Day 2 False Enlightenment: Reaching for the Moon in the Water | The Sword of Wisdom

Purify the five eyes to achieve the five powers.
Only after realization can one comprehend.
To see the image in a mirror is not difficult.

How can one grasp the moon in the water?Yesterday I commented on the first line of this stanza. Today I would like to discuss the rest of it. The second line in this stanza warns that it is not easy to experience enlightenment, and the third line says that the mind will be utterly clear after you reach enlightenment. The fourth line makes a distinction between genuine enlightenment and false enlightenment.

Ch’an enlightenment (genuine enlightenment) is free of any attachments. If attachments of any kind exist during an experience, then it is not genuine enlightenment. If you have attachments, then you are still in the realms of sight and sound, light and shadow: no matter how subtle or sublime your attachments are, you will continue to have problems with things you see, hear, or think about. Experiences with attachment can only be false enlightenment.

There are two types of false enlightenment: false enlightenment on the proper path, and false enlightenment on outer, or heterodox, paths. If you experience a false enlightenment but are guided by Buddhadharma, then you will remain on the proper path. No great harm will befall you. In fact, false enlightenments on the proper path can be beneficial to your practice. But false enlightenments can be misleading. If you are not guided by Buddhadharma, they can even be dangerous.

When you have an experience, it is an indication that you are practicing hard, and that you are getting results from the method. People who are below your level of practice may respect you, believing that you are enlightened, but they do not know for sure. Only people on higher levels can ascertain the depth of your experience and determine where you stand. It is difficult to gauge your own practice, so you cannot be certain if your experience is genuine or false. Relying on your own distorted judgment can lead to problems. Therefore, it is necessary to have a teacher who can judge your experience and determine if it is genuine or false.

The third line speaks of seeing one’s image in a mirror. Ch’an masters often compare the mind to an ancient mirror that has existed in everyone since beginningless time. Though it is pure, it is covered with the dust of vexation, and has lost the capacity to reflect. Practice is the process of removing the dust and polishing the mirror so that it can reflect again.

The mirror is no ordinary looking glass; rather, it is a mirror of wisdom, which reflects the fundamental problems of all sentient beings. Unlike an ordinary mirror, the mirror of wisdom does not reflect you, because you (the self) do not really exist. When you do not discriminate and are free from vexations and attachments, then wisdom manifests.

If you have wisdom, you can give people whatever they need and help them to overcome their fundamental problems.

It does not mean that you have supernormal powers. Supernormal powers are limited by space and time; therefore, they are unreliable. Wisdom, however, is boundless.

People who practice Ch’an sometimes experience supernormal powers, but if they attach to such powers, they still dwell in the realm of light and shadow. Once, Master Hsu-yun continued practicing in the meditation hall after everyone else had gone to sleep. He saw one monk, who was responsible for maintaining the monastery lamps, urinating, and he saw another monk go to a toilet in the western part of the monastery. Both places were nowhere near the meditation hall. The next day he asked the two monks if they had gotten up during the night, and they said they had. Hsu-yun acknowledged the phenomenon, but he did not attach to it.

Once when I was meditating, I heard a loud noise that sounded like two water buffaloes attacking each other. Of course, there were no water buffaloes in the area. Later, I noticed two ants fighting next to me. After I saw the ants, the noise disappeared.

If you are meditating well, your senses can become more acute and powerful, and you can hear and see things that normally would be out of human range. These phenomena arise naturally during practice, but they are not enlightenment. Do not cling to them.

The fourth line asks, “How can one grasp the moon reflected in the water?” The moon is in the heavens. If you believe that the moon is really in the water, you are deceiving yourself. A Ch’an story tells of a man who sees the moon in the water and decides to take it home with him. Bucket by bucket, he takes what he thinks is the moon to his house. Once home, he discovers that he has nothing but water.

Believing false enlightenment to be genuine is comparable to grasping at the moon in the water. If you practice until your mind is clear, calm and settled, you may witness beautiful visions and hear wonderful sounds. You may think you are enlightened, but it is just the moon reflected in the water. Genuine enlightenment has nothing to do with lights, sounds and reflections.

You laugh at the absurdity of mistaking the moon’s reflection for the real thing, but many of you get excited when you experience something during retreat, and, because you have never experienced anything like it before, you think you are enlightened. To you it is amazing; to an enlightened person, it is nothing more than the moon reflected in the water. Do not be led astray by anything you encounter or experience. Experiences are good, but if you attach to them, they become obstructions to your practice.

On this retreat, most of you have not even seen the moon in the water yet. You are too wrapped up in your wandering thoughts. Your mind is like a hungry ox, constantly straying off the path to feed on tender grass in the fields. Grab the ox by the nose and pull it back to the path. Do not allow it to succumb to the temptation of the grass. It will eat forever if you let it. You must turn your living ox into an iron ox. Iron oxen are never hungry, and so are never tempted by grass.

Be aware. A hungry ox is often lazy as well. After it has filled itself with grass ─ that is, after your mind has spent itself on wandering thoughts ─ drowsiness sets in, and the ox dozes off, only to awaken when it is hungry for grass again. Practice hard and control your ox-like mind.

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