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© Anonymous, June 28, 2013 at 9:52 PM (http://tantrismuskritik.blogspot.tw/2013/06/what-is-three-dharma-seals-about-4.html?showComment=1372427524465#c2330564981489085696")
If we take the three scenarios and change the subjects in them into human beings, you can see that the first group of people are most ignorant and have the least wisdom because they cannot even tell that the image in the mirror is not real. What about the second and third group of people? The Buddha dharma describes the second group of people as the ones with liberation wisdom. They know that the images in the mirror are not real and would not cling to them, though they have not attained the wisdom of reality as they have not seen and located the mirror. This is the second group of people.
How about the third group? The third group of people has not only recognized that the images in the mirror are impermanent and unreal but have also looked for and found the mirror. They also know that the images in the mirror are manifested by the mirror. Of course, as they have already found the mirror, the third group of people possesses not only the wisdom of liberation but also the wisdom of reality.
A patriarch once said, “All sentient beings possess the virtues and wisdoms of the Tathagata; but because of delusions and attachment, they cannot realize them.” We can draw an analogy between this saying and the images in mirror: That which goes through births and deaths is our five-aggregate body (our physical body) as well as this mind of ours that can see, hear, perceive and know. These five aggregates that go through births and deaths are like the images in the mirror which come and go - they will never become neither arising nor ceasing, or everlasting.
The patriarch’s saying that “all sentient beings possess the virtues and wisdoms of the Tathagata” means that all sentient beings have their own mirrors (Tathagata) and their five aggregates are the images reflected in their own mirrors. (Part 6)
In the Buddha dharma, the mirror is also called the “Mani jewel or Diamond true mind, etc.” which every sentient being innately possesses. This Mani jewel manifests one’s physical body and one’s seeing, hearing, perceiving and knowing mind. Then one’s physical body and the seeing, hearing, perceiving and knowing mind arise and vanish, arise again and vanish again life after life relying on this everlasting Mani jewel that remains unstirred, the same way as that of a mirror purely reflecting the images on its surface.
ReplyDeleteFor this reason, we say that the five aggregates (name-and-form) are the ones experienced births and deaths.
When we said that we are attached to self-belongings 我所, which includes our physical body, wealth, families, career, and what we enjoy, etc., these self-belongings (the existent belongings rely on our existence thus is named) also go through the cycle of arising and ceasing on the surface of the Mani jewel.
In other words, our five aggregates, our seeing, hearing, perceiving and knowing mind, as well as all those wealth and families we possess are nothing but those which arise and cease on the surface of the neither arising nor ceasing “Mani Jewel.”
While our five aggregates, wealth, health, families are arising and ceasing, the “Mani jewel” is permanent and changeless. It is always pure, clean and bright like an imperishable diamond.
Once you recognize this reality, would it not be easier for you to liberate yourself from births-and-deaths and vexations? You would be set free from the fear of losing those images on the surface of the Mani jewel at any moment, since they are of an inherently arising-and-ceasing nature. Meanwhile, there is another part of us, eternally exists behind all these arising and ceasing. In terms of the Buddha dharma, when you have personally realized this, we would say that you have found the Mani jewel.
This is how the interactions between the five aggregates and the Buddha nature; also, the Buddhist perspective towards births and deaths.
Every individual is able to read and understand the basic Buddha dharma by several readings, but true Buddhism should be able to let its practitioners personally realize its content stage by stage. That is to say, apart from gaining the knowledge of the Buddha dharma, Buddhist practitioners have to practice the observation 觀行of the five aggregates in extremely details with a zoom lens mind, or there will be no benefit or wisdom generated through the teachings.
Those are the focus on the Agama Sutras, the first round of dharma transmission by Buddha Sakyamuni. (Part 7)