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15. Enlightened
Consciousness.
In addition to these
considerations, which mainly depend on indirect experience, we can have direct
experience of life within us. In the first place, we experience that our life
is not a bare mechanical motion or change, but is a spiritual, purposive, and
self-directing force. In the second place, we directly experience that it
knows, feels, and wills. In the third place, we experience that there exists
some power unifying the intellectual, emotional, and volitional activities so
as to make life uniform and rational. Lastly, we experience that there lies
deeply rooted within us Enlightened Consciousness, which neither psychologists
treat of nor philosophers believe in, but which Zen teachers expound with
strong conviction. Enlightened Consciousness is, according to Zen, the centre
of spiritual life. It is the mind of minds, and the consciousness of
consciousness. It is the Universal Spirit awakened in the human mind. It is not
the mind that feels joy or sorrow; nor is it the mind that reasons and infers;
nor is it the mind that fancies and dreams; nor is it the mind that hopes and
fears; nor is it the mind that distinguishes good
from evil. It is
Enlightened Consciousness that holds communion with Universal Spirit or Buddha,
and realizes that individual lives are inseparably united, and of one and the
same nature with Universal Life. It is always bright as a burnished mirror, and
cannot be dimmed by doubt and ignorance. It is ever pure as a lotus flower, and
cannot be polluted by the mud of evil and folly. Although all sentient beings
are endowed with this Enlightened Consciousness, they are not aware of its
existence, excepting men who can discover it by the practice of Meditation.
Enlightened consciousness is often called Buddha-nature, as it is the real
nature of Universal Spirit. Zen teachers compare it with a precious stone ever
fresh and pure, even if it be buried in the heaps of dust. Its divine light can
never be extinguished by doubt or fear, just as the sunlight cannot be
destroyed by mist and cloud. Let us quote a Chinese Zen poet to see how Zen
treats of it:1
"I have an image of Buddha,
The worldly people know it not.
It is not made of clay or cloth,
Nor is it carved out of wood,
Nor is it moulded of earth nor of ashes.
No artist can paint it;
No robber can steal it.
There it exists from dawn of time.
It's clean, although not swept and wiped.
Although it is but one,
Divides itself to a hundred thousand million forms."
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