Process and Experience of Enlightenment

　　JOHN TARRANT ROSHI

　　TEISHO delivered during a ROHATSU SESSHIN December 5, 1992 Camp Cazadero, California (Tape starts mid sentence.)

　　. . . saw the morning star, gained enlightenment, and said, "Now I see that all beings of the great earth have in the same moment attained the way."

　　In the book of the Denko-roku ("The Transmission of the Light"), which is the first koan book, there”s a poem by Keizan Jokin that goes with this case (i.e. Case 1 of Denko-roku "Shakyamuni Buddha"):

　　"One branch from the old plum tree extends splendidly forth. Thorns become attached to it in time."

　　Please sit comfortably.

　　This is one of the primary legends in our particular tradition and this is the time of year when we traditionally celebrate the enlightenment experience. The zen tradition is that each person actually has that experience of the Buddha. You don”t have to believe in the Buddha, better if you don”t. What you have to do is have that experience for yourself so that you can know for yourself what coffee tastes like and you will not ever again have to read descriptions of what coffee tastes like.

　　The tradition is that Shakyamuni tried a lot of different paths, including a very ascetic path without eating and became just a living skeleton, but found that that wasn”t the way and he accepted nourishment. Somebody offered him some milk and he drank the milk. We might symbolically see that as allowing whatever cows represent into his life, too. Some sort of nurturance, some sort of earthiness. So he accepted the milk and sat up all night, and in the morning he looked up and for the first time he truly saw the morning star. That”s the moment when he said, "At the same moment I and all beings of the universe have attained the way." There are different versions of what he said and this is essentially a zen version of his enlightenment story.

　　So today, I”d like to talk some about enlightenment and what I think it is and what I think it isn”t and share with you some stories about this tradition of enlightenment that we have. I want to remind you first of the story from yesterday about YŸn-men Wen-Yen (Jap. Ummon Bun”en), who was the guy who broke his leg when he was enlightened. Yesterday we talked about Lin-chi”s (Jap. Rinzai) enlightenment story. The head monk Mu-chou Tao-ming (Jap. Bokushu Domei). said, "Why don”t you go along to the teacher and ask this question" over and over again and Lin-chi could get nowhere. Eventually, through that head monk”s initial help he became a great master. YŸn-men came to that head monk much later in the head monk”s life when he was about a hundred. The story is told in a number of places. This is the Blue Cliff Record version of the story.

　　Mu-chou spun devices that turned like lightning so it was difficult to approach and linger. Whenever he received someone, he would grab him as soon as he crossed the threshold and say, "Speak! Speak!", and if there wasn”t a reply he”d just push him out saying, "An ancient drill is just turning in a rut."

　　It took YŸn-men three times before he got let in. And then, as soon as Mu-chou said, "Who”s there

　　", and YŸn-men answered, "Me!" Mu-chou opened the door a little and YŸn-men immediately bounded in (showing his spirit).

　　Mu-chou, holding fast, said, "Speak! Speak!" YŸn-men hesitated and was pushed out and still had one foot inside when Mu-chou slammed the door breaking his leg. As YŸn-men cried out in pain, he was suddenly greatly enlightened. Subsequently the trend of his words, his whole style emerged from Mu-chou.

　　After this, eventually Mu-chou directed YŸn-men to go to HsŸeh-feng I-ts”un (Jap. Seppo Gison). So Mu-chou decided that he couldn”t teach YŸn-men much further. So this …

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