👨🏽‍🎓BUDDHA: AVATAR(INCARNATION) OF VISHNU👨🏽‍🎓

Originally Posted by Eelco

Below are 2 instances in which the Buddha himself prays.
I think it has to do with the intention with which to pray. Not unlike other prayer based religions.

That's probably one reason why so many Buddhist's pray. Since Buddha did it in those sutras.

The Dalai Lama released “One of My Favorite Prayers,” from his album Inner World. The leader of Tibetan Buddhism has published a lot of his favorite prayers.

Some Buddhists intone "Namu Amida Butsu" in ardent prayer to Amida Buddha for the release from suffering and death in this world into the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. The majority of Buddhist Kyoto temples are dedicated to this celestial Buddha and there are statues there one can pray to.

In this video, this Buddhist Master says one should pray to enlightened Buddha's until they are enlightened then others can pray to them for merit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fnmj4wuMmw

Obviously prayer is a big part of Buddhism and Christianity as well.

No one prays to a being they believe is a myth. Every Buddhist who prays to Buddha or to some other Buddhist deity believes such beings exist. Now maybe the beings they are praying to don't actually exist, but those who pray to them believe they do obviously. It's the same in all religions. People who pray to Jesus or the Holy Mother Mary or Saint Jude believe these entities exist. If anybody believed such beings were myths, they would not pray to them.

I prayed to Saint Jude once as a kid, the saint of lost causes and the impossible, and a miracle happened. My prayer was answered the next day. Was it Saint Jude that made the miracle happen? I have no way to be sure or know.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

No one prays to a being they believe is a myth.

Whether or not your post has anything to do with my last one here, my reference to Pure Land obviously being based upon myth refers to the story of Dharmakara who makes a series of forty-eight vows to save all beings, ultimately fulfills them, and attains supreme enlightenment to become Amida Buddha. Of all his previous lives throughout countless kalpas.

Thank you

[sky]

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

No one prays to a being they believe is a myth.

I personally know that some do pray to Mythological Beings.... the reason being just in case

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by sky123

I personally know that some do pray to Mythological Beings.... the reason being just in case

Yes, when I spoke of the "spectrum" of understanding in the Pure Land, of two extremes........and all points inbetween (a place the Cobbler knows full well!)

It seems many deal with "logic" rather than life as lived and known each day.

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

Obviously prayer is a big part of Buddhism and Christianity as well.

This. ^
When we progress on the path we adopt certain strategies and beliefs which help us along. Once the need for that particular kind of help ceases there's a natural tendency to change one's view and possibly practice.
If adopting the view that the Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu helps one to act in a way according to the dhamma. That's great. If at some point one questions the validity of that point of view. Change it.

According to the stages of insight. Right before attaining 1st, 2nd, 3d or 4th path, after reaching equanimity and conformity one experiences a change of lineage. The big question that comes up for me then. How do you deal with that skillfully?
I think it is perfectly viable to keep honoring Vishnu as Buddha even after you "know", decided that truth is something else entirely. Maybe as a way to keep in mind what brought you to where you are or some such fabrication.

[sky]

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

I prayed to Saint Jude once as a kid, the saint of lost causes and the impossible, and a miracle happened. My prayer was answered the next day. Was it Saint Jude that made the miracle happen? I have no way to be sure or know.

So if I pray to my Distant Uncle who's the Patron Saint of Torture Victims am I praying for His help and protection against me personally being tortured or the strength to bare the torture, or is it something else ? I personally think it's ' Something Else '......

I would say almost everybody's lives are based on myths. As soon as one makes a judgement about another, in anyway, they are living according to myths. What anyone "is" in any given moment is always changing and not a product of subjective opinion. When opinion is "reality" one is living in the world of myths.

That's why I used to mention the finger pointing at others that is so popular as a human activity. Judging others. That has been a common human thing for 10,000 years or more I would guess. The reaction only takes place in our own heads. That's the source of the judgement, not something "out there." Imagining the source of perceptions like these is external to us is another example of one always living in myths.

So yes, finger pointing, that person is literal, that one believes in myths, this one, myself (finger pointing at oneself) is wiser, more intelligent, knows better! Knows more. Is more wise, spiritual, enlightened etc. But they live in myths as well. Self aggrandizing myths.

What "one is" is what one does moment to moment. What one sees or knows or understands is a result of ones understanding and awareness. A more expanded and complete seeing would involve looking outside of one's own personal subjective view to a more all encompassing universal view. Understanding through "walking in another's shoes." Which is one point of multiple lives and incarnations. It increases understanding and awareness.

They are doing it is very different from they did it. Reality is the present moment. Nothing more and nothing less. Anytime the past is referenced to judge anything in the present, one is living according to myths. In myths. A myth based way of life. To point at another, and think, they are praying to a myth, misses the point that oneself is equally living according to myths. What anyone else is "doing" can't be known as we can't experience or know from their perspective. That link I posted of the Buddhist Master pointed that out when he explained what Buddhist's are praying to. The Master lives beyond mind. That's why no conceptual descriptions. They would just be entertainment for those in mind and the point of Buddhism is to live a different way. That's not to say the Master does not directly perceive such things. They will just not talk about them.

I read a wonderful quote by a gifted writer yesterday but I lost the link that pointed out when one is seen pointing at others, one needs to look at the self centered motivations of the one pointing. She wrote about a kind and good spiritual shopkeeper who encountered all these people all day and some would get mad at this and that, why no sale today? why no discount? why are you closed at 10PM etc. so lot's of finger pointing at the nice kind shopkeeper in negative ways. Not because she was not a spiritual being and kind and nice, but because of the selfish and self centered expectations of those who were pointing. We only get mad at others we want something from. A higher way to be is to want nothing. Live without expectations. Things are as they are. Not how I want them to be. Same with others. See them without the myth and self centered judgements. Without the me centered subjective view.

Or more simply, just don't point at others. Don't judge. That clears up a lot of myths we live in.

[BigJohn]

NICE COMMENT!