Gaining direct insight into nirvana or the same, the unconditioned, is really the beginning of Buddhism not its end. Why is this? Transcendence of this illusory existence (samsara) is not possible if you don't first know what precisely to transcend. You will eventually be deceived. In the words of one Zen master, you'll be throwing away the eggs keeping the chicken shit.
This helps the paint a somewhat different picture of Buddhism than is presently marketed. For example, one who has awakened to the unconditioned knows perfectly well that the five aggregates lack self nature (svabhāva) insofar as they are conditioned. They are illusory, not real.
It's somewhat like being a great warrior who receives a magic sword which is able to slay all that which is illusory. And there is a lot there to slay.
“If you want to achieve early fulfillment, brandish the precious sword given by the mind king and march right ahead: if you meet buddhas, kill the Buddhas, if you meet Zen masters, kill Zen masters, if you meet your parents, kill your parents, if you meet the masses of living beings, kill the masses of living beings. Totally massacre everything animate and inanimate, all forms and appearances, mountains, rivers, and earth, all times and all places, good and bad, right and wrong, plus anything else that appears and disappears, coming and going through the doors of the six senses and the alleys of the seven consciousnesses. Having killed it all completely, when you turn a flip and appear in the realm of cosmic space, you can be called a real hero. When yo get to this point, you will not doubt that Buddhas and sentient beings, enlightenment and affliction, samsara and nirvana, heaven and hell, are all illusions” (Bannan Eishu 萬安英種).
But without this magic sword we can’t even slay our false, conditioned self (anātman) much less our imagined Buddha. Of course, there are ignorant Buddhists who suffer from pride and hubris, who believe that they possess this magic sword, but they don’t. They uphold the lineage of paper Zen with its paper transmissions but they have no real prajñā /wisdom sword.
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