Advice for those on the higher path

Our ordinary thoughts are configurations of pure Mind, the absolute substance.  It is extremely difficult to see this substance.  What we see, instead, is pure Mind become.  In this condition, Mind is  hiding in its own constructs unaware of itself.  Compounding the problem, this pristine substance has fallen in love with its self-generated illusions.  By doing so, it has unwittingly thrown itself into samsara from which escape is almost impossible.  

Given that the entire triple world is Mind become, nevertheless, in one moment, if we are lucky and our practice has been in keeping with trying to see pure Mind, we might catch a glimpse of it.  This embryonic glimpse, if we are wise enough to grasp a few of its cardinal implications (and their are many), reveals that the entire triple world is only Mind (cittamatra).  We actually behold and experience it this way for the first time (it doesn’t last long because of the habit-inertia (vasana) of our addiction to the illusory world).  In addition, but less apparent, we discover that samsara is Mind bewitched by its very own constructions and concepts (dharma) which also include delusion (moha), desire, and hatred (the three poisons). 

Until we awaken to absolute or pure Mind which, incidentally, is an event like no other, our understanding of Buddhism, consisting of concepts, is the only path we have—and this path has no guarantees.  

In addition, chanting the name of Amitâbha Buddha; chanting the title of the Lotus Stura in Japanese or just sitting (zazen, shikantaza) have the form of error (bhrânti).  At the apex of ordinary mind’s direct intuition of its pure nature whereby it beholds pure Mind, no practice can enter.  Such practices are like fire.  One fire could be of agarwood, the other of sandalwood, or still another a fire from juniper.  But all these fires burn if touched no matter their fragrance.  Likewise, when we attempt to draw closer to practices like zazen they eventually burn us.  All boiled down, they are a confusion of mind.

For the ordinary mind to awaken to pure Mind, it requires a path that makes this realization possible; not a path that leads it astray.  Before such a higher path can be taken, we must jettison all of our views about the true nature of reality.  This includes all  views about Buddhism.  It even includes jettisoning the belief that science offers us the only means to true knowledge.  No one can enter the higher path laden with their own concepts of what true reality is.  We have to keep in mind that a Buddha is the destroyer of the triple world including our concepts.

Comments

[dooyen]

In Chan tradition, the Buddha is also killed ("When you see him, kill him"). The Buddha thus practically destroys himself. A teacher described it as getting to a state where you do not even have to mention him anymore. This is much different from the attempt of this blog.

[The Zennist]

Jure Kralj: Chappell appears to harbor assumptions about Buddhism that are not true, not even from a Mahayana perspective.

For example, to begin religious/spiritual growth (i.e., entering the stream to nirvana), requires that one is a holy person (ariyapuggala) or in Mahayana, that one is a real Bodhisattva. Short of this, how can we speak of real growth? Adding to this, there is a huge difference between prithagjana (the unwashed masses) and the pure ones or arya. The former have little or no respect for the arya—if they did, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are presently in and the The Zennist blog would have millions of hits a day! LOL

For a Bodhisattva the perfection of discernment (prajna) culminates in the fullest realization of the One Mind: that nothing really exists apart from absolute Mind. Yes, there are still things, but these things are illusory—woe to him who gloms on to them.

To come to this realization requires a practice that actually get us there. Mantra-yana can help us to get there, that is to the right practice, but it is not, per se, the right practice, nor is Dogen’s zazen. These are for prithagjana, who still cling to the world looking for the elegant solution: trying to turn samsara into nirvana or what the Christians say, making heaven on earth.

[Jure Kralj]

"1. All beings are at various stages of religious growth, which are not mutually exclusive or absolute, but are interrelated and share a common destiny.

2. Thus, mutual respect should be engendered between Buddhists as fellow travellers on the same path and equal participants in the final goal.

3. All practices are temporary and none is absolute; yet some practice is always necessary, since there is no LI without SHIH, no emptiness without form, and since all beings are living in a conditioned body in a world of dependent origination.

4. From the point of view of the ultimate (LI) all things are not different from Nirvana, true nature, mind, and Buddhahood. Thus, one's view of particular practices and people should always see both the space-time particulars and their ultimate true nature as expressions of the absolute.

5. Ultimate truth always involves the interplay and balance of emptiness and expediency, LI and SHIH ..."

(David W. Chappell: Pure Land Responses to Ch'an Critics)