[Buddha-l] Sharon Stone and Karma

[[DPD Web] Shen Shi'an]

Er... an 'unenlightened Buddha' sounds self-contradictory, since
Buddhahood is the realization of the highest enlightenment. From Seijo's
simple answer, the 10 kalpas seems to refer to the time before Daitsu
Chisho Buddha became a Buddha? The koan seems to be focusing on why much
effort can seem futile - though there is no such thing as futile efforts
- as long as one realizes they were futile or wrongly exerted!

Mumonkan - Case 9: A Buddha Before History

From
http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/eric.boix/Koan/Mumonkan/09_A_buddha_before_hist
ory.txt -

A monk asked Seijo:
  "I understand that Daitsu Chisho Buddha who lived before recorded
history
   sat in meditation for ten cycles of existence and could not realize
the
   highest truth, and so could not become fully emancipated. Why was
this so?"
Seijo replied:
  "Your question is self-explanatory."
The monk asked:
  "Since the Buddha was meditating, why could he not fulfill Buddahood?"
Seijo said:
  "He was not a Buddha."

-----Original Message-----
From: Curt Steinmetz [mailto:curt at cola.iges.org] 
Sent: Thursday, 29 May, 2008 9:30 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Sharon Stone and Karma

Such things as death, dismemberment, etc, simply don't matter to a 
Buddha anyway (or at least they certainly shouldn't). But one thing that

*does* matter, probably, is enlightenment itself. And there is a story 
about a Buddha named Daitsu Chiso who was unable to attain enlightenment

for 10 kalpas! Being a dead Buddha is no big deal. Being an 
unenlightened Budda, however, could be quite embarrassing, or so I would

imagine.

Daitsu Chiso is also known as Mahabhijna Jnanabhibhu. His plight is 
taken up in case #9 of the Mumonkan.

Curt Steinmetz