Enlightenment under the Bodhi-tree

Lord Buddha’s enlightenment was in its effect, the emancipation from the

wrong teachings he had.

Wrong though, the effects of those teachings has been over sighted —–

without them, there was no enlightenment = that is what emancipation mean

= because it WAS wrong, there was a discovery  and the revelation of the truth

was made, and it was the very enlightenment.

Heavy practices as an austere — or what ever, of which once he believed that it would lead

him to the enlightenment, hence, he practiced it again and again —– those mind-set and

long continuous practice and its effects has to be counted as a part of the pathway.

= In other words, meditation alone has little effect. Practice and the dairy

experiences (and its observation) play the more role to see the Dharma.

[]

Visiting the very tree where Lord Buddha has said to have reached to his enlightenment, and

try sitting under, while hoping any good effects could occur, is in fact a silly wishful thinking =

Lord Buddha himself prohibited to worship him like an idle, because of his teachings were to

see the Dharma not to believe his words, and as there is no mambo-jumbo exist in this world,

there couldn’t be any super natural effect from the tree (let alone, any possibility of that the

same tree could remain 2500 years :-))   Mimicking the surface and expecting to

have any benefit is no different from buying a costume of  Superman and

expecting become able to fly. —– As there is no magic in the Buddhism,

mimic the posture of sitting under the Bodhi-tree, and get enlightened like

Lord Buddha had, is an illusion.  (If it comes, on front of a Bonsai tree would be fanciful, or

sitting next to an empty pot is even better, as it is more economical.  Ha ha ha  😀 )

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What Lord Buddha did under the Bodhi-tree was a stock-taking of the past,

the experiences he learned from so-called Guru and what he observed in

the nature (or the Dharma) —– hence he came to the conclusion that there couldn’t

be any supernatural power which was often associated with a religion exists,  but

very rational mechanism of the Dharma as the Rules.    So, he returned to

the daily nature of  the mankind which is a manifestation of the Dharma =

hence, he ate the milk porridge offered by a woman of the village.

—– And that was his enlightenment. 

( This understanding opened the way to the Mahayana Buddhism later.)

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It is easy to guess, those so-called Guru whom

Lord Buddha has met were no different from today’s dubious Guru, talking big with

conjuring trick to show off a [supernatural] power. 😀

( Incidentally, the former USSR, Russia spent millions of Rubles to find usable supernatural

power such as Clairvoyance to spy and Psycho-kinetic power to cause havoc to the enemy etc.

without any success = even a Totalitarian super power couldn’t find any.

And the former Yugoslavia has had thousand of registered Supernatural-power practitioners

though, there has been no single report of such as coming bomb had ever successfully

deflected even in a life or death situation) 

(Spiritualism is not the same to believe Para-physics or Mambo-jumbo  😀 )

[]

Since having his scientific rationalism,

Lord Buddha has come to a conclusion that there couldn’t be any super natural

phenomena such as a perpetual soul (against the widely accepted Vedic

belief of Atman) and anything beyond of our rational comprehension is

[Unknowable and no use to know] (therefore, he ignored the question).

And with this rationalism, which should be comprehensible to any person, he

ordered to his disciples to think by themselves not blindly believe what was said

or taught. It means his teachings were comprehensible to a normal brain i.e. not

a kind of Religious dogma, such as ” if you believe, it exists”  kind of Metaphysics.

(Unlike other religion, rational nature of the Dharma is a comprehensible fact,

therefore it is not a matter of belief but just become aware and to see it —– this

was a reason why he was given a title [ BUDDHA = Enlightened one] not a

Divine status or to be seen as a Prophet )

[]

The stories of the Devils visited him etc. while he was sitting under the tree, were all later

invention to glorify him. —– only certain was that, he must be very hungry then, by which he

must be convinced that to torture the body lead nowhere, let alone to the enlightenment, still,

without having those stock takings, he couldn’t have figured out  the Truth in

the Dharma and the Karma.

[]

—– It is strange to think, as a fact that the time

Lord Buddha spent under the tree, seven days has changed the world since.

And we have to be grateful to him as the greatest teacher we had in the history,

not as an idle,  but as the greatest fellow human.

Being as a human, he knew what the problem we have, and the solution !

So that, he gave the answer, not the commandments.

___/\___

PS:

As the Dharma is a fact on front of us, even within us = so easy to see.  But so

difficult to see it because of our deluded mind, hence all about the teachings of

Lord Buddha was how to clear our mind and the eyes to see it.

[]

Limit of TRUTH

In the human endeavour to know the TRUTH,  there is an amazing parallel  between

Nuclear Physics and the Philosophy.

When they came close to the limit, there are unsurpassable barrier and the unknowable.

In the Ontology and the Epistemology front, they come to the same cul-de-sac “Is it really there ? —– How

Do you know ?” —– Isn’t it, you just think it is there ? —– How do yo know, what you are seeing or you

believe, it’s there is true ? —– It might be just a glitch of the electric pulse in the brain. Isn’t it ?

—

Science is an  attempt to answer this question.  One approach is to increase the number of the observation

and make a statistic assumption ” Since,  most of the people saw the same,  it can be presumed to be true”

( still,  a last person who saw the otherwise, might be seeing the only truth  😀  )

Another approach is to define the object itself  ” Whether you can see it or not, this object ( or often the

phenomenon) has so-much-so size and the weight (mass) and behave such and such.  And those measurement

has been tested with known objects and always showed its reading was true”

———- Though,  when scientists pushed it to the limit,  beyond the Newtonian , beyond the Einstein’s

theory,  to the Quantum theory —– what they found is utter uncertainty. ” It can be here or there” and

now even the time scale becoming not certain.  ” It is here at moment, but in the same time it might exist

in the future as the same thing   ( You are happened to be here, but in the same time somewhere else or

might be in a past or in a future, as exactly as you are)

—-

There is a phenomenon called diffraction  in the behaviour of the wave.  Water wave, sound wave even

the light wave —– when a wave go through narrow gap, the wave spread to the both side of the gap.

When  a wave go through two ( or more ) gaps,  the spread patterns of the wave create moire pattern.

In a case of the light, the pattern is bright and dark band and the distance between the bright band is

depend on the wave length and the distance of the gaps.  (X-lay crystallography is using this effect —–

indirectly measuring the size of the gaps and direction = distance of the atoms and their alignments )

And when a scientist tested this with just one photon, he still saw the moire pattern. Its mean

one photon could pass two gaps in the same moment and showed the diffraction at two gaps—– how  ? ? ?

It was a dramatic display of the Quantum  behavior of the light and the proof of the theory —— though,

it showed no clear-cut truth of the world,  but showed the uncertain nature of the nature.

Even more bizarre fact is if two electronic detectors were placed behind of two gaps, only one photon was

detected either of one gap. — depend on how it was observed,  the same phenomenon was seen differently.

In other words, no absolute truth can be existing.

—– Strangely you may think though, all those advancement of the science is owing to virtually just one

advancement of the electronics, the design of so-called OP amp / instrumentation amp.

Whether a detector is photo sensor or current sensor, when the more amplification was enabled, the more

faint signal can be detected (while eliminating or canceling the nose)—– hence even smaller particles

or minute change can be detected.

The trouble is, even if we are capturing the effect of just single photon or semi-particle though, as it was read

as an electronic signal,  nobody knows whether they are really solid particles or just a vortex of the energy.

Far from proving the fundamental of the matter / existences / Dharma, it made the situation even worse.

—

Well known expression in the Mahayana Buddhism ” Exists as not exists” —– My understanding of this

expression is,  It is the way to express the phenomena in our feeling in the subconsciousness. —– we feel

it is there though as it is in the subconscious, it is invisible and out of conscious, hence not there.

But before I came to this understanding,  I thought, Buddha had an incredible insight to know the Quantum

nature of the Dharma.  May be, but not likely —– so, some says, Buddha must come from the outer-space,

from the another universe where having far more advanced civilization though, I wouldn’t jump a gun.

Even  with the advancement of the science and the technology, we came no way closer to the truth,

far from it, What we found is the definite uncertainty of the TRUTH.

So, this must be the reason why  Buddha kept his silence as it is unknowable. And no use to us.

—– So that, I’m more interested in the tendency of the coincidences,  which is out of the science   🙂

___/\___

—

Starting Point of BUDDHISM / Enlightenment

Well  well  well, this blog is coming to exactly the one year since its started.

So,  I should write something very fundamental.  This is the final piece of the jig-saw.

——————–

Unlike any another religion,  the Buddhism doesn’t have a myth or the story of the creation.

Since,  long before the existence of the human being,  long long before the arrival of Buddha,

the  Dharma  exist from the beginning.   Nobody know why. ( Ask scientists. They don’t know neither.    😀  )

As Buddha had absolute faith and the respect to the Dharma, he refused to give even his

interpretation of it, since it is unknowable to the human being and made up a story is

nothing but a disrespect and a treachery to the Creator / Dharma.

Therefore the Buddhism has to start from here “to unconditionally accept the one’s existence ( as he

or she ) as it is,  and  to see own existence as a part of  the Dharma”.

Therefore,  to give a person’s own  interpretation as a thought of the self, is nothing but an arrogant trespass.

Since,  the self is not definable by the person but only by the Dharma.

——————–

If anybody having an understanding,  that the Buddhism deny the self,  it is utterly wrong.

A person here is the Noble creation of the Dharma,  hence, try to give own interpretation or definition of it, is

a transgression,  therefore such thought has to be denied. ——– (Denying the thought of self,  not

the awareness of the self  itself) ——- In metaphor, ” Appear in person, not by a photograph ”

(a Copy or  Made up Description is not Yourself / its your wishful or distorted imagination)

The person’s  Imaginary Self  is a delusion,  its got to be in flesh as it was created and  it is keep changing.

So that,  to live as the True Yourself,  not as an imaginary fixed self,  is the key.

And this is the meaning of  ” To live in MUSHIN ” and  Just Do It,  Just Live.

So,  this is the starting point of the Buddhism,  and  its  goal.  ( Very simple and easy  isn’t it    😀  )

———- This is the reason,  why it is so simple and ubiquitous like as a dog sit,  but as difficult as

making the people puzzling  2500 years. ( People has been expecting to see glorious secret, Holy Grail   😀 )

As long as a person is puzzling, while expecting to find something over there,  it is not the Buddhism and

far away from the Enlightenment.  Enlightenment is within yourself——- as where the Dharma is.

And when the person abandoned such attempt and start to just live ——- is the Enlightenment.

——————–

But, to learn the way to accept and just do it, the person may need to practice repeating practice.

( I’ve fully explained its effect and the psychological mechanism in the past blog posts —–Please refer them )

Direct Transmission

Direct transmission is the way to communicate using purely in one’s sensory and put the signal

straight into one’s subconscious / old layer of the data process system, without relying on the word / notion.

(Though this signal can be just a sign.  And this sign trigger the feeling, dormant memory in the spirit).

Especially if the subject is too ambiguous or too complexed, too big to convert to the notion or

even the word is not existing.——( like a word / notion of  Subconscious in the time of Buddha )

Buddhism is the teachings, challenged to tackle such subject, Dharma.

Superficially the meaning of the Dharma has been explained though, it contains too many meanings

and notions therefore too complexed to define,  and its deep meaning in its totality is almost unknowable.

Still, funnily enough, it’s everywhere, hence it is on front of you as everybody is seeing it

and you are a part of it.  This is not an invisible Atomic Sub-particle’s theory.

So that the Buddhist spend hundreds of years to analyzing and trying to define it,  resulting the

mountain of Abidharma Mantras.

——————–

Buddha himself didn’t explain it,  since it is on front of our eyes and can be seen by anybody, yet

unexplainable by the words.—–And make the people to discover its deep meaning by themselves

through the practice, is what he was teaching.———-There was, and still is, no short cut.

So that,  the famous ” Flower Summon ” comes in, ( though, this story only appeared in the

Chinese Mantra ——since they are pretty good in this kind of symbolic expression originated

from the Taoism,  such as the huge blanc space express the rich notion of “Wu” (Mu in Japanese))

———- if you see the Dharma there, this is the Dharma what Buddha meant.

( If you see ” Oh, Master, you decapitated poor flower. You killed it”——– you see a dead flower.  😀 )

———- It is like your stomach up-set.  You know it but you can’t explain exactly what it is in the word.

And only the other who got the same, may know it.  So, to know it you have to bite  onion, plenty of it.

( In  Zen term, blanc white paper may be the expression of the whole Universe,—- or Nothing.

Therefore “Noting” can be the whole existence / the Dharma )——so that,

a small room in the Vimarakirti’s house can accommodate 3000 bikkus. )