The only means of escape

What is life all about? I think the Buddha sums it up quite nicely with this passage:

"This my body is material, made up form the four great elements, born of mother and father, fed on rice and gruel, impermanent, liable to be injured and abraded, broken and destroyed, and this is my consciousness which is bound to it and dependent on it” (D. i. 76).

Sound depressing? Well, yes it is depressing if we have lived into our seventies or eighties.  In these last years, the hard reality of death is inescapable.  When death comes it is not altogether pleasant, or like in a 1940s Hollywood movie.  Making matters worse, even after death we are still, as consciousness (vijñâna), bound to a body being aware of conditionality which is still the world of samsara.  Unlike Vakkali in the Vakkali Sutta (SN 22.87), our consciousness is not unestablished (appatitthita) which means we have not attained final nirvana (cp. S. iii. 124) and most likely never will.  

Even if we believe in the materialist’s endless dirt nap, it will be that of consciousness established on a condition or samskâra which will be painful.  In blunt terms, pain is only for the participant who is consciousness; who is interfacing with a particular condition.  And if we believe in the teaching of the Buddha, all conditions no matter how complex or simple, are painful.  

The only means of escape is for consciousness to unfix (appatitthita) itself from the conditioned material body by becoming conscious of what is unconditioned (asamskâra).  In more precise terms, to attain the nirvana that Vakkali attained the fluctuations of consciousness must cease in such a way that consciousness rests in signlessness, boundlessness, and complete luminosity (cp. D. i. 223).  Needless to say, this is quite a difficult task to undertake and to achieve given that all we know as consciousness is degrees of conditionality which even includes death (death can never achieve the unconditionedness of nirvana).  

 

Comments

[clyde]

For those who might want to read what James Ford Roshi has to say about “What is Zen? A Brief Outline” can be found here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2012/07/what-is-zen-a-brief-outline.html .

[The Zennist]

MStrinado: Sad to say, this kind of stuff is the bane of novice Buddhists. They don't realize that there is a goldmine in the Pali canon alone when you add in the commentaries (atthakatha). It's a completely different picture of Buddhism than is being presented by the pop Buddhists.

[MStrinado]

Here's another one coming up from the Batchelor school of zen...LOL!!!

"If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break: Field Notes from a Zen Life
James Ishmael Ford. Wisdom, $16.95 trade paper (196p)"

ISBN 978-1-61429-039-1
Musing on topics related to awakening, koans, and ethical principles, Ford (Zen Master Who?), a Zen Buddhist priest and Universalist Unitarian minister, uses personal anecdotes, traditional Buddhist stories, and biblical references to illustrate his ideas. The discussion of what he calls “liberal Buddhism,” as opposed to traditional Buddhism, is informative; the former applies reason and humanism to this ancient tradition rather than accepts teachings as a given. For example, he critically examines the concepts of karma and rebirth and argues for a “deep agnosticism.” Ford finds his own justifications for ethics in “natural law,” and explicates his version of a moral code in detail. His advice can be down-to-earth and practical, such as his hints for finding a good Zen teacher. Unfortunately, the writing is marked by frequent clichés (“The awakened person is one with the flow of cause and effect”) and uninspired generalities (“There is something of a tragic cast to our lives”). In a crowded field of works by Buddhist meditation masters and writers of the Zen essay, Ford’s work is of moderate interest for his perspective on one of the emerging styles of American Buddhism. (Sept.)