Zen story: Enlightenment sits above consciousness
@innertalks (21087)
Australia
June 22, 2021 3:56pm CST
The old Zen master, Doghkin Dunhokho, was talking about how enlightenment is related to consciousness.
He said that before enlightenment, we live consciously, but unilluminated.
After enlightenment, we live illuminated, but unconsciously, or without consciousness.
"Why is this so?"
He asked the students, gathered around him.
"I will answer this question with another question."
"What is the zen of zen?"
My answer:
"The oldest tree in our garden."
He then went on to explain his koan, to his students.
"Energy flows unconsciously perfectly, in enlightenment, consciousness always disrupts this perfect flowing."
"Enlightened awareness sits above consciousness."
"Consciousness still divides. Awareness, enlightenment is united in oneness."
"Enlightenment frees you from consciousness, and your attachment to consciousness."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
This old tree was enlightened too, or was it?
Well, had it stepped into, and then gone past, consciousness yet?
Every step on our path is important, and leads us onto the next step.
5 people like this
4 responses
@innertalks (21087)
• Australia
23 Jun 21
And that is enough!
As long as it lifts you with God's grace above your own thoughts, so that you can live from God's thoughts, and ways, for your life.
The point I was making here is that consciously we can not do much on our own, and we need to take the next step into God, so to speak, to reach a higher way of living, being, thinking, and loving, through him being in us, and we connecting to him, so that in this way, we are full of his light, or enlightened by God, and not just trying to enlighten ourselves from our own self's consciousness alone.
2 people like this
@just4him (307646)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
23 Jun 21
@innertalks That's a good point and one I understand.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21087)
• Australia
23 Jun 21
@just4him Thanks. I have a highfalutin way of explaining what I probably should try to explain more simply.
I like to write a story, or a parable, where one has to think about it.
But, probably, I am the only one that gets my own meaning, unless I explain it more clearly!
@DocAndersen (54407)
• United States
23 Jun 21
the mountain with a 1000 steps!
The concept of a path. It is interesting but I would throw in the wrinkle of Robert Frost's poem (I came to a fork in the road, and I took the trail less traveled, and I am all the better for it).
Sometimes we have to walk a path that seems off the path of others.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21087)
• Australia
23 Jun 21
Our rightful path is always off of the path of all others. Our path is always unique only to ourselves.
We are placed here in life, and the game is to find our real self, within God.
God hides this real self within our hearts.
We need to forge our own path, and find our own way back again to this real self, and then start being that self, in our lives.
This is the game of life, that God sets up for us, and expects us to play with him, as the mentor, not so much as an opponent.
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
23 Jun 21
Eternity ... Christians think it hasn't started yet, but that's because they forget two of the defining characteristics of Heaven---it IS forever in the future (after we die & rot in the ground or live in Heaven), but it's also 'for all time in the past' and 'for all time RIGHT NOW.'
2 people like this
@innertalks (21087)
• Australia
23 Jun 21
I wonder about eternity. What could it be exactly, or represent?
Eternity is the reach of God's arms, which reach into all things created, and uncreated too.
Eternity comes alive in God through his creation alive in him, and yet eternity is a man-made concept, based around his idea of time, as God remains untimed, but allows time to pass in creation, so as to order events in their sequencing.
@Shiva49 (26233)
• Singapore
23 Jun 21
We need to be fully conscious as a first step of our true potential and, maybe, then slowly ease into enlightenment.
It should be a gradual process without panting and puffing to stretch to the highest level of sublime living.
It is never an easy ride but it should not be so too. We need to step into uncharted territory and rarefied atmosphere - not for the faint of heart!
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21087)
• Australia
23 Jun 21
Yes, being fully conscious is usually the first step for most people, unless we are born with the silver spoon of enlightenment already feeding us, in our mouths, like the rare few are.
Life is a gradual walk towards ourselves.
We should not walk away from our real self then, but always try to get closer to it, and to be enlightened in who we really are, for God.
@innertalks (21087)
• Australia
24 Jun 21
@Shiva49 Consciousness, for now, seems to only apply to humans, as we wouldn't call a tree conscious, but according to my Zen master here, a tree can be enlightened.
Everything is enlightened then apart from man, because of his step down into consciousness, and so once he rids himself of consciousness, he can step back up again into enlightenment then too.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26233)
• Singapore
24 Jun 21
@innertalks We tend to think consciousness and enlightenment are esoteric areas, thoughts, subjects, that are beyond us but once we take the first few steps, we feel their pull of union with the ultimate source.
Then nothing else matters though we still can live a normal life here but with a clear goal.
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