Hello everyone,
Is the Bodhisatta path worth it? Is it better to become a Buddha in immeasurable eons from now or is it better to become a stream enterer in this life and enjoy the remaining 7 lives in deva and brahma realms?
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That’s up to you. If you haven’t trained in compassion enough, then it’s not worth it. To make it worth it you have to train a lot in compassion or else one wouldn’t have the motivation.
In Theravada, the only sure way to be a Bodhisatta would be to meet with a living Buddha, capable of attaining arahanthood there and then, but choose to delay enlightenment for the longer path of Buddhahood. The living Buddha gives a prediction, then one is assured of the attainment at the end of super long time.
But to get to meet a living Buddha, having the conditions of being male, mastering the samadhis, etc is the best one can aim for if one wasn’t given a prediction in the past. So that aspiration to aim to be reborn at the right place, right time, right everything condition would be the Theravada way of aiming for Buddhahood.
Just compare the amount of work and time spent to get it, most people would choose stream winning path.
Also, look at the results. Buddhas produces many arahants, granted that our Buddha is exceptionally short lived, the shortest lived Buddha ever, and other Buddhas can live up to 100,000 years old and produce so many more arahants. After that final life, no more. Not like Mahāyāna notion of able to go to pure land, live a lot longer to liberate a lot more beings.
So it’s really up to each person to see if this final life as a Buddha to help many beings go across is worth the effort and time spent in samsara.
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Thank you for answering, Venerable Sir. That makes sense.
If I do become a Buddha, I hope I can be a Buddha that lives for 100,000 years.
I guess I still need to train more in loving kindness and compassion because I still incline more towards the stream enterer path.
I don’t like the fact that I might lose my memory on the path to becoming a Buddha, so even if I meet the conditions sometime in the far future, I might not remember this current life, so it feels like someone else is getting the prophecy from the Buddha and not me.
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Even after getting the predictions, there’s many lives in the Jātakas that our Bodhisatta didn’t know or remember that he was a Bodhisatta.
Memory is not self. There’s never any self. To aim for Buddhahood due to ego, one has to eventually abandon that ego and still be motivated to get there. So it’s really not easy. And there’s also no need to. Just aim for quick getting out of samsara.
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Yes Venerable Sir, I think I’ll just stick to getting out of samsara quickly. I’ll try to attain arahatship with super powers if I can abandon desire for higher realms, but if I can’t, I will just try to become a stream enterer in this life and attain nibanna within 7 lives.
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How about aspiring to develop anatta-sanna (saññā), the perception of anatta.
That begins by learning and considering how each moment is conditioned in various ways - without any self.
Then it can begin to be seen in daily life that this is really the truth and so wisdom, panna (paññā), can grow.
It is easy to have desire for attainments, that is the function of lobha, to want desirable objects.
But the real path is one of detachment all the way. Panna can understand this but lobha can’t.
Fortunately, lobha can be understood when it arises and so the right path can be discerned.
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Yes, that’s a great idea.
Could you explain more about the perception of anatta and how to develop it? Can I develop it even if I can’t see ultimate reality yet?
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Actually you are doing it right now. The development begins by hearing/reading the Dhamma and considering it. Questioning and discussing with the right people is also vital.
On another thread today I cited the translation of a Commentary by Bhikkhu Bodhi:
Mp explains the passage thus: “Nothing (lit., not all things) is worth holding to (sabbe dhammā nālaṃ abhinivesāya): here, ‘all things’ (sabbe dhammā) are the five aggregates, the twelve sense bases, and the eighteen elements. These are not worth holding to by way of craving and views. Why not? Because they do not exist in the way they are held to. They are held to be permanent, pleasurable, and self, but they turn out to be impermanent, suffering, and non-self.
What does it mean "**they do not exist in the way they are held to. They are held to be permanent, pleasurable, and self, **"?
Taking the twelve sense bases - the ayatanas- they are happening right now but it is assumed, for the one not steeped in the teachings of the SammasamBuddha, that “I see, I hear, my thinking” and so on . However, we learn that these are only conditioned phenomena that fall away instantly and so begins the understanding that “they turn > out to be impermanent, suffering, and non-self.”
Can I develop it even if I can’t see ultimate reality yet?
These seemingly profound and abstruse teachings can all be understood because it really is that way - it can be seen directly that thinking arises because it has to, that no one can stop seeing, or feeling, etc.
Many different ways are used to explain but it all points to the anattaness of phenomena. The development has its own pace, it depends on many factors. Even once there is some direct insight of ultimate realities it needs more pariyatti, more consideration of the teachings that further weld the intellectual to what was known directly.
So I praise you for taking on this journey. Which is because of your accumulations of wisdom and other parami, pubbekata punnata.
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Thank you so much for this answer. I’ll be saving that commentary translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi. It’s so profound. I hope to learn more about the teachings on this forum.
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In theravada one cannot become boddhisatta here and now just because they want to. One can, at most, wish to be reborn in the conditions (listed here above) where you can make a real bodhisatta aspiration. However, the changes are slim, so just do the real job. There always is a set of bodhisattas bound to become Buddhas, so don’t worry.
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Now the memory thing don’t matter anymore to me. The desire to become a Buddha came back as I read more about the Buddha and also because of practicing Buddhanusati. I hope I can meet the next Buddha and other Buddhas in the future and offer a lot of food and things to them. Although aspiring to become a Buddha means I will have to journey through samsara for a way longer period, I think the benefits of becoming a Buddha far outweigh the suffering I might encounter along the way.
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https://ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Great-Chronicles/index.htm
Be sure to read finish this one.
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This is funny. 
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I think you should strongly make the aspiration to be a Buddha before meeting the Buddha.
Because if any of us, or any person who is following the teachings today, has a strong faith in the Buddha, and gets the chance to meet him, he or she will be liberated instantly or become a sotapanna due to the accumulation of merits. One dialogue with the Buddha is enough for this.
Even if one accumulates too many merits and desires worldly pleasures, and with this aim makes a donation to the Buddha, still the Buddha has the power of conversion.
He knows how to trick.
He knows how to pull one from passion to dispassion.
He knows how to kindle knowledge in darkness.
He understands the mind.
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Yes, of course.
I think the bodhisatta Sumedha wished to become a Buddha even though he could’ve become an arahant easily in that life because he has aspired for Buddhahood long before that.
Wishing for Buddhahood whenever one makes a good deeds make it likely for one to wish for Buddhahood again when that kamma produces results. That way the desire for Buddhahood continues from life to life. When one meets Buddhas or Paccekabuddha on one’s journey, they will surely know that this person has aspirations to become a Buddha and will help him by telling him the qualities of Buddhas for example.
In the Buddha Apadana, there is this verse:
I too among former Buddhas
did wish to become a Buddha.
Through my mind alone there were
innumerable Dhamma -kings.”Ahampi pubbabuddhesu,
buddhattamabhipatthayiṁ;
Manasāyeva hutvāna,
dhammarājā asaṅkhiyā.
In the Yasodharātherīapadāna, there is also a very interesting passage that tells us that Bhikkuni Yasodharā Theri did many good deeds in the presence of many Buddhas in the past. There can only 1 Buddha at a time so to be able to meet many Buddhas, one would have to go through a lot of incalculable aeons.
Buddhas numbering five billion,
and another nine billion more —
I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods.Listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service
to eleven billion others,
and fifty billion Buddhas more.I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods;
listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service.Twenty billion other Buddhas
and another thirty billion –
I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods.Listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service
to forty billion Buddhas more,
and another fifty billion.I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods;
listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service.Sixty billion other Buddhas,
another seventy billion –
I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods.Listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service
to eighty billion Buddhas more,
and another ninety billion.I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods;
listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service.There have been a million million
who were Chief Leaders of the World;
I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods.Listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service
to another ninety trillion
who were Leaders of the World too.I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods;
listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing serviceto Great Sages whose number was
eight hundred and fifty trillion,
and seven hundred eighty-five
billion additional Buddhas.I provided vast alms to them,
those Buddhas, Gods Over the Gods;
listen to my words, O great king:
I’m constantly doing service.
Here we can see that she has done good deeds in the times of many Buddhas in the past, but the number of Buddhas can still be counted. However, Bodhisattas have aspired for Buddhahood in the dispensation of countless Buddhas in the past. These aspirations create the conditions to receive a definite prophecy eventually.
Now here is something interesting to think about. If bodhisattas have wished for Buddhahood during the times of innumerable Buddhas and the number of lives in samsara are also innumerable, it may seem like bodhisattas have always wished for Buddhahood since time immemorial. It’s probably impossible to find a life where Bodhisattas started wishing for Buddhahood just like how it is impossible to find the first life of beings in samsara because Bodhisattas have wished for Buddha in the times of innumerable Buddhas. So, I think there are always those destined for Buddhahood. If one has a strong desire for Buddhahood and tries hard to practice the Dhamma and don’t abandon that desire for Buddhahood, then it probably means that one has also wished for Buddhahood in the times of countless Buddhas in the past.
Buddhahood is the one goal that’s worth going through immeasurable aeons to achieve because the qualities of a Buddha are truly immeasurable and incomparable. One can attain the highest beauty, highest virtue, highest compassion, highest wealth, highest confidence, highest knowledge and wisdom, highest freedom, and highest enlightenment.
Thus the Buddhas can’t be fathomed;
unfathomable their Teaching.
Unfathomable’s the result
of pleasure in what can’t be fathomed.
SuttaCentral
“Ye, bhikkhave, buddhe pasannā, agge te pasannā, agge kho pana pasannānaṃ aggo vipāko hotī” (itivuttaka)
The people pleased with the Buddha, pleased with the greatest.
And for the people pleased with the greatest, greatest results will be there.
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In terms of conventional terms, I think it’s okay to think it will be the same person. If someone gets a definite prophecy, it’s okay to feel happy and think “I will become a Buddha in x aeons” because that is true in conventional reality.
Obviously, in terms of ultimate reality, there isn’t even a “person” to begin with. There is just a continuation of mental processes, mind moments, and rupas (not sure if I phrased this in the best way).
So, in this case, if someone wants to become a Buddha or even gets a definite prophecy, thinking in terms of conventional reality when making a wish is the way to go instead of thinking “nama and rupa will become a Buddha so why should I even strive to fulfill the paramis to help nama and rupa beings.” It’s better to think “I will fulfill paramis to become a Buddha to help countless beings.”
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There is also the path of the savaka Bodhisatta.
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