Radiant_Light by AsaLegault

A long time ago, the people of the Eastern hemisphere chose to investigate and explore consciousness and its relationship to reality. Many thousands of years have passed since that initial plunge, resulting in a variety of “answers,” word-forms and concepts. Yet, as the Tao te Ching says, “The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.” I take solace in reminding myself of this, and the long history of inquiry, resultant variety of “answers” and insights, and the amazing timeless dedication and diligence of so many over time and still today.

Tibet so fully honored India as the source of the teachings that, to this day, Sanskrit terms are used widely in Tibetan Buddhism. Examples include:

• sunyata – emptiness, voidness, openness, infinitude
• sugata – suchness
• kaya – form, embodiment, vessel, dimension or sphere of experience. Kaya is also related to expressive capacity and expressing quality.
• dharma – one group of meanings is in reference to phenomena; any phenomenon – thoughts are dharmas, muffins are dharmas, self is a dharma. Another group of meanings refers to teachings that have Truth and investigation of illusion, thus falsehood, as their focus. Dharma also means one’s Path; such as “it’s my Dharma.” Dharma means TRUTH – REAL, for example, in the term dharmakaya.
• buddha – an Awakened One; inferring to wake up from dream-like life or seeming reality
• bodhichitta – This term also has many layers of meaning. Commonly: the mind of enlightenment – meaning setting one’s mind on the intention of enlightenment in order to liberate others and one’s self. The emphasis is on setting the intention, setting one’s mind on that vast and profound outcome. Thus, bodhichitta also refers to the primary and necessary quality, ingredient, and method to achieve the result of the enlightened state. Ultimately, bodhichitta is an energy expression of buddha nature.
• samsara – the unending cycle of cause, condition, and results that is ceaselessly kept in rotary motion by the choices being’s make out of attachment, aggression, and stupidity or unknowing.
• nirvana – a state of peace and contentment. (Also a rock garage band and a cologne. 🙃)

Words, concepts, meanings, and definitions, together with and inseparable from the unwordable. This is the conundrum for us human beings, isn’t it? All the while, the beyond-expression is so close that it is within, so immediate as to be displaying now, so delicate that fearless opening is likely the only method for melting into it.

Complexity is one of the features of studying the Buddha’s offerings and those of “his heirs.” The complexity stems from a few honest causes:

• the language of consciousness cannot be rigid. Rather, it must be fluid, dynamic, layered, purposefully non-pin-downable, and open to new interpretations and experience bases through time and beyond culture.
• emptiness is the heart of Dharma. Emptiness is not a thing and yet all things are, at essence, emptiness. This, also then, insists upon fluidity of concepts and eventual laying aside of all conceptual bases.
• the diversity of people. Exploring consciousness is right here, right now. It’s in choosing what to have for supper. A mood might determine or what is in the leftover container. There’s complexity. Sanskrit words not needed

*Random thoughts blurted as documents written over decades are being reviewed before deletion from the computer. 🌸