When we look at our life from the inside it is certainly transitory and more tragic if not painful in the long run. And in our journey of life we find nothing called a soul or self or the atman. What we once thought was our self always turned out to be not our self.
But from this life did we learn the right lessons? I think it is safe to say that we did not. Neither did we find God or some kind of absolute. And why? Because we looked in all the wrong places. As the Buddha pointed out long ago we looked into the conditioned to find the unconditioned. We also looked into what is not the atman to find the atman.
Are we really that dumb, I mean, did we look in the wrong places? Again, I will have to say yes. The problem that Zen has always had to face is how does it correct people so they look in the right places for their atman or true self? This atman is not to be found in material shape, feeling, perception, volitional formations or within consciousness. And certainly not within the senses either which includes mentation (manas).
Yet, when the Zen student is presented with the idea of nirvana, that is, the unconditioned and no-thought (the unthinkable) the first thing they do is try to think about it, or construe it in a certain way that they can grasp it with the imagination. But this is only a copy, not the real McCoy. Zen, I am forced to say, does not often point to the right place. And when it does, few directly apprehend what is being pointed to.
A lot of what Zen teaches us is how to overcome our self-inflicted errors. But this is only hinted at — in fact, it is given in such a way that it requires intuition to solve the problem. Interestingly, it is only intuition that has access to Zen's path.
A good approach is found in this Mind Master-Ting Chen, also called Zhiyi and founder of the Tiantai Sect of Buddhism
(538-597 Sui Dynasty)
"Just observe your thoughts. As you look for their place of origin, you discover that they suddenly rise up and just as suddenly disappear, and that this process goes on and on. Be patient and continue to observe them, and you will, in time, know the thoughts to be devoid of any selfnature; also you will, thereby, know original emptiness. Do not attempt to follow the thoughts, to trace them in any way or have any intention of getting rid of them, and, in time, awareness will manifest as your mind illumines a thought.
Then, there will suddenly be a stillness that becomes suchness. At some point, another thought will arise, and you will observe it in the same way. Do this at least once a day, sitting from fifteen minutes to an hour.
As your concentration deepens, your thoughts slow down and diminish in number, and your power of illumination increases until you eventually find out that not a single thought arises. Then, there is only stillness and voidness, for then the mind is clear 6 and pure.
This is your self-nature as known directly through wisdom (Prajna). The subject of wisdom is Prajna, and the opposite of Prajna is ignorance. Prajna illuminates the delusion that is ignorance. With continued exposure to Prajna, ignorance wears away bit by bit until there is a return to self-nature, or pure mind. It is in this situation that Right Thought manifests.
There is no longer the duality of subject/object. This state is also known as no-thought or suchness and is also referred to as the inconceivable. When the mind is illumined and a thought, as one ordinarily knows it to be, arises, it dissolves instantly.
Continue to practice in this way on a daily basis, and you will notice your self-nature getting steadily clearer and purer. Then there will be no longer any need to observe, nor will there be any purpose to observe.
Indeed, there will be no longer any need of any kind. It will be realized that mind is nomind, that no-mind is pure mind and that pure mind is the true mind. At that time, the sound of discussion and the role of thought will be finished.
It cannot be expressed in words, and yet it is as simple as drinking water and knowing whether it is cold or warm. It is called Sudden Enlightenment. "
Posted by: Jung | September 02, 2021 at 08:36 AM