The Zennist

An illusory difference

In Buddhism, our English word consciousness is used to translate vijñāna.  It misses the mark completely.  Vijñāna means lit. in two parts knowing.  In Buddhism, it is a kind of antinomy which is more like a difference in the One from itself which is an illusory difference. 

In order to create and live in a virtual world vijñāna is necessary.  It is, so to speak, the price of admission.  It is responsible for our rebirth into a virtual world.  We would not be here today if it were not for this consciousness.

To keep us in this virtual world what is diabolically important to believe, we have one life and after we die that's it.  And here we come to Zen Buddhism in which intuition plays a prominent role in leaping beyond the confines of consciousness—a return to the One which is hidden from those deeply attached to consciousness. 

In perfect kenshō or gnosis realizer and realized disappear (so do the experiencer and experience) into the One or absolute Spirit.  This means that the illusory difference within the One which creates a virtual world has disappeared.  One learns how the magical trick is accomplished thereby breaking the magical spell.

From immaturity to maturity

Youth almost always with few exceptions eventually betrays its own causes and aspirations.  Such youth is not so much about being in a young, still developing body, as it is being immature where practical experience is lacking. 

Such immaturity suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect in which one is so incompetent that they don't know they're incompetent.  There are even shields youth puts up which prevents them from looking at their own likely incompetence thereby overcoming it to some degree.

This effect is not lost upon those who come to study Zen.  For the most part they are young adults who are making a transition from youth to maturity.  A lack of awareness governs their conduct as does a lack of conscientiousness.  It is not surprising that they often fail in the first stages of Zen which I would characterize as learning what Zen’s path is about.

As expected, learning about Zen Buddhism, at first, has to do with reading a lot of Zen literature and thinking about it.  But this is not the same as mastering Zen having walked its mysterious path finally overcoming one's spiritual ignorance; having met and passed through Mumon’s barrier (無門関) which is closed off to human thought. 

While it is true that human ingenuity can pass beyond the barrier of thought few are able to do this.  It is a feat like no other.  For a Buddhist it is like seeing the unconditioned (asaṃskṛta), directly, where spirit has not been formed into thought, that is, Mumon’s barrier. 

In other words, our own imagination and thoughts cannot pass through imagination and thought!  Whatever faces the barrier of imagination—it cannot pass through.  And whatever we think, nevertheless, is still a thought that cannot pass through.  The human mind produces thought while the mind of a Buddha transcends thought.  The youth and immaturity that come to Zen have to be forged into maturity and that is a difficult task. 

Ordinary person Zen

The transcendent is beyond the road of thought and the road of words.  Such roads eventually run out of road.  This is where the road of Zen or the same, the road of intuition begins, but it's not an ordinary dirt road.  In fact, it is not a road of at all in the usual sense.  It begins when all of the roads have come to their end.

Upon reading these words, the average Zen student will still take the road of thought and the road of words.  But the end of these roads leads to a dead end with no more signs or directions.  Wandering around aimlessly is no way either.  On such a trek one can say they are exploring.  But what does that mean?  The Zen student is really lost with no sense of fulfillment.  He or she is running out of ideas:  There are no real options left. 

This is what comes from the practice of ordinary person Zen 凡夫禪 (bompu Zen).  These are people who have very little spiritual depth; who lack intuition (dhyāna).  Such people have no idea what it means to arrive at direct knowledge without reasoning or inferring, which in the case of Zen is direct knowledge of Buddha-nature.

Still, it must be said that there are different types of Zen because there are different kinds of people with differing abilities.  In fact, this is a typical beginner’s mistake:  to think that Zen is Zen and that when you visit a temple you're talking to enlightened people.  Nevertheless, it could be a situation in which you are a fool amongst educated fools.  One should never underestimate one's stupidity or overestimate one's abilities. 

When the student of Zen knows he or she has run out of road, or comes to a dead end, that is the time when Zen really begins (because they are engaging with themselves intrapersonally).  In their heart of hearts they still love Zen Buddhism but they realize that they are getting no place in this particular tradition.

Removing a brick from the wall

From a Buddhist perspective the human being is over-preoccupied with their imagination which Buddhists regard as the 6th sense or manas.  This also includes the intellect which creates a world of ideas and concepts which fundamentally depend upon the thinking/generation of thought. 

All this acts as something like a prison in which the human being is located within.  Psychedelic drugs might help us face this wall which is more illusory than we imagine.  But ultimately we face the thought-made-wall with our thought.  We cannot pass through.  We are forever born and re-born inside this prison.  For Buddhists this is called samsara.

But most of us have heard of the word nirvana.  But what is nirvana?  Is it a kind of passive nihilism?  Could nirvana be like a hole in the thought-made-wall:  the disappearance of a single brick?  But what happens when a brick is no longer there?  What the wall hides is now revealed.  What comes pouring in through that hole, where a brick once was, is the pure light of spirit.

Many today are seeking while confined in ignorance (lost in error).  After all, this wall of thought is a kind of limiting ignorance.  All may even wish to understand.  Still, they only have the eyes of fish who can see everything in their watery world with the exception of the water they are in.  For the one who truly sees (a Buddha), those who are unawakened have eyes not fully open yet they appear open. 

We should not underestimate the power of the imagination or the manas.   The absolute or pure unformed spirit is contained (thoroughly hidden and must be uncovered) in the imagination while, at the same time, from the perspective of the sage, imagination is included within the absolute.

Going beyond thought

Intelligence plus intuition does not account for the intellect but it works for the Zen mind/wisdom.  The intellect lacks intuition.  It can only deal in ideas and concepts (it tends to be analytical in that regards).  While an intellectual may be brilliant he or she still has not managed to get beyond Mumon's barrier, that is, Mu.  Mu represents thought where thought is the great barrier that all Zen practitioners must face. 

Foremost, thought is a barrier to spirit.  It is what the Zen adepts must confront on the path.  During this confrontation, for intuition to be successful, thought must spontaneously dissolve on its own returning back to unconditioned absolute spirit or the same, pure Mind.  In Zen this is our original face (本來面目) where thought has not yet been formed.

Throughout the literature of Zen Buddhism there is a constant reference to this spirit in which there is no thought.  Interestingly, spirit can become congealed into thought but thought is never spirit.  Thought is never other than an illusion created from spirit. 

In the study of Zen we must break the habit of looking for this spirit by means of thought.  But most all Zen students haven't even come to this milestone.  They are still trying to put Zen's mystery into a particular thought.  But such an endeavor is always doomed to failure.

Zen has a history of being clever when it comes to bringing the student to spirit where thought is spontaneously dissolved; where only spirit remains.  But this assumes certain things the most fundamental being that the Zen teacher must be awakened.  Lacking an awakened teacher one must go into solitude cutting off their ties with the outer interpersonal world, transcending the overarching dyad of subject and object through intuition.

Wokeism vs Siddhartha's awakening

Does the political term being woke carry any trace of Siddhartha's awakening under the Bodhi tree whereby he realized absolute spirit which is unconditioned?  The answer is, of course not!  Wokeism comes from a political ideology.  It does not require the religious mind which seeks the attainment of ultimate reality.

Still, wokeism is somewhat like a religion insofar as it contains a redemption narrative which seems to speak to people who feel resentment:  that they have been taken unfair advantage of (it's the opposite of gratitude).  With this, wokeism offers to restore to people what secular society has been unable to provide because it has been dominated by a white male patriarchy.  But unlike with religion in wokeism there is no forgiveness for the wrongs done to other people which still must be avenged (resentment never ends). 

The religious mind has its narrative arc, too.  But overcoming the misfortunes in one’s life is not through pointing the finger at society, but through first recognizing that the human heart contains both good and evil which is cloaked in ignorance.  Until the cloak of ignorance is removed, good and evil remain a problem that begins in every individual.

Complicating this matter if we lack enough empathy then it follows that everything we do is selfish.  We might unconsciously treat others with contempt or even injure them to get our way.  Having our away is of paramount importance.  This cloak of ignorance that all beings have makes possible both good and evil but seldom realized by the doer.

In fact, there is an ongoing struggle going on beneath this cloak.  In the midst of this struggle we are not sure whether we are becoming good or becoming gradually more evil.  It is only when the cloak of ignorance is removed so that the light comes in that we can truly see what is good and what is evil thus avoiding the latter.

But in the world of wokeism where the cloak of ignorance has not been removed good and evil are relative to each other so that they become confused.  Doing good which ends up as evil or doing evil because the cause is good are both possible and likely.

The Christic-nature and Buddha-nature

If we accept, tentatively, that the crucifixion in the New Testament represents the transcendence of the flesh and entry into fleshless spirit, then we have the same in Buddhism which is about the cessation of the conditioned and direct entry into the unconditioned, this being nirvana.

Whether we speak of a transcendent Christic-nature or a Buddha-nature both mean the same insofar as the real essence of the earthly creature is absolute spirit which has been conjoined to the flesh (an illusory projection) which is never other than conditioned (appearance) and suffering (the flesh suffers, not the spirit). 

The unfortunate destiny of the earthly creature is to always find itself embodied in the flesh in which death seems to be the only escape and not a preferable one.  But that is just the very life of flesh.  To project oneself into the other (appearance) is to lose the self in the other.

Profound religions are never about saving mankind from its own errors and misdeeds.  It is about showing mankind the way to the immortal self which always transcends the flesh.  All purification, including the Christian crucifixion, are for removing that which obstructs absolute spirit causing us to suffer as a result

Imagination is in control and wants to stay in power

Our five senses and our power of judgment are more or less controlled by our imagination (manas) which happens to be the sixth sense in Buddhism.  The imagination sort of fills in the gaps where there is no reliable sensory data.  An example of this is when imagination is tied to architecture.  Mankind can build great cities and create a virtual but, nevertheless, practical world where humans can live and feel safe. 

To be sure, we can erect fictional worlds for the sake of survival when it is necessary to do so.  In other words, for practical purposes we have to accept certain kinds of fictions as if they are non-fictional reality.  But overtime the difference between fiction and reality loses its distinction.  We can no longer tell fiction from fact.  The full impact of our imagination now engulfs and controls us. 

Imagination’s various trends and fashions, including popular thought, or popular ideology, are not the exceptions but the rule.  The imagination is in control and wants to stay in power even if it means it will lead to chaos and the downfall of all.  To break the control of the imagination takes great skill.  It is not easy to do.  Guarding the imagination are the emotions which are fierce and bewitching.

Mind as spirit (citta) is certainly hidden and entangled with the imagination.  It is like a prisoner trying to escape.  Surprisingly, with the death of this illusory body and spirit’s rebirth (paṭisandhi-citta), also known as gandharva (P., gandhabba), it has no choice, or so it seems, but to follow the course of its downward fate. 

As we can see the purification of citta or spirit is essential since it is defiled having been mixed up with the imagination.  The minimum defilement of spirit is a thought.  Here we come to Zen's no-thought in Zen.  This is when the adept experiences freedom from the imagination and all that comes with it.