Entrance into the House of God or Buddha

K.S. Chow

Introduction

The teachings of Zen Buddhism and Sufism are philosophically and theosophically  parallel and synonymous in essence. Zen Masters employ insightful Zen case stories to transmit the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) . Likewise, the  Supreme Masters of Sufism also adopt Sufi case stories to expound the profound message of Tawḥīd (Divine Unity) or Unity of Existence (Waḥdat al Wujūd). Below is reproduced a renowned Sufi case story for the contemplation of our readers in order to discern the relationship between Man and God or between the phenomena and the principle  :

A man knocked on the God’s door.
“Who is there ?” asked God from within.
“It’s me ,” said the man .
“Go away then. There is no room for two,” said God.
The man departed and wandered in the arid desert until he realized his ignorance .
Returning to the door , he knocked once again .
“Who’s there?” God asked as before .
“You,” answered the man .
“Then come in,” God replied .

Illustration

Let’s reexamine the soteriological significance of the  Sufi case story aforementioned. When the man in the case story  informed God of  his identity, “It is me.” , The God rejected him instantaneously. Why is that so ? Anyone, who personalizes himself or herself or perceives self-identity is an expression of the state of a self or  ego. He  conceives the notion of duality between oneself and others. He perceives  individuality which  separates or alienates himself or herself  from the unity of existence. Unity of Existence is God (Brahman, Tao, Buddha or Allah). Individuality , individuation, autonomous existent  or duality  divorces one from the unity of  God . The God explained that there is no room for two (duality). The explanation of God implies that duality does not exist. Individual self and cosmic Self do not merge. Hence, the man was rejected by God. 

When the man returned to identify himself as “You”, he admitted himself to be in non-duality or oneness with the God (Ara.: ittiḥād) . The mind of duality is the Mind  of   God . The individual identity is annihilated in God.  Hence,  God immediately invited  him to come in to be in  communion or fellowship  with Him because he is originally a contigent being of God. It is actually a reunion between a missing son and father after a period of  ignorant separation. When one denies and annihilate  oneself to realize Anattā (Selflessness), one instantly merges with God – the cosmic Unity. When one acknowledges self-identity in oneself, one is separate from the whole or God. The ultimate Reality is that we are never separate from God or the whole. Owing to religious blindness, one becomes alienated from the whole or God. God is the whole .

Please do not underestimate the soteriological significance of the aforementioned  Sufi case story. It communicates a profound message of discernment of Truth – the union of Man  with God or the entrance into Non-duality. The Truth of Union with God  or Non-duality  is that  individual independence  or autonomous existent does not exist; only interdependence of co-existence is the Ultimate Reality. This is the kernel of all religions. After shattering the shell of ego, the kernel of God is unveiled.  

In order to apprehend  this Sufi case story, a reader must not  reify or objectify God as an autonomous  superpower or al-mighty  personality existing autonomously from us. The kingdom of God is within us. Buddhistly put, the Buddha-nature exists innately in us. God is not a material figure which  can be perceived and  worshipped externally or exoterically in order  to receive His blessings.  God’s blessings are to be sought within Man esoterically but not without exoterically. The ordinary worldlings seek God’s blessings externally. God is to be seen in the inner Heart of. Man must see God though Man. Man is the temple of God. Likewise, a Buddhist sees the Buddha through himself or herself – that is through his or her five aggregates. Man is the image of God (Gen.!:7). A Gnostic is a perfect image of God. Likewise, an enlightened Yogi is the perfect image of the Buddha.

The highest blessings  are sought through one’s virtues and salvation resulted from seeing God or Buddha within. Jesus says, “ The Kingdom of Heaven is within.” Buddhistly put, Buddha-nature or Dharma body is within.  True Divine blessings come from the right worship of God . Right worship of God is not mere consistent devoted prayers before the God . If God is imagined and reified during prayers, that is sheer idolatry. True worship of God is viewing rightly, thinking rightly and doing things rightly by the adherence strictly to deontological and virtue  ethics guided by the Divine commandments  so that the unity or mould of God is sustained at  all times  in all places. True prayer is rememberance (dhikr) of God . Buddhistly compared , dhkr is the state of Non-duality actualized by the unceasing recitation of the name of Amitābha without grasping upon the reciter and the recited. Rememberance is annihilation of self or ego (al-Fanā’) in God. Thus, Sufi’s practice of Dhikr or al-Fanā is parallel to Buddhist Zen’s practice of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) supported by the perfection of wisdom (prajñāapāramitā). Remembrance of God is parallel to the practice of four foundations of mindfulness (cattāri satipațțhāna) in the Theravāda tradition.

Reification of God as a supreme Being in prayers or in times of need or emergency  actually separates  Man from God. It is, in fact, idolatrous. The unsaved believer  prehends the duality between the one  who is praying (the believer) and the prayed (God). The former is the perceiver as the subject and the latter is the perceived as the object. Any dualistic prayer is idolatrous. Worship of idolatry is ego-grasping and attachment. It defiles the mind and conceals one  from seeing God. Ego conceals God or the Reality. Soteriologically, dualictic form of prayer is  equally incorrigible. God is the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality which cannot be perceived by our normal six senses. In other words,  God cannot be comprehended intellectually by the conceptual mind of Man . However, the Truth of God can be intuited or intuitively discerned through the intuitive mind of the sixth sense. The unity with God, in truth, denotes the destruction of individualism or egoism.

 For the beginners who have not actualized the unity with God, he can still practise the unity with God thus: Always engage, co-operate and integrate with others participating in any team work or group work non-discriminatively and whole-heartedly in sustaining team’s or group’s unity for the communal good. In the process of co-operatve team work, he must let go all the clingings.  Such a person is thus dwelling in the spirit of God. Interdependence and integration are the attributes of God. Putting them into practice, one is treading the path and living the life of God. As one has harvested  abundantly the fruits of interdependent unity or integration and is thus blessed, one would see God through interdependent unity or cohesive integration. The fruits may not always in the form of economic abundance or affluence. The fruits may be actualized in non-economic forms, such as rich and advanced  knowledge of secularity or penetrative wisdom of spirituality. The middle path knowledge of the interpenetration between secularity and spirituality is highest blessing and the richest gain.  Interdependence actualized into integration is the life of God or the Dharma Realm of Unity. The Dharma realm of Unity is the manifest of Buddhahood. Buddhahood is Godhood. Any form of genuine unity of association of people for a common good  is sacred and divine .

Selflessness or Egolessness, which is Anattā, is Truth of God. Hence, Anattā equals God ontologically and philosophically. Anattā is Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā)  of self or ego. Therefore, ‘Sūnyatā equals God theosophically. Futhermore , God is defined theosophically as the Unity of existence – the non-dual unity of contigent beings or conditions. Non-dual unity is Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda). Thus, Pratītyasamutpāda equals God in terms of dynamic process becoming. Dynamic process becoming is the continuum of life process (santāna dhamma). Santāna dhamma is process philosophy. There is only one Reality , that is dynamic process becoming. Discerning intuitively this Reality , one becomes a saved believer in any esoteric religion.

Obviously it evidences that Process Theism, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam can be corroborated through the process philosophy of Buddhism. Likewise, the knowledge of process Reality of God consummates one’s understanding of Buddhism in terms of dynamic process becoming . There may be countless reflected moons in different parts of the world. However, we are definite that there  exists one and the only  Moon in the sky. That one Moon represents the communal Truth of one God which is Process Thought . Likewise , there are countless waves but the borderless Ocean is only one.

God can be designated according to one own religion. It  does not matter what it is designated  because  God cannot be designated. The designation is compelled and necessitated by the need of intercommunication ad interaction. All religions are exoterically distinct but are esoterically identical. The common esoteric search is seeking the ultimate Truth of dependently co-arisen non-dual Unity of contigent beings.  That Unity is God and all contigent beings constitute the unity of the world. Buddhistly put, God is the Dharma realm of unity (Dhamadhātu) expounded in Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra or the  doctrine of Identity and interdependence  expounded in the Avataṃasaka Sūtra. All phenomena are identical because they are all empty of form. Because  they are empty, they are interdependent. 

A human being  is metaphorically compared to a wave of a borderless Ocean. Every wave  is never separate from the Ocean. In other words , the unity with God is to be conceived as an esoteric  return to original universal unity of the entire cosmos (macrocosm). The unity  with God is containing oneself in God . When one is contained in oneself, one is not contained in God . Non-containment with God is an alienation from God. Containment is the unity with God . By containment , one is an integral part of universal Unity which is God.

 A human being is one of the countless beings embodied as a contigent being in the infinite cosmos. All other human beings are his brothers and sisters who are also the contigent beings of the cosmos. All myriad beings in the natural environment are also contigent beings of  cosmos. When the infinite cosmos is perceived as the unity of all contigent beings, the cosmos or universe is God. The cosmo is the manifest aspect of God.  Mutual dependence of all the contigent beings of the cosmos sustains the cosmos. All contigent beings are contained in one cosmic Unity of God . Cosmic Unity is the Unity of Existence (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) which is defined by Ibn ‘Arabī as God.  The Unity of Existence is synonymous with the dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality . Unity or Non-duality of contigent conditions is defined as Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) of the universe. ‘Sūnyata denotes the universal network of interdependent existence (Dharmadhatu pratītyasamutpāda) in Hua-yen Buddhism (Avataṃsaka-sūtra). Waḥdat al-Wujūd is consonant with Dharmadhātu Pratītyasamutpāda. Zen Buddhist scholars generally conceive that Sufi’s al-Fanā’ and Zen’s perfection of  wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) are synonymous and  Non-duality (advaya) is consonant with Sufi’s station of Baqā.

The wise, who intuitively discerns God (realizes the absolute Truth of Unity of Existence)  intuitively, is said to be the seer or knower of God . Whoever sees or knows  God (Truth) before demise is a Gnostic or the self-Awakened One  . He who sees God (Truth)  in terms of absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality becomes a Perfect Man (al Insān al Kāmil) . Seeing God is the intuitive apprehension of the relationship between the phenomenal world and God . It is the intuitive comprehension of the relationship between The One and  the many or between the Unity and the multiplicity.  Since whoever sees or knows  the Buddha becomes also a Perfect Man or human perfection, such as an Arahant, Paccekabuddha or Bodhisattva , we can conclude easily that God and Buddha are synonymous in Essence or in Truth.

 In fact , there is one and only Truth of Unity or Non-duality expressed as the One in the many ; the  many in the One . The One is Unity , the many is the multiplicity. The One is the ultimate Truth ; the many is the conventional Truth . Nāgārjuna affirms in his Mahāyāna treatise ‘ Root Verses of the Middle Philosophy’ (Mūlamadhyamikakārikā)  that “Those who do not understand the distinction between these two truths (conventional and ultimate truths) do not understand the Truth embodied  in the Buddha’s message.” (MMK14.9).

The conventional truth is materialism and intellectualism ; the ultimate Truth is spiritualism and intuition. Materialism and intellectualism pertain to the phenomenal world . Spiritualism and intuition pertain to the knowledge of the Absolute or God. The phenomena are created by false imagination due to the blindness towards  the Absolute Truth. The ordinary worldlings always mistake the rope for snake in the darkness of the evening in the park. Thus , we see that materialism or intellectualism and spiritualism and intuition are reciprocally correlated. The delusion and perversion can only be obliterated through religious wisdom from the discovery of Truth of Unity or Non-duality.

The modernists have overemphasized modernism and materialism  so much so that the spiritual Truth or the intuitive wisdom is neglected . Not knowing the spiritual Truth or realizing the intuitive wisdom, one tends to be morally fallible and vulnerable. Knowing Truth and realizing wisdom, one  becomes morally infallible and invulnerable in the midst of material life.  Spiritual wisdom ensures that we do not become the slaves of material life and actually we become  the masters of material life. Metaphorically put, religion trains us to be  an adept dancer dancing in perfect union with the dance partner. If one is poor in religious knowledge, one becomes a poor dancer. Not only one can not dance well, one is continually dancing  out of step and is being stepped upon by the dance partner. An adept Sufi employs a whirling dance to enter into union with God. Marvellous indeed ! Do not be amazed : the whirling dance of the Sufis  is the skillful means to enter state of Dhikr or Baqā. The Zen Yogis can also enter into the state of Non-duality, through carrying firewoods, carrying water, gardening or even Kung Fu practice. There are many roads; all roads lead to Rome.