AN ADVANCED TEACHING ABOUT COMPASSION
Let us begin by stating without any fanfare that the bodhisattva does not exist. That is just a word. What is more, in Mahamudra, a sister discipline to Chan, we go further and declare that one must dismiss all ideas of doing good deeds and being in this world what we call a Bodhisattva-like creature. Throw out all ideas of Compassion, Benevolent Affect and all similar concepts. All are just folly-filled ideas of the mind.
I like making those statements, because they tend to shake up readers a bit from their ideas and complacence and confidence in their worldly intelligence.
The reason I tell you this now is because it is important for actual penetration into both Chan and Mahamudra.
All the preliminary practices lead nowhere and are a sugar-coated pill that helps personal security and contentment and does little else. If you have to do Chan, just do it. But to do it you must abandon folly-filled ideas that you probably have already learned in Modern Buddhism.
Let us say that there are two gates to Liberation. They are the gate of the Sixth Ground and the gate of the Seventh Ground. The Seventh Ground entry is simple to understand but difficult to accomplish and it is my experience that only those with a favorable birth and a smooth passage in Samsara can pass by that gate, or one who has worked very hard on personal liberation for many years as a Buddhist or not.
The reason why we now speak about Bodhisattvahood is because without an understanding of that state and the knowledge that paradoxically Bodhisattvas do not exist one cannot even approach either the Sixth or the Seventh Ground.
We have created who we believe that we are in our mind. What are we then, really? Of course we must use words, but realize that these words are not the things described at all.
The Essence of the Human creature is the human Life Force. That is what he or she is. That Life Force is everything as far as we are concerned. That Life Force is our Buddha Nature.
The contents of that Life Force, the law of the human creature's nature against which all other things are measured, is his Dharma.
When we speak of refuge in Buddha and Dharma we are really saying to have confidence and go for guidance in the Life Force and natural law within us. Forget fancy Buddha images and other ideas. They are useful to help get the idea, but the essence is the Life Force and the natural law of life for the human creature.
Is this natural law complicated? No it is not. It is even simpler than the man-made commandments of the man-made God.
It consists of four parts which really are one.
1. Survival of the Life Force that appears individual
2. Survival of one’s apparent offspring
3. Survival of one’s tribe
4. Survival of the environment which supports all the previous
These four are really one thing, so there is no competition between them in the liberated human creature.
A dual mind and Identity will break them up and destroy the system as it is doing, but in the liberated human they are one.
Do you see a marvellous thing about these four elements, the Dharma of the Buddha Nature?
It is what a Bodhisattva is. This then is the Bodhisattva that everyone talks about in Buddhism. Sure, it can be represented in a thousand ways but that is the Bodhisattva which it clearly would be fantastic to release in all human beings for the benefit of all sentient creatures.
Now if you are smart then you will see that if that is the Bodhisattva, all human creatures have it. True indeed. That commonality is the Sangha. That is why we take refuge (or rather go for guidance in the Sangha). The Sangha is the confidence that all human creatures are Bodhisattvas.
Now really isn’t that more wonderful than believing in the legendary figures of Bodhisattvas? Use them, but know that Bodhisattvas do not exist. They do not exist because that is just a word.
The real Bodhisattvahood is within us, unknown and untapped.
Now let us move on.
It is that Life Force that has homeostatic function. It impulses the natural changes in our body and mind that support survival. In a liberated person all is automatic and adjustments are made, but in the Identity-ridden person the homeostatic impulse is transformed into a mental and intelligent question which inhibits the natural function of the Life Force.
In this world the Life force (if it could speak) would say, “There is a problem here somewhere... Correct it." The system would then get on with the job.
In the present case, where Identity is dominant in the human creature, the system says, “There is a problem here… shit… what the hell is going on….?" and stops.
The "What?" of the Life Force is left in mid-air.
But the apparently intelligent system says in a clear voice, “Something is wrong with my life”, and it leads to a spiritual search or for some other answer from drugs to fan worship or dissonance of one form or another.
Those who are fortunate find that there exists Mahamudra or Dao or Chan. Basically the three are the same. Only the method is different in the Sixth Ground entry. Seventh Ground entry in all cases is equal.
Now the essence of all entry to both Chan and Mahamudra is to understand completely at a level beyond cognitive intellect the certainty that all is illusion and that the Buddha Nature exists. Furthermore, it must be completely clear at a level quite profound, beyond conscious intellect, that this Buddha Nature is the Life Force and that that Life Force is the true Bodhisattva.
All mental games with regard to Bodhisattvahood are not useful and actually harmful. One must have absolute confidence that one need not worry about being a Bodhisattva, nor develop Bodhisattvahood, nor develop traits of a Bodhisattva, nor make pledges or vows to aid all sentient creatures. You must know that when you pass to the Awakening all will be done… You will no longer think about being a bodhisattva because you are one and the concept is superfluous.
You need no precepts. You can forget the Paramitas. You just go directly for it, baby. All the way. Like Freddie Mercury sang… “I want it all and I want it now….” without knowing what “it” is or where “it” can be found. All must be accompanied with the certain knowledge that there is no “I” to get it.
Get rid of all ideas (using another song, this time by Hal Davis and Burt Bacharach) about “what the world needs now is Love sweet love. That’s the only thing there’s not enough of.” The world does not need love. With love there is suffering. With the liberation of the homeostasis of the Life Force there is true non-mental affect for self, offspring, tribe and environment. I give you another song title now, “Who can ask for anything more?”
Now if this idea does not bring Joy and Awe to the fore, forget Mahamudra or Chan or Dao.
Go back to beautiful Bodhisattvas and promise to not become a Buddha until all creatures are liberated, and play with that for the rest of your life in pretty temples surrounded by parrots and sheep. Alternatively, you can join the Salvation Army, send a cheque to Greenpeace or walk in the streets against suffering and injustice.
But really why not let all that Identity nonsense go and become a human creature first? Then you will act as a human creature with the natural intelligence of the Life Force. You will then help others fully without being a Bodhisattva or a “good” person.
But the first step is to understand this and internalize this idea that you need no ideas of being a Bodhisattva. Clearly I am not going to tell you how to approach the Seventh Ground until you can accomplish that. That would be like giving a loaded gun to a child.
Let us then briefly look at Sixth Ground entry.
Think of Seventh Ground entry as going right for Direct Contact with the True Nature, the Ultimate experience. Now think of Seventh Ground as piercing a barrier between the Sixth and Seventh Ground. That barrier is the Ultimate Point of Apparent Reality. It is an assault upon the last vestiges of the cognitive mind that actually knows profoundly, at a level deeper than conscious intellect, the certainty that all is illusion that all is vacuity.
Now if you know deeply and completely beyond all doubt that this is so, what is that last barrier?
A good question, is it not, with an easy answer.
It is KNOWING that that is so. You see, knowing that itself is a conceptualization.
The contemplation then is upon the Emptiness of Knowing Emptiness itself. Naturally you can’t get that far unless you first really know deeply that all is really empty. How do you know when you know that? It is because it brings Joy, Awe and a great sense of Comfort and Security and a sense of really Belonging in this world. All that goes with the last conceptualization of the Emptiness of Emptiness and you get something even better that you can’t even seek after or actually obtain.
You encounter the true human creature within. The void that is not void.
So in summary the two means (Function) to encounter the Essence are:
Direct Seventh Ground access with complete internalization of the Emptiness of Bodhisattvahood.
Direct Sixth Ground access with complete internalization of the emptiness of Bodhisattvahood together with necessary Contemplation (not concentration) upon the Emptiness of Emptiness or upon Function or Essence. This is an approach of no-conceptualization and no-perception.
In both approaches there is no time for the folly of life. What is called normal family and friendship ties must be let aside. Work ethics must be let go. Society must be considered superfluous. True, one must walk in Samsara, but with a different view, with a different comportment and with a mind that refrains form all normal perceptions and conceptualizations. It is not easy, that is certain.
Perhaps now you can understand better the life of the great masters and why there are few now in this world that Greed has built.