Training After Kenshō

[Donald]

"One can easily get the impression that realization, kenshō, an experience of enlightenment, or however you wish to phrase it, is the end of Zen training. It is not. It is, rather, a new beginning, an entrance into a more mature phase of Buddhist training. To take it as an ending, and to "dine out" on such an experience without doing the training that will deepen and extend it, is one of the greatest tragedies of which I know. There must be continuous development, otherwise you will be as a wooden statue sitting upon a plinth to be dusted, and the life of Buddha will not increase"

[Aware]

Well spoken words!

I would like to add something to the following:

53 minutes ago, Donald said:

There must be continuous development, otherwise you will be as a wooden statue sitting upon a plinth to be dusted, and the life of Buddha will not increase"

There would never been a Buddha here, if things would be permanent in nature, there would never been suffering, no sickness, no birth, old age and death if things would be permanent in nature. But there is sickness, birth, old age and death, due to the impermanent nature of things, and there for you are absolutely right, it would be a wrong view, not in accordance with the true nature of things to believe: Enlightenment is an endstation, not an all-round discipline. And there for ones mind can be as firm as a city gate statue moving always onwards without attachment to it if its free from wrong views.

[Donald]

@Motus I've been pondering on this topic for quite a while,it's interesting to see how much we neglect the daily aspects of life . If you are familiar with Kohlberg's moral stages of development, one of the highest stages is that of a principle based individual, one who has integrated all principles and lives according to them . Integrity. Now I've been lucky enough to watch myself fall into the traps of "I don't need principles, I transcend principles" type of thinking. And that's what most of spiritual seekers do . Psychology and Spirituality are part of the same path , as a dude called Ken Wilber used to say .

[Aware]

I would like to say on this as how I understand it myself,

That people discern based on their understanding. That either is situated in whole-fulness, passion or ignorance. 

And that from a whole-fulness situated view, when accumulated and held together by discipline and shame to waver over to the other fruits, can have perfect discernment.

Those spiritual seekers you speak of, that distinguish psychology from spirituality, miss their aim, due to that they themselves think the other way around (situated in passion or ignorance) by falsely beLIEf that body produces the thoughts, and not the other way around, or think it happens both ways. Which forces them to beLIEf that there is an actual distinction, like they themselves think they are distinct from all other things. Which proves that they are situated in either passion or ignorance. That is like discerning wise people from their wisdom, the knowledge from intelligent people, Awareness from existence. (Believing people can be without these things, like Existence they belief can be without awareness).

Knowing our essence to be Awareness, and acting accordingly to it leads to perfect discernment, and can correct any view by simply observing their words and behavior, and convert them with other words, and techniques that always include seclusion from... refraining from.... Focusing instead on... etc and this results into: Wisdom can be without people, knowledge can be without people, but without wisdom and knowledge people would not be wise and or intelligent, in fact people would not be people due to no discernment. And so I state the same with Awareness and polarity, good and evil is just there, to let Awareness be supreme over it.

So about principles, people became rich by their principles, people became kings by their principles, people became scholars by their principles, so hence people should purify their principles in accordance with their essence and be done with what must be done.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Motus

[Leo Gura]

Great quote, wish I included in my video.