Have archaeologists found Buddha's remains? Cremated bones discovered in a 1,000-year-old chest

Daily Mail ^ | 15 November 2017 | Tim Collins

[Monkey Face]

I learn something new every day, proving old dogs can learn new tricks. However, today, this thing I learned about Buddha is extremely interesting to me.

Thanks for the ping, SC!

‘Face

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure!

[tinyowl]

agreed ...

[nicollo]

Someone say "1000 buddhas"?

[tinyowl]

Agreed - zero is mystical except in some sects.

And it's job is not to 'add truths' to what you know. It's to 'remove untruths' from what you know. In a way, it posits nothing. The Buddha originally (in legend) didn't want to teach -> he felt no one would get it. But the Gods (allegorical gods!) said to him 'there are a few with little dust on their eyes.' It's a very important statement, because he wasn't referring to an absence of ability to believe, but rather, a presence of a covering over the eyes that prevented people from seeing what is already there. This covering is the ego's clinging to ideas. Jesus saying 'you have to become like a child' is to me no different from this. It doesn't mean become dumb and unwise, it means 'stop believing that your mind tells you the truth.' And frankly THAT ... believing your mind's speech as if it is "I" speaking, or God ... very close to Satan.

I think it can also help with Christianity because ultimately the 'realm of God' is outside the realm of the conceptual, but it's easy to make the mistake to seek God in the conceptual - quoting passages, describing the nature of God, talking theology, arguing over things that happened or didn't. But He doesn't live there, and I think that's why a lot of atheists can never connect.

I once had an argument with an atheist online. He declined to debate whether his "I" had any more substance than the God he denied. Buddha simply refused to answer the question of whether God existed or not. He declared it an invalid question. If you can understand why it's invalid, then I think you can know God. But you can never wrap that up in a concept ... it disappears the instant it appears ... and concepts require time.

A wise man noted that there is only circumstantial evidence for time. Eternity doesn't mean 'long time' it means 'no time whatsoever.'

So there is MUCH to remove conceptually in our minds before we can see God. Most of what we have to remove we'll never know we even have. But studying Zen can help us see 'Oh! I am TOTALLY FULL OF SH*T' about reality, time, subject/object, good/bad. All these things that don't exist 'out there' but that we regularly rely on in evaluating the universe and declaring 'things are this way!' ... and then we have created a world which isn't real but the truth of which we defend to the death, and usually involves suffering and we complain about it ... and all along, our entire lives, Heaven was around and amongst us (or whatever Jesus said - I'm a bad quoter :-))

In the end, the Buddha points out ... Suffering is not only avoidable, it's an illusion built on an illusion. If we cling to our way of seeing things, as if we would die if someone took away our beliefs, then all we do is ensure the perpetuity of that world of suffering. It is not necessary to believe in God to know God. In fact, it can get in the way.

[nicollo]

As much as Gautama Buddha influenced history and the ideas have spread across SE Asia, mostly, Buddhism didn’t persist in India because the Hindu caste system was stronger than his (or a cumulative “his”) ideas of nirvana, or “release from cycle of rebirth,” which directly challenged the Hindu social order.

It was up to the Europeans to figure out the concept of human equality, and the Americans to make it happen.

[nicollo]

... based on Christianity, I should have added.

[SunkenCiv]

Buddha statue from 6th c found in Viking hoard in Helgo, Sweden
Biblical Archaeology Review | March/April 2005 | “Worldwide” editor
Posted on 04/26/2005 11:26:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1391864/posts

http://www.google.com/search?q=world%27s+largest+buddha&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&tbm=isch

[mlo]

"The Buddha so far as I have seen, and if you don't accept the junk that's been piled on it or the left interpretations, was correct about everything."

What the Buddha taught was not religion. Most practicing native Buddhists do not meditate and don't practice. The religion is more cultural baggage than it is Buddhist practice.

What the Buddha actually taught is the most profound and true ancient wisdom we have, mostly because it's entirely focused on something real. Our minds.

I highly recommend this new book, which relates Buddhist teaching to modern psychology.

: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Buddhism-True-Philosophy-Enlightenment/dp/1439195455

[tinyowl]

In a way, this is all you need to know, but ... to know it ... it's important to read and digest over many years (or not - it's possible to see through the dust in an instant ... just that few do) ... important to read and digest a lot from a lot of different sources, so long as they are valid. There is nothing mystical in what's below. In fact what it points out is that everything we believe to by non-mystical - that is, the conceptual - is as devoid of essence as anything else.

This Sutra is not about self hypnosis, nor is it designed to make you believe something. It is a training of the mind to stay always awake in the moment and never believe that what you're mind says is the Truth. That's not to say the conceptual, image making, image manipulating mind isn't a great tool for solving a problem like how to cut a tree down. It's just that ... it's only a tool - a bodily function really. If you examine your thoughts, you'll see that, you don't really 'think thoughts' ... you 'have thoughts'. You would never say " I circulate my blood" ... but yet we walk around thinking WE think our thoughts. There is no way out of the whale's belly but intentional consciousness and checking your mind. Not stopping your mind, but seeing it as a stream that is not you. A good Koan, though it's not part of the canonical koans ... is "what do your thoughts tell you? what do your feelings tell you." The answer is obvious but will blow your mind if you fully grasp it.

Anyway enough of my yakking ... this is the Heart Sutra (Kwan Um translation - there are MANY BAD TRANSLATIONS - that try to alter things to reflect modern new agey touchy feely political correctness.) This is pretty straight forward ... just an attempt to put into English what was originally in Sanskrit.

The Maha Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutra

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita
perceives that all five skandhas are empty
and is saved from all suffering and distress.
Shariputra,
form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
That which is form is emptiness,
that which is emptiness form.
The same is true of feelings,
perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
Shariputra,
all dharmas are marked with emptiness;
they do not appear or disappear,
are not tainted or pure,
do not increase or decrease.
Therefore, in emptiness no form, no feelings,
perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch,
no object of mind;
no realm of eyes
and so forth until no realm of mind consciousness.
No ignorance and also no extinction of it,
and so forth until no old age and death
and also no extinction of them.
No suffering, no origination,
no stopping, no path, no cognition,
also no attainment with nothing to attain.
The Bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita
and the mind is no hindrance;
without any hindrance no fears exist.
Far apart from every perverted view one dwells in Nirvana.
In the three worlds
all Buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita
and attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.
Therefore know that Prajna Paramita
is the great transcendent mantra,
is the great bright mantra,
is the utmost mantra,
is the supreme mantra
which is able to relieve all suffering
and is true, not false.
So proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra,
proclaim the mantra which says:
gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha
gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha
gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

This page copyright © Kwan Um School of Zen

[Only1choice____Freedom]

I catch flies and take them outside.

I do that too. My son watched me for years and is able to snatch them out of the air.

He was having a discussion with his friends and did it whilst talking to them and one of them stopped him and said that was Bad Ass!

He goes "What? I do that all the time."

[mairdie]

Thank you. That was fascinating.

[mairdie]

You and your son truly are Bad Ass. I trap flies under a cup. Slide a piece of cardboard under the cup and take that outside to let them go. I am compulsively worried about the life of small things. You are Bad Ass.