The Buddhism of Huang Po: consciousness and sudden enlightenment

The great Huang Po (died 850) was the teacher of Lin Chi, the father of Rinzai Zen. And when Lin Chi achieved his enlightenment he is reported to have said "So after all there is not much in the Buddhism of Huang Po." What he meant by "not much in the Buddhism of Huang Po" is that the substance of Enlightenment was there all along, though tangled in the effects of consciousness. By the twin virtues of meditation and study, when the spell of consciousness snaps, that Awareness which is the stuff of Enlightenment is already in place, and the obvious is suddenly apparent.

The genius of Huang Po was the spareness of his method.

Being Here Now

Now is the then that was and will be.

Awareness, Consciousness, and Buddha Nature

There has been a recent buzz questioning if insects possess consciousness. This is a classic example of the confusion made inevitable when we do not differentiate between consciousness and awareness.

Awareness is the ultimate property of life, and the ultimate truth of Self. Awareness could be thought of as composing what religionist call the "Spirit". Consciousness is the result of awareness inhabiting a nervous system, and varies with the mechanical capabilities thereof. Consciousness could be thought of as comprising the realm of the "Soul".

As to whether or not insects have consciousness I will relate a personal anecdote.

Once, years ago, I came down from the sleeping loft to find that the huge black wood ant so common around here had discovered the honey-bowl. The bowl was very nice porcelain, hand thrown by a friend, and had a notched lid for the cherrywood honey dipper (all broken and discarded long ago). Well anyway, I came down that morning to find a steady line of very large black ants climbing the side of the bowl, slipping through the dipper notch, and getting after the honey. I opened the bowl to find about a half inch of ants flailing in the upper reaches of the honey like sabertooth tigers in a tar pit. My first thought was "Damn, now I'll have to throw the honey out." My second thought was that since the ants were a nuisance and since they were exterminating themselves why not let them have at it. That is what I did. I left the honey bowl untouched on the counter and went on about my business.

The following morning I came down from the sleeping loft to find a ring of ants surrounding the honey-bowl. Like a ring, shoulder to shoulder, of tundra musk ox defending their young: all were facing out.



Does a dog have Buddha Nature?

Post-Modern Possession and Zen

The equanimity displayed by the masters of Zen, past and present, is an illustration of the qualitative differences in a mind informed by Awareness and a mind blinded by consciousness.

The consciousness which moderns are so quick to celebrate is driven by the sway of unconscious forces. A description of demonic possession quite accurately fits the situation of that mind to which the archaic structure of congenital preprograms is invisible. A mind in this state believes its self to be "self possessed" when actually its behavior is dominated by autonomous forces (referred to by Carl Jung as the Collective Unconscious) to which the mind has said "I". They are possessed.

The Enlightenment which we seek in Zen is no less than Awareness pulling down the curtain of consciousness which insulates Self from archetype. Awareness is stillness in the midst of movement, and that stillness betrays the machinations of the ancient deep-mind.

The ills of the modern world are the knock-off results of a clever creature in spiritual infancy. The general population, the captains of industry, the political classes, are all of them in a state of demonic possession: their behaviors public and private are those of a mind which does not suspect the existence of an Awareness which is the true substance of Self and of all life, and which transcends consciousness. They therefore serve invisible forces in darkness: the latent contents of the unconscious mind. They are conscious, yes; but they are not Aware.

An ancient Master once remarked that Zen is the brick with which we knock at the door.



What then to do when the door has opened.

Another ancient Master while walking in the imperial garden remarked to the Emperor "Sire, when the people of the world look upon these flowers they see them as if in a dream."

Divinity and Archetype

Those familiar with the state of deep meditation will come to recognize that our lives are dominated by mental artifacts. The vagaries of experience present us with a plethora of examples with which to people and to decorate the schematic of archetype which is the unconscious mind. The value of these elements is in their proximity to an unconscious ideal made inevitable by patterns of electrons within the tissue of the brain.

The ancients were closer in their pantheon of gods to the true relation of Awareness to the terra incognito of genetic imperatives than the modern with his monad. The concept of a demiurgic monad puts the individual in a false state of responsibility by assuming unity of personhood......we are many, and that "many" is woven into a chord of seeming unity by consciousness. Hence domination by the principle of consciousness of the mind in modern humanity. The "I" with which consciousness flatters its self is a convenient illusion, and a cover for the more inconvenient truths of archaic archetype.

The Awareness which emerges from deep meditation is not at war with consciousness, but rather has a relationship to consciousness as that of parent to child. There is much consciousness is not aware of and its fascination with its representations is not to be trifled with.

Well did the ancients ascribe divinity to the powers of archetype. And when Awareness consciously engages archetype we people our lives with divinity.

A Return to the Garden

The Garden of Eden is oft used as an alegory for a previous state of innocence, but it brings to mind a metaphor of more immediate value. The gardens that we moderns are familiar with are sources of aesthetic and physical nourishment. We care for the soil and pull the weeds that we will have a feast for the eyes and food on the table. The mind is exactly the same.

Ideas are the fruits and the flowers in the garden of the mind. If the mind is not cultivated and weeded it becomes an overgrown jungle fit for starvation. It is not at all difficult to see that ideas which should be torn out by the roots are crowding out the flowering of peace on earth and good will toward men.

Meditation and the ideas emerging from the ensuing Enlightenment can make possible, individually and collectively, a return to the Garden.

Meditate

The Long View of Enlightenment

When the long view of human existence is taken it is immediately obvious that evolution exhibits a fascinating plasticity in its plodding path to Enlightenment. The branching tendrils of speciation have tried this avenue and now that in the Universes's inclination to awaken, and there is no reason to suppose that this process is now in abeyance. For a long time it has seemed to me that humanity is even now in the process of speciation, and is, as we speak, busily developing (as did Darwin's finches) into quite identifiable sub-species of creature-hood.

The characteristic that fascinates me is that of mind, and of course mind is a function of the physical form of the brain. The characteristics of clairvoyance and perspicaciousness are such that those possessing these attributes would necessarily self select in their vulnerabilities to sexual partners, and so pass on to their progeny these qualities that are the prerequisites of Enlightenment.

Even the greatest of natural abilities must need cultivation, and one is reminded that the only measure of equality is the respect we accord the confusion of those around us.

Meditate.

The Language of Intuition

Intuition does not speak a language. Our intuitions do not come to us in voices. Intuition comes as a scent on the wind. Immediate, experienced, palpable form in the mind; this is the stuff of intuition. For all the efficacy of words they are clumsy tools compared to the infinite nuance of intuition, and when when intuition is compelled to drape its self in language something is bound to be lost in translation.

It is by way of meditation that we come to realize the limitations of thinking in words. We learn a language by imbued association in infancy and childhood, and it is quite natural that we in later life begin to talk to ourselves and to refer to this "talking to ourselves" as thought. The silent mind that we cultivate in meditation is the clay upon which life makes it's cuneiform impressions, and it is this shaping of mind in and of its self that is the essential stuff of thought.

The clarity that emerges when we cease to compel thought to form an audio track is remarkable and immediate. This clarity is the signature of a change of being. This clarity enables a genuine metamorphosis: the earth worm becomes the child of the universe. The Universe's desire for self recognition has come full circle.

Enlightenment is not a thought process. 

Meditate.

The Articulation of Experience

The articulation of experience: this is what an artist does. The artist, in creating, willfully manipulates the received experience of an audience. The painting, the music, the theater; play upon the human intellectual and emotional vulnerabilities as a hand might pluck the strings of a harp. The articulation of experience in the minds of others is also the purpose of the conventions of social groups. Every day language is a means of this same manipulation. All communication is a creation of form in the mind of another......an articulation of experience.

People are by and large too busy trying to express themselves to understand the Self, and the mind of the non-meditator is spontaneously opaque.

Kindness and generosity are advised.

The Inevitability of Enlightenment

Recent theories concerning the origins of entropy dissipating micro systems at undersea volcanic vents lends credence to the image of life forms as not rare and random, but inevitable.

To consider the existence of one's consciousness as the result of an unbroken flow of inevitability beginning with the beginning of anything at all, implies that awareness inheres in the field phenomenon, and that those alignments of subatomic events leading to entropy dissipating forms, self replicating and aware, are the natural refinement of what ever the stuff of existence is.

Enlightenment is not a personal event: Enlightenment is the Universe awakening to its Self. The individual is a fresh bud of that vine rooted in the dawn of time, and Enlightenment is its finest flower. The ancient image of the self-consuming snake comes to mind, and it makes one a bit impatient with the ideologues that trade in the various subtleties of death and destruction. What world might ensue in the sway of a culture of Enlightenment?

It is a race against time for this particular experiment in life forms, but the achievement of Enlightenment in it's progeny is the denouement of the stars.

An Exercise in Meditation

It is often said that swimming is the best exercise. Yes, it's good, and to that I would add a personal favorite: playing in big waves. That said I submit as the premier exercise for those reasonably fit: cutting fire wood.

The woods in which I cut are crowded second growth hardwoods about 70 to 80 years old. I have live here for over 45 years and the prettiest forests are the ones I cut in all those years ago. I have always thinned for variety and firmness.....but that's not the point.

When cutting wood on a rocky Ozark hillside one must practice absolute attention. A chain saw is as dangerous as a loaded gun, and boulders and fallen branches are everywhere. In felling one must read the tree and read the woods: where does the tree want to go.....can you nudge it where you want it....will it hang up in in being felled. Trimming the branches and limbs there is spring-back to watch for, and pant-legs and boots to avoid tangleing.  When sectioning into firewood there is a danger of pinching the blade in the cut or clipping a rock. One split second clip of a rock is a half an hour sharpening a blade. You can't drift off for a split second or you will get hurt....perhaps badly. Wood cutting is for me an extreme meditation: no thought, absolute attention, the tree leads the way and one silently follows. Always aware of the blade. Aways aware of ones footing. Always aware of the tree.

Then there is splitting the rounds. A well-placed blow of the splitting maul on a 18 inch oak round will split the log with a sound that is like nothing else. It is a sound that after all these years still gives me an indescribable pleasure. The dull thud of the off center strike also sticks with one. And again it is the thud of the off strike that tells one that one has drifted off, lost ones concentration. Bending....lifting....throwing....bending.....lifting....throwing. Loading and unloading the truck a rhythm emerges that sets its own pace, and the forest floor is an obstacle course of worthy tenor.

Every phase of the process requires absolute attention and each phase makes its separate demands on the various muscle groups. Yes, it is an exercise and a meditation most excellent.

And....
It's getting chilly in here.....time to load the stove.

The Physics of Enlightenment

When life forms are considered as entropy dissipating systems the natural and inevitable denouement of Awareness is Enlightenment.

Fantasy Land

Though usually unnoticed, it goes without saying that all ideas are imaginary: no imagination: no ideas.

All animals are born with a repertoire of instinctual behaviors into a world that under normal conditions changes very very slowly. Ideas are not necessary in a stimulus-response jungle, but advantage is to that creature with the ability of intellectual synthesis. Enter Humanity.

Culture is imagined into being. From flint-and-steel to A bombs, from loin cloths to tuxedos. from rat-on-a-stick to haute cuisine, from water-in-a-bowl to trainloads of insecticide, the world in which we find ourselves is the cumulative realization of fantasy. And all this in a creature whose motivations are still hostage to blind instinct.

In an environment where every aspect of existence is charged with the products of imagination where is one to find a foundation of existential being? In a maze of ideas where is one to find a firm footing from which to take a step in the right direction. It seems obvious that a podium built of further fantasies (regardless of how exquisite) will be a poor jumping off place.

The core of being which in every case labors under its "repertoire of instinctual behaviors" is Transcendental Awareness. Transcendental Awareness is the ultimate truth of the sparrow, and the paramecium, and the beggar in the alley. Transcendental Awareness is anywhere and everywhere the Alpha and the Omega.

The world of illusion of which the ancients spoke is no less than the normal day to day existence of any unenlightened creature. That which we are is not running away from us. The mystery of being is the presence of our existence. If we relax our hold on our fantasies and are motionless at the core of our being we discover Awareness: lucid, un-configured Awareness.

How are we to re-imagine the world when the cumulative fantasies of humanity are leading us to oblivion.


Enlightenment is the only balm that can soothe the sorrows of the world.



Meditate.

Awareness vis-a-vis Conscousness

From the way the word "consciousness" is thrown around it is obvious that the users are unfamiliar with Awareness in its purest form.

It is possible in meditation to achieve a state that is wholly Aware and yet not properly "conscious" as the word is generally used. In point of fact to bring consciousness into this state instantly catalyzes Awareness into "Mind": Awareness transmuted into consciousness.

Any habitué of the state of pure Awareness will recognize Awareness as the touchstone of all life from parameciums to elephants. And those unfamiliar with this aspect of themselves are well served to never cease in their efforts at self discovery.


Many are called.
Few are chosen.




Meditate

The Method

There are many established techniques regarding meditation. One size does not fit all and some are more suited to a particular mind set than another. Any system using the breath is a good place for a beginner to start, but once one's practice is established I recommend "The Contemplation of Awareness".

The "Contemplation of Awareness" is the very essence of simplicity. One simply turns one's consciousness to the contemplation of Awareness. Awareness is simply aware, and since thought is a crystallization of consciousness it is immediately noted as a disruption in-and-of the field of pure Awareness and is permitted to dissolve back into the matrix of the undefined. The fruition of this technique is a remarkable lucidity: wholly aware, wholly sensitive, wholly at one.


The establishment of pure Awareness within one's self is not an end.


It is a beginning.







November 30


Geese today

Thousands of them
Half seen gray ghosts
Coursing that gray mist above



In flight so low the roar of their wings was a song

An Exercise in Problem Solving

Every creaturely form is no more than a support system for Transcendental Awareness. This Awareness is intricately entangled in the instinctual mental and physical behaviors that have made its existence inevitable.

The Awareness exists in something of a trance, wholly identified with its archaic form; but in creatures with sufficient cranial acumen there exists an outside chance for an event that is as if the clay in a figurine were to awaken.

All of the problems facing humanity, large and small, are the direct result of the writhing of confused animals. And all of the problems facing humanity, large and small, are fairly simply solved by the unhurried application of an Awareness that is not in thrall to its archaic superstructure.

The clumsy efforts of humanity to sort out the mess it has made will never be adequate to the magnitude of the mischief the creature is capable of. Enlightened Awareness is capable of causing these problems to evaporate like rain on a sunlit sidewalk.


But that's not going to happen


Is it.

Deciding How to Be

Almost without exception no-one decides how to be. We are born into a "culture" and we are expected to play our part. There is nothing sacred about "culture". The sacred is both beyond and beneath culture. The sacred is the inexpressible truth of existence in its most infinitesimal reality.

No idea is adequate to fact of existence, and anyone pasting an idea on existence is either misguided or a charlatan or both.

Zen makes no excuses for existence.
Zen encourages the cultivation of intelligence without resorting to stereotypes.
Zen transcends even Buddhism its self.


If we could "decide" how to be, would we make of ourselves a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jessie James or something in between.

We will never know because are unable to transcend culture and are trapped within our limited minds.




Zen transcends culture.





Meditate

Another Favorite from the Analects

Enlightenment tends to be seen as something distant and obscure: something hidden within the matrix of the ordinary that is unapproachable and occult. Well, here is one of my personal favorites from the analects.

the monk .  .  .

"Master, I beg of you to instruct me in Zen"

the master .  .  .

"Have you eaten?"

the monk .  .  .

"yes"

the master .  .  .

"Then wash your bowl"

It is said that this exchange induced Enlightenment.

The Twirling of the Flower

The story goes that one day the Buddha sat silently twirling a flower between thumb and forefinger. One of his followers smiled at this, and the Buddha handed him the flower saying something like "With this flower I transmit to you the high truth".

Zen claims a direct transmission outside the sutras. This transmission is that of Enlightenment. Buddhism is to Enlightenment as a lantern is to a candle. The lantern protects the candle from vagaries of environment that the light be not extinguished. In Zen we find the candle ignited by the spark that was the historical Buddha becoming a self sustaining flame. Technologies of being evolving through centuries resulted in what is known as Zen, and now Zen has evolved to free its self from its religious cocoon and light the fire of Enlightenment in modern minds. The advancements of secular knowledge have created a rich nest of kindling that the right touch of meditation will bring to incandescence.

The What that is the Who is pure Awareness.


Meditate.

A Garden of Earthly Delights

A delightful experience awaits the diligent meditator. As awareness slowly (or quickly) gains primacy over consciousness the curtain of ignorance that protects the ego from its earthy roots is parted and the latent content of the unconscious mind is revealed in all its glory.

Almost all that we say "I" to is the result of an impersonal urge calling its self by our name.

The body is the magic carpet, and the mind is the wish fulfilling gem only if awareness makes it so.


A serious sense of humor is advised.




Destination . . .

cuffed in a smelly cab

and a lunatic behind the wheel

Magical Thinking

Magical thinking has been around since thought first established its foothold in the human mind. Monastic traditions fall on both sides of the issue: some recommending magical thinking and some vigorously enjoining against it. We find in early Christian monastic disciplines a warning to avoid the temptation of "beauty". Perhaps a better word in modern parlance would be "glamour". This "beauty", this "glamour" includes visions, voices, representations of the unknowable: all of those intoxicating elements that might imply a subtile aggrandizement of our spiritual existence.

However, things are the way they have always been. There is nothing new or magical in magical thinking. Magical thinking creates a fertile field for the exploitation of mind by chaos, anarchy, and frivolous self absorption. There is no particular reason to go there.

Existence is just as it is and always has been. The intoxication of mind with "glamour" is a distraction that traps the individual in an historic pattern that is antithetical to the evolution of awareness.

Meditate.

The Moment of Now

In the lexicon of physics "moment" is the measure of movement considering the kinetic inevitabilities of circumstance. There is no existence devoid of moment. Every wave form, every photon, every thing that exists, IS its requisite moment. Its existence is its moment, and its moment is not a snapshot in some imaginary sequential stop-action slices of "Time": its existence is the non-temporal seethe of momentum that is everywhere the fabric of existence.

The latent content of the unconscious mind is momentum. Every living creature's existence is charged with the inertia that forged the path to its individuated life. The momentum of millennia is accepted without consideration as personal prerogative.

It is all very nice to consider meditation as a form of "mindfulness", but that is rather like using a blowtorch to light a candle.

A Lion's Mind

Should a lion's mind achieve the lucidity ascribed to the ancient masters of Zen

it would still be a lion.

Truth

Truth does not come from without.

All ideas are imaginary.

Meditate.

The obvious will become apparent.

Attitudes, Opinions: Observations

Just as water must be clear and calm if one is to see the gravel of the stream bed, the mind must be clear and calm before one can see one's motives. Attitudes and opinions like turgid water make clarity impossible.

It has been said "There is no in sight: there is only out sight." Our powers of observation are our only source of information, and we intuit such meaning as pattern recognition permits. If our mind is colored and roiled by attitudes and opinions the "out sight" that determines the effectiveness of observation will be correspondingly truncated, and our powers of intuition will labor under half-truths and supposition. Bitter and sweet are properties independent of our opinions.

Meditation clarifies and stills the mind. Even the finest dust of predisposition can be recognized and swept from the doors of perception. Observation is then aware, and intuition achieves clairvoyance.

The waves are the water.

Mindfulness, Zen, and Artifacts of Consciousness

The practice of mindfulness is a spin-off of ancient religious practices that are intended to give one access to the many benefits of a silent mind. The techniques engaged to bring about this silent mind could be considered artifacts of consciousness.

Zen finds its starting point in a silent mind, and its denouement is Enlightenment. Zen also has its requisite artifacts of consciousness.

The terms Emptiness and Suchness are introduced conceptually in order to prepare the unenlightened mind for the view that emerges with the dropping of the veil. In point of fact Emptiness and Suchness are simple observed facts of existence. Since only the enlightened are privy to this category of perception there is great value in forming these perceptions into concepts: artifacts of consciousness. An intellectual familiarity with a place one has never been will be an aid to settling in should one arrive.

The movement toward mindfulness is an encouraging development in contemporary society, and it makes possible the further evolution into the realm of Zen. Enlightenment is the birthright of Life, and the artifacts of consciousness conducive to Enlightenment are there in Zen.

Agressive Ignorance

Most everyone wants the same simple thing: a peaceful decent life for themselves and their loved ones. Societal complexities have repeatedly made this impossible.

Society is a reflection of the human mind. We are aggressive, acquisitive, and we are not very wise. We are clever, yes; but wise? No.

The cloud of fear under which humanity exists is the product of aggressive ignorance. We are aware of much of which we are not conscious. There exists a pre-conscious dissonance which will not permit a spontaneous sense of well-being, and which tangles the opacity of consciousness in a web of unease. This unease may express its self in politics, in religion, and in some variety of cultural rebellion; but its source is the same: awareness has subordinated its self to consciousness and sacrificed its acuity to a kind of clouded narcissism.  We are a creature with a mind just barely emerging from the darkness of animal existence.

But we are very clever.

Meditate.

What is Buddhism

What is Buddhism.


Buddhism is many things to many people.

Ideas entangle reality on every imaginable level.

When that guy sat down: never to rise again unless he "got it".....
the thing that he "got" was not something new.

The thing that he got is available to any sentient being anywhere in the universe.

Buddha Nature

Buddha Nature is not a human phenomenon.

Buddha Nature is the essence of existence.

When Buddha Nature awakens in a sentient being that being is compelled to paste a word on it.

Rightly so.

The magic of word is a mystical transfer of truth.

Every Living Creature

The life in every living creature has been alive since the first replicating molecule. The mosquitoes, the flies, the tigers and the elephants: all exist in the same evolutionary time frame. No creature is more evolved or older than another. The earthworm in a garden is as evolved and as modern as we imagine humanity to be.

And when we swat a fly we end an unbroken flow of life that goes back to the dawn of time.