Ecce homo, behold the human being…

from Ton Lathouwers, More than Anyone Can Do

The eternal dispute is mainly about the question of whether enlightenment is a gradual process — the result of a slow, careful polishing of the mirror until, finally shining, it reflects the light — or rather something that suddenly overcomes you, all at once — just like that, from out of nowhere… Both doctrines are absolutely true, even though they may seem to exclude each other totally. 

The problem is that the confusion begins after just a few words. It is a peculiarity of existence itself that it endlessly subdivides into factions that fight each other when necessary. But the Way keeps meandering on, undisturbed… 

The Spirit blows where it will, but whoever wants to trap it, hold it fast or pin it down, is ultimately left with an empty container… 

… When you finally reach it, the view from the mountain top may be dazzling, but it is not enlightenment. Time after time the tradition warns you not to stay there — not to nestle, self-satisfied, into a serenity that nothing can disturb — but go a step further and come back down the mountain again. Back down, but not — and this is essential — back to square one.

Instead, back to the world of forms, in which the source keeps chaotically branching off and dividing itself. Back to the discord, the misunderstandings, the communication breakdowns, the irreconcilable paradoxes of your own life. Back, with empty hands, to the market where there are people with their cares, stories, joys, fears, pain, and despair…

Even the great Dostoevsky, with his unconditional solidarity with humankind, against God and all of the saints if necessary, recognized at the same time that he would much rather have the whole of humankind perish, than miss his morning cup of tea!

Nothing is changed by the essential turnabout and yet nothing remains the same.

Ecce homo, behold the human being…

It is also said of the Buddha that he is still unceasingly on the way — always deeper, always further… In other words, you can neither measure nor judge nor weigh your current location on the way… How could you locate something on a path that has no beginning and no end? Even the Buddha is only half-way…

[Leon Bloy recognized that God] is a chasm of not-knowing, of love. And we have at our disposal only an invisible compass in our heart. Like a magnet, we become drawn ever deeper into that abyss. Ever deeper, for if never stops. And with increasingly greater trust, for that never stops either.

And leading us is [Christ/Buddha]… And do you know who comes right after him? Not the saints.

No, it is the atheists, those who have cursed God. Because they knew from deep within that all the pictures and definitions are not it. And because, confronted with so much suffering, they have spoken up unconditionally for those who suffer, and cursed everything that seemed to sanction that suffering.

These words from Leon Bloy could be an echo of Martin Luther’s shocking assertion that the most terrible blasphemy and cursing are more agreeable to the heavens than the most beautiful hallelujahs. For there is a great chance that those curses come from deeper in the heart than any piety hardened into stained glass windows…

Ordinary existence belongs to the unfathomable, like a lid fits on a pan... 

-- The Song of Difference and Unity.

Another famous Ch’an master once said:

“There are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened action.”