A worldling either grasps upon the pleasant or agreeable and rejects the unpleasant or disagreeable. Grasping or rejection is attachment or aversion which is the cause of suffering or vexation. Attachment and aversion weary one’s spirit or cause mental fatigue. The Buddhadharma is aimed to destroy human suffering or anguish. That is also the object of the Chan practice. The Buddha does not preach that we cease utilizing the senses to practise non-attachment and non-aversion. The Blessed One trains us to utilize the senses without attachment or aversion by not grasping upon the five aggregates. The wise lives in the contaminated world but is uncontaminated. The lotus grows through the muddy water, springs above the surface of the water and is unsoiled . The Chan practice or any Dharma practice is aimed at training the worldlings to become like the unsoiled lotus plants.
If one aspires to enter the one vehicle which is the Supreme Way of the Buddha, one should not feel averse towards the sensual activities which contains either positive or negative stimuli which excite or disturb our senses.
Actually , the Supreme Way is not difficult if one ceases grasping or rejecting . Grasping or rejecting is attachment or aversion. Detachment or non-attachment , which is Chan, is the skill of vigilant mindfulness and clear awareness to realize the Supreme Way which is self-enlightenment. Hui-neng , the 6th Chinese Chan Patriarch, describes Buddhist practice of Chan brilliantly thus : Being mentally unperturbed is concentration (samādhi) and being unattached to the external stimuli is wisdom (prajñā) which is the state of Chan. The Buddha teaches us the four applications of the foundations of mindfulness (cattāri satipațțțhāna) so that the Dharma practioners will not develop attachment to or aversion towards his body feelings , mind and phenomena . Non-attachment is not rejection of human body, feelings , mind and phenomena . It is living in the human body with feelings and mind confronting the empirical world without greed , hatred and delusion . Non-attachment is non-object reification which annihilates mental false conceptualizations and obsessions. Non-attachment is non-grasping leading to realization of Nirvāṇa which is salvation .
Editor’s Note:
Chan or Zen practice is living one’s life or commission of all daily activities (personal or business activities) without being directed and empowered by self-centric ego. It is the death of ego-self replaced by the cosmic Self. The former is the false self or empirical self. The latter is the True Self or transcendental Self. The transcendental Self is the mind of Buddha or God. Buddhist Chan or Zen is synonymous with Sufi wisdom of al-fanā’. All esoteric teachings of dissimilar religions converge at the communal Truth of Unity or Non-duality.
To be continued ….
