The Smiling Buddhas

Why the Buddhas and His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama are always smiling?

When we look at a statue of the Buddha or the image of great enlightened beings with their serene smiles, it’s easy to say that these enlightened beings do not or never experienced the same reactive emotions or negative thoughts that swirl around in our mind.

The answer, it would be incorrect.

The Buddhas and sages faced the same reactive emotions and negative thoughts that you face today. Fear. Anger. Sorrow. Doubt. Overwhelm all of those and more if we could name all of these negativities. The Buddhas and enlightened beings faced them and through persistent compassionate facing and meditation discovered something remarkable.

The Buddhas and sages  discovered that every emotion & thought no matter how challenging can be transformed, healed, and expressed as a life-giving energy. They discovered how to experience freedom, not by suppressing, defeating, or avoiding emotions, but by transforming them. They discovered that freedom can be realized in the midst of life’s inevitable ups and downs.

The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and other enlightened beings developed a method we can use to realize how to be free in life. This method is based tapping into the life sources or forces  that underlying all emotions.

What are the sources or forces that underlies all emotions?

The sages traced emotions back to their original sources or nature of the sources, in their original form and found that reactive emotions are simply life energy running wild.

There’s power, juice, creativity, and aliveness in that wildness. But there’s also destruction, chaos, confusion and suffering. If you suppress the emotion—you suppress your life. But if you let it run wild, it destroys your well-being and happiness.

So what to do? 

The Buddhas discovered that at the heart of every emotion and every thought is an essential wisdom quality; at the still, radiant center of every emotion is a pure creative impulse. When you lose your connection with that pure creative impulse, your life gets tangled up in reactive emotions and conflicting thoughts.

When you reconnect to that essential quality, to that pure creative impulse, reactive emotions and negative thoughts are transformed into wisdom, creativity and bliss. The sages realized that the secret of transformation lies in attuning to the nature of the sources.

They called the underlying nature of forces and the answer is the six syllables Mantra: Om Mani Padme Hum Hri

There are many others lives-enriching mantras. The Buddha has once say that the mantras and the Dharma teachings are many as 48,000 pulsing at the heart of every emotion; there is a wisdom-bearing mantra resonating at the still center of every thought.

Mantra meditation attunes your mind to the original source that lies at the heart of every emotion and every thought. Through the practice of mantra meditation, you untangle your consciousness from the reactive patterns that create confusion and chaos in your life.

That’s why the Buddha and the sages are smiling. Not because they never experience reactivity, but because they know how to transform, emotion into wisdom and blissful state.

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva 南無大願地藏王菩薩

“If the Hell is not empty, I shall not attain Buddhahood”

The Great Vow of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds between the enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha and the incoming of Maitreya the next future Buddha,

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in Tibetan word is "Sa Yi Nyingpo". In Sanskrit name is "Ksitigarbha". In Chinese name is "地藏王菩薩" with his great vow- “If the Hell is not empty, I shall not attain Buddhahood”. Having vowed not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied, his activity focuses more particularly on helping those who suffer in the hell realms.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva has received great respect and trust from all since long ago. Not only did he point out to us a road to achieving Buddhahood, but he also lighted up for us a hope in Dharma. For these reasons, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is known as “The King of Great Vows”. 

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is one of the most wonderful dimensions of the Mahayana Tradition of Buddhist practice and teaching are the different manifestations of Buddha’s Qualities of compassion and wisdom. These emanate as different Buddha deities. The form, appearance, costumes, mudras, implements and jewellery of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva differ quite considerably under Mahayana & Tibetan Buddhism. 

Manifestation in Mahayana Buddhism 

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is typically depicted with a shaven head, dressed in a monk's simple robes (unlike most other bodhisattvas, who are dressed like Indian royalty). In his left hand, Ksitigarbha holds a cintamani; in his right hand, he holds a staff "錫杖" , which is used to alert insects and small animals of his approach, so that he will not accidentally harm them. He is often depicted as white in color, holding a staff in his right hand and a jewel that symbolizes wisdom in his left hand.

Manifestation in Tibetan Buddhism

Ksitigarbha is shown wearing a crown depicting the Five Dhyani Buddhas as worn by Tibetan and in Tantric rituals.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is revered as the protector of stillborn, miscarried and aborted babies. He is the protective deity of travelers and guardian of pregnant women. He protects against earthquakes; he prolongs life and is a guardian of children.

The practice and prayers 

His mantra in Mahayana is “南無大願地藏王菩薩”

His mantra in Sanskrit is “oṃ ha ha ha vismaye svāhā”

I prostate, go for Refuge, make offerings, please grant blessings. The Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, who has unbearable compassion for me and all sentient beings (whose minds are obscure and who are suffering), who has qualities like the sky and liberates sentient beings from all the sufferings and gives all the happiness. (Recite three times.)

Five Reasons for Being Born into Poverty according to the Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva:-

1. The first of these is arrogance, particularly toward one’s parents.
2. The second is obstinacy, that is, refusing to listen to teachers and elders.
3. The third is lack of diligence in honoring the Triple Gem.
4. The fourth is thievery.
5. The fifth reason for being born into poverty is accumulation of unpaid debts. Although money is false and empty, it cannot be used casually and wasted. To borrow money and not repay it, thinking that you have no obligation because money is of no true importance, will lead to rebirth as a servile and poor person.

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of these pictures.

Pictures courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Pictures are intended for editorial use only.