IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

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yawares
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Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by yawares »

Dear Members,

Spring is here in Texas, I saw 5 bright red Cardinal birds and 4 Blue Jay birds
in my garden. They love to eat my red berries, and my big bird-bath is like
their swimming pool.May be they know that people love them, so they fly around
without fear. Sometimes they even come to sit on my pink Oleander plants outside
my window looking at me.

Cardinal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9LNexIoCW0

This lovely Saturday,I proudly present an amazing story to you all.

************************
:candle: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA [ sacredtexts.com ] :candle:

THERE was a Brahman, a religious man and fond in his affections but without deep wisdom. He had a son of great promise, who, when seven years old, was struck with a fatal disease and died. The unfortunate father was unable to control himself; he threw himself upon the corpse and lay there as one dead. The relatives came and buried the dead child and when the father came to himself, he was so immoderate in his grief that he behaved like an insane person. He no longer gave way to tears but wandered about asking for the residence of Yamaraja, the king of death, humbly to beg of him that his child might be allowed to return to life.

Having arrived at a great Brahman temple the sad father went through certain religious rites and fell asleep. While wandering on in his dream he came to a deep mountain pass where he met a number of samanas who had acquired supreme wisdom. "Kind sirs," he said, "Can you not tell me where the residence of Yamaraja is?" And they asked him, "Good friend, why wouldst thou know?" Whereupon he told them his sad story and explained his intentions. Pitying his self-delusion, the samanas said: "No mortal man can reach the place where Yama reigns, but some four hundred miles westward lies a great city in which many good spirits live; every eighth day of the month Yama visits the place, and there mayst thou see him who is the King of Death and ask him for a boon."

The Brahman rejoicing at the news went to the city and found it as the samanas had told him. He was admitted to the dread presence of Yama, the King of Death, who, on hearing his request, said: "Thy son now lives in the eastern garden where he is disporting himself; go there and ask him to follow thee." Said the happy father: "How does it happen that my son, without having performed one good work, is now living in paradise?" Yamaraja replied: "He has obtained celestial happiness not for performing good deeds, but because he died in faith and in love to the Lord and Master, the most glorious Buddha. The Buddha says: 'The heart of love and faith spreads as it were a beneficent shade from the world of men to the world of gods.' This glorious utterance is like the stamp of a king's seal upon a royal edict."

The happy father hastened to the place and saw his be beloved child playing with other children, all transfigured by the peace of the blissful existence of a heavenly life. He ran up to his boy and cried with tears running down his cheeks: "My son, my son, dost thou not remember me, thy father who watched over thee with loving care and tended thee in thy sickness? Return home with me to the land of the living." But the boy, while struggling to go back to his playmates, upbraided him for using such strange expressions as father and son. "In my present state, he said, "I know no such words, for I am free from delusion."

On this, the Brahman departed, and when he woke from his dream he bethought himself of the Blessed Master of mankind, the great Buddha, and resolved to go to him, lay bare his grief, and seek consolation. Having arrived at the Jetavana, the Brahman told his story and how his boy had refused to recognize him and to go home with him.

And the World-honored One said: "Truly thou art deluded. When man dies the body is dissolved into its elements, but the spirit is not entombed. It leads a higher mode of life in which all the relative terms of father, son, wife, mother, are at an end, just as a guest who leaves his lodging has done with it, as though it were a thing of the past. Men concern themselves most about that which passes away; but the end of life quickly comes as a burning torrent sweeping away the transient in a moment. They are like a blind man set to look after a burning lamp. A wise man, understanding the transiency of worldly relations, destroys the cause of grief, and escapes from the seething whirlpool of sorrow. Religious wisdom lifts a man above the pleasures and pains of the world and gives him peace everlasting." The Brahman asked the permission of the Blessed One to enter the community of his bhikkhus, so as to acquire that heavenly wisdom which alone can give comfort to an afflicted heart.

**************************************
:heart: Love Buddha's dhamma,
yawares/tidathep :heart:
Last edited by yawares on Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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yawares
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Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

Re: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by yawares »

Dear Members,

I got this story about YAMARAJA 's WISH from BlackBird(a nice poem writer)....I enjoy reading the story very much...real scare about the hell punishments indeed..my heart is shaking like this:

:heart: Hippy Shake : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ke8mzgex4U

I must listen to many songs before I can feel normal again...songs are my healer..songs chase my blues away..PLUS chanting Yod-Phra-Gan-Tipitaka Gatha, Chinabunchorn Gatha and Buddha prayer Namotassa (that I learned by heart since I was young) days/nights...then I'll be in peace again...
The Gathas are my medicines/vitamins :anjali: :heart:

*************
:candle: Yamaraja's Wish :candle:
[Devaduta Sutta: The Deva Messengers translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu]

"Once, monks, the thought occurred to King Yama: 'Those who did evil actions in the world are tortured in these many ways. O that I might gain the human state! And that a Tathāgata — worthy & rightly self-awakened — might arise in the world! And that I might attend to that Tathāgata! And that he might teach me the Dhamma! And that I might understand his Dhamma!'

"I tell you this, monks, not from having heard it from another contemplative or brahman. On the contrary, I tell you this just as I have known for myself, seen for myself, understood for myself."

That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-gone, the Teacher, said further:

Warned by the deva messengers,
those youths who are heedless
grieve for a long, long time —
people entering a lower state.
But those here who are good,
people of integrity,
when warned by the deva messengers
aren't heedless
of the noble Dhamma — ever.
Seeing danger in clinging,
in the coming-into-play
of birth & death,
they are released from lack of clinging,
in the ending
of birth & death.
They, happy, arriving at safety,
fully unbound in the here-&-now,
having gone beyond
all animosity & danger
have escaped
all suffering & stress.

------------------------
Notes
1.The word "no respect for father" (apetteyyo) does not appear in the Thai edition, but does appear in the Sri Lankan, Burmese, and PTS editions.

2.The Pali uses the word "kamma" in the singular here, as if it were an uncountable noun (like "water" or "information"). In other words, though singular in form, it could mean any number of actions. Because English does not have an equivalent uncountable noun for action, I have — in the translation of this discourse — kept the word "kamma" when it is in the singular in the Pali, and have used the word "actions" when "kamma" is in the plural or part of a compound where it could be either singular or plural.

3.In Asian Buddhist kingdoms, there was a custom that when a king was sentencing a criminal to death or to be tortured, he would not actually express the sentence, but would simply fall silent. The Commentary counsels that if a student asks not to hear the description of hell (which follows from this point), a teacher should teach the student meditation and then wait until the student has reached stream-entry before returning to the description of hell.

4.In the Sri Lankan, Burmese, and PTS editions, the sentence, "There he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet he does not die as long as his evil kamma is not exhausted," appears after each of the punishments listed in this paragraph. In the Thai edition, which I have chosen to follow here, it appears only at the end of the paragraph.

5.The Commentary does not explain the meaning of this ambiguous sentence. It could mean that when the hell-being's foot is lifted from the hot, burning floor, either (1) his skin, etc., continues burning or (2) his body returns to its original form. Either arrangement would be gruesome.

6.The Commentary notes that not everyone who falls into hell is tortured with all of these punishments: some of the tortures are skipped; in some cases the hell-being's kamma is exhausted before the full round of tortures is completed, so that he dies and is reborn elsewhere; and not everyone goes for repeated rounds. Also, we should note that punishment in hell is not for an eternity. As the discourse implies, when the hell-being's bad kamma is exhausted, he dies and is reborn elsewhere, in accordance with his remaining kamma.

*************
:heart: Love Buddha's dhamma,
yawares/tidathep :heart:
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BlackBird
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Re: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by BlackBird »

:thumbsup:
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
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yawares
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Re: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by yawares »

BlackBird wrote::thumbsup:
Dear BlackBird,

I should be the one who :twothumbsup: you ..for giving me the story.

yawares :reading:
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yawares
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Re: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by yawares »

Dear Manas,
Forgive me I didn't know why I made your reply disappear :jumping: after I answered your reply..yours/mine.. both gone gone gone!
But I still remember that you wrote about you never wanted to be in HELL..even as an employee(Yamaraja).

Me neither..not even stand at the gate of HELL just like TOM PETTY

Free Falling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A

yawares :tongue:
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BlackBird
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Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:07 pm

Re: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by BlackBird »

yawares wrote:Dear Manas,
Forgive me I didn't know why I made your reply disappear :jumping: after I answered your reply..yours/mine.. both gone gone gone!
But I still remember that you wrote about you never wanted to be in HELL..even as an employee(Yamaraja).

Me neither..not even stand at the gate of HELL just like TOM PETTY

Free Falling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A

yawares :tongue:
I :heart: Tom Petty
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
User avatar
yawares
Posts: 1531
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

Re: IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA/Yamaraja's wish

Post by yawares »

BlackBird wrote:
yawares wrote:Dear Manas,
Forgive me I didn't know why I made your reply disappear :jumping: after I answered your reply..yours/mine.. both gone gone gone!
But I still remember that you wrote about you never wanted to be in HELL..even as an employee(Yamaraja).

Me neither..not even stand at the gate of HELL just like TOM PETTY

Free Falling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A

yawares :tongue:
I :heart: Tom Petty
----------------
Dear BlackBird,

Do you know that Tom Petty is a weedy guy?? His songs are ok..not my favorites.

yawares :thinking:
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