The Magic Trick of Consciousness

Is the essence or primary substance of the universe eternal, that is, without beginning or end?  In Buddhism the answer would be in the affirmative.  But this doesn’t mean all things are eternal which are illusory constructs.  Are our thoughts eternal?  Not in the slightest.  Moment by moment they arise and disappear.  Our temporal body must also perish in time.

Are our thoughts a microcosm of the larger external world we perceive?  Very much so inasmuch as both are a dependent origination of the same ultimate source.  This means that this contrast implies an innate, original one; that subject and object are an illusory splitting of the original source, or that internal and external are really the same from a transcendental vantage point.

The relationship between subject and object, observer and observed, is inherently illusory.  The main purpose of consciousness (vijñāna) is to perpetuate this illusory framework that constitutes our human life.  The main purpose of enlightenment is to overcome this duality by seeing the original one or ultimate source which is truly real.  The Buddha says in the Laṅkāvatāra Sutra, “With the cessation of vijñāna which is caused by discrimination, there is my nirvana.”

The instant cessation of vijñāna puts us suddenly into the most primordial or call it absolute Spirit.  Kenshō is Zen’s basis, which is also the esoteric Spirit to Spirit transmission (以心傳心).  One cannot read Zen literature and not see this esoteric transmission as being central to its core message.  If one fails to see its importance one is far away from Zen, that is, Buddhism’s other shore.