The Zennist

Transcending our imagination

Mankind's God or gods and angels arise from imagination (parikalpita). To see the true nature of reality we must transcend the works of the imagination otherwise we will be deceived by it. What Siddhartha awakened to was pure Mind which, in itself, has nothing to do with imagination, nor is it affected by conditioned reality—our all too human world. 

The idea of transcending imagination to see the true nature of reality is central to Buddhist practice. Imagination, while a powerful and creative force, can also trap us in illusions (māyā) and prevent us from seeing things as they truly are. This illusory nature of reality is captured in the concept of "samsara," the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth driven by ignorance and desire.

The practice of Buddhism aims to break this cycle by cultivating insight (vipassanā) and mindfulness (sati), allowing practitioners to see through the illusions of their mind and eventually experience the true nature of reality. This process leads to the cessation of suffering (nirvāṇa), which is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path.

The human condition, according to Buddhist teachings, is marked by desire (taṇhā): the attachment to the unreal, which binds us to the cycle of samsara. Overtime through practice the body itself must be seen as temporary, a conditioned form that we mistakenly identify with as who we are. This identification with the body and the desire for continued existence only perpetuates our suffering (dukkha).

 

 

The ox and the man are transcended

The circles (ensō) shown in the two presentations of the ox-herding pictures in D.T. Suzuki's book, Manual of Zen Buddhism illustrate the actualization of non-duality (advaya), the real goal of Zen Buddhism. 

The ox-herding pictures are a series of ten images that depict the stages of a practitioner's journey toward enlightenment. These stages range from the initial search for the ox (symbolizing the true self or original nature) to the realization and embodiment of this true nature. The process involves searching, finding, taming, and ultimately transcending both the seeker and the sought, symbolizing the dissolution of duality and the realization of non-duality.

In the final stages of the ox-herding pictures, the man (the seeker) and the ox (the object of the search) disappear. This disappearance represents the dissolution of the ego (I am this carnal body) and the realization that the distinction between the seeker and the sought was illusory. What remains is a state of pure, unbounded radiant awareness, free from the dualistic distinctions that characterized the earlier stages of the journey.

This state of non-dual awareness, whether called the One Mind or Tathata, represents the ultimate goal of Zen practice: to see through the illusion of separation and experience the true nature of reality as a unified whole. This profound insight into the nature of existence aligns with the core teachings of Zen Buddhism and emphasizes the importance of direct, experiential understanding over conceptual knowledge.