APPENDIX
shiloh108"
<bialick@usit.net> Date: Wed
Dec 19, 2001
4:37 pm Subject: The
Prayer of Maitreya
Buddha Shakyamuni taught the following prayer of Maitreya in the
forty-first chapter of the Ratnakuta
Sutra
The Aspiration Prayer of Maitreya
I prostrate to all the buddhas
And to the bodhisattvas,
Endowed with the divine eye of the sages,
And to the sravakas as well.
I prostrate to bodhicitta
Which counteracts [birth in] all lower realms,
Perfectly shows the path
to the higher realms,
And leads to no ageing nor death.
Whatever negative actions I have done
Under the influence of an [afflicted] mind,
In the presence of the buddhas,
I fully acknowledge them [all].
By the accumulation of any merit I have created
Through the three kinds
of activities,
May my seed of omniscience [grow]
And may I [attain] awakening that never ends.
Whatever offerings to the buddhas
[That can be found] in realms of the ten directions
Are known to the buddhas who rejoice in them;
I rejoice in [all] these [offerings].
I fully acknowledge all negative actions
[And] rejoice in all merit.
I prostrate to all the buddhas.
May I attain supreme primordial wisdom.
I earnestly request the bodhisattvas,
Who reside on the ten levels
In all the direction of the [worlds in the] ten directions,
To awaken into supreme enlightenment.
Once you have awakened into genuine enlightenment
And tamed the maras and their hordes,
May you turn the wheel of Dharma
So that all living beings may be healed.
With the sound of the great Dharma drum
May you free all sentient beings who are suffering.
Throughout inconceivable millions of kalpas
May you remain and teach the Dharma.
Mired in the swamp of desire,
Entangled in the strands of cyclic existence,
I am fettered by all that binds.
I supplicate those, supreme among humans, to look upon me.
The buddhas do not blame
Sentient [beings] who are flawed.
With a loving heart for all sentient beings,
May [the buddhas] free them from the ocean of cyclic existence.
Any perfect buddhas who are present,
Those who have passed away, and those yet to come,
May I train following in their way
And engage in enlightened conduct.
Having perfected the six paramitas,
May I liberate the six [families of] sentient beings.
Having actualized
the six extraordinary faculties
May I reach unexcelled enlightenment.
[Future phenomena] are not born and [those past] will not occur;
[Present phenomena] have no [inherent] nature.
There is no [actual]
location.
There is no perception; there are no [outer] things.
May I realize the
dharma[dhatu] which is empty.
According to the buddhas, the great sages,
There are no [truly existent] sentient beings nor life force;
There is no [truly existent] individual [and] no nurturing [of a self].
May I realize the dharma[ta] where the self is not present.
An entity [such as] grasping onto a self and "mine"
Is not present
within any [of the paramitas]
To benefit all sentient beings,
May I give with generosity free of avarice.
Since things do not exist as entities,
May my wealth appear spontaneously.
Since all things totally disintegrate,
May I perfect the paramita of generosity.
Endowed with a flawless ethics [that is guided by] rules,
And an ethics that is completely pure,
With an ethics free of an arrogant mind
May I perfect the paramita of ethics.
Just as the elements of earth, water, fire, and wind,
[Bodhisattvas] do
not remain [caught by mental constructs];
[By attaining] patience, anger never arises,
May I perfect the paramita of patience.
Through [the power of] previous perseverance
Having become stable,
enthusiastic, and free of laziness,
And through a strong body and mind,
May I perfect the paramita of perseverance.
Through the samadhi [where all] is illusion-like,
Through the samadhi
of the hero's stride,
And through the samadhi that is like a vajra,
May I perfect the paramita of meditative concentration.
Through actualizing the three gates of full liberation,
The equal
nature of the three times,
And the three types of knowing as well,
May I perfect the paramita of prajna.
Through persevering in a bodhisattva's [practice],
[May I attain] the
[kaya] praised by all the buddhas,
The luminous [kaya], and the kaya
blazing with majesty.
[Thus] may my intention be fulfilled.
May [I be like] the famed Maitreya,
Who engaged in such a practice,
Perfected the paramitas,
And perfectly abides at the zenith of the tenth level.
Excerpt from the translation by Michele Martin with the
assistance of
Karl Brunnholzl and Chryssoula Zerbini under the guidance of Khenpo
Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
"shiloh108" <bialick@usit.net> Date: Fri Dec
21, 2001
5:00 pm Subject: new images
seasons greetings
check out this collection of maitreya images: thangkas, statues, a
roerich and even a rare relic from the Kabul museum!
http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/uttaratantra/lst
"shiloh108" <bialick@usit.net> Date: Wed Jan 2, 2002
10:48 am Subject: Dolpopa
This advice by the Omniscient Dolpopa should be kept
as the essential
point in our hearts: "If buddhahood will be reached merely as a result
of having heard the word 'Buddha-nature,' what need to mention what
will happen from actualizing it by means of faith and devotion, and
meditating upon it? Therefore, compassionate experts should teach it
even though they may lose their lives, and so forth, and those who
strive for liberation should seek it out and listen to it even though
they must cross through a great pit of fire."
-Jamgön Kongtrul
RELEVANT LINKS
Asanga's Retreat
A painting of asanga
and vasubandhu-
Here’s an excellent page on Buddha
Maitreya
Vasubandhu on the three
natures
The
Philosophy of Mind Only by Peter Della Santina
The
Doctrine of Buddha Nature is Impeccably Buddhist by Sallie B. King
Alaya-vijnana:
Walpola Rahula on 'warehouse consciousness'
HHDL
on Buddha Nature talk given at Bodh-gaya
Maitreya
a beautiful rupa
Maitreya
in Tushita Image of Maitreya Buddha
Sky Dragon: a
short teaching by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
Buddha Nature by Dilgo Khyentse
The Doctrine
of Buddha Nature is Impeccably Buddhist
Adobe file, 19 pages by Sally B. King
The Significance of Tathagatagarbha by Heng-Ching Shih
We are All
gZhan-tong-pas
"In his commentary on BCA 9, Mi-pham
had argued— pace Rje Tsong-kha-pa (1357–1419) and his Dge-lugs-pa
successors—that Śāntideva’s refutation was intended only with reference
to ultimate truth ( paramārthasatya ,don dam bden pa ) and did not
preclude recourse to the concept of reflexivity in relative terms, even on the part of an adherent of
Prāsaṅgika-Mādhyamika. In so arguing, he was contradicting the
Dge-lugs-pa tenet that one of the eight special features of the
Prāsaṅgika system is its critique of the concept of reflexive awareness
in both ultimate and relative terms."
-Matthew Kapstein looks
at Dzogchen and
reflexive awareness
Taranatha
on Shentong
Suchness and the Tathagata are of the
same stuff which is called buddha-nature. The meaning of
Tathagatagarbha, Sugatagarbha, and the essence of the Buddha is the
same. That abides equally in the Buddha, in all phenomena, and in all
sentient beings. In sentient beings, buddha-nature is present as a
seed. In the Buddhas, buddha-nature is completely actualized. The
ultimate Buddha is the same as the seed in the mindstream of sentient
beings. Therefore, all sentient beings have buddha-nature.
Hwa-shang's
vs. Kamalashila
Hwa 'shang, along with the
Ch'an masters, insists that
this apprehension does not mean the acquisition of
something new; rather, it means only the
realization of something that is always present. The problem
is that the aspirant to bodhi is not aware of this because of his
ignorance
and folly, especially demonstrated in the
ratiocinative process of conceptualization. In fact, Hwa 'shang
stresses that all the buddhas who were
disengaged from every thought of what is graspable and
ungraspable were "without thought and without reflection,
as s clear mirror"
-Joseph
F. Roccasalvo
Interview
with Khenpo Tsultrim
The true nature according Dzogchen
Vasubandhu
on the Trisvabhava
If anything appears, it is
imagined.
The way it appears is as duality.
What is the consequence of its non-existence?
The fact of non-duality!
-Vasubhandu
What
is
Denied in the statement -External Objects Do Not Exist? by
Dan Lusthaus
In
Defense of Yogacara by Alex Wayman
Buddha Nature and the concept of Person by Sallie B. King
KHENCHEN
THRANGU
Nine
Examples of Buddha Nature by Khenchen Thrangu
Rinpoche
Buddha's
Metaphors
OUTLINE
CONTENTS
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