Extraordinary in Ordinary

   One of the things that always attracted me Buddhism in general is that it does not exclude or leave out any particular experience, or privilege one experience over another. It doesn't try to say "this phenomena is more special than any other" and therefore deserves higher mention. All experiences come from the same source. In that regard, phenomena are treated equally from the perspective of the mind. To try to place one phenomena higher over the other is to take phenomena itself to be an end goal. This is a bit like making the phenomena more important and constellating our experiences around it. And to seek out these special experiences would only cause deeper vexation to the mind. The worst scenario might be to start ranking people according to their ability to have certain experiences.

     Many spiritual practices tend to emphasize attaining specific levels of experience, which is often marked by the ability or the skill to do something in a certain way. Sometimes it means having visions, magical powers, the ability to transport oneself to another dimension,  and so on. While I have heard many stories about these things happening, I often go back to the question of what value these powers might have to people's lives, and whether these visions pertain to wisdom. Even if someone was able to 'crack the code' and look into other people's minds or teleport themselves across dimensions, the question remains: what value might this have for others? And, if a person uses such powers for personal gain, is it not reinforcing the notion of a separate self?

    I am always wary of a point when spirituality might end up becoming a kind of 'dividing practice', to use a term from Michel Foucault: a kind of way of separating the identities of spiritual practitioners in terms of presumably different levels of ability. While I think that it's important to follow teachers in study of Buddhism, I don't think a true spiritual master would ever say "I have come this far because I do this, this and this." I think that a teacher can be best judged by the contents of what they are imparting to people, especially when it comes to the practice of Chan.

     In a sense, there is something extraordinary about the ordinary. Buddhism in particular seems to celebrate that all phenomena comes from a source. To know the source is the way of practice. When I know where things arise and how they do in meditation, even a simple thing like a flower or a sunrise becomes something extraordinary. I needn't go too far afield to see magic or miracles, if I only know the source of all one's experiences. To me, that is the beauty and simplicity of Chan. It is realizing that one doesn't need to travel far to know that one's nose is pointing downward. Or it is to know where all phenomena come  from.