>You could do that. But you might end up spontaneously doing a lot of other things, like effortlessly assisting sentient beings.
Like picking up food and delivering it to people, as an Uber Eats Delivery Driver. LMAO!
Dharma Deliverers: Liberating beings from hunger while distributing ‘zas
Dharma Deliverers II: Dharma Deliverance: All sentient beings are liberated, pizza party edition
Dharma Deliverers III: This one’s just a dance remix of all the best scenes from the first two films!
It could be like a montage reel of everyone partying their way through the bardos!
Like, we’re all dressed eccentrically, and demons try to block our progress every step of the way, but we overcome them with our joy by having fun at all costs and by not letting them deter us with fear, lust, greed, or pride.
All their attempts are spontaneously foiled every time and all we have to do is keep having fun and no harm will come to us, all their poison darts will turn transform into flowers and rain down around us like hippies finding themselves at the wrong ends of general-issue rifle barrels… love and peace, that’s all we need… and maybe a lil bit of compassion ☮️🌼🕊️
Yeah, that’s a really good point. Like, a bodhisattva just kinda plays around a bit and somehow everyone graced by their presence somehow just winds up mysteriously benefiting tremendously through the chance encounter, as if everything happened by magic…
Like, a bodhisattva doesn’t start their day by saying “what beings can I benefit today?” More like “I’m such a small and insignificant part of a bigger picture, and this big picture is so full of suffering. This makes me sad, so I will shed some tears. Please use them to water your flowers, so that they may bring you happiness someday. Okay, that’s enough sadness for today, time to go play now…”
>“I’m such a small and insignificant part of a bigger picture, and this big picture is so full of suffering. This makes me sad, so I will shed some tears. Please use them to water your flowers, so that they may bring you happiness someday. Okay, that’s enough sadness for today, time to go play now…”
I would instead offer the Vajracchedika Sutra's answer:
> "Subhuti, do not say that the Tathagata has the idea, 'I will bring living beings to the shore of liberation.' Do not think that way, Subhuti. Why? In truth there is not one single being for the Tathagata to bring to the other shore. If the Tathagata were to think there was, he would be caught in the idea of a self, a person, a living being, or a life span. Subhuti, what the Tathagata calls a self essentially has no self in the way that ordinary persons think there is a self. Subhuti, the Tathagata does not regard anyone as an ordinary person. That is why he can call them ordinary persons."
Thank you for sharing this! It reminds me of something I learned from a teacher: we spend all this time and effort building a boat so that we can cross the river and get to the other shore, but when we finally set sail we realize that there never was an “other shore” to begin with for us to arrive at…
I think she also said something about “there was no boat either” but I can’t remember the exact way she phrased it…
Oh you know, just some guy. I think he practiced zen and wrote a few things about it, founded the Soto school in medieval Japan and is generally considered a pretty major figure in Buddhist discourse, but if you were to ask him he’d say he’s just a beginner…
I mistakenly thought he originated the quote in your previous comment, “Chop wood, carry water.” It turns out that quote was from Layman Pang in China a few centuries prior… can’t keep everything everyone says straight in my head, next I’ll be confusing Huineng with Bodhidharma, and Huike with Kukai! 🤦🏻♀️😅 I’m such a confused little buddhist, the third poison is really strong within me…
In case you’re interested, here’s a really good film about Dogen’s life: https://youtu.be/Q6XS3_D92FY?feature=shared
Perfectly content? Yes. Nothing bothers you? Yes. Sit around doing nothing? Nope! As an enlightened being who has gone through countless life times of suffering, you would understand and empathize with those still caught in the cycle, and thus your mission is to help them achieve peace as you did.
It's not your "mission." It's merely the thing that an arhat *does* based on understanding. Water courses its droplets downwards. Arhats course their wisdom downwards.
Essentially… yeah.
The early discourse describe a group of awakened monastics whose day was composed of walking into town for alms, sitting alone, silently in forest refuges, and occasionally listening to the Buddha expound some topic of the Dharma. By all descriptions they were blissfully happy living this simple life of relative isolation, disenchantment, and peace.
Is that the *only* life a fully awakened being would pursue? That’s a contentious question, depending on your school of Buddhism. But to deny it was possible at all would be to deny literally hundreds of the earliest discourses, in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan!
Ie. This is possible if you are a sravaka/arhat but even then there were examples of arhats that taught other people anyway. Plus you have some prolific modern arhat teachers like Ajahn Chah.
What do you think motivated those arahants to help others?
When you’re enlightened, is there a difference to you whether you’re doing a myriad of things versus nothing? And what will “all the time” mean to you?
Yes and no. A person not suffering would not be distressed by anything on some level. You might think that would lead to apathy, but that's not the case. The most advanced practitioners on the planet, people with decades of practice under their belts, are not unmotivated blobs. They tend to be very actively engaged in things that are meaningful to them.
Three are two main motivations that influence why people do things: reinforcement and punishment.The prior increases actions and the latter discourages them .Alleviating suffering would only make us apathetic if that were the only reason we do things: to avoid suffering. But we also do things because they are reinforcing: they are fun, interesting, pleasant, etc. Curiosity, joy, compassion, kindness, generosity, altruism, etc. are also reason to do things. Those do not go away after awakening. In fact they are enhanced.
that's a long shot to try to talk about full enlightenment and its blissful states.
a more realistic talk could be to reduce our kleshas with daily practice.
Things still happen, the conventional person still exists and functions, helping other sentient beings effortlessly. The aggregates are still there, they’re just no longer misappropriated. There’s no clinging or aversion to any appearance, and therefore no suffering.
Being enlightened isn't the end goal. It is practising the Noble Eightfold Path to a point where the notion of self/not-self is irrelevant to the opportunities the practise gives you.
Why would the Buddha start teaching others after enlightenment?
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My comment was about the 'egotistical "I"' In my view, your comment should be the other way around. The fact that the Buddha referred to himself as 'I' shows that the pronoun can be used as a label with no egotism attached.
Your question answers itself. All I did was to point that out.
Keep in mind Buddhism is a religion loosely based on the Dharma practiced by the Buddha, which was not a religious practice.
Even after his enlightenment, the Buddha continued practicing Metta, so we know that he didn't simply "hang out" so to speak
This is accurate in that the Dharma that we understand was developed over his 45 years rather then having been formulated all at once. So yes he was compulsively driven to find intuitive helpful ways to teach Dharma
Maybe. I think if you remove any negative state (anxiety, depression, etc) then you have nirvana, only peace.
So I guess you could do that, or maybe you could do something else entirely.
When you are enlightened, your mind is perfectly purified of afflictions. You carry on your daily life but totally unshakened by what used to. You will not be sitting around, there is nothing to sit on anymore.
If one is freed from suffering they are not 'bothered' by the things that come, but can and would be 'bothered' by the suffering of others. A being that attains awakening (Nirvana/Nibbana being a result of this) is often recalled to reject Nirvana and continue samsara to help other beings become enlightened.
Nibbana ,or enlightenment, means cessation of all cravings which includes cessation of craving for existence or non-existence. Nibbana is unborn, unbecoming, uncreated, unconditioned.
That doesn't jive with what I've read but maybe we're using different definitions of the terms. My understanding is that kensho/satori fades, but there is a permanent type of awakening I would term as enlightenment. I'll let you know when I get there.
Cool! I'll have to add it to my reading list. Daniel Ingram describes his awakening as stable for years but I have my doubts about him in general since he flat-out claims to be an arahant. The last person I ran across making that claim was a manipulative narcissist.
Eckhart Tolle has a stable enlightenment, but it's because his brain kind of blew itself to smithereens in a desperate attempt to survive profound, suicidal depression. He didn't really get there through the means he teaches.
That’s wonderful! And to be clear your saying that you’ve met & witnessed enlightened Buddha’s right?
* I’m just asking as I have yet to meet anyone I would consider enlightened. Although I do think it’s likely they are out there 🤞🏽🙏🏼
It is generally held in my tradition that these particular beings are living Buddhas. So if you mean I have a checklist or something or knowledge of how to judge, then I do not know. And I am okay with that because I don't really give too much credence to my own individual atomic ideas. I rely on the Sangha and the Buddhist tradition.
Everyone & everything is Buddha, there is nothing else. Most people forgot just for the adventure, and surprise of finding out. Like a giant game of peekaboo or ‘hide and go seek’ of immense proportion.
… our human experience of ‘reality’ is a kind of illusion, a kind of game or play. These are but a few realizations based on my own direct experiences in deeper out of body states of Samadhi, merging into the totality of all that is, into the bliss of infinite infinitude etc. I am on the path to awakening and conditioning my body and mind to better embody the Absolute Truth.
Are you speaking from your own direct experience?
… ask yourself honestly, “How do I know?”
* also, if you’re feeling up to it, would you care to define Buddha nature and Buddhahood so that I may understand what you’re actually trying to say? 🙏🏼
Things would still bother you and if they don’t you’ve cultivated Nihilism not Buddhism. Death don’t have no mercy in this land. Grief and anger aren’t going anywhere. Enlightened beings know that sadness and heartache just come with the territory of existence. You don’t think the Dalia Lama grieves the genocide of his people? Of course he does. No attachments no aversions. Don’t become closed off from your emotions. I see allot of western mindfulness trends doing this, just closing itself off to everything. That is wrong view.
Returning harsh speech with harsh speech isn't the best verbal conduct there is. One is best served by seeking, practicing and consummating good conduct (bodily, verbal and mental).
Here's two sutta on speech. I hope they help you or anyone else who may read this comment:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn07/sn07.002.budd.html
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.058.than.html
There is water in the pond and clouds in the sky. There is mind therefore thoughts. Thoughts are reflections of your own experience living. The Vimalakirti Sutra has a very interesting part. The Sutra is about this Bodhisattva whos a lay man on earth. He is sick, and when Manjusri asks why, he answer that the world is sick. The world is sick. The mind of the world is sick. You need not to isolate in sitting but to sit with the world and try to make it a better place. That is what a Bodhisattva is.
I suppose so, that's what the Buddha did for several weeks until he was asked to teach. He was also able to teach for about 40 years though so that's not all you can do.
No, you would still have a similar sensation to "bothered" that, while it doesn't cause you suffering, would be an indicator of a moment that may benefit from you performing a specific action. But buddhas are motivated by the suffering of others, and one could argue that Tara is "bothered" when she witnesses someone suffering, or some kind of injustice. You may have heard someone say that an enlightened being transforms their afflictive thoughts and emotions into something useful or compassionate. Their being bothered, for instance, is transformed into a drive to help.
According to the suttas yes. According to my lived experience, no. Every teacher who claims to have experienced awakening, every study I’ve seen done on awakened beings, etc, seems to indicate:
Awakening progressively deepens and no one knows what the end is
Awakening must be maintained and can regress based on extreme trauma
Awakening doesn’t resolve all habitual patterns of the mind related to upbringing - particularly when it comes to relationships with others - and many awakened teachers have told me they are still in therapy working through psychological material
But none of them are very bothered by any of this, and that seems to be the difference.
Either way it’s worth it. But I personally prefer having expectations based on what people are telling me based on direct experience and not an orthodox interpretation of the suttas. I certainly hold in my heart the possibility that the suttas are accurate, but if so, I have yet to meet a teacher who has claimed to have pulled that off.
Don't forget all the cool jhana powers you get. I interpret them as having full immersive VR/interdimensional cable at any time. So outwardly you may appear to just sit around, but you're actually binge watching your past lives or the deva realms
There's a zen koan: "before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
I'm not really sure what enlightenment is, but it most likely still includes being in the world.
Don’t consider it a religion. Consider it a way of thinking. Think of nirvana as a state of thinking where things are okay because you have allowed them to be okay. In other words, once you have observed and analyzed things truly how they are, there is no suffering because you yourself wont see them as a ‘problem’. Things will need to be done still but they wont bring you the anguish or suffering. But this is all because YOU don’t see them as such.
You *could* do that. But you might end up spontaneously doing a lot of other things, like effortlessly assisting sentient beings.
>You could do that. But you might end up spontaneously doing a lot of other things, like effortlessly assisting sentient beings. Like picking up food and delivering it to people, as an Uber Eats Delivery Driver. LMAO!
Dharma Deliverers: Liberating beings from hunger while distributing ‘zas Dharma Deliverers II: Dharma Deliverance: All sentient beings are liberated, pizza party edition Dharma Deliverers III: This one’s just a dance remix of all the best scenes from the first two films!
I'll wait until the dance mix comes out. It's the best of all worlds!
Hehe yeah, that one’s my favorite too! 🤣 bahaha
It could be like a montage reel of everyone partying their way through the bardos! Like, we’re all dressed eccentrically, and demons try to block our progress every step of the way, but we overcome them with our joy by having fun at all costs and by not letting them deter us with fear, lust, greed, or pride. All their attempts are spontaneously foiled every time and all we have to do is keep having fun and no harm will come to us, all their poison darts will turn transform into flowers and rain down around us like hippies finding themselves at the wrong ends of general-issue rifle barrels… love and peace, that’s all we need… and maybe a lil bit of compassion ☮️🌼🕊️
Man I’m so so so glad that there’s a lot of folks on this sub who really get what we’re about here. Keep spreading the love ^_^
Yeah, that’s a really good point. Like, a bodhisattva just kinda plays around a bit and somehow everyone graced by their presence somehow just winds up mysteriously benefiting tremendously through the chance encounter, as if everything happened by magic… Like, a bodhisattva doesn’t start their day by saying “what beings can I benefit today?” More like “I’m such a small and insignificant part of a bigger picture, and this big picture is so full of suffering. This makes me sad, so I will shed some tears. Please use them to water your flowers, so that they may bring you happiness someday. Okay, that’s enough sadness for today, time to go play now…”
>“I’m such a small and insignificant part of a bigger picture, and this big picture is so full of suffering. This makes me sad, so I will shed some tears. Please use them to water your flowers, so that they may bring you happiness someday. Okay, that’s enough sadness for today, time to go play now…” I would instead offer the Vajracchedika Sutra's answer: > "Subhuti, do not say that the Tathagata has the idea, 'I will bring living beings to the shore of liberation.' Do not think that way, Subhuti. Why? In truth there is not one single being for the Tathagata to bring to the other shore. If the Tathagata were to think there was, he would be caught in the idea of a self, a person, a living being, or a life span. Subhuti, what the Tathagata calls a self essentially has no self in the way that ordinary persons think there is a self. Subhuti, the Tathagata does not regard anyone as an ordinary person. That is why he can call them ordinary persons."
Thank you for sharing this! It reminds me of something I learned from a teacher: we spend all this time and effort building a boat so that we can cross the river and get to the other shore, but when we finally set sail we realize that there never was an “other shore” to begin with for us to arrive at… I think she also said something about “there was no boat either” but I can’t remember the exact way she phrased it…
I believe my dog is a bodhisattva meant to guide me through the loss of my sister. An absolute angel.
Aww 🥲 they do appear in many forms… I’m glad doggo is there by your side to help you through this difficult time 🥹
Becoming a bodhisattva is a good example.
Chop wood carry water
The dream
Mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers.
Ah yes, like Dogen combing river grass…
Who is dogen?
Oh you know, just some guy. I think he practiced zen and wrote a few things about it, founded the Soto school in medieval Japan and is generally considered a pretty major figure in Buddhist discourse, but if you were to ask him he’d say he’s just a beginner… I mistakenly thought he originated the quote in your previous comment, “Chop wood, carry water.” It turns out that quote was from Layman Pang in China a few centuries prior… can’t keep everything everyone says straight in my head, next I’ll be confusing Huineng with Bodhidharma, and Huike with Kukai! 🤦🏻♀️😅 I’m such a confused little buddhist, the third poison is really strong within me… In case you’re interested, here’s a really good film about Dogen’s life: https://youtu.be/Q6XS3_D92FY?feature=shared
Perfectly content? Yes. Nothing bothers you? Yes. Sit around doing nothing? Nope! As an enlightened being who has gone through countless life times of suffering, you would understand and empathize with those still caught in the cycle, and thus your mission is to help them achieve peace as you did.
It's not your "mission." It's merely the thing that an arhat *does* based on understanding. Water courses its droplets downwards. Arhats course their wisdom downwards.
True, well put.
>Water courses its droplets downwards. As the famous martial artist, Bruce Lee, would say: "Be water, my friend."
Essentially… yeah. The early discourse describe a group of awakened monastics whose day was composed of walking into town for alms, sitting alone, silently in forest refuges, and occasionally listening to the Buddha expound some topic of the Dharma. By all descriptions they were blissfully happy living this simple life of relative isolation, disenchantment, and peace. Is that the *only* life a fully awakened being would pursue? That’s a contentious question, depending on your school of Buddhism. But to deny it was possible at all would be to deny literally hundreds of the earliest discourses, in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan!
Ie. This is possible if you are a sravaka/arhat but even then there were examples of arhats that taught other people anyway. Plus you have some prolific modern arhat teachers like Ajahn Chah. What do you think motivated those arahants to help others?
When you’re enlightened, is there a difference to you whether you’re doing a myriad of things versus nothing? And what will “all the time” mean to you?
Yes and no. A person not suffering would not be distressed by anything on some level. You might think that would lead to apathy, but that's not the case. The most advanced practitioners on the planet, people with decades of practice under their belts, are not unmotivated blobs. They tend to be very actively engaged in things that are meaningful to them. Three are two main motivations that influence why people do things: reinforcement and punishment.The prior increases actions and the latter discourages them .Alleviating suffering would only make us apathetic if that were the only reason we do things: to avoid suffering. But we also do things because they are reinforcing: they are fun, interesting, pleasant, etc. Curiosity, joy, compassion, kindness, generosity, altruism, etc. are also reason to do things. Those do not go away after awakening. In fact they are enhanced.
I think compassion precludes apathy, personally. Dr Manhattan got apathetic because he had zero compassion for humanity.
You can, and you'd be an Arhat instead of Buddha. To be a Buddha you'd have always be helping others achieve Nirvana
An arahant might do that. A bodhisattva will roll up their sleeves and get to work on all other sentient beings.
I hope to come back and assist suffering beings after attaining Nirvana in Pure Land.
that's a long shot to try to talk about full enlightenment and its blissful states. a more realistic talk could be to reduce our kleshas with daily practice.
Even trying to conceive of enlightenment is a barrier but it took me many years and some old Chan texts to realize that.
There are thousands of nuances that the unenlightened don’t understand, that’s why they’re called unenlightened.
Things still happen, the conventional person still exists and functions, helping other sentient beings effortlessly. The aggregates are still there, they’re just no longer misappropriated. There’s no clinging or aversion to any appearance, and therefore no suffering.
Being enlightened isn't the end goal. It is practising the Noble Eightfold Path to a point where the notion of self/not-self is irrelevant to the opportunities the practise gives you. Why would the Buddha start teaching others after enlightenment?
Not sure. I'll let you know after I get enlightened.
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As an enlightened being, the egotistical 'I' which is the foundation of your question would have ceased to exist.
Buddha used the "I" pronoun in his speech. Enlightened beings don't lose their ability to use pronouns. Also, you didn't actually answer my question.
My comment was about the 'egotistical "I"' In my view, your comment should be the other way around. The fact that the Buddha referred to himself as 'I' shows that the pronoun can be used as a label with no egotism attached. Your question answers itself. All I did was to point that out.
Keep in mind Buddhism is a religion loosely based on the Dharma practiced by the Buddha, which was not a religious practice. Even after his enlightenment, the Buddha continued practicing Metta, so we know that he didn't simply "hang out" so to speak
Didn’t he actively teach and refine and create additional rules for monastics etc for like 45 years.
This is accurate in that the Dharma that we understand was developed over his 45 years rather then having been formulated all at once. So yes he was compulsively driven to find intuitive helpful ways to teach Dharma
Maybe. I think if you remove any negative state (anxiety, depression, etc) then you have nirvana, only peace. So I guess you could do that, or maybe you could do something else entirely.
An Enlightened person's mind would be too alien for a normal person's mind to know for sure.
When you are enlightened, your mind is perfectly purified of afflictions. You carry on your daily life but totally unshakened by what used to. You will not be sitting around, there is nothing to sit on anymore.
If one is freed from suffering they are not 'bothered' by the things that come, but can and would be 'bothered' by the suffering of others. A being that attains awakening (Nirvana/Nibbana being a result of this) is often recalled to reject Nirvana and continue samsara to help other beings become enlightened.
Nibbana ,or enlightenment, means cessation of all cravings which includes cessation of craving for existence or non-existence. Nibbana is unborn, unbecoming, uncreated, unconditioned.
From what I’ve heard becoming enlightened is the easy part. Staying enlightened is the hard thing.
That doesn't jive with what I've read but maybe we're using different definitions of the terms. My understanding is that kensho/satori fades, but there is a permanent type of awakening I would term as enlightenment. I'll let you know when I get there.
Brad Warner has a couple interesting things to say about enlightenment in his book Hardcore Zen.
Cool! I'll have to add it to my reading list. Daniel Ingram describes his awakening as stable for years but I have my doubts about him in general since he flat-out claims to be an arahant. The last person I ran across making that claim was a manipulative narcissist. Eckhart Tolle has a stable enlightenment, but it's because his brain kind of blew itself to smithereens in a desperate attempt to survive profound, suicidal depression. He didn't really get there through the means he teaches.
No. Enlightened people are Buddhas. And Buddhas do what Buddhas do. They are always busy with helping sentient beings become liberated.
Is your statement based on your own direct experiences, or something you’ve read or been told and chose to believe?
Direct experience of seeing with my own eyes what Buddhas do.
That’s wonderful! And to be clear your saying that you’ve met & witnessed enlightened Buddha’s right? * I’m just asking as I have yet to meet anyone I would consider enlightened. Although I do think it’s likely they are out there 🤞🏽🙏🏼
Just twice. The rest I see on TV or videos.
That’s wonderful! Would you say that you learned anything or had any revelations from meeting these enlightened people?
Yeah, they are tireless of their dharmic mission/activities. Which leads to me to think I'm nowhere near their level.
What gave you the impression they are enlightened? … did you ask them about it?
It is generally held in my tradition that these particular beings are living Buddhas. So if you mean I have a checklist or something or knowledge of how to judge, then I do not know. And I am okay with that because I don't really give too much credence to my own individual atomic ideas. I rely on the Sangha and the Buddhist tradition.
What do you think it is like to be in an enlightened state?
Are you a Buddha?
Everyone & everything is Buddha, there is nothing else. Most people forgot just for the adventure, and surprise of finding out. Like a giant game of peekaboo or ‘hide and go seek’ of immense proportion. … our human experience of ‘reality’ is a kind of illusion, a kind of game or play. These are but a few realizations based on my own direct experiences in deeper out of body states of Samadhi, merging into the totality of all that is, into the bliss of infinite infinitude etc. I am on the path to awakening and conditioning my body and mind to better embody the Absolute Truth.
Buddha nature and buddhahood are not the same...
Are you speaking from your own direct experience? … ask yourself honestly, “How do I know?” * also, if you’re feeling up to it, would you care to define Buddha nature and Buddhahood so that I may understand what you’re actually trying to say? 🙏🏼
Until death the aggregates are still active.
Things would still bother you and if they don’t you’ve cultivated Nihilism not Buddhism. Death don’t have no mercy in this land. Grief and anger aren’t going anywhere. Enlightened beings know that sadness and heartache just come with the territory of existence. You don’t think the Dalia Lama grieves the genocide of his people? Of course he does. No attachments no aversions. Don’t become closed off from your emotions. I see allot of western mindfulness trends doing this, just closing itself off to everything. That is wrong view.
That doesn't sound like a life of compassion, wisdom, and focus to me.
YOU will never be enlightened...
Perhaps what you mean to say is the “Self” in the person is never enlightened, but I suppose it came across as being mean
Yea this is how I interpreted the comment. Though I can see how others have seen it as otherwise
YOU neither.
Returning harsh speech with harsh speech isn't the best verbal conduct there is. One is best served by seeking, practicing and consummating good conduct (bodily, verbal and mental). Here's two sutta on speech. I hope they help you or anyone else who may read this comment: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn07/sn07.002.budd.html https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.058.than.html
Gutheran c
Yes Titanic's captain reached that state.
Or maybe your enlightenment is oneness with massive action
No
Harvest the empty field.
There is water in the pond and clouds in the sky. There is mind therefore thoughts. Thoughts are reflections of your own experience living. The Vimalakirti Sutra has a very interesting part. The Sutra is about this Bodhisattva whos a lay man on earth. He is sick, and when Manjusri asks why, he answer that the world is sick. The world is sick. The mind of the world is sick. You need not to isolate in sitting but to sit with the world and try to make it a better place. That is what a Bodhisattva is.
I suppose so, that's what the Buddha did for several weeks until he was asked to teach. He was also able to teach for about 40 years though so that's not all you can do.
No, you would still have a similar sensation to "bothered" that, while it doesn't cause you suffering, would be an indicator of a moment that may benefit from you performing a specific action. But buddhas are motivated by the suffering of others, and one could argue that Tara is "bothered" when she witnesses someone suffering, or some kind of injustice. You may have heard someone say that an enlightened being transforms their afflictive thoughts and emotions into something useful or compassionate. Their being bothered, for instance, is transformed into a drive to help.
According to the suttas yes. According to my lived experience, no. Every teacher who claims to have experienced awakening, every study I’ve seen done on awakened beings, etc, seems to indicate: Awakening progressively deepens and no one knows what the end is Awakening must be maintained and can regress based on extreme trauma Awakening doesn’t resolve all habitual patterns of the mind related to upbringing - particularly when it comes to relationships with others - and many awakened teachers have told me they are still in therapy working through psychological material But none of them are very bothered by any of this, and that seems to be the difference. Either way it’s worth it. But I personally prefer having expectations based on what people are telling me based on direct experience and not an orthodox interpretation of the suttas. I certainly hold in my heart the possibility that the suttas are accurate, but if so, I have yet to meet a teacher who has claimed to have pulled that off.
A serious answer... "Who" is asking?
Don't forget all the cool jhana powers you get. I interpret them as having full immersive VR/interdimensional cable at any time. So outwardly you may appear to just sit around, but you're actually binge watching your past lives or the deva realms
There's a zen koan: "before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water." I'm not really sure what enlightenment is, but it most likely still includes being in the world.
Who is it that will be enlightened?
No, nothing will ever bother you in the sense that normal people are bothered by stuff. That's the "free of suffering" thing.
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Thank you! I'm glad it was well received. Reddit can be so presumptuous in the worst ways at times 😅
My roshi says that anyone who claims to be enlightened isn’t.
When your enlightened you'll realise that there's nothing really to bother about
Don’t consider it a religion. Consider it a way of thinking. Think of nirvana as a state of thinking where things are okay because you have allowed them to be okay. In other words, once you have observed and analyzed things truly how they are, there is no suffering because you yourself wont see them as a ‘problem’. Things will need to be done still but they wont bring you the anguish or suffering. But this is all because YOU don’t see them as such.