Huangbo Xiyun: When the lotus opened and the universe lay disclosed, there arose the duality of Absolute and sentient world; or, rather, the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection.

When the lotus opened and the universe lay disclosed, there arose the duality of Absolute and sentient world; or, rather, the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection. These aspects are unchanging reality and potential form.

For sentient beings, there are such pairs of opposites as becoming and cessation, together with all the others. Therefore, beware of clinging to one half of a pair. Those who, in their single-minded attempt to reach Buddhahood, detest the sentient world, thereby blaspheme all the Buddhas of the universe. The Buddhas, on manifesting themselves in the world, seized dung-shovels to rid themselves of all such rubbish as books containing metaphysics and sophistry.

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Huangbo Xiyun [died 850?], On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld

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Commentary: If we are to understand the great matter at hand, I believe at this point that it's good to look into the direction of reconciliation. What is it that must be reconciled? Here Huangbo teaches: the Absolute appeared in two aspects which, taken together, comprise pure perfection. These aspects are unchanging reality and potential form. If we take Huangbo's teaching at face value, the Absolute and the sentient world quite literally cannot be rendered asunder, as they are already whole and complete. The only difference can be in your understanding and vantage point.

This at once reveals the very nature of delusion: if we cling to what we believe to be the sentient world or these temporal bodies and minds within it without realization of the Absolute, it creates dissonance from the whole and immediately cuts all things into distinctions. Distinctions reduce freedom and increase suffering.

Yet where is the evidence of this Absolute within the sentient world? Huangbo establishes that the sentient world is potential form, which at once reveals that no form is to be truly relied on, as it will in fact be subject to change. Huangbo also establishes that the Absolute is unchanging reality, which may be difficult to perceive among the maelstrom of change regarding these potential forms among the myriad things. The Absolute is already everywhere at once; it can be understood or perceived in change, motion, birth, growth, decay, and even death. Thus, all is already emptiness and Void even before coalescing into being created. Our potential forms may want to hold on to things that we mistakenly believe or desire to not be subject to change, but ultimately, only the Absolute is unchanging.

Submitted November 07, 2019 at 08:35PM by WanderingRoninXIII https://ift.tt/2rktKip