Incomplete Life

"In the true teaching of Lord Buddha, Complete Enlightenment is made of incomplete enlightenments. This means that in the heart of your daily mindful actions, thoughts and speech, complete enlightenment is already there, you should not strive to look for Complete Enlightenment anywhere else."
Thich Nhat Hanh's Foreword to
Complete Enlightenment
By Cha'n Master Sheng yen

My life I have come to realized has always been a series of incompletes and during my college years I was constantly reminded this by my mentor and instructor the late Bill Prevetti of the UWGB Art faculty and my final diploma still carries one or two incompletes that has cost me my grade point average. I am not proud of myself for these weaknesses of character and till these days I still cannot seem to find myself to complete any project or undertakings to a successful completion. It is like a curse that has been haunting my life ever since I learned about it and so now that I am old and ugly enough to know better I am making it my practice to see to it that whatever I do I am making sure that it comes to a completion. Even if Complete Enlightenment is contained within every incomplete enlightenment of our daily life words, thoughts and deeds, it is still important that every once in a while, we try to touch this essence of Complete Enlightenment, even if it is merely at the Satori level.

The Buddha is said to have said that we are all enlightened beings we were enlightened before we were even conceived in our mother's womb. However we have forgotten how to remain being enlightened we have all of us succumbed to greed, hate and ignorance. In the process of being born and raised and in the process of leaping and hopping through this so called life we have accumulated these negative traits forgetting how it is to be charitable, compassionate and wise. Most of us rediscover these virtues not until it is too late that it matters anymore, when the damage is done and the die is cast. We then spend good deal of our end of days regretting and fretting over what we could, should or aught to have done and in the Buddhist arena of existence we return as cats and dogs instead of enlightened beings.

In the Judeo, Christian and Islamic sense of heaven and hell as our final reward we are given the option to repent and our Compassionate Maker is ever ready to forgive and forget if we genuinely are repentant. Our after life is decided based upon what we sow in this life and how much we regret having sewn bad seeds. We are constantly monitored by two angels recording our acts both good and bad and how much we remember our original nature in relation to our Creator or how grateful we are towards His benevolence. This is one of the virtues that Islam has in making us pray at least five times a day, that we remember and that throughout the day we can say thanks for what we receive and atone for our wrong doings. Having done this five times a day at least we stand less chances of repeating our bad habits or enlighten us of our moral virtues reminding us of our fragility and impermanence, that one day we all will have to face Him and answer our every words, thoughts and deed throughout or life.

Early this morning as I sat facing the rising sun as it appears over the horizon of the South China Sea I discovered my new Koan or Zikrullah "Inna Lillah Hi wa' inna lillah hi Ra ji'un". As the blazing sun pierced the center of my forehead in between my eyes I thought to myself that I was going to commit suicide of my thinking mind, the mind that constantly harassing me with its discourses, its ramblings, its lament and justifications, this mind that is buried in layers of ignorance. I envisioned the bright light burning in my forehead as I closed my eyes as burning away the nagging idiot while I chanted my new found Mantra which simply means, 'From Him I come to Him I return".

Does it work? Hell No! I am still here writing down these senseless thoughts justifying myself of every thoughts and action that I do or have done or intend to do. Trying to make sense out of non - sense, creating more waste out of accumulated garbage like there is no end to it. It is a Muslim practice to say this Koan or line every time you here of someone's death, like when you are told that so and so just passed away and you say 'from Him you came and to Him you return'. This helps us to remind ourselves of whom or where we originally came from and again how fragile and impermanent we are lest we forget. Being conscious of our final demise can be a sobering feeling knowing that it all boils down to being buried six feet underground, food for worms and bugs, it helps to bring us down to earth so to speak. If we are the least spiritually awaken we stop and smell the roses before the sense of smell is no more, or at least we check our ego that is constantly living the life Riley like there is no end to it.