on the bodhisattva road

Picked up the Diamond Sutra again yesterday and last night after neglecting its existence for some time. I like this Red Pine translation. In this re-re-reading, I am so far in Chapters 3 and 4. The Sutra is not one to be skimmed over lightly, but allowed to settle deeply into the marrow of the bones.

Mister Buddha was sitting in the outdoor dojo and was asked a question by Subhuti, probably the group's top-ranking black belt. "If a noble son or daughter should set foot on the bodhisattva path, how should they stand, how should they walk, and how should they control their thoughts?"

(Bodhisattva is often translated as "spiritual warrior.")

Mister Awake thought that was a pretty good question and began to answer it in the presence of the whole dojo. He said, "Subhuti, no one can be called a bodhisattva who creates the perception of a self or who creates the perception of a being, a life, or a soul."

Buddha was one of the greatest psychologists who ever lived. He understood consciousness. Here he is saying that perceptions don't just arise from nowhere. We create them. We create perceptions of a self, of who we are, and then will fight for this effervescent, evanescent froth of our own creation to the death, literally and spiritually.

I was reading the other day that brain research indicates that about 3/4ths or more of what we see is created by brain functions, not by what is "out there."

When creatively incoherent, we create blockages. The Diamond Sutra points out that our major blockage is self-created perception and then the clinging to those perceptions as if they were real. This is the virtual reality helmet that all bodhisattvas, all warriors of spirit shed.

This shedding of the virtual reality helmet is done by living in the Eternal Now. All past drops away. No future has been born.

Don't think about this too much. If someone holds up a flower and we smile, we are on the bodhisattva path.