I’ve been reading your site for a short time now, and I’ve got a question. I havn’t yet found anywhere on this site any real description of what enlightenment is. So, what is enlightenment? What the hell is this thing everyone seems to be looking for?
With inquiry, there is no assumption of right or wrong. Questions are not meant to be hit with quick responses. It must be dealt with in a deeper way. So regardless of how you approach the answer, you must be prepared to accept that what you might have always thought, or believed to be true, might be wrong.
That is not to say IT IS wrong, but that it might be.
During your life as a seeker, you may reach a point of no return; the event horizon of liberation. It may be a place of great discomfort, and will perhaps draw out feelings of despair or ideas of nothingness. But those feelings will only lie, and those ideas will never come close to the actuality.
Give yourself over to it, and press on. The end is quite near.
At seventeen years of age I was refused entry into a church. I asked: “Why?” Their response: “Your hair is too long.” My reply: “Didn’t Jesus have long hair?” Their reply: “Yeah, but yours is too modern.” True story.
Outside of weddings or funerals, that was the last time I went to a church on my own.
Takuin does not eat meat. (Although, this in itself means nothing.) Do you find that the food you eat affects the way you function? What happens if you eat a heavy meal before you go into these questions we pose from time to time? How does food affect the way your life unfolds?
Is there a thought without the image, a thought without the word, a thought without the symbol?
(Whether you say Yes or No, why do you say it? Have you decided one way or another? Or are your beliefs in control of the answers? Can you go into the question without hoping for the answer?)There is something beautiful in walking. It clears the mind and opens the senses. Walking through nature, and listening to the movements of this beautiful earth, reveals all you could ever ask for. But you must listen. Hold your head up, move with that natural rhythm, and listen.
If there is a question, or an answer, it is all revealed in nature.
Takuin sits in a very noisy room and the mind calms down, activity dissipates, and suddenly it is there; an emptiness that silences the senses of the mind. It is such an intense, pulsing energy, others in the room feel it. It expands and takes everything with it. I sit, surrounded by people, surrounded by no one.
So what do you, as the reader, think of the daily aside posts? Does the short length fit nicely into regular reading? Or is it a bit too much to deal with everyday? I enjoy the discussions brought out in the asides, and it also makes it easier to focus more directly on your comments.
What do you think?
The sun came up over the skyline of Tokyo this morning, and absolutely nothing could be done about it. So magnificent, one could hardly comprehend the reality of the thing. It cleansed everything, burning out the self and its ideas about the world. The sun rises, the self ebbs, and all is quiet.
I Can’t
“I have seen this liberation, but I can’t do it!” That may be true, but do not despair. This is still seen from the point of view of one that must do something about it.
Now, if you can’t do it, what happens? If there is absolutely nothing that can be done, what happens? Not that I can’t do anything, but nothing can be done. Do you see the difference?