Don't worship what is not the Tathāgatha body

In the Milinda Pañha (The Questions of King Milinda) we read:

“Hinder not yourselves, Ānanda, by honoring the remains [sarīraṁ] of the Tathāgatha.”  Paying reverence is not the work of the sons of the Conqueror, but rather grasping of the true nature of all compounded things, the practice of thought, contemplation in accordance with the rules of Satipaṭṭhāna, the seizing of the real essence of all objects of thought, the struggle against evil, and devotion to their own (spiritual good).  These are the things which the sons of the Conqueror ought to do, leaving to others, whether gods or men, the paying of reverence.

The Buddha is basically telling Ānanda not to honor the dead body (sarīraṁ) of the Tathāgatha but, instead, honor other things like realizing the essence of all conditioned things which is unconditioned and so on. 

Perhaps even more basic, seek the primordial nature that animates your soon-to-die body.  It alone is transcendent and deathless.  Don’t be only aware of what is conditioned and animated.  That’s not good enough.

There is a popular Zen story of a Zen master by the name of Danxia 丹霞 who lived on Mount Danxia.  As the story goes, he visited Huilin Monastery in Loyang.  It became rather cold that night.  To keep warm Danxia took a carved wooden statue of the Buddha, chopped it up and used it like firewood to keep himself warm.  Needless to say, the monks were astonished by his seeming sacrilegious behavior and scolded him.  Zen master Danxia said, “Hey, I am burning it to get the Tathāgatha body."  Confused by his words the monks then asked, "How can you get the Tathāgatha body from burning wood?"  Seizing the moment, Zen master Danxia said, "Since this wooden statue doesn’t possess the Tathāgatha body, get some more statues to burn!”

Worshiping a wooden, gold plated, or clay Buddha statue won’t save us.  I think we all know that at some level.  In a temple or in a great monastery the statues act as reminders of our vow to realize, firsthand, what Siddhartha intuited who became, suddenly, a Buddha!

The only sacrilegious behavior of a seeker, monk or nun is treating the goal of enlightenment with contempt or irreverence; becoming almost irreligious.  Such arrogance is truly pitiful.

Comments

[Dave b]

Maybe a dwaita rather than adwaita interpretation of monism makes some sense. There seems to be something to Jodoshu. And Japanese Buddhism seems more authentic somehow than all other Buddhism in a way.

[Dave b]

Or maybe rather as I said, Stoicism. Because emanationist monism doesn't really make sense at all. And reincarnation, why would it exist otherwise? So perhaps Stoicism in fact makes the most sense. Certainly Advaita's notion of there only being one self rather than many selves is patently false. Stoicism really is the most realistic. Reincarnationist religion is more geared to scare men into pussification, pacification, no killing of animals much less self defense. Stoicism eradicates fear of death, allowing for masculinity.

[dave b]

"Zeno (and his philosophy) was merely a Greek Confucius of ancient Hellas, not much more, and neither of them reached beyond the confines of the conditionally bound mind."

Then Pythagoras, or even the Cynics, or the Manicheans, maybe even Marcion: anyone who insisted that celibacy is the path, and did not deny the soul. Its not believable that sitting around meditating expecting a vision is the path; that stuff is just a help to it, something that enables one to live a celibate life. Making damn sure to not bring other souls into the cycle is the path; celibacy accomplishes that. Or NeoPlatonism: but never soul-denying Buddhist stupidity, or Indian four-fold denial lack of logic. Buddhism only has value when controlled by one of these Western belief systems. Because without them, its just too stupid. It can't even be made coherent without some of the suttas being thrown away and some material from one of these being put in their place. Because four-fold denial logic is of the devil.

[Jung]

"Stoicism/Deism is the way. Buddhism is Mara's trick, ironically."

It is not the spiritual idiocracy you display that I pity, nor is it your highly limited positional logic that binds your consciousness to aforementioned existential blindness and dialectical predicament - Nah, what I pity is the inevitable and immense suffering that lies ahead of you, and your current inability, disconnecting your mind from being even remotely able to estimate the Spatio-temporal manifestations of said gradually maturing distress, angst, and pain, due to your ongoing ignorance of its cause and origin.

An awaken mind knows this by the noble wisdom of bodhi, ignorants like yourself, pray to conditional shadows of their own making, be it demons, men or gods, thus validating the inescapable myriad horrors of their gradually maturing and remaining errors, compounded upon new ones which like most reviewing the Dharma with the same spiritual sickness, keep producing evil that divides the mind by their own command and will.

When the greatest pain comes to you, and believe me it will, know then that it was solely by your command and will to execute the actions, even in the most subtle regions of your sub-consciousness, that at that Spatio-temporal event mature perfectly into what at then takes precedence before any ideas, faiths, or doubts (pain in any greater form has that effect on sentients mesmerized by the conditioned).

Who, or what then will save you at that manifested chain of "realities" (for they are never One and Absolute)?

A pound of grilled beef on a plate of divine reason and knowledge as professed by Zeno of Citium?

Zeno (and his philosophy) was merely a Greek Confucius of ancient Hellas, not much more, and neither of them reached beyond the confines of the conditionally bound mind.

[dave b]

I've come to the conclusion that Buddhism en total is a farce and cannot save. The 4 fold logic of True, False, Both true and false, Neither true nor false is what Buddhism in essence is, and its false. True logic is binary; every proposition is either True or False. There is no Both true and false, nor Neither true nor false. Statements like "The Tathagata cannot be said to continue exist after death, nor to cease to exist, nor to bothe exist and cease to exist, nor to neither exist nor cease" prove Buddhism is false; the whole thing is based on an insane denial of binary logic. You best hope you never have a Buddhist banker. When your account disappears and you say "I had an account at this bank!" he will say "That is neither true nor false." Plus Buddhism leads to evil things like veganism that is anti-human. Stoicism/Deism is the way. Buddhism is Mara's trick, ironically. You'll spend all your time worying about not killing animals that were made for human consumption, while denying all logic including your own existence; you'll be offended at someone stepping on a bug (whose existence you deny; whaf lunacy is that?) but you will not at all be offended at someone killing a human child by malnutrition, by refusing to allow it to eat meat which is necessary. That is Buddhism and its evil.