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Cytat
Do celu tam się wysiada. Lec Stanisław Jerzy (pierw. de Tusch-Letz, 1909-1966)
A bogowie grają w kości i nie pytają wcale czy chcesz przyłączyć się do gry (. . . ) Bogowie kpią sobie z twojego poukładanego życia (. . . ) nie przejmują się zbytnio ani naszymi planami na przyszłość ani oczekiwaniami. Gdzieś we wszechświecie rzucają kości i przypadkiem wypada twoja kolej. I odtąd zwyciężyć lub przegrać - to tylko kwestia szczęścia. Borys Pasternak
Idąc po kurzych jajach nie podskakuj. Przysłowie szkockie
I Herkules nie poradzi przeciwko wielu.
Dialog półinteligentów równa się monologowi ćwierćinteligenta. Stanisław Jerzy Lec (pierw. de Tusch - Letz, 1909-1966)
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.Significantly it is also important to visualize the Buddhas in their 9780203428474_4_010.qxd 16/6/08 11:59 AM Page 234234 MahÖyÖna BuddhismBuddha Fields expounding the Doctrine, and vow to be like them.By such means one canbe reborn in the Pure Land of Buddha Akwobhya in the future, and even now, immediately,fall under his divine protection (ibid.: 332 5).90One noteworthy feature of Akwobhya and his Pure Land is that this Buddha will eventu-ally enter final nirvaua, having arranged for his successor, in the same way that ]akyamuniarranged for Maitreya.Akwobhya s final act will be self-cremation, apparently through inter-nal combustion generated by the force of meditation.91 The Doctrine preached by Akwobhyawill endure for many aeons after his passing, but will eventually decline.All this will hap-pen because of the declining merit of people in Abhirati: It is because people of that timewill lack interest in learning the Dharma that those who can expound the Dharma will goaway from them (Chang 1983: 332).People will hear little of the teaching, and will ceaseto practise.The learned monks will therefore withdraw into seclusion, and eventually theDharma will be no more.It is clear throughout this discussion that the land of Abhirati and the TathagataAkwobhya are modelled on ]akyamuni and this world but raised in all respects to a higherplane of loveliness and spirituality.It is our world as it ought to be, the world of dreams.92This very fact suggests the antiquity of interest in the Buddha Akwobhya, although wehave no idea now what concrete form any cult may have taken.Akwobhya was clearlyimportant in certain circles during the early centuries CE, although any cult seems not tohave survived, or to have been transmitted in any identifiable form as a separate cult toother Buddhist countries.This may be because it was eclipsed early on by other forms ofBuddhism in India, and the development of a Sukhavatc cult of Amitayus in Central andEast Asia.Nevertheless, Akwobhya does become an important Buddha in a rather differentcontext, the tantric traditions of late Indian Buddhism (ninth to twelfth centuries).Through these traditions he is also important in Nepalese and Tibetan Buddhism.As a tantricBuddha, Akwobhya is often the principal Buddha of the maURala, the cosmogram whichis so important in tantric ritual and meditation.In such a context he is coloured blue,and associated with four other Buddhas: Vairocana, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, andAmoghasiddhi.93BhaiôajyaguruBhaiwajyaguru is the Medicine Buddha.We have seen that other Buddhas and Bodhisattvasinclude among their functions the preventing and curing of illness, but Bhaiwajyaguru rep-resents an incarnation of the dimension of healing in all its aspects from the curing ofa cold through that of mental disease to enlightenment itself, a healing of the human con-dition.In Tibet, Bhaiwajyaguru serves as the patron saint of medicine, most of which iscarried out by monk-physicians.Meditative generation of Bhaiwajyaguru, together with therecitation of his mantra, can be used to empower and enrich the medicines themselves.94There are two setras particularly devoted to the topic of Bhaiwajyaguru theBhaiWajyaguru SEtra, and a setra which is best known by the short title of Saptabuddha (or 9780203428474_4_010.qxd 16/6/08 11:59 AM Page 235The cults of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas 235SaptatathAgata) SEtra.The latter text incorporates much of the BhaiWajyaguru SEtra, but addsa further six Buddhas to Bhaiwajyaguru, giving a set of seven.Both setras are available inTibetan, and the Sanskrit BhaiWajyaguru SEtra was discovered at Gilgit.In spite of this weshould not assume that the presence of a Sanskrit and a Tibetan version means that thesetra was necessarily composed in India.Raoul Birnbaum (1980) has noted that there areno images of Bhaiwajyaguru in India predating the transmission of the BhaiWajyaguru SEtra toChina, and none of the Chinese pilgrims to India mentions a cult of Bhaiwajyaguru.Theoldest Chinese translation of the setra (early fourth century) is contained in a compositesetra the authencity of which has been doubted from early times.95 By the fourth century,on the other hand, Bhaiwajyaguru had already become an important figure in other setrastranslated into Chinese, and appears to have been significant in Central Asia.It has beenargued (Birnbaum 1980: 52ff.; cf.Soper 1959: 176 8) that the BhaiWajyaguru SEtra was com-posed in Central Asia, and then introduced into India, where it became sufficiently knownto be quote extensively by ]antideva in the 7th or the 8th century, although the point remainscontroversial.The most popular version in East Asia is that translated by Xuanzang in theseventh century, and this corresponds closely with the Sanskrit and Tibetan versions.96The BhaiWajyaguru SEtra is much like other setras of its type.It describes the great vowsof Bhaiwajyaguru as a Bodhisattva, devotes a brief note to his Buddha Field, which, sufficeto say, is just wonderful, and describes at length, with details for ritual, the benefits whichflow from worshipping Bhaiwajyaguru and in particular invoking his name.In setting out onthe Bodhisattva path, Bhaiwajyaguru is said to have made 12 great vows, namely that whenhe becomes a Buddha, according to Birnbaum s version from the Chinese: (i) he will havean extensive radiance, the 112 marks of a superior being, and will cause all sentient beingsto resemble him; (ii) his body will be like flawless beryl, surpassing the sun and moon inradiance; (iii) he will enable all beings to have whatever is needed; (iv) he will cause non-Buddhists to enter the path of enlightenment, and those who follow the lower Vehicles toadopt the Mahayana; (v) he will enable his followers to have perfect morality and aspira-tions, and through the salvific power of his name he will purify those who transgress andprevent them from falling into the lower realms; (vi) he will cure those with deformities, leprous, convulsive, insane , again through the power of his name; (vii)[W]hen I attain enlightenment.if there are any sentient beings who are ill andoppressed, who have nowhere to go and nothing to return to, who have neither doctornor medicine, neither relatives nor immediate family, who are destitute and whose suf-ferings are acute as soon as my name passes through their ears, they will be cured ofall their diseases and they will be peaceful and joyous in body and mind.They willhave plentiful families and property, and they will personally experience the supremeenlightenment.(Birnbaum 1980: 153 4)(viii) women who are weary of their female state (in primitive conditions a state of con-stant pregnancy with poor medical facilities) can be reborn as males through his name (the 9780203428474_4_010.qxd 16/6/08 11:59 AM Page 236236 MahÖyÖna BuddhismSaptabuddha SEtra states this can occur in the present life); (ix) all will escape the net ofMara, abandon false views and progress on the Bodhisattva path; (x) all who are confrontedby fears and pains, particularly due to royal punishment, may be relieved through hearinghis name; (xi) those who transgress through hunger or thirst will attain excellent food anddrink, then afterwards the Doctrine, once more through the name of Bhaiwajyaguru; andfinally, (xii) those who are too poor to afford clothes, and are tormented by cold, heat, fliesand mosquitoes, will obtain through the power of recollecting the Buddha s name not justclothing but ornaments, garlands, incense, music and entertainment (Birnbaum 1980:152 5).How can all this happen simply through hearing the name of Bhaiwajyaguru? TheSaptabuddha SEtra implies that it is due to the great vows of these Buddhas, and their con-sequential immense power
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