On Saturday
night, we will enter Rohatsu Sesshin, the seven-day sitting that celebrates
Shakyamuni’s enlightenment. It is said
that on that penultimate night, Mara the Evil One threw at our hero (as tricksters
do in most religions) all manner of temptations. And in my favorite version of that story, the
thirtysomething prince finally says to Mara, “I know who you are … you’re me.”
Exeunt
delusions.
Fast
forward a dozen centuries. The old
man-fox confesses to Baizhang that he guessed wrongly about how a Buddha
relates to cause and effect. Correct
answer: An enlightened one is not blind to cause and effect.
So, how
long will it take us to understand
that we are the cause and the
effect? That everything we put out comes
back, not sent by a wrathful Judge, but simply the natural consequence of interconnectedness. (If you doubt that concept, consider for a
moment that the iron atoms in your body were made in an exploding supernova so
long ago you can’t even comprehend the timeline. You’ve had more than 500 lifetimes, by a
factor inconceivable.)
The
celebration of Rohatsu, then, isn’t about someone else, a long time ago in a
land far, far away. The iron atoms of
enlightenment – acceptance of things just the way they are – have been
available to us for … ever. And because
of that, we know in our hearts who Shakyamuni Buddha was. He’s us.
1 comment:
I loved this line: "So, how long will it take us to understand that we are the cause and the effect? That everything we put out comes back, not sent by a wrathful Judge, but simply the natural consequence of interconnectedness." Thank you.
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