tellyontellyon wrote: ↑Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:23 am
Hi.
I'm wondering... for Buddhists and Theravada Buddhism I'm particular, are there any beings, deities, spirits to pray to or invoke if you are in some sort of trouble?
I've heard 'paritta'? chanting can help with some things... What is that? How does it help? Thank you
Higher beings don't interfere with lower beings, for the same reason the queen of england doesn't interfere with those underneath her. You can pray to the queen of england, but she will not visit you. To enter her awareness, you have to enter her plane of existence, such as being a part of the monarchy, a world leader, part of the government, etc.. Do you think a poor person in a Brazil favela will ever enter into the Queen's awareness no matter how much he prays and cries? No. The chance of that happening is 0.000001%
Higher beings are even higher than the queen of england, they pervade entire galaxies, so they're even less likely to hear you, so the chance of that is 0.000000001%, since they have to deal with a higher noise to signal ratio, you are basically a needle in a haystack to them, or like bacteria to us, too many to focus on.
The only reason devas went to the Buddha is because the Buddha transcended them already, he attained a higher plane than all of them by mastering jhanas.
The Buddha first met the devas when he attained fourth jhana and was mastering the nimittas of fourth jhana.
Aside from that, higher beings find humans disgusting.
“Well then, chieftain, I shall give you a simile. For by means of a simile some sensible people understand the meaning of what is said. Suppose there were a man sunk over his head in a sewer. Then you were to order someone to pull him out of the sewer, and they’d agree to do so. Then you’d tell them to carefully scrape the dung off that man’s body with bamboo scrapers, and they’d agree to do so. Then you’d tell them to carefully scrub that man’s body down with pale clay three times, and they’d do so. Then you’d tell them to smear that man’s body with oil, and carefully wash him down with fine paste three times, and they’d do so. Then you’d tell them to dress that man’s hair and beard, and they’d do so. Then you’d tell them to provide that man with costly garlands, makeup, and clothes, and they’d do so. Then you’d tell them to bring that man up to the stilt longhouse and set him up with the five kinds of sensual stimulation, and they’d do so.
What do you think, chieftain? Now that man is nicely bathed and anointed, with hair and beard dressed, bedecked with garlands and bracelets, dressed in white, supplied and provided with the five kinds of sensual stimulation upstairs in the stilt longhouse. Would he want to dive back into that sewer again?”
“No, Master Kassapa. Why is that? Because that sewer is filthy, stinking, disgusting, and repulsive, and it’s regarded as such.”
“In the same way, chieftain, to the gods, human beings are filthy, stinking, disgusting, and repulsive, and are regarded as such. The smell of humans reaches the gods even a hundred leagues away. What then of your friends and colleagues, relatives and kin who are reborn in a higher realm after doing good things? Will they come back to tell you that there is an afterlife? By this method, too, it ought to be proven that there is an afterlife.”
- DN 23
And also time moves much faster for them, so you are like bacteria to them, you are born and die really fast, they won't even bother listening to you.
“Well then, chieftain, I’ll ask you about this in return, and you can answer as you like. A hundred human years are equivalent to one day and night for the gods of the Thirty-Three. Thirty such days make a month, and twelve months make a year. The gods of the Thirty Three have a lifespan of a thousand such years. Now, as to your friends who are reborn in the company of the gods of the Thirty-Three after doing good things. If they think, ‘First I’ll amuse myself for two or three days, supplied and provided with the five kinds of heavenly sensual stimulation. Then I’ll go back to Pāyāsi and tell him that there is an afterlife.’ Would they come back to tell you that there is an afterlife?”
“No, Master Kassapa. For I would be long dead by then. But Master Kassapa, who has told you that the gods of the Thirty-Three exist, or that they have such a long life span? I don’t believe you.”
