Question asked by J
1: YONTEN SHIGYURMA: How is the pratimoksha the essential practice? What is the 2 attainments. What does 'having precisely understood the essentials of the 2 stages' mean? What are the 2 stages? What is the 4 sessions?
2: Plants can breathe and have characteristics of a sentient being, are they a sentient being then? I remember people claim that plants have lives.
3: It feels wrong to annotate Dharma books, like highlighting words and phrases, writing notes on the side, it feel swrong because it feels like I'm disrespecting it. So it is okay or not okay
Dear J,
RE: Yonten Shigyurma
1. Pratimoksha is essential practice, because without some form of holding vows or having a strong sense of morality, we will not control ourselves from collecting negative karma and helping others. It forms of the basis of all of Buddhism, no matter what tradition or school of Buddhism that you practice. It is the practice that can lead you to liberation from samsara as evident in the word Pratimoksha itself, which means “Self-Liberation” meaning it is the path and practice to liberation.
2. The two attainments are (1) common attainments, which are heightened abilities or supernatural powers that you can develop on the spiritual path & (2) supreme attainment is the attainment of enlightenment.
3. The 2 Stages are the two stage of Tantric practice, known as the Generation and Completion stages. The 4 Sessions refer to the practice in Tantra (especially in retreat settings) of engaging in your Sadhana 4 times a day.
RE: Plants
Plants are not considered a sentient being. Some people do claim that plants have lives but not from a Buddhist perspective. They are not considered sentient beings. Within Buddhism there are Six Realms that we can take rebirth in (Hell, Hungry-Ghost, Animal, Human, Demi-God and God). Plants are not included because they are not considered to be sentient.
RE; Dharma books
It’s not wrong per se, because you intention is not to disrespect the Dharma but to learn it better. Many years ago, I approached Tsem Rinpoche with the same question in regards to my Lamrim text. Rinpoche said it was okay, but for me to get a second copy. I put one on my altar, and used the other to study from, which is full of my notes. Rinpoche said this was okay. Some people however, are not comfortable with this and that is okay as well. In that case, just get a notebook and write your notes in there instead.
I hope this helps.