Les Cousins sur l'Internet! The Cousins on the Internet!
Win, lose or draw, you're all my cousins and I love you.
-Chill Wills
Innervoiced, Are You?
-Chill Wills
Innervoiced, Are You?
No matter what a person has done, you should respect him like a Buddha. This is the very essence of Buddhism. The Buddha's cousin Devadattaa harassed the Buddha throughout his life. And finally Devadatta was put through a living hell. He was put through this as an expedient to protect other people from his wiles. But How was the Buddha supposed to treat Devadatta, his own cousin but his greatest of enemies? He rewarded him with Supreme Enlightenment.
In Buddhism, we say that the entire universe is filled with the brilliance of evil and goodness. You may not understand this at first. One gentle deed lights up the entire universe which I think you'll find acceptable even if you don't understand it. But can you understand and accept that an evil act done by sentient beings in hell also lights up the entire universe?
Usually we think of the Buddha as the gentlest of the gentle, and devils as wicked. We conceive the Buddha and devils as different as day and night, as different as heaven and earth. But actually the devils and the Buddha are of the same body, they are one, and they differ only in name. They are all Buddha.
A person may do something utterly horrible, but that person's basic nature, his original face remains the same. And So it is with someone who has become enlightened―his fundamental nature remains the same. Every sentient being is of the same Buddha nature, the same body. We are all just different manifestations of the same thing.
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