[55] When all is finally seen as it is, (from The Shodoka)
by Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka GenkakuEnglish version by Ivan M. Granger
Original Language Chinese
When all is finally seen as it is,
nothing hidden behind the fantasies of the mind--
That is Tathagata.
That alone is the state of compassionate knowledge.
Once this is realized, karma and its obstacles
disappear into emptiness.
But until that moment,
one's debts must be paid.
 | -- from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger |
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When all is finally seen as it is,
nothing hidden behind the fantasies of the mind--
That is Tathagata.
The term Tathagata is a name given to the Buddha that can be translated as “one who stands upon what is, one who resides in unmodified reality.” The implication is that one must perceive reality as it is, not through the imperfect filters of the mundane mind. The normal mind has trouble seeing clearly because it tends to project meaning and ideas onto all it perceives. The mind sees its thoughts about reality, not reality itself. For most of us, full reality remains “hidden behind the fantasies of the mind.”
To attain the clarity of true knowledge and a genuine relationship with reality, we must drop our mental filters in order to perceive directly.
That alone is the state of compassionate knowledge.
I find the closing lines on karma to be especially interesting—
Once this is realized, karma and its obstacles
disappear into emptiness.
But until that moment,
one's debts must be paid.
There are a few ways we can understand the working of karma. On a rather basic level, we might think of karma as positive or negative marks on our spiritual accounting ledger. We imagine two columns, our karmic debts on one side and what I have heard humorously referred to as “virtue points” on the other. All of our bad actions and thoughts must eventually be balanced out with the good. We don't want to end up in the red!
The monotheistic religions have similar ideas of sin balanced by love and charitable works.
These notions of spiritual debts, when utilized properly, can encourage greater humility, self-reflection, and the cultivation of a compassionate heart.
But there are more esoteric ways to understand karma. The word “karma” literally means “action,” and in its most obvious form it is just that—action and reaction. But, from a spiritual point of view, karma is specifically compelled action, inevitably paired with its results as they manifest through time.
Karma is powered by an unconscious urge to think and choose and act within certain patterns. When we express that compelled karma in our lives, we reinforce the pattern, increasing the impulse to repeat it again in the future. This is the wheel of karma. It sounds a lot like addiction, doesn't it?
Karmic activity always involves effort, ego, and subtly compromised will, along with repetition through habitual cycles.
When we investigate these patterns, we see that underlying our karmic actions are points of tension in the awareness. These act as knots in one's psyche and trap a great deal of our life energy. Our psychic tensions compel certain behaviors and mental fixations while attracting associated experiences.
But, through compassionate action used as a counter-balance, those karmic knots can be loosened and finally released. Understood this way, positive karmic action is not really about clearing out bad karma or sins, it becomes more of a process of energetic mastery, reintegration, and self-liberation.
Yet this is still dealing with karma as action and reaction in order to reconcile one's debts.
There is another level beyond the making of deposits and withdrawals in one's spiritual bank account, beyond even untangling those energetic hindrances one-by-one. At a certain point, karma itself is revealed to be empty and without further compulsion.
There is a state in which all karma-inducing tensions just fall away. The entire awareness, free from its projections and attachments, suddenly relaxes out of its knots all at once, like shrugging off a heavy overcoat on a hot day.
When the psychic knots fade, karmic action ceases. Activity may continue, but it is actionless action, with no sense of self or compulsion. Events still occur, sometimes difficult ones, but it is no longer felt as a weight on one's being. One simply experiences the flow of life.
This is how some adepts can boldly claim that they are free from karma or that it has become empty for them.
But to hear someone state that karma is fundamentally empty does not mean we can ignore its functioning within our own lives. So long as the karmic burden is still felt, then the proper work is to lighten its load through compassionate action and spiritual practice—“But until that moment, / one's debts must be paid.” This is the work that slowly loosens the garment until, in one liberating moment, it falls away. It is then that we see it was weightless all along!
I think of these two levels of working with karma as having parallels with the Christian notions of the Law of Justice and the Law of Love. The normal working of karma, that is, action leading to reaction leading to more action, with payment required for every debt, is the Law of Justice. It is spiritually important, but it can also become an endless cycle. Through the Law of Love, however, we transcend the Law of Justice. When one attains a state of clarity, selflessness, and profound compassion, the hard mathematics of karma is replaced with the unbound artistry of one's full being.
Recommended Books: Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku
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| This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World | Buddhism and Zen | |||
