Expert: Anandapanyo Bhikkhu - 9/27/2009

Question
QUESTION: so as said the characters and relatives of buddha didnt just attained enligtenment in one sitting, they did it for a lot of lives, you mean the life of buddha the characters are on their last life?

what is the theravadin concept of bodhisattvas do they delay enligtenment until all beings are enligtened as mahayana said?


is nirvana same with emptiness?


how to erase bad karma? if attachment is bad why attach to good karma? how does it work you need to make good karma one sided over bad karma?

ANSWER: Dear Jaya,

Thank you for your followup Questions

"so as said the characters and relatives of buddha didnt just attained enligtenment in one sitting, they did it for a lot of lives, you mean the life of buddha the characters are on their last life?"

Just like a baby must be in the mother's stomach for 9 months but is born in one day, even so, the disciples, lay followers and relatives of the Buddha and anyone else who became enlightened, all built up to their enlightenment. In this last life, they merely received the fruits of their practice. In the previous lives, they practiced in order to get closer to the final result, but were not able to get there. Just like building a house, each day, you do one part. Each day you fix or work on it. When it is almost done, the last part only take 1 day. Can you say the house was built in one day?

"what is the theravadin concept of bodhisattvas do they delay enligtenment until all beings are enligtened as mahayana said?"

According to the Buddha, in order to become a full bodhisattva:

1. An individual must have cultivated enough merit and parami to become an arahant,

2. That individual must choose to forgo that enlightenment in this life and become a bodhisattva

3. That individual must receive the prediction of fulfillment of their aspiration at the foot of a living Buddha.

4. After receiving the prediction, they must spend at least four incalculable periods plus an additional 100,000 lives in order to fill their parami.

I do not know exactly what the Mahayana scriptures say about this, but this is the word of the Buddha. So, yes, they have to delay their enlightenment in order to become a bodhisattva. However, the key thing to notice is that they must first be eligible to become a Arahant BEFORE they can delay their enlightenment. So, people who want to be bodhisatvas and regular people who want to become enlightened, STILL must walk the Buddha's path.

"is nirvana same with emptiness?"

As I answered in both previous replies, no one knows and no one can answer this. Anyone who answers this question is either guessing or assuming. All we know is the Buddha said Nirvana is eternal bliss and something we should strive for.

"how to erase bad karma? if attachment is bad why attach to good karma? how does it work you need to make good karma one sided over bad karma?"

Bad karma comes from
Bad Points of View ==> which leads to Bad Thoughts ==> which leads to Bad Speech/Actions

Bad Action/Speech that has already happened cannot be erased. It is already out there in the world and cannot be taken back or erased.

Bad Thoughts/Points of View also cannot be erased or taken back, HOWEVER, they are still inside you. They have always been and will always be there UNTIL you decide to eradicate them. If you change your bad thoughts/points of view and align them with the right point of view (sammaditthi), you would have done the highest merit possible AND prevented any further bad karma that will come from those Bad Thoughts/Point of Views.

Attachment is bad, but since we cannot release the clinging yet, we still must rely on good karma. Why? We must rely on good karma to help us get past the bad karma we are still doing.
If we are still doing bad karma, and we decide to not attach to and not do good karma, what are we left with? Just bad karma. What the Buddha told Ananda was this:

(paraphrased) In order to be enlightened, we must let go of goodness. However, if we cannot reach enlightenment, we must still hold on to goodness as support. That goodness will help us get closer and closer to enlightenment. We need to hold on to goodness in order to help us let go and to stop doing evil. The first thing we must let go of on the path to enlightenment is evil. Then we cultivate good. We must cultivate enough good to be enlightened. THEN and only THEN do we let go of the good karma.

If we let go of the good karma too soon, we will not have enough parami to make it to enlightenment. Then we will get sad and/or discouraged, and possibly give up our striving for the final goal. If we give up, then we resort back to evil. That is why we still need to do good karma, so that we keep moving towards the goal.

I hope I have answered your questions, and I look forward to any future questions you might have.

Sincerely,
Phra Anandapanyo


PS. I am a follower of the recently deceased Arahant monk, Venerable Acariya Thoon Khippapanyo. I attribute my knowledge of Buddhism and the PATH to my holy teacher. If you would like to know more about him, please go to www.kpyusa.org or search for his books on amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. Search under "Acariya Thoon Khippapanyo"

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: in layman's term doing good is like "leveling up" points bound for enligtenment? is it possible for man like ist 100 000 lives too good and the last 99 lives became bad is it possible to be flunked delaying enligtenment?

i find some difficulties you said arahant is first step to be bodhisatta? isnt that an arahant will never ever be reborn after death since its their final birth? how does a bodhisattva delay enligtenment some sort of magical power to topple karma?

what about the buddha;s conversation with indra and brahma? is the story reality or just adding the drama? is that metaphor that in buddhism we man are greater than gods? even ananda and the disciples made brahma foolish


im into drawing i just imagined a nirvanic form of a monk a giant version of himself enveloping the cosmos hehe with a giant brain subtle one

ANSWER: Dear Jaya,

"In layman's term doing good is like "leveling up" points bound for enligtenment? is it possible for man like ist 100 000 lives too good and the last 99 lives became bad is it possible to be flunked delaying enligtenment?"

Yes, in a particular sense, doing good is like leveling up, and doing bad is like losing points. However, not all good points can cover bad points and not all bad points take away from the good points.

Yes, it is very possible for man to live 100,000 good lives, but have 99 lives and ruin their proximity to enlightenment. That is why doing good and BEING good is so important. However, it is also possible to do good and bad for many lives, but in your last life, you focus hard and diligently with a resolve to leave suffering behind, you can possibly still achieve enlightenment.

For example, let's consider the case of MahaMoggallana, the Buddha "left-hand" disciple. In one previous life, he beat his blind parents to death. He spent many many rebirths in hell, the lowest hell. However, while in his other lives, he also cultivated much goodness. In his last life, he became enlightened, however, his karma was not done with him. When it was time to die, he got beaten to death by thieves. However, he had already become an Arahant and the only pain the robbers could inflict upon him was physical, emotionally, MahaMoggallana was free for all eternity.

How about the famous story of the bandit Angulimala or "Finger Garland." In all his lives he did good and cultivated parami, in this last life, he was ready to be an Arahant. However, he was tricked into killing 999 people. Even with this, he could still be an Arahant with practice. However, he was on his way to killing his mother for the 1000th kill. This act is irredeemable. If he had done this, he would have immediately "lost points" and had to go to the lowest hell. However, with the mercy and metta of the Buddha, Angulimala was able to repent, become a monk, practice diligently and become an Arahant. After he became an Arahant, he had to pay for his evil deeds, however, as with MahaMoggallana, he only paid with physical pain, for he was liberated for all eternity.

Here is the important point.
Doing good can HELP LEAD you towards the final goal
Doing bad can PUSH YOU away from the final goal

DOING GOOD CANNOT GIVE YOU THE FINAL GOAL, you must achieve that independently of doing good or bad. You must concentrate your mind upon the processes and points of view within you and realign them with the Saccadhamma (truth of the world). If you can do that, you can become enlightened.


"i find some difficulties you said arahant is first step to be bodhisatta? isnt that an arahant will never ever be reborn after death since its their final birth? how does a bodhisattva delay enligtenment some sort of magical power to topple karma?"

I said that a bodhisattva must first fulfill all the requirements to be an Arahant. However, he does not obtain the fruits of the PATH. He merely walks it ALMOST to the end. Then, through a conscious decision, he sacrifices his own possible enlightenment to walk a NEW path, the path to Buddhahood, which is known as being a bodhisattva. It is like this, a person goes to school and studies for all the tests, he does all the homework, in addition, he passes all the tests. He has done all the work to graduate. However, when the time comes, he does not take the final. Therefore, he does not graduate. He has done all the work and is definitely qualified to graduate, however, he chooses not to. He chooses to redo all the coursework in order to help tutor the next 100,000+ years of students. He makes this decision because he wants to help all the new students with their studies. Finally, when he has helped all the new students, he will graduate with them, as their personal Tutor.

Becoming enlightened is a combination of doing the work and the CHOICE to reap the benefits. That is why there are four levels of enlightenment, but 8 types of Noble beings. Four are on the path, four have reaped the fruits.

"what about the buddha;s conversation with indra and brahma? is the story reality or just adding the drama? is that metaphor that in buddhism we man are greater than gods? even ananda and the disciples made brahma foolish"

According to the Buddha, Indra and Brahma are merely human beings who have cultivated great merit and are currently residing in the highest sense sphere. Man is neither greater nor lessor than these "gods." The most important concept here is that we have the CAPACITY for greater good and greater evil. Since we have both body and soul (this breaks down into many divisions), and Brahma, Indra, ghosts, devas, spirits only have a soul, WE have the POTENTIAL for maximum goodness, and the POTENTIAL for maximum evil. Even Buddha had to be born as a human in order to be enlightened. As for making them foolish, we as humans are foolish. What is to stop us from being foolish when we are in the sense sphere? As long as me maintain the same points of views, we will always be just as foolish as we are now. People who eventually become Indra, Brahma or devas are merely people who have done extraordinary merit, such as Bodhisattvas, their future disciples or people who have donated or committed huge merit with Buddhas, paccekabuddhas or Ariya-Puggala (enlightened beings).

Sincerely,

Phra Anandapanyo


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: wow great answers so the lesson behind rebirth is not to ask what is reborn such as soul or energy but everytime do good

how are bad karma being cancelled even without bearing the fruits? is it possible to escape the fruits of karma? once the fruit or karmic sentence has been served, will karma totally cancel out the bad deed or its like a criminal resume listing all the good and the bad but this time the bad deeds on the list is still listed but the deeds bbeing served never to bear fruits again?


you seem not to take the buddha's life seriously comparing to other religious biography bec some religions wanted to prove the validity by arguing the lives of their founders, wheter the buddha life is partly historical and partly myth it does not matter for buddhists?


if you try to meditate about anatta anicca dukkha yet remained bad, ok if you understand the buddha teachings clearly and contemplated it but still a bad person, is it true that pure knowledge alone is not sufficient for enligtenment with no good deeds?


why bodhisattvas wanted to delay nirvana, they should go to nirvana first and return to teach? why delay? can gautama buddha return to teach us get out of nirvana and teach the beings?

Answer
Dear Jaya,

"how are bad karma being cancelled even without bearing the fruits?

For Arahants, all the bad karma that would have been dispersed over many lives has to rush and be used in this life. However, with the Arahant having a firm and solid frame of mind, they do not give many opportunities for bad karma to catch. That is mostly why we hear of physical ailments only. We will never hear of Arahants having emotional or spiritual ailments.

"is it possible to escape the fruits of karma?"
Yes, if you become enlightened, all karma must be paid off in your last life. Therefore, any karma that has not been paid off at the end of your life as a Arahant will be considered paid off since you will never return and karma no longer has any authority over you.

"once the fruit or karmic sentence has been served, will karma totally cancel out the bad deed or its like a criminal resume listing all the good and the bad but this time the bad deeds on the list is still listed but the deeds bbeing served never to bear fruits again?"

Once you serve your karma, that particular karma is ended. However, due to the nature of human beings and our inability to see the big picture of karma and all our actions, the karma that we served usually leaves a lasting emotional scar on our psyches which thereby leads to us doing actions that cause new karma. So, even though the old karma is served, we cannot help but create new karma.

"if you try to meditate about anatta anicca dukkha yet remained bad, ok if you understand the buddha teachings clearly and contemplated it but still a bad person, is it true that pure knowledge alone is not sufficient for enligtenment with no good deeds?"

A person who can successfully meditate upon the concepts of Anatta, Anicca and Dukkha would have become enlightened. Once enlightened, you will not be able to do evil ever again. Depending on the level of enlightenment, you will still have some defilements and therefore still have desires and some wrong points of view, however, you will have a steadfast belief in the Buddha and an inherent fear of wrong doing, that is, you will not break the five precepts.

However, if you meditate upon Anicca Dukkha and Anatta, and are not able to break through to the true understanding, of course you will still do bad and therefore can be considered a bad person. However, there is a very important point here, we ARE bad, in order to SEE we are bad, in order to FIX the BAD in us. Without being bad, seeing that we are bad, we would have nothing to practice upon. In reality, when we practice Anicca Dukkha and Anatta, we don't evaluate the world, that will not help us get closer to enlightenment, we evaluate OURSELVES and our VIEWPOINTS. We take our wrong actions, our wrong viewpoints and analyze how they are impermanent (anicca), cause suffering or discomfort (dukkha) and are not able to be called self (Anatta). We cannot become enlightened from understanding the WORLD better, we become enlightened by understanding how WE exist in the world.

"why bodhisattvas wanted to delay nirvana, they should go to nirvana first and return to teach? why delay? can gautama buddha return to teach us get out of nirvana and teach the beings?"

Bodhisattvas delay their nirvana so they can help the lost souls of the world when they become a future Buddha. Since there is NO RETURN from Nirvana, Bodhisattvas CANNOT go to Nirvana and return to Teach. That is why they must delay their Nirvana. Since they want to teach and help people, they CANNOT go to Nirvana first.

Gautama Buddha has already entered Nirvana, so he can never come back and will never come back. The next Buddhas are currently existing in the world as Bodhisattvas. The is what Bodhisattvas are, FUTURE BUDDHAS.

I hope I have answered all your questions. My teacher, Acariya Thoon actually wrote a very good book about Buddhas and when they will come into our world. It is called Natural Disasters and can be found on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, just search under Acariya Thoon Khippapanyo.

Sincerely,

Phra Anandapanyo