The awakening of Siddhartha whereby he became a Buddha, meaning one who is awakened, carries with it the suggestion of not only awaking from the dream of samsara but also awakening to a new reality that was not there before or seemed not to be there. Just what this new reality was that Siddhartha came to realize, only a Buddha knows. The rest of us can only speculate, trying to pull his awakening down into something we already know. The more honest among us can only say that Siddhartha awakened to ultimate reality which is beyond the knowledge of mortals. Schopenhauer offered perhaps one the best views for such an awakening.
“When we wake up from a dream that vividly affects us, it is not so much its disappearance (which convinces us of its emptiness) as the discovery of a second reality which lays concealed under that (of the dream) so deeply stirring us, and which now emerges. We really all have a lasting divination or presentiment that also under this reality in which we live and are there lies hidden a second and different reality. It is the thing-in-itself, the ΰπαρ (reality proper) to this όυαρ (the present life’s dream).”
For us, our present reality is treated as if it were the supreme standard by which to judge all other possible realities. Few act towards it as if it were a dream We catch a glimpse of what it means to question our supreme standard of reality when we look at NDEs (Near Death Experiences). These experiences are still treated with some degree of skepticism by big science which is always trying to defend materialism, especially, that consciousness and what we are as humans is brain produced. NDEs are a major problem for a materialist culture since they indicate the probability of postmortem survival.
Schopenhauer’s “second reality” is what, not only, the Buddha is teaching ,which is implicit in this doctrine to anyone with an open mind, but it is also what Zen’s kenshō is about. The discovery of this reality is quite astonishing to say the least. In fact words totally fail. They are like throwing eggs at a steel door to force it open!
https://youtu.be/CKqmrTI5AZw?t=67
We're like the dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream ...but who is the dreamer?
Posted by: TV | March 20, 2019 at 05:13 PM