(Waddell)

People generally have the wrong idea about living and dying at will. They think it means that someone decides on one day that he will die on the next, or that he predicts the day and month in the following year when he is to die and then does indeed die a natural death on that date, or they think it means the ability to extend one’s lifetime so many days or months.

Such are the notions many people have. I myself won’t say that they aren’t examples of living and dying at will; obviously, in a sense, such people do live and die very much at will. But since their ability is the result of training and practice, it’s sometimes seen even in those whose religious eye has not yet been opened. Even some nonreligious people may know when they’re going to die. But in such cases, since their religious eye is not opened, they don’t have the slightest idea of its real meaning.

A man of the Unborn is beyond living and dying (samsara). What I mean by that is: Someone who is unborn is also undying, so he is beyond both birth and death. What I call living and dying at will is when someone dies without being troubled by life and death, the continuous succession of birth-death, birth-death that is samsaric existence. Moreover, living and dying is taking place at every instant throughout the twenty-four hours of the day; dying does not occur only once in your life when you cease breathing. When you’re living without being concerned about life or death, you’re always living in such a way that whenever death does come, even right now, at this moment, it’s no great matter. Now; that’s what I call “living and dying at will.” It means living confirmed in your unborn Buddha-mind. To make a declaration that you’ll die at a certain time on a certain fixed day and to have that on your mind—can you imagine how confining and un-free that would be?

Bankei had the knack for transcending all notions concerning the matter of death. There was an avid fascination of being able to ascertain, through the power of one’s own will, when the moment of death would arrive. Throughout the millennium, certain dharma-masters, ascetics, sages, yogi’s, even those with no affiliation with any form of spiritual or religious observance had the ability to directly discern when their own death would come. Bankei never denied, or seemed too acutely concerned with these kinds of assertions. For him, the real focus was not “when” the imminent arrival of dearth would occur, but never “being concerned” about such an eventuality in the first place. One ought to simply live with the realization that death, in some form, is occurring throughout the 24 hours of the day. Consider this: Billions of cells die each day. New ones take their place and they, in turn, die. Relationships come and go—they die and new ones take their place. No one is exactly the same as they were yesterday. No, everyone, in some form, is dying little by little each day. But the trick is just living not being concerned about it. Don’t become obsessive about when the “big-day” will finally arrive, because the big-day is already occurring little by little throughout this samsaric journey. I used to paraphrase the emphasized text above in funeral homilies. Substituting “living as one baptized in the Lord” for living in the Unborn; yet, Bankei’s Zen goes beyond any Christian notion. At-One-Ment in the Unborn is “beyond” BOTH living and dying—is no longer spinning on the diurnal wheel of samsara. There is no death for one in the Unborn; one is in the imageless and deathless realm of the Dharmakaya Itself. Hence, the epitaph written on the tombstone of one who is Unborn and Undying would read: Never Born, Never Died.

You often hear religious people talking about samsara, or living and dying, being the same as nirvana. But when they speak about it, they do so from the standpoint of samsara, so in fact it has nothing to do with nirvana. They make this mistake because they haven’t grasped yet that the unborn Buddha-mind they always have with them sets everything right this very day by means of the Unborn. To look for “samsara is nirvana” anywhere else and involve yourself in words and letters is pointless. What they’re doing is changing the unborn Buddha-mind into the thought “samsara is nirvana” and senselessly spending every second of the day and night, without a moment’s rest, confined within samsara. Since the Buddha-mind takes care of everything by means of the Unborn, it has nothing to do with samsara or nirvana.

Seen from the place of the Unborn, both of them are like the shadows in a dream. But because the Buddha-mind has the marvelous dexterity it does, if a person who until just yesterday was busily engaged in samsara should today realize his mistake and henceforth stop changing his Buddha-mind into the three poisons, he will henceforth dwell in the Buddha-mind free of all concern with such things as samsara. When the time comes for his physical elements to disperse in death, he will give himself completely to the dispersal and die without regret or attachment. A person like that is living the truth of “samsara is nirvana” and is, at the same time, living and dying at will.

For Bankei “living the truth of samsara is nirvana” was quite a different matter when contrasted with someone who was caught-up into the game of being preoccupied by thinking, through incessant word-play based on the sūnyatic sense, that both are empty of any separate and distinct realities. For one living the Truth of the Unborn, samsara is nirvana as seen through the Eyes of the Absolute since the deathless Realm of the Dharmakaya is really all there is. While having to make the act of mentally asserting that samsara is nirvana is exclusively Samsaric-based, since the thought-motivator behind the predication is skandhic-spawned and therefore cannot adequately recognize the Pure Mind Realization of the Nirvanic Kingdom of Self. Living and dying at will in the Unborn assures there will be no more future unfolding of birth, life, and death.

Tags: Death, nirvana, samsara

Three: The Bodhisattva’s Vow

The Buddha said to Subhuti, “All the bodhisattva-mahasattvas, who undertake the practice of deep-samadhis, should cherish one thought only: “When I attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe, whether they be egg-born, womb born, moisture born, or miraculously born; those with form, those without form, those with perception, those without perception, and those with neither perception nor non-perception. So long as any form of being is conceived, I must allow it to pass into the eternal peace of nirvana, into that realm of nirvana that leaves nothing behind, and to attain final awakening.”

“And yet, after I have thus delivered immeasurable beings, not one single being has been liberated. And why? If, O Subhuti, a Bodhisattva had any conception of (belief in) a being, he could not be called a Bodhisattva (one who is fit to become a Buddha). And why? Because, O Subhuti, no one is to be called a Bodhisattva, for whom there should exist the idea of a being or non-being, the idea of any form of living entity, or the idea of a person. Thus there are no sentient beings to be liberated and even no being-ness who attains Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.”

all sentient beings in every realm of the universe: Buddhist cosmology is indeed vast and all-inclusive of elucidating the six realms of samsaric existence. Mu Soeng does an excellent job in breaking all of this down:

“Birds and reptiles are egg-born; mammals and humans are womb-born; worms, insects and butterflies are moisture-born (generated from humidity); the miraculously-born are those who appear all at once, without conception or embryonic growth. This last category includes the deva (gods), preta (hungry-ghosts) and other infernal beings, naraka (hell beings), and beings in the intermediary worlds.” (Mu Soeng: The Diamond Sutra, transforming the way we perceive the world, pg. 80)

I remember over the years how Tozen emphasized again and again the vital significance of one being thankful of finally being reincarnated as a human; since it establishes the best avenue of transcending (and thus final liberation) the excessive karmic layers of samsaric confinement in possibly million’s of existences. Mu Soeng fine-tunes this notion:

“The only difference among the various modes of existence is the degree to which the karmic process is being purified (in the sense of residual defilements being uprooted). Life is without limit in any of these modes. Each human being has been animal, ghost, hell being, and god in the past, and is likely to be so again in the future if the karmic process is not totally extinguished. The human realm is considered the most fortunate because it is only in this realm (emphasis mine) that there is an awareness of the urgency to work on one’s karmic residue and strive for awakening. (ibid, pg 81)

those with form, those without form, those with perception, those without perception, and those with neither perception nor non-perception: the aforementioned were form realms, but there are also realms without form—pure energetic agencies. This is known as the ārūpay-dhātu; this formless realm is totally devoid of materiality and even suffering (dukkha). The formless agencies enjoy a totally boundless existence and consciousness and are not cognizant of either perception or non-perception. In spite of this, these boundless agencies are still “bound to samsara” and eventually will reincarnate in one of the lower form realms at some junction in samsaric-time.

Into that realm of nirvana that leaves nothing behind: this is most profound and constitutes a heightened sense of what nirvana is all about. The Lankavatara Sutra describes nirvana as being that which no longer arises or ceases; indeed nirvana is the very Noble-Seeing of the Tathagatas themselves that transcends all phenomenal projections. As was stated in an earlier blog post of our study of the Lanka: The meaning of nirvana is thus: Annihilation of the false, abstracted, no-self and giving full recollection to the undivided awareness power of the unborn mind. Or as Tozen’s Dharmakaya Sutra states, it is the undivided awakening into the nirvanic kingdom of Self: the Dharmakaya. In this sense, as the Diamond Sutra states “nothing is left behind” since all is consummated as Bhutatathata: Absolute Suchness.

*And yet, after I have thus delivered immeasurable beings, not one single being has been liberated: this is a salient realization that will be revisited again and again in this sutra and elsewhere within the Mahayana. Why does the Bodhisattva make the vow to liberate all sentient beings if, as the sutra states, there are no sentient beings to be liberated in the first place? This is a great bane for all intellectuals who cannot even begin to fathom this supreme apparent paradox. The answer is soon forthcoming as the Buddha further elucidates:

And why? Because, O Subhuti, no one is to be called a Bodhisattva, for whom there should exist the idea of a being or non-being, the idea of any form of living entity, or the idea of a person: classic, perhaps the most pivotal line in all sutra literature and all forms of Buddhist Thought in general. If a Bodhisattva should “even begin to conceive” of any kind of sentient reality (as being innately perfect in itself) existing of its own accord is in grave error. The Lankavatara Sutra really fleshes out this whole business as well. There is no being or non-being or any form or formless entity, and certainly no idea of a skandhic “person” that has any innate self-nature; they are all totally devoid of Substance—of the Mind-Stuff that alone constitutes Reality (Dharmadhatu). They are all just phantasmagorical creations of Mind when entrapped in Pluralized-Modes of Perception. The faculty of Perception itself is thus false. There is really nothing to perceive since it’s all created through this Mind-obstruction to begin with. Now, what does all this have to do with Compassion—that highly emphasized notion in Modern-Day Buddhism that holds it up as the highest premium for Bodhisattvahood? What is this Compassion stuff really all about? Well, the Diamond Sutra should lay to rest once and for all the false perception that it’s all about comforting and saving some kind of sentient being-ness. There is no-one to save since there is no-one there to begin with, only highly metastasized misconceptions of “personhood”. You see, this also goes to the very root of the problem of “self” as misconstrued in Material Buddhism. The Buddha never claimed that salvation was needed for this skandhic-person thing (that is falsely conceived to be a self-person); indeed, this is falling into the territory of the no-self, just a coming together of fluids (form, sensation, thought, volition, mortal consciousness). Hence, True Compassion is not about a person-thing, rather it is about a Mind-thing; yes, empowering Mind to awaken from the mad pluralized dream of its own making—to pull back the curtain of Mara’s nightmare and to reveal the Real looking at the real and No-thing else. Just Light from Light; Pure Mind from Pure Mind.

Thus there are no sentient beings to be liberated and even no being-ness who attains Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi: here’s the real clincher. Since, therefore, there are no sentient beings that need to be liberated, then even more so does the Bodhisattva need to let-go of any notion of a separate being-ness who attains Supreme Enlightenment. The Unborn Mind Alone is sufficient. All else is mere chaf blowing in the wind. The Unborn Mind is totally devoid of all nominal, as well as any anthropocentric characteristics. It is Pure & Perfect Imageless Actuosity. There is no-thing attained since the Absolute Mind Substance is already complete in Itself. Huang-Po really summed it all up quite nicely:

“Even if you go through all the stages of a bodhisattva’s progress towards buddhahood, one by one; when at last , in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will be realizing the buddhanature which has been with you all the time, and by all the foregoing stages you have added to it nothing at all. You will see that all those aeons of work and achievement are no better than unreal actions performed in a dream. That is why the tathagata said, “I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled enlightenment.”

Tags: Bodhisattva's Vow, Compassion, Diamond Sutra, nirvana

Am sitting here awaiting the impending arrival of the mother-of-all storms, being recently christened as the Frankenstorm. Like last year’s nasty punch from Irene, this soon to be “hybrid” (merging with another gigantic weather system approaching from the west) freak of nature promises to bear down on my neck of the woods again—inducing:

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This all just leaves me to ponder once again the fragile reality of the saha-kingdom and the inevitable futility that its inhabitants face when confronted with such an occurrence; even “the cruelest savage exhibition of nature at her worst without” (classic line from The Bride of Frankenstein) exhibits karmic traits (configuration of variable elemental and atmospheric ACTIONS) that wreck ruin and havoc on the hapless lot of humanity. Not so the nirvanic-kingdom of the Dharmakaya; “doing the best we can” in samsara is not the same as devoting one’s energies (like developing that Deep Samadhis) in pursuit of the Absolute Certainty that in the Unborn Mind alone resides the final answer to all our queries, fears and tribulations. Life-Death-and Re-birth will forever assure the weary spirit an endless spin on the volatile hurricane-like vortex of samsara. If one enjoys the “thrill” of the ride—who can’t wait enough to get that next karmic-go-round, well, so be it. You see, when it comes to the Nature of Pure Mind, there are two choices: either make the effort to fully attune to IT—thus making FULL-STOP to the mad journey through endless kalpas on the other shore of Deathless Suchness—Tathata—or one continues the uncertain journey through those endless bhumis of suffering and all the outrageous fortunes of Re-becoming. The Lankavatarian Book of the Dead has posited a direction in light of the Buddhadharma that supersedes being incessantly chained to the Alaya-receptacle (forever ejaculating those karmic seeds of endless repetition and re-birth) thus favoring the Final Re-union with Bhutatathata (Absolute Suchness).

The general outline of the Lankavatarian Book of the Dead took root this past summer and has since evolved as such, enhanced through the intercession of the Tathatic-Spirit. Nothing has been arbitrarily conveyed here but rather has been revealed through that Self-Same Spirit. The Lankavatarian Path to Nobel Self-realization is not an easy one and is far-removed from any “belief-systems” that depend upon what Dietrich Bonhoeffer once referred to as “cheap-grace”; indeed, anything along the route of Awakening to Salvific-Grace is well earned through the hard ropes of self-discipline—making that RIGHT EFFORT as Buddha Gautama once demonstrated. In this vein, RIGHT RELEASE from all suffering bonds will be assured, provided of course that one makes that diligent and determined effort (through disciplined sutra-reading and dhyana techniques) in the right direction towards enlightenment on the illuminative shore of the Dharmakaya. The opposite and lazy path of cheap-grace at the end of the samsaric rainbow could very well result in one’s mind creating an apocryphal heaven of its own design; yet, in the end it’s just another fata morgana—fool’s gold in the rabid eye of the beholder since it will not last but will inevitably result in a future re-birth at some junction. The Noble Path of Self-realization is unquestionably an invariable one. There aren’t anymore Re-births of any kind. It is Total and Unequivocal awakening through the Pure and un-birth canal into the Clear Light and Mind of the Dharmakaya—the nirvanic kingdom of Self. End of Story.

The title affixed to this blog-post, Nunc dimittis, is in reference to Simeon’s proclamation in the temple and it means “now dismiss.” In like fashion, the following is a paraphrase of the Canticle of Simeon—an apt benediction for the closure of this series:

Blessed One, now you let your servant go in peace…
Your Word has been fulfilled…
The Imageless Tathatic Eye has revealed the Salvific Light…
Prepared for the benefit of all sentient beings…
A Pure Mind Revelation that dispels all ignorance and ignites the Eternal Flame of your Unborn Glory.

The following video from the Dragon Mind of Zen series is an excellent snapshot that effectively sums-up what this Bardo process was all about…

Tags: dharmakaya, Lanka Book of the Dead, nirvana, nirvanic kingdom of self, Nunc dimittis

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

The Lanka once again makes reference to not equating words with meaning:

“Mahamati, if one person points to something with their finger, and a foolish person looks at their finger, they won’t know what they really mean. In the same manner, foolish people become attached to the finger of words. And because they never look away from it, they are never able to discover the true meaning beyond the finger of words.” (Red Pine, pg. 220)

Love the allusion, “finger of words”, reminiscent of the classic Ch’an/Zen metaphor of the “Finger pointing to the Moon.” Indeed, one must not mistake the finger for the Source ITself. Any “truth” that is dependent on “letters”(words) is mere “prattling” since “truth is beyond letters”. An adept, therefore, is not to become attached even to the words of the Buddhist canonical texts—for if one day those texts were to totally disappear where would the truth be then? That’s why the Blessed One states, “For this reason, Mahamati, it is declared in the canonical text by myself and other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that not a letter is uttered or answered by the Tathagatas”. One can see from this how the foundation of Bodhidharmas’ mission of Mind-only was formulated. Indeed, it represents the inner-essence of the Lanka’s essential teaching: That one comes to the Truth not through words but through the self-experiential awakening of self-realization—thus, Noble Wisdom.

The Lanka hones-in on the exact nature of the struggle, that “every mind-world arises from Avidya (ignorance), desire, karma, and projection.” Critical of what neither arises nor ceases, the Blessed One assures Mahamati that his teaching “does not fall prey to such categories of existence or nonexistence. Mahamati, mine transcends the categories of existence and nonexistence. It is not subject to arising or ceasing. Neither does it exist, nor does it not exist. (Red Pine, pg.222) It’s all about these mind-projections—a conjures trick, all illusory; all
phenomenal reality can be likened to a Disney-like creation, where the imaginative fancy rules the day and perpetually sends one down the rabbit hole with Alice. To rely upon these thought-forms is to assure oneself an endless ride on the diurnal wheel of rebirth, samsara, and the accompanying pain of dependent origination that accompanies it. Whereas, once instilled with Noble Wisdom, one is assured of nirvana itself:

“What neither arises nor ceases is what I call nirvana. Mahamati, nirvana is to see the meaning of what is truly so and to get free from the net of thoughts of previous projections. To attain the personal realization of the noble knowledge of a tathagata, this is what I call nirvana.” (Red Pine,pg. 223)

Hence the very cycle of causation is broken, since all causality is in reality a hallucinatory episode within the clouded mind. This is known as concatenation—essentially meaning the “linking together” of all discriminatory reality—meaning in this context that all phenomenal reality is linked together through the chains of dependent origination.

Being entrapped in “the net of thoughts of previous projections” can be likened to karma. Karma is always dependently originated; there is no escape from instant-karma for the sensory-bewitched mind that is incessantly ensnared in that linkage to all previous projections. The way to break-free from karma is brought to light in the final section (LXXIX) of Chapter Three, i.e., to cease discriminating, as best relayed through Suzuki’s translation:

“[When] one ceases to cherish the discrimination of existence and non-existence which rises out of one’s own mind; one sees that things, either of this world or of a higher world, or of the highest, are not to be described as permanent or impermanent, because one does not understand the truth that there is nothing in the world but what is seen of the Mind itself.”

Tags: Dependent Origination, Karma, Lankavatara Sutra, nirvana, Red Pine

Materialism is the great bane of all Lankavatarists. The Lanka pulls no punches in relaying the dangers of materialism:

“Materialists employ all manner of expressions, arguments, metaphors, and embellishments to attract and deceive foolish people. They do not accept the personal understanding of what is real, nor are they aware that their projection of what exists is a delusion. Falling prey to dualities, they confuse simpleminded people and also harm themselves and cannot escape their continuation in other forms of existence. Unable to understand what are nothing but perceptions of their own mind, they do not get free of their attachments to projections of external existence. Thus, those who engage in materialist eloquence do not escape deception and confusion or the sorrows and afflictions of birth, old age, illness, and death.” (Red Pine, pgs. 202-03)

The Lanka warns that one should “keep your distance from materialists because they are able to promote the causes of suffering. Don’t associate with them.” (Red Pine, pg. 203) Mahamati next proceeds to ask the Blessed One the distinction between “embracing desires of the flesh or the Dharma.” (Red Pine, pg. 207) The Buddha responds by stating that all desires of the flesh “refer to clutching or letting go, touching or tasting, attachment to external sensation, addiction to dualistic views, and rebirth once more in a suffering body along with the anxiety, grief and affliction of birth, old age, and death.” (Red Pine, pg. 207) The Dharma refers to “understanding what are nothing but perceptions of one’s own mind, seeing that beings have no self and that dharmas have no self, not giving rise to projections, becoming versed in the higher stages, transcending the mind, the will, and conceptual consciousness, having one’s forehead anointed with wisdom by all the buddhas, embracing and fulfilling the ten inexhaustible vows, and gaining mastery of all teachings…it means not falling prey to any view, any fabrication, any projection, any existence or duality.” (Red Pine, pg. 207) It’s interesting to note that in one of the concluding gathas concerning materialism the Lanka states that “the slightest movement of mind” is an indication of materialism, while being “unmoved” by all these projections one is able to Recollect Mind as Mind, devoid of all these phenomenal outflows. Also, in that concluding gatha (verse) we see the essential nature of the Tathagata (Thus Come, Thus Gone): no longer appearing or disappearing—no longer concerned with what “comes or goes” (Moving principle), thus ceasing (Unmoving Principle) the ebb and flow of all mind projections.

The Lanka next expounds upon the notion of liberation from the world: Nirvana. It makes it clear in unequivocal terms, that nirvanva does not mean the extinction of anything:

“For followers of some paths it is the cessation of the skandhas, the dhatus, and the ayatanas, or the absence of worldly desires, or the impermanence of everything they see, or the non-arising of any and all mental activity, or not thinking about past, future, or present states, or putting an end to all sensation, like the extinguishing of a lamp or a fire or the destruction of a seed, or not giving rise to projections.” (Red Pine, pg. 209) All of these are but notions of the discriminating mind. What it all boils down to, says the Lanka, is that all these false notions suffer from duality. And so, what is Nirvana? “Nirvana means fully understanding that it is nothing but the perceptions of one’s own mind…it is seeing what is real without falling prey to dualistic projections that are pwerceptions of one’s own mind and that are devoid of perceiver or perceived.” (Red Pine, pg. 211) Reinforcing here once again what was written about nirvana in an earlier blog: Nirvana is the Noble self-realization that there is no independent entity that needs salvation from an abstracted and defiled representation that masquerades as apparent existence; in this sense, nirvana is the annihilation of this false no-self representation, thus rendering it extinct. The meaning of nirvana is thus: Annihilation of the false, abstracted, no-self and giving full recollection to the undivided awareness power of the unborn mind.

Tags: Lankavatara Sutra, Material World, Materialism, nirvana, Red Pine

Rabbit horns and Gandharvic Castles in the air; the mind, will and consciousness; the five dharmas and modes of reality; long and short, is and isn’t, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob, ect—all are nothing more than a magician’s conjuring trick, designed to keep the great Ferris Wheel of Samsara turning round and round. Red Pine states, “Just as a magician fabricates forms that people imagine as being what they are not, thus does our repository consciousness produce our world of objects as well as our sensory bodies, both of which we imagine to be real, out of the seeds of habit-energy from past discriminations that we once more imagine as being what they are not.” Interesting take on how the defiled seeds of the alaya vijnana, if stirred into motion, create our apparent reality as such–thus initiating that magical mystery tour. One continuous action that dependently originates from all the accumulated habit-energy since time immemorial; as the Lanka itself expounds, “it is based on a dependent reality that the myriad projections of an imagined reality arise—the myriad projections of appearances that are the habit-energy of attachment to projections.” How does one stop all the spinning? How does one prevent the Mad-Hatter from sprouting unremitting discriminatory associations and attachments?

Enter the shadow-slayer of all discriminatory outlows: the Dharmata Buddha. “Mahamati, what the dharmata buddha does is establish and create that realm which transcends self-existent appearances of the mind and on which the personal realization of Buddha knowledge depends.” The Dharmata Buddha “does not teach, does not speak” (Red Pine), yet through detachment, as intuitively taught by this Transcendent Buddha, one enters into the tathagata family. Being free from all formal objective and subjective snares, the Dharmata Buddha initiates the Noble Power of self-realization upon those who are ready to awaken from the mad dream of samsara and who, through faith and reason in the Unborn Spirit, know that there is nothing apart from the Unborn Mind Itself.

The Lanka here also embellishes upon the notion of Nirvana. “Shravakas {those associated with Hinayana Buddhism} who are afraid of the suffering that comes from their projection of samsara seek nirvana unaware that the difference between samsara and nirvana, as well as their projection of everything else, does not exist. They conceive of nirvana as the cessation of all future sensory realms, not the transformation of repository consciousness through the personal realization of buddha knowledge.” A Lankavatarian discerns that nirvana is the Noble self-realization that there is no independent entity that needs salvation from an abstracted and defiled representation that masquerades as apparent existence; nirvana is annihilation of this false no-self representation, thus rendering it extinct. The meaning of nirvana is thus: Annihilation of the false, abstracted, no-self and giving full recollection to the undivided awareness power of the unborn mind.

Tags: Lankavatara Sutra, Magical Mystery Tour, nirvana, Red Pine, Unborn Mind