The Moon

:| Gassho

If a sentient being becoming enlightened were like the moon changing color, in what way would our experience of the world at night be different?

:| Gassho,
Tobiah

Hi Tobiah,

Reading the following posts may help viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1484

Giving up fancy zen like questions, may help too. A walk in the garden. Getting the groceries. Just normal things...will help.

And just a few observations: how does one become enlightened (you are asking for the impossible!)? a sentient being is a sentient being,the moon is the moon, aren't they? would... does it have any revelance and reality? Why should things be different?

And a great sense of humor...


gassho


Taigu

Point taken, although I was shooting for something a bit less literal- I wasn't intending to present a fancy question, but a new way of thinking about something.

Have you read 'the parable of the moon' in the Nirvana Sutra?

Namaste

In traditional Buddhist poetry, the 'moon' is taken as a symbol of enlightenment ... and the moon's reflection represents ... well, let us just say that it is of the same flavor as the 'harmony or relative and absolute' which we are studying these days.

Here is a classic Dogen verse on the theme:

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Dogen was unusual among some Buddhists though ... he felt that not only was the 'moon' sacred and what we should be shooting for, but so the water, wet, broken, light, wide, great, puddle, inch, wide, whole entire, sky, dewdrop and blade of grass are sacred. It's all "the moon"! :D

And that is just a "finger pointing at the moon" ... but the "finger" is the sacred moon too! :D :D

Just to add that quote from the Nirvana Sutra, I think you'll find it interesting:

Quote:

---

As an example: there is a man here who, as he sees that the moon
is not yet out, says that the moon has departed, and entertains the thought that the moon has sunk
down. But this moon, by its nature, does not sink down. When it appears on the other side of the
world, the people of the other side say that the moon is out. Why? Since Mount Sumeru obstructs
[vision], the moon cannot reveal itself. The moon is always out. It has, by nature, no coming out
or sinking down. The same is the case with the Tathagata, the Alms-deserving, the All-
Enlightened One.

---

Namaste