Don’t Look Left and Right; Look at Yourself (1/2)

Wong Weng Hon

Introduction

Sufi Rumi says, “ As long as you remain in yourself, you cannot find  your real existence.”  Rumi conveys the universal message that as long as one conceives that one exists autonomously, one cannot see the Reality which is God. Buddhitsly put, whoever sees one’s personal self alienated from the larger whole, one does not discern Non-self (Anattā). God is Anattā; Buddha is also Anattā. Monotheism and Buddhism are esoterically identical though the exoteric dimension is so glaringly distinct. Interestingly, whoever does not see Anattā does not see the Buddha. I reiterate : Anattā is the Attribute of Buddha or also that of God. Anattā is Unity of Existence. It is the eternal Truth that sustains the entire cosmos. It is  Anattā that all phenomena  are conditioned to be manifested  through the Unity of contigent conditions.

Concept of Creation

Anattā is the natural creative force of dependently co-arisen Unity of Existence. When it is said by the Monotheists that God creates the creatures which are conditioned phenomena, it connotes that creatures (all conditioned  phenomena) are dependently co-arisen from the unity of contigent conditions. Contigent conditions are necessitated to create the creatures. Creatures do not arise from sheer nothingness. Right view of Monotheistic philosophy states that creatures  do not even originate absolutely directly from God. The Sufis advocate  that the destiny of Man is not fatalistically determined by God alone. Man lives  to work and struggle. An indolent man is never blessed or graced by God.   Blessings  are dependently co-arisen from the reciprocal integration between Man and God. Man is the co-pilot and God is the chief pilot. Philosophically put, Man furnishes the building blocks of contigent conditions of Unity of Existence. God is the integrative force of Dependent Co-arising. God is the sustaining energy of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā).

Creatures

 ‘Creatures’ means ‘Conditioned phenomena’ according to Gotama Buddha or ‘Actual entities’ according to Whitehead, a renowned process philosopher. In close scrutiny,  ‘Creatures’, ‘Conditioned phenomena’ and ‘Actual Entities are synonyms  if one  comprehends the Truth of the God, Buddha and Whiteheadian process philosophy. They are merely prehension or object reification of the ordinary worldling who have not discerned the Truth.

 God can not create the creatures from sheer nothingness (creation ex nihilo). God can only create creatures from the contigent conditions imposed and determined by Man or other natural forces. The contigent conditions are the building blocks of the universe. Creation is consummated  from the harmonious association of unity of contigent causes and conditions. The contigent causes and conditions  are derived from the multiplicity of the empirical world. They are introduced by human efforts and  are sourced from the natural resources . Even the human efforts and natural resources  are  dependently co-arisen. The causes and conditions prehended by Man pertain to both physical and mental phenomena. Buddhist and Process Monotheist concepts of creation of the world are congruent theosophically. The contigent conditions derived from  Man and other natural resources are unified by the Principal Order known as Dependent Co-arising. Whoever sees Dependent Co-arising sees the Buddha or God.

 There is only one Truth constructing the universe. It  is  Principal  Order of conditioning and being conditioned governed  by the bipolar truth of relative or conventional truth and the ultimate Truth. The relative reality is the phenomenal world. The ultimate Truth is the Absolute Reality. The Absolute  Reality may be dissimilarly designated by dissimilar religious faiths. Nevertheless, the universally realized  Truth or Reality unraveled by the Tathāgatas and Prophets  is Unity or Non-duality. Anything other than Unity or Non-duality is illusion. If one comprehends this Truth, one comprehends one’s religion or Lord.

 Both Buddhism and Monotheism advocate the concept of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) to effect the creative advance of world. Emptiness is unity of contigent conditions. Emptiness occurs in terms of  the Process Reality of the ontology of dynamic process becoming (sanātana dharma). Creation through interconnectedness and interdependence is the ultimate Reality. This Reality is God or Emptiness. God or Emptiness is Selflessness or Egolessness or Unity of Existence. A united family is God or Emptiness; a united organization or team  is God or Emptiness; a united country is God or Emptiness; a united world is God or Emptiness. Any disunited association is disfiguring the face of God or the obliteration of the principal order of Emptiness.  

I seriously invite all world religious scholars and interfaith leaders to make a serious research and development (R & D) on this interfaith understanding. The currently divided world can only be reunited through this interfaith understanding and dialogues. The pragmatic value of knowledge of God or Buddha is that the divine knowledge or perfect knowledge consummates human personal development and self-cultivation in terms of wisdom and virtue.

God in Man

The eternal Truth of God or Buddha can only be seen through the medium of Man because the perfected man is the perfect image of God or Buddha. This is another crucial point of interfaith understanding worth to be researched and developed upon. The human personality is the small man called microcosm. The universe is called the  Great Man known as macrocosm. Whoever knows microcosm knows macrocosm. Whoever knows macrocosm knows how the world is created and sustained. Whoever knows the creation and preservation of the cosmos knows the eternal Truth of God or Buddha. Both Buddhism and Monotheism are also parallel in terms of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm. Whoever knows microcosm or small man knows also the macrocosm or Great Man.  This is  another crucial point of interfaith understanding worth to be closely examined for global unity and harmony.

See  Communal Truth

The Gnostic is the most ideal Apostle of God or the Bodhisattva of the Buddha’. The Apostle  is divinely entrusted to  transmit the message of the eternal Truth or Reality of God. The Bodhisattva is an amirable good friend (kalyāṇamitta) of all Buddhist adherents according to Gotama Buddha.  The message of the eternal Truth or Reality of God is dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. A genuine Gnostic has the credential to guide because he or she sees God or Buddha through the spiritual eye of God or the Dhammic eye of the Buddha respectively  by himself through himself.

Theosophically  put, only a Non-self can see Non-self. A self cannot see Non-self. Non-self is the Attribute or Essence of God or Buddha. This is another interfaith understanding worth to be discerned and diffused. Beautifully, what a Monotheist Gnostic and a Buddhist Gnostic see is the communal Truth of Wisdom of Emptiness which is the Unity of Existence. Wheresoever a Gnostic turns, he sees the face of God or Buddha everywhere in all places and at all times. This is another crucial point of interfaith understanding that ought to be recovered.

Communal Strategy

It is sheer stupidity to dispute over religious issues of apparent dissimilar religious faiths. All major world’s religions adhere to this same strategy knowingly or unknowingly. The communal strategy of self-development and self-cultivation is thus : Avoid evils, do good and purify the mind. Avoiding  evils is moral restraint through adherence to commandment, law or precepts. Doing good is virtue to be altruistically compassionate towards others (loving neighbour). Purification of mind is the effacement of self-centric ego from the defiled mind through Monotheist contemplative prayer of rememberance of God or Buddhist recitation of the Name of Buddha or tranquility and insight  meditation or Zen meditation. 

Emptiness

 Whoever sees God  or Buddha in the inner Heart also sees God or Emptiness in everything. God exists immanently or Emptiness (Buddha-nature) exists innately  in men,  trees, flowers, rivers, mountains, water, houses, financial institutions , politics, economics and everything. The highest good of seeing God or Emptiness (Buddha-nature) in everything is that this discernment or wisdom perfects human development and self-cultivation. Whoever is self-cultivated harmonizes his or her relationships with others. Harmony  promotes and fosters unity. Unity is the divine attribute of God or the essence of Emptiness. God or Emptiness is accomplishment and satisfaction of Man in any field of endeavour, both physically and spiritually. The accomplishments of all human beings  condition the global concrescence secularly as well as spiritually.

 Both  ‘God’ or the ‘Buddha’ refers to the Unity of Existence of the multiplicity of contigent conditions externally and egolessness internally. Unity of Existence is the Truth of dependently co-arisen Non-duality. Egolessness is that everyone is empty of self-centric ego or the illusory ego self. Unity of Existence is Egolessness. Thus, we see that God equals Buddha ontologically in terms of Unity or Non-duality or Egolessness. Unity or Non-duality or Egolessness is the only Reality that sustains the cosmos. Unity or Non-duality is the only force that preserves the cosmos.  Anything other than Unity or Non-duality or Egolessness is unreal.  Egolessness is disunity. How could disunity sustain or preserve the existence of the infinite cosmos? Only an infinite force can support the infinite cosmos. Unity or Non-duality is the only infinite force existing in the cosmos. This is another crucial interfaith understanding that requires serious contemplation and self-realization.

Both Monotheism and Buddhism are esoterically identical in the  sense of the communal Truth of Unity or Non-duality or Egolessness. All faith adherents seek the Lord in the inner Heart and not anywhere else. Metaphorically put, the inner Heart is akin to  the pearl in an oyster. The oyster is  metaphorically likened to the human body. Human body is the divine house of God or Buddha.

Spiritual Obstacles

There are two spiritual obstacles that obstruct our esoteric or inward journey towards the inner Heart. They are the human body and the conceptual intellect. Monotheistically explained, the idolization of the human body and the conceptual intellect impedes the return journey to God in the inner Heart. Buddhistly viewed, the grasping upon the human body and the conceptual intellect in terms of Iness or Mineness conceals the Buddha-nature in the inner Heart and impedes the actualization of Nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is the complete appeasement of the human mind from which the self-centric ego has been effaced.

It should not be misinterpreted that the human body and conceptual  intellect should be obliterated in order to gain self-redemption. Before Truth discernment, the body and intellect are spiritual obstacles. They imprison the  cosmic Self which is the God or Buddha.  However, after Truth discernment, nothing is an obstruction when the cosmic Self has been released  from the prison of the human body and intellect. Having discerned God or Buddha, one experiences the liberation of harmonious interpenetration between phenomenon and principle – the harmonious unity between secular life and spiritual life. Man and God or Buddha become one.

Editor’s Note:

I hope this interfaith article will invite more serious research and development from world’s religious scholars and interfaith leaders to conduct an  indepth comparative study in religions so that the communal wisdom of Truth is discovered, unveiled and diffused globally.