The Light ... is not more in Buddhas and not less in ordinary beings.

[Guest guest]

shriadishakti , jagbir singh

<adishakti_org> wrote:

>

> A few months ago i asked my ten-year-old daughter Lalita what that

> immensely brilliant Light above the Adi Shakti in her Sahasrara

> is. She replied " God! "

>

> i remained silent for a long time to absorb the immensity of that

> single word answer.

>

>

 

" Shakyamuni Buddha said, 'This light of lights is not blue, yellow,

red, white, or black. It is not matter, not mind. It is not

existent, nor nonexistent. It is not a phenomenon resulting from

causes. It is the source of all Buddhas, the basis of practicing the

Way of enlightening beings, fundamental for all Buddhists.' . . Why

do students today not keep this in mind or believe in it resolutely?

Because they do not believe in it resolutely, they become lowly

ignorant fools, not escaping vicious circles . . . Those who

erroneously cling to the ego do not believe in the light, so they

are herein arbitrarily making themselves bob and sink in birth and

death....

 

Dwelling in the great treasury of light all day and all night, you

turn yourself into a lowly hireling, roaming in misery, a longtime

pauper. This is your own conceit of inferiority, having forgotten

the call of your noble origins. How sad it is to take up a nightsoil

bucket and become a cesspool cleaner, thinking of the body of pure

light as a defiled body full of misery. This is the saddest of the

saddest, which nothing can surpass....

 

Nowadays, those who shave their heads and wear black as latter-day

followers of Buddha spend the days and pass the months illumined by

the light of Dipankara, 'The Lamp,' but they do not wonder what

Dipankara Buddha, The Lamp Illuminate, really is. Therefore they are

not real students; they just make use of the appearance of

renunciation in order to grab donations. In reality, they are

actually vagrants and roustabouts.

 

If you deny this, let me ask you, what are the marks and refinements

of the Lamp Buddha? You cannot say anything, yet you cannot say

nothing; speak quickly, speak quickly!

 

How sad that you only learn of the Lamp Buddha as an illuminate of

the past and do not know that the Lamp Buddha shines throughout all

the time. How then could you believe that it is teaching and

attaining nirvana in your nostrils, in your eyes?

 

Now there is a group of the lowest type of hearer, who repeatedly

weary of life and death and hurriedly seek nirvana, arousing their

determination on the basis of the idea of something really existing

and something being attained. Adding religious greed on top of

selfish conceit, their seeking mind never rests until they die.

Teachers without perception praise them as good people of faith, so

they take pride in egotistical clinging and possessiveness as

diligent spiritual practice, eventually turning into ghouls....

 

This spiritual light is unbroken from the infinite past through the

infinite future, this is called perpetual energy. Utterly free of

senses and objects, the essence manifests, real and eternal, this is

called permanent stability of radiance. Trusting in this spiritual

light, abiding peacefully, imperturbable, is called the supreme

concentration of simply sitting....

 

If you cannot investigate truth through your own eyes, even if you

shave your head and dress in black, you are pitiful living beings.

Even if you can interpret a thousand scriptures and ten thousand

treatises, you are " counting the treasures of another house, " you

are " seafarers who know there's something valuable but do not know

the price. "

 

Tell me, right now as you defecate and urine, dress and eat,

ultimately whose experience is it? And what, moreover of the colors

of the waters, the scenery of the mountains, the coming and going of

heat and cold, the spring flowers, the autumn moon, thousand of

changes, myriad transformations — what brings all this about?

Truly this is a " countenance most wondrous, light illuminating the

ten directions. " It is " samsara and nirvana are like last night's

dream. " It is " being is nonbeing, nonbeing is being. " If not thus,

even if you speak of " always being there on Spiritual Mountain, " it

is a false teaching, it is specious discourse, even if you hear

of " eternally silent light that neither comes into being nor passes

away, " I would only say it is only talk, with no meaning....

 

However, as I see students today, being grounded on ignorance, they

spend their lives polishing day and night, expecting to eventually

see through to the light in this way. Then again, some try to see

this radiant pure light by practicing meditation to get rid of

random thoughts flying around, repeatedly trying to beat out the

flaming fires, hoping to see the eternally silent light thereby. If

you think the total nourishing of thought to be right, then are

wood, stones, and clods of earth right? All of you are the lowest

kind of hearer, who drowns while trying to avoid being burned. How

foolish! Clinging to the sitting of two vehicles and the

inclinations of ordinary people, you want to realize supreme

universal enlightenment; there is nothing more stupid and perverse.

 

For this reason it is said, " Those on the two vehicles may be

diligent but lack the spirit of enlightenment; outsiders may be

intellectually brilliant, but they lack wisdom. Ignorant and stupid,

petty and fearful, they think there's something real in the empty

fist. " ...

 

Some of them may wrongly give definitive approval to a temporary

surge of energy, or it may happen that through a temporary

inspiration they sit for a long time without lying down, so that the

mind and consciousness are thoroughly fatigued, everything becomes

the same to them, activity and function stop for a while, and

thoughts quiet down; then they misunderstand this state, which

resembles the solitary radiance of ethereal spirituality,

misconstruing it to be the state where inside and outside become

one, the original ground of the fundamental state of essential self.

 

Taking this interpretation to Zen teachers who have no true

perception, they present the view. Since the teachers have no eyes

to perceive people, therefore they go along with the words of those

who come to them, giving them worthless approval, so that the call

themselves graduate Zen monks. Countless followers of the Way with

shallow consciousness and little learning fall into this poison.

Truly, even as we say it is the age of dereliction of the teaching,

is it not all pathetic?

 

I humbly say to people who are real seekers, who have the same

aspiration, do not cling to one device or one state, do not rely on

intellectual understanding or brilliance, do not carry around what

you learn by sitting....

 

This is the light in which the ordinary and the sage, the deluded

and the enlightened, are one suchness. Even in the midst of

activity, it is not hindered by activity. The forest and the

flowers, the grasses and the leaves, people and animals, great and

small, long and short, square and round, all appear at once, without

depending on the discrimination of your thoughts and attention..

This is manifest proof that the light is not obstructed by activity.

It is empty luminosity spontaneously shining without exerting mental

energy.

 

This light has never had any place of abode. Even when buddhas

appear in the world, it does not appear in the world. Even though

they enter nirvana, it does not enter nirvana. When you are born,

the light is not born. When you die, the light is not extinguished.

It is not more in Buddhas and not less in ordinary beings. It is not

lost in confusion, not awakened by enlightenment. It has no

location, no appearance, no name. It is the totality of everything.

It cannot be grasped, cannot be rejected, cannot be attained. While

unattainable, it is in effect throughout the entire being. From the

highest heaven above to the lowest hell below, it is thus completely

clear, a wondrously inconceivable spiritual light.

 

If you believe and accept this mystic message, you do not need to

ask anyone else whether it is true or false; it will be like meeting

your father in the middle of town. Do not petition other teachers

for a seal of approval, and do not be eager to be given a prediction

and realize fruition....

 

This essay should not be shown to anyone but people who are in the

school and have entered the room. My only concern is that there

should be no false and biased views, whether in one's own practice

or in teaching others. "

 

Zen Master Ejo, Absorption in the Treasury of Light

(Thomas Cleary, Minding Mind, p.65-82.)