The Duality of Worldview

【Chapter 7】The Posture for Engaging in Meditation 

4. The Duality of Worldview

The duality of worldview means that enlightened individuals live in a dual reality, a twofold existence.

A common misconception is that enlightened people are one with everything in the world and all other beings, so they wouldn't get angry no matter how terribly they are treated, or that they would be fine even without food, clothing, or shelter. This view would leave enlightened individuals vulnerable to unlimited abuse. Enlightened people are not pandas in a zoo or punching bags.

Figures like the Islamic mystic Hussein Mansur al-Hallaj, not just Jesus, met with such terribly unfortunate ends.

As anyone who has been mountaineering or traveled through wilderness knows, humans typically die if they go three days without drinking water or food. The physical human being is fragile. Aside from such material aspects, many people live with a miserable and pathetic sense of self in their mental and emotional lives.

A person is born alone and dies alone. It is from the point of clearly seeing that there is no salvation for humans as a reality that the seeker begins their path, and those few enlightened individuals are the ones who have fortunately seen or become one with the supreme bliss of the divine or Buddha-nature (Nirvana).

They live in one reality (reality) of a miserable, pathetic, and powerless self, and at the same time, they also live in another reality (reality) of perfect bliss where there are no problems.

Because those who gather around these enlightened beings are inevitably highly interested in happiness and liberation, Nirvana is often emphasized as the only reality. However, if we look calmly and impartially, we should realize that they live in a dual reality (reality).

Shakyamuni died of stomach cancer, Jesus died on the cross, Nichiren died of a stomach ailment, and the Zen master Linji Yixuan (Ganto) was beheaded by robbers, letting out a loud scream as he died. Aren't these all proof that even enlightened individuals have a "miserable, pathetic, and powerless self"?

Even in his seventies, Ikkyu had a lustful life with a concubine in her thirties. Linji was concerned with trivial matters, asking things like, "How does today's feast compare to yesterday's menu?" Krishnamurti was bothered by his baldness. Deguchi Onisaburo cried loudly when his child died. Aren't these also proof that even enlightened individuals have a "miserable, pathetic, and powerless self"?

Even so, enlightened people are those who know that there is a self that cannot be harmed by anything.

And there is a time lag between these two realities (reality). They do not exist simultaneously. This can be seen in the Hagakure's poem, "How many leagues from this floating world, these mountain cherry blossoms?"

In my view, there are moments when the self and the whole become one, but one cannot remain in that state and live in society, so one emerges from it to live in society. At that time, one understands that the oneness of self and the whole is the truth and reality. However, "time exists in the fleeting moment between the self and the whole." In other words, once one departs from the oneness of self and the whole, "the self and the whole separate, and a time difference arises." Time is psychological.

Could this be the message that truth does not exist without delusion (Maya, ignorance)?

Sit Even When You Don't Feel Like Meditating

◎【Chapter 7】The Posture for Engaging in Meditation 

◎3. Sit Even When You Don't Feel Like Meditating

Living life means encountering unpleasant things. However, trying to meditate to dispel unpleasant feelings or a downcast mood is fundamentally unorthodox. For example, in practices like Nembutsu or Odaimoku, which fall under Mantra Zen, becoming one with "Namu Amida Butsu" or "Namu Myoho Renge Kyo" can improve blood circulation and leave you feeling refreshed and invigorated. But even if there are such positive effects, seeking only these effects is, I believe, an unorthodox approach. However, that's when meditation has deepened sufficiently.

In reality, securing 30 minutes for meditation in the morning and evening on weekdays is quite challenging. Since not meditating at all is not ideal, one ends up doing shorter meditations out of necessity. In such cases, waiting until you feel like meditating is almost impossible. This tends to be the reality when living a life pressed for time.

Most of us fear living as much as we fear dying. That is, we worry about our families, fear public criticism, the loss of job or financial security, and live with fears about many other things. To meditate while carrying these unstable, unpleasant feelings in our daily lives is precisely to confront our daily lives.

In other words, more often than not, we have no choice but to begin meditating in an unenthusiastic state of mind.

It is said that experienced meditators can enter a state of Samadhi within minutes. However, there's no point in talking about other people's meditation experiences. There's no such thing as good or bad in your own meditation. You simply have to sit, regardless of how you feel.

Ken Wilber's advocacy for an open mind in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake – meaning maintaining an open mind even amidst the post-disaster depression – shares the same fundamental idea as sitting regardless of your mood.

Sit Even When Feeling Confused

◎【Chapter 7】The Posture for Engaging in Meditation 

2. Sit Even When Feeling Confused

This refers to situations such as immediately after returning home from work, when your mind is filled with a jumble of thoughts about work and personal matters, but your body is physically capable of sitting. Or, it could be when you've just woken up in the morning, and your mind is still hazy, unsure if you're dreaming or awake, but your body can sit.

In the beginning, beginners often think that unless they feel like meditating or are in the right mood, their meditation won't be pleasant, so they delay or seek the perfect timing to meditate. However, the reality for modern people is that leisure time is surprisingly scarce, so we must, in a sense, force ourselves to sit in order to secure time for meditation. In other words, there's also the aspect that it's difficult to meditate unless we even cut into our sleep time.

Those who have a meditation habit know that after meditating at night, their own wavelength or atmosphere changes. They also know that meditation right after waking up can be deep because it begins in a semi-trance state.

It is important to meditate even when you are confused and don't feel like it.

Sitting While Still Deluded

◎[Chapter 7] The Posture for Engaging in Meditation

◎1. Sitting While Still Deluded

Sitting while still deluded means initially sitting in a state of non-enlightenment. Later, when the time is ripe, it means becoming enlightened while still in that state of delusion.

Before one is enlightened, one does not understand what enlightenment is, but one sits either because one intellectually understands the necessity of enlightenment or because one feels through some trigger that great enlightenment is something good.

There are seeing Buddha, seeing God, and seeing one's true nature as forms of enlightenment, as well as union with God/Buddha or attaining Buddhahood in this very body (sokushin jobutsu). However, since seeing Buddha, seeing God, and seeing one's true nature are transient, one may return to delusion. Therefore, I think there is indeed such a thing as sitting while still deluded.

A True Master Accepts Offerings but Does Not Charge Tuition.

◎[Chapter 6] How to Discern a True Master

◎2. A True Master Accepts Offerings but Does Not Charge Tuition.

The fundamental way to discern a true master is that a true master is also an enlightened person, so the basic attitudes of an enlightened being are also one way to discern them. Basic attitudes of an enlightened being include being frank, not lying, and being selfless in helping others, but here, in this age that prioritizes money and merit, we will show how they receive money.

How one settles with the secular world after enlightenment is a major issue for the unenlightened, and there are several anecdotes about this. There is a story that when Linji and Puhua were invited to a feast by a patron, Puhua kicked over the feast table and scolded Linji for his incompleteness. Linji was also a thoroughly renowned monk, even said to be the king of Zen. Puhua was also a high-ranking monk of unquestionable level, even said to have achieved corpse liberation (shikai) at his death.

Regarding such settling with the secular world, one always prioritizes the divine, so the enlightened being's response will always be based on that principle.

Zen monk Zhaozhou lived in poverty, using a broken chair leg propped up with a piece of wood and tied together. Ichiro, a close friend of Ikkyu, lived on alms given into his mendicant's bag (mokko), but one day, an old horse hoof was put into his bag, and he died of starvation. Lan Caihe lived by giving away the copper coins he received to others.

Among these examples, the explanation by the Edo period Zen monk Shido Munan is the clearest:

"A person who upholds the aspiration for the Way should fear making any mistakes in all matters. If one enjoys comfortable food, clothing, and shelter without doing what one ought to do, one will surely receive heavenly punishment. Therefore, for those who uphold the aspiration for the Way, it is auspicious to be in a state of constant insufficiency and inconvenience."

This logic also leads to a lifestyle of humility.

Furthermore, in the case of masters who are not true masters, one can see a focus on psychic abilities, a desire for power, and a desire for wealth.

For these reasons, a true master accepts offerings but does not charge tuition. However, there is another problem with charging tuition to teach the Way. That is, since one is conveying truth in exchange for money, it can no longer be called truth.