The Mind of God is Essence of Unity

K.S.Chow

Before I begin to pen down my thoughts, permit me to define God that is used in the context of this article. It is to be defined as the one and the only Truth of Unity - Oneness of the world. Therefore, in this article, the word ‘ God’ is used in the context of the Truth of cosmic Unity. Therefore, God is equated thus:

God= Tao=Brahman=Buddha= Jesus= Allah=Unity

God is a universal set. Politics is only one of the numerous subsets which are contigent beings of the cosmos. Hence, God and politics are interconnected. God encompasses politics. Politics is not separate from God. Religion is akin to the metaphor of the ocean; politics is likened to metaphor of fish in the ocean. If the fish is separate from the ocean, it is doomed. If the fish poisons the water, it will be poisoned too. In other words, politicians ought to be mindful not to injure the God. For instance, the politics of anti-corruptions, equality, righteousness, fare election and respect for human rights contains the flavours of both politics and religion. It is a common knowledge that unrighteous, discriminative governance will result in turmoils for the county.

However, though politics and religion are inseparable, politics and church or politics and monastic community (saṅgha) are separable.

The most eminent Malay Sufi poet, Hamzah Fansuri was adept and superb to illustrate the co-relationship between human beings and God. He illustrated it through the metaphor of fish and ocean. Not only politics is not separate from God, human beings are also not separate from God. In fact, nothing is separate from God. Sufi Ibn ‘Arabī expounds in his Doctrine of Unity of Being or Existence (Wahdat al-Wjud) that God is existence and existence is God. His teaching is parallel to Heart Sūtra’s exposition that Emptiness is Form and Form is Emptiness.

 It is the ignorance of this relationship between the world and God that the clashes of civilizations are currently dogging the world. The Islamic Sufi’s perception of the co-relationship between the empirical world and God is parallel to the Mahāyānists’ worldview of Emptiness. The relationship between the world and God is parallel to the relationship between the conventional truth and ultimate truth expounded by Śākyamuni Buddha. The Hua-yen Buddhism expounds it in terms of the phenomena and the principle. Sufi Theosophy or Mahāyāna Theosophy are also synonymous with the Doctrine of Principle (Li) and Material Force (Qi) of Neo-confucianism. This is not amazing as Neo-confucianism is syncretized from Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism by Chinese Neo-confucianist, Zhu-xi.

 Modern people prefer science to religion as science is a subset of the phenomenal world. The phenomenal world is seductive to the human senses. Scientists generally conceive that the scientific laws or theories are more accurate than religious law or principle. Intuitive discernment of religious scripture or direct experience of gnosis will reject such a speculated proposition.

We fully know that when new knowledge of science is discovered, the old scientific theories can be vetoed, rejected, and replaced with new discoveries or findings by scientists themselves. This mirrors that some scientific theories are mere hypothesizes or assumptions which may be proved to false subsequently. Therefore, certain portions of science are not eternal truths and are mutable. Conversely, esoteric religious Truth of Ultimate Reality is forever eternal and immutable. For instance, Brahman, Buddha, Tao, God or Allah is eternal and immutable. What is eternal and immutable is real. What is impermanent and mutable is unreal.  The ultimate Truth of Reality of religion can never be invalidated. It is forever perfectly accurate and needs no rectification.

Science may produce eminent scientists. But it never produces perfect men of spiritual wisdom and virtue. Spiritual Wisdom is the highest knowledge which is unequal, unsurpassed by any other sphere of knowledge including science. When I was young studying in my sixth form science, a muslim collegemate told me that everything is God and God is the greatest. I did not believe at all because of I was a science enthusiast immersing myself in pure chemistry, pure physics, pure biology, applied mathematics and pure mathematics. Now, I can assure you that the purity in Science is no match with the purity of religious wisdom. Of course, I do not intend to downgrade the pragmatic value of science which has made my life extremely comfortable, efficient, effective and productive. Science is the phenomenal world which is part of Theosophy. In the praxis of Theosophy, a practitioner loves both the Principle and the phenomenal world. They are reciprocal and inseparable. In fact, with the knowledge of Theosophy, one loves science or any other academic or professional knowledge more profoundly. Secular knowledge is extremely useful in our worldly life.

 I illustrate my thought with an analogy: If one has mastered one’s English language proficiency at an advanced level, any subject written in English language can be read and comprehended much more easily. Likewise, whoever has mastered the knowledge of Theosophy, one can understand the relationship between the world and God (Buddha or Tao) without much difficulty. When one has become a self-cultivated Gnostic, the relationship between the world and God (Buddha or Tao) will be fully comprehended.

Religion produces perfect men or saints. A perfect man is the perfect image of God (Buddha or Tao). He is a perfect servant of God (Buddha or God) as the names and attributes of God are manifested in the perfect man. The Prophets and Gnostics are perfect men. The perfect men are saints who possess the perfect knowledge of Theosophy.

The Reality of the world encompasses the manifest truth (small letter ’t’ is used) and the unmanifest, hidden Truth (Capital letter ‘T’ is used). Ordinary worldlings worship the knowledge of ‘truth’ to earn their livelihood as ‘truth’ is the living knowledge and skill in one’s career. But if one neglects or is ignorant of ‘Truth’, one may have to pay for the ‘opportunity cost’ or ramification of being attached to the ‘truth’ without knowing the ‘Truth’. 

 When I use the word ‘truth’, I conceive the changeable conventional knowledge of reality. When I use the word ‘Truth’, I conceive the unchangeable knowledge of Ultimate Reality. Only Ultimate Truth or the Truth of God (Buddha or Tao) is eternal and immutable. The people of the secular world generally prefer to adhere to ‘truth’ rather than following the ‘Truth’. This is the origin of suffering. This is the origin of human clashes of civilizations prevailing the modern world today. Religious Prophets or Gnostics emerged on earth not to teach the ‘truth’ of secular knowledge but to awaken us to the ‘Truth’ of Theosophy – Religious wisdom which is antidote to human fallibilities or sins.

 Religion unveils that the ‘truth’ is the conventional knowledge and the ‘Truth’ is the ultimate knowledge of God (Buddha or Tao). Whoever knows their distinction is a Gnostic or the Wise. The Buddhists designate a Gnostic or the Wise as an Enlightened One or Self-awakened One. The Monotheists designate the Noble One as a Perfect Man’. Perfect knowledge of the distinction between the truth and Truth produces a saint or sage. A saint or sage is one who has been awakened from the slumber of ignorance of the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality. Only Wisdom or Insight into the Truth of Ultimate Reality can obliterate human ignorance. When Truth is realized, it does not connote that the conventional truth is discarded. Enlightenment is the wise way or right vision of perceiving the world. The most lofty paradigm shift is the shift from worldly knowledge of ‘truth’ to the transcendental knowledge of ‘Truth’ without rejecting the conventional truth. This is adherence to the middle path to avoid the pair of extreme views of absolute existence and absolute non-existence. The ultimate Truth is neither conventional truth nor absolute Truth.

 A religiously wise person does not have to discard science or any other disciplines, such as economics, accounting, language, literature and so forth which is or are conventional reality. The beauty of being a religiously wise person is that he or she is adept of using worldly knowledge to benefit oneself or others without being defiled by self-centric ego. Science, such as Internet technology, can be utilized to diffuse the communal Truth of Wisdom globally. This is a perfect match between religion and science – an alliance of religious civilization and scientific civilization.

Esoteric religion vindicates science. Science may or may not vindicate religion. Esoteric religion is unmatched or unequal in terms of the exposition of eternal Truth of Ultimate Reality and conventional reality of the phenomenal world. I do not attempt to be dogmatic or over-assertive. I am describing the ‘truths’ of empirical world and ‘Truth’ of the transcendental world as it really is. Religion prevents worldly knowledge from deluding us.. Most importantly, it fine-tunes the mind until it is fully rectified so that intellectual conceptualizations or fabrications will not veil us from discerning the Truth of God (Buddha r Tao).

God (Buddha or Tao) is the Nature or Order of equilibrium of things or phenomena. Succinctly put, God (Buddha or Tao) is the Unity or Totality which preserves a necessary existence or conditioned phenomenon. Existence or phenomenon is conglomerated from contigent beings or contigent conditions.

  Truth is expounded in the Sufi Ibn ‘Arabī’s Doctrine of Unity of Being (Waḥdā̄t al-Wujūd). It is metaphorically known as the Borderless Ocean of Unity. It is compatible with Mahāyāna’s doctrine of Emptiness (śūnyatā) expounded vigorously by Nāgārjuna. It also concurs with Hua-yen Buddhist Doctrine of Identity and Interdependence ( Dharmadhatu-pratītyasamutpāda) expounded in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra of Mahāyāna tradition. It is also compatible with Vasubandhu’s Yogācāra Doctrine of Three-fold Truth (Trisvabhāvanirde’sa). The Three-fold Truth are firstly, the Imagined Truth (Parikalpita-svabhāva) of the phenomenal world, secondly, the Dependent Truth (Paratantra-svabhāva), thirdly, the Perfectly Consummated Truth (Pariniṣpanna-svabhāva). All esoteric religious or philosophical doctrines converge on the one and only eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality called the infinite Dharmadhātu. Dharmadhātu is universal Self. This universal Self is Brahman, Buddha, Tao, God or Allah. Dharmadhātu is expounded in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra of the Mahāyāna tradition. The Sūtra defines Dharmadhātu as Eternity, Bliss, (universal) Self and Purity. All these four characteristics are the divine attributes of Brahman, Buddha, Tao, God and Allah.

 In Unity or Non-duality or Dharmadhātu, there is harmony (bliss). Without harmony, there is no Unity or God (Buddha or Tao). If a ruling government governs a nation according to the Mind or Truth of God (Buddha or Tao), Unity and harmony, followed by prosperity, prevail. There would be reduced confrontations between the government and the governed. The political leaders can only govern the nation if and only if the relationship between the people and the government is warm and harmonious. Disharmony separates the government and the governed. Disharmony is disunity. Disunity separates the nation from God (Buddha or Tao). The nation is just like a mould. When God (Buddha or Tao) is separate from the mound, it collapses. It collapses because the angered God (shattered Unity) does not sustain the necessary existent or conditioned phenomenon anymore. The collapse is manifested in the form of a human relation havoc or worldly failure. The downfall of a government is a catastrophe. This knowledge of the Truth of God (Buddha or Tao) is the essence of Unity which is crucial for all of us. Unity is divine. Unity is sustainability and disunity is downfall or decay. Form Buddhist perspective, the collapse of the mould is the braking of the natural law of Dependent Co-arisen (pratītyasamutpāda) of Unity or Non-duality. The power of God (Buddha or Tao) is synonymous with the force of Dependent Co-arising. God or Dependent Co-arising is the enlightenment energy which illuminates the darkness of ignorance.

 It is evident that a righteous, caring and transparent  governance captures the hearts of all the citizens. Happy citizens are more patriotic  to contribute more fervently or earnestly to national building. I reiterate that unity is the essence of God (Buddha or Tao).  Hence, the Unity of God (Buddha or Tao) is the inbuilt -insurance of national sustainability. The citizens are even more loyal, patriotic and productive if their interests are well-guarded by the government. Therefore, subsides ought to be distributed to the financially deficient citizens without increasing their inefficiency. Frankly put, subsidy is an inefficiency account. It is not really encouraged. It is important to see that the rich citizens are not subsidized and the poor citizens are not over-subsidized. The affluent should give but not to receive. Subsidies are charitable funds or humanitarian aids for the have nots or the needy. The have nots or the poor should strive more diligently to escape from the vicious cycle of impoverishment through education and training. Subsidy is a walking stick provided by a caring government. But the poverty-striken citizens should not depend on the government’s walking sticks for too long. Of course, those deserving and vulnerable ones must be helped by the government because taxes are people’s money. A democratically elected government is actually the trustee of the citizens. A good government is the servant of the people. However, if the people do not work hard enough to pay taxes, it is beyond the government to serve well. The united reciprocal relationship between the government and the people is the face of God (Buddha or Tao). Please do not disfigure the face of God (Buddha or Tao). Otherwise, the mould sustained by God (Buddha or Tao) will collapse ! To love God (Buddha or Tao) is to safeguard the mould from collapsing.

Conclusion

Religion is a universal set. Every subset is just a portion of the universal set. Everything or every being belongs to a universal set which is God (Buddha or Tao). In essence or absolute, God (Buddha or Tao) is the Unity of Being or Existence which is the dependently co-arisen Unity. Only Unity exists; individuations do not exist discretely. Individuations exist interdependently as a whole. The Whole is the essence of God (Buddha or Tao). Different denominations of religion represent only different names. But they all refer to the communal Truth of cosmic Unity. In fact, this cosmic Unity is like a borderless ocean of unity. Anything, which is borderless, is infinite. What is infinite is ineffable. The phenomena including human beings are like the waves or fish in the ocean. Without the ocean, the waves are not formed or created. Without the ocean, the fish cannot live. Only harmony can sustain the Unity of God (Buddha or Tao). Disharmony breeds disunity. Disunity destroys the mould sustained by Unity of God (Buddha Tao). The ancient and modern Chinese teach their children from generation to generation that ‘Human harmony leads to prosperity of all’. This was and is the message of God (Buddha or Tao). Not only the Chinese but all human beings of all races are intrinsically Divine or Godly to utter this noble message. Religion reminds us of this eternal Truth of the message.