"Vivid Awareness"

[White Lotus]

wise friends, In his concluding paragraph of the Denkoroku, Great Master Keizan speaks of "Vivid Awareness". this vivid awareness is he says like being "very awake".
The name Buddha means the awakened one. I am able to see the nature of things, but do not consider myself to have an awakened mind.

the "turning over" of the mind which the Buddha speaks of in the Lankavatara is where the Mind of a person quite literally wakes up. regardless of seeing nature, philosophical freedom and certain blessed qalities I do not consider myself to have an awakened mind. seeing the Dharma is the Eye of the Dharma, it is however not the Awakening of the Buddha. the awakening of the Buddha is quite literally the mind becoming 'Vividly Aware' or 'very awake'.

it seems silly to say that someone is a buddha unless they have an awakened Mind. seeing your own nature is fine, but this is still not the vivid awakened state of consciousness.

My friend Master Best has awakened mind... he is vividly aware all the time. i am very fortunate to know such a person.

May all of us on Dharma Wheel attain the very awake, vivid awareness and come into full enlightenment.

Best wishes, White Lotus.

[ronnewmexico]

Well that is very nice and quite poetic of a sort.

I personally rarely speculate on being a Buddha or the consequential result to samsara and our particular realm when one does precipitate. As to what aim is such speculation?

I would assume though, the result upon this particular reality would be completely totally astounding. I don't personally think all would become enlightened, as significant enough cause for that would not seemingly be present but as nothing is singular and we all participate in our reality, I would expect some quite astounding things to occur as consequent, effect of this cause, in part.

Meaning full enlightenment.... that is a being who is completely beyond the boundaries of this reality, sharing our reality. That being of course would have attributes present and able to be observed which speak to the beyondness.

Some set a very much lower standard for such a thing. I would not say who is right or wrong, as I am not necessarily even a Buddhist, but my standard is the inverse. A large large consideration of full enlightenment.

Can that happen in this realm....some say not, some say yes. AGain I don't speculate on that either as to what aim would it serve?
I say it matters not if one can or cannot....not a whit.
Where we are in relation to full enlightenment....it seems of no consequence at all and in fact not very useful (for me at least).

My measure in the spiritual is only the one...compassion. Increase or stability in such and we are progressing, decrease in such and we are on a wrong path. Compassion to me is directly entwined with awareness as the back side of a aspect of awareness.....suchly to my opinion spiritual progress regression or lack of progress is easily ascertained.

But that may not be a Buddhist view I don't know and probably don't care if Buddhists agree with me on that.....not a whit. Fact for me it is.

[White Lotus]

Ronin, i guess that awareness is what the buddha is about, however loving kindness (compassion) must be the most fundamental element of awareness.

best wishes, White Lotus.

[ronnewmexico]

Our awareness by my take is not just a simple awareness but a cognitive awareness. Involved is a actual imperitive to understand a things or things. This is how it is fashioned with its differing aspects, to include retentive aspect. Unfortunately those things get misconstrued, bent twisted and involved with substantiation of me.

Cognition to my view is essentially a compassionate aspect of our daily life. We cannot hate or work against what we fully understand in a personal sense as another sentient being. We may thwart their intent such as we may thwart the intent of a black widow spider to sting us, as we see their ignorance and act appropriately but if we fully understand a black widow spider we may see why it does such things and why essentially it is deserving of our compassion. It comes automatically it seems...we understand we are compassionate...invariably and always.

So as such I have concluded compassion has not to be worked at, but revealed, as does wisdom and cognition within us. I in fact see not a hair of difference between cognition and compassion. Both always are together. I approximate we seperate them by our tendency to objectify and it is a aspect of ignorance.

That may not be Buddhist thought I don't know or care, I find it to be that way.

These things it may be said are not to be confused with stupid compassion or the thought that all beings are altruistically motivated or pure in a conventional pragmatic sense.
We cannot of course let that black widow spider sting us it would be stupid. We cannot smile hello how do you do to Nazi gestapo just after they loaded a cargo of jewery to dakhow.

So I am talking ultimate consideration of this thing, and not stupid compassion. If we act stupidly as far as compassion goes.....we will be born as cows in the west... seeing our meat being taken from us for bad purpose and all out children likewise butchured and eaten for no good purpose in the main as other foods are available. By our purpose serving to enhance stupidy and killing for no good purpose but delight in consumption of bodies of others.

[White Lotus]

yes Ronin, a measure of force is sometimes required to deal with potential harm, that is... if you believe it is.

i must just say that vivid awareness should not get in the way of our acceptance of what and how we are. to be attached to an idea or ideal is harmful, whatever it is... love, pacifism etc. love attached to becomes hate, pacifism attached to becomes violence. to be attached to a notion of enlightenment is to be deluded. anyway, enlightenment and ignorance are not different.

drop it all, put it all down, kill notions and attachements to Buddha, enlightenment etc... hop it all, skip it all, jump it all. just this this.

best wishes, White Lotus.