Some people cease fresh fabrication. Their "self" is broken. This is a notable achievement... but it is not perfect.

Contents: (a) my practice. (b) what is perfect enlightenment? (c) a great sickness in zen. (d) what the masters say. (e) conclusion.

The purpose of this article is to clarify what the great enlightenment of the buddha is, and how it differs from what is mistakenly held to be enlightenment by many zennies — many of whom think they have already plumbed the depths of what Buddhism has to offer. This might contradict your strong views, but if you think as indicated above, I urge you to try and patiently consider this, even though you might think yourself to be beyond scripture.

a. my practice.

my entire practice is non-fabrication and fabrication at once. it is well described as follows: "thoughts arise, speech and action arises, and promptly return to nothing — the neutral state, the empty mind. thereby, between thoughts and actions, there is no illusion of continuity or self. this happens in all people, except there is an illusion of continuity between successive thoughts and actions. they have too much fullness and too little emptiness."

Thus, since all my practice involves not doing anything — just forgetting — there is negligible expenditure of energy. so this practice lasts for ever.

Yet this is a certain enlightenment, but also not the perfect enlightenment. This is because even though the cart of the self is broken and there is no more fresh creation of delusion, my tendencies are still conditioned from past experiences.

b. what is perfect enlightenment?

A man's tendencies and habits are conditioned under delusion. These tendencies and habits are referred to traditionally in the Yogachara school as "seeds and smells in the storehouse consciousness" — or vasanas in the alayavijnana.

For example, when I saw a fault in my sister, I noticed that I have a strong tendency to get scornful and thereby feel aversion. Similarly, sometimes anger arises in my mind. As in the case of thoughts, speech and actions, I see these passions arise and pass away very quickly. But the fact is that they are there. This is a product of having been conditioned and shaped by delusion.

The buddha-nature is even beyond all such dualistic tendencies — it is not just beyond fabrications. buddha's enlightenment is this. This is the other shore.

c. the sickness in zen.

Some people cease fresh fabrication. Their "self" is broken. This is a notable achievement, but it is not perfect. Some of these people go about thinking that they are greater than the buddha and the dharma. This is a sickness of zen.

The following I have heard: when the buddha became the buddha, he declared: "all beings have bodhi — or buddha nature." In the Maha Parinirvana Sutra, the buddha says: "just as there is gold in the ore, all beings have buddha nature, but this is covered with impurities of delusion."

I suggest that this "delusion" includes dualistic tendencies conditioned under past delusion. It is not just the absence of fresh creation of impurities.

Nagarjuna says: "nirvana is samsara." This statement is greatly misunderstood. Indeed, I have read a Korean monk say something like "passions is enlightenment" — this, as far as I can imagine its intent, is wrong. Nirvana is samsara because nirvana is no fabrication — it is not some "special state of mind" or "plane of consciousness." It is the absence of the shield of self; totally vulnerable; liable to be "affected" by everything in the environment. This is the only true kind of "feeling."

Zen is everyday life. But this does not mean that anger and passions are zen. It does not mean that because there is anger and passions in daily life, in buddhahood there is still anger and passions.

d. what the masters say.

There is a koan regarding this: Case 13 of the Mumonkan — "Tokusan Holds His Bowls." Seppō mentioned something to Gantō, who remarked: "Tokusan is renowned, but he does not know the last word." Even though explaining a koan is impossible, I have heard Seungsahn say that "last word" in Chinese indicates correct situation, correct relationship, correct function. I remember reading: "the last word in zen is compassion." This can be misleading, but it is true. True buddha nature is beyond dualistic tendencies as well. This is true emptiness — the last word.

There is no record of Siddhartha Gautama ever getting angry or upset. You might say "have you heard of Siddhartha Gautama taking a leak?" — but this is a flawed argument. Either the person who says this does not bother reading the scripture anymore, or while reading sees only what they want to see.

Indeed, I have seen the Rinzai monk Kobutsu say: "buddha got satori. we get kensho. Authors who don't know any better mix them up."

Thus this particular sickness is not there so much in Rinzai or Soto Zen — though there is not complete health either — as much as it is there in parts of Korean Zen and some modern Western practitioners. Perhaps the greatest master of Korean Zen, the Venerable Songchol, has spoken about this sickness — explaining why Chinul, the great reviver of Korean Zen, made a mistake.

Even Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutra, says: "yoga is the cessation of the modes of mind."

e. conclusion.

i don't understand buddhahood. i have not attained it. I am perhaps like a blind man telling people who think they see that they are still blind. I may be presumptuous, but i don't have anything to lose. I hope this essay benefits your practice and will prevent misguidance.

Posted to talk.religion.buddhism on November 2, 2005. Author: vishvas ([email protected]). Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

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