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Originally Posted by
TimF
Awesome teaching! Many thanks for using the tree and its leaves to help clarify this. Helps me to see the path through the woods gassho1
After further thought, I am going to edit this and give my take on birth and death...please remember that this is only my opinion.
I believe that karma fits in to the "birth" and "death" of us in each moment. I am not the same as I was yesterday, and I will not be the same as I am today tomorrow - therefore I am "born" and "die" in each moment.
My actions before my new "birth" (this moment) can affect this moment, and can also affect me after my "death" (the end of this moment). For example - if I choose to rob a blind man, then karma may very well catch up with me and affect my "re-birth" in another moment - or many moments for that matter (how about 15-20 in the slammer!). Or, let's say I choose to abuse drugs - this could very well have a lasting affect on my future "re-births", and cause my "karma" to be "bad". The opposite, I believe, can be true for the good choices we make.
As far as what happens to the "self" when the body finally gives in -whether from old age, accident, or disease - is something I do not know, nor do I believe any of us knows. So, with this in mind, I choose to live in this moment and not dwell on that which I do not know.
Gassho,
Tim
Hi Tim,
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The teaching [of the Hua-yen School] maintains the interdependence and equality of all appearance, the ‘teaching of totality’. Appearances may be in different states, but they are necessarily interdependent in constituting the universe of phenomena, and in equally manifesting the Buddha-illumination of enlightenment.
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The basic idea of the Avatamsaka [Flower Garland] Sutra is the unity of the absolute and the relative: All in One, One in All. The All melts into a single whole. There are no divisions in the totality of reality ... the cosmos viewed as holy, as "one bright pearl," the universal reality of the Buddha."
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When Fazang [one of the principle Teachers of the school] first lectured on the Flower Garland Sutra ...he used metaphors such as Indra’s Net of Jewels and the Golden Lion. ....
A frequently cited expression of this vision of reality is the simile of Indra’s Net from the Avatamsaka Sutra, which was further elaborated by the Huayan teachers. The whole universe is seen as a multidimensional net. At every point where the strands of the net meet, jewels are set. Each jewel reflects the light reflected in the jewels around it, and each of those jewels in turn reflects the light from all the jewels around them, and so on, forever. In this way, each jewel, or each particular entity or event, including each person, ultimately reflects and expresses the radiance of the entire universe. All of totality can be seen in each of its parts.
Fazang [further] llustrated the Huayan teachings for Empress Wu by constructing a hall of mirrors, placing mirrors on the ceiling, floor, four walls, and four corners of a room. In the center he placed a Buddha image with a lamp next to it. Standing in this room, the empress could see that the reflection in any one mirror clearly reflected the reflections from all of the other mirrors, including the specific reflection of the Buddha image in each one. This fully demonstrated the unobstructed interpenetration of the particular and the totality, with each one contained in all, and with all contained in each one. Moreover, it showed the nonobstructed interpenetration of each particular mirror with each of the others.
Such Teachings of Interpenetration and Mutual Identity were at the heart of Master Dogen's worldview, such as in his Teaching of the One Bright Pearl ...
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All the universe is one bright pearl—we do not speak of two pearls or three pearls. The whole body is one right Dharma eye. The whole body is the Real body. The whole body is One Expression. The whole body is light. The whole body is Mind in its totality. When it is the whole body, the whole body knows no hindrance. Everywhere is perfectly round, turning over, rolling smoothly. ....
Thus, though its face seems to keep on changing, turning, and stopping, it is one bright pearl. Knowing that one bright pearl is indeed like this—that is one bright pearl. The colorations and configurations of one bright pearl are encountered in this manner. When it is thus, there is no reason to worry that you are not one bright pearl because in confusion you think, “I am not the pearl.” Worrying and doubting, grasping and rejection, action and inaction are all but temporary views of small measure. Moreover, this is only one bright pearl appearing as small-scale notions.
Should we not cherish such infinite colorations and brilliance? Each of the many facets of its radiant variegations are the quality of the entire universe—who can take them away? There is no one casting a tile in the marketplace. Do not trouble yourself about not falling into or not being blind to the cause and effect of mundane existence. Being essentially unobscured from first to last, one bright pearl is the original face and the enlightened eye.
http://dharmafield.org/resources/tex...-bright-pearl/
Gassho, J