Your favorite historical teachers

[SarathW]

I have to say Buddha.
Every time I have an unanswerable (hard, disputed) question, I ask myself “What Buddha would have done in this situation?”

[tidathep]

Hi David,

My list:

All 24 Buddhas


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All 41 Etadagga Bhikkhus

All 13 Etadagga Bhikkhunis

Sakka, King of the devas

------------

Dr. Jivaka, the Buddha's doctor


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Sumana, the jasmine florist

Citta, the great upasaka

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Sirima, the lay-disciple who attained Sotapatti Fruition


***********
Their stories teach me alot
tidathep/yawares

[Sekha]

The Buddha of our era, of course.

In recent times I would pick up the following:

1. Webu Sayadaw
2. SN Goenka
3. Bhante U Punnananda

[John1122]

Nāgasena. Is one that comes to mind.

[yawares]

Dear Members,

The Buddha, Moggallana and Sariputta


I love Thera Moggallana not just because he's a great teacher...he's also great with his supernatural powers.

David's Book : List #546
[By Dr.David N. Snyder]

List no. 546
11 super normal (psychic) powers:

1. Having been one, he becomes many

2. Having been many, he becomes one

3. He appears and vanishes

4. He goes unhindered through a wall, through an enclosure, through a mountain, as though
through space

5. He dives in and out of the earth as though it were water

6. He walks on water without sinking as though it were earth

7. Seated cross-legged, he travels in space like a bird

8. With his hand he touches and strokes the moon and sun so powerful and mighty

9. He wields bodily mastery even as far as the Brahma-world

10. The divine ear element, which is purified and surpasses the human, that Blessed One hears
both kinds of sounds, the heavenly and the human, those that are far as well as near

11. The Blessed One encompasses with his own mind the minds of other beings, other persons
(from Majjhima Nikaya 12 Samyutta Nikaya 12.70)

********
Thera Moggallana
[ Edit from http://www.ignca.nic.in/jatak090.htm]

Moggallana was one of the two chief disciples of the Buddha. He was ordained along with Sariputta; and on the same day the Buddha, too, had declared that they were the Chief Disciples.As Sariputta was best known for his wisdom, Moggallana was best known for the possession of the supernatural powers.

Sariputta was the preceptor of Rahula (the son of the Buddha); Moggallana was his teacher. Both Sariputta and Moggallana had a mutual request for each other. Moggallana died a fortnight after Sariputta on a new moon night.

------
Moggallana was born on the same day when Sariputta was born. He derived his name from his mother who was called Moggali (or Moggallani). He was also called Kolita, which was the name of his village.The friendship between the families of Moggallana and Sariputta existed for seven generations; and the two were the friends since their childhood.
Once, the two friends went to see a mime-play (giraggasamajja) and realised through the play that the “world itself is a drama” as “all the worldly things are impermanent”. This realisation made them renounce the world.

*******
Love Thera Moggallana,
yawares/tidathep

[yawares]

Dear Members...I'm sure that you all know that Thera Kaccana was praised by the Buddha as an Etadagga in preaching with analogies that so clear to all listeners.



I was so impressed with Thera Kaccana when I read the story of Soreyya, the man who turned to be a woman(I posted this story last year)...Today I read a story that he preached to Uttara:
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Uttara.-A youth of Kosambí, son of a minister of King Udena. When his father died, the youth was appointed by the king to carry out certain works in the city which his father had left unfinished.

One day, while on his way to the forest to fell timber, he saw Mahá Kaccana and, being pleased with the thera's demeanour, went and worshipped him. The thera preached to him, and the youth invited him and his companions to a meal in his house. At the conclusion of the meal Uttara followed Mahá Kaccána to the vihára and asked him to have his meals always at his house. He later became a Sotápanna and built a vihára. He persuaded most of his relations to join in his good deeds, but his mother refused to help and abused the monks. As a result she was born in the peta-world. (See Uttaramátá).

**********
Thera Kaccana is my favorite teacher!
yawares

[yawares]

Dear Members,



Once when I was in junior high, my teacher talked about Sirima, the most beautiful courtesan..why she was born as a courtesan??? Her story truly shaped up my life as a school-girl/student..I was so afraid to fool around.... especially when I worked with airline-flirting-handsome passengers/pilots/pursers/flight attendants...fear of hell..fear of kamma to be reborn as prostitute/homosexual/bad love-life/bad marriage... ...and I've seen the real-life kamma that happened to my beautiful friends...and many handsome male-flight-attendants I worked with were homosexuals!! So as a young 21 yrs old stewardess...I never fooled around through my 8 years-career ever..SIRIMA is truly my sex-kamma teacher !!!
***But after listening to the Gautama Buddha 's preaching, Sirima attained Sotapatti Fruition [/b]

***************
Sirima is my favorite beautiful historical teacher!!
yawares

[David N. Snyder]

fear of kamma to be reborn as prostitute/homosexual/bad love-life/bad marriage

If I am not mistaken, I believe this is a cultural addition / belief. There are no Sutta references that I know of that equate homosexuality as a result of bad kamma.

[yawares]

fear of kamma to be reborn as prostitute/homosexual/bad love-life/bad marriage

If I am not mistaken, I believe this is a cultural addition / belief. There are no Sutta references that I know of that equate homosexuality as a result of bad kamma.

Dear David,

So far I can't find any sutta refernces....ONLY the story of ISIDASI:

Isidasi was born as a man, a charming goldsmith who seduced and took delight in seducing many men's wives. Without realizing it, he hurt husbands and broke up families. As a result, he was reborn in the niraya . After a very long time -- suffering exponentially more than the suffering he had caused -- he was reborn in the animal realm as an infant male monkey. When brought before the alpha male, that monkey leader immediately bit off the infant's genitals as if sensing and wishing to prevent future rivalry. Thereafter, he was reborn as a hermaphrodite , then again as a female, all stemming from making a habit of sexual misconduct in that former life. The story of past lives relating to her present misery continues in a former life as a femaleew.

But there were a few supermonks in Thailand who preached that:

1. People with sexual misconducts will sometimes be reborn as gays/lesbians.
2. People who die while drunk will sometimes be reborn as idiots.

And I think it's quite logical..."you reap what you sow".

*********
yawares

[yawares]

Dear David,

I asked my dear friend, Dr.Han Tun, an expert in Dhammapada stories/Suttas.... about 'stories about 'pandaka'
besides the story of Isidasi......and he emailed me this article:

The Dhammapada Commentary (i.327) states that once when Ánanda(The Buddha's Attendant) was a blacksmith he sinned with the wife of another man. As a result, he suffered in hell for a long time and was born for fourteen existences as some one's wife, and it was seven existences more before the results of his evil deed were exhausted.

Han: Here, the details are not mentioned. But in a Burmese book, it is stated that in one of the existences as a human being after suffering at the hell, he was a pandaka (an eunuch).

And that is the same as in Dhammapada Thai Version!!

************
yawares

[David N. Snyder]

Hi yawares,

Okay, thanks for that clarification -- that the bad kamma resulted in being reborn a eunuch, which is not [necessarily] a homosexual.