Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Pai Chang

When the title said "Short and Sweet" it really meant that. Pai Chang's words of wisdom and enlightenment are all summed up in one paragraph. In my opinion, I perceived Pai Chang's true meaning behind this passage was to hold onto enlightenment when you have finally obtain it. You do not gain knowledge or some sort of divine power when you become enlightened. Instead your mind breaks free from the chains of delusion and unreality. Pai Chang states that "the ordinary mind is the same as a sage's because the original mind is perfect and complete in itself." It seems that he is saying that our minds are the same as the original mind, but we have yet to realize that for ourselves.
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2 comments:

  1. Jenna JacksonFebruary 20, 2009 at 4:30 PM

    “You do not gain knowledge or some sort of divine power when you become enlightened. Instead your mind breaks free from the chains of delusion and unreality….It seems that he is saying that our minds are the same as the original mind, but we have yet to realize that for ourselves.”

    I enjoyed your interpretation of the reading. It seems like a lot of students have been really confused about exactly what it is that you attain when you reach enlightenment and I think you summed it up perfectly. It isn’t about gaining a special knowledge as a means to be divine, but simply freeing our minds from delusion and seeing things clearly. I interpreted the idea of our original mind being the same as our enlightened mind as ridding ourselves of clutter and worry. We come into the world with a free and open mind, but it gets filled up with a lot of unnecessary things and becomes foggy as we go through life. Once we free ourselves from the unnecessary, our minds go back to their original state and become clear and focused again.

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  2. Anthony's BlogsFebruary 20, 2009 at 4:35 PM

    This is something I wanted to point out: "You do not gain knowledge or some sort of divine power when you become enlightened." While this may be true for the self, others around an enlightened one will be able to tell the difference between a person who is enlightened and who is not.

    As far as the original mind thing goes, I believe that is completely relevant to becoming enlightened.

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