Bodhisattva View - Commentary on this Idea from Bhante Vimalaramsi-0ZxvMGddSoo.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ZxvMGddSoo

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

what is ignorance what is the origin of

ignorance what is the cessation of

ignorance what is the way leading to the

cessation of ignorance the root word of

ignorance is to ignore okay ignore what

ignore the four noble truths not see how

they actually work now this is one of

the things that is very necessary to

have a Buddha come because they

rediscover the Four Noble Truths and the

links of dependent origination they

rediscover it all all subtleness as well

as gross things

so these religions that they hold to one

being as the the ultimate end there's no

such a thing as an ultimate end and they

kind of look down on Buddhism because

they say well another Buddha is going to

come around a little well but that

little well can be quite a while this

Buddha era were incredibly lucky because

there are six Buddha's that are coming

in this band

it might be you can't put time on it but

it might be a hundred thousand years or

a million years from now who knows when

the next boot is going to show up

there's a lot of talk about waiting for

the next the next Buddha to appear ok

the the next Buddha his name is Maitreya

he is in the to seat to heaven one day

in the to seat to heaven is equivalent

to 400 years here now to Buddha's cannot

appear in the same Buddha Buddha era the

Dhamma has to completely fade away and

ignorance is the thing that takes over

ignoring how everything works and it's a

very long period of time before another

Buddha will appear there's three kinds

of Buddha Gautama Buddha was called an

intelligent Buddha he was intelligent

because it only took him four Maha

Kappas and a hundred thousand lifetimes

to become a Buddha maha kappa well

there's there's for a saint kaya's okay

there's

and expansion of the universe and that's

one out saying kaya numbers are really

this just gives you an idea of the

length of the expansion of the universe

the the scientists and astronomers are

talking in billions of years like that's

some kind of a long time the expansion

of the universe one ah sang kya is ten

with a hundred and sixty zeros behind it

that's how many years it takes to expand

and then the universe stops for an

assigned kya and then it contracts for

an assigned kya and then it stops for an

awesome kya and then it starts expanding

again in the universe

there are many many different universes

let's put it that way

the only time there is life on planets

is when there is an expansion

so we haven't even begun I mean we're

just at the start of the expansion right

now I think because it's only a few bit

of a few billion years old and it takes

a lot longer than that a billion is 12

zeros it's gonna take out nerd sixty of

them

okay these four are saying kaya's make

up a Maha Maha Kappa I couldn't pull it

out for some reason

okay now this Buddha it only took him

four expansions and contractions of the

universe to purify himself before he

could be while he was a bodhisattva

before he could become a Buddha the next

kind of Buddha is called an energetic

Buddha this Buddha it takes him eight

Maha coppice and a hundred thousand

lifetimes when there when he's reborn

he's reborn in a period of time when the

life expectancy of the human being is

quite long fifty thousand years a

hundred thousand years like that and he

only gives the Dhamma talk occasionally

the last kind of buddha that there is is

called a moral buddha and they take the

sixteen maha karpas when he gives he

mostly teaches by example and if he

gives a Dhamma talk it might be once in

a thousand years the life expectancy is

very long but time is a weird thing I

mean it's all relative now the way you

become a Buddha is by seeing a Buddha

being very inspired you have to have the

potential to become a Nara hot and you

renounce that and you make the

determination I want to be a bodhisattva

I want to be a future Buddha

that's what Bodhisattva means future

Buddha now the Buddha when he does it in

front of him

he will look into the future and tell

you whether you have enough

determination to do that or not

when you take a bodhisattva vow it will

stop you from attaining Nibbana until

you have all of the the para means

there's ten of those on that trick and

repeat all of abdi know

energy truth

determination yeah

kunti patience

and he has to perfect all of these

different qualities and it takes quite a

long many lifetimes to do that well

what's happening right now with people

at this time they're told by Buddhist

teachers that they should become a

bodhisattva and they tell them you

become a bodhisattva until a new

renounce Nirvana until all beings can

experience new Bhama

now if that was true we wouldn't be here

right now so there's some wrong thinking

about the Bodhisattva vow and when they

started becoming real popular with some

of the teachings all of a sudden there

were no more arts around because

everybody was taking about he's a devout

so they had to make up and an idea of

what Nibbana was and it gets real

confusing now the tera vaada and

sevastopol's they don't take the

Bodhisattva vow and that means they have

the potential to attain nirvana and

become a Nara hot in this lifetime

if you attain even one jhana

you have the potential to experience

nirvana in this lifetime I have a lot of

students that have taken the Bodhisattva

vow and I talked with them about it that

if you take the Bodhisattva vow what

generally happens with people is they

take this vow and they might go through

five thousand or even a hundred thousand

lifetimes and then they start realizing

how difficult it is and they renounce

the vow but they're not in a Buddha area

anymore so then they start going on the

wheel of samsara and they get lost so I

try to encourage people not to take the

Bodhisattva vow or if they have taken it

I encourage them to let it go if they

want to attain nirvana in this lifetime

I've had some students and say no I'm

fine with this I'm going to continue and

that's that's okay it's their choice

I can't I'm not trying to talk them out

of it I'm just trying to educate them so

that they know what they have to look

forward to a Bodhi sat there there's

some claims that Jesus was a bodhisattva

maybe yes maybe no who knows it's a very

personal thing and you know in each of

the lifetimes you know that you're a

bodhisattva and you know what you have

to work on it generally happens when

you're young

ten or twelve years old you will have a

very very vivid dream of a Buddha image

and you enter into the Buddha image now

if you enter into the feet that means

you're just beginning

if you enter into the navel that means

you've been doing it for quite a while

but you still got a lot more to go you

enter into the heart that means you're

getting close to being done only a few

more Maha cappas and you enter into the

third eye that means you're getting

closer and closer to becoming a Buddha

and it is a very very vivid dream and

that's how you you kind of judge whether

you want to keep going or not because

you start seeing how much suffering you

really have to do so that you can

perfect all of these different qualities

now the Buddha was talking about his

being a bodhisattva and he said the

quality that he never broke was the

quality of honesty of always saying the

truth

and that's one of the reasons that when

he could when he would give a Dhamma

talk everybody would listen because they

had that perfection of the truth

and it affected his voice in such a way

that he would talk at this level and you

might be at the at the mill and you

would hear it just as well as you were

here his voice carried like that so it

was very amazing the idea that you're

being selfish because you want to attain

nirvana now is completely ridiculous

because as you go deeper and you become

a sodapeta and ana sakagami and Anan

egami your compassion to help other

people becomes very very strong and you

help a lot of people along the way so

there it doesn't mean anything when they

say well you're being selfish because

you're not you don't want to become a

future of Buddha and there's all kinds

of strange ideas out there

call me Bob Buddha because that's who I

am no you're not

not even close you can't even God really

call yourself a Bodhisattva you have

that kind of an attitude as they have to

go through a lot of trials and

tribulations

so people after 30 40 thousand lifetimes

realizing that's what they're doing they

go boy this is hard

and they give up the vow now how long do

they have to wait before they see

another Buddha it depends on their

merits so taking a Bodhisattva vow is

entirely up to you you can do it or not

I know that there are quite a few tera

vaada monks that take the valve but they

don't talk about it it's not talk it's

you have to walk the walk not talk the

walk

but there's a lot of romanticism around

being a bodhisattva and some people they

just want to do it it's fine you can do

that I can take you and show you how to

do this meditation up to the realm of

neither perception nor non-perception

that's all I can do for anybody but

after that you will not be able to

experience a cessation of perception

feeling in consciousness because the

Bodhisattva vow will stop you