A Comparative Religious Study:
Theravāda Buddhism and Monotheism Part 3
Wong Weng Hon
Faith
In Buddhism, ‘Faith’ (Saddhā) is also emphasized. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (4.202), the Buddha declares that a worthy man is a believer. The first aggregate of the Five Spiritual Faculties or Powers is ‘Faith’ followed by Energy, Mindfulness, Concentration and Wisdom (Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta.47). The Buddhist ‘Faith’ is lofty like any other esoteric religion in the sense that it is absolute or pure faith or unshakeable conviction constructed upon the wisdom of insight into the underlying Truth behind the multiplicity or diversifying differentiations. Faith enhances energy to maintain right mindfulness and clear comprehension. Right mindfulness and clear awareness engender right Concentration supported by wisdom of Insight. The attributes of wisdom are the annihilation of illusive self or ego and the intuitive discernment of the illusion and unreality of multiplicity.
Wisdom is the cornerstone of self-enlightenment. The five spiritual faculties or powers constitute the Buddhist experience of self-enlightenment by which the Noble Eight-fold Path is consummated. The five spiritual faculties or powers, powered by the four establishments of mindfulness, annihilate completely the illusive self or ego. Succinctly put, the five faculties or powers purify the human consciousness so that innate human supremacy of Man called nibbāna is manifested.
Likewise, in monotheistic religions, unshakeable faith or belief in God ensues if and only if self or ego is totally annihilated. The obliteration of self or ego is the paramount condition to receive God in one’s life. What ultimately saves a believer is the total annihilation of self or ego. Whoever annihilates self or ego perceives God. The annihilation of self or ego and the manifest of God in one’s heart are mutually exclusive. The perceiver is in communion with God. If one’s life is directed by self or ego, God can not save the unawakened believer in the slumber of ignorance. The first principle of salvation, which is the annihilation of self or ego, is identical for all esoteric religions. We are all saved by the ineffable Truth designated either as Buddha or God. Buddha or God can only be perceived after ‘I’ or ‘Mine’ has vanished through penetrative wisdom of discerning the God. God is the Truth, Way and Life devoid of self-centric ego.
Conclusion
Only religiously saved or liberated human beings can collaborate perfectly to construct an alliance of civilizations. There are currently clashes of civilizations within a nation, between nations and between two conflicting blocs. Many of us are still religiously unsaved and become very discriminative in terms of creeds, colours and races. The exoteric politics, economics, finance, education, science, technologies and most importantly, United Nations can help human beings but only esoteric religions can truly save human beings from human psychological chaos or crisis, and natural environmental catastrophes connected to unwholesome human behaviours.
Gotama Buddha defines Nibbāna as the unconditioned, unmade, unborn and undestroyed. God is also generally conceived as unconditioned, unmade, unborn and undestroyed. Nibbāna is located in the inner Heart; God is also located in the inner Heart. These similar eternal attributes equates Nibbāna with God. Buddhism emphasizes the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality constructed latently on the basis of Dependent Co-arising and Insubstantiality. Monotheism stresses on the eternal Truth of cosmic Unity parallel with Buddhist concept of Non-duality.
Sogyal Rinpoche, the author of the book ‘Tibetan Book of Loving and Dying’ reveals that the absolute Truth of Unity or Non-duality sought by all esoteric religions is thus :
The true nature of mind is the true nature of everything,
and it is realizing the true nature of our mind.
The true nature of the human mind is not the ordinary consciousness. It is the pure, infinite consciousness or released consciousness called the (true) Self. This liberated consciousness is called Buddha-mind in Zen tradition, Fanā in Sufi tradition, ‘Dzogchen’ in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Ātman-Brahman Equation in Hinduism and Tao in Taoism. It is generally known as the Mind of God or Buddha which is an eternal, immutable Truth. It is the Truth which produces eternal bliss. The mind of God or Buddha is the inner Heart of Man.
Sufi Fakhruddin ‘Araqi defines Truth as follows :
Truth is realized knowledge. The Truth which is like a
crystal or a shining star in the mind, becomes bright
when it is lived and realized.
Both Sufism and Zen Buddhism seek after the Truth of Unity or Non-duality (synonymous with Insubstantiality and Dependent Co-arising). Truth is the knowledge of self-discovery. It gives birth to Wisdom and supreme virtue. The most important application is live in the knowledge of Truth with a luminous, released mind which is the inner Heart. Thus, the nectar of Wisdom of knowing the Truth is experienced empirically. The Perfect Man describes the state of gnosis as he sees as God sees ; he hears as God hears ; he acts as God acts ; he thinks as God thinks. With the Hisness of God, the self or ego vanishes totally. This is parallel to Chan or Zen practice in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Satipaṭṭhāna in Theravāda Buddhism.
The apparent multiplicity of diversifying beings is non-dual. In fact, all esoteric religions seek the common Truth of Unity or Non-duality. Sufi Ibn ‘Arabī, the most celebrated and influential Islamic Sufi in the world, explained how different external or exoteric dimensions of various religions have come into existence and yet the soteriological goal is identical :
Saints and mystics throughout history have adorned their
realizations with different names and interpretations, but
what they are all fundamentally experiencing is the essential
nature of the mind.
Harmonious relationship between all members of human global family as brothers and sisters is the external manifest of absolute essence of the human mind – the highest good of human species. This innate supremacy of Man is called Godhood or Buddhahood. Self or ego conceals this innate supremacy of the human mind. It evokes chaos, crisis or catastrophe in human life.
The clash of civilizations is merely human ignorance and folly of not realizing this inward innate great perfection of Man as ordinary worldlings worship illusive outward multiplicity. To avoid the collision of civilizations, we must worship the Buddha or God dwelling latently in the essential or original nature of the human mind. Worship of Buddha or God is the worship of ultimate Truth of infinite cosmic Unity or Non-duality. All esoteric religions proclaim that there is only one Truth of God or Buddha – the Truth of the intrinsic awareness of Man.
Monotheists are implored to love God. Loving God is loving the Truth of ultimate reality : All is the One ; the One is all. The One is the God or the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality. Human beings must establish an intimate relationship with the God or live in knowledge of the Truth. The non-duality between the lover and the Beloved God or Truth is known as the union with God. In Buddhism, Non-duality is expounded as non-discrimination between the perceiver and the perceived or subject and object. One cannot enter the gate of non-duality or live in the Truth of Non-duality or Unity in which discrimination dwells.
Non-discriminative wisdom is the summit of spirituality in which one does not discriminate against any religion or anyone. More subtlely, non-discrimination is the non-duality between the perceiver and the perceived. The perceiver and the perceived are dependently co-arisen. This climax of spirituality is beyond all religions. All religious sages promulgate this ineffable Truth in which the saved believer is totally immersed or absorbed in the oneness of the world without any sense of individuation or separation. The universal love for all neighbours and even enemies emerge from such wisdom of the death of ego.
Islamic Sufi Fakhruddin ‘Araqi in his work ‘Lama’at’ (Divine Flashes) describes the Truth of Unity or Non-duality through the experience of the Certainty’s Eye of a Gnostic thus :
Beloved, I sought you
Here and there
Asked for news of you
from all I met
Then I saw you through myself
and found we were identical
I blush to think of I ever
searched for signs of you
The above ‘Araqi’s poetry mirrors his direct experience of intrinsic awareness or self–awakening. Truth is to be sought inwardly but not outwardly. Innately, all living beings are identical in terms of the original Divivity in us. Our minds are innately pure and identical. Owing to the superimposition of self-centric ego, our minds are defiled. Consequently we perceive different individuals existing separately from one another. We perceive that we are separate from God. Hence, we perceive multiplicity. We regard that the diversified beings are real. In the Theravāda Buddhism, being ignorant of Insubstantiality and Dependently Co-arising, we perceive independent discrete individuals. Consequently, attachment or aversion arises creating suffering. It also leads to incessant cycle of transmigration. The Buddhist fundamental doctrines of Insubstantiality and Dependent Co-arising are parallel to the Unity of Being or Existence in monotheism.
Unity or Non-duality is the intrinsic nature of the phenomenal world. It is the Ultimate Reality not perceived by the ordinary worldlings. The worldlings have gone astray. They have derailed from the holy path for not discerning Unity or Non-duality which is synonymous with Insubstantiality and Dependent Co-arising. Religion fine-tunes and rectifies our minds so that we perceive things as they are. They restore us on the original track to redeem our original minds. Having abandoned mental illusion, we are automatically awakened to the original Self – the pure, infinite consciousness. The pure, infinite consciousness is the mind of God from monotheistic perspective.
In the Mahāyāna tradition, the eternal Truth of Unity or Insubstantiality is called the Emptiness (śūnyatā) which is synonymous with Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda). Mahāyānists also equate Emptiness with Non-duality (advaita). This is endorsed by the Vedānta philosophy of Hinduism. Vedānta philosophy of Brahman is the quintessence of Hinduism. Vedānta advocates the universality of all religions that all sages speak the same Truth through different paths or expedient devices.
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