Hardcore Zen_ Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality - Brad Warner [35]
In the West, nirvana is often misunderstood as some kind of Buddhist heaven, or, since nirvana literally means “cessation” or “extinction,” a lot of people have a seriously mistaken tendency to equate the idea with nihilism. Others equate nirvana with some kind of everlasting spiritual bliss. Nirvana isn’t about bliss. If you want bliss, you’d be better off smokin’ a fat ol’ doobie, dude. Just brace yourself for a stiff dose of reality again when you’ve used up yer stash.
If you must, you can understand nirvana as a kind of goal of Buddhist practice. Now, any good Buddhist teacher will tell you it’s the path that’s important in Buddhism and not the goal. It’s like shooting at a target with a bow. You just aim as well as you can and let the sucker fly. Maybe you hit, maybe you don’t. Either way, you do what this moment calls for. And this one. And this one. In Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way, our old Indian buddy Nagarjuna says that nirvana is not reality. I agree but I’ll add that nirvana is also ultimate reality. Buddhism’s just chock full o’ contradictions. Doncha love it?
And here’s something that’ll really get your panties in a bunch: Maybe your concept of ultimate reality has no counterpart in ultimate reality.
Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi
This means “complete, unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment.” Notice, though, that the sutra first says the bodhisattva has nothing to attain and that, because of having nothing to attain, he attains complete liberation. You can’t attain liberation the way you can attain a 1968 Camaro or a D-plus on a math test. You can only attain liberation by clearly seeing there is nothing to attain.
Complete liberation sounds like a big deal. And it is. It’s the biggest deal around. But don’t make too much of it—because it’s also absolutely nothing at all.
I love the covers of those New Age books that show some Enlightened Saint with blue halos around his body, shining pure white light from his head and fingertips. It’s pure crap. A real enlightened being doesn’t look any different from anyone else. They’re just ordinary people like you. That other stuff’s just special effects. Annutara-samyak-sambodhi is you. Enlightenment is reality itself.
And reality is you—naked, stinky, and phony as all get-out.
Reality doesn’t know a damned thing.
Reality has doubts and insecurities.
Reality gets horny sometimes and sometimes reality likes to read the funny papers.
Reality is an old guy in Cleveland Heights complaining that his grandkids have stolen his dentures again.
Reality is five guys trying to tune three guitars and a Farfisa compact organ to the same pitch and failing miserably.
Reality is the source of every star, every planet, every galaxy; every dust mote, every atom; every klepton, lepton, and slepton.
Reality is the basis of every booger up your nose, every pit-stain in your dad’s T-shirts, and every dingleberry on your ass.
Reality is this moment.
The Great Transcendent Mantra
The last section is really different from the rest and seems to be encouraging us to chant that little line at the end, “Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté. Bodhi! Svaha!” (Gaté is pronounced “gah-tay,” by the way.) This basically means “Gone, gone, all the way gone to the other shore. Enlightenment! Hot damn!” It’s not really meant to be chanted. It’s just an expression of joy in response to realization.
Someone once asked Kobun Chino, who was another student of Nishijima’s teacher, what that line meant, and Kobun replied, “I don’t know, that’s just Indian stuff.”
A lot of Buddhism is wrapped up with Indian spiritual traditions. But that’s not the important part. Woody Allen often exclaims “Jesus!” in his movies but that doesn’t mean he’s a Christian. The mantra at the end of the piece is just a motif that was common in the culture at the time it was