The Fool's Word

The Principle is the underlying aspect in the entire system. It is the goal of most spiritual practices. The methods reaching it may vary but all of them have the same basic characteristics. Firstly, it requires the recalibration of one’s consciousness. Secondly, it requires redefining one’s relationship with the rest of the universe. And thirdly, it requires letting go of personal “baggage” and reconciling of one’s opposites.

More than few schools of thoughts have advocated various methods to attain this state, usually less successfully in doing so. As the person will come to realize in the midst of their practice, “the more it changes, the more it stays the same.” In other words, try to arrange your life so that it was all upward and nothing was downward, it can’t be done. Ergo, all attempts to attain what is known as Nirvana or enlightenment are futile, from this basis.

However, The Principle does not abide by any fixed rules or restrictions, it resides beyond them. Therefore, to say that meditation should be discarded because it makes no difference, is not quite the point. The difference that is made is in the attitude and approach to it.

It isn’t difficult to ascertain what the reason is for people to pursue this “wrong point.” On the whole, we feel inadequate. Like there is something missing from our lives. And so we seek, seek, and seek for the missing piece. Some get it from joining a movement, others get it from a cup of morning coffee.

But as most things in life go, the rush is temporary. And so we repeat or switch to some other thing that might bring us satisfaction again. And so this is one of the reasons why we feel the need to “get enlightened.” It is to change our minds to a more satisfactory state, one that doesn’t wear off. At least in theory. But as Buddhism itself states, this is impossible.

There is Nirvana, no doubt about that. But it isn’t a state in which you so much attain, as it is realizing that you were always at the place you are trying to get to. Nirvana is already here, in this very moment. And to miss it, is the same thing as postponing the knowledge of it. That is why in the Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, The Diamond Sutra, it is said that when the Buddha attained perfect and unsurpassed enlightenment, he didn’t attain anything.

Of course, there are varying intensities of the experience of the mystical. Sometimes it can be a very strong one. And you’ll remember it for the rest of your life. But as long as you are trying to achieve this positive thing and eliminate the negative, you are under illusion. Because the one cannot exist without the other. It is only when we give up the pursuit, that it is most likely to come to us. When it isn’t sought out.

But people who think that they need to pay a sufficient price for the mystical, will have to go through the hoops and steps. They will not accept it, until they have felt like they have reached it by an adequate effort. And so they will do their exercises, and practice. On the other hand, they are not wrong in going through it. Because it might be the only way for them to get anywhere.

But this is basically my criticism with enlightenment as it is today. It is with the way in which people approach it as a project of self-improvement, like they would do of psychotherapy. But if they do it that way, they are not practising what is known as dhyana or zen. They are actually preventing real meditation to begin, so long as they think they will get something out of it. Real meditation is simply watching it all happen.

I would even go so far as to say that real meditation should be fun. It can be extremely joyful and pleasurable, to contemplate in the moment. And then you’ll notice how little all your worries are present in that moment. Eventually, you might even start “floating”. And make some strange insights. Who knows, you might even get flipped into some new and peculiar states of consciousness.

T.F.