FWIW...
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Nonduality Salon] attainment being unrelated to practice, why
practice? Q and A
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:39:51 -0000
From: terencepmurphy <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
from masao abe's 'zen and western thought' - this passage reminds me of
bruce's remark regarding the utility of practice for the realization of
what is already our essential nature:
quote
Sr. Parachini - You keep saying that Buddhism emphasizes that you are
*already* inseparable from Self-Awakening, which in my understanding is
the experience of Nothingness. If that is true, and if I understand
correctly, I do not understand why people are practicing *zazen*. If we
are already experiencing this as part of our original being, what is the
purpose of *zazen*?
Prof. abe - I had another question in the coffee break which is related
to your question: 'The Buddha attained enlightenment at a certain point
in his life, so before that was he not unenlightened?' *Zazen* is often
thought of in this way, as a process leading towards enlightenment.
Through practice we approach the goal of enlightenment. This
understanding is quite natural, but thinking along these lines, will we
ever be able to reach enlightenment? We may come closer and closer to
the end but will never reach it. For the goal is a projection from the
side of ourselves as being on the way. We are in the unenlightened state
and enlightenment becomes a projection from this state of
unenlightenment. Thus, there will be an essential gap between the
so-called delusion and the so-called enlightenment, between practice and
attainment, a gap which can never be bridged.
The more we try to reach out towards enlightenment as a projection, the
clearer we see that there is a gap. And finally we come to realize the
delusory nature of this approach as such. Not only our present state of
unenlightenment, but also the 'enlightenment' which is projected by us
as a distant goal are delusions. With the realization of these
delusions, the whole approach must collapse, and then you may realize
that enlightenment is not over there. It is present *right here under
your feet* and can be realized at any point of the process.
In a sense we must say that we are in the process of practice, without
which enlightenment is impossible, but this does not mean that we are
simply on the way towards enlightenment; if this were the case, then we
would always be on the way without attaining enlightenment. When we
realize the limitations of this very approach, we realize that we are
not simply on the way towards enlightenment, but have *originally* been
*in* enlightenment. There is a dynamic unity of being on the way and
having reached the goal. *Zazen* has no purpose. True *zazen* in itself
is true enlightenment.
end quote
aloha, terry
