Bodhisattvas and the Great White Brotherhood

thumbnail
Wet Paint, modified 15 Years ago at 7/28/08 11:03 PM
Created 15 Years ago at 7/28/08 11:03 PM

Bodhisattvas and the Great White Brotherhood

Posts: 22924 Join Date: 8/6/09 Recent Posts
Author: AlanChapman
Forum: The Big Issues

Ever since my first fruition I have increasingly found myself pointing others in the direction of enlightenment, sometimes despite myself. While it is pretty obvious that an experience as unique as fruition might engender a degree of evangelism, and daily consideration of the topic of enlightenment will certainly ensure it’s more likely to crop up in conversation, the majority of the time it seems as if the discussion comes to me rather than the other way round (the most recent example was a work colleague who came to me with a page printed from my website – which he had hunted down without me even telling him I had a website! - to ask a number of questions related to my tradition. Cue office dharma talk…). I’ve always kept my mundane life separate from my interest in enlightenment, simply because I’ve always believed the average Joe just isn’t interested, or simply will not understand (on a separate note, I’m beginning to believe this is not the case at all). It increasingly seems I can no longer maintain that divide.
thumbnail
Wet Paint, modified 15 Years ago at 7/28/08 11:03 PM
Created 15 Years ago at 7/28/08 11:03 PM

RE: Bodhisattvas and the Great White Brotherhood

Posts: 22924 Join Date: 8/6/09 Recent Posts
Author: AlanChapman

In Buddhism we have the Bodhisattvas, in my tradition we have the Great White Brotherhood, but in both cases we are talking about the same thing: a group of beings who work towards the enlightenment of mankind. Like most ideas concerning enlightenment, there is a lot of cheese out there on this topic, and it wasn’t long ago that I considered the idea of Bodhisattvas as an ethical curiosity peculiar to some Buddhist schools.

However, I am increasingly of the opinion that Bodhisattvas (and the Great White Brotherhood) are indeed a genuine phenomenon, and that a single fruition marks membership to the club (I don’t think it is necessary to go further than this when defining the Bodhisattva; in my opinion, anything else is a limiting model, and usually outright fantasy or speculation). Although Bodhisattvas are expressed as a group of individuals living right here and now, I would like to posit that the realisation of emptiness, being beyond both time and space, can be considered One. In this sense, it is possible to concede the existence of a body of individuals with the same aim and direction, namely working to enlighten mankind, without having to imagine that all of these people from all over the world once met up as discarnate entities/meet up on the astral plane/communicate telepathically to plot a campaign that spans millennia.

Although it’s not valid to ascribe any idea to fruition, I would at least like to propose there is something implicit in the realisation of emptiness that seeks to promote that realisation in others.

What do you think?
thumbnail
Wet Paint, modified 14 Years ago at 6/19/09 7:34 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 6/19/09 7:34 AM

RE: Bodhisattvas and the Great White Brotherhood

Posts: 22924 Join Date: 8/6/09 Recent Posts
Author: EnikhanJohorns

Practice and "day to day" life are not separate things. That the more you help others the more you help yourself is inherently true. Keeping mundane life separate from interest in enlightenment is one of the worst mistakes one can make, and is usually (if not always) a sign of behaving superficially.
thumbnail
Wet Paint, modified 14 Years ago at 6/19/09 10:34 AM
Created 14 Years ago at 6/19/09 10:34 AM

RE: Bodhisattvas and the Great White Brotherhood

Posts: 22924 Join Date: 8/6/09 Recent Posts
Author: AlanKroeger

Good thought it spurs me to think of this one I seen a while ago.

YANG CHU said:
"Po Yi was not without desire, for being too proud of his purity of mind, he was led to death by starvation.

"Chan-Chi was not passionless, for being too proud of his virtue he happened to reduce his family.

"Those who in pursuit of purity and virtue do good in a false way resemble these men."

Breadcrumb