Expert: Joe McSorley - 1/17/2007

Question
This may be a strange question but I was wondering what your thoughts are.  Let's say someone does a diligent job of finding the truth and achieves enlightment but then as they age they develop Alzheimer's.  Since the conscious mind is only one part of the MIND would he or would he not lose his enlightened state?  Is this situation to the koan about whether a dog is of the buddha mind, i.e. does the conscious mind really need to grasp enlightment?  I'd appreciate your feed back.

Thanks,

Chuck

Answer
Dear Chuck,
The mind does not grasp enlightenment. In the words of Dogen and many others “awakening is mind and body fallen off”.  It is not the awakening of the individual but the awakening of the world as self.  It is exactly the striving for the individual to grasp or gain something that prevents them from doing so.  The self that seeks is the self that bars you from the realization so it is a true and thoroughgoing overcoming of the self the leads to awakening. The thinking mind is not what is meant by mind in Buddhism.  That thinking mind is like ripples on a lake, it is a distortion of the images reflected upon it.  True mind is before thought, is all things and not a thought process.  With the thinking mind you can try to express what the true mind realizes but this always falls short of doing so.   This is the idea behind a phrase like ‘selling water by the river’, it’s right there but no one seems to see it.  No one person can grasp this as theirs, they realize what already was and they did not see it.  This is not brought about in the mind or body but everywhere, all at once.  A condition like Alzheimer’s would effect how you could express yourself but if you have already overcome your individual nature that does not change, the universe is as it was.  
  This is always very hard to explain and I am not trying to be obtuse here.  It is a very common misconception that someone gains awakening. There are many so called masters that claim to have it and they can give it to you and this is nonsense.  It is not the self that awakens.  Once a priest told me she had been given the ‘direct transmission’ from her master.  I asked her where she put it.  This is a legitimate question.  I didn’t do this to be cruel or a jerk but this implies that a self gained something while the self of Buddhism is considered to be ultimately empty.  You empty self to become self, you don’t add to self.  The priest gave no answer to me and walked away angry.  That which becomes ill or injured is not the true self but a part of the whole.  Nature still is nature unimpeded.
 I hope this has helped you.  Take care,
         Joe