14 billion year old Pino Noir
I want share with you an exert from a discussion I'm having on a different site:
vjhorn
...there seem to be at least two different approaches to awakening. One metaphor I like to describing these two different approaches goes something like this: One person (this would be more like me) is standing at the edge of a cliff looking down at the sea below. They jump off the cliff and go sailing toward the water. Let's call the water arhantship, though I suppose it could be a lesser degree of awakening as well such as stream-entry. Then after they get out of the water, they start climbing back up the cliff, slowly and deliberately exploring all the interesting territory of the cliff as they go back up. The cliff can be seen as all of the other dimensions of awakening, that perhaps aren't directly, though are certainly indirectly, related to the path. This could include concentration states (jhanas), the siddhis, subtle energies, lucid dreaming, other altered states of consciousness, disowned shadow material, even perhaps personal development technologies.
This person's approach was to go straight for awakening and then re-engage with the vast territory of the mind's potential after dissolving the center point (or at least having some fundamental understanding of emptiness). The next person who is standing on the side of the cliff, chooses instead to climb down the cliff, exploring all of the various facets of the cliff on the way down. They reach the bottom of cliff, and slide into the water. I need not go into all the specific here, but think of the Tibetan tradition as it's generally practiced, and you might get an idea of this person's path. The Rinzai Zen tradition is perhaps a good example of the opposite path, as it's fairly intense & fast (from what I hear) but then has a very systematic training for post-enlightenment. "
Interesting perspective Vjhorn. Coming from the Tibetan perspective I would hesitate to make a distinction between the cliff and the water below. To me it seems that the Tibetan path starts with the premise of the inseparability between nirvana and samsara, the cliff and the river. We weave that into our practice so deeply that eventually it becomes a type of blindness. Rather then settling for the river or the cliff we are forced to pass through this duality to complete awakening.
The interesting thing I have found while practicing this is that the completely awakened state is actually fully present at all moments. What people seem to forget is that part of the fully awakened state is the dualism of ignorance. We are always partially ignorant and partially aware of the transcendent state. As the state of fully awakenedness transcends all dualism, it must also be composed of the dualities. Thus being ignorant of the fully awakened state is actually part of the fully awakened state.
In addition, part of enlightenment is not being enlightened until the correct moment. The Tibetan tradition takes a vow to postpone enlightenment until all beings are enlightened. I think this is a little simplistic. What would be more appropriate is to vow to follow the Tao to become enlightened. When we learn to follow the Tao, or natural path to enlightenment, all beings will naturally become enlightened because everything is fundamentally connected.
In so much as we fail to follow the Tao, we will sow the seeds of Karma of the next existence. And in this way actually still follow the Tao. After all, if the entire universe spontaneously dematerialized into Buddha fields, things would be pretty dull. And so the universe flows into being, constantly changing, constantly becoming more subtly beautiful, more robust, like a 14 billion year old Pino Noir. Life is good. Drink it. Be happy.
vjhorn
...there seem to be at least two different approaches to awakening. One metaphor I like to describing these two different approaches goes something like this: One person (this would be more like me) is standing at the edge of a cliff looking down at the sea below. They jump off the cliff and go sailing toward the water. Let's call the water arhantship, though I suppose it could be a lesser degree of awakening as well such as stream-entry. Then after they get out of the water, they start climbing back up the cliff, slowly and deliberately exploring all the interesting territory of the cliff as they go back up. The cliff can be seen as all of the other dimensions of awakening, that perhaps aren't directly, though are certainly indirectly, related to the path. This could include concentration states (jhanas), the siddhis, subtle energies, lucid dreaming, other altered states of consciousness, disowned shadow material, even perhaps personal development technologies.
This person's approach was to go straight for awakening and then re-engage with the vast territory of the mind's potential after dissolving the center point (or at least having some fundamental understanding of emptiness). The next person who is standing on the side of the cliff, chooses instead to climb down the cliff, exploring all of the various facets of the cliff on the way down. They reach the bottom of cliff, and slide into the water. I need not go into all the specific here, but think of the Tibetan tradition as it's generally practiced, and you might get an idea of this person's path. The Rinzai Zen tradition is perhaps a good example of the opposite path, as it's fairly intense & fast (from what I hear) but then has a very systematic training for post-enlightenment. "
Interesting perspective Vjhorn. Coming from the Tibetan perspective I would hesitate to make a distinction between the cliff and the water below. To me it seems that the Tibetan path starts with the premise of the inseparability between nirvana and samsara, the cliff and the river. We weave that into our practice so deeply that eventually it becomes a type of blindness. Rather then settling for the river or the cliff we are forced to pass through this duality to complete awakening.
The interesting thing I have found while practicing this is that the completely awakened state is actually fully present at all moments. What people seem to forget is that part of the fully awakened state is the dualism of ignorance. We are always partially ignorant and partially aware of the transcendent state. As the state of fully awakenedness transcends all dualism, it must also be composed of the dualities. Thus being ignorant of the fully awakened state is actually part of the fully awakened state.
In addition, part of enlightenment is not being enlightened until the correct moment. The Tibetan tradition takes a vow to postpone enlightenment until all beings are enlightened. I think this is a little simplistic. What would be more appropriate is to vow to follow the Tao to become enlightened. When we learn to follow the Tao, or natural path to enlightenment, all beings will naturally become enlightened because everything is fundamentally connected.
In so much as we fail to follow the Tao, we will sow the seeds of Karma of the next existence. And in this way actually still follow the Tao. After all, if the entire universe spontaneously dematerialized into Buddha fields, things would be pretty dull. And so the universe flows into being, constantly changing, constantly becoming more subtly beautiful, more robust, like a 14 billion year old Pino Noir. Life is good. Drink it. Be happy.