Since the nineteenth century the Pali word, ‘bodhi,’ has often been translated into English as, ‘enlightenment,’ but to my mind this gives the wrong impression as to its meaning. The term, bodhi, is derived from a Sanskrit word, ‘budh,’ which means ‘to awaken, to know,’ ‘to wake up’ and ‘to observe or attend to.’ For some reason, the English language scholar, Max Muller (1823-1900), interpreted ‘bodhi’ as ‘enlightenment’ – implying some kind of insight into, or access to, a transcendent reality or state of being. This may be a reflection of a European Christian mindset that sought to align the Buddhist notions of ‘nirvana’ and ‘bodhi’ as somehow analogous to ‘heaven’ or to the resurrection or to Godliness.
Let’s first ponder on the word enlightenment and then consider why ‘awakening’ might be a more useful term. ‘Enlighten’ is a term that combines various threads of meaning: to inform and provide knowledge; to make lighter / relieve of a burden; to shed light on (a topic or problem). From Muller’s perspective ‘enlightenment’ includes all of these connotations, as well as to have achieved a state of nirvana.
According to Dogen, Bankei and other Zen teachers, everyone is already enlightened – but we have somehow forgotten we are, or don’t realise we are. There is nothing we have ‘to do’ to gain enlightenment. We don’t need to search for something, or to acquire something. If enlightenment is already present in us – we only have to be present, here and now, to wake up to this reality. Which is why ‘awakening’ might be a more useful word to use in this context. Dogen reminds us that, ‘practice is enlightenment, enlightenment is practice.’ To sit in zazen/mindful meditation is to realise our Buddha nature, to be enlightened, to be awakened.
On a logical level, if the only time that is real is NOW, the present moment – and past and future are fictions or abstractions – then enlightenment must be now. It is important we don’t sit in order to be someone else, or to achieve some transcendent state, or to acquire nirvana, merit or reward – we are already all the reward we might seek. Sitting-just-to-sit, is to be a Buddha – to wake up to our ‘original nature’ or Buddha nature – what Dogen called, ‘the eternally arising and perishing reality of the world.’
Even when we use the word, ‘enlightenment’, we ought to be thinking in more dynamic terms – thinking of ‘enlightening’ as an ongoing process of realisation – engaging fluidly and fluently with whatever comes and goes, without the constraints and rigidity of reactive habits of thought, feeling and behaviour – awake to the serendipitous rush of everyday life.
Instead of ‘bodhi’ or ‘nirvana,’ the term, kensho, is more commonly used in Zen Buddhism – derived from the Japanese words, ken, ‘seeing’, and sho, ‘nature or essence’ – that is, ‘seeing into the nature of things’ or ‘seeing into one’s own nature.’ So, this suggests there is an equivalence between so-called nirvana and ‘one’s own true nature’ – which brings us back to the notion that enlightenment is our natural way of being and that we need to learn to wake up to this fact. Maybe this is what Shunryu Suzuki means by ‘beginner’s mind’ – realising that all things are transitory and empty of self-existence – subject to never-ending change, be it fast or very very slow. Kensho, is usually described as a sudden illumination, a sudden experience – and the literature of Zen is full of accounts, or attempts to evoke, moments of realisation. Many haiku have the quality of sudden insights into how things are – that is, moments of waking up.
For instance: Basho’s: FROG POND PLOP, and, on a bare branch / a solitary crow – / this autumn evening; or this haiku by Jack Kerouac, in the morning frost – the cats step slowly; or my poem, summer on the blue rocks – a fly scratches. In all of these examples, it is as if the poet suddenly wakes up, as if seeing for the first time what is in front of them. It is a glimpse of things free of the habits of perception and preconception that we often carry about with us.
Peter Matthieson’s teacher, Soen Nakagawa, used to say: ‘the true enlightenment, the true miracle, is awareness of this present moment.’ In this sense it might be better to think in terms, not of ‘enlightenment’ as a thing or a noun, but as a dynamic process of awakening to each moment as life unfolds. Instead, of seeking a ‘state of enlightenment,’ somehow removed from everyday life, we can cultivate a lifelong practice of being awake to what is happening in and around us all the time – without the burden of reactive habits of thought and behaviour. In this sense, we might experience feelings of release from habits and preconceptions – freeing ourselves from attachment to what comes and goes, and from cravings for what always seems out of reach. In this way we can awaken to this life as it is, always changing, transient, in process – full of profound and surprising interrelationships and currents of causality. A rich and dynamic stream of encounters and adventures to be appreciated for what they are – always coming and going, in motion, a river of experiences.
So, it may be more useful to think of ‘bodhi’ as a lifelong process of waking up to what is here and now – to this life in all its everyday beauty, its ups and downs, joys and sadnesses, pleasures and pains. Let us learn the art of being awake, rather than half-asleep, being alive and aware, paying attention, being mindful.
Instead of running on auto-pilot, only half-alive to the miracle of existence, let us learn to appreciate each moment of this brief life and to live it as fully as we can – this seems to me to be the real meaning of ‘bodhi or ‘awakening.’