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Tibetans, a Buddha is a being -- both human and divine, either male or female --
who has "awakened" from the sleep of ignorance and has purified all evil, a
being who has "expanded" limitlessly the power of his or her compassion and
accomplished all goodness. A Buddha is a form of life that has achieved
the highest evolutionary perfection possible. He or she is perfect wisdom (the
experience of the exact nature of reality) and perfect compassion (the embodiment
of the will to other's happiness). Buddhahood transcends suffering and death
and incorporates the perfected abilities to experience and communicate
happiness to all living beings.
In the mystical Buddhism, a set of Five Transcendent Buddhas, or Dhyani Buddhas
(Buddhas in Meditation), became popular over the centuries as symbolic of
the purity of the five aggregates, the five elements, the five directions,
the five colors, the five transmuted addictions, the five wisdoms, and the
five Buddha clans. Akshobhya is the paradigm of the Dharma's ability to
transmute all the hate of all beings into blue ultimate-reality-perfection
wisdom; Vairochana transmutes delusion into white mirror wisdom;
Ratnasambhava transmutes pride and avarice into yellow equality wisdom;
Amitabha transmutes lust into red discriminating wisdom; and Amoghasiddhi
transmutes envy into green all-accomplishing wisdom. However, these are
not separate gods. They are just abstract aspects of Buddhahood, often
called Tathagata. The are so popular in Nepal that they are found in every
stupa, in thousands of Chaityas (small stupas), in courtyards, and painted in
the main entrance of the Buddhist house. In Kathmandu, they are also called
Panch Buddhas. They are always shown seated in the position of meditation.
The
Medicine Buddha is a form that any Buddha can manifest by identifying with
the Medicine Buddha in his Pure Land, and represents a Transcendent Buddha's
ability to express himself as healing medicine for the benefit of ailing
beings.
Buddha was born in 463 B.C. in the Lumbini garden
at Rummindei in Nepal. His birthday is the main Buddhist festival of the year and traditionally is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, typically a full moon day. Therefore
the date will vary from year to year in the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Since it is the day upon
which the Buddha was born, died and achieved Enlightenment, for Buddhists the celebrations are massive.
Families visit the local wat (temple) to pray, and services continue all night and well
into the morning. As part of the observance of this festival, celebrants build huge bamboo
rockets which they fire at the rain god to bring down the first rains of the season. In addition
to the processions there are puppet shows and dancing with everyone dressed up in their very best
clothes for the occasion.
Buddha's birthday
is a national religious holiday in Hong Kong, Laos, Macau and South Korea. In Japan it is celebrated on
April 8th. Those who visit a shrine on his birthday take an offering of fresh spring
flowers (cherry blossoms), and so there the festival is called Hana Matsuri
or Flower Festival. It is celebrated with offerings and prayers. Things that are offered are flowers,
fruit, wine, rice, and lengths of silk or linen. Many believers prostate themselves repeatedly in front of the Buddha statue.
A long line of believers waits patiently for the opportunity to bow and pour a bamboo ladle full of sweet tea (hydrangea leaf tea) with a prayer over
a statue of the baby Buddha. This is in remembrance of the legend that it rained tea on the day that
Buddha was born.
Buddha's birthday is a time to remember the
story of how the Buddha gained enlightenment and to reflect on what it might mean for individuals
to move towards enlightening themselves. Traditionally, the values of kindness, peace and harmony
are stressed during this holiday. It is a time to be more patient and more open to each other's
differences, a time to do better and to forgive each other's failings. In some parts of Asia,
for example, some prisoners are released from jail during Buddha's birthday.
Bhaishajyaguru is known as the Medicine Buddha. He is also called the
Healing Buddha. He is said to dispense spiritual medicine when properly
worshipped. In Tibet he may be represented either as a Buddha or as a
Bodhisattva. As a Buddha, he wears a monastic robe and is seated with the
legs crossed. His left hand, lying in his lap in meditation mudra, usually
holds the medicine bowl while the right hand in charity mudra holds either
a branch with fruit, or the fruit alone, of the myrobalan, a medicinal plant
found in India and other tropical countries.
Tibetan medicine recognises three basic types of illness, the root causes of
which are the conflicting emotions -- passion, agression, and ignorance.
Myrobalan is the only herb in the Tibetan pharmacopea that can aid in healing
each of these three types of diseases. This is like the action of the Buddha
of Healing, who has the power to see the true cause of any affliction, whether
spiritual, physical or psychological, and who does whatever is necessary to alleviate it.
From the perspetive of the Apocalptic Vehicle, the Vajrayana, Adi Buddha is
regarded as the highest deity of The Buddhist Pantheon, the supreme essence
of all Buddhas. When represented he begets the name of Vajradhara and is conceived
in two forms, single and yabyum. When single he is decorated with jewels,
ornaments, and dress. He sits in the attitude of mediation, and carries
the vajra in the right hand and the ghanta (bell) in the left, the two hands crossed
in front of the heart in the diamond HUM-sound gesture. In yab-yum, his form remains the same as when single
except that when he is locked in close embrace by his Saki. Considered indivisible
from the Truth Body of all Buddhas, he nevertheless manifests in the form of a
royal Beatific Body Buddha or celestial Bodhisattva with crown and ornaments
seated in the diamond posture.
The Tibetans demonstrate their long-term hope for a positive outcome to their
evolutionary struggles in believing in the legend of the future Buddha Maitreya.
Maitreya is present in Tushita Heaven now and constantly intervenes to improve
the day, while waiting to emanate as a Buddha far in the future in order to help
those who have failed to reach enlightenment in this cycle of history. It is
said he will come to earth a full 4,000 years after the disappearance of
Gautam Buddha for the deliverence of all sentient beings. He is the only
Bodhisattva who is worshipped both by the Himayanists and the Mahayanists.
In their
devotion to the myth of Avalokiteshvara's vow to protect the Tibetans, they
uphold their convenant with a powerful archangel of total benevolence. They
need only put the Buddha Dharma of wisdom and compassion into practice as
much as possible in their personal lives and social institutions, and the Bodhisattva
will tirelessly come to their aid in all their difficulties. In the sense of
planetary spiritual environment, Tibetans feel the continuing presence of
Padma Sambhava alive on his copper mountain, of Manjushri dwelling on his five
peaks, and of the Vajradakinis in their magic land to the west. In the midst
of being invaded and troubled by difficulties in the world, they feel Shakyamuni
still radiant from the holy land of India, and they feel the vigilant presence of
Shambhala in the north, waiting for the time to turn the world around toward goodness
and sanity.
Maitreya may be represented as
a standing figure adorned with rich ornaments and holding in his right hand the
stalk of a lotus. Maitreya may also be represented seated as a Buddha, with
legs either interlocked or dangling down. His color is yellow, and his images
sometimes bear the figures of Dhyani Buddhas.
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