The Eternal Truth of the Process Reality: Unity of Dynamic Existence (1/2)

K.S.Chow

Introduction

It is a universal Truth that when one knows oneself, one knows the Lord. There is no other Way to know the Lord.  Buddhism expounds that one’s True Self is Non-self (Anattā).  Monotheism states that one’s True Self is God. The True Self is the Lord. The Lord is the eternal Truth designated as Brahman, Tao, Buddha , God or Allah. It is the Truth by which moral and wisdom development is actualized in Man.  Whatever designation that is utilized does not matter. What is of paramount importance is knowing the ultimate Truth of Reality that enhances and eventually perfects human character and performance. Performance  produces accomplishment. Accomplishment breeds concrescence. Concrescence engenders global peace and prosperity. This is what religion for a laity is all about. Religious philosophy pertains to human moral restraint, concentration, wisdom virtue, accomplishment, concrescence and satisfaction.

 Salvation is not merely the freedom from Hell fires. Most importantly, it is freedom  from human moral flaws or weaknesses. It is concerned about harmony and unity of actions among diverse individuals of dissimilar backgrounds. It is about treating others well.  Theosophically, knowledge of liberation consummates human wisdom and perfects human ethics to harmonize good relationships with others. It is not that the spiritualists or supreme masters have set the highest goal that is hard to be attained by us. All world’s major religions unveil to us that we are all originally or intrinsically supreme or perfect in wisdom and ethics. All human beings are innately the best and brightest secularly as well as spiritually. This innate supreme treasure exists latently in all human beings. Religion helps us unearth this innate treasure in us. This is the exact meaning of the immanence of God in Man or the potentiality of Buddha-nature existing in all sentient beings.

The function of religious  liberation is to resurrect or redeem  this innate supreme goodness in Man. When the human innate supremacy is redeemed , Man is ethically free from moral fallibilities or vulnerabilities. If a human being does not resurrect the original supremacy of Man, his or her life is directed and empowered by carnal self or lower self or animal self. Buddhism designates this self of greed and hatred  as the self-centric ego. It is  the false self or ignorant self. The True Self is Buddha-nature. Hinduly put, the True Self  is the  Brahman. Monotheistically, it is designated as God. Taoistically put, it is labelled  as Tao.

Great Learning

In the Chinese philosophy expounded in the Confucian Classic of Great Learning, discerning and reaching this original Nature (本性) of Man is paraphrased as reaching or actualizing the intrinsic supreme goodness of Man (止於至善). The Great Learning declares that the actualization of the innate supremacy of Man in virtues can only be realized through the insightful penetration of things (格揚致知). Insightful penetration of things connotes discernment of eternal Truth (窮究其理). It denotes Gnosis – the insightful investigation of things to realize its ultimate Reality.

The discernment of the  eternal Truth originates from knowing one’s True Self. The True Self is our True Mind (真心). Before discovering and resurrecting the True Mind, we have been functioning with the false mind(妄心). Whoever functions with the false mind is called a small man (小人). Whoever operates with the True Mind is called the Man of Wisdom and Ethics (君子Junzi or 聖人 shengren).

The True Mind is Substance of the Mind (心體). The Substance of the Mind is the cave of the inner Heart. The cave of inner Heart is the pure and infinite consciousness of Man. In short, the Mind Substance is the Godhood or Buddhahood in us. The innate supreme goodness of Man is arisen from this Mind Substance. Whoever knows this Mind Substance is said to the know the Principle of Tian (天理). The Principle of Tian is the Principal Order that sustains or preserves the entire cosmos.

Thus, the wise Chinese Ancient’s concept of Tian is very profound . Literally, ‘Tian’ generally means ‘Sky’ or ‘Space’ or ‘Heaven of devas’. But in the context of Great Learning, it shares  the same connotation as the Monotheistic concept of God that is the  Sustainer or Preserver of the cosmos. It is the eternal Truth of ultimate Reality of things , that is the cosmic Self. The cosmic Self can be intuitively discerned through the attributes and Essence of Man who has been perfected through personal development and self-cultivation. In order to restore the innate principle of Tian operating within us, one’s selfishness or egoism must be obliterated. The self-centric ego must be annihilated to restore the Principle of Tian (勝私複理).

Restoration of the Principle of Tian connotes that the innate supreme goodness of man is resurrected . One dies before one dies (大死一番, 回皈本性). The false self is dead and the True Self is redeemed. When the original face of Man (本來面目) is redeemed, one reaches the inner Heart of conscientious sincerity (至良知). This is arrival at the innate virtuous supremacy of Man (止於至善). Before the emergence of the major world’s religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, the wise Hindu and Chinese ancient philosophers of the ancient religious civilizations of India and China had already perceived  the first glimpse  of Brahmanhood, Buddhahood or Godhood more than 3,000 years ago.

Taoist Philosophy

Imperial Chinese concept of  ‘Tian Li’  is philosophically consonant with the concept of ‘Tao’ expressed in the first four stanzas in the Chinese Classic of Tao Te Ching (道德經) reproduced as follows :

道可道, 非常道.
名可名, 非常名.
無名天地之始,
有名萬物之母.

The Tao (Truth) that can designated is not the eternal Tao (Truth).
The name that can be designated is not a permanent name.
The universe commenced  before the myriad things were designated .
Designation is the mother of all myriad things.

Having read these first four stanzas of the Chinese Classsic of Tao Te Ching,   a deep feeling of Dharmic exuberance arises in me because the Chinese Lao-tzu, the composer of Tao Te Ching, had  unveiled the process philosophy  or perennial wisdom to the Chinese about 2600 years ago in imperial China  before the same process or perennial philosophy of Indian Buddhism was transmitted  to China. In Reality, these first four stanzas of Tao Te Ching crystallize the Essence of Brahman, Buddha, and God pertaining to the relationship between the multiplicity and Unity. The relationship between the multiplicity and the Unity pertains to Man relationship with the Lord. The quintessence of all major world’s religions lies here.  

Lao-tzu reveals to us that before human conceptualization and linguistic designation were utilized to label the myriad things or beings , there existed  only an Absolute and Infinite  Process Being. This Process Being is the Process Reality of Unity of Existence. It  was not differentiated into divergent names of myriad things or beings that we find today.

The universe is ultimately  only an infinite flow of unity of contigent causes and conditions which are undergoing changes incessantly. As the contigent causes and conditions are constantly changing , they do not exhibit individual identities or self-natures (niḥsvabhāvas). The entire universe is empty of any individual identity or self-nature. Without the existence of autonomous beings, how could individual forms exist ? The multiple forms of the multiplicity are merely falsely imagined by the ordinary men.

Lao-tzu unravels the Reality that  universe began without designations, namely devoid of names of multiple forms of multiplicity. What really exists is only an infinite  constant flow of process Unity of dynamic becoming free from any designated concept or form. The cosmos is the unity of the existence of infinite multiplicity. Since the multiplicity is infinite, the cosmic Unity is also infinite. What is infinite can not be designated. What can be designated is finite. The ultimate Reality is infinite. Religion shepherds us to see this Infinite and Absolute Reality- the one and only Truth. Lao-tzu himself admits that the designation ‘Tao’ does not suffice to depict the  Infinite and Absolute Truth.

It is Man who falsely perceives autonomous existence of  the myriad beings or things. It is Man’s wrong view of substantiality that Man erroneously conceives them. Consequently, they have been  wrongly designating the  non- existing discrete entities as discrete entities. Man’s false imagination of  the unreal results in this incessant conceptualizations and designations of things which do not exist autonomously. Substantial ideas reproduce substantial ideas endlessly. The continuous reproduction of substantial ideas forms our world view of the multiplicity that deludes us. The wrong substantial view conceals the right insubstantial view. Religion functions to rectify our wrong world view. Wrong world view impedes the development of human wisdom and virtue.

It is not that things do not exist conventionally. They do exist relatively. However, in the ultimate analysis, they exist interdependently as an integrated or systemic whole. In the systemic whole, no individuals or individuations or self-identities exist. Therefore, individual designations are illusions. The wrong substantial view of Man necessitates the exposition of religion by the Tathāgatas or kalyāṇamittas, and  Prophets or  Apostles.  

 The universe always exists in the form of  process Reality which is signless, markless or characteristicless. This formlessness or Emptiness  of the  process Reality can not be perceived intellectually or reasoned out conceptually.  Religion shepherd us to discern the original Unity of becoming empty of the  discrete entities of the illusive and unreal multiplicity. Human beings are the ones who have conceptualize and designated what ultimately do not exist. The one and only Truth declared by all major world’s religions is that only the  Unity exists but the multiplicity does not exist.

Illusion

The multiplicity is like magic, dream, mirage, echo, child of a barren women and the hair of a tortoise. Nevertheless, the Tathāgatas and Prophets  are supremely wise to admonish us to adopt a middle path so that human beings will not  adopt an extreme position of admitting only the Reality of Unity and rejecting the unreality of the multiplicity. The Middle Path philosophy of all major world’s religions is to guide all faith adherents to acknowledge the Truth of Unity without denying the untruth of the multiplicity.

The Unity is the hidden Principle  whilst the multiplicity is the manifest phenomenon. The Principle of Unity is discerned to obliterate the self-centric ego. The multiplicity is not denied but is accepted to facilitate intercommunication and interaction in the daily operation of mundane life. The Middle Path philosophy is to ensure that the phenomenon and the Principle are unobstrutedly  interpenetrative and co-exist harmoniously. When the phenomena and the Principle are mutually unobstructed, secular life and spiritual life are not only mutually unimpeded but are synergized for quality performance and accomplishment. The aim of life is to excel and serve others excellently. This is the main agenda of religion.