Everyone, I see a lot of what I call cross-talking on the Forum. By that I mean people are talking about the same things but using different terms, or using the same term to mean different things. Most recently that has been apparent in some disjointed discussions involving such terms as 'enlightenment', 'Buddha Nature' and 'zen'. I certainly don't think I can entirely stop this from happening because that is the nature of our language, but I do think it would be helpful if at least I gave all of you my working definitions of some of these terms. What you see below is a work-in-progress of a lexicon I'm preparing for my website so I reserve the right to make changes to these in the future, although I wouldn't publish them here if I didn't think they were pretty close to what I want. And especially because this is a work-in-progress I welcome any and all criticisms, suggestions and comments. ************************************Enlightenment The term `enlightenment' is used to describe a state in which a human has integrated and balanced his Human Nature and Buddha Nature.
Buddha Nature Buddha Nature is a quality of all sentient beings. It is pure, unadulterated, holistic awareness of sensual experience. Human Nature Human Nature includes all things that are unique to human beings. These are mainly intellectual activities but also includes emotions. Examples are a dualistic perspective (the most pernicious of which is an illusion of a separate, unique self), perception, judgment, logic and reason. These qualities are mainly associated with humans but seem to also be present to some degree in some other sentient beings. Zen Zen is a human practice that assists in balancing the interplay between Human Nature and Buddha Nature. It does so by employing a variety of teaching techniques that are used to temporarily halt intellectual processes (Human Nature) which can obscure Buddha Nature. After an initial awareness of Buddha Nature zen practice consists of re-integrating Human Nature and balancing it with Buddha Nature. ************************************ ...Bill!
