Approaching Buddhahood

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume that some great Lama or Buddhist is able to empower you.  All of a sudden the Mind or Buddha-nature that was hidden by your desires comes out in almost full force.  The bliss is overwhelming.  But then three days later it all goes away.  You’re depressed.  You want to know what happened.  Well, the answer is easy.  You still have too much desire for the material world.  Such desire is like a dark cloud that eventually, in a matter of days, hides the great sun of the Buddha-nature.  This desire, I should mention, is just the habit of chasing after Mind’s phenomenalizations strongly believing that they are other than illusory. 

The lesson I wish to impart here is that even with bodhicittotpada (the emergence of the mind that is bodhi) or the same, Bodhi Mind, there are still a lot of bad habits we have to jettison.  However, the more we set them aside, the more outshining will be Mind and its power.  When pure Mind is such that it is more than our desires for anything of the material world, including our clinging to the psychophysical body, we are approaching Buddhahood. 

 

Comments

[Pathfinder]

Thank you.

[kojizen]

Pathfinder, if there were such an empowerment, and afterwards we became arya-sravaka or bodhisattvas, The Zennist is saying we still have shit left to unload, shit that keeps us from fully realizing our Buddha-nature. Check out the story of the lost heir (chapter 4) in the Lotus Sutra.

[Pathfinder]

Which of the plethora of Buddhist lists describes the "bad habits" you're referring to? the Three Poisons?

Is the "ontological root" of attachment to this world in seeing things as "existing" or "not existing" and judging "I want this" and "I don't want that"? - the dualism of the positive and negative mind?

Does the training required in purifying from the poisons mean practising in the paramitas? For instance, in the "ten" version, Diligence, patience, Discipline, Openness, and so on?

Is the depression following the moment of seeing beneficial itself? The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra says the world only appears ugly, so that people would grow aversion to it and transcend it. Is it a trick of the buddhas, so to speak?