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17. Enlightened
Consciousness is not an Intellectual Insight.
Enlightened Consciousness
is not a bare intellectual insight, for it is full of beautiful emotions. It
loves, caresses, embraces, and at the same time esteems all
beings, being ever merciful
to them. It has no enemies to conquer, no evil to fight with, but constantly
finds friends to help, good to promote. Its warm heart beats in harmony with
those of all fellow beings. The author of Brahmajala-sutra fully expresses this
idea as he says: "All women are our mothers; all men our fathers; all
earth and water our bodies in the past existences; all fire and air our
essence."
Thus relying on our inner
experience, which is the only direct way of knowing Buddha, we conceive Him as
a Being with profound wisdom and boundless mercy, who loves all beings as His
children, whom He is fostering, bringing up, guiding, and teaching. "These
three worlds are His, and all beings living in them are His children."1
"The Blessed One is the mother of all sentient beings, and gives them all
the milk of mercy."2 Some people named Him Absolute, as He is all
light, all hope, all mercy, and all wisdom; some, Heaven, as He is high and enlightened;
some, God, as He is sacred and mysterious; some, Truth, as He is true to
Himself; some, Buddha, as He is free from illusion; some, Creator, as He is the
creative force immanent in the universe; some, Path, as He is the Way we must
follow; some, Unknowable, as He is beyond relative knowledge; some, Self, as He
is the Self of individual selves. All these names are applied to one Being,
whom we designate by the name of Universal Life or Spirit.
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