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We truly hold a treasure, not made of gold -> ” but hidden within the fleshy-substance of our mortal carcass. ”
Hmm…That is not what this marvelous sutra says,
That would denote a spatiotemporal limitation of what is – in itself – UNLIMITED.
It is in the nature of “humanity”, those souls attached to this FORM, and the consciousness that arises from it, by means of karma, to use an artificial “limitation” of communication (LIGHT sharing) by means of language there to “describe” the absolute and position-less. – The latter being dormant, at sleep, dreaming countless dreams it experiences and believes to be real because it believes its own self-representation in said dreams to be real.
The Tathagatas knowing that language was the poorest form of communicating this buddhadharma to the dreaming, conceived countless skillful and expedient means as to make the dreamer to awake and realize its true self (Buddha) versus its dreamer (from demon-to-deva).
This process was and is basically Tathagatha —> Noble Wisdom/Bodhicitta/ Pure imageless light of the Tathagta´s Mind —> (shared) to arhats (received and and instantly understood as such), and for the rest of poorer spiritual disposition –> devas, and all souls experiencing themselves as semi-devas, asuras, humanoids, animals, and lower, by means of sound (mantras), symbolism (lotus flower, dharma wheel, vajra staff etc) down to mere language which filters the original Light most as of its original MEANING and TRUTH.
Hence it should be clear to each disciple of the way that one´s true (formless) self, or the spiritual seed of this self, is neither “within”, nor outside, the biological matrix, most souls drag around on a daily basis as a conditioned representation of their self-ignorance.
All Buddhas to all the earliest great Bodhisattvas (Chan Masters) from Bodhidharma up to Hsuan Hua, has professed the importance to realize that what is deluded and blinded by the false light of Mara, as being ONE and ALIKE with the differentiated illusion of samsara (the perverted representation of Dharmakaya caused by the filtering consciousness of the skandhas), is not to be found within the walking corpse we call and recognize by name, form, or position, nor outside it, as its seemingly surrounding reality is in itself an illusion.
The first thing a disciple realizes in entering the fourth dhyana, is that it is not this body, or its senses, nor is it IN this body (Shurangama Sutra) or anywhere in its sense-organs, nor is it OUTSIDE this body and its sense organs.
Remember Lin-chi and the True Man without Rank:
“Followers of the Way, he who at this moment, before my eyes is shining alone and clearly listening to my discourse — this man tarries nowhere; he traverses the ten directions and is freely himself in the three realms… In traveling everywhere through every land, in bringing enlightenment to sentient beings, he is never separate from his present mind. Everywhere is pure, light illumines the ten directions, and the ten thousand dharmas [things] are one as is.” (Discourse XIII)”.
A genuine verification of the fourth dhyana is consequently a complete spatiotemporal disembodiment of the soul (or spirit) from any attached illusion made by the false vibrative light of the Mara consciousness. If this disembodiment hasn’t occurred then this dhyana stage has not taken place and thus the disciple is subject to all kind of dangers formed by erroneous conclusions and wishful thinking.
As a matter of fact what is discovered and verified in the instantaneous sound of two fingers making a snap, or the sudden sound of a “Crows caw”, is the complete reversal, where the TRUE instantly realizes its “bodyless positionlessness” (this first en-LIGHT-event known as KENSHO) is absolute, as compared to its conditional biological and mental avatar, i.e. its samsaric representation, which is continuously re-positioned, depending on internal and external conditions (karma).
A constant re-positioning of spatiotemporal processes, be it biological, or mental, are always painful, heavy and limiting to what in truth already is liberated (Bodhisattva and Buddha-to-be), but fooled by Mara to think, feel and believe the opposite, due to an immense subconscious desire, and attachment to anything representing a body consciousness, transmigrated and being reborn countless times. All this due to its beginningless collection of desires, and the myriad subtle fears of losing hold of them due to uncertainty of what lies beyond their immediate horizon (Dharmakaya).
In Buddhism, walking the path of language is always a most delicate journey for any bodhisattva, offering the originally undifferentiated dharma of the Tathagathas to anyone eager to awake.
This meant anyone down to those most hostile to the very thought of such an auspicious opportunity of their wrecked soul to break the immense illusory chains of their own self-imposed ignorance and fears of facing their true self which always means extinction of the former once the process of awakening has had its full course in anuttara-samyak-sambodhi
Though most read this sanskrit words as “complete and unexcelled enlightenment” it really means “complete oneness with the undifferentiated light of Noble Wisdom” verifying that the self-nature of Tathagatahood is pure Noble Wisdom.
regards,
Tozen
What you say is of course true. The reference was more in the vein of not focusing on stupas made of gold, but the very Buddha-nature being housed within the spirit, which is being housed in the human vehicle. Presently, we are not disemobodied spirits floating about.