seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

Tat tvam asi! Thou art that! So thundered the Upanishads to ears that had never so much
as heard a rumor that man was one with god and could realize his own divinity.
To intelligent, rational men who had seen visions of gods and goddesses and knew
that what they had seen was real, the Upanishads explained that all spiritual essences, in
gods and in men, were but manifestations of the One, the Absolute, ground of all being.
In this One all opposites were united - spirit and matter, light and darkness, male and
female. The absolute was both the power and the law that the power obeyed, the Shakti
and Shiva whose consummated union could be experienced in the human breast. For this
One was indeed apprehensible. Through simplicity, humility, non-attachment, a steady
gaze that turned inward to its Source, and, of course, lots of priestly instruction in the
necessary skills, the One could be experienced as indescribable and liberating bliss.
The Brahmans immediately recognized in the confusions of such revelations their
opportunity to effect a switch in the social order of precedence. To accommodate the new
teachings, they quickly reorganized the Vedic pantheon, moving minor deities, such as
Vishnu, into the foreground and identifying major deities, such as dangerous Rudra, the
ruddy one who was made white from the ashes of so many burnt offerings, with the more
versatile Shiva. They even enrolled Kali in a finishing school and beauty spa so that she
could acquire table manners and a new luscious figure and debut as the beautiful Parvati.
What they did next is unrivaled in theocratic history. Although in the Rig Veda
the term `brahman' meant prayer, a calling out to god, (hence those who called out - the
cantors and the priests - were brahmans) they now proclaimed that the One god of which
all other gods were manifestations, was named, coincidentally enough, Brahman.
Brahman, then, was not only the prayer and those who recited the prayer but it was also
the one to whom the prayer was addressed. The word was god and theirs the voice that
spoke it! Brahman was the Absolute, the ground of being and godhead; and, though
ordinary citizens had a portion of this divinity within themselves as abiding spirit or
Atman, the Brahmans, as special vectors of this divine spirit and force, were Brahman in
the flesh! They were gods whose earthly manifestation was intended, for mortals, to be
instructive and, for themselves, to be the last stage of a launching sequence that would
send them to eternal life among their brother stars.
They supplemented their sorcery handbooks with a new compendium of ethics,
word-magic and ritual, the Brahmanas. And they dictated into the sacred record those
revelations which established themselves as divine beings whose word was law, whose
bodies were inviolate and whose presence at all ceremonial events in every individual's
life was indispensable and well worth the fee they charged.
The Upanishads, then, not only facilitated an expansion of religious consciousness
but, as interpreted by the Brahmans, also provided for transitions and stratifications in the
social order; for as the Brahmans interpreted the new teachings, the cause and effect
CHAPTER 1 INDIA
S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM
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