Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Wild Fox Zen

Home
Buddhist
Verifying the True Dharma Eye (and Falling Down)

Verifying the True Dharma Eye (and Falling Down)

Last updated on: August 27, 2010 at 6:28 pm by Dosho Port

Verifying the True Dharma Eye (and Falling Down) 2010-08-27T18:28:00-06:00 Dosho Port

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thanks to Al’s suggestion in the comments to my last post, I listened to my old friend, Jisho Warner, speak about enlightenment on my drive to work this morning.

Jisho makes a number of important points in a subtle and clearly-thought-through manner. She is a master of the fine distinction. Click here for her talk.

Jisho says that the notion of enlightenment that is popular in classical Zen literature – one great experience that forever transforms everything – is naive and simplistic.

I agree. I’ve only met one person who claimed to have such a once-and-for-all enlightenment and I only partly believed him.

One of her main points is about the notion of “having” the true dharma eye, which she uses as a synonym for “enlightened.” The true dharma eye is not some thing that some one can have, says Jisho.

I agree, of course, although “The World-Honored One Twirls a Flower” koan, does have the Buddha saying, “I have the treasury of the true dharma eye … and I now entrust it to Mahakaysapa.”

Nevertheless, truth and delusion are intimates, constantly hopping along. A moment of enlightened action and one is a sage. A moment of stupid action and one is stupid. The 6th Ancestor said something like that.

In a very personal way, this issue came up again this summer on one of the Zen teacher listserves when one teacher whose teacher has had a long string of sexual relationships with women students said that his teacher (wow, that’s confusing!) had the true dharma eye, despite his behavior.

One might wonder if a person of great practice is subject to the law of karma.

Oh, my goodness, yes. No one is apart as this situation attests.

Yet some of us yearn for full and complete release and freedom from (or within) this swirling world for the benefit of all the many beings. And some of us – perhaps all of us in our more jaded moments – are interested only in steadily walking along – at most.

After all, if enlightenment isn’t going to magically solve all of our problems and finally clear our complexion too and if we’re still going to be karmically responsible for our actions, then, you might ask, what is it good for anyway and why bother?

Well, for starters, verifying the dharma and unfolding enlightenment in daily life is one way to live a vital and meaningful life, freeing everyone together while slobbering along through what Mumon calls “a thousand mistakes, ten thousand mistakes.”

One or two more points on this for now.

Perhaps because of my cross training (koan and shikantaza) I think I see a couple things here that some of my friends who’ve trained only in one or the other field don’t.

First, the term that’s used in koan Zen for breakthrough, “kensho” (literally, seeing nature), has a very specific referent. However, those with shikantaza training tend to use the term to nebulously refer to a large variety of dharma experiences of all types – spiritual excrescence, samadhi, and insight.

And indeed, there are a great many experiences that a diligent practitioner might have that seem to be breakthroughs. For example, we might see warm and fuzzy lights rolling through the zendo. This isn’t a kensho but an excrescence.

We might breakthrough into a deep, wide and stable heart that fills the universe. This isn’t kensho but probably a state of calm abiding.

We might have dharma insights about impermanence and nonself and compassion. These also are probably not kensho (or not necessarily) but might still be important and verify an aspect of dharma truth. Bits and pieces of the true dharma eye.

This seems to be one of the sources of miscommunication amongst us – we’re not really talking about the same thingee.

“Kensho” in koan Zen is quite precisely operationalized as having seen Mu and then passed through the checking questions and a bunch more koans. I won’t say what it is, of course, because it’s really important to see it for yourself (and not because I want to jerk you around as a Soto priest recently said about koan teachers).

Of all the realizations that one might have, for over a thousand years in some lineages, this one has been held up as the barrier of the Ancestral teachers. And indeed, it is powerful and important. This one among the many insights is regarded as a pivotal realization because this one among the many is a fulcrum in the sense that it “…supplies capability for action” (one of the dictionary definitions).

The realization of Mu is embedded in shikantaza Zen as well as koan Zen, of course, hidden in the wide open.

Seeing Mu and then according the circumstances is what the early steps in the koan process are all about. Following Mu, there is a constant call for the application of the realization in much the same way that carefully attending to the details of the forms of practice in shikantaza Zen call for the actual practice of enlightenment.

In koan Zen, one call to practice enlightenment comes through verbal prompts in the privacy of the dokusan room.

In shikantaza Zen, one call to practice enlightenment comes through the directions of how to sit, walk, stand and lie down. In many cases, it is just such an action that demonstrates the koan.

And that leaves me wondering, for instance, what is the koan for which the most fitting response is to gassho precisely when entering the zendo?

I’ll leave that aside for now.

The other point that’s on my mind is that sincere shikantaza practitioners may have already seen Mu … without knowing it.

Very pure, I suppose, but also kind of a waste because the experience isn’t culled out for ongoing practice verification.

My advice is that if you want to accord with kensho and practice it (not just dump it into the dust bin of nice memories), work with a teacher qualified in such things.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 25, 2010

Brief and Rude Reflection on Enlightenment and Hemorroids

Next Post

August 31, 2010 The Soto Zen Priest Process

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 December 2016 October 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who is traditionally believed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Solomon Ezra Isaiah David