Ontological Interpretation of a Car (1/2)

K.Wong

Introduction

A believer in God enthuses that everything is the existence of God and God is everything. What message does the enthuser really intend to convey? Such divine utterance carries a very profound ontological Truth of soteriology. But how many of us really apprehend that utterance?  This divine proposition  is also relevant to the Buddhists. The parallel divine proposition is that everything is Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) and Emptiness is everything? It is obviously related to the Mahāyāna Heart Sutra’s exposition of ‘Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form’.  But how many of the Buddhists comprehend this Dharmic proposition?

 Heart Sūtra is the most celebrated Mahāyāna Sūtra among the Mahāyānists. It is the most frequently recited sūtra among the Mahāyāna sūtras. Yet it is the least comprehened and pragmatically applied in the daily life. The paradox is equally true among the Monotheists. All Monotheists love and worship God with the maximal piety. Yet, in truth not many of them really know God in quintessence and daily life application. Religion is, in truth,  the most practical subject that is universally applicable.

 Let’s attempt to penetrate into the Truth through the  ontological study of a ‘Car’.

Ontologically put, a car is an actual entity of a conditioned phenomenon (Eng.:reality of thing; archetype; reified object Ara.: a’yān). It is actual because it exists concretely and  vividly appears before our naked eyes. It is a conditioned phenomenon because it is the unity of contigent conditions. However, what is actual may not real. For instance, a magic show is actual but not real.

Theosophically perceived, an actual entity  is  an ignorantly  reified object due to the false imagination of the unreal. It is a mere mental fabrication. What is fabricated is unreal. An ordinary Man is constantly constructing concept of reified objects. A substantial concept of reified object is one that is substantially perceived or prehended  by a perceiver ignorant of the ultimate Truth of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā) or Insubstantiality (Anattā) or God . It merely exists conceptually but it does not exist in ultimate reality. To be more precise, an actuality entity exists in designation only. This is communal philosophical standpoint of Hinduism, Buddhism and Monotheism.

Religion trains us to discern the unreality of reified objects which veils the Unity behind the multiplicity. Succinctly put, religion trains us to distinguish the Appearance from Reality. Appearance is the multiplicity; Reality is the Unity. Esoteric knowledge of Religion is the ontology of becoming  or process philosophy. It is intimately related with human wisdom and moral development . Without religious wisdom of esoteric knowledge, a worldling or a secularist is forever perverse and thus morally flawed.  A morally flawed individual has a propensity to create a systemic risk and potential chaos or crisis. Hence, the moral flaw of an individual affects others as we are all always  living in a systemic or holistic life. It is a conditioning and being conditioned world. In the Satipațhāna Saṃyutta (SN.47), Gotama Buddha is wise to expound that protecting oneself, one protects others.

Object Reification

From the Monotheistic worldview, an ordinary  perceiver is a substantial viewer alienating himself or herself from God. From the Buddhist perspective, an ordinary perceiver is a substantial viewer who does not discern the Truth of Emptiness. He reifies every object perceived. He also reifies and creates its attributes. Based on the reified attributes, he creates unceasingly more reified attributes. Substantial ideas reproduce unceasingly substantial ideas. The continuous creation of reified object-attributes is mental diffusion. Mental diffusion is mental obsession. Mental obsession creates the multiplicity of the world. Gotama Buddha declares that everything is mind-made (citta-matra).

Lao-tzu’s Teaching

Lao-tzu is very wise to declare that the universe is originally the infinite  unity of existence. The concepts of the individuations in the multiplicity of the universe are created by Man through the creation of concepts and linguistic designations. Lao-tzu affirms the beginning of the world is started from the human incessant efforts of conceptualizations and designations of the myriad things or beings of the world since time immemorial hitherto. Religion pinpoints to us that human conceptualizations and designations based on substantial ontology are false. Concepts and language have created human spiritual perversion causing Man to go astray. In other words, Lao-tzu is the first Chinese saint who shed light on the communal religious philosophy of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam through his Classic of Tao Te Ching. Of course credit must go to the Tathāgatas and Prophets for having unveiled the treasure of  religious philosophy  to mankind.

Scriptures

 Besides Tao Te Ching, religious philosophers or savants recognize that the Hindu Vedas or Upaniṣads are the earliest religious scriptures that unveil the treasure of esoteric religion found in our major’s world religions today. The lineage of Prophets prior to Prophet Muhammad had unveiled this communal Truth of Wisdom to mankind. Hence, without the religious scriptures or canonical texts, mankind will have gone astray further from the straight path to Truth. Religion sheherds us to return and tread on the straight path  to self-redeem ourselves. Self-redemption is the resurrection of human innate supremacy in wisdom and virtue existing intrinsically in the inner Heart of Man.

The unceasing creation of mental obsessions on the basis of  false substantial conceptualization alienates and makes the ignorant obsesser  more and more remote from the eternal Truth of Unity of Existence. The Unity of Existence is God or Emptiness (God= Emptiness ontologically). This is precisely the root cause  of human moral fallibilities and vulnerabilities resulting in  systemic risks. The systemic risks gradually develop into systemic crisis through worsening human behaviours.

Systemic crisis unregulated heedfullly can erupt into a  systemic catastrophe. The ongoing financial meltdown, terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, imbalance of eco-systems, Middle-East tension, dire internal political turmoils and other very grave political or ethic or religious conflicts are either systemic risks or crises. Both the governments and citizentry ought to be heedful and watchful that uncontrolled violent street demonstrations are potential systemic risks. They should be wisely, and prudently managed by both the governments and demonstrators concerned to avert its eruption into systemic crises. The overdose of representative democracy in some parts of the world  is a useful lesson for the increasingly troubled world overobsessed with overdose of freedom of democracy and ethnic distinctions.

Actual Entity

 An actual entity is a conditioned phenomenon because it is the unity of contigent conditions constituted from its various components. Its components are ontologically designated as the ‘Multiplicity’ of the empirical world. From the micro- perspective, the ‘Car’ itself  ontologically represents  a micro Unity of Existence. It is a micro-unity called the actual entity of a conditioned phenomenon.

From the macro-view of the entire universe, a car is an integral contigent condition of the totality of the universe.  Its micro actual entity is given the appellation or label  called  ‘Car’. If a ‘Car’ is perceived as one of the contigent conditions of material dependence in one’s life as a useful transport,  it is spiritually not harmful. However, if it is erroneously viewed as a discrete entity separate  from the universal unity, it can be spiritually harmful. Monotheistically put, separation from the unity of the whole or totality is alienation from God. Alienation from God is sinful as it devastates the unity of existence. Buddhistly put, separation from Unity is the depletion of one of the contigent conditions of unity of existence. Depletion of a contigent condition impedes accomplishment of unity of existence.

Illusion and Unreality

In the eyes of the ordinary worldlings, a ‘Car’ is a discrete entity existing autonomously and actually before our naked eyes. Autonomous existence connotes independent entity that can exist separately from other actual entities. Any discrete entity existing autonomously is prehended  to be a real entity by ordinary perception. However, in ultimate analysis, the Supreme Masters have unveiled  that no discrete entity exists autonomously in our world. This reality is unveiled to us through religion so that we cease grasping upon all prehended or reified actual entities as discrete entities. Object reification  causes grasping. Grasping arouses self-centric ego. Self-centric ego is the mother of greed and hatred. Greed and hatred destroy the Unity of Existence.

Grasping

Buddhist self-cultivation commences with non-grasping upon the prehended or reified actual entity of  a human personality. Non-grasping is soteriologically significant.  This soteriological wisdom is then extended to all other prehended or reified actual entities in our immediate environment.  Recognizing that all prehended or reified actual entities are illusory and unreal is a spiritual leap of wisdom development. It eliminates grasping or clinging. Emptiness of grasping  or clinging is voidness of self-centric ego. It is small effort but a giant leap for spiritual development. Hence, ‘Sākyamuni Buddha wisely compares the illusiveness and unreality of prehended or reified actual entity as a  dream, magic, mirage, echo, child of a barren women and the hair of a turtle. Since an actual entity is illusory and unreal, why should we cling to any reified actual entity which is unreal ? This is what religion essentially enlightens us.

Emptiness

Why is the actual entity of  ‘Car’  illusory and unreal ? Permit me to  reiterate. It is illusory and unreal because it does not exist substantially as a self-contained and independent entity in the ultimate analysis. It exists only conceptually.  In other words, it possesses no permanent  intrinsic nature (svabhāva) or self-identity. What is impermanent is not real.  Devoid of intrinsic nature or self-identity, it is said to be signless, markless, or characteristicless (animitta). Succinctly put, it is formless or it is empty (‘sūnya) of inherent existence. Evidently, an actual entity of a conditioned phenomenon is empty of inherent existence. Every actual entity is a conditioned phenomenon constituted from unity of parts. The sole purpose to discern the profound  message of Emptiness of self-identity is to efface the self-centric ego from the human personality in order to purify the mind. A purified mind is the mind of God or Buddha.

It follows that a ‘Car’ is a merely conditioned physical  phenomenon which can  perform a useful transport service for man. A car can be utilized to transport a man because conventionally it is an actual entity created for human utility. Its conceptual designation is illusory and unreal in relation to God or Tao or Emptiness. Thus, we conclude that a Car is unreal ultimately but real only  phenomenally or conceptually. Thus, a Car is both unreal and real. If one can intuitively discern this logical paradox of the identity of the opposites, one sees God or Tao or Emptiness in the Car. In this way, one’s knowledge of theosophy is consummated.  

 Thus we see that a ‘Car’ is a Unity of contigent conditions. This  Unity of contigent conditions  is ontologically designated as Emptiness or God. Hence, a ‘Car’ is the existence of Emptiness (‘Sūnyatā)  or the existence of God.  Buddhistly put, every existence is the existence of Emptiness. Monotheistically put, every existence is the existence of God. Ontologically, Emptiness and God are synonyms. Such teaching of religious ontology is soteriologically significant. Right view of Emptiness or God spiritually liberates a faith believer. Wrong view of Emptiness or God is the cause of human suffering. I have taken a ‘Car’ to depict the existence of God or Emptiness because the right view of the ontology should be transferred to understanding the human personality to obtain a release.