Awakening into Nirvana (The Buddha Speaks)

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Mayflow

This is a problem for us sometimes, I think. I always want to be so free and like really free, and Buddha did seem to offer this to us all. "Authentic?" Hell I don't know, but freedom does ring a freedom's bell for me. And I don't care if it was Buddha or some guy or girl I don't even know yet who offers and shares this with me.

I like Gotama very much, and all he said was wondeful really, then men create sectarian groups called 'Buddhism', and make their translations which best suit their particular sect, which was not what Gotama taught them or asked them to do, but people have taken it upon themselves to form these institutions which teach Gotamas lessons.

Sharing is wonderful too, but there is no teacher or student, only mind which also created the sects creates these personal classifications... and there is no benefit is classing myself as a student or a teacher, for these are not necessary for sharing, and sharing is far more effectve if people are themselves and not upholding pretentious entitlements.

Spiritualizm isn't an institution, or a temple, or a statue in a shrine, nor is the smell of incense, the sounding of bells or robes which identify the monk, it is inquiry and it is to inquire.

People like Gotama were sharing their merits, so as this action is respectable and done peacefully, another can see the benefit and happiness that brings and also share their own merits... there merits are not Gotamas or Jesus's or the Gurus, and you can only share the merits you yourself have cultivated... it is not to be complicated, and if by your life those around you are smiling, you already do the most valuable spiritual work.

[psychoslice]

Originally Posted by Mayflow

Once you kill the Buddha, you become the Buddha and then your freedom is real.
Then you are free! Killing the Buddha is not like hurting someone that can be hurt, it is just seeing concepts as concepts. You cannot hurt a real Buddha. That would be like hurting your soul and it can't be done.

Yes so true mayflower, I still haven't bee arrested by the Buddhist police for killing their Buddha lol.

Originally Posted by Gem

I like Gotama very much, and all he said was wondeful really, then men create sectarian groups called 'Buddhism', and make their translations which best suit their particular sect, which was not what Gotama taught them or asked them to do, but people have taken it upon themselves to form these institutions which teach Gotamas lessons.

Sharing is wonderful too, but there is no teacher or student, only mind which also created the sects creates these personal classifications... and there is no benefit is classing myself as a student or a teacher, for these are not necessary for sharing, and sharing is far more effectve if people are themselves and not upholding pretentious entitlements.

Spiritualizm isn't an institution, or a temple, or a statue in a shrine, nor is the smell of incense, the sounding of bells or robes which identify the monk, it is inquiry and it is to inquire.

People like Gotama were sharing their merits, so as this action is respectable and done peacefully, another can see the benefit and happiness that brings and also share their own merits... there merits are not Gotamas or Jesus's or the Gurus, and you can only share the merits you yourself have cultivated... it is not to be complicated, and if by your life those around you are smiling, you already do the most valuable spiritual work.

If Gotama could do this, so can we.

Originally Posted by psychoslice

Yes so true mayflower, I still haven't been arrested by the Buddhist police for killing their Buddha lol.

Nor will you be.

[Samana]

Originally Posted by Gem

Everyone says their own little trip is 'Buddahs authentic teaching' but there is no 'authentic' teaching, only Buddah's teaching.

I liked the OP, but liking it does not mean I call it 'Buddah's authentic'.

If a version is preferred so let it be preferred, it's a personal preference, and does not make one teaching authentic and another not.

People seem to think that because they prefer it, it somehow becomes authentic.

I suggest you investigate the findings of Buddhist scholars and historians. Too many people just make up their own version of the teachings. The Buddha predicted this and said :


Ani Sutta : The Peg -SN 20.7


"Monks, there once was a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum called 'Summoner.' Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasarahas inserted another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.

In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering.

But they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.


"In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — will come about.

"Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.' That's how you should train yourselves"


http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn20/sn20.007.than.html


Good luck !


_/\_

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Samana

I suggest you investigate the findings of Buddhist scholars and historians. Too many people just make up their own version of the teachings. The Buddha predicted this and said :


Ani Sutta : The Peg -SN 20.7


"Monks, there once was a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum called 'Summoner.' Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasarahas inserted another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.

In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering.

But they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.


"In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — will come about.

"Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.' That's how you should train yourselves"


http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn20/sn20.007.than.html


Good luck !


_/\_

I'll look at the link in a minute.

Discourses have their place, and can be grasped intellectually as someone may agree with the philosophy, but they hold little value of meaning unless one can relate the words to their own direct experience.

Over time what happens, not only in buddhism, but in all religion, is the discourse is intellectually learned then reiterated without substance, because the scholar, though memorizing it very well, has no direct insight into it.

As Buddhism provides the tools, such as meditation and mindfulness, dioscourse can have value in conjuntion with the practice.

[Samana]

In my understanding and experience both offline and online, the predictions of the Buddha in the above sutta have come true, without a doubt.


Which specific Buddhist practices do you do yourself, Gem?


.

[BlueSky]

Those who attain perfect wisdom are forever inspired by the conviction that the infinitely varied forms of this world, in all their relativity, far from being a hindrance and a dangerous distraction to the spiritual path, are really a healing medicine. Why? Because by the very fact that they are interdependent on each other and therefore have no separate self, they express the mystery and the energy of all-embracing love. Not just the illumined wise ones but every single being in the interconnected world is a dweller in the boundless infinity of love. Mayflo

This part spoke to me and was quite connected in wisdom that has been coming into my life these days. In other words...I hear it....lol
Thanks for posting it.....James

Originally Posted by WhiteShaman

Those who attain perfect wisdom are forever inspired by the conviction that the infinitely varied forms of this world, in all their relativity, far from being a hindrance and a dangerous distraction to the spiritual path, are really a healing medicine. Why? Because by the very fact that they are interdependent on each other and therefore have no separate self, they express the mystery and the energy of all-embracing love. Not just the illumined wise ones but every single being in the interconnected world is a dweller in the boundless infinity of love. Mayflo

This part spoke to me and was quite connected in wisdom that has been coming into my life these days. In other words...I hear it....lol
Thanks for posting it.....James

I am pleased if it resonated.