The only escape

For those not awakened to unconditioned Mind the world they see is hardly like ocean waves or like images seen in a mirror, or the experience of dreaming.  For them, first of all, the unconditioned Mind is not seen; what is seen, instead, is only the conditioned, external expression of the unconditioned Mind.  This is to say, it is our visible world with all of its awesome power, danger, vividness and attractiveness, including our body of birth with its senses and its eventual death.

The only escape from such a predicament, which brings us more than often perplexity and confusion, is not to accept things as they are, but to see, firsthand, the very substance of reality from which the image of the visible world is composed; which is an illusory representation of the real.  Only then is detachment a reality inasmuch as one becomes less and less bespelled by the visible world. We now see what all is composed from.  While looking impressive and foreboding the visible world is "sound and fury signifying nothing."  It is a grievous mistake to ignore the transitory nature of the conditioned world automatically reifying it beyond its illusory quality.

Yet, it seems that the world is dedicated to the suppression of the Buddha's truth.  As a result, things are far worse than they need be—you'd swear a madman was king of the world who only wanted to increase suffering and spiritual blindness.  Unless you are young with a healthy body and a good brain, life becomes increasingly more difficult and cruel over time.  There is even what you might call an imposed 'spiritual free zone' around us where conversations become shallow; where the topic of conversation can often border on the inane.  In the face of this, the light of Buddhism shines out faintly.  Still, the strongest go forward into this twilight and because of their courage things over time begin to change for the better.

Based on my own spiritual life, each person I came to realize has more power within them than they can imagine.  They can certainly awaken.  They just have to avoid the five hindrances which are: 1) sense-desire; 2) ill will; 3) sloth and torpor; 4) restlessness and remorse, and 5) doubt/skepticism.  All these problems come in little moments throughout the day and when they do we have to stop giving them so much oxygen.  If we are successful, this develops increased levels of self-control over time.  And this self-control is important because so much of our time should be dedicated to meditation by which we attempt to come face to face with our Buddha-nature.

Comments

[mathesis]

"(...)each person I came to realize has more power within them than they can imagine. They can certainly awaken."

I was reading Masefield's Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism and found that he argues that in the Pali Canon, as in Jainism, only a restricted portion of beings were destined to eventual enlightenment. Masefield even compared this to a capricious divine predestination; and indeed being trapped in samsara forever is not so different from an "everlasting punishment". To us such doctrines are grotesque and unacceptable. At the very least, a "hopeless soul" must appear as an aberration and exception in the cosmic order, as I believe is the case in various Mahâyâna texts. I would like to ask you:
1)Do you hold that all beings have at least the potential for complete enlightenment ?

2)If yes, do you hold, contrary to Masefield, that this is taught in the Pali Canon ?

3) And what do you consider to be the general view on this matter found in Zen/Ch'an literature ?

[smith]

just to say thank you for all your time and dedication in your blog and your articles day in and day out - Thank you for them.

[Nina B]

Could you elaborate more on the five hindrances? I would be interested in reading what you consider to be sloth and torpor, for example.