Dharma Quote - Enlightenment Is a Specific Experience

TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE,
Books Two, Three, and Four:
Buddhism's Journey to Tibet
by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye
trans. and intro. by Ngawang Zangpo
more...

Dharma Quote of the Week

Under the heading of the great way's [Mahayana's] perspective, we read of how the Buddha merely demonstrates the process of enlightenment in this world, something he has done and will do repeatedly. Kongtrul quotes the Buddha in an important discourse:

"In the past, countless ages ago, in a world-system that united as many realms as there are grains of sand in the Ganges, I attained enlightenment as Transcendent Buddha Crown of the Powerful One, aided beings, and transcended sorrow. Then once again, from that point until the present age, I have repeatedly demonstrated the inconceivable process of enlightenment.
"I will continue, until cyclic existence is empty, to demonstrate [this process of] enlightenment beginning with the initial development of the mind of awakening as an ordinary being."

While such statements do not help us grasp the nature of the Buddha's enlightenment, they do underline the fact that enlightenment is a specific experience, the result of a known and knowable process that the Buddha deliberately demonstrates time and again so that we might follow his example, no guesswork involved.

--from Treasury of Knowledge, Books Two, Three, and Four: Buddhism's Journey to Tibet by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, translated and introduced by Ngawang Zangpo, published by Snow Lion Publications

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March 10th marked the 51st anniversary of the peaceful Up-rising in Lhasa, in protest of Chin-ese occupation. Below are statements by Tibet's leaders:

The Da1ai Lama's Statement

The Kashag's Statement

Tags: Buddhism, Enlightenment, Buddha, Treasury of Knowledge, Books Two, Three, and Four, Buddhism's Journey to Tibet, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Ngawang Zangpo, Snow Lion Publications