Who Wants to be Buddha?

[JohnsonCM]

I just saw this not that long ago, and it ends on May 15, 2010. If you have any interest in acting, better act quick!

http://www.buddha-movie.com/

From the website:

The search for Buddha...
Welcome to 500 B.C.!

Our Director Ashutosh Gowariker is searching for an Actor to play Siddhartha / Buddha. Siddhartha was from the foothills of the Himalayas in Northern India.

Our search is open to a diverse ethnic-look and colour. If you are between 20 to 35 years of age, then please click on "Audition for Buddha" and submit your Resumes, Photos and Videos by May 15, 2010.

Good luck,
The Buddha Team

[scott]

The other night we saw something I'd like to recommend, even if it's not Zen.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/unmi ... /film.html

[Jundo]

The other night we saw something I'd like to recommend, even if it's not Zen.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/unmi ... /film.html

It is a wonderful film. I personally think it is "the mistaken child" and that such superstitious beliefs are a distraction from the heart of Buddhist Practice. However, it is ultimately up to the universe to say, not to me.

However, I am re-reading the Lankavatara Sutra these days, an important early text in the development of Chan/Zen, and I came across a section that has an unusual interpretation of rebirth that is very clear. Here is the Buddha describing how he has been reborn ... Much of the perspective seems to be that "we are all 'speaking the same language, teaching the same teachings', thus we can say that we are the 'same'". He also refers to the Dharmakaya, which might be called that "ultimate" whereby all distinctions of this/that/the other thing drop away from mind ... and so, we are all the "same" there, as there are no ultimate distinctions.

If that is what the Buddha means by "rebirth" ... I do not know a Buddhist who does not agree with that view.

I believe that we are all, ever, constantly reborn in every sentient creatures eyes, and with every blade of grass which grows, in the past or future ... even right as we live too.

LX

(141) At that time again, Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva said this to the Blessed One: According to what deeper sense did you make this announcement before the congregation, that "I am all the Buddhas of the past," and that "I have gone through many a birth in varieties of forms, being thus at times the king Mandhatri, Elephant, Parrot, Indra, Vyasa, Sunetra, and other beings in my one hundred thousand births?"

Said the Blessed One: There are, according to the deeper sense, four kinds of sameness distinguished, Mahamati, and the Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones make this assertion: I was thus at that time the Buddha Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kasyapa. What are the four kinds of sameness which are distinguished according to the deeper sense? They are: (1) sameness of letters, (2) sameness of words, (3) sameness of teachings, and (4) sameness of the body. According to this fourfold sameness in the deeper sense, the Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones make the announcement before the congregation.

Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of letters? It is that my name is [spelt] B-u-d-d-h-a, and these letters are also used for other Buddhas and Blessed Ones; Mahamati, these letters in their nature are not to be distinguished one from another; therefore, Mahamati, there is the sameness of letters.

Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of words with regard to the Tathagatas, Arhats, and Fully-Enlightened Ones? It is that sixty-four sounds of the Brahman language are distinguished by me, and these identical sixty-four sounds of the Brahman language are also uttered by the Tathagatas, Arhats, and Fully-Enlightened Ones, and their Kalavinka-like notes are the same with all of us, as we are indistinguishable in this respect.

Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of the body? It is that I and other Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones are the same as regards our Dharmakaya and the [thirty-two] signs and the [eighty] minor excellencies of bodily perfection—no distinction existing among us, except that the Tathagatas manifest varieties of forms according to the different dispositions of beings, who are to be disciplined by varieties of means.

Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of the teaching? It is that I as well as they [other Tathagatas] are all conversant with the teachings belonging to the thirty-seven branches of enlightenment. According to the deeper sense which is concerned with this fourfold sameness, the Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones make their announcement before the congregation. So it is said:

6. "I am Kasyapa, Krakucchanda, and Kanakamuni"; this I preach who come out of the sameness for the sake of the sons of the Buddha.

http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm

Gassho, J

[anista]

However, I am re-reading the Lankavatara Sutra these days, an important early text in the development of Chan/Zen, and I came across a section that has an unusual interpretation of rebirth that is very clear. Here is the Buddha describing how he has been reborn ... Much of the perspective seems to be that "we are all 'speaking the same language, teaching the same teachings', thus we can say that we are the 'same'". He also refers to the Dharmakaya, which might be called that "ultimate" whereby all distinctions of this/that/the other thing drop away from mind ... and so, we are all the "same" there, as there are no ultimate distinctions.

If that is what the Buddha means by "rebirth" ... I do not know a Buddhist who does not agree with that view.

I believe that we are all, ever, constantly reborn in every sentient creatures eyes, and with every blade of grass which grows, in the past or future ... even right as we live too.

I believe that that section of the Lanka you are quoting from deals with the universal nature of nirmanakayas. In that sense, all Buddhas are coming from the same dharmakaya, which means that Buddhas (unlike "normal" people) are eternal, hence "the same" as one another. That's why they have sameness of letters, words, body, etc. They still undergo birth and rebirth though. But the nirmanakaya does not apply to people other than Buddhas. I think the Lotus speaks of this as well.

The idea of nirmanakaya is thus controversial. If the Buddha is eternal, anicca does not apply to him.

In my limited understanding.

[Jundo]

I believe that that section of the Lanka you are quoting from deals with the universal nature of nirmanakayas. In that sense, all Buddhas are coming from the same dharmakaya, which means that Buddhas (unlike "normal" people) are eternal, hence "the same" as one another. That's why they have sameness of letters, words, body, etc. They still undergo birth and rebirth though. But the nirmanakaya does not apply to people other than Buddhas. I think the Lotus speaks of this as well.

The idea of nirmanakaya is thus controversial. If the Buddha is eternal, anicca does not apply to him.

In my limited understanding.

Well, the Buddha in the Lanka seems to spend a good portion of His time criticizing the "philosophers", with their arcane theories and analysis ... even those philosophers who seemingly come to conclusions in line with the Buddha's teachings.

All is just "Mind", after all, and waves of thought which can be dropped away. Even ideas and theories of "rebirth" and "cause-and-effect" fall away from the perspective of "Mind". (In fact, there are only a few sentences of the Lanka that seem to support the idea of a mechanical "rebirth" ... and one almost gets the feeling from their location and timing that they were dropped in by someone later as a corrective to the radical positions presented in that Sutra, which seem to deny much of Buddhist theory ... including cause-effect, dependent co-origination, even "Nirvana" ... as ultimately a dream).

So, I would not "mind" about it too much, and not worry one's "mind" too much.

Gassho, J