When do you think you will achieve enlightenment?
A long time from now. I know that I am far from perfect.
Do you know any other people who are enlightened?
I know of some people who seem to be so. I know of some who have the reputation of being enlightened.
Here is one example, though he is dead now:[At Polonnaruwa] I am able to approach the Buddhas barefoot and undisturbed, my feet in wet grass, wet sand. Then the silence of the extraordinary faces. The great smiles. Huge and yet subtle. Filled with every possibility, questioning nothing, knowing everything, rejecting nothing, the peace not of emotional resignation but of
sunyata, that has seen through every question without trying to discredit anyone or anything - without refutation – without establishing some argument. For the doctrinaire, the mind that needs well established positions, such peace, such silence, can be frightening.
I was knocked over with a rush of relief and thankfulness at the obvious clarity of the figures, the clarity and fluidity of shape and line, the design of the monumental bodies composed into the rock shape and landscape, figure rock and tree. And the sweep of bare rock slopping away on the other side of the hollow, where you can go back and see different aspects of the figures. Looking at these figures I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean out of the habitual, half-tied vision of things, and an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious. The queer evidence of the reclining figure, the smile, the sad smile of Ananda standing with arms folded (much more “imperative” than Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa because completely simple and straightforward).
The thing about all this is that there is no puzzle, no problem and really no “mystery.” All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear. The rock, all matter, all life is charged with
dharmakaya… everything is emptiness and everything is compassion. I don’t know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination. … I mean, I know and have seen what I was obscurely looking for. I don’t know what else remains, but I have now seen and have pierced through the surface and have got beyond the shadow and the disguise. …
It says everything, it needs nothing. And because it needs nothing it can afford to be silent, unnoticed, undiscovered. It does not need to be discovered. It is we who need to discover it.
From: The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
I did practice meditation for a few years. However, …well, here I am in the Catholic Faith.
Good. Follow whatever works for you.
Perhaps I misinterpreted the quote then. Eating a tangerine is real. However I disagree that enlightenment is real.
It is, and it can be studied. There are various studies made of the states of mind of Buddhist meditators that show different results from non-meditators.
Even if I was to posit that it is real, then its still statistically improbable that one would ever reach that state of mind given the rarity of it. So what is a woman to do, neglect her family in order to sit in mediation for 20 years…hoping to achieve a state of mind?
That is a decision for you to make. The Buddha took six years to reach enlightenment. Bodhidharma spent seven years meditating in his cave. The average seems to be between five and ten years of concentrated effort.
Buddhism is anti-family because it demands so much ascetic practice that women end up neglecting their children. Men also neglect their children.
Not all Buddhists are monks or nuns, any more than all Catholics are celibate monks, nuns or priests.
Because of the demands it places on the individual, most poor people who have a life of work end up worshipping the Buddha or other deities. And the practices are left to those in the monasteries. Either way, its paganism or polytheism. Neither is really very good is it?
I presume you are talking about the difference between self-power and other-power in Buddhism. I have no problem with the other-power sects, such as Pure Land, it is just that their methods are not for me. I did try them briefly. Obviously I disagree with your last sentence; Buddhism has no problem with most non-Buddhist religions (paganism) and no problem with multiple gods (polytheism).
rossum
eople long for big thrills. Peak experiences. Some people come to Zen expecting that Enlightenment will be the Ultimate Peak Experience. The Mother of All Peak Experiences. But real enlightenment is the most ordinary of the ordinary. Once I had an amazing vision. I saw myself transported through time and space. Millions, no, billions, trillions, Godzillions of years passed. Not figuratively, but literally. Whizzed by. I found myself at the very rim of time and space, a vast giant being composed of the living minds and bodies of every thing that ever was. It was an incredibly moving experience. Exhilarating. I was high for weeks. Finally I told Nishijima Sensei about it . He said it was nonsense. Just my imagination. I can’t tell you how that made me feel. Imagination? This was as real an experience as any I’ve ever had. I just about cried. Later on that day I was eating a tangerine. I noticed how incredibly lovely a thing it was. So delicate. So amazingly orange. So very tasty. So I told Nishijima about that. That experience, he said, was enlightenment.
