The Way of Wisdom - prelude

As a prelude to this year's rains-retreat talks by Phra Cittasamvaro Bhikkhu, held weekly from this Thursday until September 24th, I'm posting here my reflections from the very first of his Littlebang talks, made back in August 2007 on the subject of Enlightenment. For full details of this year's series, please click on the Way of Wisdom image in the sidebar.

Enlightenment - the long and short of it

There was once a man in search of a wise guru. In order to find a genuine teacher of wisdom he crossed uncharted seas, walked unexplored deserts, and, finally, climbed a remote craggy mountain in the heart of the wilderness. After months of searching he found a cave and deep within the cave an ancient hermit deep in meditation. "Oh wise one," he called out, "what must I do to become Enlightened?"

The hermit slowly opened his eyes and looked at the man. "My child," he said, his first words in countless years, "to gain Enlightenment you must withdraw from family and society, you must give up attachments and desires, you must undergo rigorous extremes of poverty and renunciation, and you must spend innumerable years in deep often painful meditation."

The man, still kneeling before the hermit, replied "Is there anyone else up here I can talk to?"

Funny, but, according to Phra Cittasamvaro Bhikkhu in the first of a series of rains retreat talks held last night, no joke. The guru's impossible list of requirements, Phra Pandit said, is exactly what is required, and so he talked about how he'd once looked for shortcuts, circling a mountain and using Zen koans for example, but had finally to accept that Enlightenment came only through meditation, and most of his talk was about that practice and the things that can distract from it.

But what, I thought, of those of us who aren't monks and who can't devote our lives to meditation? The Theravadan view is that we must live well and hope for a rebirth with a better chance of making progress. Eventually, after many lifetimes on this long and lonely journey, we may, or may not, finally get there. It is like, in the famous analogy, a worm crawling inside a bamboo pole, making its way through section after section, life after life, with no idea when the end might arrive.

It doesn't seem to be a particularly successful method. In fact, so difficult is this path for most people, that Phra Pandit began by saying that no one present had gained Enlightenment. So how many lifetimes does it take? Ten? A Thousand? A million perhaps, before we can muster the perfection to work out our Enlightenment? In the meantime I see people attend temples here almost daily, hoping their next life might be one small step forward on this immeasurably long Samsaric journey.

But I also see something different, something more hopeful. When Thai people make offerings and recite prayers, they are calling directly to Buddha. When ordinary Thai Buddhists pray and chant, these aren't distractions from meditation practice, these are appeals for aid in a task that is otherwise too great. And this more popular Buddhism, the Buddhism of ordinary people, is a natural counterpart in my opinion to the meditation-only approach of last night's talk.

In the light of what needs to be achieved, everything I do for myself, though vital, is minuscule. Meditation is wonderful and I'd recommend it to anyone, but given the scale of the task, and this is what I see daily in popular Buddhist practice, I am forced to recognise the limitations of my own efforts. Then I call upon the Buddha and meditation becomes less a self-powered striving, more a quiet awareness that I am, in fact, being carried.

Of course for many people the Theravadan idea that one can do it alone is the right method for them and I've met some truly wonderful people, such as Phra Cittasamvaro Bhikkhu, last night's speaker, who have devoted themselves fully to it and from whom I have much to learn. But, for me at least, I'm relieved to see that there is an alternative after all, a shortcut, an easier way. Enlightenment becomes then not a far off distant goal, but the very arms in which I'm held.

Links:

Littlebang: The Way of Wisdom - introduction

Littlebang: The Way of Wisdom - weekly topics

Photo: Early 18th century mural (detail), Wat Ko Kaew Sutharam, Phetchaburi. Apologies for the poor quality of the image.