Today was a bit overwhelming with a brief overview of Buddhism beginning right after the historical Buddha stood up from the Bodhi tree and started teaching. Today we covered the "three baskets" Trpitaka: Sutra Pitaka, Vinaya-Pitaka, and Abhidharma-Pitaka. Sutra are mainly discourses of the Buddha, sermons, public talks etc.. Vinaya covers the monastic community. Abhidarma is more philosophical and metaphysic. For anyone of interest, there are three canons of Buddhism: Pali Canon, Chinese (influenced East Asian Buddhism), and Tibetan. Of course Bon is not part of these Canons but that is my mission:) We shall see.
So I've had sometime to contemplate life a bit today in the midst of soaking in Tibetan for my test on Tuesday. So I'm beginning to understand the significance of meditation.... I think. But what really is enlightenment? When we attain it then some say that we are just out of cyclic existence. Others say that then our mission is to help sentient beings after attaining enlightenment. Does that mean we stop evolving? I understand that we completely dissolve karma and go beyond the conceptual mind. So no more "action" is taken....but if we come to help other sentient beings, isn't that an action? Or is the action when we label it good or bad. Or give it an adjective. So karma is only when we conceptualize it. hmmmm. So action is only bad when we think it is. But also we must take in account of motivation. If our motivation is pure then our action is pure....or "good" but that is still a concept. hmmmm.
Do we reach that non-dual union of emptiness and form? So from that do we keep evolving after enlightenment to catch up with the every changing evolutionary world that we live in or can we see everything in one spot, one instant and enlightenment goes beyond time and evolution? Are we only here to transcend or transform? Do we transcend by transforming? Surrendering the ego to the benefit of evolution. A continuous transforming flux. We are not solid, we are in a stream of continuous transformation. I think enlightenment has to do with that. Surrender. Jump out of the ego box for the benefit of humanity. The warrior. I think once we forget about the questions of enlightenment and just surrender for humanity....that is when we will attain it. So meditation allows us to transform. By catching our thoughts we catch our patterns. The transformation begins. New neural pathways are opened up. We move out of our stuck patterns that bind us in our ego box. Meditation, from what I understand, allows us to look at ourselves and move stuckness. First we have to realize we are in an ego box....then we say whoa!!! It's time to transform and bust out. See people for their authentic selves and not through our own conceptual mind. The concepts get shifted through meditation, and perhaps dissolve? I think then we reach our purpose on this earth. It just spontaneously arises the inherent wisdom, loving kindness, clarity, openness, and generosity. When we are unstuck from our conceptual mind, these inherent characteristics shine forth.
Have I lost sense? I'm tired. I hope this wasn't dizzying. This was my thought process today. With the occasional, what will I have for lunch? I can't believe I did that three years ago. If she really knew who I was, I don't think she would think the same way. Ka, Na, Pha Ma (Tibetan). OH the mind!!!!
I'm going to do extra meditation tomorrow.
Tibetan word of the day: སྙིང་རྗེ་(ning je. compassion)
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