|
"The Light ... is not more in
Buddhas and not less in ordinary beings."
From:
"jagbir singh" <www.adishakti.org@gmail.com>
Date: Sat Jan 8, 2005 7:24 am
Subject: "The Light ... is not more in Buddhas
and not less in ordinary beings."
|
—- In
shriadishakti@yahoogroups.com,
jagbir singh
<adishakti_org@y...> 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, athis 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.) |
"The godly light is exactly the beginning of parousia in
holy souls"
Guru Nanak: "My Light is the name of One and only God"
Mishkat al-anwar: We are two spirits dwelling in one body
"The discoverer of the Atman must also discover this inner
Light"
Light Above Shakti
|