LESSON 5
The object of this course is to enter into the apparently simple practices which are used daily as part of larger practices which have been reduced to mere ritual dogma and ceremony. These are not explained as a profound teaching and as such, actually generate a subtle virus of intellectual indifference towards the practices themselves.
REALMS AND SUCH
By request we now move on to a subject that actually is of great importance because it speaks of Duality and Delusion. You have heard without doubt of the Realms of Humans, Ghosts, Gods and a host of other terms in Buddhism that sometimes appear supportive and other times a load of nonsense.
Let’s get one thing absolutely clear. It is all generated by your mind. There are no Human worlds, etc., in the sense that you think of them.
Let's begin with the human creature itself.
What you see, feel, hear ,taste, smell and think is not the human creature. You have no idea at all what that fictional creature is. We must however communicate so we can use the only tools we know of today to do that and call him something.
We have created who we believe that we are in our mind. What are we then really? Of course we must use words, but realize that these words are not the things described at all.
The Essence of the Human creature is the human Life Force. That is what he is. That Life Force is everything as far as we are concerned. That Life Force is our Buddha Nature.
The contents of that Life Force, the law of the human creatures nature against which all other things are measured, is his Dharma.
When we speak of refuge in Buddha and Dharma we are really saying to have confidence and go for guidance in the Life Force and Natural law within us. Forget fancy Buddha images and other ideas. They are useful to help get the idea, but the essence is the Life Force and the natural law of life for the human creature.
Is this natural law complicated? No, it is not. It is even simpler than the man-made commandments of the man-made God.
It consists of four parts which really are one.
1. Survival of the Life Force that appears individual
2. Survival of one’s apparent offspring
3. Survival of one’s tribe
4. Survival of the environment which supports all the previous
These four are really one thing, so there is no competition between them in the liberated human creature.
A dual mind and Identity will break them up and destroy the system, as it is doing, but in the liberated human they are one.
Do you see a marvelous thing about these four elements, the Dharma of the Buddha nature?
It is what a Bodhisattva is. This then is the Bodhisattva that everyone talks about in Buddhism. Sure it can be represented in a thousand ways but that is the Bodhisattva which it clearly would be fantastic to release in all human creatures for the benefit of all sentient creatures.
Now if you are smart then you will see that if that is the Bodhisattva all human creatures have it. True indeed. That commonality is the Sangha. That is why we take Refuge (or rather go for guidance in the Sangha). The Sangha is confidence that all human creatures are Bodhisattvas.
Now really isn’t that more wonderful than believing in the legendary figures of Bodhisattvas? Use them, but know that Bodhisattvas do not exist. They do not exist because that is just a word. The real Bodhisattvahood is within us, unknown and untapped.
Let us move on then to the Realms.
In Buddhism we need to understand that although each creature is indeed a Bodhisattva there are characteristics that are individual, based upon the necessity of the tribal instict of the Bodhisattva.
So naturally the tribe has developed apparent individuals with different characteristics. Just as the bees have Queen and workers we too have basic functions which have a Bodhisattva essence.
There are three natural and beautiful essences.
1. The most frequent are naturally akin to the worker bees. They are called human creatures of fine discrimination.
2. There is a second essence called human creatures of finely tuned sensitivity. They are rather like Merlin the Wizard or the Bards that make the music that lets us learn about the Dharma. In Buddhism we call the two types Asuras and Ghandarvas.
3. There is clearly the neccesity for leaders to assist the tribe. They are persons of finely tuned Natural Intelligence that has nothing to do with cognitive intelligence.
This is all very intellectual, so we instead call these three types Demi-Gods, Gods, and Humans. That is correct. The leaders are called Humans, which stops them from thinking they are so important. The world of Humans then is the world of Leaders who are liberated human creatures. It is the task of the Gods (the wizards and bards) to help the leader, for he needs extra sensitivity to make decisions correctly. The Demi-Gods those with fine discrimination mark the progress of the tribe of Bodhisattvas.
Three realms of Bodhisattvas… Humans, Gods and Demi-Gods. How fantastic the truth is. All working together, all protecting their environment. What a tragedy we have fallen so far.
Why did we fall…? We developed a dual mind and the idea that all things are separate and made ourselves more important than any other individual. We destroyed the tribe, we destroyed bodhisattvahood, we destroyed all contact with our own Life Force, we destroyed all contact with our natural Dharma. When? More or less ten thousnd years ago, when we developed speech and connected words with images and created the image of SELF… In other words, Identity.
Now you can see that Identity destroyed the Humans, Demi-gods and Gods.
The Identities converted human creatures into persons with aversion, persons with confusion annd persons with greed. Humans became persons with Aversion, Gods Confused and Demi-Gods Greedy.
Sad to relate that is who we are if we are not liberated.
In Buddha Dharma we use more picturesqe terms to describe these personalities.
Those with Aversion are Savage Beasts (animals), those with Confusion are Demons of Confusion and Doubt and the Greedy are described as Hungry Ghosts.
So there are realms of those six types… When someone really begins a path with dedication completely and a full pledge to regain his Buddha Nature and become a Bodhisattva once more then he is called by his potential form. He changes conceptually from the Savage Beast realm to the Animal realm, from the Demon realm to the God realm and from the Hungry Ghost realm to the Demi-god realm.
Clearly there are those we call in error lesser animals in the world.
Are they really less? Of course not.
They are superior to any Savage Beast, Demon of Confusion or Hungry Ghost, because their Buddha Nature is intact. They behave as nature demands and their Life Force (different perhaps in some instances from ours) is unchanged and perfect. True, we manage to distort that Life Force bringing them into domestication, but that is how it is.
Now there are other creatures, Protectors and Devas and thousands of other terms used to describe particular attributes of the Bodhisattva state.
Tara, for example, is the Bodhisattva attribute of being with correct and natural intentions. Vajrasattva with the attribute of correct and natural Attitudes and Avolokiteshvara (Chenresig) with the correct and natural preparation of correct actions.
They are tools and not real. But they do really exist in the abstract way.
So don’t be fooled by your own identity desire to find support in Gods and such… Truth is better than all that fiction.
One point in passing. If you are, for example, a Greedy person -and the majority as you are a Hungry Ghost- but there are aspects of the other two forms in your character, you may have moments of aversion and others of confusion, but your dominace is Hungry Ghost.
One other thing… Nobody wants to think of themselves as a Greedy Hungry Ghost… but that is what most are. It is no use trying to convince yourself that really you are something else. What does that accomplish?
One other note… Most leaders today are Hungry Ghosts… Most wizards today are Hungry Ghosts… They want control of everything…. Where are the Savage beasts and humans?…. Hiding away.
Where are the humans, gods and semi gods… sincerely practicing to become Bodhisattvas.
Where are the Bodhisattvas...? Look and you will find them… But do not make the mistake of believing that they are easy to see… Like Buddha himself declared… “a smiling face and robes do not a master make.”