Look at the sidebar. The circle, ending precisely where it began. There are a variety of interpretations to what that image represents (as it relates to Zen) but I wanted to share something with you guys that may or may not be a surprise to you.
Enlightenment is not an attainment, it is actually the very opposite. An enlightened individual relinquishes some burden (hence the literal term enlightened; en-lightened - to make lighter, unencumbered).
In the Zen tradition, there is a very real need to cause a great doubt in the mind of the practitioner. Zen masters would fool initiates by giving them unsolvable koans - but would insist that understanding the koan is fundamental to "The Way".
These koans drove many initiates totally insane - especially the ones that were really sincere about devoting themselves to this Zen business.
One day, maybe, the initiate gets the point. The point being, of course, that you've had it all along. The koan was nothing more than, for example, an adult with an empty, closed fist - waving it in front of a child and saying "What's in my hand?". The child can't contain their curiosity, so they fuss and whine and try to pry your hand open and get themselves all riled up - only to realize there's nothing in your hand, there never was anything there.
So - who cares?
To anyone on this forum who is an addict, whether it be drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, whatever - the pleasure in using your substance comes only from the cessation of suffering, the first time you smoke a cigarette it's generally a quite unpleasant experience. But if you continue in your folly you become dependent on them, and to go without them causes you a great deal of pain. The substance feels so good because it's temporarily medicine for the self-imposed suffering you placed on yourself.
And so, with enlightenment, it really only works if you wind yourself up into an anxious, confused mess - the very necessity and craving for some experience, some fabled "Nirvana", is the requisite condition for the experience of enlightenment to occur. When you're told the truth, like Huang po says: “Here it is--right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it.” - it seems simply too ordinary and mundane to be the truth, to be the idea you've driven yourself crazy over for a long time.
"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
You're right back to where you began.
There's no need to put yourself in bondage. No amount of zazen or prayer or yoga will bring you any closer to the truth. If you wish to persist in your folly, I hope your enlightenment is everything you wished it would be - should you one day relieve yourself of your own suffering.
Submitted December 09, 2017 at 01:37AM by 1kes http://ift.tt/2B3jrmb
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