Why are llamas significant?

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Seth19930
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Why are llamas significant?

Post by Seth19930 »

Hello everyone, I'm having a very hard time finding the reason llamas are a significant symbol in Buddhism. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Modus.Ponens
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Modus.Ponens »

They are a significant symbol in tibetan buddhism, not in theravada buddhism. In theravada, the importance is given to admirable friends, companions in the holy life.
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
Seth19930
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Seth19930 »

Thanks! Well since I've already posted in a Theravada discussion forum does anyone have knowledge pertaining to why llamas are significant in Tibetan Buddhism?
daverupa
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by daverupa »

Llamas aren't indigenous to Tibet...
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
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DNS
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by DNS »

Which lama are you referring to? This one:

Image

Or this one:

Image
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Aloka
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Aloka »

Here's a photo of a very important high llama.


Image
daverupa
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by daverupa »

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.

-Ogden Nash

(Nash added as a footnote, *The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Pooh.)
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
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DNS
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by DNS »

And with that note, let's move this to the lounge. :tongue:
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Kim OHara
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Kim OHara »

Seth19930 wrote:Thanks! Well since I've already posted in a Theravada discussion forum does anyone have knowledge pertaining to why llamas are significant in Tibetan Buddhism?
Hi, Seth,
Lamas are highly trained priests. That's one reason they are respected.
For most of Tibet's history, hardly anyone except the lamas got much of an education in anything, so lamas were also respected for their other kinds of expertise.
Finally, Tibetan Buddhism gives teachers - lamas - far more spiritual authority than other Buddhist schools give to monks.

Hope this helps,

Kim
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LonesomeYogurt
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

Man I step out to get groceries and all the good llama puns are taken by the time I get back...

Just my luck!

Anyway a Lama is just a term for a highly respected teacher of Tibetan Buddhism - and as Tibetan Buddhism focuses heavily on student-teacher relationships and Dharma transmission, they form an integral part of the lineage chain that defines their school.
Gain and loss, status and disgrace,
censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are inconstant,
impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His welcoming and rebelling are scattered,
gone to their end,
do not exist.
- Lokavipatti Sutta

Stuff I write about things.
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Ben
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Ben »

I'm gonna ride my llama
From Peru to Texarcana

I'm gonna ride him good
In my old neighbourhood.

-- Ride my llama, Neil Young
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

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Seth19930
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Seth19930 »

So the animal has no relation to the title in any symbolic way?
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mikenz66
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by mikenz66 »

Seth19930 wrote:So the animal has no relation to the title in any symbolic way?
Unlikely, since the term lama originated in South America:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... lish/llama" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Mike
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Dan74
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Dan74 »

mikenz66 wrote:
Seth19930 wrote:So the animal has no relation to the title in any symbolic way?
Unlikely, since the term lama originated in South America:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... lish/llama" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Mike
Oh, but there is!



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Seth19930
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Re: Why are llamas significant?

Post by Seth19930 »

Lama in Tibetan means weighty! I figured it out! Because the dharma is weighty!
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