Another Buddhist Analogy
The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment is a book by Taizan Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Roshi.
The title refers to the hazy moon of enlightenment to say that enlightenment is hazy, like the moon often is when we look up and see it. But how could enlightenment be hazy if it is the ultimate clear view of reality?
I think there’s another point to this. That when we look at the moon, or enlightenment, the haze is the veil of thinking the moon or enlightenment has some kind of inherent existence or permanent essence.
Therefore, both the moon and enlightenment are “veiled truths”, in that from a conventional standpoint we see they exist but their ultimate mode of existence is impermanent, dependent on causes and conditions, and therefore not existent ultimately but rather, like everything else, just a passing phenomenon.
Enlightenment, just like the moon, is also lacking inherent existence and is not a “thing” or a state of mind, or a level of consciousness.
The Zen story that refers to “if you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha”, is saying this same thing. If we attach to the Buddha, designate him as having inherent existence, this is a delusion, an idea, and that delusional idea should be killed as it has become a barrier to seeing reality, unveiled by our conventional dualistic grasping minds.
Another aspect of understanding the haziness is to see that it is something that we have brought to the moon, not something that the moon is generating.
All haziness about the moon and enlightenment only exists in our conventional dualistic thinking minds and nowhere else. And then, because even that is impermanent, only exists there while we are thinking it.
A further point, and maybe the most important, is that we should see ourselves, our bodies, our minds, thoughts, and feelings as also veiled truths. They, in the same way, are lacking any permanent substance, essence, or inherent independent existence.
It’s easier to see this in the external world of objects, persons, and phenomena around us, but more difficult to see ourselves the same way. Despite the difficulty this is exactly what the Buddha taught and the reason he prescribed the Eightfold Path as a method to realize this. We should take this seriously.
Comments