Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing)
There are the Bodhisattvas who show the wide eyes, appear the anger, hold the magical tool in hand, and ride on the strange animal, so as to deal with, punish or discipline those people who are full of hatred and rage. Such picture of or image of Bodhisattvas and the magical tool in hand is some kind of the meaning of symbol. With the evolution of the times, the picture of or the image of Bodhisattvas and the magical tool are following the modern image and the modern technology and change. In our times, The appearance of Bodhisattvas in reality and the illusion of image of Bodhisattvas in our dream may be the similar. Therefore, we should have such knowledge and flexibility in learning Buddha.
There are also the Bodhisattvas who show the greedy
smile, appear the greedy heart, and take the treasures or gold or money through
wisdom from the true greedy people, so as to deal with those people who are in
the mind of greed, meanwhile, to save them and let them leave the suffering.
That is to help them avoid the harm brought by the greed of themselves and
others.
There are also
Bodhisattvas who show the foolish smile, appear the obsession minded, fall in
love with infatuated people, so as to save those people who are in the state of
obsession, and to liberate them from suffering. That is to help them avoid
the harm brought by the infatuated minded of themselves and others.
There are also
Bodhisattvas who show the attitude of arrogant and appear the indifferent
expression, so as to deal with those people who own the arrogant minded. The
purpose is to save them to leave the restrain and difficulty brought by their own arrogant minded.
Eventually,
there are no such negative minded as said for all of Bodhisattvas,
because they have always dwelled on the self-nature and the Emptiness-nature.
They are like the angel to protect and teach the persons who are willing to
believe Buddha's teaching, or they have the good cause and condition with the
Buddha's teaching in the present life or in their past life. All
Bodhisattvas would not appear without cause and condition. If you don't
have any cause and condition as said, they don't appear in your life. We
respect these Bodhisattvas as Protector-in-Buddhism.
To sum up, if we
are the stupid, stubborn or arrogant person who cannot accept the persuade or
the advice from the other person's normal and reasonable thinking, however, we
still have a little good cause and condition in learning Buddha, the
Bodhisattvas would appear any kind of attitude, thought and state to help us to
deal with what negative heart and state we own. That is why if we show
the evil thought and behavior, the said Bodhisattvas would appear
the equivalent thought and behavior. That is like a mirror to reflect our
thought and behavior and let us see it.
How Bodhisattvas appear in our life?
They would appear in our environment what we are living, studying or working. Those what we may meet might be our family members, classmates, teachers, friends, colleagues, directors, strangers, or any persons who are in various industries. They might make us feel uncomfortable, anxious, angry or sad. In a word, these appeared images and the ensuing phenomenon could help us to correct or adjust our thought, behavior, and attitude which are not proper and not corresponding to the universal value. In general and in Buddhism, the universal value is corresponding to the good and free will of humans, to the mercy, empathy, content, honesty and open-minded of humans, and to the mutual aid with the equality of humans. The more profound meaning is to correspond to the no-self, no-selfishness, no-desire and no-demanding of humans.
Except for this,
all various images of Bodhisattvas would appear with drama in our dreams, which
are ever-changing and not what we can imagine. However, we still can feel and
reason it in our dream or after our wakening. All various images of
Bodhisattvas are not like what we have seen in the drawing or in the statue. However, they are like our family members and so on as mentioned
above.
The character "Bodhisattvas" is the appearance of name, which is the phenomenon of arising and eliminating with causes and conditions. For example, as I have told in the blog, we call "Bodhisattvas" as "Pusa" or "Busa" in the Chinese transliteration. The various images of Bodhisattvas are also the phenomenon of arising and eliminating with causes and conditions. There are not the fixed and rigid images which are regarded as Bodhisattvas. All pictures or statue or images made by humans are some kind of representative or symbol to show the exist, virtue and function of Bodhisattvas. In fact, the essence of Bodhisattvas is the Emptiness-nature, and is no form and no image. On this basis, it is able to appear various forms and images of Bodhisattvas, including the animals, such as the legendary dragons, or elephant, or big worms, even that we can reason there would be the images of alien as Bodhisattvas.
The Buddha and Bodhisattvas don't care whether you believe the Buddha's teaching or not, because the law of cause and effect (or result, consequence, outcome) is the universal value.
Some people don't understand why the Buddhist worship the image of Buddha or Bodhisattva in the drawing or the statue. They deny, reject and sneer such behavior. According to our normal intelligence, of course, we are not to stupidly obsess with the image in the drawing or with the statue. The image of the drawing or statue is some kind of representative or symbol. In fact, the Buddha or Bodhissattva exist in everywhere of the Emptiness.
The Buddha said that he cannot save those people who don't have the cause and condition with Buddha and those people who don't have good causes and conditions in their present or past life. The Buddha and Bodhisattvas don't care whether you believe the Buddha's teaching or not, because the law of cause and effect (or result, consequence, outcome) is the universal value. What we have done absolutely repay in our present or future life. Good deeds are rewarded with good deeds, and evil deeds are rewarded with evil deeds. All evil is self-inflicted. All goodness creates auspiciousness by itself. It is doesn't matter what kind of religions or ideologies we believe. When we deeply realize the Buddhism, we can understand this truth.
It is better for us to listen more from various kind of the teachings of Buddha, and should be careful and alert any fraud from the fake teachers in Buddhism.
Furthermore, I cannot deny there are existed a lot of fraud by the mean of religions. The profound Buddha's teaching is some kind of danger for the beginner who learn Buddhism. That is why I have to remind you that if we are the beginner in learning Buddhism, it is better for us to listen more from various kind of the teachings of Buddha, and should be careful and alert any fraud from the fake teachers in Buddhism. When we learn Buddhism, it is better for us to use our common sense and normal logical thinking to judge whether the teachers are honest and moral persons or not.
The secondly, we have to think and judge whether what they have taught is corresponding to the true meaning of Buddha, to the social order and good customs or is their own subjective consciousness and ideology. It is to avoid us to be washed brain by the mean persons. When we have the correct thinking and judgement, we can choose who can be our teachers and we are willing to follow them to learn Buddha.
