One of the words tossed around willy-nilly in this dharma-ending age is “hero”. It seems we are inundated with apparent heroes every which way we turn: movie and comic book animated heroes, football and baseball heroes, all-armed forces personnel heroes, emergency responders like policemen, paramedics and firefighters, even the small child climbing a tree to save the life of an entrapped kitten—all are indelibly classified as being “a hero”.

The ancient, Classical Greek, definition of hero is someone who, in the face of fate itself, singularly makes a choice to sacrifice their very existential existence for a far greater epic responsibility: consecrating their mortal being to a higher, transcendental reality. In this sense, then, how does today’s modern notion of “hero” stand up to this audacious and timeless realization? Does one act of gallantry, whether on the battlefield or someone putting a hole through Muammar Qaddafi’s head, constitute the very essence of heroism? One forgets, that, in the classical sense, a potential hero had to first overcome a vast array of Herculean adversities before being endowed with the title, hero. Today, unfortunately, this noble and well-earned salutation is smeared with diminutive conceits that undermine the former and premier criteria that constitutes hero-hood.

Indeed, the far greater, Olympian feat today—as it has been throughout the millennia—is to make an epic, inner-crusade, one that far outstrips any paltry exterior escapade that hopes to achieve courageous actions in the face of adversity. If one does not confront and overcome one’s own inner demons—how can one even attempt to claim victory in the external arena that is a mere shadow of what is occurring within the vast inner-plane of the alaya vijnana (the repository of consciousness that contains all karmic sensate impressions bearing the mark of dependent origination since time immemorial)? Homer’s heroes like Ulysses actually had to confront and transcend all these inner-demons that were phenomenally and miraculously manifested on the material plane.

In like fashion, the great inner-quest for the Unborn is representative of this transcendent, epic element of truth that far eclipses today’s bewitched bias of incessantly being fixated on achieving merit on the plane of defiled sensate phenomena. This worldling, phenomenal path, is like chopping off one head only to be faced time and time again with other, far more menacing ones of the ravaging Hydra; whereas making the epic journey to the undiscovered country of the Unborn, is like riding on the wondrous wings of Pegasus, empowering the Unborn Light Adept to rise above the phenomenal matrix and thus chop off the root, the very Shandkic entrails of the monstrous Hydra with one swift swing of Manjushri’s Imageless Sword! In this way, one makes that singular choice to sacrifice their very existential life, thus consecrating their mind and spirit to the far superior and supramundane Reality of the Unborn Mind. In so doing, one truly awakens to their True Primordial Identity, and yet coming to the full self-realization of Noble Wisdom that true heroism will not be achieved until Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. (Unexcelled Perfection in Inseparable Bodhi—Supreme Enlightenment)

Tags: Classical Greek, True Primordial Identity, Unborn, Unborn Light Adept

The present and active state of civil unrest* that has been occurring throughout the globe this year is indicative of what transpires when one wakes-up and sees things as they are—which, in this universal sense, has generated the impetus to rise up and do something about it; this translates into the now informed 99% of this saha realm rising up, challenging, and in many instances, overthrowing the status quo (in its various, archaic totalitarian and alleged democratic structures) of the 1%. Will these be truly liberating times…a long overdue resurrection from the pangs of human suffrage? Indeed, what will be revealed? A vast, evolutional leap in human consciousness and collective-liberated resolve; or will it be a decadent decline into former medieval and feudal systems, merely given a newfangled facade created by the latest technologies? We shall have to wait as this great drama continues to unfold.

In Buddhism, the noble enterprise of seeing things “as they are” is known as Yathabhutam: essentially “seeing” the nature of Reality AS IT IS (suchness, or tathata), devoid of any phenomenal outflows. The contemporary Buddhist milieu has apparently forgotten this timeless axiom and, instead, has plunged itself headstrong into the maelstrom of spiritual materialism with its decadent, anthropocentric notions of what constitutes life in the spirit. Can anyone wake-up and see the absurdity in the very notion of this oxymoron? One is truly moronic and fails to pass the muster in equating spiritual/material. Yet, this is the party-line of Buddhism today, replacing the great Buddhardharma with sensualist notions of pathetic psychological, sociological, emotional, physical, sensational, attributes that are linked under the pretence of holistic development; yet, in reality, keeping the spirit imprisoned in these categorical-material-skandhic chains that have as their insidious hallmark—everyday in your face—sensual gratification.

One of the Buddha’s greatest axioms is ehipassiko, meaning “come and see”. It means to not simply believe in something merely because someone who is supposed to be “in the know” has stated it to be so (de facto); rather, look to your own experience for confirmation. Look and discover the Absolute Reality AS IT IS through your own awakening to the Noble Realm of Self-Realization, rather than sit in the darkened theater of your own mind and wait for the arrival on the screen of a Dali Lama to enlighten you. You have within a dormant, deathless seed that awaits the moment of awakening and realizing and celebrating Its full potential as a spiritual child of the Unborn. It is through this auspicious dharma-seed that the True You will be empowered to come and see Its rightful inheritance. This is the Right View that will eradicate and exorcise the Wrong View of the spiritual materialists. Yes, Buddhism is in dire need of this Spiritual Reformation that will once again guarantee Yathabhutam—a true spiritual ascent from the malignant material descent into the darkened bowels of the ordinary body-consciousness; when the wounded chameleon mind can finally become free from the colorful karmic dance of the vijnanas—with no more coming or going, but looking directly at the Real, AS IT IS.

*The examples of contemporary images used in this post do not reflect the views, affiliation, or support of UnbornMind Zen; they serve as frames of reference to expound the Buddhadharma.

In the Surangama Sutra, the Buddha expounds to Ananda about the two fundamentals. Essentially, they correspond to what we in UnbornMind Zen describe as the two principles: one is the moving principle—i.e., becoming attached and dependent upon all perceptional movement within the realm of phenomena. The other is The Unmoving Principle—the pure, nirvanic element of truth, suprapostional in nature, i.e., never concretized in positioned space or time, yet utterly dynamic in stature. You move and breathe and sleep in It, but you are not It. Were it not for your sudden stirring, It does not move; yet, your first rousing from bed in the morning is only made possible by Its empowering you to do so. It is motionless, yet It still roused Zarathustra from his slumber in the mountains. Meister Eckhart, the great Rhineland mystic wrote, “The eyes with which I see God, are the same eyes that God sees me.”

These two fundamental principles of the Buddha are as relevant today as when they were first expounded, even more so. The majority of Zennists and mainline Buddhists today are indelibly linked with the moving principle—being “mindful in the moment”, as if the moment were some kind of objective phenomenon that magically engenders stillness of mind, when, in fact, “being mindful” creates a moving obstruction that hinders true mindfulness—what we refer to in UnbornMind Zen as pluralized stenosis. An accumulation of mindful moments indeed create endless states of paralyzing mindlessness. Within UnbornMind Zen, we do not focus on our breath—mindlessly counting its phenomenal intake and outtake patterns—but rather on the noumenal bodhipower (undivided awareness) that antecedes the beastly body-consciousness with its entire animated skullduggery.  Our focus is on THAT motionless principle which animates, and not on the moving animations. We do not linger on the merry-go-round of the composed, but rather step off the diurnal wheel by zeroing in (through one-pointedness of mind—pi kuan) on the unmoving, unborn hub, that enables the spinning.

And so, in light of the Tathagatas two fundamentals, we have before us a blessing and a curse: Making full stop to the meandering monkey mind, or to mindlessly ride with it on the wild, perpetual spin of samsara.

Within the lore of Buddhism, rebirth as a human is considered very rare for someone located within the lower regions of the unwholesome, like a hell-dweller or a hungry ghost. In fact, there is a marvelous allegory found in the Majjhima Nikaya (129 Balapandita Sutta) that states it would be easier for a blind aged tortoise, rising from the depths of the ocean once every 100 years, to pass its head through a bobbling yoke on the tumultuous surface waves than for someone in these lower regions to experience rebirth as a human being. This is quite impossible, because as it states in the sutta, one is completely devoid of the Dharma within these damnable regions and hence no chance of ever gaining the proper buddha-gnosis to be reborn under favorable circumstances.

Consider the following variation revolving around that same splendid apologue: it would be easier for this singular blind tortoise, arising from the subterranean depths of the human psyche once every 100 kalpas, to pass its aged head through a bobbling lifesaver-mint amidst the turbulent waves of samsara than for the icchantika (those who turn a deaf-ear to the Buddhadharma) to transcend these vast created realms of life and death and cross over to the other, uncreated shore of deathlessness. Such is the sorry state of purported Buddhism today. The once noble path (ariyasāvaka) to nibanna has been sidetracked by the swift moving current of spiritual materialism that has desecrated the former primordial conduit that alone can reroute and awaken the dreaming dungeon mind that is in a perpetual state of regenesis (endless re-becoming). Today, sadly, the materialistic dungeon dwellers are in complete control of the keys that can unlock the nirvanic entrance to freedom and liberation in the unborn, uncreated, and uncomposed, supramundane-stature of nibanna itself. The key to breaking free from the chains of the spiritual materialists resides in the gnosis of the “word”, hidden from view of the icchantikas—yet revealed (within the Lankavatara Sutra) to those noble ariyans who have acquired the Dharma-ears (Dhammasota) that are attuned with the soundless sound of deathless suchness.

Jesus the Christ, the world-transcending one—in essence, an anointed light-bearer bodhisattva—this “word” made flesh, also expounded upon the wisdom of unlocking the narrow gateless gate to Noble self-realization. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” (Matt 7:13) A trillion constellations can safely pass through the narrow gateless gate of the “word”, yet countless wordlings bustle through the wide-gate that leads to perdition in the vast expanse of endless phenomenal dependent origination. Again, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25) The import of the Christ’s message here cannot be underscored enough, as it occurs in all three synoptic gospel accounts; its revelation is clear for those with eyes that hear and ears that see—spiritual materialists are missing the markless mark and leading Buddhism down the long and winding road to self-annhilation.