Notes on Chapters 21

The Buddha

The buddha was enlightened. He achieved profound insight into the workings of the mind and that insight set him free from suffering. How did that happen?

First of all, he was capable of it from the beginning. I reject the proposal that this was something unique to the historical Shakyamuni. In principle, everyone is capable of enlightenment. He was capable of enlightenment specifically because he was a human, as opposed to a mosquito or a rock. But just being a human wasn’t enough, he also was a human who had an inquisitive nature, who felt deeply the sufferings of life, and who refused to stop his inquiry before he found a solution that totally extinguished the problem. He studied philosophy, but found that no one agreed, and no one had a solid foundation for their views. He studied meditation, and although he was able to achieve extremely rarified states of mind, the problem of suffering remained unresolved. He practiced asceticism, and developed a legendary endurance for hardship, but to no avail. Then he brought all of the qualities he had developed to a profound inquiry into suffering itself, saw the process that led to its arising, and by understanding it saw the cessation of that process.

What is the most encouraging thing about this story? To me, it is the fact that he was 35 years old when he attained enlightenment. When I think of the story of the buddha, my only concern is whether or not this kind of insight is possible for me. This question has to be put to rest for the actual inquiry to begin, and I would like to have sound reason to believe my conclusion. So what is so great about the fact that the buddha was enlightened at 35? The buddha was well beyond the critical developmental period for the faculties of a human adult. He was fully mature before he even set out on his journey to seek enlightenment. There is a brief period from 3-6 years old, for example, where any child exposed to the right experiences will develop perfect pitch. The wonderful, luminous, fully enlightened buddha, at 35 years old, could not develop perfect pitch through any amount of training. But he could get enlightened.

The second thing that is encouraging about this story is that Shakyamuni, described as being an exceptional person in terms of intelligence, sensitivity, and determination, got no reprieve from his suffering as a result of his talents. The single critical factor for his enlightenment was the audacity to suppose that he could directly investigate and understand this problem for himself. When the buddha was on the cusp of enlightenment, Mara came to him as the personification of doubt and said, “Who are you to presume that you can become enlightened? Who will believe you? Who will bear witness to your claims?” To which he replied, “the earth will bear witness.” The story goes on to describe how the earth roared and shook as a response, but I think it’s much more interesting and realistic to assume that the earth was silent. The buddha completely dismissed external validation. From that point on he never conceived of himself again anyway. What use is praise or validation when you have no object to apply it to?

In my experience this quality of self-reliance can be cultivated. The habit of seeking and adopting external perspectives can be recognized, its shortcomings can be perceived, and it can be abandoned. The buddha was an ordinary person who tirelessly pursued a goal. He was willing to go through pain and hardship, to make many mistakes and take many wrong turns, to listen and learn from anyone who had something to teach, and ultimately to rely on his own insight. This reassures me much more than it would reassure me to think of the buddha as an exceptional emanation of the pristine dharmakaya existing beyond space and time. In this respect I take refuge in the buddha.

The Dharma

The word dharma has many meanings depending on the context. As the second of the three jewels, it can mean the teachings of the buddha, the practices prescribed by the buddha, or the living realization of the fruit of those practices in the human heart. All three are important. The sutras, although distorted by centuries of oral transmission and overt meddling, still give an instructive window onto how the buddha responded to particular people with their particular problems. The practices are the actual work. Knowledge of weight training does not result in bigger muscles, and the same is true of the methods for training the mind. You’ve got to do the work. Without the living insight however, the exercises can be performed incorrectly or misunderstood. In fact, without this final “dharma” there is no way of navigating the sutras or the practices.

If the buddha is a particular person who set out on a path of training the mind, the dharma in this lattermost sense is the mode of functioning of the fully trained mind. In that mode of functioning, the fully developed faculties of the buddha and the application of those faculties to the present moment can’t be separated. I’m not sure whether it’s more misleading to talk about these as faculties or as actions, but whatever they are I’ll summarize them as:

1. Penetrating awareness
2. Active intelligence
3. Suspension of conceptualization
4. Profound willingness
5. Depth of feeling

The big question is: how can I develop them? The answer is: with friends.

The Sangha

It is great to have a place to practice, but it is more important to have people to practice with. In the sangha, you become a cell in the body of the living buddha, and that buddha is not some abstract, extra-perceptual phenomenon. You can see the buddha live on right now in yourself and in the people around you. It’s neat. When you sit down with a group of people who are compassionate, curious, and aware, directing their attention towards the problem of human suffering, you will notice a shift in your own mind state, in your own orientation. At that moment, who is practicing? Whose practice is this?

The buddha himself had a small sangha of dedicated practitioners for the six years of extreme practices leading up to his enlightenment. Ultimately he decided to try something different, so they parted ways, but immediately after his enlightenment he sought them out and told them about his discovery. What a guy! Why isn’t more emphasis put on the support they provided him with over the years that they practiced together?

The more I think about it, the more I recognize the importance of the sangha. I would like to make an exhaustive list what the sangha makes possible, but I’m lazy. Instead, I’ll conclude with a crude list of a few of the functions it provides.

1. Interpenetration of good qualities – In the sangha you will mix with people of varying degrees of practice attainment, and the qualities that they have cultivated will rub off on you. In sports this is called “playing up.” If you want to improve, you try to find people that you can practice with who are more skilled than you are currently. In the practice, thanks to the diversity of dispositions and qualities to be developed, even people of equal or lesser practice experience than you may shine in one particular way. In short: there is something you can learn from everyone.
2. Transformation of reactivity – When you join the sangha, you’re kind of signing an implicit contract that says, “I am here to transform my mind, my reactivity.” If everyone is on the same page on this point, interpersonal clashes and conflicts become super-fuel for transformation.
3. Bias erosion – Everyone has a habitual approach and perspective. If your way of doing things worked perfectly, you wouldn’t need the practice. In the sangha you don’t try to adopt someone else’s approach, but you listen deeply, repeatedly, without analyzing or judging, to the practice experience of your sangha friends, and gradually you start to see new approaches to problems.
4. Extra attention – What I mean here is that at a given moment, you can only track so many things. This is especially the case when you are trying to make sense of a strong emotion or old pattern of reactivity. In this case, someone outside of you can function as an extension of your faculties, your perspective. Parents do this with kids all of the time. When you’re crying, it can be hard to remember that this is the moment for unconditional love. But someone can bring that perspective into the present moment in a very concrete way by holding you. When you have some experience in the practice, a single word from a sangha friend can be enough to tip the scales and move you out of a cycle of reactivity. Stop. Smile. Grieve. Breathe. Let go.
5. Collective zest – Try on these two phrases and tell me which one is more fun to say:
   1. I will do it!
   2. Let’s do it!
6. Harmony with human nature – Human beings begin life as a we, not as an I. In the world today there are two kinds of self: the one that each of us intuitively develops as a part of our response to the world, and the one that is a political abstraction, the individual. Did either of these play an important role in the profound sense of safety and security of life in the womb? Fundamentally, I believe that we all have the capacity to reconnect with a felt sense of being an extension of something huge, powerful, warm, and protective. In adult life, the realm of expression for these feelings is shared endeavor. In short, doing things together feels right.