Difference Between Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

Master Chin Kung tells us that in his early years of learning Buddhism, he asked Zhangjia Living Buddha about the difference between Buddhas and bodhisattvas. They were in Zhangjia Living Buddha’s living-room where there was a clock hanging on the wall.

In those days, clocks required winding for them to work. The part that required winding was a spring, a piece of flexible metal that was wound very tightly. The gradual unwinding of the spring made the clock tick. Even when the spring was unwound completely, it still curved and did not straighten out completely.

Zhangjia Living Buddha used this spring as a metaphor. Bodhisattvas are like that spring, which does not straighten out completely even when unwound. In the case of Buddhas, however, the spring has completely straightened out when unwound. Zhangjia Living Buddha meant that bodhisattvas have not turned their sentience to wisdom 100 percent.

Take Equal-enlightenment Bodhisattvas for example. They have turned 99 percent of their sentience to wisdom, but there is still 1 percent of sentience left, unlike Buddhas who have turned their sentience to wisdom 100 percent. Therefore, sentience and wisdom are one, not two. When we are awakened, it is called wisdom. When we are deluded, it is called sentience. Equal-enlightenment Bodhisattvas still have one last part of ignorance: the ignorance of Mark of Arising. This ignorance is sentience. If that part of ignorance is eradicated, their wisdom will be ultimate and perfect.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra

I'm Only a Child

This five-minute video was just emailed to me and, frankly, I didn't want to wait to share it with you. When someone asks good questions, they need to be heard. And thirteen year-old Severn Suzuki asks some some very good ones.

How will we—how will you—answer her?

Thoughts from a Patriarch

 

We hope you enjoy this new screensaver

from the Amitabha Gallery.

The words were written by Great Master Yinguang,

the 13th Patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism.

 

 

Calm Before the Storm

In this video, Richard Heinberg, author of “Peak Everything”, reviews the accelerating events since mid-2007, including the credit crunch and fossil fuel price volatility, noting that we’ve missed most of the best opportunities to manage collapse. He asks, “how far down the staircase of complexity will our global civilization have to go until we’re sustainable?”

His answer: when managed properly, with deliberate simplification, not as far as we might otherwise. In addition to long term efforts to relocalize our economies, he advocates developing community “resilience” to withstand short-term catastrophic events like food shortages or extreme weather.

Noting that healthy fear can move us into action, he encourages an attitude of clarity, concern and informed action in this “calm before the storm” that he feels is soon coming to an end. [www.richardheinberg.com]

~ Peak Moment TV  

White

They said I would burn

My whole forest
Not just one tree
Not just a few trees
But my whole forest
My entire forest of merits
With just a spark
Of anger.

White.
That’s the color of my rage.
It started simply enough:
I said something
Did something
Someone else said something back
Did something back.

And so it went
Back and forth
This anger within us.

A little spark
Now an unrelenting
All-consuming fire
Burning not orange
Not red
But Scorching White
Intensely White.

How silly

How ignorant
This anger within me.

I’ll grow another forest.
The one I burnt
Wasn’t that big anyway.

How silly

How ignorant
This anger within me
And you.

If this rage stays Brilliant White
There can never be another
Forest
Not with one seed
Not with hundreds of seed
Or thousands
For none will grow
When the anger is ever bright.

So stop the rage. Rain on the flame.
Put out each and every spark.
Better yet: Deprive it of air.
Let your anger go. Now.
This instant. Not later.
Not this afternoon.
Not tonight. Not
Tomorrow.
Not next
Week.
NOW.
Now.

N

o

w

But how?
We need help.
Look to Lord Buddha.
And chant Namo Amituofo
Namo Amituofo
Namo Amituofo
Chant until your face turns
Purple
And the White is no more.

Yes, it is much cooler now.
And a seed I see.
And my neighbor’s forest
Is safe too.

Yes, it is not just our forest

We should be concerned about
Is it?
Our neighbors’ must also be on our watch
For no forest is safe
If one forest is burning.

~ Alec Tan