Practice after awakening

Becoming awakened or enlightened is seeing, face to face, that which animates us which, in the ancient Vedas, was called the ātman and in Pali, attā which is actually a borrowing of Prakrit.  Buddhism expanded this very same principle referring to it as Dharma, luminous Mind, pure Mind, the unconditioned, nirvana, immortality, tathatā, dharmadhātu, Buddha-nature, bodhicitta, etc.  Seeing this principle firsthand was sudden, all at once.  The Buddha described the experience of pure Mind saying that it suffuses every part of his whole body, like a man whose head is covered by a white cloth with no part of his body untouched by the cloth.  Whereas prior to awakening the conditioned, psychophysical body's interference blocked gnosis of the luminous nature of Mind, now it is remembered.  The light is strong.

This is the very first authentic encounter with who we really are which is dynamic and animative.  There is no doubt about this.  All the words we use to describe it, however, fail.  All the senses we have as human beings also fail to perceive it.  Yet, there it is like an invisible sun.  It is the very substance of all that there is and will ever be and truly immortal.  But we also see how much habit-energy obscures it which still has power over us; which still calls out for food and sex along with countless cultural demands.  This psychophysical body of ours is what the Buddha called old karma.

As strange as it seems, our real practice can begin.  Zen master Zongmi said, to the effect, that having awakened true practice can begin.  As we repeatedly connect with our true nature (samadhi) it grows beyond the psychophysical body's former habits.  We, eventually, come to see that world not as humans from a narrow, personal perspective, but as awakened beings.  Korean Seon master Chinul gives us more insight into practice after we are awakened.

"As for people who have realized enlightenment, even though they may have expedient techniques as curative measures, they never have a thought of doubt and do not fall into affected habits, over a period of time they naturally attain perfect accord. The naturally real subtle essence is spontaneously silently aware, focusing on all objects with each passing thought while annihilating all afflictions in each passing state of mind. This is not distinct from fulfilling supreme enlightenment by equal maintenance of spontaneous concentration and insight. So even though formal concentration and insight are practiced by those with potential suited for the gradual approach, for people who have realized enlightenment they can be said to transmute iron into gold" (Cleary, Minding Mind, 48).

Comments

[mathesis]

This is the solution to the false traditional problem of "faith" vs. "works". One must receive first the seed of illumination, but then one must cultivate it. One receives the key but then must use it to open the door of enlightenment. In one sense it is not because or by our previous actions that we receive the "seed" or the "key" but through a transcendent "gift". On the other hand such a gift will fall on "sterile ground" if it is not developed and brought to perfection by what you called "practice after awakening". In this sense "faith without works is dead". Some of us might have received such a gift at an earlier stage of their lives so part of the quest is also a "remembrance" or revitalization of what is already there.