Part of the Personal Awakening Series

Delusion & Awakening — How Do You See Your World?

Zen Master Dogen on the difference between the world as the “illusion” we create & the world as the “awakening” inside us.

“To carry the self forward and illuminate myriad things is delusion.

That myriad things come forth and illuminate the self is awakening.“

— Dogen, in ‘Genjokoan’

I LOVE this saying from Zen Master Dogen (1200–1253 CE). I interpret these two lines as …

To experience and act in the world with the idea that “I” am at the center of acting and experiencing is delusion.

This is because it assumes that the “I” (meaning my outer ego personality) at the center of the world is my true self. It assumes that the world that my ego personality is experiencing is my only reality, and is my true reality. And it assumes that “I” have control over what I am experiencing.

In fact, most people believe that this is true. They are certain that what their emotions are telling them is the truth of the world. They believe that their desires for things and attainments will bring them happiness. They feel that they have to act firmly, and sometimes aggressively, to establish their identity and place in society, less they be trampled by the greed and jealousy of others.

But, to allow the world to come into my experience, without any interference of an ego “self” getting in the way, that is awakening.

Allowing the world and its experiences to arise in my awareness, without any assertions or effort on my part, is awakening (or enlightenment). This is because I am doing so without preconceived thoughts and judgments. I am allowing pure experience to take place. I am engaging with a world that is expressing itself, rather than me expressing what I think the world around me should be.

This is the same lesson as Ram Dass’ Be Here Now and Ekhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. The lesson is to allow both the world and one’s life to unfold, trusting that our deeper self, our soul, knows what it is doing as it brings forth ever changing life events for our outer ego self to experience and learn from.

My Personal Experience

THOSE of us on a spiritual path have had a taste of both sides of what Dogen is talking about. Even though I read Be Here Now as a teenager when I was first started my meditation practice, I also lived a stress-filled and achievement oriented (though also fun) life for many decades as a working professional.

I was clearly acting in the world. But deep inside of me I knew that I should be allowing the world, and I would sometimes do that, mostly while taking a break from work.

Even in my work, however, I believed that if I did not actively pursue anything at all, that something, some opportunity, would come into my life and surprise me.

I believed that because it actually happened a lot. I experienced a lot of surprising synchronicities over the years. And I readily credited those new ‘opportunities’ appearing out of nowhere to my many years of meditation practice, more than anything else.

It was not until I was about to turn 60 and could see retirement on the horizon that I started returning more concertedly to the spiritual pursuits that were so important in lifting me out of a challenging puberty many years ago. I started with Buddhism, although six years later, I am now into other forms of meditation and teachings.

Perhaps it is the slower pace of retirement, which has been made even slower by the global pandemic, but I am now able to more consciously allow the myriad of things to come forth and illuminate my self more than ever before. It is nice to quiet my mind and wait, and watch, to see what my soul will bring forth next for me in this life.

Extra:

Dogen famously attained enlightenment when his teacher said to “cast off the body and mind”, which became a phrase that often appears in his writings…

To study the Way is to study the Self. To study the Self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self, as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever. — Dogen, in Genjokoan

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