Ayya Tathaaloka's Articles on Lion's Roar

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Ayya Tathaaloka, Setsuan Gaelyn Godwin, and David Matsumoto explore their traditions' different perspectives on awakening. Introduction by Josh Bartok. For me, one of the great bait and switches of dharma practice was this: I came to the dharma wanting enlightenment, and what I found was awakening. I think I imagined that enlightenment was a thing I could get and have and keep—perhaps like better, stronger, more impenetrable armor to protect me from the pains and sorrows of this human life, or like the world’s most powerful flashlight, with which I could forever banish all darkness. I wanted certainty. What I found was a possibility of truly entrusting, a steadily growing capacity for enacting verified faith in the dharma, a practice of awakening to the enoughness of this one thing that is me-and-the-universe. What I found was a way to continually expose my heart rather than shield it and an ever-deepening appreciation of liberation amid the vast, inconceivable darkness of not-knowing. Is this enlightenment? There is of course no more provocative—and sticky—topic in all of Buddhism. Is enlightenment an event or a process? Is it a goal or a by-product? Reached through effort or surrender? Does it emerge from practice or is practice its expression? Does it happen all at once or gradually? Is it the very end of the path or the true beginning? I have my own views, of course—but in a certain very real sense, I suspect the answer to all these questions is yes. And how about you, dear reader: What do you imagine, know, or believe enlightenment to be? How do you stand in relation to it? This investigation itself is a rich and worthy practice. But be warned: “When you realize the buddhadharma,” as Dogen Zenji wrote in thirteenth-century Japan, “you do not think, This is realization just as I expected. And even if you think so, realization invariably differs from your expectation.” In the following discussion, four teachers from different traditions invite us further into this investigation of the Great Matter. Forum: What Is Enlightenment? Buddhadharma: What does your tradition mean by “enlightenment”? How would you describe it? Ponlop Rinpoche: From the Mahayana view, there are two ways to explain what enlightenment is. From the experiential point of view, enlightenment is being awake from one’s confusion and suffering. The quality of enlightenment is basically being free of any thought processes. Enlightenment is actually the nature of mind. From the doctrinal point of view, there are different stages of awakening. The first glimpse of enlightenment takes place at the level of the first bhumi of the bodhisattva. That glimpse of enlightenment becomes more stable, clear, and perfected throughout the ten bhumis of the bodhisattva, and at the end of the tenth bhumi, the realization of enlightenment and of the three kayas is achieved. Ayya Tathaaloka: In the Theravada tradition, there are many different types of awakening. In the first awakening, one recognizes cause and effect and begins to feel that one’s actions from the past have caused many kinds of suffering. Such behavior starts to seem abhorrent. A deep resolution turns the mind around from those long, confused patterns of afflictive behavior, lifting it up like the bud of a lotus breaching muddy water to touch air and sunshine. A sense of openness and spaciousness arises, along with the determination to behave differently. This shift could be called “a moral awakening,” but it also has the aspect of the mind clearing, unbinding, and becoming more open and stable. People do experience that literally as clarity or light, coming out of darkness, or entering into spaciousness. Things that were dark, disassociated, and disconnected before become connected, and we can then see more clearly what was shrouded in darkness. Once one has an understanding of how the Dhamma works and a fundamental insight into conditional causation, one can then enter into the practice in a more effective way. Fear and disempowerment are alleviated and, no longer feeling at the mercy of the world and other people or other circumstances, one gains a foothold on the path. From there, in the Theravada teachings, one progresses through the four stages—or the eight stages, including the fruition—of the arahanta path, “awakening after the Awakened One.” Gaelyn Godwin: In the Zen tradition, rather than focus on the stages that the Buddha describes in his enlightenment process, we tend to focus on his initial statement beneath the bodhi tree: “I and all sentient beings together attain enlightenment.” We understand that this awakening is a realization of the natural state of mind and that the recognition of that same mind in others is the deepest part of the Buddha’s awakening. The teachings therefore emphasize removing hindrances to seeing clearly so that one can abide in the clarity of reality as it actually is. Different streams of the tradition also emphasize different parts of awakening. Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan from which my lineage flows, emphasized that the buddhanature we all possess is recognized in each other—so awakening is awakening to buddhanature in all sentient beings. In other Zen traditions, more attention is focused on working toward realization. The renowned Rinzai teacher Hakuin Zenji tracked his enlightenment experiences, categorizing them as small, medium, and large. In the tradition I was trained in, we work mostly from the acceptance of buddhanature in all beings and cultivate a moral perspective, but we operate from the assumption that enlightenment is already present in everyone. So practice involves sitting in that awareness; meditation is sitting in the natural mind and observing processes that arise. Mostly we aren't working toward enlightenment in Zen, we're assuming it as a basis and trying to accept that reality. David Matsumoto: In Shin Buddhism our perspective of enlightenment and the way in which it informs our life was taught to us by our founder, Shinran, who was very much Mahayana Buddhist but also a Pure Land Buddhist. I find great resonance with what others have said. In many ways, Shin gives expression to those same understandings with the use of symbolism and expression of Pure Land Buddhism. Enlightenment is both that to which we aspire along the Buddha’s path and the very foundation of the path—it’s a source from which the path flows and arises. Shinran tells us that Amida Buddha and the Pure Land are tathagathas; they are oneness in suchness, they are buddhanature, and as such he emphasizes both the awakening of wisdom in enlightenment and also the activity of compassion. It is the working of compassion that becomes the focus of enlightenment in the Shin tradition. Enlightenment is understood as an ordinary state demonstrated in ordinary practices, such as drinking tea. There's nothing special to do in Zen. -Setsuan Gaelyn Godwin. Shin is very much grounded in a lay tradition, a householder tradition. Shinran is very clear when he says that in this life we don't realize enlightenment, but we are the equal of the tatagathas—we awaken wisdom, we are embraced within compassion, and yet enlightenment comes about only upon birth in the Pure Land, the land of immeasurable light. Buddhadharma: David, can you clarify for those who aren’t familiar with Shin what it means to be born in the Pure Land? David Matsumoto: Sure. Shinran teaches that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to realize enlightenment just as we are. However, what is possible, and what can be the foundation of our spiritual lives, is what he calls shinjin, a term that early translations in the West translated as faith. Shin was often described as a way of having faith in the Buddha, who will save his followers, who are reborn in a Pure Land in a world to come. For that reason, Shin, or Jodoshinshu, was characterized as kind of Christian Buddhism, but shinjin is more than just faith. There is an aspect of faith in the Buddhist sense (sraddha), but there’s also a sense of an ever-unfolding awakening to one’s nature and of the activity of wisdom unfolding as compassion. This is also what Shinran calls “birth.” So birth is both this awakening that we experience here and now, which supports and informs all of our religious life as we venture forth, and the realization of nirvana when our karmic bondage to this world ends. Buddhadharma: Let’s talk more about how enlightenment functions according to each of your traditions. Is it a matter of passing a threshold—once you're enlightened, you're enlightened? Is it a more continual awakening process? Or are we already awakened and simply trying to clear the obscurations? Ponlop Rinpoche: From the Vajrayana point of view, our mind’s nature is fully awakened from the very beginning, and our path is to discover that nature. We get introduced to that nature of mind with different methods, such as the practice of loving-kindness and compassion or the practices of meditation on the nature of mind, and once we get a glimpse of it, we have a sense of awakening that becomes an actual part of our mind. It’s no longer just a theory; it becomes a reality, an experience. Yet it is just a glimpse that still needs to be sustained continuously through meditation practice and through the practice of loving-kindness, compassion, and mindfulness. Of course we would like to think that enlightenment happens on the spot and we never return to samsara. But it happens in stages through which we can perfect it. Human beings are always bound by karma. But even though our defiled selves remain as they are, our hearts and minds already reside in the Pure Land. -Rev. David Matsumoto. When Shakyamuni Buddha awakened under the bodhi tree, there was a young man passing by who saw this beautiful enlightened being but he didn't know who he was, so he asked the Buddha, “Are you a god?” The Buddha said, “No.” Then he asked, “Are you a spirit?”...

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