Enlightenment from ' The Goose is out " ( source Mick Quinn face book )

One of the paradoxes in Buddhism and Taoism is the declaration that one who is enlightened doesn’t describe “it,” and one who describes “it” is not enlightened ! 

 Yet there are libraries of books where personal experiences are described, and past and modern teachers describe certain personal experiences to share with students.   In the sense that enlightenment is only experiential and cannot be adequately described in words, that it is beyond words and beyond human concepts, yes, it is true that whatever it is can only be experienced.   How then, does anyone know what it is, and how do we recognize one who has had the experience?  

 “The Goose is Out,” by W. J. Gabb was published in 1956 by The Buddhist Society. Not many of these books are still around, and I was lucky to find a few weeks ago a used volume at a reasonable price from Amazon.  Besides the author’s words making me laugh, Gabb wrote something about enlightenment that I want to share. Since this was written in 1956, the gender used is male. Gabb also wrote under the pseudonym “Tokusan,” which name he created from the names of two “amiable Zen lunatics who lived about a thousand years ago.”   This is what Gabb said to a spiritual seeker (at page 34):  

“I told him, a man is only aware of light by seeing the surface which light illuminates; light itself is invisible. Also, he is only aware of self through his senses and emotions and mind; self itself is unknowable. 

In the same way a man is not conscious of enlightenment save through observation of his actions and thoughts, and by noticing the influence he radiates on the world around him, his impact on the not-self.   

“He is enlightened who is accustomed to seek for the soul of any given situation and who knows the accompanying experience of the immediacy of response. He knows that life is friendly and he has made his peace with pain. 

He co-operates with Brahman in a spirit of intimacy and not of obligation and he knows the tranquility which comes of constant recollection of the nature and degree of this intimacy. 

He permits himself to be absorbed in the Eternal as It presents Itself in the different incidents of daily life. He finds the Divine in the Life he serves as it manifests in form, as a problem to be solved or as an unexpected guest …”   

This resonates for me. As I’ve said elsewhere, I keep by my workspace a card with Albert Schweitzer’s words:   “Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”   

Something good and wise can be repeated daily.   What I’ve been taught and am still learning and have experienced is that every person has this capacity and that every encounter has the potential for a mutual transmission.  

By: Daniel D. Woo