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Buddhism
When you do not cling
When you do not cling
There is no you.
Actually,
There never was a you.
You are just:*
Water in mirage,
The son of a barren woman,
The snake in a rope,
The moon in a pail of water.
*these are all traditional Indian metaphors used to describe our basic mistake (original sin)
How spiritual teachings work
This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles.
Buddha’s raft
The Buddha likened his teachings to a raft that takes you from the shore of suffering (samsara) across the river to the shore of enlightenment (nirvana). When you get to the land on the other side, you do not carry the raft around with you – the raft would actually be an impediment on land.
The teachings are therefore provisional constructs and concepts and are not true in themselves. Ultimately we can let go of attachment both to the teaching and teacher once it has done its work.
If we fall in love with the teaching or teacher, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It can serve as a useful and positive motivation force, keeping our search and inquiry strong through both good and bad times, and may well continue after a genuine enlightenment. However I have often seen how the attachment to (and belief in) a teaching or teacher can impede a genuine realisation, as it can restrict our ability to freely inquire and see things as they really are.
‘Use a thorn to remove a thorn, then throw them both away’
In this Hindu saying, a thorn represents a concept that gives rise to suffering when it pierces our skin. The teachings are another concept/thorn that you can use to remove the first thorn from your body. However you must throw the teaching away too when it’s work is done, otherwise it simply becomes a thorn in your side that binds you.
Ramana Maharshi used to speak of his teachings as being like a wooden stick used to prod the burning carcass in the funeral pyre. Once the teaching has done its job of ‘burning the ego (sense of being a separate doer)’, the stick is also pushed into the fire and it too burns away.
‘Eventually, all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten’
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Kill the Buddha
There is a famous Zen teaching: “If you see Buddha on the path, kill him”. Don’t even let Buddhism and Buddha’s teachings get in the way. Let go of all concepts and liberation is there as it always has been.
This idea is similarly indicated in Hindu teachings such as in the Yoga Vasistha:
‘When you realise that which is indicated by the words, then naturally you will abandon the jugglery of words’
Yoga Vasistha
Expedient Means
In Mahayana Buddhism the term ‘expedient means’ (Sanskrit: upaya) is used to signify that the best teaching is the one that produces the result – ie. enlightenment. What is good for one aspirant may not be good for another, depending on where they each are. This is also why various teachings can appear contradictory and may not be true in themselves. The point is that the teachings are not necessarily true, but as long as they work that’s what matters.
Some of my analogies and thoughts on how teachings work
- The teachings are not themselves ultimately true. They are just words. But like a finger pointing to the moon, they point to something greater than themselves.
- Teachings use words and concepts to point to or indicate that which is beyond all words and concepts.
- The teachings are like a virus. Once you have heard them, they get to work within you, chipping away at false beliefs and in doing so the Truth is revealed.
- Like when matter and anti-matter collide, the teachings destroy false notions and then when its work is done, the teaching also self-destructs.
- We think we chose to read or hear the teachings and apply them. When we understand the teachings more fully, we realised that the teachings came to us, they were a gift to us, that they chose us, and they work their magic on us.
- If you cling to words of the teachings, it is a sure indicator you have not understood what they are pointing to. Eventually you have to go beyond the teachings. Excessive clinging to notions such as Absolute Consciousness or ‘You are the Witness’ or overly complicated metaphysics is a sure sign of not seeing the essence of what is being pointed to.
- The teachings are like a recipe – you follow the instructions and get the results. Until the food is made, you treasure the recipe for it is the gateway to your meal. Note that the cooked meal looks nothing like the recipe and you can throw away the recipe once you have mastered the cooking and are eating the meal. However, please don’t worship the recipe, please don’t (just) discuss recipes endlessly with your friends, and please don’t forget to do what it says!
Bodhidharma’s Zen: the Perfect Way, the Ultimate Truth
The following are excepts I’ve compiled from the Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma (the founder of Zen Buddhism) as translated by Red Pine. What do you think?
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The way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting.
The way has no form or sound. It’s subtle and hard to perceive.
It’s like when you drink water: you know how hot or cold it is but you can’t tell others.
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The ultimate Truth is beyond words.
Doctrines are words. They are not the Way.
The Way is wordless.
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If you see your nature, you don’t need to read sutras or invoke Buddhas.
Erudition and Knowledge are not only useless but also cloud your awareness.
Doctrines are only for pointing to the mind. Once you see your mind, why pay attention to doctrines?
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People, though, are deluded. They’re unaware that their own mind is the Buddha. Otherwise they wouldn’t look for a Buddha outside the mind.
Buddhas don’t ferry Buddhas to the shore of liberation. If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha.
As long as you seek Buddhas outwards, you’ll never see that your own Heart is the Buddha.
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To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha.
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If you don’t see your nature and run outwards to seek for external objects, you’ll never find a buddha.
The truth is there’s nothing to find.
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If you attain anything at all, it’s conditional.
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Defilement and attachment, subject and object don’t exist.
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All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring.
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A buddha is free of karma, free of cause and effect.
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To attain enlightenment you have to see your nature.
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It has never lived or died, appeared or disappeared, increased or decreased. It’s not pure or impure, good or evil, past or future. It’s not true or false. It’s not male or female. It doesn’t appear as a monk or a layman, an elder or a novice, a sage or a fool, a buddha or a mortal. It strives for no realisation and suffers no karma. It has no strength or form. It’s like space. You can’t possess it and you can’t lose it. Its movements can’t be blocked by mountains, rivers, or rock walls….No karma can restrain this real body. But this mind is subtle and hard to see. It’s not the same as the sensual mind.
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Everything that has a form is an illusion.
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Those who hold onto appearances are devils. They fall from the Path.
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All appearances are illusions.
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That which is free of all form is the Buddha.
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Wherever you find delight, you find bondage.
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I only talk about seeing your nature. I don’t talk about creating karma.
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The buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones.
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Detachment is enlightenment because it negates appearances.
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The appearance of appearance as no appearance can’t be seen visually, but can only be known by means of wisdom.
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All practices are impermanent.
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The sutras say, “Go beyond language. Go beyond thought.”
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Basically, seeing, hearing, and knowing are completely empty.
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Your anger, joy, or pain is like that of puppet.
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Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name but no form.
It’s not something you can pick up or put down. And you certainly can’t grab it.
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Whoever realizes that the six senses aren’t real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of buddhas.
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Not thinking about anything is Zen.
Don’t believe the hype
Public Enemy were onto something. They really were. Their song title ‘Don’t believe the hype’ has profound ramifications when applied to our own beliefs. We have consumed so many ideas of what will fulfill us, so much propaganda.
The mind churns out all sorts of formulas for what will make us happy. Don’t believe any of it. It’s all rubbish. All of it.
I’m not talking of practical issues of survival or health, etc. I’m talking about wanting more than that. I’m talking about dukkha, that insatiable existential itch that always comes back no matter how many times you scratch it.
The mind comes up with endless and repetitive ways of scratching that itch. But everything you think will make you happy – none of it will fill that deep dark hole inside you. Yes, it may give you some temporary pleasure, perhaps even some longer lasting pleasure too, but that void inside of you that tugs and tugs away at your insides returns saying “I want more, I want more…“:
I want a girlfriend/boyfriend
I want a degree/job/skill/to be able to dance better
I want to get drunk/get high/fall asleep
I want a bigger/new/better/faster ____.
I want a house/car/other object
I want to look better/bigger/thinner
I want curly/straight/blonde/brown hair
It’s even worse when people are involved. Then the “If onlys” start:
If only he did it this way
If only she shut up a bit
If only he was more considerate
If only she did not complain so much
If only he talked less
If only she talked more
Worse still are the “shoulds“:
I should have done ‘x’
He shouldn’t have done ‘y’
I can’t believe ‘z’ happened. ‘z’ so shouldn’t have happened
When it comes to spiritual matters, it’s just as bad, more hype:
I want to feel good forever and ever and ever
I want God to protect me and make me feel good (forever)…
I want to pray/meditate/go to church/satsang more…
I want to be able to do those yoga poses
I want to know all those scriptures and read all those books
I want the ultimate Understanding
I want Enlightenment
See, it’s all bogus. Phoney. Whatever you attain can be lost. I’ll repeat that – whatever you attain can be lost.
Any conceptual understanding gained is a concept that can be doubted or questioned. Eternal Happiness is right here and now. It is ever-present, just waiting to be noticed. And how do you notice it? Just by noticing the truth that you have believed the hype and created your misery.
Don’t believe the hype – then the misery and nagging itch inside that longs for more – that all disappears. And ‘you’ disappear along with it all, for all ‘you’ are is a bundle of thoughts. And what is left when ‘you’ disappear? Ahh, the sweetness of it all…indescribable
So next time you want something really bad, next time you think you know what will make you happy, take my advice: think again. What are you looking for? Will that really make you happy? As I said, it’s all rubbish. See through it all. Remember: don’t believe the hype.
The root concept
It is the concept of a subject,
That gives rise to the concept of an object.
Or put another way,
The concept of ‘me’,
That gives rise to ‘not me’.
But look at your experience for yourself:
What was thought to be the subject
Is actually also an object.
The experiencing entity that we take ourselves to be,
Is actually something we are aware of,
and not the subject at all.
The person looking at and experiencing life,
Is just a part of life,
Totally inseparable from life.
The body,
thoughts,
emotions,
inner sensations,
intuitions,
visions,
dreams.
– all these are objects.
– all these are sensations.
– none of these are ‘me’.
– none of these are ‘mine’.
Sensations cannot themselves sense.
The perceived cannot perceive.
In fact, looking at our own experience,
Where is the subject at all?
Look!
-There are only sensations.
-There are only objects.
-There is only experience.
-There is never the experience of the subject.
Look!
Experience is a seamless whole,
One seamless happening,
And the so-called experiencer, the ‘me’,
Is simply part of that happening.
So what are we left with?
Just this.
Life simply happening,
All by itself.
Roadmap to enlightenment: a (fairly) comprehensive guide to spiritual practices
This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles. Also see:
In Brief: how to attain Liberation
The entire path explained: the Path of Sri Ramana (Parts 1 and 2; PDF downloads)
This is one of the most important posts I have written – it condenses years of spiritual seeking which has involved exploring dozens of spiritual teachings, reading hundreds of books and texts from spiritual teachers and spiritual traditions across the world, undergoing all sorts of spiritual practices and meditations over the years, entering samadhi’s and experiencing visions of infinite oneness, and a genuine realisation of the Freedom-that-already-is.
The aim of the post is to guide you to a Freedom beyond words, but also stay concise. For all those people who have asked me: ‘That’s all very well but how do I actually become enlightened? How can we free ourselves from suffering? What do we do?’, this is for you, and others like you.
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Unknowing
All I know is I don’t know.
I don’t even know what doesn’t know.
Just all this,
Happening by itself:
No knowledge of a knower,
And never understanding any of it.
Mystery is an apt label,
For this unknowing.
Being fearless
Being fearless,
The body becomes wide open,
The heart sensitive and vast:
All thoughts, feelings and sensations are welcome here,
Even fear.
Completely open
We truly feel.
Willing to feel,
We are truly alive.
Not resisting,
We feel whole, connected.
Not knowing what will happen next,
Isn’t this true freedom?
Tom Das 