“World-Honoured One, when good males and good girls have made up their minds to realize supreme enlightenment, how ought to they stay, and the way ought to they give up their minds?”
Commentary:
This query requested by Subhuti is quite common amongst Buddhists: How ought to I subdue, or management my thoughts to realize enlightenment? It is a typical instance that exhibits how we sentient beings are deluded by illusions. Contemplating this query, we will see not solely how illogical we’re but in addition how unaware we’re of what we are saying. For instance, if somebody says, “How can I take care of my automotive?”, we don’t doubt that he is aware of what his automotive is like; its color, age, dimension, situation and so forth, as a result of this query is feasible provided that he is aware of his automotive. Nevertheless, asking, “How ought to I subdue, or management my thoughts to realize enlightenment?” signifies that we aren’t conscious of even the truth that we don’t know what our minds are, as a result of figuring out one’s thoughts isn’t any apart from enlightenment. In different phrases, one who is aware of one’s thoughts by no means seeks enlightenment as a result of he’s already enlightened.
After we say that the aim of Buddhism is to realize enlightenment, it additionally means to understand what thoughts is.
There’s a well-known dialogue between Bodhidharma and his disciple named Haega which exhibits this case.
At some point Haega stated to Bodhidharma, “My thoughts continues to be not comfy. Please, make my thoughts comfy.” Bodhidharma stated, “Deliver your thoughts, and I’ll make it comfy.” Haega responded, “I can’t discover my thoughts despite the fact that I’ve sought it.” Bodhidharma stated, “I’ve made your thoughts comfy now.” At this second Haega attained enlightenment, which implies that he lastly realised what his thoughts was for the primary time.
Q: “How ought to I subdue my thoughts to realize enlightenment?”
A: “Discover what your thoughts is previous to making an attempt to subdue it.”
Q: “What’s my thoughts?”
A: “The place is your query from?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All photographs ©Simon Hathaway
