One Bright Pearl

Buddhism is about cutting through delusion. I think most of us imagine that delusion is caused by forces outside our control. We're "educated" by a society that doesn't even understand itself. So how can we help but be deluded? Or we're "born into a world we never made," as Howard the Duck said. So delusion or deception, we think, comes from outside.

But when Gensa stubbed his toe, he saw through that. He understood how he had created his own delusions and therefore had the power to end them, right there and then. His teacher said that everybody knows this, but only Gensa had the guts to say it out loud.

These days lots of people say they understand that they themselves are the only real source of their own delusions and deceptions. But when you really push them you see that they'd still like to put the blame on somebody else. I know I'm like that. Even after a few so-called enlightenment experiences, you can still fall back on the idea that delusion comes from someplace other than your own silly self. We all do it. Even Dogen admits he does it sometimes too when he says that neither you nor I know what the bright pearl is or isn't.

I like the idea that Gensa expresses a bit of regret at the realization that he can't be deceived. People tend to think that Buddhist enlightenment must be all happiness and bliss. But actually one tends to also feel a kind of regret. To really know for absolute certain that you could never blame anyone else for anything is difficult. It requires that you take full responsibility for absolutely everything. I can see why Gensa would feel a bit regretful about that. First, he would regret having caused so much difficulty for himself and others. Second, he would regret no longer having anyone else to point the finger at.

---Brad Warner, in his commentary on Master Dogen's Ikka No Myojo---