The One in All ; The All in One Part I

K.S.Chow

Introduction

From Buddhist perspective, a human personality is constituted from the five aggregates of form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness devoid any soul or self. The soul or self here refers to self-centred ego. It is important not to be confused with the concept of soul known as ātman in Upaniṣads or Hinduism. The Upaniṣads or Hinduism also rejects the existence of self-centred ego called self or ego generally. The ātman is not self-centred ego. It is the micro-reality or absolute Essence of Brahman or Brahmanhood. It is synonymous with Buddha-nature or the womb of Tathāgata (Tathāgata-garbha) in Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. Thus, the micro-reality or absolute Essence of Hinduism and Buddhism is reconciled. Vedānta and Buddhism are both absorbed into modern Hinduism without doctrinal conflict. Buddhism has not actually vanished from modern India. It has been interpenetratively incorporated into Hinduism.

Unity of Oneness

Śākyamuni Buddha promulgates that the five aggregates do not exist as five discrete entities or separate self-contained entities. They are continually interconnected and interrelated constituting a unity known as the human personality. An individual human personality is a micro-unity existing dependent co-arisingly with the external environment constituting an infinite cosmos. The external environment comprises countless human personalities and countless non-human personalities interwoven into infinite wholeness or oneness. This wholeness or oneness is the Unity of Being (Waḥdāt al Wūjud) called God (Philosophically, God=Brahman=Tao=Buddha=Allah=真主). A simple way to describe the Unity of Being is the universal Truth of ‘The One in the many, the many in the One’. This is the communal Truth of Ultimate Realities visioned by all esoteric religions.

Besides human beings, the non-human personalities include animate and inanimate beings of all the planets in the infinite cosmos. Succinctly put, the cosmos comprise the myriad things and beings in the universe. A human personality is only one of those countless myriad beings contained in the infinite cosmos. From the Sufi’s perspective of Ibn Arabī in his work of Seal of Wisdom (Fuṣūṣ al Ḥikam), the outward manifest of universe is itself God. The oneness of Universe or God is the Unity of Being. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra of Hua Yen Buddhism describes this Unity of Being as ‘Dharmadhātu-pratītyasamupāda’ (法界緣起) or the Dharma realm of Unity (一真法界).

In close scrutiny, the micro-unity of an individual human personality, consisting of the five aggregates, co-exists and merges with the infinite external environment. The five aggregates exist only when the Mind and Body are in contact with the external world. The Mind and Body can not be separate from the external environment. If a human being is prisoned in a dark room without being provided with food, drink and light, he will not survive. In other words, an individual  is ultimately dependently co-arisen from all phenomena of the infinite environment macro-cosmically. A human being is part of the whole of the Unity of Being. As the Unity of Being is God, every human being is part of God. The God is the universal set. All the micro-unities of myriad things or beings are the subsets of the God. The merger between an individual and all myriad beings in the infinite cosmos constitutes the Totality or the Whole of the infinite universe.

From the Buddhist perspective, the Totality or the Whole is dependently co-arisen from an interwoven network of contigent phenomena. Avaṃtasaka Sūtra of Mahāyāna tradition expounds this oneness of the world on the basis of the doctrine of identity and interdependence (Dharmadhātu-pratītyasamutpāda).

Islamic Cosmology

According to Ibn ‘Arabī, God is manifested outwardly (al-Ẓāhir) as well as inwardly (al-Bāṭin). The cosmos, consisting all the creatures, is the outward manifestation of God. The inward essence of God is located in the centre of the human heart. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the creatures, which are imaginary or illusory according to Ibn Arabi, are parallel to the knowledge of the conventional truth (saṃvṛti satya); The Creator God is parallel to the ultimate Truth of the realm of Buddha. Metaphorically, the creatures or the phenomena of conventional truth  are the reflected moons in the water. Ibn ‘Arabī expounded that they are merely the shadows of God. Creations are unreal and only God is real. The formal is the many or all ; the latter is the One. The ultimate Truth of Unity and Non-duality is expressed by Ibn Arabi as: One in Many ; many in One. Such Ultimate Reality is also expounded by Hui-neng in the Platform Sūtra of Mahāyāna tradition. The many is the creations or conventional truth; the One is the God or Buddha which is the ultimate Truth. Avataṃsaka-Sūtra of Mahāyāna elucidates the relationship between the empirical world the Absolute thus :

The Totality or the Whole contain the parts and the parts
are contained by the Totality or the Whole.

The Totality or the Whole is the One. The One is the God or Buddha. The parts are the many or the multiplicity. The whole and the parts are inseparable. The forest contains the trees, the trees are contained in the forest. Likewise, the human beings and other beings are the outward or exoteric manifest of the God or Buddha ; the Essence of the God or Buddha are immanent or pervasive in all beings. Ibn ‘Arabī explains the relationship between the world and God beautifully thus :

All beings are the food for the God; the God is the food
for all beings.

It means that all living beings make up the God ; the God makes up all living beings. All beings and God are dependently co-arisen and are non-dualistic. Hence, it is of crucial importance to grasp that the notion of God or Buddha communicates the eternal Truth of ‘ The many in One; The One in many (一即一切; 一切即一).’ Whoever discerns the relationship between the many and the One knows one’s True Self and sees the God or Buddha. Seeing God or Buddha is seeing the Ultimate Truth of Reality of everything. God or Buddha is Truth (Arab.: Ḥaqq ; Sans.: Satya).

In his work ‘The Way of the Sufi’ (p.80), Idries Shah reveals the non-discriminative wisdom of Sufi Ibn ‘Arabī thus :

Now I’m called the shepherd of the desert gazelles,
Now a Christian monk.
Now a Zoroastrian
The beloved is three, yet One
Just as the three are reality one.

What Ibn Arabi attempts to covey is that God is not exclusively the God of muslims. God is the common Truth of wisdom related to Christians, Hindus, Buddhist,and Taoists. God is the Truth of Unity or Non-duality worshipped by all. Only Unity or Non-duality is real and any truth other than Unity or Non-duality is non-truth but illusion. The many is unreal and the One is real. All religious adherents are seeking the communal Truth of Unity or Non-duality to gain salvation and happiness.

God as Truth

The external cosmos is the outward manifestation of God. The unmanifest or hidden dimension of God is the centre of the human mind. Therefore, whoever knows himself knows God. The human mind is the inward or esoteric dimension of God. The universe is the exoteric or outward aspect of God. The exoteric dimension conceals the esoteric dimension so that the God is veiled from the perception of the ordinary worldlings. The veil can only be removed by non-discriminative wisdom of perceiving Unity of Being concealed by the multiplicity. The Unity of Being is synonymous with Mahāyānists’ concept of Emptiness. Emptiness is dependently co-arisen Unity.

It is therefore clear that Mahāyāna Buddhism, Vedānta of Hinduism and Sufism of Islam orientate the adherents towards the identical Truth of Unity or Non-duality. In order to perceive the Truth, one must die before one dies. In other words, the false self or ego must be obliterated first in order to give birth to the True Self. The manifest of True Self consummates the emergence of Perfect Man or Enlightened One.

Unity is Emptiness

Economy and Tao are not separate. Material or economic knowledge alone is not sufficient. The economic knowledge must be unified by a team work of workers, supervisor and manager. A Team work works successfully when there is tea spirit to sustain unity of work. Every form of unity divine and spiritual. This micro-unity is the determinant force of any system of work. In unity, there is Emptiness. In Emptiness, there is the Buddha-nature of dependent co-arising. The Emptiness is the harmony of Tao. Tao is the Unity of Being or the oneness of God. Accord with unity is accord with Tao or God. When there is mind or spirit of Tao or God, there is harmony. The Chinese Ancient asserts thus, “ When there is harmony, there is prosperity(人和萬事興). The Chinese generally love to designate their express rail as ‘Harmony Express’ and the Olympic Relay as the Run of harmony.  In harmony there exists the Tao; in disharmony, Tao vanishes. The Chinese life is knowingly and unknowingly characterized by the philosophy of Tao. Tao emphasizes harmony.Harmony pertains to good human relationship. China was able to overcome the massive of earthquake catastrophe which swamped Sichuan because of internal harmony as well as the external harmony. The Chinese internal harmony is the united efforts of rescue, evacuation, relief and funding to fight earthquake and save lives of victims. The external harmony come from generous foreign aids collaborated by the chief backyard ‘Bodhisattva’ of the United nations Organization. Both the internal Tao and external Tao combine and save China from the greatest catastrophe ever experienced by the People’s Republic of China. It was a very touching scenario of alliance of civilizations between the east the west and the east and the east. In actual fact, the world cannot live without support to the United nations – the chief backyard ‘bodhisattva’ who have alleviate and are alleviating so much suffering of the world. The unifying force of U.N is the Tao. This Tao has brought enormous relief and happiness to the needy or victims of massive natural disasters. The supports of the superpowers and the third world countries in the aftermath of the major castatrophes swamping our mother earth  sustain the Tao which preserves the lasting security and peace of the world. When the world protects the Tao, we protect God. When protect God, God also protect us.

In early Indian Buddhism, Emptiness or Unity is expounded as Insubstantiality or Non-self (Anattā). Theravadins are the great exponents of Anattā. The Mahayanists are the great exponents of Emptiness. The Vedantists are the great exponents of Advaita or Brahman. The Chinese Taoists are the great exponents of Tao. Modern Bahaism endorses that there is one and only Truth of Unity of Being – the oneness of the world. Paradoxically, there exist multitudes of disunities or divisiveness which obliterate this Unity or Divinity worshipped communally by all. This is the origin of the clashes of civilizations locally, nationally and globally.