Stream-Enterer

            The Eightfold Path consists of four stages—the stream-enterer, the once-returner, the never-returner, and the worthy one, the arhat (see the Shambala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen for more detail).  You, dear reader, may be in the first stage or a later stage, depending on your sincerity.

            The stream-enterer (shrota-apanna)is just beginning to explore the original frontier.  An ancient Greek philosopher noted that one can never step into the same stream twice.  Native Americans often followed a streambed in order not to be tracked by the enemy.  Similarly, the stream-enterer enters into an ever-changing reality (no one ever steps into the same stream twice, as some spiritual wag pointed out), and begins to “leave no traces”—no attachment to ego-centered opinions and objectives—as in the past. 

            There are an unknown number of rebirths awaiting the stream-enterer, depending on what transpires in this lifetime.  This could be the last birth, but that is an eventuality not much to be desired.  Meanwhile, the rest of us face countless rebirths, possibly even into a lower position in the Six Worlds, backsliding and starting from square one again.

Study the Way

< ?xml:namespace prefix = st2 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Master Dogen, in the Genjo Koan fascicle of Shobogenzo, formulated four transitions in the practice of the Zen Buddhist way:

            To study the way is to study the self

            To study the self is to forget the self

            To forget the self is to be awakened by all things

            To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between self and other

            And go on in traceless awakenment forever 

“To study the way is to study the self.”  Of course, the Buddhist way cannot be objectified, separated from the self.  But Zen is not simply a navel-gazing exercise.  What begins with an intensive focus on the question of the existence of the self, which Buddha denied in his doctrine of annata, initially engages our inner circle of personality traits and habits, activities, family and friends, and expands ever outward to include others, enemies and all, and finally to embrace the entirety of existence we casually call Universe.

The solitary practice of zazen is central to this process, and does not end when we join a sangha and begin a more formal social practice.  In fact, what better way to study the self than in the context of  others?  In the sangha, the foothills of the original frontier, we confront the self in all its glory, through its relationship to others.  It’s not always a pretty picture, but somebody has to do it.  In Zen, you are that somebody.

You are the person entering the original frontier.  However, you are not alone.  The entire worldwide Zen Buddhist sangha is there, exploring the foothills of uncharted territory along with you.