If what we are is naturally most primordial, calling it such names as One Mind, the ātman, Buddha-nature, tathatā and so on, how do we come to recognize it, directly, face to face? This is the challenge for us because everything that we might possibly witness to be most primordial is not primordial. It is conditioned; it possesses determinate being insofar as it has a form or defined limits being also changeable.
We learn in the commentary to the Udana, that the nature of nirvana is that of being unconditioned. In other words, there is no trace of the conditioned to be witnessed for those seeking the most primordial. This fact doesn’t make matters easier because the terrible habit of approaching the most primordial still relies on looking for something conditioned. This then becomes a form of self-deception which is hard to rid ourselves of. Most people who take up Zen stop here. They can’t manage to overcome the problem of looking for the primordial by way of the conditioned.
This is why the negative path or the via negative is so important which is the correct form of meditation. It understand that we are naturally the most primordial which is unconditioned. We can only see in our present state of being what is conditioned and not primordial. It is only by setting aside the conditioned suddenly, all at once, does our primordial nature come to rest in itself. Like goes to like, in other words.
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