Son Vrai
Ok. I'm lost.


Quote:
In the same way that we create the causes that keep us in cyclic existence, we can create the causes that will ensure us good rebirths so that we can practice the dharma in future lives. That way we can work on our liberation for longer than just this life.


well whats the differance between buddhism and hinduism when it comes to rebirth?


what makes buddha nature imperminate?

and, if say, i die but i made lots of good karma and i was close to enlightenment could i become a ladybug if that was what would propel me torwards enlightenment further?

can you have half of your self become enlightenedand the other half in the hungry ghosts realm?


previously, there was a metephor about a tree that was your buddha potential, and the aggrates where what helped define that. but those go away when you die. what happens to that potential? where does it go?
is my buddha potential different from yours?

for the life of me i can not comprehend re-birth and being separated from yourself but still doing things that require a full being. i suppose my main thing is, right now i am me. all the aggrates all the potential has made Me. and all of yours have made You.
and everyone says after you die Me and You "explode" to diferent places according to what kind of karma you have made and where you are on the path to enlightenment. I get that, i can deal with that, because I am not perminate, i can't be Me forever. so I wouldn't be Me anymore if i was scattered. I'd be someone else. maybe lots of other things.

so the point is to not always connect and brake away. but I still don't understand how. and i don't understand why. if i reached enlightenment i wouldn't be Myself, right? then what is the point of reaching enlightenment, or trying to reach it? why should i try if i won't be Me anymore?


I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability...

According to Nagarjuna's "Middle Way" line of reasoning, Buddha Nature cannot be literally permanent or unchanging because anything that is really permanent is a non-reactive "hunk of ice" that does not interact with anything. The Middle Way School argues that Buddha Nature, which is really the Body of Reality, lies beyond the normal categorical distinctions used by people (i.e. their unawakened small minds), in the same way that we misinterpret everyday reality through discriminant perceptions and thought. It can be thought of as being eternal in that it "IS" actually all of beginningless and endless reality/perceptions.

In theory I would think rebirth as a ladybug is possible close to enlightenment so long as it furthers one's and/or other's advancement, but it seems highly unlikely for that to occur in the later stages of practice. The "animal/beast realm" of rebirth is generally associated with the personality/mental characteristic of ignorance by Buddhist tradition (save in Zen), so practice contrary to ignorance should prevent such a rebirth. Some Buddhist authorities explicitly state that certain mastered techniques prevent one's rebirth in the "lower realms." I find it hard to imagine how rebirth as an insect would aid an individual's progress...

I don't see how half of "oneself" (i.e. one's consciousness-continuum) could have a separate rebirth. However, there is the concept of "emanation" by which high-Bodhisattvas and Buddhas can project multiple bodies into the worlds to aid sentient beings, though they apparently remain connected to a singular Mind of the spiritual being...

By "Buddha potential" I think it is generally meant the extent to which one's karma allows one to practice and approach Buddhahood. It is really the sum of mental causes and conditions that impact one's deluded experience of "reality," and can be considered different from other sentient beings' because your karma doesn't exactly match theirs. There are different ways of explaining the process of its transference between lives, though I think the Yogacarin/Mind-Only system of the "Eight Consciousnesses" is most convincing...I need to brush-up on the concepts but basically it is thought that the Five Sense Consciousnesses pass perceptions on the the Sixth (Mental) Consciousness, whose interpretation of the information is "flavored" and "distorted" by the Seventh (Afflicting) Consciousness which is "programmed/imprinted" by interaction with the Eighth (Storehouse) Consciousness that is kinda like "karmic flypaper." The Storehouse Consciousness is really the Buddha-Nature of a deluded individual which becomes revealed by its "purification" of false karmic imprints.

When you reach enlightenment your personality is said to reflect the original Suchness of true reality. You'd only be "yourself" to the extent that your conventional personality reflects Buddha-Nature, so you'd be like the historical Buddha and all other Buddhas. I suspect the extent of personality characteristics that could be said to reflect or express Buddha-Nature can be argued...