But never really change inside

An interesting question hit me recently: How might one put on the appearance of changing but never really change inside, enough, to awaken to one’s true nature? 

I ask this because I have seen this happening on a regular basis in Buddhism.  It almost becomes a kind of kabuki theatre in which Zen students don their robes, do various ceremonies, sit in zazen, then later on—perhaps early in the morning— have sex with another member of the community.

Obviously, what is going on, the so-called outer person has changed.  Not only do they wear robes, even their mannerisms have changed and are very polished.  Then, at night, the unchanged inner person want’s to have sex.

In myself, I found that to understand what the Buddha was really teaching I had to struggle within myself.  It became a battle between the power of my cunning and deceptive intellect and somewhere deep within me the Buddha nature, buried by cultural conditioning, biological drives, and many other things not germane to the path.  Putting it mildly, one has to be obsessed with changing the inner person who is steering the ship in the wrong direction.  One has to push him aside, so to speak, the clear away his crap to allow the Buddha-nature a chance to manifest itself.

Comments

[No_name]

Hi Zennist,

What we see are just changing appearances, echos and reflexions. The True Nature shines pure, and even when we saw It, that is not enough to destroy the eons-long-formed karmic forces that move us. If somebody thinks he "got it", he immediately loses the Way.

Those stories about monks-sexual predators that made you wondering, are like examples when a person with good roots get overcomed by ignorance and desire. Besides the deserved consequences for their actions, those persons are to pity.

By the way the whole Surangama Sutra was delivered because Ananda, Buddha's personal attendant, the closest to Buddha monk, almost broke his precepts in a courtisans' house (saved by Manjusri). And because Ananda realized after that that his understanding and practise are far from correct. Please have look at the sutra - it is one of the most important.

All the best!

[n. yeti]

Among the epithets for the Buddha is demolisher of dharmas. That is not an easy sell at today's Zen centers in the West, where people are so entrenched in materialistic ways there can be little convincing anyone of the necessity to renounce the things which prevent dhyana. No one is saying it's easy to tame passions, but how can anyone break Mara's grasp without being willing to let go of the three poisons?