It reminded me of a book in my library called Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten, which goes into a lot more detail on the subject. He draws on the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. Much of the material covered in the BBC documentary is drawn from the same material.

The Bible doesn’t overly suit my type of mind. Neither do lot of Buddhist texts for that matter. In my mind there are no -isms or -anities. What religion is there other than the luminous mind? Gods, devas, and miracles aren’t really my cup of tea as awareness is miraculous enough for me. Nevertheless, as I recall, the Gospel of Thomas (in the apocrypha) talks about Thomas, Mary and Jesus heading down to India.

In the esoteric school I did my early training in, one of the basic beliefs was that Christ was none other than Maitreya Buddha. It all gets a bit complex about the relationship between Christ and Jesus, not that it really matters. One of the views as much I understood it was that Buddha perfected wisdom, creating the religion for the East, and Christ perfected love, creating the religion for the West. Two sides of the same coin.

To that end, the other day, I was listening to a FBA lecture where the basic premise was that for bodhicitta to arise you had to simultaneously detach from the world and engage your fellow beings through loving kindness.

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Despite this amazing and perhaps courageous act, enlightenment didn’t come quickly to Chiyono. However, she was a deteremined student. At last, one moonlit night, she filled her old water bucket from a well (a well that centuries later would still bear her name). As she walked away, she saw the full moon reflected on the surface of the water. As she continued along the path, the circular bamboo strip gave way that had held together the staves of her bucket. Instantly, the bottom broke through, the moon’s reflection vanished, the bucket disintegrated, and all its water drained into the soil beneath. At this moment, Chiyono experienced a sudden, penetrating flash of insight-wisdom.

She later explained it this way: ‘‘I had hoped the weak bamboo binding would hold the water bucket together. But suddenly the bottom fell out of the bucket: no more water. No more moon in the water. Emptiness in my hand!’’

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We can put so much energy into ending wanting and ending anger.  And some good can be done that way.  What greater good is there in abandoning a sense of self!  Not good in some pseudo-intellectual way.  Good in what makes us happy.  What is the point in feeling anxiety?  I really like Shantideva’s observation

All those who fail to understand
The secret of the mind, the greatest of all things,
Although they wish for joy and sorrow’s end,
Will wander to no purpose, useleslly.

Therefore I will take in hand
And well protect this mind of mine.
What use to me are many disciplines,
If I can’t guard and discipline my mind?

Thank you.

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Meditation is so very useful and it’s not necessarily what happens during meditation. Although the stilling of the mind does help. But here’s what I think for what it’s worth.

A common view is that practice has two wings:- emptiness and compassion. I think there’s another way of looking at it, which are the three marks of existence:- impermanence, selflessness and suffering.

It goes something like this. Our suffering is cause by clinging to a sense of self. You feel anxious or stressed, there’s a sense of self behind it. In other words “I am the direct cause of my suffering,” or put slightly differently “When I cling to a self, I suffer.”

Here’s the irony in the situation. The I is an illusion. No matter where you look you can’t find it. Meditation on emptiness, or even meditation on being reveals this. The I is a construct, even a constellation of constructs of beliefs and views, an impermanent phantasm created within our own minds.

The instrument of our suffering has no inherent existence.

In other words. You are free.

Now the nice thing is that meditation develops the precious treasure of mindfulness and extends the time between impulse and action, giving us a spaciousness within action. That’s how we can see that anxiety is linked to self while we’re feeling anxious.

So, if there’s no self, what is there? Whatever it is…

And that’s why right now I’m going to go and sit on my mat.

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Ancestor Nagarjuna said: ‘The mind that fully sees into the uncertain world of birth and death is called the thought of enlightenment: bodhicitta. Thus if we maintain this mind, this mind can become the thought of enlightenment. Indeed, when you understand discontinuity, the notion of self does not come into being. Ideas of name and gain do not arise. Fearing the swift passage of the sunlight, practice the way as though saving your head from fire. Reflecting on this ephemeral life, make endeavor in the manner of Buddha raising his foot.’
Dogen

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“Therefore, Sariputra, the Bodhisattva without mental impediments, without notions of attainment and non-attainment, abides in reliance upon Prajnaparamita. Without mental impediments, he is undisturbed. He has fearlessly transcended the false tendencies to crave for permanence, comfort, concept of self or delight. Thus Nirvana is attained.
The Heart Sutra

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Section 1.33 of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is an interesting case in point.

By generating and cultivating the intent and deep feelings (bhavanatas) of friendliness and loving kindness (maitri), love and compassion (karuna), happiness (mudita), equanimity (upeksanam) and sympathetic joyfulness (sukha) in [all] conditions and events (visayanam) whether it be potentially joyful (sukha) or painful (dukha), auspicious (punya-apunya) or not, a sweet grace arises that establishes a clarity of the heartmind (citta-prasadanam).

In one blissful swoop, Patanjali establishes the four brahmaviharas (divine abodes). How they got their name is interesting. The story goes that Buddha was asked about how to be reborn in the heavenly (brahma) realms. His response, in short, was to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity.

Now, I’m not a Sanskrit scholar of any kind of merit, but I find it interesting that Patanjali has chosen the work upeksanam, when I would have expected samatA, but what do I know. Upeksa is Pali for equanimity, but my understanding of Upeksana in Sanskrit is that it has a sense of neglect. What I think this indicates, and it runs contrary to some of the teachings I’ve had over the years in terms of when Patanjali existed, is that Patanjali was refering to Buddha’s teaching, otherwise he’d have chosen a more neutral Sanskrit work.

What’s also interesting is this reference to four cultivations. Mostly we’re used to mettabhavana (the cultivation of loving kindness). And I do like the Dalia Lama’s view that his religion is loving kindess. But there are three more cultivations:- karuna, mudita and upeksa.

In a separate discussion Buddha did offer a practice, known as mettabhavana, which as far as I can tell has its origins in the Karaniya Metta Sutta.

This is to be done by one skilled in aims
who wants to break through to the state of peace:
Be capable, upright, & straightforward,
easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited,
content & easy to support,
with few duties, living lightly,
with peaceful faculties, masterful,
modest, & no greed for supporters.

Do not do the slightest thing
that the wise would later censure.

Think: Happy, at rest,
may all beings be happy at heart.
Whatever beings there may be,
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, blatant,
seen & unseen,
near & far,
born & seeking birth:
May all beings be happy at heart.

Let no one deceive another
or despise anyone anywhere,
or through anger or irritation
wish for another to suffer.

As a mother would risk her life
to protect her child, her only child,
even so should one cultivate a limitless heart
with regard to all beings.
With good will for the entire cosmos,
cultivate a limitless heart:
Above, below, & all around,
unobstructed, without enmity or hate.
Whether standing, walking,
sitting, or lying down,
as long as one is alert,
one should be resolved on this mindfulness.
This is called a sublime abiding
here & now.

Not taken with views,
but virtuous & consummate in vision,
having subdued desire for sensual pleasures,
one never again
will lie in the womb.

What if we were to take the same approach for the other three bhavanas? And that’s what I’ve done with my metta bhavana practice, borrowing from Tara Brach. May I experience the joy of being alive, may I be filled with loving kindness, may I express compassion towards all beings. Or something like this. And of course the usual metta bhavana practice extends this from onesself through to all beings. And there’s the equanimity part.

However you look at it, the four brahmaviharas lead to a divine abode in this life. After all Samsara is Nirvana and Nirvana is Samsara.

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In fact in “The Voice of the Silence”, Blavatsky writes

But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed.

These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. ‘Tis on such soil that grows the midnight blossom of Buddha more difficult to find, more rare to view than is the flower of the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust, it leads him through the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known only in the land of Silence and Non-Being.

A.A.Bailey writes in “The Rays and initiation”

When a Master takes the fifth initiation He… must become consciously aware of the highest aspect: the Will-to-Good. He has developed in Himself “the love necessary to salvation, His own and that of those He loves, His fellowmen;” all His actions and His thinking are qualified by goodwill, in its esoteric sense, and the significance of the Will-to-Good lies ahead of Him and will be later revealed.

Apparently amongst Christian esoterocists, the initiation when one becomes an arhat is understandably called the Ressurection. But apparently, it is the seventh which is the true ressurection. Hell, what do I know?

The fifth initiation is also called among esotericists: the initiation of revelation. I find this more interesting because of the emphasis within Buddhism on awakening. The word Buddha itself meaning one who has awoken; achieving liberation and revelation/awakening occuring at the same point.

Lest we forget. The Diamond Sutra, in which Buddha speaks to his disciple Subhuti, reminds us that there is no ego here.

“Subhuti, what do you think, can an Arhat have the thought, ‘Have I attained the Way of the Arhat?’” Subhuti said, “No World Honored One. Why? Actually there is no dharma called ‘Arhat.’ World Honored One, if an Arhat had the thought, ‘I have attained the Way of the Arhat,’ that would be an attachment to self, others, living beings and to a life. World Honored One, the Buddha has said that I am foremost in the attainment of the No Strife Samadhi, and I am the foremost Arhat free from desire. Yet, World Honored One, I do not have the thought, ‘I am an Arhat free from desire.’ If I had the thought, ‘I have attained the Way of the Arhat,’ then the World Honored One would not say, ‘Subhuti is foremost of those who delight in practicing Aranya.’ Since Subhuti actually does not practice anything, he is called, ‘Subhuti who delights in practicing Aranya.’”

So, this initiation – The initiation of liberation, of revelation – Is it the initiation of enlightenment? Well, just what does one mean by enlightenment? It does all get hard to fathom. We know the practice works in our own lives. We’ve seen what happens, so looking ahead isn’t such a bad thing.

In one sense, what we count as the first initiation isn’t. Counting is a diffiult affair. I offer in that light and the light of Buddha’s discussion with Subhuti, here’s what Dogen has to say in the Shobogenzo:

The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind in the present transcend self and other; correct from head to tail, they are beyond our ability to comprehend thoroughly. For this reason, one’s whole body, as it is, “does not covet and is not defiled.” It does not covet and is not defiled by the whole of “any phenomena, existent or non-existent.” The wholeness, just as it is, of “holding to the four-line verse,” is called “does not covet and is not defiled”; it is also called “the fourth stage of fruition.” The fourth stage of fruition is the arhat.

Just a thought.

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