--- In [email protected], Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote:
>
> Steve,
>
> Thank you for releasing me from a constant fear of being attacked by
> enlightened beings. As regards 'tonglen', it is supposed to give away one's
> good luck, in exchange for taking others' bad luck. This is a great
> bodhisatva's practice. However, the Buddhist principle is that you can only
> work on your own karma by yourself, and it is impossible to have others
> influence your karma. Of course, they can guide you toward creating good
> karma. Is tonglen in conformity with Buddhism?
>
> Anthony
>
> Hi Anthony. This is another one of those questions of dispute among
Buddhists. From the Theravada view-point, it is certainly
impossible. Many Mahayanists would say that parinamara, or transfer
of merit, is simply a metaphor for letting go of self-interest.
However, it is taken quite seriously in Pureland. While seemingly
contradicting the law of cause and effect, parinamara does make
sense if, as I believe, reality is one seamlessly interwoven
Whole. That is why I said in an earlier post that our common-
sense notions of cause and effect may, in fact, be illusiory.
Steve
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