On Tuesday, Jan 1 sungmanitu28 wrote: >[.Bodhisattva stuff cut.] Are babies, at the first moment of birth, >not already enlightened beings?
If you mean by 'enlightened', acting from your Buddha nature without hindrance, I think that is true; and I think there is a good argument for that in Buddhist and Christian teachings. The Bodhisattva vow starts out with 'Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.' 'Sentient' is defined in the online Wordsmyth dictionary as "having the capacity to receive sensations; able to perceive." 'Perceive' is defined as "to become aware of through the senses.' 'Sentient' does not mean 'thinking' or 'having the ability to use logic'. Therefore you could conclude that a newborn baby is already a sentient being. I think it is 'thinking', especially discriminatory thinking, that is separating things into subject/object, is what conceals our original Buddha nature. Since newborns don't have that ability yet, or at least it is not yet well-developed, I think you could consider them enlightened. In the Christian Bible, Mark 10:, when his disciples tried to keep some children from coming to him during one of his teaching sessions, Jesus is purported to say: 'But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs'. . Now it you equate 'the Kingdom of Heaven' with enlightenment, and I do, then this passage also supports the idea that children are already enlightened. Also, in Matthew 18:3, Jesus is purported to have said: 'Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.' That also lends some credence to such a belief that newborns, and even little children, are enlightened, and their enlightenment is unhindered and apparent. And again, in Genesis Chapters 2 and 3, Eve's and Adam's original sin, that which got them kicked-out of the Garden of Eden, which separated them from God, was 'eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil'. That to me mythologically describes the point in human evolution when humans first begin to discriminate: to assign such tags as good/evil, right/wrong, you/me, subject/object, etc. By the way, I normally don't come across with a lot of Christian rhetoric, but I do think the essence of all religions are one. And in this case I think the concepts of Buddha mind and enlightenment are very, very similar to the Christian concepts of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. .Bill!
