What is Buddhism? Applications 4-1 - The path to liberate oneself by thoroughly realizing one's powerlessness

    As we've seen earlier, both the path of Arhat and the path of Bodhisattva require considerable determination and faith, making it difficult to claim that anyone can pursue them.

Incidentally, as time progressed, not only within Buddhism but also in a global religious trend, there emerged a flourishing faith in transcendent beings with the great intention of saving people, entrusting oneself entirely to them for salvation.

While this faith takes various forms and cannot be uniformly described, the ultimate attitude involves thoroughly recognizing one's powerlessness, abandoning all arrogance that one can manage oneself, and solely entrusting oneself to the will of the transcendent savior, allowing the will of the transcendent to work within oneself. Eventually, one may find oneself in a state of mind where the illusion of "self" that one clung to so tightly is forgotten.

Although no academic proof has yet been provided, it seems quite possible that these religious trends around AD influenced the birth of Christianity, became the source of Bhakti Yoga in India, and influenced Buddhism, leading to the compilation of the Pure Land scriptures.

In fact, the Pure Land scriptures are believed to have been compiled around A.D. The basic premise of the scriptures is the vow of Bodhisattva Dharmakara, who later became Amitabha Buddha.

Dharmakara Bodhisattva made forty-eight vows, among which the eighteenth vow has traditionally been given special importance.

In essence, if summarized, it means that when I become a Buddha, if anyone in this universe believes in my vow, desires to be reborn in my world, and continuously recites the name "Amitābha Buddha" as my Buddha name, but cannot be born in my world, then I will not enter the ultimate stage of Buddhahood either.

 What is the difference between Buddha and Arhat?

   Essentially, it means that one will not attain Buddhahood until all beings attain it, which is truly the ultimate state of mind as a Bodhisattva. From this perspective, the difference between Arhat and Buddha mentioned earlier in the previous chapter may lie here. In other words, it is suggested that a Buddha does not enter complete Nirvana until the very end.

What is a Tathāgata?

Buddha and Tathāgata

   As explained earlier in the section on Bodhisattvas, if both oneself and others are caught in the same illusion and suffering, there is no reason to prioritize oneself, and it is only natural to strive for the liberation of oneself and others from this illusion.

In other words, the notion of prioritizing oneself is evidence of being trapped in the notion of self. A true Bodhisattva is one who, like the Bodhisattva Dharmakara mentioned above, vows not to attain Buddhahood until all beings attain Buddhahood.

Continuing this way of life as a Bodhisattva until the very end, without uprooting the illusion of self and others like an Arhat, without clinging to either the viewpoint of oneself or the viewpoint of others, reaching the state of perfect Middle Way may be the state of Buddha, also known as Tathāgata.

Tathāgata means "one who has reached the true world and returns from there," indicating a Buddha who has reached the true world but continues to emit teachings in this world to assist all beings in enlightenment, without disappearing from this world."


 #PureLand #Dharmakara #AmitabhaBuddha #Nirvana #Tathāgata

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