Kassapa has his turn on the mountaintop. He is enlightened. This means he is a divine guru in a chain of causation, from Buddha to the millions of his disciples who will manifest buddha-nature at the end. He is also a bodhisattva. This means his mission is to work for the liberation of all sentient beings from the endless Wheel of Transmigration.
But sometimes he feels this is a crock. Because he knows that there is no knowledge, no simple faith that will free the masses from their suffering. That the four noble truths lay claim to the nature of suffering, that the source is endless craving, that release from the craving exists & is through the practice…
Through the practice—that is the main point. Practice is the path to enlightenment, nirvana.
Easy salvation through faith in anything is a lie.
Complete yakshit.
But it is in the mind, a peeling back of the noise of thought by meditation—that one sees complete freedom in an egoless realm, an infinite plane of nothing/something. That is where IT happens. And to grasp this enlightenment in a moment is possible.
But to convey this in words is not going to happen.
So how to fill this space of thought?
His disciples look up to him. He can be an example. He can meet their eyes.
He can do little else in the dusk of this mountaintop.
But the furtive sounds of Her Nature beckon to the monks.
Do they hear Her?
The war monkeys spy Kassapa & his monks from the foliage. Not much is happening in their little eyes as the night sets. They think, ‘boring.’ They rub their little pricks and think of sticking them into the infinite combinations of holes. The monkeys think, ‘if only I can get off, I’m getting off, I’m off, that feels great, I’m bored now, I feel bad, if only I can …’
They need stimulation at all times. They need fear hate desire lust to distract them from their boredom. These monks do not meet the pharmaceutical grade.
But the luminous night intrudes on the monks & war monkeys, surrounds them with the wildness of Her Nature—Her Moon, Her Stars & their Dust cast down on them.
Are they open to Her?
© 2024
oh thanks Kacy, sometimes i feel conflicted about unleashing some of this. please let me know if any of this is offensive to you. it all started with some outrage about religion and politics in general, but reading about St. Peter in an apocryphal text (honestly forgot which one) set me off.