Consciousness vis a vis Awareness

Consciousness is an event, Pristine Awareness is a phenomenon 

Being, Doing, and Enlightenment

Being is the expression of Suchness, and in the realm of the living, Doing is the imperative of Being: if there were no doing there would be no being. And we find that through millions upon millions of years Awareness (which is the stuff of life) has in its doing, refined its capacities of being toward the full flowering of Pristine Awareness: the awakening of the Universe to its Self.

The Being of any life form is woven of capacities and limitations, and we can recognize the character of any animal by its Doing. In the cultural histories of humanity's doing we find two dominant threads. One of them is the violence universally found in natural systems, and in that natural violence the cleverness of humanity has found a home for its animal genius. The other thread is the press of Pristine Awareness to Self realization, and this is the foundation of religion and philosophy.

The genius of religion and philosophy is not an animal genius: it is the pressure of Pristine Awareness seeking that liberation which is the flower of its Awakening.

This flowering has been called "Enlightenment"

The Athletes of Asceticism

The freedom which accompanies the awakening of Pristine Awareness is often mistaken for asceticism. But the ascetic is a spiritual athlete tying him or her self to a mental image, and successful asceticism is an achievement.

Of itself Pristine Awareness is free from the busyness of achievement, and the categories of freedom peculiar to Enlightenment must remain unknown to the athletes of asceticism.

The case of Niu-t'ou Fa-yung (d.657) is instructive in this regard.

Stimulus Response

The awakening of Pristine Awareness does not dispel the autonomous activity of the ancient imprinting of instinct. Like an old fashioned player-piano the air we breathe is used to play the timeless tunes of animal stimulus-response. The false self innocently hallucinated by the conscious mind dances to this tune and innocently imagines its self to be its author.

Meditation provides a foundation of silence making it possible for Pristine Awareness to awaken and to recognize that it is being played. This engenders an entirely new relationship with the Real, and with the vital energies of the animal.

The Mind becomes the Magic Gem, and the body the Magic Carpet. 

The "self" of Consciousness and the Beauty of Zen

The "self" of consciousness is an hallucination, and it is natural that this hallucination would say "I" to the antique bric-a-brac which are the accouterments of nature's press into the Universe's appetite for Self discovery.

The beauty of Zen is not just its unrelenting insistence on the awakening of Pristine Awareness. There is in the vast literature of and about Zen a preparation for the shock that accompanies an awakening from said hallucination.

Nothing is as it seems, nor is it otherwise, and in the analects of Zen we find a treasure trove: the natal utterance of newly awakened beings. My personal favorite will always be that of Lin Chi (d.907) who's master was the legendary Huang Po (d.850)

Lin-chi to Tai-yu

"So after all, there is not much in the Buddhism of Huang Po"

He then returned to his master.