Having Buddha Nature, all sentient beings are buddha. Thus, through interaction with others, each of us helps to care for each other and to be of service to others.
Having heard the Buddhadharma, specifically the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Noble Path and dependent arising, one is awakened to the purpose of life, which is to help others and to be of service to them. Thus is one spiritually awakened.
Indeed, the spiritually awakened strive for Enlightenment, and learn from their interaction with the world to let go of anger, delusion, fear, hatred, and other mental negativities as well as the behavioral negativities arising from them.
Through meditative practice, one learns to calm the mind so that one develops the insight necessary to understand the Buddhist teachings.
Thus one is able to see that dependent arising leads to mastery over the five consciousnesses of the five senses, the sixth consciousness of the mind, the seventh consciousness known as "ego" and the eighth consciousness falsely considered the "soul" through validation of emptiness.
For emptiness proves dependent arising accounts for the eight consciousnesses, which are but qualities of the mind.
Yet were the mind to be impermanent, could seeds of karma planted in the eighth consciousness come to fruition? And could they be planted at all in the absence of the mind?
Yes, but only if the eighth consciousness is Buddha Nature, which, of course, is the nature of all things.
3 comments:
Dogen wrote "To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever."
Being enlightened by all things of the universe means Buddha Nature, being the nature of all things, is Nirvana.
This also means that all sentient beings are buddhas because they all have Buddha Nature.
Therefore, Enlightenment is the purpose of life.
IMHO denying that Enlightenment is the purpose of life is similar to the delusion that nonexistence is the result of ceasing to cling to permanence of the ego and the self.
Since Enlightenment is achieved by not clinging to permanence, one is freed from delusion about the ego and the self.
One is thus liberated from the fear of nonexistence by clearly seeing that the ego and the self are impermanent.
Thus, Enlightenment confirms the Buddhadharma, and thus affirms Buddha Nature and the nature of all things are one.
Indeed, reality as it is and reality as we each see it are affirmed by confirmation that Buddha Nature complements self nature, and that Nirvana complements samsara.
For both Buddha Nature and Nirvana do not exist without self nature and samsara.
Therefore, because the self and reality exist, so too does Buddha Nature and Nirvana.
Ego and the self exist, yet neither have lasting permanence.
Once karma bears fruit, all that is left is Buddha Nature.
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