The Culture of Enlightenment

The person who became the historical Buddha spent his life preaching in an attempt to give others access to the clarity he had achieved. The Sutras are a record of these efforts. Although Zen claims a direct transmission of enlightenment going back to Sakyamuni, and existing outside of the Sutras, the "Lankavatara Sutra" is considered to contain the core principles of Zen. In the "Lankavatara" we find:

"O Mahamati, it is because the Sutras are preached to all beings in accordance with their modes of thinking, and do not hit the mark as far as the true sense is concerned; words cannot reinstate the truth as it is. It is like a mirage. deceived by which the animals make an erroneous judgment as to the presence of water where there is really none, even so, all the doctrines in the Sutras are intended to satisfy the imagination of the masses. They do not reveal the truth which is the object of the noble understanding. Therefore O Mahamati, conform yourself to the sense, and do not be engrossed in words and doctrines."

The problem facing the Buddha was that the culture of language had not evolved to the point that what needed to be expressed could be said in words. The Koan exercise and the occasional bizarre treatment of Zen acolytes are attempts to overcome this difficulty.

The brilliance of Shakespeare is his ability to convey with words things that can not be said with words. Looking for an evolution in the power of language one need look no further than the extraordinary difference between the English of Shakespeare and modern English. Many years ago a social anthropologist noted that some primitive peoples could not express their feelings because the necessary words did not exist in their native tongue.

Of all the advances of modernity one of the most remarkable is the emergence of modern English. As a nuts-and-bolts language that will take shades of meaning where it finds them, modern English is the language of enlightenment par excellence.


All ideas are imaginary.

Simple awareness is the ultimate truth of personhood.