[Buddha-l] Vajrayana on buddha in the Buddha (Mitchell Ginsberg)

[Richard Hayes]

On Jan 13, 2010, at 1:31 PM, Mitchell Ginsberg wrote:

> The core of my friend's questions were not about miracles, but about how to understand the fact that those who are supposedly awakened (esp. in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, I know he is thinking of) and have a vision most humans don't, do not give this information out for the well being of the many (esp. considering the bodhisattva vows that are core to those practices).

I cannot claim to be an authority on anything having to do with being awakened, but I can offer a guess. (My main contribution to Buddhist studies over the years has been to say things so outrageously stupid that others hasten to correct them.)

I knew how to sharpen a knife for years before I taught my son how to do it. My reason for holding this information from him was that I worried he might come to some harm if he had the information before we was capable of showing me that he could be careful. Similar considerations are, I would guess, at work when teachers decide which practices to teach their disciples. Not everyone is ready for everything all at once.

Now that I have made a crazy guess, maybe someone who really knows will prove me wrong, and then we'll all be wiser. (On the other hand, people who know the answer may decide that the rest of us are not mature enough to know it yet.)

Richard