Sat, 09 May 2009
According to the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, today is the full moon day. And the full moon day of May is celebrated in many countries as the day the Buddha attained enlightenment. Enlightenment is a vague term that means many things to different people. If you ask any Tibetan lama if they are enlightened, the answer will always be, "No, I am just an ordinary person." Some schools of Zen, notably the Sanbo Kyodan, make a great fuss over kensho experiences and talk them up. This is their way of getting their students to practice harder. If enlightenment has any definite meaning in the Tibetan tradition, it corresponds to the path of seeing, the transition between an ordinary person and a noble one (arya). Khenchen explained this transition in terms of the four patiences, but despite listening closely, I did not understand him at all. Neither do I understand the discussion in the Abhidharmakosha. The only thing I took away from Khenchen's talk was that they are called patiences because the experience of emptiness is a little frightening and one requires patience to bear it. The path of seeing is a very high level of attainment and very few people attain it in this degenerate age. Sometimes it's confused with the first glimpse of selflessness, which is really only the beginning of the path. Typically students of meditation confuse experiences with enlightenment. The difference is simple. Experiences are the result of causes and will cease when the causes cease. Typically someone has some powerful experience and then mulls over it. This is actually an obstacle on the path. Enlightenment, whether it's the first glimpse of the truth or the complete experience, is recognizing what has always been there. One test is that if it makes you feel proud, it's probably just an experience, but if it makes you feel foolish (for not recognizing it before), it may be realization.
