PadmaVonSamba wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 1:55 pm
Justmeagain wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 6:49 am
Genjo Conan wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:06 pm
So--what is it that's missing?
Clarity and an unambiguous rationale for sitting on the cushion if there's nothing to gain and nowhere to go.
Regarding this concern about rationale and destination, What is your motivation?
It can be helpful, before doing any practice, to remind oneself of the purpose, or motivation for one’s practice, which in Mahayana Buddhism is to attain perfect realization for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Doing this will help to resolve the two conflicts you mention here, (clarity and rationale)
and will address your original concern about already being enlightened (Tathâgata Garba) but not yet experiencing it.
Why will establishing your motivation have that result? Because:
The rationale will be specific,
and
When the selfless
motivation (to liberate all beings) is inseparable from the
destination (enlightenment), then, during your practice, you begin to rely on the functioning of the mind’s enlightened quality itself.
In other words, when you are doing zazen
to attain some type of self-realization,
this in itself is an impossibility because
realization is free from self-grasping, it is selfless.
But, your motivation has to come from somewhere,
doesn’t it?
If your destination is to experience
your already-existing Buddha nature,
And the essence of your already-existing Buddha nature
is freedom from self-grasping,
Then if your motivation is free of self-grasping,
That motivation can only be drawn from
your already-existing Buddha-nature.
So, maybe try to firmly establish in your own mind your motivation for zazen practice, even before you sit down on the cushion.