You would be my friend anyway if you did ask me to quit the path, but from your explanation, it looks like you have made a simple mistake instead.
To the extent that following the bodhisattva path could be an attachment, it is self correcting, so one doesn't need to "drop your attachment". Why is it self-correcting, other than the fact that when compassion enters a meditation, the meditation actually becomes better? Why compassion makes a meditation better I don't know, but it just does. It is possible that compassion helps integrate us with other beings, but I don't have that worked out well enough to present it as a theory. In terms of the other point, if one is trying to follow the bodhisattva path, one very quickly realizes that one doesn't have enough knowledge to be able to save other beings. Take "knowledge" broadly. Then, searching for the knowledge needed to save other beings will take one to trying to understand the Buddha-nature, and that will eventually correct any errors in meditation. --- In [email protected], "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote: I didn't ask you to quit trying to follow the Bodhisattva path. I say the 4 Bodhisattva vows at the end of every one of my sessions of zazen. I do think my story below is applicable however. So when I my 'tough-love' advice was to drop your attachment to the Bodhisattva fantasy I was saying you should work on yourself first, NOW! That is a part of the Bodhisattva path, the beginning part, the Hinayana part. When you have realized Buddha Nature then you can CONTINUE on the Bodhisattva path, the middle part, the Hinayana part, and save all sentient beings. > > That's my take on it anyway...Bill! > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
