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Dec 10, 2011 · BuddhaJones Message Board

Belated Bodhi

NichirenBuddhism

Perhaps several Nichirenites are Bodhisattvas Uniquely Delayed -- a moniker coined by ten2one. Or perhaps my efforts to keep current are woefully lax. Regardless. Yesterday was Bodhi Day. Did you feel a ripple of awakening flow through you? I did, but I assumed it was something I ate....
The inestimable Barbara O'Brien is on the case....

Don't Forget Bodhi:

Through most of Buddhist history, the enormous majority of laypeople did not meditate at all. And in some periods this applied to monastics as well. Instead, practice mostly focused on keeping the Precepts and making merit by supporting the monastic sangha. It was (and still is, in some places) understood that bodhi was out of reach for most people.

Regarding the date of Bodhi Day, she notes:

So, Rohatsu, or Bodhi Day, falls on December 8 every year, at least in Japan. And, as far as I can tell, there really isn't much observance of Bodhi Day outside Japan. So today is pretty much it, I think.

Whiskey River served up this tasty quote:

Through endless ages, the mind has never changed.

It has not lived or died, come or gone, gained or lost.

It isn't pure or tainted, good or bad, past or future, true or false, male or female. It isn't reserved for monks or lay people, elders or youths, masters or idiots, the enlightened or unenlightened.

It isn't bound by cause and effect and doesn't
struggle for liberation. Like space, it has no form.

You can't own it and you can't lose it. Mountains,
rivers or walls can't impede it. But this mind is
ineffable and difficult to experience. It is not the mind of the senses. So many are looking for this mind, yet it already animates their bodies.

It is theirs, yet they don't realize it.

- Bodhidharma
The Wisdom of the Zen Masters

1 comment

mroaks

On the Nichiren Shu board, Ryuei wrote:

...The Buddhist model that makes the most sense to me is the one termed "Sudden Awakening - Gradual Practice." What this means is that before we have an awakening or insight we are stumbling around in our lives and/or practice. We have confused goals (money, power, fame, sex) and/or unwholesome ways of achieving those goals (violence, exploitation, dishonesty, etc...) or we aim for spiritual liberation but have egotistical ideas about it and/or superstitious or even harmful ways of trying to attain it....Once there is an authentic awakening we realize the selflessly compassionate true nature and from then on that becomes the basis of our practice.That moment of awakening to true nature is something sudden - it is the single moment of faith and rejoicing - faith because this true nature fills us with confidence and joy because the true nature transcends suffering and ordinary happiness.On the other hand, that sudden moment inspires and guides the gradual daily life practice that must follow as we try to live in accord with that true nature, overcome years (lifetimes?!) of unwholesome and deluded habits....
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