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Enlightenment: Does It Really Matter?
comicallyinsane
Veteran
I have been thinking about this one for a while now. Personally I don't really care if I ever reach enlightenment. I like it here on the path helping people that I meet. I may change my mind later in life in my studies but for now I am happy with what I am doing.
What do you all think?
What do you all think?
0
Comments
Federica has it on this. as does Simon. Enlightenment is not attained. It is uncovered. As the Buddha said" enlightenment is the end of suffering" a paradox to be sure because, if you notice, he did not say it was something he told you what it was not.
^gassho^
BTW, Comic, why do you have Mr T as your avatar? I thought he was Jewish. Not a problem - just curious.
I just like Mr. T. LOL
Words fail when we try to 'describe' the undescribable. William Carlos Williams tells us that some things can only be said in a poem, but even poetry fails here. How do you even try to explain to a dreamer what the woken state is all about?
Gurdjieff believed that we could only get close to expressing it in dance! And I find it fascinating how important dance is to the mystical/wisdom fringes of all spiritual philosophies (perhaps that's better than 'religion'). The most "Buddhist" of Sufi poets, Rumi, was a 'whirling dervish'. David danced before the Ark of Yhwh.
But it is possible to get some sort of 'glimpse' of what Dzogchen calls The View (Rigpa). In that wonderful document, The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, the "end of all searching" is back in the 'marketplace' of the world, fully engaged in and non-attached to the world as it is, in its "suchness". T. S. Eliot says, in the fourth of his Four Quartets:
'Enlightenment' is a poor choice of words to translate the goal the Buddha was speaking of. It definitly gives people the wrong idea about what he was gving us these teachings for. 'Awakwening' is a tad bit better. There is also 'unbinding', 'extiguishing', 'deathless', etc. As for it being nothing to be 'done', I'm not positive that's correct. Attaching to the goal or the path can become fetters themselves later on, but at the beginning there definitly a need for there to be an effort to 'achieve'. Without effort there is no doing. When the Buddha speaks of the goal he speaks very 'actively' about the process to reach it.
In the Dhammapada, for example, he speaks of his followers "advancing like a fire burning away fetters" and "Heedful among the heedless, wakeful among those asleep, just as a fast horse advances, leaving the weak behind: so the wise." In the Cula-vedalla Sutta the Buddha makes it clear that this unbinding is the goal of the holy life and there is nothing beyond that. In the Aparihani Sutta the Buddha gives four qualities to develop that 'lead' one towards Nibbana.
The path of concentration and discernment is a very active path. By the words you may mistake Nibbana as being a place, a thing, or a state of being separate from ours which are all incorrect views. In the sense such as Nibbana being a place that we go, you are correct in saying it is not. As far as saying it is some separate entity that is 'different' than us, that we achieve merely through good behavior, you are aslo correct in saying it is not. Saying it is a state of being that is separate and not apart of us is again not correct.
But the real problem lies in A. the Buddha explains this goal in active terms. It can be reached, realised, cultivated, etc. B. It is beyond intellectual comprehension and can only be 'understood' through experiencing it. C. It is not separate from us.
Seems like we should already just 'be' it right? As hard as he tries to give a path towards it, qualities that lead to it, similies that explain it...it is beyond thought and language themselves. In the simplest truth, everything we need to realize Nibbana is already here, with us. That is why the Buddha gives us meditations on the breath, the 32 parts of the body, death, etc. We are asked to look 'inside'. Right here in our minds lies the key to unlocking this door. If we do not turn the key, however, we will never get in.
The Buddha's path does not equal inaction. There is definitly 'work to be done'. But confusing yourself with ideas of the end result, and making it the focus of your practice is indeed wrong. It will not do you any good. Practicing to practice is a wise thing to do. If you happen to 'Awaken' in the midst of your practice, that is wonderful. If you don't, that is still wonderful. The path is worth being on regardless of a persons 'attainments'.
As Thanissaro Bkikkhu wrote, "there is nothing illogical in actively mastering the processes of mental fabrication and causality for the sake of going beyond fabrication, beyond cause and effect. At the same time, it gives a hint as to why a path of total inaction would not lead to the unfabricated. If you simply sit still within the system of causality, you'll never get near the resonances where true non-fashioning lies. You'll keep floating around in samsara. But if you take aim at stress and clinging, and work to take them apart, you'll be able to break through to the point where the present moment gets divided by zero in the mind."
~ Samsara Divided by Zero http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/resonance.html
References to Nibbana:
Four qualities that lead one towards: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/anguttara/an04-037.html
Heedfulness leads one to: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/dhp/tb0/dhp-02-tb0.html#21
Is the goal with nothing beyond it: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/majjhima/mn-044-tb0.html#beyond
Essay in which 'Nibbana' is explored: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/likefire/index.html
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
A very poetic way of describing Awakening. Excellent choice of quotes Simon.
And thank you for providing us with the grounding of the Tathagata's words. I think it is vital that we come back to the root sutras. And I know how much I need reminding! It is wonderful to know that I can count on you.
Eliot's Four Quartets accompany me everywhere. They are as water in the desert to me.
I have never read the Four Quartets before, but I think I may have to now. It's wonderful how people can put so much meaning into so few words. Simplicity in expressing the profound nature of mankind always does something for me. A few lines and an entire lifetime of emotions can unfold from somewhere deep inside. Sometimes reading a good poem is like smelling a beautiful flower. It is alwasy pleasant, but we never seem to take the time to stop and enjoy it while it is there. Before you know it, it will be lost to the sands of time.
The older I get the more sentimental I become.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article.
I've thought to myelf that achieving "Awakening" might be something like this:
It's almost like you get to a point where you don't care - and (possibly) Awakening happens.
I think that if you're constantly trying to remove attachments - you have attachments. If nothing else, you have attachments in your mind. If you're dealing with them, you have them.
Once you get to a point where your mind doesn't even identify an "attachment" - you are past having attachments.
If you constantly are dealing with removing cravings - you still have cravings.
Like when I used to smoke.
When I was quitting - I constantly fought and battled with not having a cigarette. It took months and months. When I would see a person with one - it would make me think and deal with it.
But, then finally I never thought about it anymore. It didn't bother me. I could be with my friends that smoked and it didn't bother me. I could even have a cigarette (like if we went out on a boat or were bbq'ing) and inhale it (in very small puffs, of course) and it was just a cigarette. Once I put it out, it didn't bother me. I didn't think about it. I didn't feel it's pull or it's addiction.
Because I was finally past it. I could even partake of it - but it no longer had a hold on me.
I think that is how moving towards Awakening may be.
You can have things in your life that really are attachments; wife, children, home, pets, job, etc. You can partake of these things - but it's not an attachment that causes one suffering.
After reading this article - I was thinking that people may even achieve Awakening and not really know it.
I mean, if you strive and exert effort to achieve Awakening - I wonder if it's going to make it impossible for you to achieve it. Because there is too much effort involved with it.
But, let's just say that instead of "working towards achieving Awakening" we stop worrying about that. We just start removing attachments - just ... because! We remove cravings, just because.
I wonder if when you get to the point where you've successfully done this - like quitting smoking - even Awakening doesn't really matter. That you will have reached a point where you just - Are.
Just some thoughts I had while reading this.
Thanks, Elohim.
-bf
I think you're on the right track. You remove cravings to remove them. When they're gone, they're gone. If you have a wife, you still have a wife. If you have a bad back, you still have a bad back. They only difference is there is no more suffering attached to any of these things.
Buddhism is all about the middle way. You should have effort, but not too much effort. Once you are 'Awakened', whatever that may be, you are done with it. It is no longer something you cling to. You just ... are.
I have a laptop in the toilet. It's where I read all your posts and where I do all my serious contemplations...
-bf
I really hope you are joking. But I don't think you are LOL!
It's interesting how our pursuit for enlightenment works. When I first got interested in Buddhism, I was attracted to Zen, and I had this romantic notion of enlightenment being this flash of lightning thing where the entire world would shake and then afterwards I'd just be in this blissed out realm forever or something equally silly. It soon became obvious how deluded that idea was! Now I'm basically in the same state of mind as Comic where my own personal enlightenment doesn't seem important at all. I'm much more interested in helping others end their suffering. Who cares what happens to me? There are just so many more of them out there, so it seems completely irrelevant almost what happens to me. But my teacher's response to that kind of attitude would be, "OK, but there are many sentient beings out there whose only connection to the Dharma is through you, so it is important for you to attain enlightenment in order to be of true benefit to them." Not to put words in her mouth, but I've heard basically that same line of reasoning from her more than once. So it does matter what we do. We can't waste this precious human rebirth because it really does matter to countless sentient beings.
"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
Palzang