Non-Attainment

  When we were in the study group the other day, the thought occurred to me that the Complete Enlightenment Sutra contains the verses:

When enlightenment pervades all ten directions, the Buddha Path is accomplished. There is no place where illusions vanish, and there is no attainment in accomplishing the Buddha Path,

It interests me that this sutra describes the act of accomplishing the Buddha Path, yet without attainment. So what exactly does "attainment" mean in this context, and how is it different from "accomplishing" the Buddha Path?

I have often heard something to the effect that in Buddhism, "accomplishment" is not about acquiring things but more about letting go. I think this is perhaps an oversimplification, but it might be true that wisdom is about letting go of conditioned thinking and embracing a much broader-minded vision of the world. One example is that if we are only thinking in terms of a narrow self, everything is seen through the lens of our own wants and needs. But if the view is just a bit broader and we are able to see what we have in common with other living beings--humans, plants, animals, and even the tiniest microorganisms--then our perspective changes to one of identifying with all beings rather than with a narrow self. But even this too is a kind of "attainment", since it's sometimes been described in Chan as exchanging a "small" self for a very large, unified self that includes all other beings. Now, how does this vision relate to "non-attainment"?

The problem, to my thinking, is that even if a person reaches a state of unified mind or awareness, there is still a subtle sense of a self that embraces or includes other beings. I might say, like Walt Whitman did in some cases, that I am identified with all people, all beings, and so on, but there is still an "I" there: a center that believes that feelings come from the body, for example. Non-attainment would have to go beyond this and suggest that there is no containable sense of self that is unified in any way. It would need to go beyond even the idea of a bigger self.

I guess "accomplishment" really does mean to let go, but I often have to struggle to realize what I need to let go of especially when I question: who is letting go?