I found the poem at:
http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/buddhist/huang/huangp/1/
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Outside Reading - 3rd Post
I read a poem entitled The Real Buddha. It was written by a man that lived several hundreds of years ago named Huang Po. He studied Buddhism and taught in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. This poem of his shows his belief about the Buddha. His words reveal that he thinks the Buddha does not need praise through rituals or worthless practice. If it is right at the time practice is okay, but otherwise he feels that nothing is needed in addition to what you already have. He feels that all you need is to become one with the Way and open your mind. Huang Po reminds me in some ways of Siddhartha because they both disagreed with some aspects of their religion. Huang's variation on Buddhism expressed in this poem is a good reminder to us that although we may say we agree with one thing, everyone has a different opinion. I did not really like this poem all that much because it was hard for me to relate to but I still found it very interesting. I would recommend that others search for poems on this same website because there were some unusual poems!
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2 comments:
For someone who lived several hundreds of years ago, his poem seems to be similar to the views of what we believe in today. His views are similar to those of Siddhartha since he believes that you have to discover your own enlightenment. After reading his poem, I interpreted it differently however. The poem seems to talk about how Buddhists are becoming "corrupt" and are fooling themselves thinking that they are taking the correct path towards practicing Buddhism correctly, however they are doing it incorrectly and are disgracing the religion. He states that all they believe in is "winning" through spiritual merits is not correct. He believes that you should not try to fool your mind by doing this. In the poem, he says "Just awaken to the one Mind,and there is absolutely nothing to be attained.This is the real Buddha." which tells us that it is important to open your mind and get rid of your desires (nothing to be attained), only then will you become "Buddha."
I have to agree with the author that the Buddha does not need special sacrifies etc. Isn't he just a guy who has found enlightenment and is now helping others? So he is more just a very wise teacher, not some powerful god who can help you if you sacrifice to him. I thought that was the main difference with Buddhism, that thier was no god or god like person
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