The hot pepper like experience of awakening

Two people eat hot peppers together.  Their immediate reactions and subsequent descriptions have reference to the two hot peppers they just ate.  At this time, what is meant by hot peppers, the object, is a particular subjective experience such as a burning sensation.  The subjective experience that each person had is not meaningless.  The personal experience of both has, direct, reference to the hot peppers.  If they communicate about the peppers they just ate their words have reference to the hot peppers and the subjective experiences of eating them.

Zen is not like this although we could imagine that it is.  A Zen master might be good at pretending to be awakened (fake being Buddha-like for a few hours).  He could share with his best student the secret that he is not awakened but since they are good friends, the student is fit to play the part of a Zen teacher.  In this situation, awakening or kensho, is absent.  In other words, there is no hot pepper experience between the two. For both teacher and student awakening, while it is a definable term, is personally meaningless. 

Going for the hot pepper like experience of awakening to our true nature is difficult, in its own right.  More of a problem, if one does awaken, how does he present his hot pepper awakening to one who may not have had it?  The Buddha is very clear about this.  Those who are not stream entered, namely, an-aryan, cannot recognize an aryan.  In the world of Zen, this presents a huge problem.  The teacher and student relationship is no guarantee of awakening.  No experience may come of it; no seeing into the awakened Mind which goes back to the Buddha, himself.  

While it is true that the luminous Mind, which comes as a result of awakening, is perceived between those who are awakened (the aryans) it is not perceived by those who are not.  Thankfully, this was not the situation between the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng and the Fifth Patriarch Hung-jen.  Hung-jen recognized that Hui-neng, while he was still just a firewood peddler, had awakened (Hui-neng upon hearing some words from a customer reading the Diamond Sutra became immediately awakened).  The minute Hung-jen saw Hui-neng he sensed his luminosity.  From the encounter, it is obvious that Hung-jen didn't enlighten Hui-neng.  Hui-neng had awakened himself.  Hung-jen only sensed the luminosity of Hui-neng.  The Mind to Mind transmission only means that we can awaken to Mind.  Hung-jen said, "Let people achieve awakening through their own effort."  The implication of Hung-jen's words have been lost it seems.  Running to a Zen teacher is more of a sign of weakness than strength.  One is still not ready to awaken through their own effort—to eat the hot pepper.

Comments

[smith]

to minx: in mentioning prana,, i think of pranayama within yoga, and in particular kundalini awakening yoga, and i wonder is not the mastery of pranayama, the breath as life force energy, not the same thing as the mantra apparently is speaking of? Of course pranayama is central to yoga which is of course central to hinduism and its antecedents as well.

[minx]

If you throw a good mantram in Devanghari in the face of the Zennist readers, at least have the courtesy to translate it properly into english for those who do not read Devanghari.

The
Mundakopanishat -Mantram you posted is good, but this one is better;

From
THE PRASHNOPANISHAT

Mantra 3.11

य एवंविद्वान्प्राणं वेद न हास्य प्रजा हीयतेऽमृतो भवति तदेष श्लोकः ॥ ११ ॥

Literal Trans.

यः  he एवंविद्वान् the knower प्राणं prāṇa  वेद knows न not  ह indeed अस्य his प्रजा offspring हीयते lost अमृतः immortal भवति becomes तत् that एष is श्लोकः verse

Compiled:

The wise man who thus knows prāṇa does not lose his offspring and becomes immortal. As to this there is the following verse.

Meaning:
 
Whoever acquires the knowledge of prāṇa as stated in the foregoing along with its origin gets to enjoy certain fruits both in this life and in the other world. The fruit accruing in this life is that his offspring, both immediate such as son and that of the next generation such as grandson, will not be lost. Upon his own death he becomes one with prāṇa and becomes immortal.  

There. Now all can read and reflect the mysterious wisdom of the ageless ;)

[‫جسکرن دھالیوال‬‎]

"Two people eat hot peppers together. Their immediate reactions and subsequent descriptions have reference to the two hot peppers they just ate."

The first thing that this analogy brought to mind is the "द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते" mantram from the RV and the similar settings in the muNDakopaniShad & shwetAshwataropaniShad.