Golden Light Sutra

[Bodhicitta]

A much revered sutra filled with blessings & merit for those who recite, copy, memorize and share it with others:

 

https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/pdf/sutragoldenlight0207lttr.pdf

[rideforever]

Okay .... is there anything useful at all in this sutra ?
And who wrote it ?

It seemed to say "oh glorious inconceivable one" .... about 1 million times in the document.

Seems like a lot of ass kissing.

Is there anything useful in it, like accurate meditation instructions ?

It seems to have a lot of threats if the rulers aren't of exemplary virtue.

But what is exemplary virtue ?

[Bodhicitta]

Chapter Four is useful.

[Fa Xin]

12 hours ago, rideforever said:

Okay .... is there anything useful at all in this sutra ?
And who wrote it ?

It seemed to say "oh glorious inconceivable one" .... about 1 million times in the document.

Seems like a lot of ass kissing.

Is there anything useful in it, like accurate meditation instructions ?

It seems to have a lot of threats if the rulers aren't of exemplary virtue.

But what is exemplary virtue ?

 

My understanding of something like this is to read it over, maybe read it twice...slowly and feel the words.  I want to say a prayer, but it's not quite a prayer... it's like tuning your mind into the vibration of the text.

 

I read Chapter 4 as @Bodhicitta suggested...I read it slowly, with feeling, and found it very uplifting. 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by Fa Xin

[rideforever]

Confession does seem useful.   But ... I am not sure what it is about.

Say I confess some "bad things" I did yesterday.   Well, I did them because I could do nothing else.   And when I confess them I am probably comparing them to an idealised fake morality.   So I compare what I did with, with an invented code of conduct invented by other monkeys, and then feel bad that my conduct was not what they told me I should be, and then I confess that.

Hmm, doesn't seem quite right.

 

Perhaps I should confess when I wasn't in touch with myself, and didn't make my own choices.

I should confess not that I wasn't acting according to a morality, but I wasn't myself.

And so return to your true will.

 

A second thing is :

Probably due to the overwhelming pressure of an unnatural world and morality, humans feel bad all the time. 

Maybe confession is where you don't feel bad anymore, instead acknowledging that you are doing the best you can do.

And being more conscious.

 

A third thing is :

To admit to God that you hurt and asking him to cleanse you.

A surrender.

 

[rideforever]

It wouldn't surprise me that banging the drum simply means joining in with the suicide.

Buddhist shave their hair, shave their food, shave their sexuality, and then they are more comfortable, then they are accepted.

By other Buddhists who have also committed suicide.

They will love you very much, because after you commit suicide, after you destroy everything god gave to you, so that you fit in, after that something inside you feels anxious.

And that anxiety is only calmed, when you see somebody else committing suicide.

Then for a few minutes you will feel a bit of peace to help you forget, that you destroyed what you were given.

So that you fit in.

 

I don't like this kind of thing any more.

 

[Bodhicitta]

The famous past life event of Buddha when he, as Prince Mahasattva, gave his body to a starving tigress is told in prose and verse in chapter 18.  Buddha gives the karmic links of the major persons involved in that event at the end of the chapter:

 

Quote

I, the Tathagata Shakyamuni was formerly Mahasattva, Son of King Maharatha who made the tigress well. 

Shuddhodana, the great king was the king called Maharatha, and Queen Maya was the sublime queen. Mahapranada became Maitreya. Likewise, Prince Mahadeva was the youthful Manjushri. The tigress was Mahaprajapati; the five bhikshus were her five cubs.

When Mahasattva gave the tigress his body, he made this altruistic wish: “By the merit of completely giving my body, may I, in future times for eons utterly beyond thought, perform the deeds of buddhas for sentient beings.”