Originally Posted by UnbornBuddha
Those are complicated questions. I'll try to answer briefly.
The lotus Sutra can be summarized like Hakuin once said "Outside the mind there is no Lotus Sutra and outside the Lotus Sutra there is no mind". Hakuin is one of the 3 most influential Zen masters in all of Japan's history. The Lotus Sutra's intent is not to teach you anything. The Lotus sutra is about one's Nature. One's nature and the Lotus sutra are one in the same. So when one reads it one has to return to one's nature to really understand it. If not the book seems like a book of cause and effect, when really it is an invocation to allow the One mind to erase you completely, until what emerges is the Lotus. This Lotus is already contained not in you, but not outside of you either. Its not within or without. Its something that must be discovered either instantly or systemically. Buddhism is very methodical and has literally dissected consciousness and existence and their intertwine down to the smallest particles possible. Imagine a grain of sand being exploded into millions of pieces, and the space within these pieces becoming closer to one's being than the grain of sand. The grain of sand represents you. before being deconstructed by practice.
In truth, Buddhism in modern day is very misunderstood, even the Dalai Llama teaches very watered down Buddhism to the lay public. While yes Buddhism teaches about kindness, and all that, that's not really its true goal. Kindness and charity is just something that happens, but Buddhism is about transcending the universe, while not moving at all, staying in the same place.
Yin and yang constitute the whole universe, nuclear fusion of stars, expansion and contraction of the cosmos and heavens, copulation, human birth, death, everything can be seen as a spectrum of yin and yang, as you know. The universe works in cycles, Hinduism and the Vedas speak on this more than most religions or even modern science. Although the Hubra ultra deep field comes closer to what the Vedas were talking about cosmologically.
Therefore, yin and yang is life and death. Buddhism is about transcending life and death. Emptiness, voidness all translations of the word sunyata शून्यता means empty not like nihilism professes. It is more about the emptiness of what your not. The Buddha was very hesistant to speak on what he discovered, which he named the Tathagātagarbha. Which is the womb of the thus-come-one. It is a nameless reality that transcends time and space. And the more one practices the more one is surrounded by this womb. One's heart becomes like a child again as the first stage of true initiation. One reverts back to before life and death ensnared you.
The lotus sutra should not be understood in modern words. I'm sure there are links. But, I'm hesistant to look and give them because it will be a crutch actually. The power in the mantra is not the words themselves, albeit Sanskrit is closer to the essence of what the words were trying to convey. The point of the mantra is to be able to get to the state before the words are spoken. This means recognizing who is it that is chanting. And as one recognizes this the words and that which chants are indistinguishable. Since the words are emanating from it. And as as you forget you, this it or Buddha mind becomes you, so you become a Buddha.
Susuki was a Buddhist laymen. For him to convey the Lankavara as well as he did, he must have understood it pass the rhetoric. Grasping the words themselves are the superficial stage. Important, but also not that important. Also many Sutras contradict each other, from a scholarly and historical standpoint. All I will say they really don't, but to those who don't understand the stages or phases of teachings Siddhartha taught throughout his lifetime, then they'll think there is contradiction. He taught different things to people of different levels and understanding. Just like the Dalai Llama teaches to the lay public, certain things. Things to make them happier. Buddhism is about transcending happiness and suffering all together. The result is a peace that far surpasses bliss. Albeit bliss is also part of the first two stages of the Dhyanas, or meditative trance.
True goodness is something rare nowadays. I'm not sure what you mean by spark, but true goodness is merely a function from one's heavenly or primordial nature. Goodness in a yin yang sense is still closer than evil is because arguably evil brings more suffering than good does. And in the primordial one doesn't suffer, even when one's body is in pain. One could still have pain, but no suffering.
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06-17-2016, 11:42 AM
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