October 20, 2019
The Buddha’s transformation
Transformation has been at the heart of Buddhism since its beginning. There were two great transformations in the Buddha’s life. Initially, his “First Awakening” occurred when he was 29 years old and resulted in a conscious decision to leave his home and everything he had known up to that point to become a wandering seeker. During the next six years he had a clear and conscious goal and worked diligently to achieve it. He was ambitious. He studied with the best teachers he could find, did intense practices, and undertook the most severe austerities. At the end of those six years, however, he had not found what he was looking for—a way to end suffering through getting off the “wheel of rebirth.” After those six intense years of seeking, he basically said, “I am going to sit under this tree until I either discover what I am looking for, or I will die here on this spot.” (Now that is a dramatic commitment: to be transformed or die.)
Fortunately, during that night under the Bodhi tree he awakened—to his own complete satisfaction—saying: “In that instant, I saw … and found complete liberation.” He says he came to rest in a place that was totally “peaceful and sublime.”
So, what exactly happened under that tree in one night? What could have happened to have turned this driven person (some would say obsessed, almost crazy by our standards) into one of the most calm, serene, and effective human beings who ever lived?
Many people have had profound experiences, but a major difference here is that most soon moved back into their old lives and previous identities, at least partially. By all reports, however, from that night forward the Buddha was radically and permanently changed; no longer seeking, no longer driven. Most reports from those who met him after that night (and the next few days during which he consolidated his realization) are that he was peaceful and serene, perpetually, for the next 45 years. Further, from that day forward he wasn’t looking for answers but, rather, filled with wisdom and the ability to share it. That is what is so amazing about his story. Such a radical and permanent transformation is something that has happened to very few in human history.
So, again, what happened under that tree? Was it a mental breakthrough? The Buddha’s own reports say it was not a mental thing, at least in the way we use the work “mental” in our world today. In fact, he said over and over that what he discovered was not something that could be found with the thinking mind.
The goal of transformation in Buddhism
The guidance the Buddha gave about transformation is to cease identifying with the things you habitually think are so important; to give up grasping for what you think you want and quit spending so much time and energy trying to avoid what you think you don’t want. He said the cause of the unsatisfactoriness of life is our grasping for and aversion to illusory things. The only escape from this unsatisfactoriness, this dukkha, is to wake up and realize that your mind has created the prison in which you are living; to wake up and experience life as it truly is; to realize the truth of who you really are. To do this is to be liberated from the misguided views in which you are stuck. In short, be transformed through releasing your identification with the narrow and limited perspective in which you are living. One poetic practice he gave for how to do this:
“Regard this phantom world
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream
A flash of lightening in a summer cloud
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.”
His advice for transformation, then, is to wake up and see that “life is just life,” the good and the bad of it are just “what is,” so who you really are (not your small self, but the Buddha in you) can approach life without anger, without fear, without greed, without anxiety. And without judgment. Let go of your judgments and opinions, your views about so many things. Your views, judgments, and opinions are the source of your suffering. Let go of clinging to anything. Let go of aversion to anything and just be present with what is. You can respond to what is, but don’t get caught up in stories about it, and especially don’t project old wounds onto it. If you can do that, you will be free; you will be peaceful and serene. And your identity will be, not with your small self, but with something else entirely.
What is this “something else? The Buddha said: “There is, oh monks, an Unborn; neither become nor created nor formed.” Your identity will be centered there. The Buddhist scholar and practitioner Edward Conze compiled from Buddhist texts a series of attributes great Buddhist teachers have applied to Nirvana (the ultimate possibility the Buddha described). Here are some of the many things they said about Nirvana:
“it is permanent, stable, imperishable, immovable, ageless, deathless, unborn, and unbecome;
“it is power, bliss and happiness, the secure refuge, the shelter, and the place of unassailable safety;
“it is the real Truth, and the supreme Reality;
“it is the Good, the supreme goal and the one and only consummation of life;
“it is the eternal, hidden and incomprehensible.”
Conze goes on to note that all these words have also been used to describe the Godhead of the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. So perhaps, somehow, in a place beyond words and sectarian arguments, there is a mysterious “something” that all the wisdom traditions point to: an experience of “something more” that our minds and our words cannot capture.
What Buddhism is not
One criticism that has been directed at the Buddha and Buddhism is that it is absent human emotions, that to be always in equanimity seems emotionless. But this is not what the Buddha said. He taught that it is our birthright to dwell in Nirvana, which does involve freedom from delusion and from the negative emotions of fear, anger, hatred, and greed. But the Buddha also taught that we should cultivate positive emotions such as compassion and loving-kindness, even toward those with whom we are upset. Going further, he counselled that we develop the capacity to feel joy at the success and good fortune of others, while not becoming bogged down in their suffering. (You can be of more help to someone who is suffering if you are not caught in it yourself.) The positive possibility of this teaching is profound: when you can have compassion, loving-kindness, and joy at the good fortune of others, you will be living in a field of these emotions that you have generated yourself. The Buddha goes one step further. When a disciple asked whether Nirvana was bliss, the Buddha said: “Yes: Bliss. My friends, bliss is Nirvana.”
Another criticism is that the Buddha taught that one should be completely unconcerned about things in the everyday world. And some of his teachings do seem to suggest this. On the other hand, his life example is completely different. After his awakening experience, he spent 45 years in the world helping other people, teaching others how they could find the peace, freedom, and bliss he had found. The great Buddhist scholar and practitioner Shantideva says in the Bodhicaryavatara: “The Perfection of Charity is superior to all else. Once enlightened, one must be constantly active for the sake of others.”
This impulse toward charity gives rise to the Bodhisattva vow, in which one who reaches the threshold of Nirvana vows not to cross over until all other beings can cross over as well. A story that captures this commitment involves three dedicated seekers crossing a desert. Each is close to awakening, but none has yet reached Nirvana. They come to a high wall and are unable to see what is on the other side. The first seeker climbs the wall, reaches the top, jumps over, and the others never see him again. The second seeker does the same: climbs the wall, looks inside, jumps in, and is never heard from again. The third seeker waits outside for a while, but hearing nothing from her compatriots, climbs the wall, looks inside, and realizes it is Nirvana. Slowly, she climbs back down the outside of the wall, retraces her steps some distance into the desert, and sets up a way-station to help others find their way.
So what is Nirvana?
Another famous teacher, Bodhidharma, who was a key figure in carrying Buddhism to China, said about his experience in a deep state of expanded awareness:
“This mind, through endless kalpas without beginning, has never varied. It has never lived or died, appeared or disappeared, increased or decreased. It’s not pure or impure, good or evil, past or future. It’s not true or false. Only the wise know this mind, this mind called dharma-nature, this mind called liberation. Neither life nor death can restrain this mind. Nothing can. It’s also called … the Incomprehensible, the Sacred Self, the Immortal, the Great Sage. Its names vary but not its essence.”
What if the Buddha and Bodhidharma were right and there is something in you that is “deathless;” that your real “you” was never born and will never die. What if other Buddhist teachers were right in saying that, when you awaken, you will discover that there is something in you that is “permanent, stable, imperishable, immovable, ageless?” And what if that “you” is “the real Truth,” “the supreme Reality.” What if you only have to turn in a certain way to know this and experience it for yourself as “power, bliss and happiness, the secure refuge, the shelter, and the place of unassailable safety.” This is the transformation that Buddhism suggests is possible.
Reflection: Assume for a moment that this kind of transformation is open to you. The Buddha and many Buddhists since his time have said that you have an identity beyond the illusory surface that you usually think of as “me,” a Buddha-nature that is who you really are, and that to “be awake” in that place is your natural state. All these teachings say this is present in you right here, right now, and that all you have to do is open to it. For a moment, give yourself permission to expand into that identity, right where you are, right now.
Have a good week,
David