names, we regard the things as also loose and separatenot subject to law, not involved in the network of relationships, by which in fact they are so obviously bound up with their physical, social and spiritual environment. We regard as absurd the idea that there is no causal process in nature and no organic connection between events and things in the lives of other people; but at the same time we accept as axiomatic the notion that our own sacred ego is loose and separate from the universe, a law unto itself above the moral dharma and even, in many respects, above the natural law of causality. Both in Buddhism and Catholicism, monks and nuns were encouraged to avoid the personal pronoun and to speak of themselves in terms of circumlocutions that clearly indicated their real relationship with the cosmic reality and their fellow creatures. The precaution was a wise one. Our responses to familiar words are conditioned reflexes. By changing the stimulus, we can do something to change the response. No Pavlov bell, no salivation; no harping on words like me and mine, no purely automatic and unreflecting egotism. When a monk speaks of himself, not as I, but as this sinner or this unprofitable servant, he tends to stop taking his loose and separate selfhood for granted, and makes himself aware of his real, organic relationship with God and his neighbours.
  --
  In Wu Chng-ns extraordinary masterpiece (so admirably translated by Mr. Arthur Waley) there is an episode, at once comical and profound, in which Monkey (who, in the allegory, is the incarnation of human cleverness) gets to heaven and there causes so much trouble that at last Buddha has to be called in to deal with him. It ends in the following passage.
  Ill have a wager with you, said Buddha. If you are really so clever, jump off the palm of my right hand. If you succeed, Ill tell the Jade Emperor to come and live with me in the Western Paradise, and you shall have his throne without more ado. But if you fail, you shall go back to earth and do penance there for many a kalpa before you come back to me with your talk.
  This Buddha, Monkey thought to himself, is a perfect fool. I can jump a hundred and eight thousand leagues, while his palm cannot be as much as eight inches across. How could I fail to jump clear of it?
  Youre sure youre in a position to do this for me? he asked.
   Of course I am, said Buddha.
  He stretched out his right hand, which looked about the size of a lotus leaf. Monkey put his cudgel behind his ear, and leapt with all his might. Thats all right, he said to himself. Im right off it now. He was whizzing so fast that he was almost invisible, and Buddha, watching him with the eye of wisdom, saw a mere whirligig shoot along.
  Monkey came at last to five pink pillars, sticking up into the air. This is the end of the World, said Monkey to himself. All I have got to do is to go back to Buddha and claim my forfeit. The Throne is mine.
  Wait a minute, he said presently, Id better just leave a record of some kind, in case I have trouble with Buddha. He plucked a hair and blew on it with magic breath, crying, Change! It changed at once into a writing brush charged with heavy ink, and at the base of the central pillar he wrote, The Great Sage Equal to Heaven reached this place. Then, to mark his disrespect, he relieved nature at the bottom of the first pillar, and somersaulted back to where he had come from. Standing on Buddhas palm, he said, Well, Ive gone and come back. You can go and tell the Jade Emperor to hand over the palaces of Heaven.
  You stinking ape, said Buddha, youve been on the palm of my hand all the time.
  Youre quite mistaken, said Monkey. I got to the end of the World, where I saw five flesh-coloured pillars sticking up into the sky. I wrote something on one of them. Ill take you there and show you, if you like.
  No need for that, said Buddha. Just look down.
  Monkey peered down with his fiery, steely eyes, and there at the base of the middle finger of Buddhas hand he saw written the words, The Great Sage Equal to Heaven reached this place, and from the fork between the thumb and first finger came a smell of monkeys urine.
  From Monkey

1.08a - The Ladder, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  Krishna, Buddha, and Plato, and a vast host of equal and lesser names, owed their power to self-hypnosis and epilepsy, then indeed we have here formed the most power- ful argument for the cultivation of epilepsy. These are the keys which, in this world, will unlock the fast-closed doors of its mystery.
  But enough ! These objections arise out of a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the experience, and of the methods leading thereto. In his Birth of Tragedy, Freidrich

1.08 - RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  It should, however, be remarked that, within its own ecclesiastical fold, Catholicism has been almost as tolerant as Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism. Nominally one, each of these religions consists, in fact, of a number of very different religions, covering the whole gamut of thought and behaviour from fetishism, through polytheism, through legalistic monotheism, through devotion to the sacred humanity of the Avatar, to the profession of the Perennial Philosophy and the practice of a purely spiritual religion that seeks the unitive knowledge of the Absolute Godhead. These tolerated religions-within-a-religion are not, of course, regarded as equally valuable or equally true. To worship polytheistically may be ones dharma; nevertheless the fact remains that mans final end is the unitive knowledge of the Godhead, and all the historical formulations of the Perennial Philosophy are agreed that every human being ought, and perhaps in some way or other actually will, achieve that end. All souls, writes Father Garrigou-Lagrange, receive a general remote call to the mystical life; and if all were faithful in avoiding, as they should, not merely mortal but venial sin, if they were, each according to his condition, docile to the Holy Ghost, and if they lived long enough, a day would come when they would receive the proximate and efficacious vocation to a high perfection and to the mystical life properly so called. With this statement Hindu and Buddhist theologians would probably agree; but they would add that every soul will in fact eventually attain this high perfection. All are called, but in any given generation few are chosen, because few choose themselves. But the series of conscious existences, corporeal or incorporeal, is indefinitely long; there is therefore time and opportunity for everyone to learn the necessary lessons. Moreover, there will always be helpers. For periodically there are descents of the Godhead into physical form; and at all times there are future Buddhas ready, on the threshold of reunion with the Intelligible Light, to renounce the bliss of immediate liberation in order to return as saviours and teachers again and again into the world of suffering and time and evil, until at last every sentient being shall have been delivered into eternity.
  The practical consequences of this doctrine are clear enough. The lower forms of religion, whether emotional, active or intellectual, are never to be accepted as final. True, each of them comes naturally to persons of a certain kind of constitution and temperament; but the dharma or duty of any given individual is not to remain complacently fixed in the imperfect religion that happens to suit him; it is rather to transcend it, not by impossibly denying the modes of thought, behaviour and feeling that are natural to him, but by making use of them, so that by means of nature he may pass beyond nature. Thus the introvert uses discrimination (in the Indian phrase), and so learns to distinguish the mental activities of the ego from the principial consciousness of the Self, which is akin to, or identical with, the divine Ground. The emotional extravert learns to hate his father and mother (in other words to give up his selfish attachment to the pleasures of indiscriminately loving and being loved), concentrates his devotion on the personal or incarnate aspect of God, and comes at last to love the Absolute Godhead by an act, no longer of feeling, but of will illuminated by knowledge. And finally there is that other kind of extravert, whose concern is not with the pleasures of giving or receiving affection, but with the satisfaction of his lust for power over things, events and persons. Using his own nature to transcend his own nature, he must follow the path laid down in the Bhagavad Gita for the bewildered Arjuna the path of work without attachment to the fruits of work, the path of what St. Franois de Sales calls holy indifference, the path that leads through the forgetting of self to the discovery of the Self.

1.08 - Sri Aurobindos Descent into Death, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone. But it is
  Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand.

1.08 - The Change of Vision, #On the Way to Supermanhood, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  Is this to say that nobody has ever touched this Truth? Of course it has been touched, but on the mental heights, in rare illuminations that left a trace here or there, on a Buddha's face in Indonesia, an Athena in the Par thenon, a smile in Rheims, in some marvelous Upanishads, a few words of grace that have survived as a golden and adorable anachronism, hardly real amidst our concrete structures and civilized savagery; it has been touched in the depths of the heart, stammered out by Saint Francis of Assisi or Sri Ramakrishna. But then the world goes on, and we all know that the last word belongs to the bomb and to the triumph of the latest democratic hero, who will soon join another one under the same layer of inanity. But it has never been touched in matter; it has never been touched there. And so long as it is not touched there, it will remain what it has always been, a brilliant dream over the chaos of the ages, and the world will go on whirling vainly, adding its discoveries that discover nothing and its pseudo-knowledge that always ends up stifling us. Indeed, we labor under a bizarre delusion: we right a wrong here only to cause another one to sprout there; we seal a crack here only to see the wound open wider somewhere else. And it is always the same wound; there is only one wound in the world, and so long as we do not want to be cured of that ill, our millions of drugs and parliaments and systems and laws millions of laws, on every street corner and right in our mailbox will never cure us or the world's illness. We philanthropize and altruize, we distribute and share and equalize; but our good deeds seem to go hand in hand with our misdeeds, and the misery, the great misery of the world, infiltrates everything and gnaws surreptitiously at our functional homes and empty hearts; our equalizations are the huge, gray uniformity that descends upon the earth, smothering equally the good and the less good, the rich and the poor, the crowds from here or there the great mechanized human crowd, disincarnate, manipulated by a thousand radios and newspapers that scream and rumble all the way up to Himalayan villages. And no news at all. Not a single bit of news in those billions of novelties! Not an iota of novelty under the stars: men suffer and die in cities teeming with mental disorders. But tomorrow will be better, we think, with more machines, more drugs, more red or blue or green crosses, more laws and still more laws to remedy the world's cancer. And we seem to hear, from far, far away in the past, six thousand years in the past, the moving little voice of Lopamudra, the wife of Rishi Agastya: Many autumns have I toiled night and day; the dawns age me, age dims the glory of our bodies...,16 and that of Maitreya echoing her: What shall I do with that by which the nectar of Immortality is not attained?17
  Does this mean that we have not progressed? We certainly have not progressed as we imagine. We are not any more human than the Theban or the Athenian, no more advanced than they despite all our machines. As Sri Aurobindo put it, Machinery is necessary to modern humanity because of our incurable barbarism.18 We think we have mastered, but we have mastered nothing at all! Our machines are a testimony to our impotence, a huge prosthesis to correct our incapacity to see far, hear far, penetrate the heart of things and understand instantly and directly. We do not know any better now than ten thousand years ago how to modify matter through willpower (perhaps we even knew it better then), how to illuminate with consciousness and understand through vision. Under all our apparatus, we are less advanced than the animal with its sixth sense and the pygmy of Central Africa. Our machines see better than we, feel better than we, count better than we, and perhaps they will end up living better than we. Matter escapes us completely. It takes a simple power failure for us to revert to the caveman. For progress is not improving the existing world or discovering new procedures: it is a change of consciousness and vision.

1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
  But we do know that they are structural potentials of the human bodymind, because since its emergence in its present form (around fifty thousand years ago), that bodymind has indeed supported realizations across the spectrum (has supported the realizations of a Buddha, a Gaudapada, a Dame Julian, a Lady Tsogyal). In other words, that bodymind has already supported psychic, subtle, causal, and nondual realizations; and thus, by a reconstructive science, we know those potentials are already available. This is not an a priori Hegelian deduction; it is an a posteriori conclusion.
  The structural potentials are therefore available; but how they unfold will depend upon the mutual interaction and interplay between all four quadrants-intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social-as all four continue to evolve in history, and none of that is predetermined in any strong sense. Just as, for example, when the human bodymind with its complex triune brain emerged in its present form (again, around fifty thousand years ago), that brain already possessed the potential (or the hard-wiring) for symbolic logic, but that potential would have to await cultural, social, and intentional developments before it could display its form and function, just so with the higher potentials: how they will unfold remains to be seen. But the fact that they are there is demonstrated by the fact that they have already unfolded in some individuals ( Buddha to Krishna), and they are thus already available to any individual, at any time, who chooses to continue his or her own evolution within and beyond.

1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The Vedas are the roots of Indian civilisation and the supreme authority in Indian religion. For three thousand years, by the calculation of European scholars, for a great deal more, in all probability, the faith of this nation, certainly one of the most profound, acute and intellectual in the world, has not left its hold on this cardinal point of belief. Its greatest and most rationalistic minds have never swerved from the national faith. Kapila held to it no less than Shankara. The two great revolted intellects, Buddha and Brihaspati, could not dethrone the Veda or destroy Indias spiritual allegiance. India by an inevitable law of her being casts out, sooner or later, everything that is not Vedic. The Dhammapada has become a Scripture for foreign peoples. Brihaspatis strictures are only remembered as a curiosity of our intellectual history. Religious movements & revolutions have come & gone or left their mark but after all and through all the Veda remains to us our Rock of the Ages, our eternal foundation.
  Yet the most fundamental and important part of this imperishable Scripture, the actual hymns and mantras of the Sanhitas, has long been a sealed book to the Indian mind, learned or unlearned. The other Vedic books are of minor authority or a secondary formation. The Brahmanas are ritual, grammatical & historical treatises on the traditions & ceremonies of Vedic times whose only valueapart from interesting glimpses of ancient life & Vedantic philosophylies in their attempt to fix and to interpret symbolically the ritual of Vedic sacrifice. The Upanishads, mighty as they are, only aspire to bring out, arrange philosophically in the language of later thinking and crown with the supreme name of Brahman the eternal knowledge enshrined in the Vedas. Yet for some two thousand years at least no Indian has really understood the Vedas. Or if they have been understood, if Sayana holds for us their secret, the reverence of the Indian mind for them becomes a baseless superstition and the idea that the modern Indian religions are Vedic in their substance is convicted of egregious error. For the Vedas Sayana gives us are the mythology of the Adityas, Rudras,Maruts, Vasus,but these gods of the Veda have long ceased to be worshipped,or they are a collection of ritual & sacrificial hymns, but the ritual is dead & the sacrifices are no longer offered.

1.09 - SELF-KNOWLEDGE, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  The importance, the indispensable necessity, of self-knowledge has been stressed by the saints and doctors of every one of the great religious traditions. To us in the West, the most familiar voice is that of Socrates. More systematically than Socrates the Indian exponents of the Perennial Philosophy harped on the same theme. There is, for example, the Buddha, whose discourse on The Setting-Up of Mindfulness expounds (with that positively inexorable exhaustiveness characteristic of the Pali scriptures) the whole art of self-knowledge in all its branchesknowledge of ones body, ones senses, ones feelings, ones thoughts. This art of self-knowledge is practised with two aims in view. The proximate aim is that a brother, as to the body, continues so to look upon the body, that he remains ardent, self-possessed and mindful, having overcome both the hankering and dejection common in the world. And in the same way as to feelings, thoughts and ideas, he so looks upon each that he remains ardent, self-possessed and mindful, without hankering or dejection. Beyond and through this desirable psychological condition lies the final end of man, knowledge of that which underlies the individualized self. In their own vocabulary, Christian writers express the same ideas.
  A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an oxs or a bears, so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.

1.09 - Talks, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
  People who read our Correspondence were under the impression that our days bubbled with "jest and jollity, quips and cranks" all the while. In fact, a friend did not believe me when I said that the bubbling lasted only for a short time. Sri Aurobindo was, after all, a Yogi. All who knew him knew that. In one of his letters to Dilip, when Dilip complained that Sri Aurobindo would not laugh or even smile, he replied that since his childhood, he had been estranged from his family and accustomed to live a solitary life. His nature had therefore become reserved, somewhat remote and he felt shy of too much personal emotion. The English racial climate may have, I suppose, added its own large share to it. Moreover, the Yoga he had practised, beginning with the transcendental nirvanic experience, must have crowned the natural disposition. Buddha, I believe, for all his compassion, could not but have been impersonal in his daily communication. This vast impersonality even in personal relations, is it not the basis of his Yoga? I have often wondered what his state of consciousness was, for instance, when he was talking with us or dictating Savitri. Now I have learnt that the three states of consciousness: transcendent, cosmic and individual can operate at the same time. I also used to wonder how he could take interest even in the most trivial, "unspiritual" amusing talk or incidents, and joke with us, say on snoring or baldness! He had found the rasa,the delight of Brahman in everything. So his jokes were never trivial; they could be playful but always had an intellectual element in them.
  I have already given some examples of his humour in the previous chapters; let me now quote something to show his light mood. One day suddenly breaking his silence, he addressed Purani and said, "There is something nice for you, Purani." (For once he used his name!)

1.09 - Taras Ultimate Nature, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  intention, the aspiration to become a Buddha in order to best benet all sentient beings. The radiance of the moon is cooling and calming. Similarly,
  compassion, which is the root bodhichitta, soothes feelings of alienation and
  --
  become arhats and Buddhas.
  Interpretable and Definitive Teachings
  The Buddha gave teachings for forty-ve years after he attained full enlightenment. Being a skillful teacher, he knew peoples dispositions and interests
  taras ultimate nature
  --
  After the Buddha passed away, loose groups formed, based on particular
  sutras and their presentations of the ultimate nature, or selessness. Later
  --
  further interpretation in order to reach the nal view, the Buddhas actual
  intent or meaning. Others are denitive that is, the view of emptiness they
  --
  be light and joyful. The more we see the I as empty, the more we understand that we can become Buddhas and the more we progress on the path to
   Buddhahood.
  --
  eliminating all delements from our mind and becoming Buddhas. This is
  the same path that Tara cultivated in her mind. If we follow her example and

1.1.01 - Certitudes, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  We may not know him as God, we may know him as Nature, our Higher Self, Infinity, some ineffable goal. It was so that Buddha approached Him; so approaches him the rigid Adwaitin. He is accessible even to the Atheist. To the materialist He disguises Himself in matter. For the Nihilist he waits ambushed in the bosom of Annihilation.

11.02 - The Golden Life-line, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   It is so difficult for man to leave the beaten track, for that means risk and danger; our thoughts and movements are all shaped in the mould of the past, we carry out what old habits have instructed us; any new thought, any new act we happen to come across we seek to link it to an antecedent or precedent, similar in kind or form. It is a never-ending succession, a causal chain that makes up our life, the present being always produced by its past. That means the present, and so also the future, is only another form or term of the past. What is not in the past is not in the present or the future, that is to say, such is the constitution of our consciousness and nature: there is a natural and inevitable faith and trust in the past, an extension of the past; there is only apprehension for the future, uncertainty in the present.1 It was Buddha's signal achievement to uncover this great illusion, the illusion of an inexhaustible and inexorably continuing past, continuing into the present and into the future. He saw that to be is not continuity but a sequence of discrete moments (and events). It is ignorance that finds a link between these entities; they are in reality absolutely separate and distinct from each other. If you can wake up from this ignorance as from a dream you will find they 'all disintegrate and disperse and end in nothing. The only reality is that Nothing. Shankara however says that it is not mere Nothing but Pure Existence, instead of an illusion of existences you have the original Existence, the absolute existence.
   The Upanishad speaks of the creation as a garl and and all the elements of life that are like precious jewelsare strung upon a secret thread. Indeed, it is not on nothing that this multiplicity which is the creation is standing and holding together. There is however a twofold secret threadone that binds together a world of ignorance: that is the thread of ignorance which passes through, even keeps alive as it were, all the expressions and embodiments of the ignorance, pain and suffering, greed and hunger, egoism and selfishness and all forms of what is called evil. But it is the apparent world; even so, it is not pure delusion: it is a make-believe or falsehood which keeps behind it the true, the real world. That world lies behind the mask, the present actual world; it is another world of light and truth, power and delight and purity. There the link that binds together the succession of events and realities is a golden thread of pure consciousness. The link of ignorance is, one may say, the iron link, and is open to rust and decay inevitably. It is the link that binds together the ordinary life of ignorance, that pulls always backward, clings to all that has gone by, seeks to extend the past into the present and the future, feels unhappy if that is disturbed.
  --
   That is a way, an effective way, for dissolving life, but we seek, as we have said, not dissolution or disintegration but integration Integration into a higher integer, a greater reality. The lower chain dissolved, we have to find a new status beyond the dissolution. That is perhaps what the Upanishad indicated when it said: one has to traverse death through Ignorance (perception of ignorance) and then through Knowledge (perception of the Knowledge) to attain immortality. Buddha has led us across death, now we have to reach immortality. There is a higher line of Karma and a lower line running parallel, as I said, to each other the lower (the iron chain) leads from death to death, the higher (the golden one) leads from life to life and from light to light.
   The transference from the lower chain to the higher is to be effected by the consciousness of nothingness (Shunyam) being filled or impregnated with the new consciousness of Immortality; for the units of the normal or ignorant consciousness are themselves not wholly or essentially ignorant and mortal. They have in them what Buddha did not see or recognise the immortal soul or selfas the Vedic Rishis said: that which is immortal in the mortal. What is mortal in the apparently mortal unit is the covering that hides the immortal nucleus. This covering is made of, as we know, the mental, the vital and the physical beings. These perish, that is to say, change; but that does not affect the immortal being within. Thus the consciousness is to be drawn away or detached from the covering and hitched on to the unchanging reality within. That forms the golden link of the chain of immortality of the Supreme Light. The transference from the lower chain is to be effected through the consciousness of the luminous immortal divine unit. It is the Divine in man, familiarly called 'antaryamin.'
   Naturally, the transference of the consciousness and being from the lower or surface line to the line that lies in a higher and deeper level does not mean, we must note, the rejection or annihilation of the lower in favour of the higher. The consciousness of the soul or self does not negate the consciousness of the body and the life and the mind. It only purifies, elevates, and transmutes them into its true and divine expression and embodiment.

1.1.03 - Brahman, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  You speak of the Impersonal as if it were a Person. The Impersonal is not He, it is It. How can an It guide or help? The Impersonal Brahman is inactive, aloof, indifferent, not concerned with what happens in the universe. Buddha's Permanent is the same.
  There is no thought in the pure Impersonal, it is silent - but it is true that divine Truth can manifest in the background of the silence. This is of course the truth of things up to the Overmind.

1.1.04 - Philosophy, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  He treads down his emotions, because emotion distorts reason and replaces it by passions, desires, preferences, prejudices, prejudgments. He avoids life, because life awakes all his sensational being and puts his reason at the mercy of egoism, of sensational reactions of anger, fear, hope, hunger, ambition, instead of allowing it to act justly and do disinterested work. It becomes merely the paid pleader of a party, a cause, a creed, a dogma, an intellectual faction. Passion and eagerness, even intellectual eagerness, so disfigure the greatest minds that even Shankara becomes a sophist and a word-twister, and even Buddha argues in a circle. The philosopher wishes above all to preserve his intellectual righteousness; he is or should be as careful of his mental rectitude as the saint of his moral stainlessness. Therefore he avoids, as far as the world will let him, the conditions which disturb. But in this way he cuts himself off from experience and only the gods can know without experience. Sieyes said that politics was a subject of which he had made a science.
  He had, but the pity was that though he knew the science of politics perfectly, he did not know politics itself in the least and when he did enter political life, he had formed too rigidly the logical habit to replace it in any degree by the practical. If he had reversed the order or at least coordinated experiment with his theories before they were formed, he might have succeeded better. His readymade Constitutions are monuments of logical perfection and practical ineffectiveness. They have the weakness

1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  For those who take pleasure in theological speculations based upon scriptural texts and dogmatic postulates, there are the thousands of pages of Catholic and Protestant controversy upon grace, works, faith and justification. And for students of comparative religion there are scholarly commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, on the works of Ramanuja and those later Vaishnavites, whose doctrine of grace bears a striking resemblance to that of Luther; there are histories of Buddhism which duly trace the development of that religion from the Hinayanist doctrine that salvation is the fruit of strenuous self-help to the Mahayanist doctrine that it cannot be achieved without the grace of the Primordial Buddha, whose inner consciousness and great compassionate heart constitute the eternal Suchness of things. For the rest of us, the foregoing quotations from writers within the Christian and early Taoist tradition provide, it seems to me, an adequate account of the observable facts of grace and inspiration and their relation to the observable facts of free will.
  next chapter: 1.11 - GOOD AND EVIL

WORDNET



--- Overview of noun buddha

The noun buddha has 2 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
                    
1. (3) Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Gautama Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha ::: (founder of Buddhism; worshipped as a god (c 563-483 BC))
2. Buddha ::: (one who has achieved a state of perfect enlightenment)


--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun buddha

2 senses of buddha                          

Sense 1
Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Gautama Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha
   INSTANCE OF=> mystic, religious mystic
     => believer, worshiper, worshipper
       => religious person
         => person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
           => organism, being
             => living thing, animate thing
               => whole, unit
                 => object, physical object
                   => physical entity
                     => entity
           => causal agent, cause, causal agency
             => physical entity
               => entity

Sense 2
Buddha
   => saint, holy man, holy person, angel
     => good person
       => person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
         => organism, being
           => living thing, animate thing
             => whole, unit
               => object, physical object
                 => physical entity
                   => entity
         => causal agent, cause, causal agency
           => physical entity
             => entity


--- Hyponyms of noun buddha
                                    


--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun buddha

2 senses of buddha                          

Sense 1
Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Gautama Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha
   INSTANCE OF=> mystic, religious mystic

Sense 2
Buddha
   => saint, holy man, holy person, angel




--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun buddha

2 senses of buddha                          

Sense 1
Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Gautama Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha
  -> mystic, religious mystic
   HAS INSTANCE=> Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Gautama Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha
   HAS INSTANCE=> Chuang-tzu
   => quietist
   HAS INSTANCE=> Boehme, Jakob Boehme, Bohme, Jakob Bohme, Boehm, Jakob Boehm, Behmen, Jakob Behmen
   HAS INSTANCE=> Eckhart, Johannes Eckhart, Meister Eckhart

Sense 2
Buddha
  -> saint, holy man, holy person, angel
   => Buddha
   => fakir, fakeer, faqir, faquir




--- Grep of noun buddha
buddha
gautama buddha



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