That
Was Emptiness!
There
is little agreement between buddhist schools and lineages about what
is what and the qualifications. Some have low standards, some high,
some think they have high standards when in fact they have low
standards. The point is that there is little consensus, so who can be
considered an authority?
Anyway,
buddhism is concerned with confusion and removing of it. That's all
buddhism is meant to do and the way it is done, is through the
emptiness principle. Emptiness or selflessness means that we come to
perceive ourselves and all things in our mind, having no solidity, no
entityness, no fixed existence. That's all. Everything else is just
an elaboration of this core teaching. This very point removes all of
our problems, because it removes all of our narrowminded selfing.
Stream
entry is known by most schools of buddhism, although the names vary
and the methods of getting there vary. For the sake of clarity and
simplicity I'll call it awakening. What is awakening? What's the
point of it?
We
have basically two minds: 1. basic mind that is clear, pure,
untainted and without confusion and 2. confused mind that is the
construction of the self, in various forms. We are confused because
we are stuck in the self-based mind, without knowing the basic mind
and that the confused mind is actually also the basic mind. The
purpose of vipashyana meditation, that is typical to buddhism, is to
enable us to see that me, my thoughts, my emotions and my subtle body
is actually the basic mind that is free and has no confilct. The
purpose of buddhist meditation is to see and realise this simple
fact. This realisation comes about through glimpses, awakening and
integration. Awakening or stream entry is the first irreversible hit,
or a blow, that causes the sharpest peak of our selfing to collapse,
so that it won't reconstruct. This cannot be accomplished through
calmning down meditation, although it is useful in the process.
An
analogy of a glimpse, where a dog represents the basic mind that has
no self. Imagine you are sitting in front of a small window, hoping
to see the dog on the other side of it. If we haven't seen the dog,
we don't know what to expect, even if we know other people's
descriptions of it. Then, out of nowhere, the dog runs past the
window. Swoosh! All we see is smudge run by. We are not completely
sure how the dog looked because it went by so quickly but we saw it
well enough to see that it had four legs, a tail, two ears and had
the general appearance of a dog, just like the dog specialist said it
would. This is a glimpse of the basic mind. It is something but it is
not enough for us to see the dog well, so that we'd have certainty
about the dog.
Awakening
is different from glimpse. You sit behind the window again, hoping to
see the dog, and then all of a sudden it comes, sits down, right
behind the glass for a brief moment, during which you can see it
perfectly for the first time ever, until it stands up and runs away
again. Ah! That's it! That was the dog! Woohoo! Maybe you have such
initial joy and wonder, many do. After the initial excitement passes,
you realise that seeing the dog has somehow changed you. You no
longer feel the same as before. Something is clearly different and
its so much better now. You feel more you, freer, clearer, more
natural, chest doesn't feel heavy and so on. It's all because you saw
the dog, your true nature, without "you", the entity, in
it. And because you did, it deconstructed your sense of self as an
entity. That's why you feel different post-awakening. Now you gained
unshakable certainty about the dog.
Whether
we call this awakening, kensho, stream entry or anything else, is of
no importance. The importance is on what it does to one's confusion
and dissatisfaction, that, as I said above is the heart and soul of
buddhism. What matters the most is how our confusion, or self, comes
torn down, or seen through.
Now,
some say that awakening is this or awakening is that, and are keen to
deny if some single specific criterion is not checked. "You're
still getting angry, huh? Well, that wasn't stream entry then".
"You can't have your finger chopped off, without screaming on
top of your lungs and becoming grudgeful against your abusers? Oh,
you certainly didn't wake up!". As I said, there is little
consensus but the way I see it, is like I explained above. What
matters most is the selfless hole in the mind, that no longer has
selfing in it, and that is also what is most meaningful for the
person her- or himself. Whether one can read other peoples minds,
walk on water, have light shining from one's heart, see past lives
and so on, are just side dishes, somethign extra that you can do
without. Emptiness is the main meal that fills the belly.
