The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 1, Part 1

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

What follows are excerpts from a spontaneous gathering of grasshoppers in a Nepalese meadow in the summer of 2000.

Madam, how can I attain enlightenment?

You can’t. Enlightenment is the realization that there is no ‘you’ to be enlightened.

Your question is a ‘plant’, right? Yes, I see some snickers among my friends.

Yes, ma’am. They asked me to ask it. But aren’t all these questions ‘plants’?

Well . . . I’d prefer to gloss that over for the moment. In any case, I thank you. You have given me the opportunity to establish my sage credentials right from the beginning.

How then can I realize there is no ‘me’?

There are no formulas. There are no how to’s. But you can set the stage for the event. The event itself is beyond your control.

So how can I set the stage?

First, I suggest that you try to understand what it means that you do not exist. This understanding cannot lead you to awakening, but can help you to prepare yourself for the openness to the Unknown that awakening requires. What then does it mean that you do not exist? Surely you must see that the entire sphere of your self-identity is a fabrication of mind. It is a fantasy world that your mind has created. It is not a real thing, not an entity in its own right. It has no reality independent of the mind. It does not exist. This is the ego-self, a construct of a more fundamental self.

Is this more fundamental self the real me, my true self, my buddha-nature?

Absolutely not. ‘True-self’ is No-self. Perhaps you’ve heard the Zen saying, ‘If you meet the Buddha, kill him!” I suggest that if you meet your buddha-nature, you should kill that, too. Any supposed entity that is in some way construed as ‘you’ is a delusion and an obstacle to awakening. When I speak of the fundamental self I mean that sense of self which awareness projects so as to see itself. This is the meaning of self-consciousness.

Like the eye that cannot see itself, awareness, as pure subject, cannot be aware of itself. The projection of a self is awareness holding up a mirror before itself so as to see itself. That sense of self is no more an entity in its own right than is the ego. The difference is that the ego-self is the creation of the self and the self is the creation of awareness. You are this self, but this self does not, in fact, truly exist.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.