7. THE GREAT IMPOSTOR

冒名顶替者

THE GREAT IMPOSTOR

Who is the Great Impostor? One only has to look in a mirror to see the truth and with honesty every living human being will have to declare "I am". But who is this "I"?

It is an illusion, like all other phenomena. But that just gets you off the hook and you can walk away without really considering the problems caused by this "I" you are so in love with. Do you deny it?

Look in that mirror and see if you can set that "I" apart from that image. It is almost impossible. That is because the Great Impostor has control. A philosopher has declared "I  think, therefore I am". But the question is, can one "think" without the presence of this "I"?

We can if we clearly understand that this "I" -and the "me" and "mine" which accompany it- is totally illusion generated by the processes of what we term "mind". It is a useful tool, but the tool now unfortunately governs the biological machine that we call a human being. We believe that this "I", this Identity with all its associated illusions, is real.

Many students have great consternation at the idea of "letting go" of the apparent reality of the "I" and feel that without this "real" existence they will no longer exist.

In Buddha Dharma we give this impostor a name. We call it Mara, and we further declare that this monster has three daughters. While Mara clearly exerts his power without hiding within consciousness, his daughters operate within the unconscious. They too, of course, are illusion.

Now what modern Buddhism lords appear to forget, perhaps as an expedient means to capture adepts, is that really, until one can with effectiveness limit or destroy Mara and his daughters, the meditations which many crave and desire will be founded on quicksand. It is imperative then to understand the full characteristics and destructive potential of the Great Impostor and his daughters before one continues on a Chan Dao path.