Buddhism and Enlightenment – Inspiration from the Direct Path

Buddhism and Enlightenment 1.

The Illusory Nature of the World
Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a could castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen
Know all things to be like this:
As the moon in a bright sky
In some clear lake reflected,
Through to that lake the moon has never moved.
Know all things to be like this:
As an echo that derives
From music, sounds, and weeping;
Yet in that echo is no melody.
Know all things to be like this:
As a magician makes illusions
Of horses, ozen, carts and other things,
Nothing is as it appears.

The Buddha

Buddhism and Enlightenment 2.

Siddhartha's mind was made up: he would leave his life of luxury and search for truth. Knowing he would not receive consent, that very night as everyone lay sleeping, he bid a silent farewell to his wife and son. He mounted his horse and set out for the forest in the far reaches of the land where the holy men gather. When he arrived, he cut his long hair and donned the robe of an ascetic, a man of solitude searching for wisdom. Now, at the age of twenty-nine, his journey had begun.

Prince Siddhartha spent the next six years in the forest. He studied with the most famous sages, but still he did not find an end to suffering. He joined a group of men who believed enlightenment could be found by denying the body nourishment and sleep, thereby mastering pain. For years the prince ate and slept very little. He grew as thin as a skeleton, and though the rain and sun beat down on him, he did not waver from his practices.

Finally, he realized that he was getting nowhere. Though he had neglected his bodily needs, he had not found an end to suffering. Thus, when a young woman came to him offering food, he accepted. Now that he was nourished he sat in meditation under a bodhi tree in the town of Bodhgaya. He sat down and vowed, come what may, he would not move until he found an end to sorrow. Although demons tempted him with images of his past and evil spirits brought nightmares upon him, the prince was centered on his goal.

Finally, under the Tree of Enlightenment, Siddhartha became Buddha, the Enlightened One. He went on to become a great world teacher, as Asita had prophesied, and from his teachings, Buddhism was born.

The Story of the Buddha’s Enlightenment

Buddhism and Enlightenment 3.

One of the things that is realized when you see the nature of the self is that what you do and what happens to you are the same thing. Realizing that you do not exist separately from everything else, you realize responsibility: you are responsible for everything you experience. You can no longer say, “He made me angry.” How could he make you angry? Only you can make you angry.

That understanding changes your way of relating to the world and your way of looking at stress. You see that stress is created in your mental processing of your experiences. It usually has to do with separation.

Whenever a threat, barrier or obstacle pops up, our immediate reaction is to pull back, to prepare mentally or physically to fight or run. If you become the barrier - become the fear, the pain, the anger - by experiencing it fully without judging or avoiding or running away, and then let it go, there is no barrier. Actually there is no way to pull away from it; you cannot run away. There is nowhere to run to, nothing to run from: it is you.

John Daido Loori

Buddhism and Enlightenment 4.

That is why Buddha could not accept the religions existing at his time. He studied many religions, but he was not satis- fied with their practices. He could not find the answer in asceticism or in philosophies. He was not interested in some metaphysical existence, but in his own body and mind, here and now. And when he found himself, he found that every- thing that exists has Buddha nature. That was his enlighten- ment.

Enlightenment is not some good feeling or some particular state of mind. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment. If you cannot be satisfied with the state of mind you have in zazen, it means your mind is still wandering about. Our body and mind should not be wobbling or wandering about. In this posture there is no need to talk about the right state of mind. You already have it. This is the conclusion of Buddhism.

Shunryu Suzuki

Buddhism and Enlightenment 5.

We go into the darkness, we seek initiation, in order to know directly how the roots of all beings are tied together: how we are related to all things, how this relationship expresses itself in terms of interdependence, and finally how all phenomena abide within one another.

Yes, the roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term nonduality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another.

We cannot exist without the presence and support of the interconnecting circles of creation---the geosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the sphere of our sun. All are related to us; we depend on each of these spheres for our very existence.

Joan Halifax