The Universality of World’s Religions: Unity or Non-duality (1/2)

Wong Weng Hon

Introduction

Unity or Non-duality is the communal attribute of all major world’s religions, such as Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Non-duality (Advaya) is the eternal Truth of Unity of Existence. All world’s religions shepherd to see the eternal Truth of Unity of Existence. Unity is a totality of contigent conditions. Unity is the organic whole. It is the totality of parts. It is the process Reality (Sanātana Dharma) of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) or Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda). Totality is the Unity of the multiplicity. Anattā which connotes Insubstantiality is also the process Reality of Unity. Everything is Unity of Existence. Monotheistically put, everything is God. Buddhistly put, everything is Emptiness. Religion unveils to us that Unity of Existence is the only Reality and individual autonomous existents are illusory and unreal.

Two-fold Truth

Celebrated Mahāyāna philosopher, Nāgārjuna expounds the process Reality of dynamic becoming (sanātana dharma) through the Middle Philosophy (Madhyanma Pratipat) of the two-fold Reality of conventional truth (saṃvrti satya) and ultimate Truth (paramārtha Satya) known as the Theory of Two Truths (Dvasatyavāda). The Two Truths refers to the bipolar Reality of manifest phenomenal world  and the hidden Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is quintessence veiled by the phenomenal world. When the veil of multiplicity is lifted, the Unity is seen. The veil of multiplicity is only lifted through the experience of Gnosis or Self-awakening.

Religion reveals to us the distinction between the multiplicity of the empirical world and the Unity of Existence. The former is conventional truth. The latter is ultimate Truth. The conventional multiplicity is illusory and unreality. Only the Unity of Existence called God or Emptiness is real. When a human being personifies himself or herself as a self-identity (svabhāva), he or she also personifies others as other identities (parasvabhāvas). Personification of human personality separates one from the original universal unity of existence known as the cosmic Self. When one separates oneself from the universal unity of existence, one develops the notion of individual self or ego. Whoever develops the sense of individuality or individuation separate from the unity of existence develops attachment and aversion. Attachment gives rise to greed; aversion gives rise to anger or hatred. In other words, human moral flaws are manifested from the superimposition of self-centric ego which does not exist in the first place. Religion reveals to us how self-centric ego is superimposed upon the human personality. The knowledge of complete annihilation of self-centric ego is obtained from religious study and spiritual training.

Knowing the unreality of conventional multiplicity, one ceases to be attached to or averse towards multiplicity. Attachment evokes greed whilst aversion engenders anger or hatred. Both greed and hatred are poisons of life which either disharmonize human relationships or criminalize Man. However, though multiplicity is unreal, it cannot be discarded. It is useful for human intercommunication. It is expedient means which ought to be utilized without attachment and aversion. This recommendation is repeatedly expounded in the Diamond Sūtra as affirmation of Dharma, negation of Dharma and affirmation and negation of Dharma (Middle Path).  

  Knowing reality of the Unity  of Existence, one will set the mind to realize and actualize it. In mundane life, the knowledge of reality of Unity of Existence actualizes human accomplishment and concrescence. The sum total of human accomplishments actualizes the creative advance of the world. Spiritually put, knowledge of Unity of Existence which is God or Emptiness, liberates one from suffering – attaining deliverance.

Whoever knows this two-fold or bipolar truth of religion truly knows what religion is. That, we witness increasing individual, national, regional and global crises culminating in calamities in the history of mankind since time immemorial hitherto, is human ignorance. It is human ignorance pertaining to  the two-fold truth of the phenomenon and principle. Phenomenon and principle  are innately inseparable. Alas, modern secular Man  is still leading life which separates the secular phenomena from the spiritual principle. When Man alienates secular life from spiritual life , Man tears the phenomenon and principle apart creating systemic risk. Systemic risk conditions the arising of systemic crisis.

 Since the Tathāgatas, Prophets and Apostles have promulgated that everything is God or Emptiness, how could secular life be separated from the spiritual life ? The 2008 financial crisis erupted last year  because modernists  separate secular life from spiritual life. The world’s leaders of G20 London Summit in April, 2009 arrived at a satisfactory l concensus to establish the New Financial Stability Board (NFSB) as global regulator and overseer. This financial regulator and overseer insures that   God or Emptiness is always present in the global financial markets to avert future financial systemic risk and the resultant future financial crisis.

The street demonstrators against any global summit should compose themselves. They should be aware that behind the world’s leaders are economic savants or elites from the best and the brightest brains of the world  who offer their expert advice to address global problems.They are the backyard ‘bodhisattvas’ to help  us mitigate and eventually fix the global crisis discussed . The advisers to the global political leaders are the qualified experts or intelligentsia helping the world  address global  problems. Their contributive efforts and  ingenuity should be esteemed and extolled by the world at large. Violent street demonstrations against world’s political leaders in any political or economic or environmental summit are not justified. However, peaceful demonstration of thoughts and feelings by demonstrators are democratically appropriate.

 Problem solving  is sacred and divine as it is a very noble endeavour by Man to recover the Unity of Existence. They are bringing back the unity mould of God  or Emptiness to us. Mundanely visioned, to fix any global crisis is  to  recover the mould of God or Emptiness. Any global political, economic, educational or any constructive conference is an alliance  of civilization between the east and the west in a global concerted effort to solve global problems. Global conference  is a sacred and divine  path towards the global Unity of Existence. The world is not increasingly inter-connected. In fact, it is innately interconnected. Interconnectedness and interrelatedness are the suchness of all things or phenomena in all fields or disciplines of global life. Genuine global conference is converging at the destination of God or Emptiness in order to address the problem or fix a global crisis. To solve a global problem or fix a global crisis is to recover the innate unity of existence of every system, such as a financial system. Genuinely committed  political leaders are political ‘bodhisattvas’ who are constantly striving for and preserving national unity of existence. Politics of helping the global citizentry is fundamentally sacred and divine.

 Political leaders fueling  the national disunity of existence alienates the nation form the essence of God. Such sin will bring calamity to the nation eventually. Of course constructive criticism or critique for the good of a nation is healthy democracy. The exploitation of democracy to create national disunity is anti- God or anti-Tao or anti-Emptiness. The essence of God or Tao or Emptiness is interconnected , interrelated peaceful cohesive co-existence.

Common Refuge

Let’s us now return to individual level of life because public victory is dependently co-arisen from private victory. The inner Heart of salvation or emancipation is the communal  haven or refuge for all religious adherents. The inner Heart  is dissimilarly designated as Nirvāṇa or Tathāgatagarbha in Buddhism, Ātman or Brahman in Hinduism , and  al-Fanā’ or Baqā’ in Islam or Sufism. The discovery of the eternal Truth of God or Tao or Emptiness is the greatest private victory. Public victory is dependently co-arisen from private victory. Defeating the self-centric ego through the discovery of the eternal Truth of Unity of Existence is the greatest private victory. National or global victory is public victory derived from private victory.

 Lao-tzu exerts in the beginning of his  celebrated Classic of Tao Te Ching that the Lord of salvation or emancipation is ineffable or designationless. We may call the universal Lord  ‘Tao’ which denotes the Path of eternal Truth or the Path to eternal Truth.  The eternal Truth is  cosmic Unity of Existence in which each and everyone is included. Lao-tzu declares that what can be designated is not the eternal Truth. The eternal Truth or Tao can not be expressed with language. It can only be intuitively self-realized through spiritual  insight. Tao is national or global unity of existence.

Non-duality

Interestingly, both Mahāyāna Buddhist Gnostic, Nāgārjuna and Sufi Gnostic, Ibn ‘Arabī expounds Non-duality to explicate the relationship between the conventional truth and ultimate Truth or the relationship between the world and God.  Non-duality is the non-discrimination between the perceiver (subject) and the perceived (object). Non-discrimination is the eternal Truth of  Unity or Non-duality underlying the multiplicity of the empirical world. Non-duality is the Unity of Existence. Monotheistically put, Non-duality is the reunity of an individual self with God. It is the annihilation of individual self in cosmic Unity. Metaphorically put, it is the unity of a wave with the Ocean.

Seeing the Truth

In Unity, there exists no discrimination between self-identity (svabhāva) and other identity (parasvabhāva). Since individual identity does not exist, there is no discrete entity that arises or ceases ; increases or decreases; comes or goes. Unity is both the beginning and the last or the first and the last. Whoever ultimately discerns this  the eternal Truth of Unity sees  God or Emptiness. Seeing God or Emptiness is to truly know God or Emptiness as the eternal Truth sustaining everything in the world.  In Buddhism, Gotama Buddha declares that whoever sees the Buddha sees the dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. Likewise, in Monotheism , whoever sees God  sees the Unity of Existence.

All world’s religions, such as Monotheism, Buddhism and Hinduism train us to see the Unity (Ara.: Aḥadīyah) in the multiplicity (al-Kathrah) and the multiplicity in the Unity. Multiplicity is falsely conceived world of individuations. Thus,  seeing multiplicity is seeing illusion or unreality; seeing Unity of Existence  is seeing the ultimate Reality. The universality of all religions is evident from discernment of the interrelationship between the eternal Truth of  Unity and the conventional truth of the impermanent and mutable multiplicity of the phenomenal world. The world and God are non-dually interrelated. Living in the world without the mind of God or Tao or Emptiness  is a  life of perversion and suffering.

Reunion not Union

If one perceives Man as a discrete entity and God as another discrete entity, the reunion with God will be misconceived as the union between two discrete entities. Since no whatsoever discrete entity exists in the world, the union of two substantial entities are not evident anywhere in the cosmos. The right view of  process philosophy of world’s religions rectifies this wrong view of substantial ontology upheld by ordinary worldlings. The role of religion is redeem every human being into the original cosmic Unity called God or Emptiness or Tao.

Conclusion

Conventionally, the  perceiver and the  perceived are perceived by the ordinary as two separate autonomous entities because the worldlings are ignorant and blind to the Process Reality of dynamic process becoming. In a dynamic process, the world is empty of sign, mark or characteristic. It is non-dual. There is only one ultimate Reality – the unceasing flow of Unity in term of dynamic process becoming. All major world’s religions declare this perennial or process philosophy (Sanātana Dharma; Sophia perennis; Philosophia Perennis ; Religio Religion). Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam can be reconciled because all of them are esoterically perennial religions advocating  perennial wisdom of Unity of Existence. Unity of Existence is God ; Unity of Existence is Emptiness. God is Emptiness. The Buddhist Heart Sūtra conveys the message of God . Likewise , The Chinese Classic of Tao Te Ching communicates the message of God . God is the eternal Truth of Unity of Existence. Everything is the Unity of Existence without exception .