Drops of enlightenment

Published on December 19, 2004 By dharmagrl In Philosophy

When I started out on this Dharma (path, way) I was under the impression that, much like Siddartha himself, I would be meditating one day and all of a sudden, with a flash of light and trumpets sounding, enlightenment would come upon me and I would be a Buddha.

The further along this Dharma I get, the more I see that's not the way it happens.

Enlightenment, or wisdom, comes in small doses. Little drops of it fall steadily into your life. (Whether you absorb them and understand them or not is a different matter). Small incidents, little happenings, give all of us the chance to become enlightened. Occasionally we have something big happen, sometimes we have an epiphany in which things suddenly become clear...sometimes we see that what we thought was a tree trunk was actually an elephant's leg....but more often, wisdom happens upon us in very small doses.

I think that seeing this, and understanding that this is the way things are, is in itself a drop of enlightenment.

Now that I see that this is the way things are, I am content. I no longer meditate expecting a bolt of understanding to hit me. Now I meditate just to meditate. There is not ulterior motive, no hidden meaning to my sitting zazen.

I sit, just to sit.

And I hope that I can apply that mindfulness to every aspect of my life.

Comments (Page 2)

Shovelheat

on Dec 20, 2004

it serves no purpose to try to quell the "monkey mind". every act of restriction is another step farther away from inner quiet. instead, why not accept and identify each though, understand from which aspect of samsara the thought stems, and then allow the thought to peacefully depart? my belief is that inner peace develops not from eliminating the process of thinking from the mind, but from allowing each thought to pass across your consciousness without struggle or judgment.

that's what I was tryin' to say...

TaBoo Tenente

on Dec 20, 2004

yes, shovel.

i apologize, by the way. i loved this article, and started writing before i read all the subsequent postings. by the time i read everything, im thinking, "well, that about sums it up for my ideas!"

at least we're on the same page, lol.

TBT

dharmagrl

on Dec 20, 2004

enlightenment cannot be found by seeking or by meditating. seeking must only have the goal of seeking

Exactly. We should do what we are doing, just to do it. Mindfulness.......mindfulness is a wonderful thing.

the buddha is not teaching TRUTH. he teaches a path to overcome samsara, the ocean of sadness, of life; the second thing that means a lot to me is place this story ends. the story does not end with enlightenment. it ends exactly where it begins.

You get it. I like that.

And that's exactly what you do to quell the 'monkey mind'. Acknowledge, accept, and let go. Sometimes ignoring works, and by ignoring I mean thinking to oneself "oh, I'm thinking about balancing the checkbook...ok, well, that's what I'm thinking about" and letting that go....not going any further down the path of that thought by, for example, wondering how much money you have in your account or if you have outstnading bills to pay.

i believe buddhist enlightenment simply means the ability to live in this quiet of in between, and to accept without judgment or attachment the moments of your your life that occupy thoughts

That's very interesting......and I like that.

SSG Geezer

on Dec 20, 2004

An Insightful for TBT.
Yes not teaching "truth " but perhaps that there are many ways to one's own truth?

TaBoo Tenente

on Dec 21, 2004

i am a firm believer that there are as many paths toward TRUTH or understanding as there are people to walk them. i also think (though this is rather presumptuous) that the buddha would likewise agree. his path to enlightenment was NOT the path he taught to his followers. im going to use hesse's "Siddhartha" again, though this is really a book about truth rather than buddhism. in this story, siddhartha meets the buddha, and discusses this very thing. over and over, the buddha states that the buddhist path is not an instruction in truth, but a path to overcome samsara, the sadness and futility of living. siddhartha argues in many different ways that the buddhist path is filled with contradictions, and that the buddha himself found enlightenment by simply sitting under a tree for three days.

in the end the buddha says, "you are clever. be careful of such cleverness".

my favorite contrast in this story, however, is not the contrast between siddhartha and the buddha, but the contrast between siddhartha and the ferryman. the reader cannot help but feel how close siddhartha gets to enlightenment, so many times throughout the story, he achieves a state of being that we, as readers, probably DO equate with enlightenment, but then something happens that proves to siddhartha and the reader that he has not reached the ultimate state.

but consider the ferryman. in the end, he does not achieve enlightenment. instead, siddhartha and the reader realize that the ferryman had ALREADY achieved enlightenment! how beautiful, wonderful, and mysterious is this! he waited and waited and waited, not for anything in particular. he did not wait to learn something from the river (he always was learning from the river) and he was not waiting to help siddhartha (siddhartha was helped when siddhartha was ready to be helped). the ferryman was just waiting. his presence in this human form was the ferryman's enlightenment, his acceptance and love and lack of attachment to anything--no attachment to illusion, no attachment to enlightenment!).

meanwhile siddhartha has not achieved enlightenment at the end, either, but also ends where he begins. the only thing that has changed for siddhartha is that he understands why he has not achieved enlightenment. his path to truth has not ended.

SSG Geezer: i know this is a long way to explain my reaction to your post. the short version is that i completely agree with you. the middle length version is the one i've just written. but my real, lengthy answer would also deal with my belief that every path does lead to truth, regardless of whether we perceive it or not. eventually (hopefully) we do perceive it.

joeuser community is a fascinating concept. look how amazingly different everyone's takes are! we are so easily convinced that we are right, and if we just wax eloquently enough we can convert the troubled heathens to our perspective. on my good days, i believe that all of our perspectives are equally true, so long as we are courageous enough to take them all the way to their completed conclusions, rather than becoming attached to the simple sophistry of their boldness.

thanks for the article, dharma, and everyone else's thoughts. one of my most significant attachments in life is this sort of discussion. anyway, thanks, dharma, for the space to blather.

TBT

Gene Nash

on Dec 27, 2004

much like Siddartha himself, I would be meditating one day and all of a sudden, with a flash of light and trumpets sounding, enlightenment would come upon me and I would be a Buddha.

The further along this Dharma I get, the more I see that's not the way it happens.

It's better this way. Now you won't suffer the ignominy of having Keanu Reeves play you in a movie.

(BTW, did you see "Little Buddha," and if so what did you think?)

dharmagrl

on Dec 27, 2004

(BTW, did you see "Little Buddha," and if so what did you think?)

No, I didn't....but I really should.

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