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The Aura of Wisdom
- Book 154: The Aura of Wisdom
- Chapter 29: Attaining Budddhahood in this Very Body
- Written by Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated and edited by True Buddha Foundation
- Translation Team (Cheng Yew Chung, Victor Hazen, Dance Smith)
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Many students of Buddhism, upon studying the Sutric teachings, insist that it would take as long as three Asankhya kalpas to attain buddhahood. A small kalpa is represented as 16,798,000 years, and twenty small kalpas add up to a middle kalpa. Four middle kalpas form a mahakalpa, which is 1,343,840,000 years. Hence, three Asankhya kalpas literally represent innumerable and unimaginable eons.
Therefore, these students of Buddhism do not agree with the Tantric Buddhist view that one can attain buddhahood in this very body. But please read what is explicitly expounded in the Breakthrough Sermon (by Bodhidharma):
Student: `But the Buddha said, `Only after undergoing innumerable hardships for three Asankhya kalpas did I achieve enlightenment,` why do you now say that simply beholding the mind and over-coming the three poisons is liberation?`
Bodhidharma: `The words of the Buddha are true. But the three Asankhya kalpas refer to the three poisoned states of mind. What we call Asankhya in Sanskrit you call countless. Within these three poisoned states of mind are countless evil thoughts, and every thought lasts a kalpa. Such infinity is what the Buddha meant by the three Asankhya kalpas. Once the three poisons obscure your real self, how can you be called liberated until you overcome their countless evil thoughts? People who can transform the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance into the three liberations are said to pass through the three Asankhya kalpas. But people of this final age are the densest of beings. They don`t understand what the Tathagata really meant by the three Asankhya kalpas. They say enlightenment is only achieved after endless kalpas and thereby mislead disciples to retreat from the path to buddhahood.`
This explains how the three Asankhya kalpas actually refer to the countless thoughts generated by the three poisons. Every thought lasts a kalpa. Thus, countless thoughts are transformed into countless kalpas as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges river.
To attain buddhahood in this very body, one only needs to remove the three poisons and instantly one shall transcend the three Asankhya kalpas, and attain buddhahood.
Why is attaining buddhahood in this very body possible with Tantric Buddhism? My view is:
Buddha and I have become One. (the Emanation body)
Empowerment through Miraculous Transformation. (the Bliss body)
The Nature of Emptiness of the Dharma Realm. (the Truth body)
When one cultivates accordingly, one reaches attainment accordingly. Tantric Buddhism involves the cultivation and attainment of the Emanation body, Bliss body and Truth body. Thus, the attainment of buddhahood in this very body is achievable.
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