by NotImportant

In the summer of 2008, a lay Buddhist teacher posting under the name "NotImportant" shared on alt.religion.buddhism a dharma correspondence he had conducted with a prisoner on death row. The prisoner had been exchanging letters with a senior monastic, and when that teacher was no longer available, NotImportant was asked to continue the dialogue. What follows is the full letter — a single, sustained reply to the prisoner's questions about logic, reality, delusion, karma, miracles, and the nature of enlightenment.

The prisoner's words appear in block quotes. The teacher answers each question in turn. The result is one of the most unusual documents in the archive: Buddhist teaching conducted at close quarters with someone facing death, written without condescension, addressing the hardest questions with patience and care.

"NotImportant" was a lay Vajrayana practitioner in the Vajrayogini tradition, a student of Lati Rinpoche. He described himself as someone almost universally mistrusted by his community, who had turned his ostracism into intensive meditation practice. The prisoner's name and that of the previous monastic correspondent are represented as XXXXX.

Dear Prisoner,

Greetings. Hope this letter find you well.

I've recently been assigned to continue the dharma dialog that you were having with Ven. XXXXX.

You had asked some very good and pointed questions and I'll try my level best to address them. I'll cut and paste from your letter and give my answer below it. Don't think of me as a teacher but a dharma friend. So do speak freely.

---- I do appreciate a lot for your teachings, buddhism book, and your letter of 6-22-07. I sent/mailed you my questions parted on 7-25-07. Please forgive me if my questions are “radical” or “frank” or seems as “denial” or “unbeliever.” I'm not neither “pessmist” nor “optimist”, but I'm trying hard to be 100% “logic” and “realistic”, if possible. So I'm hoping my tough questions do not bother you.

Your tough questions don't bother me so you could ask almost anything. In the Kalama Sutta Buddha had encouraged the spirit of free enquiry. The following paragraph is taken from the sutta :

“As they sat there, the Kalamas of Kesaputta said to the Blessed One, "Lord, there are some priests & contemplatives who come to Kesaputta. They expound & glorify their own doctrines, but as for the doctrines of others, they deprecate them, revile them, show contempt for them, & disparage them. And then other priests & contemplatives come to Kesaputta. They expound & glorify their own doctrines, but as for the doctrines of others, they deprecate them, revile them, show contempt for them, & disparage them. They leave us absolutely uncertain & in doubt: Which of these venerable priests & contemplatives are speaking the truth, and which ones are lying?"

This spirit of free enquiry is very much a part of the buddhist teaching. It's spaciousness, easy acceptance of other religion makes it a rich and vibrant religion.

At another time the chief disciple of Mahavira(the founder of Jain) was sent to challenge Buddha in a debate on Self. Buddha was able to convinced this disciple of Mahavira that there's actually no- self. The disciple thanked the buddha and bowed to him and asked him to be his teacher. Buddha agreed on one condition and that is he will continue to serve Mahavira as he had done before. He will teach him whenever and wherever it is convenient for him.

So you are not in denial or anything like that. Your questions and doubts are legitimate. But do you think that by being 100% logical you could know reality correctly ? I want to spend some time on this because if you understand what I say then it will cover a lot of issues that you have raised further down.

Reality is a deep concern in buddhism because Buddha had said that ALL of us without exception are deluded and we can't see things correctly. What we see , hear, feel, smell, taste and think all arise from our delusions. It is the mind that fabricates this reality for us. The intellect, the logical thinking etc. are part and parcel of this mind fabrication. The stuff (concepts, facts, relationships etc.) that the mind use for thinking comes from our past lifes, our upbringing, our education, our conditioning, our experiences etc. This means given the same external stimuli to two different persons we will get two different reactions. For example when one person sees a monk he/she could bow in respect, ignore the monk or spat at the monk and what happened outside in this case depends on what we have inside of us – the reality we hold inside determines the kind of reality we perceive outside. But in truth this reality is actually within our mind. Thinking that this reality is real is the source of much of man's sufferings.

Buddha used the word delusions to underline the fact that all of us could not see reality correctly – no matter how intelligent or logical we are. In the yogic tradition the term used is Maya or illusion. All that we perceive is nothing more than an illusion. I brought up Maya because there's an interesting story in the yogic tradition to compare 2 faculties that all of us have. The first is our intellect. This intellect is blind. The second faculty is our innate ability to “see” and understand things in an instant and this is our ability to have insights into things. The story goes something like this :

Living in a forest are 2 persons. They know that the other exists but they never talk to each other. One of them was blind but talks a lot and move around a lot in the forest. The other person is sighted but he has no legs. So he's always very quiet and went about his life quietly and do not cause too much commotion. Then one day the forest caught fire and was blazing uncontrollably. The legless but sighted man kept signaling and telling the blind man about the fire. But because the sighted man hadn't spoken for long he hardly could make any sound. And hence both men were trapped in the forest fire and did not know how to get out of the fire of samsara (cyclic existence).

I've modified the story a bit but the message it is trying to convey is that the intellect is blind but it is very noisy, insistent and thinks that it is correct. While the heart where insights arise is quiet , gentle and sees with great clarity. Because it is gentle and accepting it does not impose it's knowledge and wisdom on the intellect. It waits patiently.

From this short story we could see that in order for us to see clearly the intellect has to be quiet. Buddhism has a meditation known as Insight Meditation or Vipasanna that will help you become more insightful.

Questions from your book “Notes on the Path to Enlightenment” : (18) P.16,1.4 “the skillful practices of the tantrayana....” please explain what are they.”

I've not read the “Notes on the Path to Enlightenment” but I do know what are the practices of tantrayana. Tantra spiritual technology believes that all our thoughts, feelings, emotions etc. are all locked up within the various energy centers found in the human body. This means our delusions are part of this body. Tantrayana use a very direct method of influencing, modifying and replacing these delusions by manipulating the energy flows within the body. So the main techniques use in tantrayana involve visualisation and mantra. Depending on the types of tantra that is being practiced the visualisation and the mantra would be different.
------- (19) P.19, right, paragraph 7 “ According to Buddha the gross level of your conscious awareness.....there are subtler levels of consciousness.....” these 2 words are ...

I saw from your letter that you are truly dedicated and thorough in your approach. Gross and subtle consciousness have very specific meaning in buddhism. And this is a very complex subject. The gross consciousness is that consciousness that is associated with the physical body i.e. sight, smell, sound, taste, touch and mental. We could be aware of this but we need the subtle consciousness in order for “knowing” to arise. The subtle consciousness is the one that goes from one physical body to another at the time of death. This is not an easy subject. I've simplified it quite a lot. We can revisit this subject at a later time if you like. So gross means physical or dense or profuse. So subtle would be the opposite. If someone press hard on your arm, the sensation is gross. If a gentle breeze blows across the same arm, the sensation is subtle.

------- (20) P.20, left, L.11 “the consciousness of an enlightened being .....”, also you always refer to sentient beings !! Why in Buddhist books you refer to Lord Buddha, Dalai Lama, lamas, humans, animals, plants(trees,vegetables, etc) hungry ghosts,etc, as “being” ? Isn't it proper to say “an enlightened one/man/saint/ nun” ?

It is just a word and there's no special reason for it. It is just like the word “person”. A good person, an enlightened person and so on.
Actually plants are not considered as sentient being. A sentient being is one that has perception and consciousness. A hungry ghost can be rightly classified as a sentient being because it has perception and consciousness even though these perceptions are highly deluded.
Once buddha was asked whether he was a creator god. Buddha said no. Was he a deva(god) and buddha said no. Was he a man and buddha again replied no. In exasperation the high priest who was challenging buddha asked him if he's not creator, god or man what is he ? Buddha replied “I'm a buddha”. Buddha means the “awake”. During buddha's time the term buddha was not honorific or has any value. A god(deva) has more respect.
Buddhism deals a lot with the mind and our delusions. It is often not important what words we use, what is more important is that it accurately reflect what we mean.
“Words , words , words....... We are lost without it, We are trapped with it.”

My point is that “controversial facts”, “truth & lies” are all around us – on TV, in the churches, in the librarys, even in our own mind (as Buddhism teach us and I believe it) !!! ( Need for proof of hungry ghosts etc. deleted)

I've snipped off quite a bit of what you had said. So let me briefly restate what you were trying to say. Do correct me if I'm wrong.
I think your main concern is “logical, convincing, factual ,actual.
To you what is logical is convincing. But in the field of logic what is logical may not be true. For example if we examine the logical premise “If I take orange juice I'll get a stomach ache.” Next morning I take some orange juice, logically I should get a stomach ache but you know very well that this is highly unlikely. Logically this is correct but because the premise or the basis of this logical conclusion is false then the conclusion itself will also be false eventhough the logic itself is correct.
What is factual may actually not be factual at all. For example all of us are convinced that Neil Armstrong had landed on the moon. We even have video footages of him up there. He even brought back a piece of rock. But I had also seen footages of people on mars in a few movies and on TV. How do we know if what we saw on TV of his landing on the moon is real and therefore factual ? So we go through a series of logical deductions and at the end of it we affirm our believe that Neil Armstrong had indeed landed on the moon. This is nothing more than a BELIEF. Buddhist insights are beyond belief. It is “knowing” in an instant. There's no supporting logic or argumentation or facts but there's just the knowing.
Before we arrived at that stage of our spiritual progress we based our beliefs on faith. I've faith that buddha will not lie and so what he said about hungry ghosts, the different realms of existence etc. are real. So if I have faith in jesus christ I'll believe what he said and similarly any swami or fakir or yogis that we believe in. We have to realised that these beliefs are NOT REAL. It is one of the many fabrications of the mind. That's the teaching of Buddha. But we can't go round telling the christians that what they are believing in is false. To them it is the truth.
For me it is important that even when we are deluded and can't see the truth of reality, we should speak OUR TRUTH. This means if I see something as red I should say that it is red and not say that it is blue. This is important because such a moral code will support our spiritual practice and will bring about inner peace.
On the question of miracles and the proof to support it, buddha was quite clear about this. On several occasions he was challenged to use his miracle power(also called siddhis) but Buddha refused. His disciples also on several occasions requested him to use his miracle power to attract more followers but Buddha refused again. He told his disciples how would people know that his miracle powers actually came from real inner transformation or just the use of spirit beings and magic. The real miracle in buddhism is the miracle of dharma. This means the dharma itself is able to help us penetrate our delusions. Our delusions are said to be diamond-like. This was what Buddha said regarding miracles when he advised his disciples not to show it.
“'There are three kinds of miracles. The first is the miracle of power, in which extraordinary power is manifested. as in walking on water, exorcising devils, raising the dead, and so forth. When the believer sees such things his faith may become deepened, but it would not convince the unbeliever, who might think these things are done by the aid of magic. I therefore see danger in such miracles, and I regard them as shameful and repulsive. The second is the miracle of prophecy. such as thought-reading, sooth-saying, fortune-telling, etc. Here also there would be disappointment, for these too in the eyes of the unbeliever would be no better than extraordinary magic. The last is the miracle of instruction. When any of my disciples brings round a man by instruction to rightly employ his intellectual powers, that is the true miracle.”
But Buddha did use miracle powers as well as praised a young monk for using it. He did that to encourage the other monks to practice diligently. After Buddha asked a monk to fly to a distant lake to fetch some water Buddha told the other monks, "Monks, one who practices the Dhamma zealously is capable of attaining supernormal powers even thuogh he is young.”
As for the various teachers showing their miracle power I do not know one way or another. If miracle powers are used to aggrandise the individual than it will lead to widespread harm. If it is used to generate faith in the followers and bring about dedication to their practice then it is a good thing. What is more important in all of these is whether it helps us to be a better person, a more peaceful, more understanding and more accepting person. If it makes us angry with the world, fighting and argueing on their teacher's behalf, insulting and running other religion down then where is the dharma in all these.
Never forget the dharma because that is the only miracle that is real and benefitial.
------- (22) P.21 – You have explained many mysteries questions ! Good! But, please explain, if possible (a) when and (b) How and (c) Why - “TIME” came to existence ? (d) In the left, first line you said 'everything is governed by the process of cause and effect....” TIME too ? How ? (e) Your philosophy explained that MIND is beginningless (and endless) so the subject & objects of mind is beyond and separate from “Time”. But as soon as the Mind/non-physical energy changes to physical energy/ our body, the same moment TIME comes to existence and will last from”the beginning Time” (our physical birth) till “ending time” (our physical death). Please I need your comment and correct me my errors (f) Is there, in any possible way, any connection/conjecture/turning point between “Mind” and “Time” ?! How? Why? -------
I'm afraid I do not know what the book said or what Ven XXXXX said but I can give my take on the subject. If you are talking of physical time as was predicted by Einstein's conception of the space- time continuum then time is indistinguishable from space. Both arose simultaneously. The material universe only exists in time.
However there's also the perception of time. All thoughts follow a linear pattern of arising, remaining and falling away. Our thoughts are never in the moment as it continues to move back to the past(memory) and forward through speculation. However when we silent the mind it stops its movement forward and backward and just remain. When there's no movement of time you will experience an eternity in a moment. There's just pristine awareness and bliss. Bliss is the natural state of our being.
The perception of time could also be very long or very short. In the deva realm 1 day there could be a thousand years of earth time. The beings there live a very long time in earth time.
Tibetan buddhism also talk of how our thoughts could travel through space in an instant and this was how we were reborned after we have died. Our consciousness, during the last connecting thought connects us to what we were thinking. This I believe was what was meant by timelessness of our mind before it finds a physical body to reborn in. Buddha sakyamuni himeself taught that the universe came about through the fortuitious confluence of causes and conditions, just as all phenomena. There's no need for a causative agent such as a creator god. Just as there's a birth there will also be destruction. The earth and the different realms will also fall away one day. And the cycle will repeat itself. The material universe, according to Einstein's General Theory of relativity can only come into existence together with time. There are inseparable.
The separation of the subject and object is mind-created, just as the reality that we perceive. Once the mind is quietened the whole notion of subject/object, of time, of good/bad, of right/wrong and in fact all forms and concepts fall away in an instant. Everything seems to be one – all interconnected in a web-like structure that pervades all of life and death. As nothing arise, nothing dies. This is life eternal.
When a single thought arise, a thousand reality is created.
------ (23) P.22, left, line 6 from bottom “But the dharmakaya is one” Please explain what is it ? -------
Dharmakaya is sometimes called the truth body of buddha. A buddha is said to have 3 bodies. The dharmakaya, the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Nirmanakaya is what we see and hear and touch. The physical aspect of a buddha. The sambhogakaya is what we see in our meditation and is rarely seen. However it could be described. The dharmakaya is the Absolute, the truth body of buddha. Everything arose from here. This body is seldom experienced except by highly realised being.
----- (24) P.29 left, “1. One should rely upon holy beings....” a) Please name for me about 10 of most holy beings in Buddhism ; b) then please for each one in short (1 or 2 sentences) explain why his holiness recognized.(All I know is (1st) Buddha (2nd) Dharma (3rd) Sangha (4th) All Holy lamas (Dalai Lama, Zopa Rinpoche etc.) I need to know more other holy beings and why they are holy recognized? ------- This is not an easy question to answer and there's no simple answer. HH The Dalai Lama had once said that in tibet it is a normal practice to know a teacher or Guru for 12 years before making a request to the teacher to become one's Guru. In Tibetan buddhism Guru devotion is very important especially in the vajrayana practice.
All of us are deluded and seldom do we know the person we are devoted to is indeed holy or just very good at playing the part of a holy person. At the same time the buddhist literature is full of very holy people who were thought of as scoundrels. Their holiness was only revealed upon their death or after their death. Let me recount 2 stories for you to contemplate on.
Story #1
Once there was a very famous monk. He was popular and had many students. One day he was caught stealing in a village store. He was reported to the magistrate and was thrown into prison. His followers were all very upset and thought perhaps it was a mistake. They went and help secure his release. They wanted to know how their master got himself into that kind of situation but the master just kept quiet. A little while later the same thing happen again. His disciples got very upset and upon getting his release demanded to know the reason. Many already beginning to suspect that the master was sick in the mind and others felt that he was greedy. One disciple told the master that if he wanted anything they could get it for him. But the master just kept quiet. This went on a few more times and as time went almost all his disciples had deserted him and only a handful was left. Then one day he called the few very devoted disciples to his room and told them that he would be dying soon. He asked them if they have any questions that they would like to ask before his passing on. One very distraught disciple with tears freely flowing wanted to know why he kept stealing and being thrown into prison.
The master looked at the student with great compassion and held him close and told him “while I may have continued to go back to prison, none of those who had listened to the dharma I showed them did.” This master was truly a holy being. His reputation is not important but his work of helping others to liberate was. If he had went in there as a monk, how many would have listened to him. As he had went in there as a fellow prisoner there's that affinity and comadrie – a firm and solid foundation for passing on the dharma. Remember buddha dharma is about cleansing the mind and not about morality or legality. When there's peace of mind clarity will emerge.
Story #2
In a particular village there was a woman prostitute who was also a devout buddhist practitioner. Everytime when she had a client she would take the opportunity to meditate and channel her energy while they were engaged in sex. Over time this prostitute gained enlightenment. She was deciding whether to continue in her profession or move on to lead a simple life free from the cares of the world. When she was contemplating on this question a deep compassion arose in her and she decided to continue in her profession. Every man that visited her never visit another prostitute again for all were helped to gain inner peace and bliss. The dissatisfaction of life that seem to drive many of us towards sense gratification were removed by the artful and skillful use of the sexual energy by this holy being.
I gave these 2 stories to demonstrate how important it is never to judge another especially on the buddhistic path. The holy being that come to help us could never be recognised as one.
The recognition of tulku or reincarnation of a past lama is part of the socio-political religious complex of the tibetan community. It involves Nichung (state oracle), signs left by the lama, selection of things left by the previous lama etc. So it is quite an established procedure. I do not know with certainty if this system is fail-safe and I'm afraid I can't offer more on this.
Let me now come to my own believe or view. Let me give the backdrop as to how I came to this insight. Some years ago when I was still working in singapore there was a group of very concern buddhist that there were more and more buddhist monks going round selling amulets, talismans etc. According to them these monks were not really monks but actually beggars in disguise. This group of buddhists devised a strategy to catch these fake monks. They sent out this newsletter, which I received, and suggested reporting the person to police and following the person around until the police arrive. At that time I thought it odd that we have to resort to this because when a person gives a dhana or donation he is doing so out of the goodness of his own heart. For all intents and purposes the monk in front of the person is a monk and is worthy of veneration. So he is actually venerating the conception of the monk in his own mind. Does it really matter if the monk outside our mind is not really a monk ? We pray to symbols of buddhas and sanghas and we derive a lot of mental , emotioanal and spiritual benefit from this. Devotion is of the heart.
If the monk is not a monk then he will pay for his deception either in this life or in the next. So when we venerate a monk or a holy being we do it with great sincerity and devotion and we view such a person as a buddha. Such devotion will benefit our mind. Our relationship with such a person is often short-lived. One of the goal of vajrayana practice is to condition the mind to see all-being as holy for this has tremendous value to our mindstream.
However if it is our own Guru and the Guru ask us to do things that go against our sensibility then gently decline. I know this is not easy and for this reason it is important to choose a Guru carefully. I've attached a talk by HH and in there he gave some qualities of a Guru.
----- (25) P.29, left,” 4- whenever you eat or drink, make efforts to offer to the “rare sublime ones”....”please explain who are they, if possible name 5 of them for me.” -------
“Rare sublime Ones” refer to the triple gem. The triple gen refers to the buddha, sangha and dharma.
----- (26) P.30, right, 3rd paragraph, line 2 “the gods(protectors beyond sorrow, worldly protectors, devas) praise and protect you.” a) please name about 10 gods ; b) if someone denys these gods what proofs do you have for existence of these gods ? c) How can I myself experience (see or hear or communicate with) these gods ?

Protectors, gods, devas etc. are all part of the buddhist cosmology. There were people who had came into contact with them and some times miracle happens such as a missing buddha relic re-appeared being lost for some time or some statue or ornament seem to appear out of nowhere. These are anecdotal evidences and do not constitue absolute proof.

Most of the time we can't see them unless we ourselves are very pure. The protectors will also come and help you due to your affinity with them. Some protectors are enlightened being such as Mahakala while others are not such as Dorje Lekpa which is a 10th bhumi bodhisattva (bhumi = stages of bodhisattva). There are also worldly protectors.

There are dharmapalas or dharma protectors who are highly accomplished. They could be buddhas or a higher stage bodhisattva. Their main goal is to protect the dharma and to help it dessiminate properly.

There are also lokapalas or worldly protectors. These protectors had taken a vow to help protect the dharma and also the practitioners. They themselves may not even believe in the dharma and are just as deluded as us. These include powerful worldly gods ,local gods, spirits and other beings.

There are also ksetrapalas or field protectors. Field protectors are usually associated with very specific places or buildings. In Tibet, families live in the same place and house for hundred of years. As time passes, it is believed that there are certain protectors especially connected with that particular house, clan or family.

----- (27) P.30, right, 3rd paragraph, line 4 “non-humans cannot harm you.” a) except animals, please name for me about 10 different non- humans b) how these 10 non-humans are able to harm me ? c) Any proof ? ------ Non-humans are like nagas. They sometimes appear in the form of snakes, or as half snakes and half humans with elaborate jeweled crowns. They are believed to be infinitely wealthy and to owe their present form to a previous life of unethical generosity. Luang Por Tuad in Hatyai supposedly received a jewel from a serpent when he was just borned. LP Tuad's body has still not rotted eventhough he had died many years ago. Another luminary is LP Tong also near Hatyai Thailand.

Non-humans such as nagas and local deities can cause harm to human especially when the person's state is down. These nagas and local deities can see our weaknesses.

Buddha had taught that the best protection we have against evil spirit is to have a kind heart. If we constantly wish other sentient beings well these nagas and local deities will also be able to sense it as well.

Some gods or devas are able to manipulate our mind stream by injecting a particular thought into our mind. So if we are susceptible to such manipulation we then act on those delusions that arise and we then harm others and harm ourselves in the process.

There are no direct evidences but anecdotal are available. Again these are not absolute proof.

------- Then in the past and especially “in the present” ? ( Unless you put your blind faith on the “controversial” historic and religious books !)

(Historical accuracy, credibility, authenticity ....snipped). ------- You are right and I can't agree with you more. Buddha actually said that his dharma would be corrupted 1500 years after his paranirvana ( death) .

The good thing about buddhism is that it doesn't require faith. Buddha had challenged those who listen to him to just practice and from the fruits of their practice they could see that the dharma is indeed true. In order to practice you don't even have to know or understand the philosophy or cosmology behind it. So buddha wasn't asking you to have blind faith in his teachings but to test it like you would test a piece of gold.

“Be still and know that I'm God” was recorded in the bible. In buddhism the stillness of the heart is a pre-requisite in knowing a lot of the things that are mentioned in the sutras (buddhist scriptures). So what buddha did in designing his spiritual practice was to make it simple and i.e. don't do harm, do only good and cultivate the mind. Of course an 8 year old could say this but even an 80 year old could not practice this. This is why the cultivation of the mind and of the spirit is very important. We get direct and immediate benefits such as a calmer disposition, a more caring nature, a more accepting, not only of other people's fault but also of the events that arose in our life. These are tangible effects that need no proof.

This is also the same with proving that HH the Dalai lama had indeed being liberated. More important than demanding such proofs is whether such a knowledge will help us reduce our sufferings, will it help us to be more peaceful. Buddha gave a very good story regarding this. He said that by demanding all these things we are like a man being shot by a poisoned arrow and will only take the arrow out and purge the poison if he knows who shot the arrow, where it came from etc. The arrow and poison is our delusions and buddha dharma is the antidote. Buddha asked that we only try it and if it doesn't help then we can move on. There's no aggressive posturing or fixations on forms.

------ 1.P.35, right, paragraph 5, last sentence “they(the enlightened beings) don't create univeses. Universes are the polluted creation & the karma of ordinary beings.” You explained that airplane crash, wars, earthquakes are the karma of the people who experience it. Granted. But how can you explain “beyond our earth”, the Sun, the Moon , the Starts, millions of galaxies where they came from ?

(There is no single evidence of existence of “sentient beings” (animal/human/plants) on the Sun, Moon, other galaxies, that you would say their “karma” “past action” created the Su, Moon & the starts !!) b) How can you connect the earth's inhabitants/sentient beings karma to outer space “logically” !!

As I do not have the book I'm not sure if what was meant by “beyond the earth” as referring to other planets or galaxies. It could also mean that they came from other realms of existence.

Buddha had mentioned that natural disasters such as earthquake or volcanoes are not due to karma. But in the jataka (one of the 3 baskets of scriptures in buddhism) it was recorded that a group of people were buried alive due to a natural disaster . This group of people were going through a collective karma of harming holy beings in a previous life time.

In vajrayana collective karma of a group of people living together can cause landslides or earthquake to occur. This has to do with the different elements being controlled by the different energy centers in the body.

Again I'm afraid I can't provide any real and substantial proof of this.

In tibetan buddhism it is believed that the physical universe came into existence through our collective delusions....this included the sun, the stars etc. Enlightened beings have no need nor desire for physical existence eventhough they are capable of adopting one.

------- “If we were all enlightened there would not be an atom of anything physical.” I love it! Although I don't know the single proof for that, but without any proof, I believe it 100% !! I'm surprised myself how and why I believe some statements without proof” ... I would like to hear you soon. ------ Actually this statement is not too difficult to believe. Science today recognised that we are actually not made of anything substantial. Our whole physical body is made up of atoms which are nothing more than energy field. And if we go any deeper we get subatomic particles and then just a unified field. As if we get something out of nothing – the void. An enlightened being has no need of a physical body and what is left is just pure consciousness that pervades all of space. Like the energy field of all matter. Somehow all of us seem to be connected at a very deep level eventhough we appear separated in our physical bodies. Even in the theravadin tradition Ananda literally vapourised himself when he reached the age of 120. This basically established the possibility that our physical body is pure energy and could be dismantled by a holy being who can control the elements within his body.

In the diamond-cutter sutra buddha taught that “those who look for signs will be deceived.” Buddha said that because he had an intimate understanding of our mind and how it works and how easily we could be deceived. Let me explain a bit what buddha actually meant.

In logic if we have the proposition : “If a person is a holy being he should be able to perform miracles” . So if the person perform a miracle such as he's able to set his urine on fire then do we conclude that he's a holy being ? Logic says no unless we could also proof that there's no other way of having urine that could be set on fire. This means the effect does not proof the cause and this is well-known in logic and this was why buddha in the Diamond-Cutter sutra said that if we look for signs we will only be looking to be deceived.

In india one of the common practice was vajroli where the penis hole is progressively widen and then the person learned how to control the pelvic muscles. By so doing he's able to suck into his urinary bladder kerosene or oil. Then in a public display of such siddhis he could urinate it out and set it on fire. No miracle but just a pure physical phenomenon. But to the superstitious this is ample proof of miracle.

The real miracle is the miracle of dharma and we should never lose sight of that.

So XXXXX it had been my pleasure to have this short visit with you. Your questions were very good and I hope I've at least given you an idea of what buddha dharma involves. Those questions that you had asked for proof, logic etc. are good and you always have to be cognisance of the fact that whatever answer we get will never be the reality. It is just a map of reality and not reality itself. So if all these are nothing more than the fabrication of the mind we shouldn't think of it as something that is solid and unchanging.

I look forward to further communication with you and wish you good health and well-being in the days to come.

Metta,

Colophon

Written by NotImportant (pen name of a lay Vajrayana practitioner, student of Lati Rinpoche) as a letter to a prisoner on death row, shared publicly on alt.religion.buddhism in June 2008. A second letter in the correspondence (Part 2) was also posted on 30 June 2008.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: e4a45007-9013-45c0-8c07-221755b75c85@w34g2000prm.googlegroups.com

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