It can be pleasant, pleasurable, joyful, contented, blissful. The first two absorptions or jhanas have a characteristic rapture, joy, or I prefer "bliss" (ecstatic happiness) not based on the body, just a joy bubbling up based on a clear conscience, radical acceptance, universal love of everyone, non-opposition to anything. "It's all good," as Homer Simpson would say. But this is unthinkable to "spiritually" minded people seeking austerities, hardships to overcome, a quest, the climbing of a mountain, and the foolish repetition of a mantra they read the life story of the Buddha. You know that part where he said, "I will not move from this spot until my blood dries up and my bones turn to dust"? Nearly everyone erroneously concludes from this that "the secret" is a strong determination (adhimokkha) that put Siddhartha over the top.
It's all that clenching of the teeth, sweating, efforting, manly virility (viriya) that was exactly in the way. Tiring of hedonistic pleasures as a prince, he ran in the other direction to the point of exhaustion, to Death's doorstep. Tiring of severe austerities that didn't work, what now? Back to hedonistic princely pleasures like Mara was possessing him to consider? NO.
The Middle Way avoids both extremes. He ate. He didn't overeat. He slept. He didn't oversleep. He exercised. He didn't overexercise. He meditated (jhayanti). He didn't overmeditate (in the sense of that translated saying Bhikkhu Bodhi renders in a Pali expression), premeditate, undermeditate, and so on.
Sex with incredibly beautiful and alluring nymphs in heaven?
Heaven can be like TV's Fantasy Island
First understand that there are MANY "heavens." They are not all the same, and they are not all connected.
The Buddhist universe (which is a multiverse of bubble-like universes in all directions), in Buddhist cosmology, is divided into three spheres: the Sensual (kama), Fine-Material (rupa), and Immaterial (arupa). The Buddha frequently spoke of 31 distinct "planes of existence." These are not worlds but planes, which means there are countless worlds divided into these planes. They interact. For instance, the human and animal planes intersect as do the realm of ghosts and superior ET worlds. He mentioned other worlds that are not raised to the level of a "plane." Most interesting is the case of the human plane (manussya loka), which is not limited to this earth; there may be countless worlds where humans/humanoids live in the galaxy, world-system, and universe.
We are in the lowest of these, the sensual. It not only holds the human plane, it also includes the many hells, the animal plane, the ghost realm, and others. Surprisingly, there are the sensual heavens, extraordinary physical worlds, better and more beautiful than the world we know. These are in space, though some may also exist in our Hollow Earth (Agartha), which according to Buddhist cosmology is quite different than the way we imagine it. We are only aware of a portion of this plane, with our own sun and moon revolving overhead. There are other worlds separated from us by ice walls only surmountable by vimanas (ancient UFO type craft sometimes available to world monarchs in these worlds).
O, Janapada Kalyani, they want us to marry.
So one day the Buddha came back home to his family and friends, his people and familiar surroundings. His cousin/half-brother Nanda (the son of his mother's sister, who had raised him since the age of 7 days, when he was Prince Siddhartha) was getting married, possibly being married off to his sister, known variously as Sundari Nanda and Janapada Kalyani. Prince Siddhartha himself at the age of 16 had been married off to his cousin Bimba Devi (aka Princess Yasodhara). This is how it was among the royal Scythians/Shakyians/Sakas, as much as it may scandalize us. But it may have scandalized the Buddha because he intervened.
As he was leaving a meal invitation on the day before the wedding, the Buddha handed Nanda his brother his alms bowl. Nanda was glad to accompany him to the door out of respect and reverence for him. But when they came to the door, the Buddha did not take the bowl from him. He continued to walk, and Nanda thought he would carry his bowl to the gate. At the gate, the Buddha did not turn to take the bowl but continued walking all the way back to the monastic encampment in the grove where he was staying. CONTINUED IN PART II
As they were walking out of the gate, Janapada Kalyani was on the verandah of the palace watching this odd scene, Nanda following behind the Buddha with a monk's bowl in his hand. Worried, she called out to Nanda, "Come back to me soon, dear!" Nanda turned to see her ravishing beauty but dared not say anything out of respect for this spiritual master of great renown, his half-brother (same father, mothers who were sisters), with whom he had grown up with to the age of 29.
When the Buddha arrived at his dwelling, turned around and sat down. And there Nanda was standing holding the monk's bowl, which is what one brought along with seeking to gain admission to the monastic order, usually with some cloth for stitching a robe. The Buddha, seeing him said: "Nanda, are you here to become a monk?"
Confounded and unable to explain the misunderstanding, Nanda inexplicably just said "Yes." So the Buddha directed attendant monks, Scythian relatives and childhood friends of Nanda, to ordain him. They did. They were very proud that he had chosen to ordain and seek enlightenment instead of marrying the most beautiful "belle in the land," which is what Janapada Kalyani means
But Ven. Nanda was miserable and tormented by lust. He wanted to marry her, have sexual relations with her, and he wanted to disrobe and get back to the palace, to his riches, his status, and his future. He did not want to be celibate. And the more he tried to meditate as the Buddha had instructed him, the more frustrated he became.
I've lost everyone in this fire.
The other monks could see he was frustrated and miserable as a monk, so they told the Buddha. And the Buddha called for Nanda to be brought to him. Nanda came, looking miserable, and the Buddha asked him to hold on to his robe. When he took hold of the corner of the Buddha's robe, they flew through the sky over a great field where a forest had burned down. There Nanda noticed a she-monkey with a burnt nose and tail sitting on a stump looking around at the devastation.
They then traveled through the air upwards into space to the steps of a heavenly mansion (vimana). It was sparkling white, and many gorgeous, pink-footed nymphs were giggling and wiping the steps, bringing it to a sparkling shine. Nanda had never in his life beheld such beauty, such perfection of complexion and symmetry, such sexiness, newly nubile forms. He stepped toward them and asked what they were up to. They turned and batted their eyes, explaining that they were preparing this special heavenly mansion in expectation of the arrival of its owner, their master, the head of household, King Nanda.
Nanda was filled with awe and explained to them that surely King Nanda was a ruler on Earth. Why did they think this was his mansion? They explained that it was true that he was currently a royal living in a palace on Earth but that due to his karma, he would soon (because time is different on other planes, simultaneously moving at different speeds) be arriving in what might seem like a lot of human time but was in next to no time on this heavenly sensual plane.
Ven. Nanda turned to the Buddha and asked if he had heard what they said. The Buddha nodded and motioned that they had to go. Nanda was reluctant to leave, having just heard the greatest news of his life -- that all this would be his, and these would be his consorts, and he would live here in extreme pleasure as the owner and the ruler.
Noticing his excitement and giddiness, the Buddha asked Nanda if he happened to be interested in these celestial nymphs. Nanda was astonished at the question. Of course, he was interested, more than anything in all the world. The Buddha asked, "But what about Janapada Kalyani, your beautiful fiancée, who not long ago was the love of your life?"
Nanda shook his head and struggled to explain, "These are the most beautiful nymphs I have ever seen. Compared to the least beautiful of them, Janapada Kalyani seems like that she-monkey with the burnt nose and tail they had just seen sitting on a stump down there. She is not 1/16th part as beautiful; she does not even come into the count. The Buddha seemed surprised to hear it, as everyone knew Janapada Kalyani was the undisputed beauty of all the land (the janapada or territory of the Sakas/Scythians).
Then holding on to a corner of the Buddha's robe, they departed that world and descended to the human plane again. When they arrived, they did not stop but continued to descend into the plane of the Earth.
They descended through the ground to a dark and ominous underworld, where Nanda noticed two demon-like monsters tending a fire under a cauldron of heated oil. They were intent on their task and didn't seem to notice either the Buddha or Nanda there. So Ven. Nanda asked them what they were up to. One turned abruptly and rudely asked him what business it was of his, adding that if he had to know, they were preparing a welcome for that bad man Nanda, who would be arriving in no time to their chamber to be tortured and tormented, being boiled in hot oil.
Nanda was terrified but managed to stammer that he had heard that Nanda when leaving the human world was destined to ascend to a heavenly mansion, where nymphs awaited him as their master.
The monster agreed but pointed out that when his meritorious karma was exhausted there, King Nanda would drop into their hands, where they would be waiting for him to make him face the consequences of his unskillful karma, which he had also accrued in addition to the good. Nanda in terror looked toward the Buddha, who motion that it was time to go. Nanda desperately asked if the Buddha had heard what those hideous monsters had said. He had, and they departed, returning to the human world.
When they returned, the Buddha took his seat, and Ven. Nanda turned to return to his quarters to meditate. The Buddha asked him, "Weren't you interested in disrobing, being dissatisfied with the purity of the monastic life, Nanda?" "I'm fine," he said. "I should go practice. But, tell me, venerable sir, if I do, do you promise that when I pass away, I will be reborn among those pink-footed nymphs just like they said, there to be master of that mansion?" The Buddha assured him. So Nanda said, therefore, there was no need to disrobe.
The monks saw a marked change in Ven. Nanda, who was now diligent, determined, withdrawn into seclusion, constantly meditating. They approached him and asked what had changed. He recounted his experience in that sensual heavenly and the Buddha's promise that by applying himself, that would be his reward after passing from the human plane.
The monks were scandalized and began to tease and taunt him. Nanda was confused. Instead of being happy for him, rejoicing to see him behaving with as much monastic dedication as any of them, they had now taken to referring to him not as "venerable" or "Friend Nanda" but as "hireling," bought with the price of nymphs. Ven. Nanda paid them no attention and went into seclusion to practice more diligently. The monks asked him, "What about your beloved fiancée who only recently you were walking around distraught, missing her and wanting to return to the place and the low life of an ordinary worldling?" Ven. Nanda had no need of that now; he had nymphs on his mind, and in the back of his mind, he also remembered what the demonic beings had said would happen after his sojourn in heaven.
The monks being scandalized by Ven. Nanda's newfound determination and efforts, his story of visiting his future destination and being promised his reward, complained to the Buddha, who reminded and admonished them to apply themselves with diligence to work out their own salvation now when circumstances were good, the Teacher was near, and they were young and able-bodied, sufficiently fed and robed, of good health, able to make progress. But they were upset at Ven. Nanda's special deal.
In no long time, Ven. Nanda made a breakthrough in his meditation and became enlightened. At that moment, his lust and interest in those many nymphs subsided, and he was at peace. He went to the Buddha to report his progress, announcing his attainment implicitly, how much he appreciated the encouragement, and that he now had seen the Dharma, the Truth.
The Buddha smiled but asked him, "What about our agreement? What about your reward?" Nanda blushed with embarrassment in front of the others and explained that at the moment of his attainment, he had released the Buddha of any such promise or obligation. The Buddha nodded in agreement. Turning to those monks who had not dedicated themselves, had not taken advantage of the excellent circumstances to practice, and had not broken through in their meditation practice.
This story, this beguiling Buddhist account from the Pali canon (almost certainly a backstory from the Dhammapada or the Nikayas, here retold from memory, originally struck a chord. It has very strong Dickensian and Ebenezer Scrooge elements about a miraculous turnaround, a kind of near-death experience that changes one's outlook completely and reorders one's priorities in life. It's amazing that a base aim could produce a holy outcome, that having set off to get lucky in the afterlife could keep one on task long enough for the Dharma and Discipline to work its magic and produce liberating insight. He must have let go, set aside his ambitions, and really investigated phenomena (dhammas) to produce knowledge-and-vision of the path and thereby perceive the true nature of existence as radically impermanent, incapable of fulfilling us, and impersonal.
So perhaps now that video makes sense of what's really possible and who's really up there waiting. This Round (Samsara) is long and wearisome. Long enough have we continued wandering on, reborn here and there, experiencing all of these things, long enough to have grown weary of its carrot and stick, its ups and downs, its promises and disappointments, the best laid plans of mice and men, long enough to let go.
No one need worry that the Buddha was playing favorites with his family. He saved Sundari Nanda, too, ordaining her as a Buddhist nun and teaching her until she reached enlightenment, just as he did for his mother (Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, the first Buddhist nun in history), his former wife (Ven. Bhaddakaccana, Rahulamata, Yasodhara, Bhadda, Bimba), his son (Ven. Rahula), his cousin (Ven. Ananda), and many other Scythian/Shakyian/Saka "princes" (royals, nobles, nomadic kshatriya warriors), nearly everyone from Kapilavastu, except those who clung to a worldly life.
Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, is said to have attained one or more of the stages of enlightenment and become one of the Noble Ones (Aryans) because of the Buddha teaching him until he was free.
And he visited his biological mother in another heavenly world within the Sensual Sphere, the World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa Deva Loka), to teach her and other devas who came to bring them all to self-realization, when she had at that time returned to live in the more exalted Tusita world, where she left to come to earth to provide the Bodhisatta a suitable womb and lineage. The World of the Thirty-Three might also be called Second Heaven, whereas Tusita is Seventh Heaven.
O, Scythian Princess Sundari Nanda (Gotami), you are the Janapada Kalyani of this land!
Is there a heaven (sagga)? By heaven is meant a literal "world of shining ones in sky so far up it's space" (the akasha-deva-loka). We agree with Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry's sentiment as he sings: "Is there a heaven? I'd like to think so" heard here:
Retro Vintage Time Traveling - 1950s Sci-Fi - An AI Short Film
(Retro Retake) Dec. 2, 2024: #Retrofuturism merges seamlessly with the sleek futurism of the Space Age. Three enigmatic companions, clad in shimmering pink outfits, stand poised against the breathtaking backdrop of a distant time or planet, visible through the panoramic window of their spacecraft. This gem isn’t just a visual feast; it’s an invitation to dream, to wonder, and to step into a world where elegance meets cosmic adventure. Every scene captures the essence of a time we’ve never known but have always longed to explore. Are we ready for the captivating beauty of this retrofuturistic universe? #RetroFuture #retro #AIFilmМ
One of the most important questions of our time, since at least the time of the Buddha when the world was obsessed with sex and sensual pleasures, is: "Is there sex after death?"
A stark answer to this was once given by a hopeful comedian: "Yes," he assured his audience reasoning that, "You get laid in a coffin, don't you?" It may be funny, it may be serious. We don't want it to all end! Thinking we're something, we don't want to become nothing. We wish for life to continue (eternally) in some better way, some better place, many better circumstances. This is all possible through skillful karma (profitable, beneficial, wholesome deeds).
The Buddha pointed out that there are three forms of desire (tanha, craving, thirst) that are terrible, plentiful sources of suffering: (1) craving for sensual pleasure (kama craving), (2) craving for eternal existence (bhava craving), and (3) craving for annihilation (when we want to get off this merry-go-round, vi-bhava craving).
Good deeds or bad, life will continue into the afterlife -- into countless future lives until we bring about enlightenment (bodhi) and awakening, liberation (moksha) and nirvana. It will not happen by accident.
It requires knowing-and-seeing, and that requires calm-and-insight, and that requires morality and right effort. The Buddha summarized it as sila, bhavana, panna or virtue (karmic skillfulness), meditation (mental cultivation), and wisdom (liberating insight).
What is morality?
Virtue means harmless, peaceful, pleasant.
The Buddha defined that simply as these Ten Courses of Wholesome Action, avoiding the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. A more basic definition is by way of roots: Those things rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion give rise to unskillful actions (karma), whereas those rooted in nongreed, nonhatred, or nondelusion give rise to skillful actions. We can call the good kind merit because its results are always welcome, pleasant, and wished for. (Unskillful karma is called that because it is bad, meaning that when it brings forth its results, they are unwelcome, unpleasant, and unwished for).
What is meditation?
Meditating is cultivating, not just by sitting
The English term "meditation" is very misleading because the Pali word bhavana really means "bringing into being" or "cultivating," and that can be done at any time through mindfulness and right effort. (Other Pali terms like jhana, jhayanti, anussati, and kammatthana are also rendered with this same catchall English term, adding to confusion as to what the practice is).
Meditation in English has come to mean sitting cross-legged. But "cultivating" can be done while engaged in actions, uttering chants, mantras, aphorisms, or affirmations. If I want to cultivate a fit body, I go to the gym, dojo, or walking path and exercise, practice movement and deeper breathing.
Similarly, if I want to cultivate a fit mind or heart, I go to sacred places, zendo, or forest (into nature) and exercise, mentally practice calm, attentiveness, wakefulness, positivity, equanimity, and more soothing breathing.
What is wisdom?
Insight into the true nature of reality
The goal of the previous to is to bring about insight, which we can set the preliminaries (a calm and attentive mind able to be consistently mindful, which means aware without reaction, judgments, thinking, ambitions, striving, or efforting, just being here now, whatever the circumstance, not getting sucked up in stories, narratives, assessments, judgments, or rationalizations). So we can think of it as vipassana (insight) bhavana (cultivation).
To cultivate insight, the Buddha explained in two famous sutras the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness, that is, being mindful of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. This is called satipatthana. There's no need to think about it; all of the instructions are given in these two discourses. (See Ven. Analayo on the meaning of "mindfulness" in Early Buddhism and then read the simple exercises on, first, how to be mindful of the body). Simple is not easy. All that is needed is persistence to establish a practice. Doing a lot then nothing, a lot then nothing is no way to practice. Doing a steady amount, even if tiny at first, soon grows into a solid habit. Steadiness, not extreme efforting or insane determination, wins the game.
Anyone who's read or heard the Buddha's life story misunderstands what happened. Ask them. This is the key question. He's born a prince, wants more, renounces the throne, goes off on a spiritual question, heads for the mystic East, practices yoga and austerities (like regular fasting and penance and all kinds of moral rules) and monastic living and meditation... And it doesn't work. He doesn't become enlightened. So he doubles down. And it doesn't work.
But this time it's even worse. He exhausts himself to the point where he accepts help from women, whom the other wandering ascetics will not even talk to, stare at, or receive anything from. Here Siddhartha is talking to, looking at, and even receiving from, accepting an offering of food and nourishment.
The happily pregnant milkmaid Sujata offers the ascetic Siddhartha a rich meal of rice.
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He builds his strength back up and realizes the body is his friend, not his enemy as the other spiritual seekers feel sure is the case. But he realizes that nearly seven years of striving, enlightenment has not come. So rather than ramp it up even more than before, he suddenly remembers something that happened to him at age 7. He remembers a spontaneous meditative absorption (jhana) he entered as a child at the Harvest Festival in Kapilavastu (probably Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which was part of ancient Gandhara). He then wonders if this isn't the way to enlightenment.
A knowingness comes back to him that this is the way -- the way of letting go, giving up, surrender, radical acceptance, tolerance, letting things be.... He further wonders why he has been avoiding this pleasant abiding and realizes it has been because of his "spiritual" aversion to pleasure. But this is not sensual pleasure (kama sukha). This is super-sensual (abhi-kama, piti, blameless contentment, sukha, and joy, not dependent on the physical senses). If it is blameless, then it is okay.
Even today, Buddhist spiritual seekers have the exact same fear without realizing it, thinking that the path has to be arduous and full of virile effort to count, when that is exactly why it didn't work for years and years for the Bodhisattva Siddhartha. CONTINUED IN PART II
Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly; Retrofuturism; Roxy Music, "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"
We've evolved in space, become compassionate and wise. Please, come join the Federation.
Be kind and be reborn above.
Who are the celestials (our space brothers and sisters), known as the akasha ("space") devas ("shining ones")? We can think of them as heavenly (space world) messengers, the "angels" or beautiful gandharvas.
Imagine they come down in a vimana (spaceship), offer a ride to their world, promising Elysian fields, longevity, beauty, five sense strand pleasures beyond the human world only to find out you eat meat -- slaughtered animal flesh of babies.
It may not go down well. The Vedas, the ancient "Knowledge Books" of proto-India, the Indus Valley Civilization, speak of the benefits of a vegetarian diet. All Hinduism, keeping to the principle of ahimsa or "non-harming," advocate a healthy plant-based diet of delicious nutrients.
The Bible speaks of a vegan Garden of Eden, but how many Christians today consider that? There are the Seventh Day Adventists and others who have made contact.
Many Jews read the Book and see a message of peace in it, though most only take calls for genocide from the Demiurge Yahweh (YHWH), not the real God the Christ was talking about but the God of the Old Testament.
I'm not all in people's head! I'm real!
Christians refuse to question, fearing condemnation for disobedience. They eat the flesh of the dead as if it were communion, a feast of blood and body (wine and bread), equating the archaic word "meat" and "food." Milk and honey are more delicious, but even these, according to Dr. Joel Wallach, refer to white slosh of mineral rich water (coming down from glacial crush of rock minerals) and dewy nectar from swollen fruits and flowers.
In the halls of heaven... Which heaven? It looks like the 4 Sky-Gods or the World of the 33
Halls of Valhalla: Valkyries carry war dead past the god Heimdallr (Lorenz Frolich, 1906)
Fully enlightened Maha Moggallana asked a devi ("shining one") about the fortunate being's previous skillful karma ripening now in all of these desirable things.
Ven. Moggallana: Devata, you are sitting on a golden throne [vimana, interactive chariot helm, an "immeasurable space vehicle," capable of traveling anywhere]. It flies wherever you want as quickly as you want. You are beautifully dressed, wearing garlands of flowers; you are radiant, like lightning shining through the clouds.
Vimanas can be big, "sky mansions"
What kind of meritorious action (kusala karma) did you do when you were in the human world to have gained this beauty (glory) that shines in all directions, and what deeds earned all of these wonderful things?
The devata, delighted at being questioned by the famous Ven. Moggallana, gladly explained what she had done that resulted in such great good fortune and happiness.
Devata: Venerable, when I was in the human world, a [Buddhist] monk visited our house, and I prepared a seat for him to sit on. Raising my hands (in anjali mudra) and putting my palms and fingers together, I saluted that monk respectfully.
I also offered alms food to him.
Because of these meritorious deeds, I have been reborn as a very beautiful devata and enjoy all of the wonderful things that delight my heart.
Great venerable, these are the meritorious deeds I did to gain such a beautiful body that shines in all directions.
How could vimanas even balance themselves in space? Gyro-physics
UFOs in Jain literature
This famous painting is of Mahavira, so much like the Buddha that most think it is him.
Jain cities in India are very close to Buddhist places of significance, and one sees many statues one immediately assumes are the Buddha. In fact, they are Mahavira, often shown naked.
Jainism, like Buddhism, talks about other spheres, planes of existence, and UFOs (vimanas).
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Jain "enlightenment" differs from Buddhism.
(WQ) Jainism is the religion most analogous to Buddhism, as both are the only two surviving shramana ("wandering ascetic") traditions from antiquity; both opposed the Brahmanism of temple priests (Brahmins) in favor of direct experience of the truth. The founder Mahavira ("Great Hero," a common epithet also applied to the Buddha, along with other names) is called Nigantha Nattaputta in Buddhist texts. In fact, some believe that Jainism may have been a splinter group of very strict Buddhist ascetics.
Mahavira (aka Nigantha Nattaputta) is a jina, which is where the term "Jainism" comes from (like Buddha in Buddhism or "Awakened One" in "Awakenism"),
vimāna-vāsin ("vimāna-dweller") is a class of "shining ones" or devas("deities") who served the Tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra ("Fordmaker Great-Hero") [6].
These Vaimānika deities dwell in the Ūrdhva Loka planes (celestial or space spheres). According to the Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadra-bāhu, the 24th Tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra himself emerged from the great vimānaPuṣpa-uttara [7], whereas the 22nd Tīrthaṃkara Ariṣṭa-nemi emerged from the great vimāna Aparijita [8].
Jainism was great to women
The Tīrthaṃkaras Abhinandana (4th) and Sumati-nātha (5th) both [9] traveled through the sky [akasha, unbounded space] in the Jayanta-vimāna, namely the "great vimānaSarva-artha-siddhi, which was owned by [10] the Jayantadevas, whereas the Tīrthaṃkara Dharma-nātha (15th) traveled through the sky in the Vijaya-vimāna [11].
A vimāna (spaceship, heavenly mansion, celestial platform) may be seen in a dream, such as the nalinī-gulma [12, 13]. More
Just as the historical BuddhaSiddhartha Gautama spoke of 23 previous buddhas (even a prehistoric Siddhartha, the 16th), Mahavira simultaneously spoke of 23 previous tirhamkaras or "ford-makers" (to cross the flood of samsara to the further shore, which for Buddhists is nirvana and for Jains is rebirth in a lofty unconscious world that sounds suspiciously like an immaterial sphere described by the Buddha. Coincidence or the same historical figure?
Prof. Jaini had such an enormous ego that he named his poor-quality thesis, which was hardly fit to be published at all, "The Jaina Path of Purification" after the ancient enlightened Ven. Buddhaghosa's (Buddha's Ghost) magnum opus, the Path of Purification of Visuddhimagga. There are many better books on Jainism.
Buddhism is a unique Dharma because it teaches the liberating truth of anatta, that all things are impersonal. Jainism, like the Vedas, Brahmins, Hindus, and every other religion teaches that there is a self, an immortal soul, that is eternal and unchanging. The soul (atta) is changing at every moment, is constantly perishing, and therefore is neither immortal nor -- in the ultimate sense -- existing. Dependent Origination exists and explains why the Five Aggregates get clung to by the aggregates themselves as a momentary "self" or "eternal soul." So Jainism differs from the parallel Buddhist tradition it is otherwise so similar to that it is almost impossible to distinguish them.
In a strange story out of Singapore, a man who thought he saw a Buddhist deity [Kwan Yin] wound up fighting a skeptical bystander who couldn't spot the suspected apparition.
The odd incident is reported as follows: It occurred when Philip Ong Guo Xiong and his wife noticed something unusual in the sky, which they believed to be a vision of Kwan Yin (Guan Yin), a figure revered in Mahayana Buddhism as the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion.
She's a Queen of Heaven
While the pair were snapping pictures of the strange vision, they were approached by a curious delivery driver passing by wondering what the couple was photographing.
On being told of the deity (celestial devi) they saw in the sky, the man also tried to capture it with his camera, which is when things went wildly awry.
Looking at his images, the delivery driver failed to see any sign of Kwan Yin in them nor did he recognize the deity in the sky overhead.
Suspecting that he was being misled, he accused Mr. Xiong of being some kind of scam artist and began taking photos of the couple, which they did not appreciate.
This led tempers to flare between the two men. Then the delivery diver challenged Mr. Xiong to a fight. Xiong responded by shoving the man, which sent him tumbling onto a stone bench.
Clearly, if the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion had truly appeared in the sky that day, her message of compassion and mercy was lost on the two men as Xiong was subsequently arrested for assault after a witness to the altercation called the police. More:channelnewsasia.com
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