[Buddha-l] Aka-lika Forum

[Curt Steinmetz]

Tao-Sheng (ca.360-432 AD) has this very "down to earth" explanation of 
the "underground bodhisattvas":

"That the earth split and the bodhisattvas welled up suggests that 
living beings inherently possess an endowment for enlightenment, and it 
cannot remain concealed; they are bound to break the earth of 
defilements and emerge to safeguard the Dharma."

from Young Ho-Kim's "Tao-Sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra: A Study 
and Translation", p. 290.

Curt

jkirk wrote:
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
> [mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Alberto
> Todeschini
>
>
> Curt Steinmetz wrote:
>
>   
>> A little later, Leighton says this:
>>
>> "This complex story of the underground bodhisattvas and the
>>     
> Buddha's 
>   
>> inconceivable life span expresses the vastness and the
>>     
> immanence of 
>   
>> the sacred in space as well as time and breaks open limited, 
>> conventional, linear perspectives of both space and time....
>>     
> The 
>   
>> visions portrayed in this story demonstrate a foundation for
>>     
> the 
>   
>> development of East Asian Mahayana practices of transcendent
>>     
> faith and 
>   
>> ritual enactment of buddhahood, dependent not on lifetimes of
>>     
> arduous 
>   
>> practice, but rather on immediate, unmediated, and intuitional 
>> realization of the fundamental ground of awakening."
>>
>> Personally I could nit-pick over the rather broad (vague)
>>     
> nature of 
>   
>> pronouncements about "break[ing] open limited, conventional,
>>     
> linear 
>   
>> perspectives...". But I haven't ready anything more than what
>>     
> amazon 
>   
>> provides in their "preview" - so quite possibly he gets down to
>>     
>
>   
>> specifics later on.
>>     
> =========================
> Hi Curt and thanks for the quote.
>
> I don't quite understand. Perhaps I'm spiritually impaired,
> transcendentally obtuse or intuitionally challenged. Or am I just
> too spatially and temporally linear to get it?
>
> What on earth does that passage from Leighton mean?
>
> Best,
>
> Alberto Todeschini
> =================================
>
> Indeed, and also what I'm wondering is what to make of the sci-fi
> turn the text is taking, for ex.:
> " whereupon, 'from out of the open space under the ground'
> simultaneously spring forth vast numbers of experienced,
> dedicated bodhisattvas.... Sakyamuni declares that for countless
> ages all of these numerous bodhisattvas have been diligently
> practicing under the ground,"
>
> and
>
> "Sakyamuni declares that he himself has trained all these
> underground bodhisattvas.... 
> etc etc.
>
> These underground bodhisattvas remind me of a contemporary theory
> in late-night am radio of a separate world of shadow-people.
> Maybe they are the undergrounders?
>
> So, aside from hallucinations, what else?
>
> Joanna
>
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