This is Part 2, of the Awakening of Great Beings Series. Last time, we looked at the First Awakening, this time we investigate the Third Awakening.
The third awakening is to enjoy serenity. This is to be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place. Thus it is called “to enjoy serenity in seclusion.â€The Buddha said, “Monks, if you want to have the joy of serene nondoing, you should be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place. A still place is what Indra and other devas revere. By leaving behind yourrelations as well as others, and by living in a quiet place, you may remove the
conditions of suffering. If you are attached to crowds, you will experience suffering, just alike a tree that attracts a great many
birds and gets killed by them. If you are bound by worldly matters, you will drown in troubles, just like an old elephant who is stuck in a swamp and cannot get out of it. This is called ‘to enjoy serenity in seclusion.’â€
Now, this is a difficult undertaking in today’s world. Between noise-belching cars and motorcycles, and clattering television sets in almost every restaurant—and if a public place doesn’t have television it blares out irritating background noises, euphemistically called music. There are few public places that enjoy quiet. (from ZenTalks).
I find this a very cryptic passage, that on the surface talks about seclusion and keeping away from crowds. As ZenTalks mentions, that’s a very hard prospect in the modern age, there’s almost no where publicly where this can take place. Looking deeper, however, we find it’s through “attachment” and being “bound” by crowds that we suffer.
Looking from this angle we begin to see through the metaphor. Living in a quiet place and being in seclusion is the place of inner stillness. This is the place non-attachment, a place of no binding, where things pass by unattached. In this place, regardless of what happens, we abide in serenity.
In future posts we will investigate more of the Great Awakenings, with reflections from Zen Reflections, and commentary. As always, I’d love to turn this into a conversation and hear your input and ideas, and how this teaching speaks to you. Please feel free to leave a comment.
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I would say that this Awakening does not specifically require you to be physically away from the crowds and noise that you are trying to avoid.
Rather, stillness should be internal. Irrespective of what passes by in front of our senses, we should still be able to maintain the seclusion that breeds serenity.
Hi Marcus,
Awesome way of reading it! would love to see it that way, but get stuck reading this line “This is to be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place.”
How do you read that? Look forward to your reply.
Peace,
Wade
Wade, if the Buddha did indeed say this (I say if since we cannot truly know what was said but rather are left with an interpretation further interpreted by our own filters) then it should be taken in context of all teachings. If awakening is the realisation that there is no one here to awaken then where is this crowd? And how is depriving yourself of sensory perception (by staying “alone in a quiet place”) going to help? Don’t monks, even while meditating, get hit with sticks or have gongs clanged? After all is it not the case that what we perceive is not real but the act of perceiving is? Awareness of one’s mind must be key to understanding Reality and such awareness can only come, initially, through observation (at least until the observed and the observer are one). It would seem to me much easier to observe something active than something still.
and don’t judge one situation (crowds and noise) to be any better or worse than another (solitude and silence).
In any case, don’t get stuck on it, that’s attachment
Perhaps all that is meant from this line is “If you need a break, go chill and recharge your batteries”
Don’t take any of this as advice, ‘cause all I know for sure is that I know nought (and even that I am not sure).
Wade: Can you not be ‘away’ from something mentally? I’m sure you’ve been ‘off in your own little world’ plenty of times. If you meditate in a busy park, do you focus on the people around you, or on your meditation (although really, you should be focused on both to be truly meditating, as such)?
Of course, as Cedric says, I could just be reading into it too much. Sometimes the face value of something is all there is.
If awakening is the realisation that there is no one here to awaken then where is this crowd? And how is depriving yourself of sensory perception (by staying “alone in a quiet placeâ€) going to help? Don’t monks, even while meditating, get hit with sticks or have gongs clanged? After all is it not the case that what we perceive is not real but the act of perceiving is? Awareness of one’s mind must be key to understanding Reality and such awareness can only come, initially, through observation (at least until the observed and the observer are one). It would seem to me much easier to observe something active than something still.
and don’t judge one situation (crowds and noise) to be any better or worse than another (solitude and silence).
In any case, don’t get stuck on it, that’s attachment
Perhaps all that is meant from this line is “If you need a break, go chill and recharge your batteriesâ€
Don’t take any of this as advice, ‘cause all I know for sure is that I know nought (and even that I am not sure).
@Cedric, ‘Where is the crowd’, as you say, this must be looked at in context of all the teachings. From what I notice in our discussions, you seem to speak of the Absolute Realm, which is reality, but we connect to it from a Relative World. There ARE crowds, to deny the existence of crowds is almost the same delusion as saying there is nothing in them to fear. Check out http://themiddleway.net/2007/11/14/absolute-relative-and-enlightenment/, especially the bit down the bottom.
FYI the stick, kyosaku, is called The Stick of Compassion, it’s not a form of punishment, it’s a loving encouragement, and a great release of tension
The lack of attachment to crowds or solitude is what I got out of this one, that, it’s fine to be anywhere, but don’t get bogged down by it.
@Marcus, Yes, you can be ‘not present’, but that’s not very mindful, that’s delusion and/or fantasy living. It’s not living in the moment or reality. Meditating in a busy park, I’d try be as present as possible, starting with the breath, coming back to it, and then moving gently and easily to whatever becomes the most dominant aspect of my environment. Not shutting it out, but including it, no distinctions between self and other, just.
May all beings be happy, may all beings have peace.
Gassho,
Wade
Hi Wade, I didn’t say “there is no crowd”, I asked the question “where is the crowd?” There’s a difference, I think. As you say the statement “there is no crowd” is not very useful but the question…
Also I didn’t imply the kyosaku was a punishment, simply that I thought of it as a sensory means of bringing one back to awareness when the mind wanders. Crowds and city noise could have the same purpose could they not?
I have often thought that the opportunities for self-understanding or self-knowledge are more prevalent when “shit happens” then when “all is good with the world”. But of course I make no claims to knowing anything. These are just thoughts
Thanks.
Hi Cedric,
If you do not see the crowd, is there not, no crowd?
Interested in your reply here…..
Ah, I was just informing, as I’ve heard many call it a tool of punishment. Your right about it’s purpose, the same as a bell like you mentioned earlier. And yes, crowds can be used for practice. I think the key to this post is around attachment, rather than utilization of crowds. It looks at requiring crowds to practice with, vs using them if they are about…..
Again, very interesting, that is too how I have felt, but I keep trying to come back to “All human affairs are the jewels of enlightenment” by Fuji Kozan. Which essentially is the underlying reality, that of non-distinction…..
Keep on thinking, keep on writing, I’m really enjoying our discussions.
May we exist in muddy water with purity like a lotus, thus we bow to Buddha.
Wade
Wade: My example of being lost in thought was just to illustrate the point of not being there mentally whilst being there physically. Of course, in our application, you would physically be there, but your mind would be present. Just distant, I guess for lack of a better term.
Cedric: Crowds/city noise having the same purpose as the stick is the meaning I’m going for.
Marcus, that’s a good word, “distant”. That’s where I think our minds are most of the time. Even when we’re focused or concentrating, the mind is distant in that it is beyond the observer and so we fail to see what it is we are.
Wade, what I am suggesting is that it is the question “where is the crowd?” that is useful. Equally useful is the question “where is the no-crowd?”. Either question can be asked in either situation, interchangeably, when there is crowd or when there is no-crowd. And you can substitute most any word for crowd. The usefulness is that the question usually snaps my mind back, and it stops being distant.
“Keep on thinking…”, Wade that’s funny, exactly what I would like to stop doing
Really, “where is the crowd?” and “where is the no-crowd?” (or any variant of) can be used simultaneously. There will always be crowd and no-crowd existing simultaneously, so the patterns of thought should consider both questions simultaneously as well.
@Cedric/Marcus, Marcus has nailed what I’m trying to say, both are the same… Now where to?
@Cedric, Keep on experiencing perhaps is more in line with what I meant. Great pick up, thank you for catching me
Gassho,
Wade