The 12th century Saint and Rhineland Mystic, Hildegard von Bingen—also known as Sybil of the Rhine, once reflected on the nature of Noble Wisdom:

“I am Wisdom. Mine is the blast of the resounding Word through which all creation came to be, and I quickened all things with my breath so that not one of them is mortal in its kind; for I am Life. Indeed I am Life, whole and undivided — not hewn from any stone, or budded from branches, or rooted in virile strength; but all that lives has its root in Me. For Wisdom is the root whose blossom is the resounding Word.”

Her understanding is not far from our present proceedings as it presents the mystical undercurrents that bespeak the next stage of mind development: bodhi-dhatu…
(*note—the following is highly concentrated bodhi concerning this most Noble Mind-Revelation)

The Buddha-gnosis of the Tathagatas now unfolds Noble Wisdom’s child as the gateway beyond the karmadhatu into Pure and non-discriminative wisdom (Buddhi ), because its certainty now rests on the full supracognition of the dharmadhatu. As this realization expands, the Ariyan Mind develops from this very bodhiseed through the hearing propensity (dhammasota) resulting from the issuance of the dharmadhatu. Bodhidhatu is the enlightened gotra (seed) issuing-forth from the dharmadhatu as it counteracts all the defiled Alayic-seeds of the body consciousness, even to the very root of its bondedness with the material-laden mind (rūpāvacarādicitta). It now totally affiliates (ānulomika) and is yoked (saṃyoga) with all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from the immeasurable buddhafields of the ten directions and knows them as inseparable-bodhi within the Dharmakaya; it is thus unequivocally bonded with the Tathata Family (tathāgatagotra). All this is reflective of practicing an advanced dhyāna that excludes both form and formless realms. It now knows the full import of Mind-Only. Hence, it is the full cultivation of this Tathatic Mind-Seed (Suchchild).

Tags: Bardo 3, Bodhidhatu, dharmadhatu, Hildegard of Bingen

Heralding from the Northern Hemisphere of the Transformational Mandala of the Five Tathagatas, Buddha Amoghasiddhi looms large in his Emerald-Green Buddha-field as he grasps his mighty Double-Vajra. Akshobhya’s own Sacred Vajra easily and readily sliced-through all relative-alayic-phenomena as no-thing in the created realms could withstand its diamond-sharp efficacy. Evermore efficacious and resilient is Amoghasiddhi’s Double-Vajra as it bespeaks the mystical intersection and cosmic equilibrium of all opposing dichotomies. In Buddhist Cosmology it reflects the hallowed-slab upon which the universe itself was formed and will eventually return via entropy. Like a thunderbolt thrown from the arm of Zeus, it transmutes and transforms all before it with a Big Bang that fuses together and unites polar opposites. The inner becomes the outer and the outer becomes the inner. The green-fields of Amoghasiddhi’s Pure-Land have a most calming effect as even enemies become lovers. Amosghasiddhi’s Transformative Energies are most formidable indeed as it swiftly signals intercessory-ACTION (as Lord of Karma) that dispels the effects of all Dukkha. His striking Abhaya Mudra (the raised hand) is also a sign of Fearless-Protection; all who meet him in later transitional stages realize that they have nothing to fear from the Bardo, as his Mudra is a huge realization to just STOP-REFLECT-RECOLLECT—ALL that they apparently perceive is just a manifestation of the Dreaming Mind. Most soothing—Amoghasiddhi is the great dispeller of all distress and needless anxiety. It’s interesting to note that his role of psychic-protector has been depicted with a cloak of snakes rising above his head—reminiscent of when Shakyamuni himself was sheltered in like manner from a raging rain storm. The Lanka-Buddha is also depicted as Amoghasiddhi and Naga-like in stature:

Meditating as such with Amoghasiddhi , one is fully empowered to “stand-one’s ground”, even in the face of Mara’s most vicious and relentless assaults. Amoghasiddhi thus “stops” and transmutes the violatle Skandha of Volition into the resilient repose of RIGHT ACTION. This is truly a remarkable blessing since “all karmic activity” is annulled as Amoghasiddhi empowers one to step-off the spinning Samsaric and Karmic Wheel and into the waiting arms of deathlessness itself. As Lord of Karma, Amoghasiddhi also has the power to transmute the poisons of envy and jealousy—the energies of the great Titans themselves—into the unequivocal Wisdom of Equanimity. He is also the last great Dhyani Buddha the soujourner will encounter in the Great Bardo of Transformation as one’s former-karma is weighed to determine whether rebirth in the karmadhatu is in order, or whether one makes that final and resolute “turn-about” in the depths of consciousness to embrace the Luminosity of the Dharmadhatu. In this sense he is truly Lord and Master of the “Root” or Primordial Dragon Chakra, as Enlightened-Consciousness or Bodhicitta, now strengthend through sambodhi, fully arises and supplants all defiled seeds from the karmic and alayic receptacle; indeed, Amoghasiddhi is the Primordial Dragon par-excellence.

Tags: Amoghasiddhi, Bardo 3, dharmadhatu, Karma, Karmadhatu, Primordial Dragon Chakra

One of Mind’s Revelations, by virtue of its Wordless Transmission, as expounded in the Dharmakaya Sutra is that all six realms within the samsaric order of creation are mere skandhic-apparitions. For instance, gods and demi-gods “dream” just as much as humans do and even those lowly inhabitants of the hell and hungry-ghost realms dream of eventually transcending their hellish existence; all are linked through skandhic-apparati that perceive avenues of desire that left to themselves are never relinquished. It is by virtue, then, of Mind’s own ascendency to the Noble Wisdom of Self Realization that these dependent chains of origination can be broken. The route of discernment through these first two Bardo Realms is something of a twofold nature: intrinsic and extrinsic awareness power and it is the former alone that is unequivocally undivided whereas the latter is soiled through the camera obscura-like lens of the Five Skandhas. The first two Bardo Realms are essentially traversed through extrinsic channels of awareness that are hindered by a temporal continuum: the body consciousness. Although masked in the dream-realm of Bardo 2, it is this self-same consciousness that digs-deep into the Alaya-vault that is stuffed with all kinds of imaginable and fantastic imagery that flashes across the soiled screen of vexatious intoxications that can prevent Mind’s return to Bhutatathata. Yet, the Manomayakāya has the power to break the spell—provided it issues its commands with the resolute authority that emanates from the Unborn Will Itself. If the proper alignment of the Chakras has been procured with consistent practice of Primordial Qigong in Light of the Unborn Spirit as relayed during our expose of Bardo 1, then sufficient authority will be granted since the light of these highly-spiritually-charged chakras pierces through and dissipates these unruly spectacles of the defiled garbha of the Alaya.

The developing human fetus within the womb of its mother is truly in a “bardo-realm” all its own; although the surrounding amniotic-fluid is akin to the Sambhogakayic-field experienced in Bardo 2 as the growing fetus’ own psyche is becoming inextricably linked with the Alaya-receptacle. No one is born into this saha world with a blank-slate, a tabula rasa. No one is born into this world alone. No. There is much congregating going on as the imprints of lifetimes upon lifetimes; eons and eons of karmic associations and attachments and afflictions are there to keep you company. Welcome to the Karmadhatu. This may come as a shock to some, but the Alaya-vijnana is not synonymous with the Tathagata-garbha. As was shown during our study of the Lanka, the Alaya-receptacle is its dark “twin”, a veritable storehouse of images that is not in alliance with the “womb” of the developing gotra—the seed that contains within it the potential for the Amala-consciousness. A child of Karmadhatu is fostered primarily on developing its Body Consciousness, a consciousness that is akin to its Dark Lord and master. The developing gotra—a potential Bodhisattva and Buddha to be is a child of Dharmadhatu. It is a spiritual-child, quite distinct from its carnal twin; it is fostered on bodhipower and is in direct-kinship with the Tathata Family. One is a child born into the darkness of samsaric phenomena and the other is a child of Unborn Light, delivered (actually returned) into the supraessential stature of the Dharmakaya.

Tags: Alaya vijnana, Bardo 2, dharmadhatu, Karmadhatu, tathagata-garbha

Bardo One (Birth, Life & Death): Part 1

Opening Homage:

It is customary to begin such a work with a salutation in high honor with what is commonly known as the Trikaya, or the three bodies of the Buddha. Traditionally they are referred to as the Dharmakaya (Absolute body), the Sambhogakaya (Visionary body), and the Nirmanakaya (transformation [oftentimes carnal] body). However from the unique position of the Lankavatarian perspective, these have been finely tuned with added nuances:

Homage to the Unoriginated Dharmakaya: Absolute Truth Body; the wordless Teaching, Buddhadharma: Inner-Promulgation of the Truth Body; the Self-aware Mystical-Spiritual Power (Body of Tathagata) embodying the Truth as a Movement of Pure-Mind Revelation: Bodhikaya

When we were born into this present lifespan, essentially the death process was initiated. We die little by little each day; in this sense we were and are “born” to “die”. This apparent desire realm (the human notch on the rope of the six rings of rebirth) can oftentimes ruthlessly reveal the transiency behind unfolding imagery that can frustrate the awareness apparatus that innately seeks re-unification with the dharmatā—or the inner-luminative-essence that is freed from the chains of all forms of perception. What happens though in Bardo Realm One, the dharmatā becomes ordinary dharmas—an endless array of passing imagery (phenomena) until it becomes transformed into its luminative-self again in the Bardo of dharmatā. Experience (within Bardo Realm One) becomes the channel through which the awareness apparatus is primed into one day extraordinarily perceiving (through the power of bodhi) its rightful and primordial position as awareness principle; this can be analogously depicted as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, undertaking all kinds of experiences and trials and tribulations along the journey down the yellow brick road before awakening from the dream (which can also parallel the individuation that occurs in the Bardo of Dreams) and returning to her true primordial home.

Self-Actualization through Generative Agencies

In this Bardo Realm of Birth, Life and Re-Death (indeed, reaching a new omega point that actualizes as re-constituting the field of elementals that concretize into material-forms) the awareness apparatus=the human person, (the collection of the aggregated skandhic elements) or the generative agency through which the awareness principle begins to mediate (through a succession of transitional events) its Recollective journey homewards to the Element of Truth (Dharmadhatu). In this sense, the human agency analogously functions like the meditational deities (e.g., the five Primordial Buddhas) we will encounter in the Bardo Realm of Meditation and Deep Samadhi. What follows next is this “chronological” Recollective process through the generative agency of this writer…

From whatever past karmic alliances and associations, my spirit (and its awareness apparatus) this go-round was somehow aligned to be a priest. In point of fact, being a priest and having an interest in Zen Buddhism is not an anomaly: witness the life of Trappist Monk and priest, Thomas Merton; or the fine scholars of Buddhology like Fr. Etienne Lamotte and Heinrich Dumoulin, S.J. Firstly, the one common question that always pops into people’s minds is, “Why did you become a priest?” Actually, the question didn’t even occur to me until I started out on a personal odyssey at the age of 21—way back in the late spring of 1979, when I moved to South Florida from the Northeast on a whim with a friend. It was during that time of new beginnings, in the strange and exotic setting of South Florida that my inner-self (dormant bodhi seed) truly began to awaken; in particular with the sense of inner-hearing (Dhammasota’s soundless sound in Buddhism). Within traditional Catholicism, it’s customary that someone needs to experience some form of divine “calling” from God before becoming a priest. The calling occurred to me one sultry summer afternoon in the form of a book that somehow popped out at me on a shelf of books I was perusing in college. The book’s title was, “The Dark Night of the Soul”, by St. John of the Cross. St. John of the Cross is one of the church’s greatest mystics, and his apophatic theology of the “via negativa”—nada, nada, nada, nothing else but the indwelling presence of God, which is like a darkness to the senses—truly enraptured my spirit. It was like the mystic flavor of these pages opened a new chapter in my life as I became more aware of the “inner-needs” of others, (Karunic bodhicitta) and no longer focusing on myself alone. Being the young, idealistic 21 year-old that I was at the time, this Carmelite Saint seemed to be beckoning me to pursue the religious life—and so, what better way than to serve God as a priest. I did some inquiring and contemplating for the next three years and afterwards returned home to the Northeast and entered seminary in the fall of the early 1980′s.

My seminary years for the Diocesan Priesthood were full of much idealistic vigor and determination to become formed into a good priest. Those years also offered me the opportunity to share some of my creative talent as a violinist; so from time to time would accompany another seminarian (a pianist), and one of the priest-professors (also a violinist) to various homes in the area, wherein we would indulge in a healthy dose of Bach—in particular his Double Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor.

My deacon year (the year before being ordained a priest) was spent in a parish in upstate NY. It was a most unusual year; it was 1987—the year considered to be that of the Harmonic Convergence. Some people in the parish were involved in Clown Ministry, and so they asked me if I could involve them in some way in the parish. So, I intuitively came up with a script that involved using clowns during Lent in a presentation of the Stations of the Cross—it was called, “The Stations of the Cross in the Company of Clowns”. Now, this was unheard of—using “Clowns” in such a somber setting as the Stations of the Cross??? But, it worked! It was very reverently done—something along the lines of an Emmitt Kelly clown character, a down and out fellow whose life becomes transformed as “a spirit” appears to him with a lighted candleabra and leads him through the stations in the darkened church. Well, this initial presentation began with 4 people—three clowns and the spirit—but, over the years it has developed into a full-fledged ministry, involving mimes as well as clowns, and incorporates people of all ages and temperaments—it’s now in its 26th year! I had long stepped back from the ministry, but a community of people themselves—known as The Clown Ministry Associates, formed from all these amazing people over the years—has kept this presentation alive and vibrant as they journey from church to church throughout the season of Lent.

Priesthood during the 1990’s

During the 1990’s, my creative-side flourished immensely. I wrote and produced a mini-musical involving the clown ministry entitled, “The Waiting”—a little story about the real meaning of the season of Advent. Also I wrote a major musical endeavor entitled “A Clown in Harlequin’s Court,” whose inspiration was based on the struggle of catholic women religious at the time to have a greater voice in the life of the church. I’m an advocate for women priests, which in the present state of affairs within Catholicism is not acceptable; the musical, written in 1996, takes place during the High Middle-Ages and has as its foundation a historical actuality: the cathedrals were the major center of religious devotion and practice—vast throngs of people were packed inside to hear the Word of God proclaimed, and so there was an overflow of people and many had to stand outside, not having the opportunity of hearing the Word proclaimed. Outside the cathedral, actors—in the guise of Harlequins and various assorted mimes, would literally “act-out” the action of the gospel being proclaimed inside, empowering the crowds on the outside to also benefit from the action happening inside. The musical takes as its theme this backdrop and grows into a drama between two groups of protagonists—the Harlequins who have the “divine status” of proclaiming the Word of God in this fashion…and the Clowns—the newcomers on the block who want to get-in on the act! The main characters are a male Harlequin—the leader of the Harlequins…and a female clown—whose desire to be able to proclaim God’s word, too, becomes the champion of the downtrodden clowns. Never was able to put this play into production during the ‘90’s…but with the advent of new music technology and time spent with a buddy of mine who co-wrote the music, we were able to get this play into production in the summer of 2007; we actually got two parish communities involved since this was a major-size cast and the three-hour production was a major hit of the summer!

Being an associate priest assigned to a parish proved to be a most challenging enterprise. Long gone was the youthful, idealistic, spirit of that young seminarian as the reality of life in the RC Church began to sink in. Let me preface the following by saying that this is not meant to ridicule or demean the religious practices of Catholics, but that for “my own spiritual development and evolution”, these practices fall far short of the inner-journey of self-transformation; by and large the catholic faithful are content with just the rudimentary trappings (exoteric) of any form of spirituality—e.g., daily mass-attendees praying the rosary, wherein the mournful-droning refrain… “To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears!”… essentially becomes the hallmark for many of what this life is about—just getting by day by day and hoping for the best since one’s life is primarily dirt—indeed, the refrain during the distribution of ashes on Ash Wednesday is, “Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” The other option for the priest to say on Ash Wednesday is, “Turn away from sin and believe the good news…or simply, repent and believe the good news.” Essentially, sin means separation—in essence, separation from our divine union with the godhead; even from the early days with John of the Cross, I’ve always been led to focus on, what I consider to be a crucial component of faith—union with the Divine Will and Spirit. What the major religions are steeped in is Duality—and herein always lay my ongoing frustration. Truthfully, it’s been a struggle never being on the same page as the general catholic populace, one that basically stays with the formalized—outward (exoteric)—trappings of Catholicism while the inward-journey is never even remotely considered; have always preached from time to time on the need for inner-transformation—for union—but , sadly, to no avail as this experience is always superseded by exclusive outer and materialistic demands…TBC

Tags: Bardo, Dark Night of the Soul, dharmadhatu, Element of Truth, John of the Cross, Recollective Process

Wake-up Sermon, part 2

Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation. Remaining unblemished by the dust of sensation is guarding the Dharma. Transcending life and death is leaving home.”

When you’re deluded, this shore exists. When you wake up, it doesn’t exist. Mortals stay on this shore. But those who discover the greatest of all vehicles stay on neither this shore nor the other shore. They’re able to leave both shores. Those who see the other shore as different from this shore don’t understand Zen.

When aligned with the proper spirit of Bodhi there is no longer any seeking—the Dharmadhatu is all pervasive but cannot be seen through discriminatory eyes. Beyond words and the accumulated dust of sensate phenomena lies the dustless-mirror of deathless suchness.

Shaking the dust from samsara off one’s feet and not looking-back again is shedding suffering in the pure light of parinirvana. Shadowed, delusional reality ends and enlightenment begins when the discursive thought process comes to an end as one turns-about and sees through the true Dharma-eye salvific Unborn Light.

The apparent samsaric shore appears to exist when projected on the shadowed-wall of delusion. Breaking free from one’s skandhic-shackles delivers one through the Dharma-gate into the pure-light of Zen wherein one discovers that there is no “this shore” or “that shore”; indeed, if one perceives some form of the other shore they remain delusional.

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood. They’re not the same. And they’re not different. It’s just that people distinguish delusion from awareness. When we’re deluded there’s a world to escape. When we’re aware, there’s nothing to escape.

Viewing life through the constricted lens of the skandhas one remains in the mortal-realm of delusion. Seeing through imageless eyes the Dharmadhatu one awakens as a living Buddha. And yet, in light of Deathless Suchness delusion and awareness are not the same, nor are they different. As the Lanka states, it’s when the discriminatory eye kicks-in that one perceives the delusional as being separate from the noumenal. In light of the Dharmadhatu, there’s nothing to escape from but our own discriminatory mind-projections.

In the light of the impartial Dharma, mortals look no different from sages. The sutras say that the impartial Dharma is something that mortals can’t penetrate and sages can’t practice. The impartial Dharma is only practiced by great bodhisattvas and Buddhas. To look on life as different from death or on motion as different from stillness is to be partial. To be impartial means to look on suffering as no different from nirvana,, because the nature of both is emptiness. By imagining they’re putting an end to Suffering and entering nirvana Arhats end up trapped by nirvana. But bodhisattvas know that suffering is essentially empty. And by remaining in emptiness they remain in nirvana. Nirvana means no birth and no death. It’s beyond birth and death and beyond nirvana. When the mind stops moving, it enters nirvana. Nirvana is an empty mind. When delusions don’t exist, Buddhas reach nirvana. Where afflictions don’t exist, bodhisattvas enter the place of enlightenment.

Delusional reality is “partial”—it can’t see the forest through the trees. The awakening of the Bodhi-mind is reminiscent of Yeat’s lines: “Something drops from eyes long blind…he completes his partial-mind.” The Dharma of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is “impartial” because they know that the nature of both Dukkha and Nirvana is empty. That’s why traditional Arthatship is insufficient as contrasted with Bodhisattvahood—they think that they have to escape from something to achieve something other; whereas no movement is necessary away from something or towards something—Mind is sufficient in Itself, with no-thing coming or going.

The following classic animated allegory (narrated by Orson Welles) of Plato’s Cave marvelously illustrates how one can transcend the shadow-nature of reality into the Pure Light of That which animates.

Tags: allegory, dharmadhatu, Emptiness, nirvana, Palto's Cave

4. The Reluctance of the Bodhisattvas

Then, the Buddha said to the bodhisattva Maitreya, “Maitreya, go to the Licchavi Vimalakirti to inquire about his illness.” Maitreya replied, “Lord, I am indeed reluctant to go to that good man to inquire about his illness. Why? Lord, I remember that one day I was engaged in a conversation with the gods of the Tusita heaven, the god Samtusita and his retinue, about the stage of non-regression of the great bodhisattvas. At that time, the Licchavi Vimalakirti came there and addressed me as follows: “‘Maitreya, the Buddha has prophesied that only one more birth stands between you and unexcelled, perfect enlightenment. What kind of birth does this prophecy concern, Maitreya? Is it past? Is it future? Or is it present? If it is a past birth, it is already finished. If it is a future birth, it will never arrive. If it is a present birth, it does not abide. For the Buddha has declared, “Bhikshus, in a single moment, you are born, you age, you die, you transmigrate, and you are reborn.” “‘Then might the prophecy concern birthlessness? But birthlessness applies to the stage of destiny for the ultimate, in which there is neither prophecy nor attainment of perfect enlightenment. “‘Therefore, Maitreya, is your reality from birth? Or is it from cessation? Your reality as prophesied is not born and does not cease, nor will it be born nor will it cease. Furthermore, your reality is just the same as the reality of all living beings, the reality of all things, and the reality of all the holy ones. If your enlightenment can be prophesied in such a way, so can that of all living beings. Why? Because reality does not consist of duality or of diversity. Maitreya, whenever you attain Buddhahood, which is the perfection of enlightenment, at the same time all living beings will also attain ultimate liberation. Why? The Tathagatas do not enter ultimate liberation until all living beings have entered ultimate liberation. For, since all living beings are utterly liberated, the Tathagatas see them as having the nature of ultimate liberation.

After leaving the reluctant disciples, we now turn to the reluctant Bodhisattvas. At the top of the list is none other than Maitreya—the future Buddha-elect. In the Mahayana world, Maitreya is the Bodhisattva par-excellence—no other can match him in stature since he will eventually come to expound the dharma in these very saha-realms. Since he is unapproachable in his anointed Bodhisattvahood, it seems inconceivable that anyone would even consider challenging his Buddha-gnosis; yet, here comes Vimalakrti once again and puts even this most auspicious one to the test. This leaves one to ponder that the true identity of Vimalakriti is one of such significance that his own bodhi-signature far eclipses that of any other Bodhisattva in the Buddhist canon.

We find Vimalakriti confronting Maitreya in the very realm of the Tushita heavens. He begins his interrogation by inquiring about the “prophesy” of the World-honored-One (present Nirmanakaya Buddha). Prophesy, even in our own sense of time, is a most misunderstood and misused term. We can see how its utilization concerning the notion that Maitreya requires one-more-birth in order to achieve anuttara-samyak-sambodhi is a compounded dilemma; indeed, is this referring to past, future, or present birth? We can see how prophesy itself is confined to the three-times and is therefore an inadequate tool to forecast that which is so far beyond this limited realm—not in-it-self ever subject to the laws and dimensions of time-bound reality. In the eyes of the Tathagatas—all time is as One…at-one-ment. Reality in this sense is a boundless realm—as Vimalkriti states one moment you are apparently born, then what seems like a blink of an eye you grow old and soon pass-away into oblivion; we are really just passing reflections in this boundless primordial Sea of Suchness. Time-bound reality is all relative and hence inadequate to behold the Absolute Stature of Suchness where there is no need of any form of attainment as All is AS ONE in the Milieu of the Undivided Mind and Spirit. So, Maitreya will never have to actually attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi since It has already happened yet it was, and is not, nor will be an actual occurrence.

“‘Therefore, Maitreya, do not fool and delude these deities! No one abides in, or regresses from, enlightenment. Maitreya, you should introduce these deities to the repudiation of all discriminative constructions concerning enlightenment. “‘Enlightenment is perfectly realized neither by the body nor by the mind. Enlightenment is the eradication of all marks. Enlightenment is free of presumptions concerning all objects. Enlightenment is free of the functioning of all intentional thoughts. Enlightenment is the annihilation of all convictions. Enlightenment is free from all discriminative constructions. Enlightenment is free from all vacillation, mentation, and agitation. Enlightenment is not involved in any commitments. Enlightenment is the arrival at detachment, through freedom from all habitual attitudes. The ground of enlightenment is the ultimate realm. Enlightenment is realization of reality. Enlightenment abides at the limit of reality. Enlightenment is without duality, since therein are no minds and no things. Enlightenment is equality, since it is equal to infinite space. ” “Enlightenment is unconstructed, because it is neither born nor destroyed, neither abides nor undergoes any transformation. Enlightenment is the complete knowledge of the thoughts, deeds, and inclinations of all living beings. Enlightenment is not a door for the
six media of sense. Enlightenment is unadulterated, since it is free of the passions of the instinctually driven succession of lives. Enlightenment is neither somewhere nor nowhere, abiding in no location or dimension. Enlightenment, not being contained in anything, does not stand in reality. Enlightenment is merely a name and even that name is unmoving. Enlightenment, free of abstention and undertaking, is energyless. There is no agitation in enlightenment, as it is utterly pure by nature. Enlightenment is radiance, pure in essence.Enlightenment is without subjectivity and completely without object. Enlightenment, which penetrates the equality of all things, is undifferentiated. Enlightenment, which is not shown by any example, is incomparable. Enlightenment is subtle, since it is extremely difficult to realize. Enlightenment is all-pervasive, as it has the nature of infinite space. Enlightenment cannot be realized, either physically or mentally. Why? The body is like grass, trees, walls, paths, and hallucinations. And the mind is immaterial, invisible, baseless, and unconscious.’ “Lord, when Vimalakirti had discoursed thus, two hundred of the deities in that assembly attained the tolerance of birthlessness. As for me, Lord, I was rendered speechless. Therefore, I am reluctant to go to that good man to inquire about his illness.”

This leads us to the tired old question that is so often asked—are you enlightened? We shall discover that enlightenment is unequivocally not some kind of “personal-realization”…as if some kind of apparent, “personal”, entity gets-enlightened. Anyone who is always stumped by this is entrapped within a didactic-inversion—an apt outcome for the so-called discriminatory personality (true cognitive dissociation). Even entertaining such a notion finds oneself being “marked” by what Thurman translates as, “discriminative-constructions”; whereas enlightenment—or rather the Bodhi-Mind is “markless”. It is also position-less yet takes delight in the “fullness” of Its deathless body—the Dharmadhatu. Hence, having the Mind of Bodhi is seeing clearly the Dharmadhatu—AS IT IS (yathabhutam). Seeing through the imageless eyes of bodhi=enlightenment. This Beloved bodhi-realization is not something that can be created, destroyed, or even transmitted. Yet, the Bodhi-mind is freely bestowed (em-bodhi-ment) by the Dharmata-Buddha—the great shadow-slayer of all discriminatory associations. To consider “enlightenment” as something otherwise is an adulteration of Bodhi-gnosis.

http://youtu.be/YZTmKDptpcg

Tags: Bodhi, dharmadhatu, Enlightenment, Vimalakirti Sutra

This seems to be the week for me reminiscing about all things ’60-ish. I recollect in the 5th grade awaiting anxiously to receive and read Alan E. Nourse’s marvelous sci-fi thriller—The Universe Between. As there was only one copy in the school library, it seemed an endless wait to finally be able to relish the feel of holding this little masterpiece (for the boys in the class this was, at the time, the piece de resistance). I’ve included here a little pic showing our class—I’m the one on the top, third from the left wearing my favorite “Barnabas Collins” (of Dark Shadows fame) suit and vest—something I was really into at the time to salvage my sanity from the real monsters in that class.:-)

Nourse’s work remains even to this day, a little classic in its own right as to the nature of inter-dimensional reality. It’s a riveting tale about piercing the veil between parallel universes—the protagonist, Bob Benedict, is able to cross this threshold by merely turning through a strange corner, a wrinkle in time if you will. Yet, what he discovers in that parallel dimension is the dangerous reality of “The Thresholders”—inter-dimensional beings who would prefer nothing less than to dismantle our own perceptional reality and send it spinning off into a void of oblivion. Quite a mind-bender at the time, written during an age of consciousness-expansion; actually this tale is about how our own feeble little perceptions prevent us from realizing the True Nature of Reality.

The Awakening of Faith Shastra centers on the self-realization of One Mind, yet within this formulation there is an intersecting theme between the One Deathless Principle (Unmoving—nothing really needed to be negated) and the fluctuating nature of the karmadhatu…that apparent flux between phenomenal and noumenal. Going even further still, it is reflective of what we know today as a holographic model—in this sense, all that is interdependent is really a reflective reality and manifestation of the One Mind—Dharmadhatu. This really bursts the bubble of any differentiation in the ultimate scheme of things as all the apparent inter-dimensional fluctuations are just fragments of one Universal Whole (Monistic Mind). A lot of the sutras are a testament to this reality; there are numerous references in the sutras to a wide and diverse range of inter-dimensional realities and even beings—as innumerable as the infinitesimal grains of sand in the Ganges. Movies like Star Wars are not far-off from imagining that wide array of beings who attend the sambokayic sessions of the Buddha. And yet, we must never lose sight of what really lies “between” all these wild imaginary figments of the animating principle—the Luminous Unborn Mind.

Tags: Awakening of Faith, Consciousness Expansion, dharmadhatu, Holograms, Monism, Parallel Universe, The Universe Between

Chapter three of the Lanka kicks-off with the three-fold nature of the “projection body”, or manomayakaya. “There are three kinds of projection bodies. And what are these three kinds? They are the projection body that experiences the bliss of samadhi, the projection body that realizes the essential nature of the dharmas, and the projection body that whose natural state is motionless.” (Red Pine, pg 167) The first is present when the waves of the vijnana are brought to rest, making FULL STOP to discriminatory phenomena; Mind is at rest in IT’s true Unborn Nature and one’s former samsaric will takes a back-seat as the Super-essential Will of the Unborn Mind rises and takes full precedence. The second is present when the yogin, or adept, enters the eighth stage of recollecting liberation, or Right Concentration: here the realization dawns that although “empty” of all phenomena, the Super-essential Self (Unborn Mind), has the creative power to animate all the varied-realms of dharmatic reality. The third is present when the Yogin, or adept, has a thoroughgoing grasp of the exact “nature” of the “Unmoving Principle” behind the manomayakaya–it is suprapositional and always utterly dynamic, but indeed “motionless” which is the antithesis to the “moving principle” that is mired in all the obstructions of phenomena. In this fashion, the ultimate teachings of all the Buddhas are brought to bear in the bliss of this Noble self-realization, expediently rising to the fore for the benefit of all sentient beings. The concluding gathas (verses) drive home a keen awareness that these Mahayanic teachings, which in themselves are reflections of the Total Unborn Mind Realm, or dharmadhatu—is not represented through any sound, form, projection (image), nor EVEN the “realm of imagelessness”!!! (Suzuki) On the other hand, it is a teaching vehicle through which the Creativeness of the Unborn Will expediently musters activities that are born out of deep Samadhis for the sake of sentient beings.

Red Pine brilliantly makes mention of the nuance concerning “the five immediacies” (or Five Deadly Sins) “Gunabhadra alone has people committing the five avici deeds and not falling into Avici Hell. All other translators (including Suzuki) and the Sanskrit have the expected: “Those who commit the five avici deeds fall into Avici Hell. The Buddhas explanation, however, clearly supports Gunabhadra.” (Red Pine, pg 168) Red Pine is right on the mark because the Lanka turns these traditional Buddhist evil deeds upside down and gives an inverse interpretation:
1.The mother of all beings: Any regenerative and procreative desire (trishna) with its accompanying greedy pleasures is said to be like a nursing mother.
2.The father of ignorance: The seeds of ignorance (avidya) incurs “rebirth” into the six villages (the six senses) of the sense world. [when the “roots” (motherhood and fatherhood) of these two are cut-off it is called the slaying of mother and father]
3.When the passions, like anger, ect.,–those nasty habitual vexations that gnaw at one like a ravenous rat—are exterminated, then this is said to be the murder of the Arhat.
4.The Breaking-up of the Brotherhood: The slaying of the five Skandhas.
5. Making the Buddha bleed with an evil motive: Essentially, when the eight Vijnanas are given full-sway with their discriminatory power of individuality and generality—called by the Lanka the “faulty mentality of the Vijnana Buddha” which is made to “bleed”.
Very interesting how the Lanka plays with language here…for the inverse signification of such noble terms as mother, father, Arhat, Brotherhood, even Buddha is used to “wake the adept up” and not place such total allegiance on such terms, terminology that can actually hinder one from reaching Tathagatahood. This is similar to what Jesus once said about “turning one’s back on one’s father and mother” if one wants to reach the Kingdom of God.

The conclusion of this section more or less indicates that one will surely “fall into Avici Hell”, Red Pine translates Avici as “unrelenting”, if one does not come to the self-realization that external phenomena is nothing but perceptions (projections) of one’s own mind: “However, those who keep committing avici deeds cannot avoid what is unrelenting. Only if they become aware that these are nothing but the perceptions of their own mind, and they abandon projections of a body and what belongs to a body and attachments to a self and what belongs to a self, or they eventually meet a good friend, can escape their projections of continuity in another existence.” (Red Pine, pg 171) I like Red Pine’s translation except, “attachments to a self and what belongs to a self”—Suzuki translates self as, “the notion of an ego and its belongings”, thereby avoiding falling into the trap and heresy of anātmanism. As the Lanka drives home again and again, “what the mind focuses on determines its reality”, so it can easily create its own self-made hell if it owes any semblance of allegiance to the unrelenting “moving principle”. In this sense, Dante’s words ring true: “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” The one safeguard in all this is to remain faithful to the truth (paramartha) and to keep one’s mind fixed, not on passing phenomena, but on the ever present “Dharma Realm”, the dharmadhatu—the True, Unmoving Body of Reality.

Tags: Avici Hell, Dante, dharmadhatu, Lankavatara Sutra, Red Pine