Enlightenment
I’m not sure where the idea in Zen comes from that enlightenment is so rare and special that few can hope to experience it. The source may be D.T. Suzuki or Alan Watts or both. Happily there are counter indications in Zen that enlightenment is not either special or remote.
I remember a long time ago seeing a cartoon in some Buddhist journal that showed two monks sitting side by side, who had become enlightened. The one monk said to the other, “Is this all there is?” Refreshingly, that takes some of the specialness out of enlightenment. Similarly, in Uchiyama’s book, Opening the Hand of Thought, a certain Sawaki Roshi is quoted as saying, “I’ve had several big satoris and numerous small ones, and I can tell you that it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.”[1]
As for the remoteness of enlightenment, the contemporary Zen teacher, Adyashanti, has published a book of his talks entitled The End of Your World. It is directed to those of his students who have had an enlightenment experience as well as to zazen practitioners in general. In the introduction to Adyashanti’s book, the editor says that the subject of the book is “the misconceptions, pitfalls, and delusions that can occur after an initial experience of spiritual awakening."[2] This is an interesting book, but what I mainly want to remark about it is that its intended readership must be considerable. Awakening experiences are no doubt more common than might be supposed.
Enlightenment is the prerogative of everyone. Thich Nhat Hanh says in Understanding Our Mind, “The seed of enlightenment is already within our consciousness. This is our Buddha nature – the inherent quality of enlightened mind that we all possess, and which needs only to be nurtured.”[3]
The best nutriment is a practice such as zazen. Since the advice of Zen teachers is not to have any “gaining idea” in zazen practice, enlightenment should not be deliberately sought during zazen or in any other way. Chances are that enlightenment is going to come in a kind of stealthy way as one continues to practice, just as one gets gradually wet in a fog without noticing it. See Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.[4]
Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether a person is enlightened or not. In an enlightened mind, everything is equally affirmative. Again in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Suzuki Roshi says, “In your big mind, everything has the same value. Everything is Buddha himself.”[5] That is the outlook of an enlightened mind.
Footnotes
- Kosho Uchiyama, Opening the Hand of Thought, Boston, 2004, p. 174.
- Adyashanti, The End of Your World, Boulder, 2008, p. xv.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Understanding Our Mind, Berkeley, 2006, p. 26.
- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, New York, 1970, p. 31.
- Ibid., p. 29.