Dalai Lama videos

[No_Mind]

Lately (ever since I asked why he says the things he does .. about Prince Charles) I have taken to watching Dalai Lama videos.

I find some of them to answer the very questions we often discuss here. If mods do not object I will like to share a video now and then of his teachings (pravachan as they are called in Hindi .. may or may not be a Dhamma talk exactly but centers around the Dhamma)

Here he discusses that Dhamma practice is for the long haul .. it may take million of years but to be determined.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Here he discusses that Dhamma practice is for the long haul .. it may take million of years but to be determined.

Which is of course the Mahayana view, which he represents appropriately in his official capacity as HHDL.

What he says may be true of his Dharma possibly, but I do not ever recall the Buddha being so pessimistic about the efficacy of his Dhamma.



Metta,
Paul.

[No_Mind]

What he says may be true of his Dharma possibly, but I do not ever recall the Buddha being so pessimistic about the efficacy of his Dhamma.

Perhaps true (which leaves door open for perhaps not).

But neither would he have been enthusiastic about the unbounded optimism of some who participate in this forum.

[Crazy cloud]

If one take into considerations about how few there is here on this global forum for practicing theravada buddhists, and how few of those who stays here counting a few months or years forward into the future, I would say that both His Holiness and us might be right. Looking at Samsara how it is now, there are quite a lot that is far far out, maybe millons of years away from getting it

[Coëmgenu]

Greetings,

Here he discusses that Dhamma practice is for the long haul .. it may take million of years but to be determined.

Which is of course the Mahayana view,

It's so much 'the Mahāyāna view' that Mahāyāna simply had to spawned an entire sect to critique itself: Zen.

I posted this a while ago on SuttaCentral:

問曰：阿羅漢先世因緣所受身必應當滅，住在何處而具足佛道？
Inquiry: in the Arhat's past lives the causes and conditions for being subject to embodiment necessarily ought to have been eradicated, [in light of this] they dwell where to perfect buddhahood?

答曰： 得阿羅漢時，三界諸漏因緣盡，更不復生三界。有淨佛土，
Response: when attaining Arhatship, the three realms' myriad outflows' causes and conditions are exhausted, there is no more birth again in the three realms. There is a pure buddha land,

出於三界，乃至無煩惱之名，於 是國土佛所，聞法華經，具足佛道。
beyond the three realms, where not even the word affliction has a name, in this kingdom of the Buddha, they hear the Dharma Flower Sūtra [i.e. the Lotus Sūtra], with this they perfect Buddhahood.

如法華經說：「有羅漢，若不聞法華經，
As in the Dharma Flower Sūtra's words: "There are Arhantaḥ[,] for example[, who've] not heard the Dharma Flower Sūtra,

自謂得滅度；我於餘國為說是事，汝皆當作佛。」
themselves they call [']ones who have attained cessation[']; I in another realm for them speak this matter, you all shall become Buddhas."

(pseudo-Āryanāgārjunasya Māhaprajñāpāramitōpadeśa @ 714a9)

Mahāyāna is a little bit incredulous as to the short length of time śrāvakayāna practice takes to fulfil. The Māhaprajñāpāramitōpadeśa seems to present an ad hoc solution to the time discrepancies between śrāvaka & bodhisattvayāna.

[Caodemarte]

....
It's so much 'the Mahāyāna view' that Mahāyāna simply had to spawned an entire sect to critique itself: Zen....

There is no Mahayana view as there is no Mahayana sect, just the various provisional views of various Mahayanists, members of sects and schools loosely grouped together by common themes. For example, many if not most such sects, would stress that liberation is always theoretically possible at any moment (see The Lotus Sutra). In practical terms, it may or may not be preceded by long training. Remember that the various yanas often refer to the course of an individual, not groups or sects, especially in East Asian Buddhism ( see pages 14-15 in https://www.amazon.com/Rinzai-Zen-Way-G ... rinzai+zen)

BTW, the Zen sect is a completely orthodox Mahayana sect.

[Upeksha]

Greetings,

Here he discusses that Dhamma practice is for the long haul .. it may take million of years but to be determined.

Which is of course the Mahayana view, which he represents appropriately in his official capacity as HHDL.

What he says may be true of his Dharma possibly, but I do not ever recall the Buddha being so pessimistic about the efficacy of his Dhamma.



Metta,
Paul.

The one thing he really does represent in his official capacity as HHDL is Gelugpa Vajrayana, in which, the possibility of attaining awakening in one lifetime is axiomatic.

[SarathW]

no contemplatives or brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.' This is wrong view.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

===========
I like Dalai Lama's talk except he would have said that there are other contemplatives presently in this world who have realised it for themselves.

[Coëmgenu]

....
It's so much 'the Mahāyāna view' that Mahāyāna simply had to spawned an entire sect to critique itself: Zen....

There is no Mahayana view as there is no Mahayana sect, just the various provisional views of various Mahayanists, members of sects and schools loosely grouped together by common themes. For example, many if not most such sects, would stress that liberation is always theoretically possible at any moment (see The Lotus Sutra). In practical terms, it may or may not be preceded by long training. Remember that the various yanas often refer to the course of an individual, not groups or sects, especially in East Asian Buddhism ( see pages 14-15 in https://www.amazon.com/Rinzai-Zen-Way-G ... rinzai+zen)

BTW, the Zen sect is a completely orthodox Mahayana sect.

Because victors write history books.

Subitism was an extremely controversial notion in its day. As I recall "3 incalculable aeons to complete bodhisattvayāna and cultivate the special properties of a Tathāgata" or something of the like was the mainstream Mahāyāna narrative before.

Still is in Tibet. Bodhisattvayāna taking so long is one of the justifications some use for the superiority of tantric paths over renunciation paths.

[No_Mind]

Dalai Lama - "Develop non-attachment to your own religion"

[Saengnapha]

The one thing he really does represent in his official capacity as HHDL is Gelugpa Vajrayana, in which, the possibility of attaining awakening in one lifetime is axiomatic.

I particularly like Jamyang Shayba's 'Great Exposition'. Jeffrey Hopkins book "Mediation on Emptiness' gives a very good overview of the Gelug teachings.