The Buddha is trying to teach us that deep within us we have the Buddha-nature which is also the ultimate criterion. The only thing equal to it, is itself. All else is just a configuration of it which if we follow these configurations lose our way—suffering from spiritual amnesia.
None of us can afford to be in a state of spiritual amnesia having forgotten what our Buddha-nature is. We have to remember it.
Similar to this predicament we read in the Lotus Sutra the parable of a man having come to a friend’s house who became drunk and fell asleep. While in this condition his friend gave him a priceless gem binding this gem in his garment so he wouldn’t lose it. Finally sober the man travels further. The Lotus Sutra says of this man:
[H]e goes to some other country, where he is befallen by incessant difficulties, and has great trouble to find food and clothing. By dint of great exertion he is hardly able to obtain a bit of food, with which (however) he is contented and satisfied.
Eventually, the old friend of that man who bound the priceless gem in his garment happened to see him again. He says to his greatly impoverished friend,
How is it, good friend, that thou hast such difficulty in seeking food and clothing, while I, in order that thou shouldst live in ease, good friend, have bound within thy garment a priceless gem, quite sufficient to fulfil all thy wishes?
Then he shows the priceless gem to his friend who had no knowledge that the gem had been in his garment all along. He became greatly overjoyed. Subsequently, he became a very rich man, of great power, and in possession of all that the five senses can enjoy.
All of us have this hidden gem bound within us which we know nothing of. The problem we face is we need to see it firsthand. The Buddha’s teachings can help us see the Buddha gem provided that we are first, in earnest, and secondly have sufficient faith that the gem lies within us.
Zen gets us close to start looking in our garment for the Buddha’s priceless gem that isn’t an article of clothing which is to say from a spiritual point of view, we must look for the unconditioned Mind setting aside the conditioned five skandhas of physical shape, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness.
@mathesis
The thing is, most Western "Buddhists" go to the allegorical extreme, and that is only when they acknowledge such things; many if not most of these "Buddhists" aren't even aware that cosmic Buddhas and heaven and hell are present in Buddhism. And this allegorical extreme is also almost unique in Buddhism. I haven't seen anyone reducing all the gods and heavenly beings in Buddhism to mere psychological archetypes or states in any other religion nearly as much as Western "Buddhists" do.
Posted by: Communist Feminist | December 18, 2016 at 11:53 PM
The question is: how are we to interpret traditional Buddhist cosmology (both Mahâyâna and that of the Pali Canon) ? Should we avoid the extremes of a very literal interpretation on one hand and an purely metaphorical or allegorical interpretation on the other (i.e. the heavens and the devas are just psychological or spiritual states) ? And what are we to make of Mount Meru for instance ?
Posted by: mathesis | December 18, 2016 at 03:18 PM
"By the way, how is mentioning the buddha's divinity and stuff about devas and ghosts and boddhisatvvas and 7 heavens related to real life?"
That is, what Asian Buddhists actually believe in. I notice Western Buddhist blogs being almost absolutely nothing like what real-life Buddhism is. But I will admit that surfing through Zennist's posts, you do catch glimpses of actual Buddhist beliefs (heaven, divine bodhisattvas, even prayer), even though he says he is an "atheist and an agnostic" and seems to deny that Buddha is a god even though Buddhism clearly believes this.
Posted by: Communist Feminist | December 18, 2016 at 02:12 PM
wow, a user called "Communist Femnist" scolds the zennist for being too secular?? Now that's original! No disrespect, i just find it very very funny.
By the way, how is mentioning the buddha's divinity and stuff about devas and ghosts and boddhisatvvas and 7 heavens related to real life?
Posted by: trekai | December 18, 2016 at 11:45 AM
zennist, communist-feminist
lolol!! that's a funny name!!
I wonder what it means??
Posted by: smith | December 18, 2016 at 02:01 AM