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Steven
E. McDaniel
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Rumi
An Introduction
On Enlightenment: The Vision of the Infinite Unseen
I gained nothing at all from
Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very
reason it is called the
Supreme Enlightenment. -Buddha
Dogen was a Zen master from Japan
who possessed great insight. Remarkably, he lived at about
the same time as Rumi in the early 13th century. I have been
reading Dogen the last few months and would like to share the
incredible power of his study as it has come at a most astute
time for me in parallel with some of my own observations of
what I call a vision with no view. First, I want to
set you up with a little background about Dogen with some help
from Wikipedia.
" As I study both the exoteric and the esoteric schools of
Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with
Dharma-nature by birth. If this is the case, why did the
Buddhas of all ages undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment
find it necessary to seek enlightenment and engage in
spiritual practice?"
-Dogen
This question was, in large part, prompted by the Tendai
concept of "original enlightenment" (本覚 hongaku), which
states that all human beings are enlightened by nature and
that, consequently, any notion of achieving enlightenment
through practice is fundamentally flawed." -Dogen
The following passage is, perhaps, the most famous of Dogen's
writings:
"To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is
to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by
all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of
the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as
well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are
wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on
forever and ever."
We must all come to terms with our true nature. Our
perceptions including our judgments of the world are the
fantasies and pretense of our lives. Most people believe that
what they think is all they have. And so, they cling in fear
to the objects of their affection instead of affection
itself. In this, they never address the absolute reality of
their own nothingness. At best, they philosophize with
abstract thought (the process of negation) a reality they are
afraid to approach. And so, it is rare that an individual
transcends the world into truth.
One way, in the way that words cannot begin to describe, would
be to intuitively absorb this:
At the pure state of enlightenment nothingness dissolves
everything including nothing and even enlightenment is
dissolved, hence everything as nothing is born in the infinite
things. Someone wakes up and looks around to see the
infinite things of the world to the infinite stars of the
cosmos: the vision of the infinite Unseen. That
someone who awakes is you. Right now. You are in the
enlightened state. Accept it. Dogen implores us to, "Learn
the nature of the myriad things. To carry yourself forward
and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things
come forth and experience themselves is awakening." Herein is
the great truth exemplified also by the repeating mantra of
the Upanishads and other
teachings That: This is That, or That, the subject (you) and
object (the things) are One because you, as a separate idea,
have no real existence upon awakening. "Thou art That."
It has been said that the greatest obstacle to enlightenment
is the thinking that one is not enlightened. It is true more
than you think. All we can know is nothing. In a nutshell,
empty, still mind or no mind is clear mind void of abstract
thoughts of separate things and suffering. We're here to wake
up to our void and our a-void-ance. Then, we can have
a-void-dance! . . . and be free.
Dogen's last poem written just hours before his death in 1253:
Fifty-four years lighting up the sky.
A quivering leap smashes a billion worlds.
Hah!
Entire body looks for nothing.
Living, I plunge into Yellow Springs.
May you go in peace.
The Editor
Letters to the editor:
lighthousecolumn@yahoo.com
Steven McDaniel is an
award-winning video producer, writer and graphic artist. His
upcoming documentary project on the mystic Richard Francis is
slated for production in Spring 2008.
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