I blogged back in 2012 that modern Buddhism seems to be absent of any meaningful or informative discussion about the transcendent. I am not suggesting that it is altogether absent; rather it has been neglected for what I shall term, ‘psychological reasons’ which involve learning to cope with the stresses and tensions of daily life. I should back up a bit and mention that secular Buddhists like Stephen Batchelor reject the transcendent. However, secular Buddhism makes up a small minority of Western Buddhists who are usually not well informed about Buddhism. But overall, the transcendent is more like background music in modern Buddhism. It’s there when you listen for it. Still, it is pretty much neglected.
Any description of nirvana is not without a number of transcendent terms such as the unconditioned essence (asaṅkhatalakkhaṇa), ultimate reality (paramaṃ saccaṃ), the changeless, the immortal, beyond thought (acinteyya), etc. Nor can we neglect the fact the the very self (paccattaṃ) realizes nirvana which is meant to imply that the self or ātman is liberated—a transcendental gnosis. Unfortunately, for the multitudes transcendence is not that important. There are more pressing issues such as family, job, entertainment, retirement, and so on. For those like myself during the 1960s seeing Zen Buddhism as a means to the transcendent was our drug of choice. There were not a few Red Pines (Bill Porter) back then! Today, I dare say, with a few notable exceptions, there are not as many on the trail of the transcendent as there were back in my generation.
There is no better love affair than the pursuit of the transcendent with all of one’s being. The good news, it does not fade with the years or grow old. But trying to kindle this love in others has proven to be a difficult road. I know the silent majority out there are fascinated by the transcendent in Zen Buddhism. It’s really the vocal jerks who are the problem; who imagine they have a pretty credible case for rejecting the transcendent in Buddhism. I guess that this is part of the territory. In all my years of Buddhism, I have always found disagreements. From Zen to Vajrayana. For those who take up the transcendent they are far ahead of those who reject it. The other name for this is good karma.
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