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"THE HOOPOE TELLS ABOUT THE PROPOSED JOURNEY:
When she had finished her discourse the birds began to understand something of the ancient mysteries, and the relation between themselves and the Simurgh (God). But though they were seized with a desire to make the journey they flinched from setting out, for doubts still disturbed their minds, so they said to the Hoopoe: 'Do you wish us to give up our tranquil lives at once? We feeble birds by ourselves cannot expect to find the way to that sublime abode where the Simurgh has his being.' The Hoopoe replied: 'I speak to you as your guide. He who loves does not think about his own life; to love truly a man must forget about himself, be he ascetic or libertine. If your desires do not accord with your spirit, sacrifice them, and you will come to the end of your journey. If the body of desire obstructs the way, reject it; then fix your eyes in front and contemplate. An ignorant person will ask, "what connection is there between belief or unbelief, and love?" But I say, "Do lovers regard their lives? The lover sets fire to all hope of harvest, he puts the blade to his neck, he pierces his body. With love comes sorrow and the heart's blood. Love loves the difficult things." O Cup-bearer! Fill my cup with the blood of my heart and if there be no more, give me the less. Love is a cruel pain that devours everything. Sometimes it tears the veil of the soul, sometimes it draws it together. An atom of love is preferable to all that exists between the horizons, an atom of its pain better than the happy love of all lovers. Love is the very marrow of beings; but there can be no real love without real suffering. Whoever is grounded firm in love renounces faith, religion, and unbelief. Love will open the door of spiritual poverty and poverty will show you the way of unbelief. When there remains neither unbelief nor religion, your body and your soul will disappear; you will then be worthy of the mysteries - if you would fathom them, this is the only way.
Go forward then, without fear. Forsake childish things, and, above all, take courage; for a hundred vicissitudes will come upon you unawares." - From the Conference of the Birds
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| "Among human beings, enlightenment appears in varying degrees of purity. Just as soon as a common person is conscious of a difference between right thoughts and false thoughts,
between good thoughts and evil thoughts, it can be said that he has become enlightened, but it is a very rudimentary form of enlightenment.
Hinayana disciples as they begin their practice of meditation are conscious of their discriminating thoughts and at the same time are conscious that they have no validity; they are said to have attained enlightenment but it is a very crude form of enlightenment. As they restrain their discriminative concepts, being conscious of their falsity, their enlightenment becomes more refined. As they become Bodhisattvas, becoming more conscious of the grasping nature of discriminative thoughts and yet reminding themselves that even discriminative thoughts have no grasping quality in their self-nature, their enlightenment has become partly accommodating. As Bodhisattvas advance along the stages, they more and more become sensitive to the arising of these false discriminations and more and more quickly react against them, and become more and more skilful in employing expedient means for checking them arising and ignoring them if they arise. Until at last they come to a state of awareness in which they are able to keep far away from even the most refined conceptions, knowing that Essential Mind is permanent and abiding in its purity. This is a state of perfect accommodation; it can truly be called enlightenment. Therefore it is said in the Sutra, if any sentient being is able to keep free from all discriminative thinking, he has attained to the wisdom of a Buddha." - Lankavatara Sutra |