MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Proper Estimation of the Body
It should be stressed that the body in itself is not to be devalued or denied, for it is the indispensable vehicle for the human spirit. Condemnation of the body is only valid when it is considered as the seat of the passions or as a provisional method when the aspirant needs to become detached from bodily demands. Nor are the corporeal senses to be censured or suppressed, because when purified from the baser desires they undergo a qualitative change and reveal themselves as divinely delegated means of knowledge. Even the animal passions, when refined by ascesis, empower the spiritual ascent. The senses then become supports for that contemplative ladder which links the physical with the Metaphysical, possible because in the ultimate view they are not two. It is only the ego's addiction to sensual diversions and distractions for its selfish gratification that should be censured. Buddhism seeks not release from the body and its senses as such, but from clinging to them, which is the cause of suffering. If we expend our available energies in sensual indulgence, we cannot also devote them to the ascent to higher states of conscious being, since it is the same energy that must undergo alchemical transmutation in order to be sublimated into the ambrosia and nectar of Ultimate Bliss.
If one settles for mere sensual pleasure and the satisfaction of desires divorced from their Divine Source but wedded to egoistic gratification, one's free will is quite at liberty to do so, but then one is self-debarred from enjoyment of the heavenly delights. So indulgence in worldly pleasures is here contrasted with the Land of Highest Happiness, in which all sensory impressions are heightened to the utmost and all pure wishes fulfilled. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are worshipped with offerings to each of the five senses, which are thus referred to their Divine Principle. ‘Pleasure perfects the operation of any art’, Coomaraswamy reminds us, and this includes the supreme art of Liberation. For proof one need only notice the highly sensuous embodiment given to their metaphysical and mystical insights by the sages and saints who wrote the scriptures in both poetry and prose as well as their expression in the sacred visual and musical arts of all the Traditions. As His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has said: ‘No pleasure can be compared with that derived from spiritual practice. This is the greatest pleasure and it is ultimate in its nature. Different religions have each shown their way to attain it’.