Killing God

Decades back, when I was only starting to (intellectually at first) explore various paths, I read a booklet about Zen Buddhism. I don't remember the title but what I clearly remember is an amazement I felt when I read that a well known Zen Master said: "If you meet the Buddha in person, kill him!"

My puny little intellect was in no condition to comprehend the depth of such a statement. My attachments to some godform or another were too strong...

...and now a few decades fast forward to present situation: after a few thousands hours of meditation, hundreds of Tantric and LHP rituals of evocation and invocation and sex magic, and really a lot of Vajrayana level of Work (Chöd, Anuttarayoga Tantra and Mahamudra/Dzogchen meditations), I slowly but surely begin to comprehend the "to kill the Buddha" notion.

Human awareness is really complex. I have had my share of formal studies on the subject of various levels of human consciousness and modern transpersonal psychology offers some interesting observations.

There are various levels of identity development all humanity goes through. And at the transpersonal or spiritual side of things there are three levels:
- the Subtle (one identifies with multitude of godforms, spirits, angels, demons, higher selves etc.),
- the Causal (one identifies with the so called "I am presence", the Oneness, the One God, Source of everything, God the father etc.) and
- the Nondual (way beyond all godforms, ideas, any kind of identifications: emptiness - sunyata in Sanskrit).

The famous Zen Master mentioned above obviously went all the way and saw through every single idea, through every form/godform, through every existing structure, all of which enabled him to express his detachment regarding the Buddha, the original Zen Master.

So now when I read in a book or in a sincere sharing in Facebook post that someone is totally ecstatic and full of joy when aware and sharing "I have killed the god", now I am able to understand that this is not a statement of a madman or self-inflated-egomaniac or darkness-personified in deluded-satanist but of a person who has (probably) de-identified with all the personal (authentic) and transpersonal (Subtle, Causal and Nondual) notions and identifications.

And that truly is overwhelmingly breathtaking to some student on the Path like me...

... to a thoroughly realized master, on the other hand, that state of consciousness is as natural as breathing:

"With no gods to worship, no spirits to exorcise,
No culture of meditation, unpretentious, free and easy,
Here is an unaffected lord without pride in his sense of totality,
And wide open, hanging loosely, in spontaneity and oneness,
Without need to act, secure in the now, stress-free,
We are happy."
-Longchenpa

Let me close this article with a quote from yet another true Master:

"The very meaning of the 'Mahamudra - Great Perfection', refers to the true primordial state of every individual and not to any transcendent reality."
- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

May we all attain, on our own, following whichever path!

LVX FERRE!