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So, You Want Enlightenment, Eh?

So, You Want Enlightenment 2There are two phases of enlightenment. One is a sudden flash of knowing, the Zen Satori, as the Japanese call it. I suppose most people experience a degree of this at least sometime in their life. I mean, one’s bastion of belief is bound to crack a bit and let in the light of darkness (玄 xuán) at some point in one’s life.

The other phase is a rarer impartial ‘unbounded knowing’. Impartiality opens the window of awareness wider. The wider this window, the more awe-full the view, and the more essential impartiality becomes to preserving equanimity. Indeed, without impartiality, seeing the ‘big picture’ is emotionally dreadful. This can be a virtuous circle. Impartiality opens the eyes and opening eyes necessitates increasing impartiality. The more literal translation of Chapter 16’s hints at this…

Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial,
Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural,
Natural therefore the way.
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself.

The Zen Satori’s sudden flash of knowing may kick-start ‘unbounded knowing’. It helps get the ball rolling. The Bhagavad Gita describes the challenging nature of such ‘unbounded knowing’. 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. ‘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 forward in life. Not surprisingly, promised paths to enlightenment are more 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.

Such hoodwinks offer safe 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 puts it. I find it helps greatly to know the difference between, believing what I see and seeing what I believe. The former is an experience common to all life. Names and thought are not required. The latter requires names and thought, and thus uniquely human— as far as I know.

So, You Want Enlightenment 1For 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 experience. It states the evident, and when that changes so does belief. Thinking is not a prerequisite, so even calling this a belief is inaccurate. It feels like the essence of science.

What is uniquely human is the intangible mental world we inhabit alongside 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. This belief originates and manifests itself in the imagination, tradition, education, fear, and so on. Here, you need to think to believe, and believe what you think.

So, how can we know whether we are believing what we see, or seeing what we believe? For one thing, the former tends to be a more balanced view. For example, seeing an imperfect perfection is closer to impartially seeing ‘what is’, and not simply a projection of your own needs or fears. Chapter 2 spells out nicely what a balanced view can look like:

The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only
the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad.

Thus Something and Nothing produce each other;
The difficult and the easy complement each other;
The long and the short off-set each other;
Note and sound harmonize with each other;
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the sage keeps to the deed that consists in taking no action and
practices the teaching that uses no words.

The myriad creatures rise from it yet it claims no authority;
It gives them life yet claims no possession;
It benefits them yet exacts no gratitude;
It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.

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, p.120.) 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 and very un-enlightened. For humans, unlike other animals, this causes us 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, doing drugs, getting drunk, or whatever!

So, You Want Enlightenment 3Chapter 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 channeling what chapter 14 calls the thread running through the way.

Finally, along with this talk of enlightenment it’s essential to recognize that enlightenment doesn’t make us less human. It doesn’t change us, our DNA, or the emotions than flow from DNA’s instruction set. Our core emotions and our original nature remain unaffected. Enlightenment simply and essentially neutralizes who we think we are, and in doing so returns us closer to our original nature. Chapter 16 describes it beautifully:

I do my utmost to attain emptiness;
I hold firmly to stillness.
The myriad creatures all rise together
And I watch their return.
The teaming creatures
All return to their separate roots.
Returning to one’s roots is known as stillness.
This is what is meant by returning to one’s destiny.
Returning to one’s destiny is known as the constant.
Knowledge of the constant is known as discernment.

Returning to one’s original nature doesn’t mean life becomes blissful ease. That ideal, like the myth of Santa Claus, is only 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. Thus, as chapter 73 confides, even the sage treats some things as difficult.

Mar 12, 2011 by Carl Abbott
Filed Under: Observations Tagged With: belief, bio-hoodwink, enlightenment, impartiality, mysterious sameness, thinking

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dhyananda Sadhu says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    Thank you, my dear Sensei Carl, for the link to this article – and for writing it in the first place! For these, I am extremely grateful. I’ve opted to reply here, rather than in your YouTube thread of “Takiochi no Kokyu,” for a few reasons: 1) ten comments in a YouTube thread is more than enough, and 2) anyone following that thread will certainly have taken your link here, thus picking up the conversation at this location – but even better yet, they can read your article and discover that there is more to enlightenment than first meets the eye!

    And why do we seek enlightenment? Why do we want it in the first place? Why do we need salvation? Indeed, it’s like you said: The wider the window, the more awe-full the view… and without impartiality, seeing the whole is terribly stressful. For certain, with enlightenment comes a need for more responsibility (if we are even to cope with our awakening, and not go completely insane)!

    Regardless of whether we experience Satori, Kensho, or full-blown and complete enlightenment, are we REALLY ready to handle seeing the all-powerful Time which destroys all things?

    Certainly an ignorance is bliss is the price we pay for any beliefs we cherish, and yes, I agree wholeheartedly with you… EVERYTHING has its price, including enlightenment. If enlightenment makes ignorance no longer blissful, why would anyone want it?

    It’s interesting that you’ve quoted Bhagavad-gita, because it was the Gita that put my mind at ease.

    You see, some time ago, I began to experience suffering on a universal scale. It was as if I was actually experiencing the suffering of every living being in the universe. It was unbearable. I thought I was losing my mind. Then I thought that it might be my ego playing tricks on me. But spiritual practice is supposed to help us shed the ego, not strengthen it. I felt that somehow I had failed in my practice. So, in desperation, I asked my guru. He simply pointed me to Bhagavad-gita 6:32, where Krishna says, “Oh Arjuna, one who regards with equanimity the happiness and distress of all others, as if it were his own, I consider him the best of yogîs.”

    Does this mean that I’m enlightened? Well, I certainly don’t want to fan the flames of ego by saying yes. But I can say that when one’s eyes are opened through various spiritual experiences, the need for ‘believing’ is replaced by an actual ‘knowing.’ Truly, it’s better to know than to believe.

    In fact, that’s where a lot of religions fail; people put full stock in their beliefs without actually practicing meditation – they simply believe what they read! But just reading a book isn’t practical knowledge; it’s only second-hand knowledge – you are reading about someone else’s experiences. It is much better, in my opinion, to practice meditation and gain first-hand knowledge through your own experiences!

    But ah, when it comes to visions and spiritual experiences, any guru worth his salt will tell you that all appearances are illusion; ignore them! This became ever clear to me one day when I sat down in meditation. Soon thereafter everything stopped. Deeper I fell than ever before. No dreams. No visions. Oblivion engulfed me. What was actually 6 hours seemed as no time at all. Then I returned to this world of misery and normal consciousness. But it’s NOT normal. That thoughtless state of thoughtlessness – oblivion – THAT is the normal state! So shrugging it off, I ate a bowl of strawberries. Ha!

    If before I hankered after enlightenment, visions, spiritual experiences, yogic powers, and even liberation, it all ended that day. Now I simply continue my practice because it’s the proper thing for me to do.

    31 years ago, my guru instructed me to simply meditate. So that’s what I do. Nowadays, I don’t seek enlightenment, visions, spiritual experiences, yogic powers, or even liberation. I have but only one goal, and that is to please my guru. I feel that if I please my guru, then my life is perfect.

    There are some over-zealous people that like to preach fear and hatred, claiming that if you don’t believe their way, we will burn in hell. I simply answer by saying, “Then I will practice the Dharma in hell.” But you and I both know that hell isn’t an actual place, it’s just a state of mind; and those poor misguided individuals are already there, even if they don’t realize it.

    Well, this has become much longer than originally anticipated. For that, I apologize. Nonetheless, I sincerely thank you for everything! Your teachings have deepened my practice.

    Feel free to email me anytime; and if you ever find yourself in the Midwest, you are always welcome at my hermitage.

  2. Jamie G. says

    Mar 13, 2011 at 11:43 am

    Nice.

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Here is 2022’s Postscript.

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