The unawakened absolute

A bad view that has entered into the stream of Buddhism is the view that the absolute, in its undeveloped immediacy, has knowledge of itself, i.e., is Buddha/awakened. Simply put, it is the belief we are already Buddhas. This belief stems from the doctrine of original enlightenment that is confusing, in a manner of speaking, acorns with oak trees, of which Dogen Zenji and other Japanese Buddhists are guilty of.

Before Buddhahood, the absolute is always coeval with avidya or primordial ignorance, which is to say, the absolute doesnt recognize itself even though it is immediate with itself. From this it follows that enlightenment/Buddhahood can only come after the transcendence of avidyanever before . Only after a long struggle and many rebirths does the Bodhic spirit (bodhisattva) become Buddha. In short, Buddhahood is the overcoming of the absolutes own ignorance of itself or avidya, by which it fully recognizes itself, in itself, and in its productions.

To reiterate, there is no original enlightenment by which the absolute first recognizes itself in the immediacy of itself and its productions. Such knowledge only comes to a perfected Bodhisattva, that is, a Buddha who was once imperfect.

We as sentient beings (sattva) represent the absolute that, in the beginning, possesses no knowledge of itself. There is only a lack, that is, an incompleteness (avidya can also mean incompleteness in Sanskrit). From this we can draw the conclusion that every desire or thirst we sense as sentient beings is really an incompleteness that falls within the absolute, itself. This means we sentient beings, as the ignorant absolute, are trying to find ourselves by desiring and creating worlds of possible fulfillment or completeness (vidya). But of course, such worlds are always more or less inadequate and incomplete. To remedy this, the absolute must be beheld directly, as it is, in its own right.