Maha Gandhi on "Truth"

“Truth is not truth merely because it is ancient. Nor is it necessarily to be regarded with suspicion, because it is ancient. There are some fundamentals of life which may not be lightly given up because they are difficult of enforcement in one’s life.

Rationalists are admirable beings; rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God.

Change is a condition of progress. An honest man cannot afford to observe mechanical consistency when the mind revolts against anything as an error.”  (By Maha Gandhi)

Often times, we are so caught up with what we believe to be true and casually slip into the role of a protagonist with uncompromising stance, trying all our might to guard against our doctrines while making every attempt to either convert others or disparage their beliefs altogether.

Recently I’ve watched “The Hidden Story of Jesus Christ” from YouTube, thanks to a facebook posting. The commentary brought up such a good point about how Jesus could very well have been a bodhisattva himself. By definition, a bodhisattva is anyone who, motivated by great compassion, dedicates himself for the benefit of others as well as resolving to attain enlightenment. Without realizing the nature of our existence, it’s close to impossible to generate genuine bodhicitta – the food and propellant of all bodhisattvas, let alone engaging themselves in the salvation of humanity. For this reason, a bodhisattva is also a runner-up of realization of Buddha-hood.

There are many discussions over the parallel between the Trinity doctrine in Christianity and Trikayas in the Buddhism. It won’t be the focus of this posting since it is a huge subject just by itself, so I’ll probably share my findings in the future. However, one thing that both doctrines commonly indicate is that, there is this fundamental essence that is shared amongst or co-indwelling in all kayas (or persons in Christian sense). This co-indwelling essence is referred to as “continuity” in Tantric Buddhism, which is also the nature of our being. It is for this very nature that we commit ourselves through religious practices and seek to refine through positive conducts, and finally strive to realize that ultimate clarity and attain the clear light nature of our mind. Trikaya can be looked at as the three levels of existence of the realized ones. For the unrealized ones, we definitely have and are obliged to uncover this potential that’s deeply engrained within us all.

As most Buddhists have known that Buddha Shakyamuni is a Nirmanakaya emanation manifested through the dynamic strength and endowed with the enlightened qualities of the Samboghakaya. Knowing the magical and blissful nature of the Samboghakaya realm, the enlightened intent of all the noble ones (or thus-gone ones) is ever present, waiting to manifest a Nirmanakaya form to benefit beings in any world system. Jusus Christ may very well be another Nirmanakaya emanation just like Buddha Shakyamuni and the second Buddha – Guru Padmasambhava. All of them left great teachings to us with a single purpose – to show us the way. Call it salvation or enlightenment, the goal is the same, only being described in different terms and languages.

All religions provide ways to lead people to uncover that very core of our existence. Like staring into a multi-faceted crystal, no matter from what angle we try looking in, ultimately we all see the same brilliant light reflecting from within that same clarity.

In response to an anonymous comment

Thanks to the comment from an anonymous viewer, who guided me to realize one of the most fundamental differences between Theravada Buddhist doctrine and that of Mahayana: the historical dispute on the existence of Buddha Nature (tathagatagarbha, i.e. 如來藏). Much to our agreement, this Buddha Nature is not to be confused with an intrinsically existent self or a Self in a collective notion that is often referred to as Brahman in Hinduism. This Buddha Nature is shared by all sentient beings without exception, which is the very core belief in Mahayana Buddhism. Without recognition of this holistic nature, there will be no basis for the development of Bodhisattvayana and all other vehicles that follow as the stages of the path towards enlightenment. The levels of attainment would certainly be different based on the views and paths one take on for his/her practice. There are information readily available online about the 9 yanas or 9 vehicles of Nyingma tradition, which I hope can serve some purpose in understanding how Buddha's vast wisdom manifested in 84,000 categories of teachings to benefit beings of different faculties.

The concept of trikaya also plays a critical role in understanding the three aspects of the enlightened ones: Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. The potential of attaining or manifesting all three kayas are pervasively engrained in all beings. What it takes is to know that this is our true nature and get on with the “alchemical” process that practitioners commit themselves to to remove habitual, dualistic conceptualization and the so-called “impurity” that proliferate as byproduct (hence, the samsara). The ultimate goal is to let our clear light nature shine through and merge with the ocean of all the enlightened mind to continue to benefit other beings. Nirvana is not a state of complete annihilation or a total void. “The Buddha explains nirvāna as "the unconditioned" (asankhata) mind: a mind that has come to a point of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the production of volitional formations. This is described by the Buddha as "deathlessness" (Pali: amata or amāravati) and as the highest spiritual attainment--the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct and practice in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path.” (from wikipedia, source unknown). Since this is a big subject for discussion, I’ll stop here and point viewers to more credible source for information.

I was never trained in the Theravadic system but I have the strongest respect for the doctrine since the source of the teachings can be traced back to Buddha Shakyamuni’s documented words. In hopes of finding common ground amongst different school of thoughts under the Buddhist context, I decided to provide the blogs of the most revered teachers who not only have scholarly achievement from the trainings of Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, but also with supreme spiritual attainment and profound wisdom. May all benefit from learning!