Enlightenment

taiyaki

Tell me your thoughts.

zenff

Why do we – at times - put so much effort into practice? Why is that? Does it make sense?
Or is it a manifestation of our ego, our dualistic understanding of what enlightenment must be.

When I listen to Adhyashanti, “right effort” is no effort.
“Perceiving without the lens” how does it happen?

That’s my thoughts.
Now I have to go to work.

taiyaki

This is an old age argument in zen.

Sudden enlightenment or Gradual enlightenment.
Buddha nature is something we already have.

If we already have Buddha nature then why chase after it?
-You could say years of training is getting you ready to awaken to your true nature. The lotus grows out of the mud and blossom. the mud is everything that is preventing us from seeing our true nature. the lotus is our buddha nature.
I suppose it is like learning how to ride a bike. at first you fell off because you kept holding the handles too hard. eventually you loosen up and bam you can ride the bike. originally, you already knew how to ride the bike. fear and prior conditioning prevented you from riding the bike (buddha nature). so years of practice can like a feather falling on a pillow awaken you.

The sudden enlightenment people say that you look at your buddha nature directly and come into contact with it.
You can only do it right now in the present moment. It doesn't matter how much training you've done or how little because you already are what you are looking for.
Awaken to your true nature, then cultivate it for years to come. So you first awaken then gradually you get rid of your past conditioning.

I'm not sure who is right. But I do understand both sides of the argument.

Hope this clears things up.

taiyaki

Adyashanti comes from a zen buddhist background. He studied zen for a long time before his awakening. I recall somewhere Ajahn Chah saying that if you haven't had some glimpse of awakening within 6 months, you're wasting your time (though he comes from another tradition).

Adya woke up a couple times before he had his full awakening.
There are a lot of people who wake up to their true nature and have to cultivate it for years.

For most Buddhists, it seems that enlightenment is a far off goal or something that isn't achievable. Or that only certain people with certain karma can achieve it.

Buddha nature is what you already are. So to seek what you are is kind of contradictory. But everyone has a different path to take. how they get there is their thing. when they get to the end of the goal (realizing that there was no goal, or path) then they become what they already are.

so it is what it is.

DaltheJigsaw

Great thread!

taiyaki

“Perceiving without the lens” how does it happen?

In korean zen we point directly to your true nature. We use koans. Koans are word puzzles that are unsolvable. You say the koan while holding focus on the hara (man's physical center and spiritual center). The purpose isn't to get an answer but it works like an arrow. For example: I ask myself "Who am I?" and I feel that with my whole body. I open up to the question and allow it to be. Koans allow you to hit a wall. That wall is the sense of not knowing. In korean zen that not knowing is enlightenment itself.

So whatever we do. Meditation. Eat. Sleep. Work. Etc. We keep this koan and feel the not knowing.
Eventually you will perceive without the ego lens. The ego is merely your attachment to thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.

It has no substantial existence other than that.

Keep a not knowing mind.

Look up Zen Master Seung Sahn and Hyon Gak Sunim, if you are interested in Korean Zen.


With love!

taiyaki

When you surrender to this not knowing you automatically cancel out the ego.

The ego is that which holds an opinion. That which holds a thought, feeling or belief.
So you could say anything other than not knowing is the ego. Keep this not knowing mind!

I know Korean Zen is like indie music back when indie music was known by a couple kids.
But it's a rich tradition, which started back in China with Bodhidharma.

Meow.

being

Thank you for sharing this video. Every bit of it made very much sense to me.
As the guy in the video explained...
'True' practice is all about giving up or stopping the habitual 'automatic' fueling of our 'egotistic state of consciousness'.
Of course these are just words and there are million other ways to say it. Hope you won't get stuck because of the words used. ^^

taiyaki

Lol there should be a disclaimer after every post.

Remember people are not their ideas. And to talk is a big mistake. but we're going to make this mistake anyways, but remember these are just words.

taiyaki

taiyaki

taiyaki

Eckhart Tolle sums up all of it. Don't attach!

zenff

Eckhart Tolle sums up all of it. Don't attach!

Thanks!
Great comments and wonderful videos.

Rephrasing it in my own words;
The “right effort” is an effort of letting go, not an effort of achieving something.

seeker242

Tell me your thoughts.

The dog just saw the cat and now it's barking. Bark, bark, bark!