There are two sides to enlightenment. One is a sudden flash of knowing, the Zen Satori, as the Japanese call it. I imagine everyone experiences this to one degree or another, at various time throughout life. It is almost guaranteed in that one’s awareness is bound to fall from its fortress of belief at some point in their life.
The other side of enlightenment is a constant and sustained knowing. Here impartiality is essential. Without sufficient impartiality, seeing the “cosmic whole” would drive one insane. Impartiality opens the window of awareness wider; the wider the window the more awe-full the view; the more essential impartiality becomes to maintain sanity. That sounds like a virtuous circle, as they say. Impartiality opens the eyes and opening eyes necessitates increasing impartiality. The more literal translation of Chapter 16’s hints at this…
Perhaps the sudden flash of knowing, the Zen Satori, is the kick-starter for “knowing the constant”; it gets the ball rolling. Chapter eleven of the Bhagavad Gita describes the awesome and overwhelming nature of an enlightened view nicely. This dialog is between two characters, the noble warrior Arjuna and Krishna (a Hindu deity corresponding to Jesus Christ).
Arjuna asks, “If thou thinkest, O my Lord, that it can be seen by me, show me, O God of Yoga, the glory of thine own Supreme Being“.
Then Krishna says, “See now the whole universe with all things that move and move not, and whatever thy soul may yearn to see. See it all as One in me.”
Krishna allows Arjuna to see what all fear to see, “I am all‑powerful Time which destroys all things.”
After Krishna reveals all, Arjuna freaks out and says, “In a vision I have seen what no man has seen before: I rejoice in exultation, and yet my heart trembles with fear. Have mercy upon me, Lord of gods, Refuge of the whole universe: show me again thine own human form.”
Krishna replies, “By my grace and my wondrous power I have shown to thee, Arjuna, this form supreme made of light, which is the Infinite, the All: mine own form from the beginning, never seen by man before.”
After Krishna returns Arjuna to normal vision, Arjuna says, “When I see thy gentle human face, Krishna, I return to my own nature, and my heart has peace“.
As we see, everything has its price, including “enlightenment”. By filtering what we see, belief helps us avoid seeing the “all-powerful Time which destroys all things“. We only see what we are looking for, and belief largely determines what we look for. Naturally, an ‘ignorance is bliss’ is the price we pay for any beliefs we cherish.
How do you feel about enlightenment now?
If ignorance is no longer blissful, enlightenment may seem to be the only path. Not surprisingly, the many paths to enlightenment are more of a cultural hoodwink than not. As chapter 65 confides, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them.
The ‘hoodwinks’ offer save harbors of belief that promise enlightenment, or other versions of salvation, but in fact deliver safety and sanity. Moving beyond this safety net requires nearly rising beyond oneself as chapter 16 put it. I find the trick is knowing the difference between believing what I see, and seeing what I believe. The former is an experience common to all life. Cognition is not required. The latter requires cognition and is uniquely human — as far as I know.
For example, when I see the sun rise, I believe that experience. I can say I believe the sun rises in the morning because I see it happen every day. If it stopped rising in the morning, then I would believe the sun had stopped rising every day. This so-called belief follows the experience. When experience changes, belief changes. Even calling it a belief is tricky. Thinking is not truly a prerequisite.
What is uniquely human is the intangible mental world we inhabit along side the concrete physical one. For example, a belief that the Greek Sun God, Helios, rises from the ocean at dawn each day in the East and rides in his chariot, pulled by four horses — Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon — through the sky to descend at night in the West, doesn’t depend on experience. It originates in imagination, hearsay, tradition, education, peer pressure, fear, and so on. You need to think to believe it.
So, how can we know whether we are believing what we see, or seeing what we believe? If, at the end of pondering anything you end up with a balanced view, if an imperfect perfection is all you see, then you are probably seeing it as it is, and not only what you need or fear to see. Chapter 2 spells out nicely what a balanced view can look like:
It is because it lays claim to no merit
That its merit never deserts it.
Like all animals, we have an innate difficulty actually seeing life impartially. To do so would be unnatural. Like all animals, we are biologically set up to notice differences more than similarities — it’s survival 101. (See Balancing Difference With Similarity.) Indeed, sensing distinction is how the nervous system’s neurons function. It is distinction, not similarity, which stimulates neurons. Having perception so skewed to see differences makes us innately biased, partial and very un-enlightened. For humans, unlike other animals, this causes us great difficulty. As chapter 71 cautions, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Actually, it is more serious than that, as the more literal translation reveals, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. This explains why we, unlike other animals, feel a need for salvation, be that Enlightenment, being ‘born again’, getting drunk, or ______(you name it)!
Chapter 56’s reference to Mysterious sameness is useful for it shows us a way to transcend this difficulty — this disease — to a certain extent provided we truly want that. I find regarding everything I see as merely a symptom of some deeper underlying forces usually points me in that direction and gives me a better chance of tapping into what chapter 14 calls the thread running through the way.
Finally, in all this talk of enlightenment it is important to concede that enlightenment doesn’t make us non-human. It doesn’t change us, not our DNA, or the emotions than flow from DNA’s instruction set. Our core emotions and our original nature is left untouched. Enlightenment essentially neutralizes who we think we are, and in doing so returns us to our original nature. Chapter 16 describes it beautifully:
Returning to one’s original nature doesn’t mean you arrive at a life of blissful ease. That, like Santa Clause, is a myth, helpful to those who need it. In truth, difficulty and ease are inextricably linked; The difficult and the easy complement each other as chapter 2 puts it. Obviously, as chapter 73 confides, even the sage treats some things as difficult.
Returning to one’s original nature doesn’t mean you arrive at a life of blissful ease. That, like Santa Clause, is a myth, helpful to those who need it. In truth, difficulty and ease are inextricably linked; The difficult and the easy complement each other as chapter 2 puts it. Obviously, as chapter 73 confides, even the sage treats some things as difficult.
Nice.