Question asked by James
Hi Pastor,
This may sound like a silly question, please forgive me.
But i am curious to see what your views or Buddhist views on this is.
There are innumerable Buddhas, Bodhisattva, Deities that exists according to Buddhism. In the western world you have God, Jesus and the devil. And in other religions and beliefs (Hindu, Muslim etc) there are so many different gods. From my ignorant view, most belief systems are fundamentally based on faith or 'blind' faith, should i say.
If these 'gods' really existed and are real, why don't they appear or show themselves (in form) in our world? For example, why doesn't Buddha Shakyamuni appear in our world, or Jesus, or Muhammad?
Dear James,
From a Buddhist viewpoint in regards to seeing the Buddhas themselves, the main factor here is karma. For example Buddha Shakyamuni was in human form, therefore we could have met him and received teachings from him directly, which would have greatly furthered our own spiritual practice. However most of us did not have the karma to be born as a human during his time or even in the land he lived. Similarly, many of us do not have enough merit to see the subtle Sambhogakaya forms of the Buddhas due to our negative karma. This can be achieved on the spiritual practice when one has purified enough negative karma and accumulated enough merit. At this point one can communicate directly with the Buddhas. Within Buddhism, Buddha Shakyamuni is not a god but a being who achieved the highest possibility and now transcends existence. This is a potential that each one of has, therefore we can achieve that same state if through spiritual practice.
Through their compassion the Buddhas also manifest in Nirmanakaya form, which means that they take human form. These beings can be recognised, such as the ‘tulku’ tradition in Tibetan Buddhism, so that they can teach the Dharma. In other cases these emanations are not recognised formally as embodiments of the Buddhas. Therefore we can meet Buddhas and they do appear in our world, just not necessarily how we would “want” them to appear.