eileenm@sco.COM (Eileen Maceri) (06/15/91)
Re. the discussion on sitting practice or zazen, it is surely credible that the Ch'an masters performed meditation in a seated position. My only question would be, did they attribute their Enlightenment to having assumed that particular posture? Or was their Enlightenment transcendent of their bodies and minds? It's always best to go to the source for an answer, if possible. Fortunately, we do have some of the writings of Enlightened masters, such as Huang-Po of China and Bankei of Japan. I love Bankei's description of his practice (in Peter Haskel's "Bankei Zen"). He was very graphic in describing his bleeding buttocks from having sat for years on sharp mountain stones, and many other practices which he defined as "wasted." He says: "When I first began to search for Enlightenment, I wasn't able to find a good teacher and, as a result, did all sorts of painful practices, pouring out my heart's blood. Once I'd hit on Enlightenment, I realized for the first time that I'd been struggling uselessly all those years, and was able to achieve tranquility. I tell you all that without any struggle, you can attain complete Realization right now where you are!" (page 112) >From the same book, on page 9, Bankei speaks about the good fortune of his students to have an Enlightened master who can help them avoid the pitfalls of his own practice: "All of you right now are extremely fortunate. When I was young, either there were no enlightened teachers about, or else, if there were, I just wasn't lucky enough to meet them, and being from youth exceedingly thickheaded, I suffered unimaginable hardships. How uselessly I struggled! I can't forget those wasted efforts which have left a deep impression on me. I had to learn the hard way from experience. That's why, in my desire to have all of you attain complete realization of the Dharma in perfect comfort at your ease and without any useless struggle, I do my best to come out like this every day and urge you on. All of you should consider yourselves fortunate. Where could you ever find this opportunity?" Through my own personal struggle (although nothing as difficult as what Bankei went through!), I came to see how useless were some of the practices that were given to me by various teachers. An unenlightened teacher is unable to bring one directly to the Truth, and I sure did learn that! If someone is stuck in the mud, he cannot pull another one from the same mudpit. But if he is standing on solid ground, it is no difficulty to reach out a helping hand, and lift the "stuck" person to high ground. This is why, in my estimation, a realized teacher is invaluable, and one is very fortunate (as Bankei says) to obtain such a teacher. >From a different tradition (but same old Wisdom :>, Sankara, a Vedantic teacher in India, said: "There are three things which are rare indeed and are attained by the Grace of God; namely, a human birth, desire for liberation, and the protecting care of a perfected Sage." And Kabir, the enlightened poet claimed by both the Indians and Muslims (I believe his father was Muslim and his mother Indian), said: "In Satsang with the Sages ariseth the faith in man that God's Light is ever within and without him." Throughout the ages, in the writings of many revered Sages, whom many consider to be Enlightened, the value of a master is extolled and encouraged. In the presence of a Sage, not only are words imparted, but the EXPERIENCE is also given. Never does a Sage assume that the disciple is imperfect and has to attain something through a long, hard uphill struggle and many years of practice. As Atmananda of Trivandrum says: "The Guru shows the disciple that he too is perfect and there the teaching ends." Huang-po, the revered Chinese Ch'an Master, cautioned: "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 only be realizing the Buddha Nature which has been with you all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothing at all. You will come to look upon those aeons of work and achievement as no better than actions performed in a dream." If someone claims that through long, arduous practices or disciplines involving the body and mind a person is somehow "purified" and brought closer to Enlightenment, I would ask them to consider the words of Hui Neng, another Enlightened Ch'an Master: "Purity has neither shape nor form; but some people go so far as to invent the "Form of Purity" and treat it as a problem for solution. Holding such an opinion, these people are purity-ridden, and their Essence of Mind is thereby obscured." Dattatreya speaks to yogic practices as a means to purify oneself and thereby attain Realization: "The Self certainly does not become pure through the practice of six-limbed yoga. It certainly is not purified by the destruction of the mind. It certainly is not made pure by the instructions of a teacher. It is in Itself the Truth. It is Itself the illumined One." And, when someone questioned him about disciplines of body and mind in spiritual practice, Ramana Maharshi replied: "If association with sages is obtained, of what purpose are the various methods of self-discipline? Of what use is a fan when the cool, gentle south wind is blowing?" ***************** I have always valued open dialogue with teachers. Atmananda, Maharshi and Maharaj all allowed questions. They said that one could get Enlightened in such dialogues with sages, and I myself have had two friends who actually became Enlightened in just this way. (Yes, Enlightenment is for people just like us to actually *realize*! Not just to endlessly read about and discuss. My own Master never tires of telling those who come to him, "Your destiny is Enlightenment." He speaks of our spiritual journey as a "great adventure" and we are all very enthusiastic and certain of the outcome! It is very exciting!) When I first began to visit spiritual teachers, I admired the people who would ask questions and decided to do the same thing myself. Whenever I would come across teachers who said this practice or that practice is necessary, I would ask "why"? and, "to what purpose?" These are reasonable and practical questions, and, as I learned through Sri Atmananda's eminently logical teaching, logic and reason are not suddenly suspended when one embarks on a spiritual path -- rather, here is place to use them most wisely. Questions are always *encouraged* by a True master, who wants the student to see everything from the same Clear View as the master. He will also urge the student to verify his teaching inwardly, rather than blindly accepting it on his authority. (This proved to be a sure way to discriminate if the teachers I met were truly Enlightened.) Some of the teachers reminded me VERY much of the church of my childhood, where the standard answer was "BECAUSE we *SAID* so!" If I could see no connection between the proposed practice and the goal of a state transcendent of mind and body, as described by the Enlightened Masters through the ages, then I would drop that teaching. It seemed to me that many of the teachers I encountered had not questioned why they were doing a certain practice, such as breath-watching or thought-witnessing. They had accepted it without question, and really had no illuminating answer when queried about it. Then they would tend to call the questioner "a novice" or "unfit" or "unready" for their teaching. (I walked out of many doors with that judgement stamped on me. :>) It seemed to me that these teachers were very guarded and protective of themselves, and I believe they felt threatened by questioning of their practice or teaching. If they themselves had been performing a certain practice for years and years, they were quite defensive of it. It really takes humility and an open mind to realize when one has been proceeding in a fruitless direction and to admit a need to re-evaluate. Students are more likely to do this than teachers, because teachers have a lot invested, both in time and in their exalted position. I think it is very helpful (at least it has been for me) to question yourself, "Am I going in the right direction? Is this practice or teaching taking me to my goal?" We do this in relative matters all through life, often changing course many times, and thereby reach our goals in the most direct manner. Shouldn't this also be applied to spiritual goals? When I first began my serious spiritual search (prior to that, I had been interested in psychics like Edgar Cayce, and things like ouija boards), I did many pranayama and yogic exercises to train my body and to raise my "kundalini" -- which I thought would bring me to a higher state of consciousness. While I did experience some altered and peaceful states at times during these practices, like everything else in the world, they came and went, leaving me in much the same state as before. Drawing the subtle energy up and down my spine did not really make any permanent changes in my life. During this time, I made visits to various ashrams and there I saw instances of this energy "gone wild" in various aspirants. It really gave me pause to consider whether or not these practices were even safe, let alone whether they would take me to Liberation. I believe that many of these unfortunate people who could barely talk, or exhibited very strange behavior, might also have experimented with drugs. But the message to me was to search for a teacher who was clear on all these things. It was apparent that many teachers (at least on the east coast where I was at the time) encouraged the manipulation of physical and subtle energies -- but the question again arose -- "To what purpose?" followed by "How will these practices involving the body, the mind, senses and energy currents take me to a state of perfect Peace which all the sages and scriptures say is BEYOND the body, senses, prana, and mind?" The answer was so simple! There was not *any* clear, direct alignment between the practice and my goal! It was not reasonable or logical to expect that such a practice would take me to the transcendent state I longed for! Energy is such a fluctuating experience. Our energies (like our minds) can be "up" or "down"; they are always moving and changing. How can this changing phenomena lead one to the Absolute, which is changeless? A Realized Sage points out to his students that energy states occur only in the waking and dream states, but Consciousness, our existence, is continuous in all states. He directs his disciples to find out the nature of their own existence -- the source of their being -- from which all states arise. When I heard the guidance of these sages, it made so much sense to me to go directly to the source, rather than manipulating energies (some of which were unpleasant, as well as pleasant) in my body. One other thing I would like to address before signing off, and that is Avatars. The problem I had with Avatars is that they are considered to be divinely appointed and specially incarnated, so you cannot hope to become like them (unless you have also had a special divine birth. I did not fit in this category.). Sages tell their followers that anyone who truly desires Enlightenment can indeed realize this, just as the master has. The Maharshi told those who came to him, "I am not special. What I have done, you can do also." I am sorry for being so long-winded here, but these are matters that are VERY important to me. I struggled so long and hard myself, and followed ways that were not direct. Now that I have found the direct path, I would truly like to share my own experiences and perhaps spare someone else some of the mistakes I made. I wish everyone on this wonderful net group the realization of their heart's desire!