Issue

9th Issue (September, 2008)

Fusūs al- Hikam: Why is Everything Called God?

K.S.Chow

Introduction

This article of mine is to vindicate that there are many religious saints but they all communicate the communal Truth of Wisdom. Vedānta,Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islamic Sufism are consonant in the fact that there is one and only one absolute or ultimate Truth not two. This communal Truth of Wisdom redeems and saves any discerner of Truth though they may adhere to a dissimilar religion from others. This Truth is generally expounded in terms of two-fold reality thus : The One in the many; the many in the One. Intuitive discernment of this two-fold ultimate Truth of Reality leads to one’s salvation Salvation is the transformation of the conceptual, egoistic state of mind into intuitive, egoless state of mind. Human immoral fallibility is transmuted into the human moral infallibilities through salvation. It is externally manifested by the exercise of non-discriminative wisdom and universal love for others. Salvation or emancipation should be perceived positively. It is actually the cosummation of human character formation. It is erroneous to conceive salvation as the state of transcendence in terms of renunciation of worldliness only. It is the internal renunciation and not the external renunciation that is important. It is dwelling in the world without being corrupted by the world. This connotes that the saved person is adept in utilizing the spiritual wisdom of the inner Heart to appease the physical body and the intellectual mind. Most essentially, Wisdom is arisen by purging one’s human personality of the self-centric ego.

Whoever comprehends Nāgārjūna‘s ‘Root Verses of the Middle Philosophy (Mūlamadhymakakārikā; MMK) should be able to comprehend the mind of Ibn ‘Arabī and his celebrated Sufi literature ‘Seal of Wisdom’ (Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam). I categorically acknowledge that the Sufi Theosophy of Ibn ‘Arabī differs not from that of Nāgārjuna expressed through Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Root Verses of the Middle Philosophy), that of the Upaniṣads or Vedānta of the Hindus, that of Tao Te Ching of Lao-tzu and that of Philokalia, the anthology of the Bible. The aforementioned highly influencial religious literature were composed by their respective towering religious philosophers of dissimilar religions utilizing dissimilar designations, names, or appellations and paraphrases and suntaxes, and yet they communicate precisely the communal message of Theosophy. The doctrine of identity and Interdependence and the doctrine of interpenetration between phenomena and principle of the Avataṃsaka-sū̄tra of Hua-yen Buddhism also sheds light on the relationship between the phenomena and the principle. All the aforementioned religious treatises expound the reciprocal or interpenetrative relationship between the empirical world and the absolute Truth of Unity. All expositions or exegesis are orientated towards and converge finally at the confluence of Truth – The One in All; the All in the One.

Heart Sūtra

In the Buddhist Heart Sūtra, the Buddha’s worldview or Buddhist Theosophy is expounded by Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. Heart Sūtra expounds thus : Form is emptiness and emptiness is form( Rūpaṃ Śūnyatā Śūnyataiva rūpaṃ).Form is the first aggregate of the Five Aggregates constituting the human personality. The Sūtra repeats that each of the four remaining aggregates (Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness) are also empty of inherent existence. The five aggregates encompass the entire realm of the cosmos or wholeview.

What is expounded by Heart Sutra is thus: All Phenomena are Emptiness; Emptiness is All Phenomena. All phenomena refers to the ‘Multiplicity’; Emptiness refers to the One. ‘All phenomena are Emptiness’ corresponds theologically to ‘The many is the One’. ‘Emptiness is all phenomena’ corresponds to ‘The One is the many’. Thus, the Buddhist ontology of dynamic becoming corresponds with the Christian theology of process philosophy of dynamism or organism expounded by Theology philosophers, such as Alfred North Whitehead and Thomas Aquinas. This vindicates Vedas’ or Vedānta’s and Gotama Buddha’s position that Truth is indeed one and they are not two (Ekaṃ saccaṃ na dutīyam). The world interfaith religious leaders ought to concentrate on this communal Truth of Wisdom and bridge the alliances of civilizations to avert the epic clashes of civilizations between the west and the east. The contributions of both western and eastern civilizations are both reciprocal, complementary and supplementary. This is the global mould of God or Tao that must be preserved at all costs to avoid future uncontrollable catastrophes. Political differences have seriously divided the world. Fortunately, international humanitarian spirit led by United Nations Organizations and other global humanitarian organizations have united the world.

Sufi Theosophy

According to Ibn ‘Arabī’s exegesis, everything or every phenomenon is God. This assertion seems to be brief and too simple to be believed. In actuality, this message mirrors the profound of Truth of monotheism which is the perfect worldview. Monotheism means ‘Only one God’ or ‘Unity Only’ The universe consists of the unity of all the contigent beings. The contigent beings are outwardly manifest diverge forms of the universe. Succinctly put, the universe is the totality of multiplicity – the unity of its parts . Scientifically and Buddhistly put, the totality (universe) is dependently co-arisen from its parts. The totality or unity is the One and the parts are the many or the multiplicity. The multiplicity is the phenomenal world or the universe itself. The One is God or any other created designation.

Without ethics, it is difficult to unite people with people. Once we understand that unity is important for good thing to occur, we unite. In order to unite, we must be virtuous. Evil people cannot unite; only virtuous people can unite. There is correlation between virtue and unity or between morality and God. Therefore, those who discern God spontaneously unite among themselves. Seeing God is acquiring spiritual insight or wisdom. Thus, we ascertain that wisdom gives rise to virtue to unite. Religion teaches us to perceive and love God to preserve the whole structure of unity or to prevent the mould of God from collapsing.

Reality (Ḥaqq)

The parts are the various forms of contigent beings or diverge phenomena. They are the outward reality (ḥaqq) of the universe. The word ‘reality’ is rendered into Arabic language as ‘al-Ḥaqq’. al-Ḥaqq connotes ‘Truth’ or ‘Reality’. Ibn ‘Arabī defines the God as al-‘Ḥaqq’. When one sees God, one sees the Truth or Reality. That Truth is the unmoved Unity within which the dynamic world moves. God has no outward physical personality to be seen by our ordinary senses.

 From Buddhist perspective, the outward reality is the knowledge of the conventional truth (saṃvṛti satya). The universe, like an infinite space, is unchangeable because it is the totality. The totality never changes and only the embodied contigent beings or things are changeable. What is unchangeable is eternal. The Buddha or Nirvāṇa is eternal and infinite. Zen masters describes Nirvāṇa as zero indicating infinity. The designation ‘Zero’ is appropriately utilized to explicate the state of neither arising or ceasing; neither absolute existence nor absolute non-existence. Monotheistically put, it is the beginning(first) and the ending (last). What is the first and the last is unmoved. What is unmoved is God. Therefore, Vedānta equates God with Nirvāṇa. According Christianity, God is eternal, immortal, and everlasting (Isaiah 9:16). The Bible also records that God is the first and last. (Isaiah 44:6). He has no beginning and will have no ending. This is what is meant by the congruence of eternal Truth.This is the communal Truth of Wisdom that ought to be promoted and fostered by the inter-faith religious leaders to preserve incessant alliances of civilizations between the west and the east.

What is hidden in the universe is the energy of unity which binds all contigent beings or things together. This hidden unity is called the inward aspect of God. It is the energy of God. So, God is both inward and outward. The attributes of God is both the beginning and ending and both the first and the last. Neither beginning nor ending and neither the first nor the last are equivalent to the notion of neither arising nor ceasing and neither eternalism nor annihilationism. The later description is the Buddhist way of describing dependently co-arisen Unity. It vindicates that monotheism and Mahāyāna Buddhism are parallel. Or synonymous. Vedānta advocates that the state of Nirvāṇa is the state of Brahman which is recognized as God. The Theravādins’ describes Nibbāna as the unborn, unmade, undestroyed and unconditioned. These four attributes describe the supreme state of eternity which does not differ from the divine attribute of both the beginning and the ending. The Mahāyāna Parinirvāṇa Sūtra describes the attributes of Buddha as Eternity, Bliss, Self and Purity. All these evidences vindicate that, the God and the Buddha are synonymous in terms of ultimacy. There is only and one Truth in the world – the dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality which conditions the oneness of the world or cosmos. Briefly put, we are all interdependent, interrelated and interwoven into a infinite network of interconnectedness in the university of the universe. No one is an isolated island. The is the sole esoteric message of religion to dispel the erroneous concept of individuation or egoism. Every dynamic grouping, micro-unity, conditioned phenomenon or necessary existent is a process becoming organism.

The greatest Malay Sufi poet, Hamzah Fansuri expounds the Sufi Doctrine of Unity of Being thus:

Mūtū qabla an tamutū 
Pada lā ilāha illā Hū #  
Laut and ombak sedia satu
Itulah ‘ārif dāim bertemu

Die before you die
In there is no god but He
Ocean and waves are eternally one
This is what the Gnostic constantly discovers.

# Source : Hadīth 

Before one dies in the present world, the self-centric ego should die first. There is no other Truth other than God which is the One. Anything other than God is illusion or unreal. The phenomenal world and God are eternally inseparable and reciprocal. Whoever does not discern God is separate from God. This is what the Knower or Gnostic of Truth of God always discovers. The quintessence of the Hamzah’s poetry depicts the spiritual Truth of Unity or Non-duality, that is the Unity Being or Existence (Waḥdāt al Wujūd ). Non-duality is the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) self-realized by a Buddhist Zen Gnostic. It is also consonant with Virmalakīrti’s exposition of the Silence of Non-duality. It also concurs with the Doctrine of Non-duality (Advaita) expounded by Vedānta of Hinduism. Non-duality is the state of the reunion with God.

Conclusion

Therefore, we can comfortably conclude that Sufi theosophy is identical to Mahāyāna Buddhist theosophy. This is the communal truth of wisdom to be discovered and applied universally. In fact, all esotericists seek for this universal non-dual Truth of eternal Unity. The non-dual Truth is non-discriminative wisdom of universal Unity. From Buddhist vision of Truth, it is designated as the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) – the perfect view (sammā dițțhi) of the world and the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality. Religion reminds us to see, surrender and love God. What is seen is Unity with the world. What is surrendered is one’s self or ego. What is love is the Truth of Non-duality, that is interrelatedness or brotherliness. Religion does not require one to destroy or abandon one’s body, one’s mind, one feelings, one’s thoughts, one belongings, and one’s assets. Religion reminds us not to be separate from the Unity of God. Religion trains us to love others selflessly. Loving one’s neighbour connotes boundless or non-discriminative love rooted in non-discriminative religious wisdom. Originally, we are one unified family, why should we ask for separation and shatter the innate Unity or God? Originally we are not Americans, Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, Indians, or Malays. Originally, in ultimacy, human beings are not human beings; God is not God; Buddha is not Buddha; Brahman is not Brahman. This is the original face of the world in which we live in. All religious sermons or discourses point to this ultimacy of cosmology, theology and humanism. If one truly knows what religion is, it is marvelous experience and spirit-uplifting experience to be a human being. Please permit me to unveil the Utterance of God who says,”A human being is the one among all living beings including the devas to have complete credentials to transmit the profound message of God.” Man can emerge as a Perfect Man if he adheres to the esoteric religious scriptures of any denomination without exception.