Newbie question! - Chants? Statues? The supernatural?

[spiritnoname]

 You guys should think about this without feeling that you need to adhere to a common view. All of Buddhism could be wrong and you'd still be following it because others are, and Buddhism could be right but you would never understand it because all you were doing was following another person.

  Be serious with yourself for a while and think about these things, Buddhism needs people who understand what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how their activities produce results.

[niloc]

Thanks everyone for sharing their knowledge and understanding

And HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

[Joey]

I see, so probably because of the way people phrase things, for example:

Pray to Dzambala Buddha for better wealth!

It can actually mean either:

1) Praying to become rich and all that

2) Praying to overcome financial worries to focus on the Dharma

And because MANY are more concerned with material wealth, they tend to focus on #1.

And because of that, people like myself and perhaps others as well tend to conclude that all this praying mumbo jumbo is "fake" and "not right" in buddhism!

But actually it's just the common perception of people, and not the real truth!

=D


Therefore, regardless of Medicine Buddha or Wealth Buddha or Wisdom Buddha or etc Buddha (don't know them all yet), regardless what "logic" is explained on what they can do for you and their "powers"..

Regardless of all that..

People who share my kind of thinking will always feel that it is supernatural and just another "belief", some typical chinese taoism kind of thing. Pray to the Gods for this and for that simply because of the common perception among people.

BUT BUT BUT after reading most of what you all have said, especially WMW111's colourful writings...

It finally hit me that "getting help" from all the many types of Buddhas is NOT for wealth and good health and what not.

It is a delusion.

It is actually for clearing our obstacles in the true path to attain enlightenment quickly as we can so that we too can come back and help liberate others.

But the misconception came from many who pray to the Buddhas and ask for help, for the wrong intentions.

And also probably the wordings.. like in the "no more caves" newsletter it is stated that Dzambala is for "increasing personal wealth and business" and that can be seen in another pov as for individuals to contribute and then gain "help" from Dzambala for your own material happiness only.....


So is my understanding more or less correct or I got it wrong? haha.

well in vajrayana we tend to use any way possible to help people get connected to the Dharma. Obviously to attract people who only want wealth but nothing else, telling them the 4 noble truths or 8 noble paths will not help at all. So by "praying" to Dzambala which will subconsciously influence them to be more generous, they get both inner and outer wealth. And its from there that they will discover the Dharma.

people who do not understand and do not find out why, or see it from a different angle wont understand.

there is actually only 1 Buddha, but he appears differently according to the different needs of different people. Each person has a different kind of mental affliction so to expect 1 method to cure and reach out to everyone would be very illogical indeed.  Hence, people with a specific need will see the Buddha in a specific form. For example, miserly people will see him as Dzambala, while people filled with jealousy will see the same Buddha as Tara etc. So in this way, the Buddha never leaves anyone out or goes "oh well, i guess its not your time yet for Dharma, bye".

i guess the main thing about Vajrayana is to give up all your preconceptions of how Buddhism is supposed to be and just accept it with an open heart.

[spiritnoname]

 Being stingy is painful, actually found myself being stingy about something, choose to give it away and more just to get rid of the pain.

[niloc]

i guess the main thing about Vajrayana is to give up all your preconceptions of how Buddhism is supposed to be and just accept it with an open heart.

LoL I can't do that. Then I would have done so for Christianity or Islam or whichever religion which reached me first.. by just accepting everything said with an open heart.

As a Buddhist, it's my nature to investigate and find out for myself what is right or at least closest to it. =)

[ysng101]

Open heart here does not mean accepting everything without question.

Open heart here means you do not reject what you do not understand.

You keep on contemplating or investigating as you would call it.  Investigating/researching  would also mean you may have to 'get your hands dirty' .  Which might mean , setting aside a bit of time everyday to do your chosen daily sadhanna, this is the practical part that you would have to do. All theory and no practical would hinder your spiritual progress.   There's all to gain and nothing to lose when you do things related to the buddhadharma.

[niloc]

Alright bros! Thanks for the insights.

[akali]

I recommend the book Introduction to Tantra, by Lama Yeshe. . . it sounds like you are grounded it sutra and hinayana teachings - "the basics."  The "supernatural" elements you're questioning about are aspects of Tantra, and are Lama Yeshe does a great job in helping us to understand what it's about.