This is mahasiddha noble Tilopa, a realized one who inspires great devotion in all who see him clearly. Tilopa had real caring and loving bodhicitta, and he had a noble student called Naropa.
So for me money is a huge obstacle personally, I'm someone that spends hours and hours meditating and doing mantra but isn't quite ready to ordain as a monk and leave behind a money-based support.
This means that I need to sacrifice those very same meditation hours and spend them in complete waste getting money instead. It's very shocking to me that there are no good support systems (for those not yet ordained) for money for laypeople.
I know that there's a lot of potential for abuse (avoiding practice and getting lazy) which is probably why the Buddhas do not lay out a guaranteed method for actually getting money.
I also know that the Buddhas don't emphasize the external obstacles, but there's definitely a point at which you're not advanced enough to be monastic yet advanced enough to kind of be forced to choose survival or Dharma.
I have tried tantras and while they are effective at increasing generosity (and in a supernatural and powerful way), they are not effective at giving money immediately, which I suppose makes sense as all the commentaries on the tantras explain that you need the karma of generosity in the past. However this is the problem right now, it's a question of money immediately, not money in the future which present generosity ripens-as.
I also looked at suttas and sutras and oral commentaries, but a lot of these were in the time before modern global capitalism. For example in one sutta the Buddha says to separate money into 4 segments, except there's just not enough money to separate it 3 segments, much less 4.
Does anyone know of any Dharma teachings that give money immediately? I'm really surprised it's this difficult even for advanced practitioners, I always treated it as such a minor and meaningless obstacle which is easily overcome by dedicated practice but it has only gotten worse and worse.
>From now until the ends of future time throughout uncountable eons I will use expansive expedient means to help beings in the Six Paths who are suffering for their offenses. Only when they have all been liberated, will I myself become a Buddha
Original Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra
The Buddha had a constant, persistent, state of potential omniscience that he could direct his mind to access instantly at any point. That omniscience knew things without respect to time, outside of time, yet had to be accessed intentionally, by directing the Buddha's mind. It had to be accessed in sequence, one moment after another, so it did not happen all at once.
In the beginning he explains that it is indeed possible to have a knowledge and vision that is all-knowing and all-seeing:
>Then King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One, "Lord, I have heard that 'Gotama the contemplative says this: "It is not possible that a brahman or contemplative would claim a knowledge and vision that is all-knowing and all-seeing without exception."' Those who say this: are they speaking in line with what the Blessed One has said? Are they not misrepresenting the Blessed One with what is unfactual? Are they answering in line with the Dhamma, so that no one whose thinking is in line with the Dhamma would have grounds for criticizing them?"
>"Great king, those who say that are not speaking in line with what I have said, and are misrepresenting me with what is untrue and unfactual."
>Then King Pasenadi Kosala turned to General Vidudabha: "General, who brought this topic into the palace?"
>"Sañjaya, the brahman of the Akasa clan, great king."
>So King Pasenadi turned to one of his men, "Come, my good man. Summon Sañjaya the brahman of the Akasa clan, saying, 'King Pasenadi Kosala summons you.'"
>Responding, "As you say, sire," the man went to Sañjaya the brahman of the Akasa clan and on arrival said to him, "King Pasenadi Kosala summons you."
>Then King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One, "Could it be that something was said by the Blessed One in reference to something else, which a person could have misunderstood? In what way does the Blessed One recall having said [such] a statement?"
>"Great king, I recall having said, 'It is not possible that a brahman or contemplative could know everything and see everything all at once.'"
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.090.than.html
And in the end he clarifies that it's not possible to have that knowledge in every instantaneous moment of consciousness, all at once. Rather the access to that knowledge (which is experienced as instant) is bounded by the mind.
This gives a good context to the suttas in the Pali Canon, it's important to be mindful that whoever was speaking to the Buddha was speaking to an omniscient one who saw both his words ahead of time, and the responses and reactions of the other person ahead of time, and this happens all before anyone uttered a single word.
Knowing these steps ahead of time, that is where you should understand his motivations. He knew the likely outcomes ahead of time, knew what would happen, and starting with that context, he made decisions and gave teachings. In this light many of the suttas get interpreted differently.
For example here:
> "You are now old, Kassapa. Your robes made of cast-off hemp rags are heavy for you. So wear robes donated by householders, eat invitational meals, and live close by me..."
> "Good, Kassapa. Very good. It seems that you are one who practices for the happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, for the welfare, benefit, & happiness of beings human & divine. So continue wearing your robes of cast off hemp cloth, go for alms, and live in the wilderness."
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn16/sn16.005.than.html
It's not two masters merely talking, and it's not a case where Kassapa is more dedicated than the Buddha to refuse the Buddha. Paradoxically it doesn't make sense that the Buddha is praising Kassapa after he refuses his good advice either.
Rather the Buddha saw the best course of action through omniscience, and suggested it to Kassapa, because there was the possibility of Kassapa acquiescing and no matter how Kassapa reacted, this sutta would be created. Kassapa reacted in the best way that he could, which was the second-best outcome and still a very praiseworthy course of action. The Buddha praised his practice as it was the best outcome regardless and solidified the sutta.
But the important thing to remember is that he was effectively omniscient and spoke from that perspective when trying to understand his teachings.
Whatever you do now is arising as the outskirts of your consciousness, like a little circular piece of paper charred yet burning with flames all around its edges. That fire at the edges of the paper is just the karma of your actions, and eventually the fire reaches the middle and is experienced by you. But even if the fire never reaches the middle, it's still your radiance, it's still how you can identify virtuous vs unvirtuous people, by that flame of being and becoming at the edges of their consciousness.
We usually identify with our lives, but it's better to identify with this being & becoming, because that's how it actually is, we go every day in our lives engaging in being & becoming and are unaware that it's a real thing that exists right now, not some theory. It's that fire at the edges of your consciousness, slowly making its way to the center until it's experienced. But even though the results of the fire make their way to the middle, there is a constant being & becoming at the edges, at every moment in your life.
When it's purified and wise, it becomes something so special, like a radiance that goes through all of existence. But when that fire is unrestrained, it burns you.
I wanted to share this as inspiration from my personal practice, so that more people would wake up to their being and becoming in this very moment.
om jetsün pakma drolma la chaktsal lo
Oṃ. I submit obeisance to Tārā - she who is both exalted and revered.
chaktsal drolma taré pamo
I prostrate to Tārā the courageous saviouress,
tuttara yi jik kün selma
Who dispels all fear with Tuttāra
turé dön nam tamché ter ma
And grants all with Ture.
soha yiger ché la rab dü
With Svāhā, I offer my final homage.
This prayer came from Tara to Atisha, Tara is a wonderful one who helps practitioners on the path to enlightenment.
I notice this comes up sometimes and some people think we've done it all before. That in past lives we have ordained, practiced Dharma (really well too), and it's merely that we haven't pireced the threshold of liberation so we are reborn, but this seems wrong. For example if someone ordains and practices as a monk/nun their whole life, their rebirth is almost certainly a higher heavenly realm:
> The lifespan of the gods of the Divinity’s host is one eon. An ordinary person stays there until the lifespan of those gods is spent, then they go to hell or the animal realm or the ghost realm. But a disciple of the Buddha stays there until the lifespan of those gods is spent, then they’re extinguished in that very life. This is the difference between a learned noble disciple and an unlearned ordinary person, that is, when there is a place of rebirth.
Anathapindika for example was someone who entered this first Jhana by way of the four brahma abodes as a layman. Monks have it a lot easier, and most monks who practice well will end up with at least this result.
There's also a very basic faith requirement to attain the first step leading to stream-entry:
> “Yo bhattāni dhammadassino... sa yāva sotāpattiphalasacchikiriyāya paṭipanno... Abhabbo taṃ kammaṃ kātuṃ yaṃ kammaṃ katvā nirayaṃ vā tiracchānayoniṃ vā pettivisayaṃ vā upapajjeyya. Abhabbo ca tāva kālaṃ kātuṃ yāva na sotāpattiphalaṃ sacchikaroti.”
> "One who has conviction and belief that these phenomena are this way is called a faith-follower... He has entered the fixed course of rightness, entered the plane of people of integrity, transcended the plane of the run-of-the-mill worldling (puthujjana).
This applies to every monk and many laypeople, that if you practiced Dharma in the past and especially if you were a monk that you would have been liberated already, at the very least through faith.
Now on the flip side of this it makes a lot of sense in an infinite samsara that we have done almost everything. We've done both good and bad things, but according to causality it's not really possible that we've practiced Dharma before. Because if we merely had faith we'd already have been liberated.
This is without reaching into Mahayana where you have texts like Kuntuzangpo's prayer for example, which also guarantee liberation if you've heard them, or Vajrayana.
https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/gyalse-thogme-zangpo/37-practices-all-bodhisattvas
This one stands out to me a lot:
> Even if others, equal or inferior to me in status, Should, out of arrogance, disparage me, To honour them, as I would my teacher, By bowing down my head before them—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
I've noticed that if you are helping other beings and this happens, it helps the other person more if you don't do this. Whenever someone fights you for example, and you concede that to them, you can not help them any more. But if someone fights you and you don't concede that to them, then in some cases you can still help the person, sometimes the mood changes. But this advice (and it's found in a lot of texts, not just this text in particular, it's often found as "taking the loss upon yourself"), it shuts the door on being able to help a certain group of people. Because once you take the loss upon yourself, that's basically it, that person is no longer receptive to help because they see you a lesser and unfit to help them.
Anyways I see this advice a lot and this has been exactly my experience. I'm never able to help beings when i take the loss, and contrast that to sometimes being able to help beings if I don't accept the loss. Yet following this advice would kind of shut the door to all those beings i've been able to help in the past.