I can't relate to that
Sometimes people tell me that they can't relate to certain things, like the images of buddhist deities with multiple arms and heads and strange accoutrements.
So, I've been thinking about what it means to relate to something. It seems to mean that you are familiar with it. There is something in your experience which is similar enough to connect with this new thing that you are seeing or hearing. You already have a category in your mind to slip this new thing into.
As spiritual adventurers, we have to be more flexible than the average person in expanding our minds to make room for new ideas and images. Maybe a new category needs to be added to your range of acceptable experiences.
On the other hand, there is an idea in Buddhism that the enlightened beings--the buddhas--manifest in ordinary forms precisely so that ordinary beings can relate to them.
The buddhas have various levels of being called 'kayas', or literally 'bodies'. The Dharmakaya is not a body at all, at least in the usual sense; it is just the Wisdom Mind of an enlightened being.
The Sambhogakaya, or Enjoyment Body, is a subtle form that the buddhas manifest but which cannot be perceived by ordinary beings. In other words, we can't 'relate' to it. The Buddha of Compassion doesn't go walking down the street showing off all one-thousand arms because that would be too bizarre.
The Nirmanakaya, Emanation Body, is the form that buddhas take which appears ordinary so that we can relate to it. That's why we have to be careful about making judgments about how people appear; that's not necessarily how they really are.
Can you relate to that?
So, I've been thinking about what it means to relate to something. It seems to mean that you are familiar with it. There is something in your experience which is similar enough to connect with this new thing that you are seeing or hearing. You already have a category in your mind to slip this new thing into.
As spiritual adventurers, we have to be more flexible than the average person in expanding our minds to make room for new ideas and images. Maybe a new category needs to be added to your range of acceptable experiences.
On the other hand, there is an idea in Buddhism that the enlightened beings--the buddhas--manifest in ordinary forms precisely so that ordinary beings can relate to them.
The buddhas have various levels of being called 'kayas', or literally 'bodies'. The Dharmakaya is not a body at all, at least in the usual sense; it is just the Wisdom Mind of an enlightened being.
The Sambhogakaya, or Enjoyment Body, is a subtle form that the buddhas manifest but which cannot be perceived by ordinary beings. In other words, we can't 'relate' to it. The Buddha of Compassion doesn't go walking down the street showing off all one-thousand arms because that would be too bizarre.
The Nirmanakaya, Emanation Body, is the form that buddhas take which appears ordinary so that we can relate to it. That's why we have to be careful about making judgments about how people appear; that's not necessarily how they really are.
Can you relate to that?
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