Seeking Enlightenment is No Hindrance

There's this perennial debate among Zensters about whether Buddhist teachings should reference enlightenment (sometimes called kensho, awakening, or realization), and whether the term points to anything "real."

This debate goes back to ancient times when some suggested that seeking is a delusion, and others suggested that seeking is essential.

Nowadays, some argue that the notion of enlightenment is problematic because it is the basis of hierarchies (teachers are "enlightened" while students are "not"), and these hierarchies result in abuses. Also, some, particularly from the Soto tradition, suggest that the notion of enlightenment is problematic because it suggests a particular state of mind that exists in opposition to other states of mind, creating dualistic notions. Therefore, anyone using the term is actually deluded. Third, they say that this notion of enlightenment causes striving, which is counterproductive. Finally, some suggest that awakening itself is makyo -- a temporary illusion generated by demons that comes and goes like everything else.

Others, like Dosho Port, defend kensho, citing Buddha himself who, as the story goes, was enlightened and "together with all beings attained the way." (James Ford, my first teacher, lovingly tells that tale here.)

I am a Soto priest in Boundless Way Zen and have practiced in the trackless land of shikantaza for many years. We take the Buddha seat, "sit down, shut up, and pay attention," as James is fond of saying. There is a kind of faith and recognition in this practice that whatever life offers is exactly the Way. In this practice, we find the wisdom of no escape, an openness to whatever is as the very dharma we seek.

Still, we make the effort of joining sangha-mates for intensive practice periods. We put on our robes at the sound of the bell, offer incense to the Buddha, and follow highly choreographed forms. To leave home and practice like this requires great commitment and suggests that even though lying around eating bon bons is also the Way, doing so is unlikely to help us realize it.

Many of our Soto practices are based on the teachings of Japanese Zen master Dogen. In the early years of his practice, Dogen's driving hwadu was, in short, why practice? "If everything already has Buddha nature, and if we are therefore already enlightened, why should we practice at all?"

But Dogen did not then take this intellectual notion that we are already enlightened as an excuse to avoid seeking the truth. Dogen went on a quest, crossing the sea to find a teacher in China who could help him resolve this troubling matter. He traveled the lands meeting master after master and was not satisfied till he had his own enlightenment experience. The story goes something like this:

"Dogen studied with Master Rujing. One evening during the intensive summer training, in the first year of Pao-chang, 1225, Rujing shouted at a disciple, 'When you study under a master, you must drop the body and mind. What is the use of single-minded intense sleeping?' Sitting right beside this monastic, Dogen suddenly attained great enlightenment. Immediately, he went up to the abbot’s room and burned incense. Rujing said, 'Why are you burning incense?' Dogen said, 'Body and mind have been dropped off.' Rujing said, 'Body and mind dropped off. The dropped-off body and mind.' Dogen said, 'This may only be a temporary ability. Please don’t approve me arbitrarily.' Rujing said, 'I am not.' Dogen said, 'What is that which isn’t given arbitrary approval?' Rujing said, 'Body and mind dropped off.' Dogen bowed. Rujing said, 'The dropping off is dropped.'"

It is essential to note Dogen's sense of purpose, his sense of release, his checking with his teacher to confirm his enlightenment, and finally Rujing's encouragement that Dogen let go even of the notion that body and mind dropped off.

This enlightenment experience was transformative for Dogen. Dogen could not comprehend the truth of the dharma until he saw it for himself. Faking it based on some intellectual claim is no substitute.

Dogen subsequently returned to Japan where he assumed a teaching position and began to write. In his Genjokoan, Dogen writes, "If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind." We should not say that we do not need to fan ourselves (or practice) or we will not understand the living dharma. He continues, "The nature of wind is permanent; because of that, the wind of the Buddha’s house brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river." The gold of the earth and fragrance of the cream of the long river are already thus. And, there is no gap between the wind of the Buddha's house and the wind from a fan. Fanning is no hindrance to the wind.

The founder of Soto wrote about enlightenment extensively (e.g. "Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in the water"*). Still, I appreciate the cautions offered by those who speak against using the term. As for how the term contributes to hierarchies, there is truth to this, and hierarchies have their shadows that we must recognize. But in throwing out teachers, we would throw out the baby with the bathwater. I am deeply indebted to my teachers and could never repay them for their guidance and wisdom in helping cultivate compassion and cut through delusions. Still, we must learn from abuses in the past. We have seen again and again that even teachers with deep insight stray and cause harm. In fact, one of my teachers suffered at the hands of her first teacher who had some insight into the great matter. She had to leave him to find another teacher. So what can we learn? First, my teacher abandoned the abuser, not the dharma. We do not need to throw out the dharma because some fail to live up to it. Second, we can recognize that enlightenment does not mean perfection of character. In fact, enlightenment never means what we think it means. Regardless of spiritual insight, we need the container of the precepts to guide us. Third, we need structures in our sanghas such as clear ethical guidelines, means for students to air complaints, and real accountability to help prevent future abuses.

Now, what to make of the argument that we should abandon the notion of enlightenment because it creates dualistic notions? Actually, any teaching is dualistic. The moment we open our mouths we are in the realm of dualistic thinking. This doesn't mean we abandon the dharma. The dharma helps us see how yin depends on yang, how enlightenment depends upon delusion, how emptiness depends upon form, and how all of these notions collapse. In practicing with thinking, we gain our freedom as we see that even dualistic thinking is another dharma gate. Duality is no hindrance to nonduality.

Another complaint is that notions of enlightenment lead to striving. I would suggest that striving is not so bad. It can even be good! It depends what we are striving for. For me, practice sometimes feels like swimming upstream. Our conditioned habit minds are strong. So often we unconsciously long to get through this moment so we can get to the next one, which we often imagine will be better. We are conditioned to feel dissatisfied by endless TV commercials that tell us life would be better if only we owned this or that product. We can also be possessed by our judgments of right and wrong, so much so that we are blind to the people in front of us, so much so that we even kill one another. We get caught up in conceptual maps of reality, like a driver who imagines that looking at Google Maps is the same as watching the road. One reason we get so caught in our conceptual maps is because we are taught in schools to value "knowing" above all else. When we do not know something conceptually, we are labeled as failures. We desperately want to avoid that shame. Point is, if someone suggests that there is no reason to awaken, I would be concerned that a touch of hubris may have slipped into that person's view of themselves. All we need to do is pay attention for a few moments and we realize that "delusions are endless" and we do get swept along. So we "vow to end them." This doesn't mean we cut off thinking. We practice seeing our delusions clearly. This we call waking up! It requires intentionality.

Terms like awakening, enlightenment, and emptiness which convey something beyond conception help us realize that though our proud brains wish it were otherwise, our conceptual maps cannot "know" immeasurable reality. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of the "intimacy" toward which all this language points, and it make our eyes water. A pebble strikes a stalk of bamboo. A bird sings in our heart. A flash of lightning in a summer cloud. And with that opening, we begin to trust something that includes yet extends beyond words, that includes yet extends beyond striving. And in this boundless intimacy, language and striving are no hindrance at all.

As for the question of whether kensho is makyo, Dosho puts it this way: "If you think kenshō is makyō, you might consider the possibility that this thought itself is makyō."

My encouragement: if you are curious, follow that curiosity. Find a sangha with an authorized Zen teacher. Draw on all the "technologies of awakening" available to you. And go ahead and seek the truth. "Bind grasses to build a hut, and don't give up!"*


* Dogen's "Genjokoan"
**Shitou Xiqian's "Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage"