Re: Illumination and reincarnation

From: Kevin McDonald <kpmcdona_at_EVkQJFDZacBB5pDpMP0tn1B9XruqIRxh0plHSUc4BoLiNzL1067EG3jN6JI5QusO_AW>
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 10:39:10 -0400

On 6/5/07, Greg <Greg_at_zw2-ymbiDuiO36tfQhHuDijph2Vwmw4DYF6wwOxIyNExsgJYzhr9uAopv0tE9rbNCMQAjzbls8Xscw.yahoo.invalid> wrote:

> I still think that a fully enlightened being would not reincarnate.

> Unless, of course, one is a bodhisattva.
> However, the bodhisattva idea always seemed a little strange to me. In
> such a person who is entirely enlightened does NOT transcend, in order
> to bring enlightenment to the rest of the suffering world. This is seen
> as an act of great compassion.
> But compassion, as much as anger or desire, is an emotion that one ought
> to have transcended.
> Thus a bodhisattva is a "failed mystic" as much as Sheng Seleris is. The
> only difference is that Sheng does it for selfish reasons, and a
> bodhisattva for selfless ones. But both fail to transcend...

I have studied Buddhism for ten years, most of it under an actual Tibetan Geshe, and I still can't pretend to really get this. Still, here is my understanding: The Great Compassion of a bodhisattva is not the result of attachment to the world and isn't really emotional in the conventional sense of the word. The bodhisattva has Great Compassion because he/she is selfless and sees reality exactly as it truly is. Great Compassion is a natural and effortless result of attaining those qualities.

Mahayana Buddhists also seem to think that if you don't develop Great Compassion then your enlightenment is somehow flawed since it was done for personal liberation and therefore is marred by ego on some level.

I am quite sure that the Theravadans disagree. For that matter, the various Mahayana schools also debate the finer points of it at great length.

I was also taught that a Buddhist is trying to get rid of *negative* emotion, defined as emotions that are contrary to the true nature of the universe. Positive emotion is seen as good since it is in harmony with the true nature of the universe. In essence it is ignorance, craving, and aversion that are to be eliminated. Particularly ignorance, which is the source of the other two "poisons". Once that is accomplished you exist forever in a state of transcendent perfect joy - which is your essential nature and not something dependent on external causes and conditions.

Anyway, that's my understanding.

~Kevin McD