Originally posted by Shakyamunison
You do not have to wait for anyone else, you may have it now. If we wait for everyone else, we will never get there (here).
I don't understand...get where??? You said this is the only realm we live in and that it is heaven and hell based on our perceptions. So if that is true then is Nirvana just a form of ultimant ignorance to the troubles around us?
Originally posted by Echuu
I don't understand...get where??? You said this is the only realm we live in and that it is heaven and hell based on our perceptions. So if that is true then is Nirvana just a form of ultimant ignorance to the troubles around us?
No.
Have you ever noticed that when you are in a good mood, other people are also in a good mood, and the other way around. The only way to world piece is one person at a time.
Originally posted by Echuu
Not really. A lot of times it is the exact opposite for me.
Well, I find that I have a lot of power. If I change myself, it changes other people. That is because I am connected to my environment and if I change the environment changes. So we all go around changing the environment around us and when that mixes with other people's environment it has a way of changing not only me but you. To realize this is to be able to manipulate it. So how do I change myself? Nichiren told us one way to do it above.
Originally posted by Echuu
I don't understand...get where??? You said this is the only realm we live in and that it is heaven and hell based on our perceptions. So if that is true then is Nirvana just a form of ultimant ignorance to the troubles around us?
It's all about seeing things for what they are, accepting the things you cannot change and having the courage to change those things you can. Be at peace with yourself and your environment.
Pessimism can never make things better, but optimism has a small chance at least.
Be happy with what you have and think of others that have less. Try to be as happy as possible with whatever you have.
Make your own and other's happiness an art form!
What exactly are 'earthly' pleasures? As opposed to outter-spacely pleasures?
Lets say you have all the food you can eat and all the wine and drink you can drink and all the women you can have and every single toy you can possibly imagine. You have it all.
Now, after a while, the food will get eaten, the wine will get drunk, the women/men will bore you and the toys will brake - this will make you miserable, sad. The only way you can be happy again, is if you have more food and more drink and more women/men and other, new toys.
This will continue - you will never be satisified until you have these things all the time - these are only temporary things which make you feel good, which in the long run will make person miserable.
What is inrvana? Nirvana is the state of absolute enlightment, the understanding of impermanence of everything, the understanding that it is not you who is the centre of universe, but you are marely a part of it - the understanding that nothing lasts forever, that there is no self, and if there is no self, the empty desire for things such as stated above are marely lack of understanding for what we truly are and how can we be happy.
Being enlightened is understanding what kind of terrible things greed, hate and ignorance bring.
As Buddha himself still might say, "the map is not the territory."
My preference is for a psychological map in understanding the common thread running through all the great mystical/esoteric traditions. Ultimately, it all comes down to an experience, which begins with becoming conscious of being conscious (becoming metaconscious). As the self-process ascends the "great chain of being" (in a manner quite similar to how the self ascends from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood), and "higher realities" unfold, the self requires a proper map for guidance, so that the meditator's experiences may be integrated into the rest of his/her life in a manner which benefits the meditator as well as those, and the environment, around him/her.
In a sense, the aim of meditating is not to be good at meditating, but to be good at living. The material world is not "left behind," but rather brought aglow with spirit, which has always been there.
Nichiren's writings offer a far more eloquent and thought-provoking way of expressing this.
Originally posted by Mindship
...Nichiren's writings offer a far more eloquent and thought-provoking way of expressing this.
You have hit the nail on the head with the intellectual hammer.
What Nichiren was about was how does the common person, who does not have time to become a monk or nun, gain enlightenment in this lifetime? He studied all of the teachings of Buddha and found that the misunderstood Lotus sutra was the king of all sutras (teachings). This Sutra states that the three vehicles are expedient and provisional and that the only way to enlightenment is through the Buddha (enlightened one) inherent in all living beings. What this means is that we, you and I, are already enlightened. All we have to do is realize that we are alive. That sounds simple, but it is the most difficult thing to do. We need to be awakened and reminded constantly. So, Nichiren gave us a way to realize the strength of the Lotus sutra my chanting the name, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and therefore the power of the sutra.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Well, I find that I have a lot of power. If I change myself, it changes other people. That is because I am connected to my environment and if I change the environment changes. So we all go around changing the environment around us and when that mixes with other people's environment it has a way of changing not only me but you. To realize this is to be able to manipulate it. So how do I change myself? Nichiren told us one way to do it above.
Don't think it's working Shaky. So far..the only thing you are doing is changing the amount of "ship" you are full of. (yes I purposely mispelled an expletive.)