10th Issue (December, 2008) Buddha-nature or God Essence in the Eco-system Wong Weng Hon IntroductionInter-faith understanding is consummated on condition that the communal Truth of Wisdom is discovered by the religious leaders or concerned individuals. The communal Truth of Wisdom pertains to the ultimate Reality that everything which we perceive in our empirical world has Buddha-nature from Mahāyāna Buddhist perspective or is God-essence from the Islam or Sufi perspective. Thus, we follow that the natural environment or the entire ecosystem is also the essence of the Buddha or God. In other words, the natural environment or the entire ecosystem is sacred and divine. Succinctly put, the totality of the universe is the Buddha or God. Therefore, whoever worships the Buddha or God also worships the natural environment. What is worshipped in the Buddha or God is not His supernatural power but the universal Truth represented by the name of Buddha or God. In Tibetan Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana Buddha is perceived to be ultimate Truth of the totality of the universe – the ecosystem. Vairocana or Buddha is everything. It is consonant to the assertion that every thing is God. Western Process philosophy, Perennial Philosophy and knowledge of Theosophy have vindicated the communal Truth of universal Unity or Non-duality propagated by the world’s religions, such as Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Communal TruthProcess or perennial philosophy is synonympous with Buddhist philosophy of Dependent Co-arising which is the ontology of dynamic becoming. Dependent Co-arising is intimately related to the Buddhist doctrine of Insubstantiality or Emptiness. Insubstantiality or Emptiness connotes Unity or Non-duality. Whoever discerns Non-duality discerns the Unity of existence. The Unity of existence is the Emptiness of Buddha or Unity of Existence of God. The ecosystem is the Unity of existence. It is therefore Buddha or God. The Theravādins should understand the essence of Buddha as Anattā. In this way, Theravāda Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism are reconciled. Anything other than self is Anattā; anything other than self is God. Therefore, Anattā is synonymous with God. Whoever penetrates the Truth of Anattā or whoever loves God loves the ecosystem. Whoever loves the ecosystem will help conserve the natural environment. Hence, the issue of ecocrisis is connected to the human willful ignorance of religion in general, and of Buddha or God in particular. EmptinessEmptiness (Śūnyatā) is the central and fundamental doctrine of all esoteric religion. It conveys the Truth that nothing exists autonomously or discretely. All things or phenomena are dependently co-arisen from the association and unity of contigent conditions. Every entity is conditioned and empty of a permanent self-nature (svabhāva). An entity with a permanent, immutable self-nature is independent. Independence negates interdependence. The world or universe is constructed upon the Truth of interdependence or Emptiness. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra reminds us that all phenomena or entites are empty of intrinsic natures or self-nature thus:
In Francis H.Cook’s article ‘The Meaning of Vairocana in Hua-yen Buddhism’, he writes thus:
Fa-tsang in his work ‘The Treatise of Five Doctrines’ (p500b), formulates the Absolute Truth thus:
Ibn ‘Arabī in his work of Fuṣūṣ al- ḥikam formulates the Ultimate Reality thus:
Since the Interdependent Existence equals the Unity of Existence, it follows that the Buddha and God are synonymous ultimately. However, the most significant conclusion is that the Absolute (Buddha or God) is characteristized by the ultimate Truth of Emptiness. Emptiness connotes that every existence is the unity of multiple contigent beings or dependent condition. Succinctly put, Emptiness is the unity of its parts. Monotheistically put, that everything is the unity of its parts is God from Sufi’s Doctrine of Unity of Existence (Waḥ̣dat al-Wujūd). CreationMost significantly, the creative power of the Absolute is necessitated from the countless possibilities of creations from the attribute of Emptiness of all phenomena. Monotheistically, the creative possibilities of Emptiness is synonymous with the Monotheistic concept of the Premordial Potentialities (isti ‘dād aṣlī) of God pervading everything. The phenomenal world is incessantly created because of the Emptiness or God immanence. God existence or Emptiness of contigent existents or conditioned phenomena permit the conglomeration of the diverge and distinct necessary contigent conditions to produce the diverge necessary or quasi existents. Since God’s potentialities exist because of the attribute of Emptiness or Unity of existence. In this manner, Buddha and God are synonymous as both refer to the communal Truth of dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. Monotheistiially put, it is the primordial potentialities (isti ‘dād aṣlī) of the Absolute or God or Buddha-nature which create the necessary existents. Created existents are the diverge empirical phenomena which are changeable due to the nature of Emptiness. It is akin to the metaphor of a fruit: Every fruit embodies a seed. Every seed has the potentiality to produce a tree when all the essential contigent conditions are present. A tree has the potentialities to produce many fruits when all other necessary contigent conditions are present. These necessary or quasi existents are secondary existents created by the imposed and determined variable contigent conditions from Man or Nature. Man or Nature furnishes (imposes and determines) the contigent conditions; God provides the unifying force of the unity of existence. Without the unifying force of unity or the attribute of Emptiness of God, creatures (the necessary existents) are not created. Both God and Buddha are empty even though they are immutable. It is soteriologically significant to comprehend the relationship between the conventional truth (The world) and the ultimate Truth (the God/Buddha) in such an ontological manner. The unifying principle of the attribute of Emptiness is known as Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda). The created existents or quasi existents constitute the multiplicity of the phenomenal world sustained by the Truth of Emptiness or God. Understanding Emptiness, the decision makers or policies makers will develop more confidence in formulating strategies to mitigate the ecocrises. The philosophy of Emptiness rejects strict fatalistic determinism of any human destiny. Natural disasters or catastrophes are not fatalistically determined. They are caused by irresponsible and unfriendly human behaviours towards the natural environment. Contigent BeingsThe message to be driven home here is that all human beings and non-human beings are contigent beings or conditions which contribute to the creation of the unity of existence of the phenomenal world. For instance, nature-polluting human beings have been identified by the climate scientists that they are the crucial contigent conditions in creating the phenomena of global warming and climate change. When human beings improve their behaviours, the quality of the natural environment is proportionately improved. Both Man and natural environment are empty of permanent inherent existence. Both can be improved by improving the contigent conditions of which human behaviours are most crucial. Human behaviours are changeable from darkness to light and from light to light. Deontological EthicsThus, knowledge of Emptiness (God or Buddha) awakens us to the ontological demand that our deontological ethics are responsible to sustain the unity of existence – Emptiness or God. Deontological ethics are the duties and responsibilities to act ethically to preserve the mould of unity resulting in the necessary existent or conditioned phenomenon known as an ecosystem. The ecosystem is the unity all biotic beings and abiotic beings which are contigent conditions. The biotic beings include human beings, plant and animal species. The abiotic beings comprise air, water, temperatures, minerals, soils and so forth. Since the ecosystem is the unity of contigent beings or conditions, it is the Unity of Existence or Emptiness. The function of deontological ethics is to sustain the mould of unity of the ecosystem so that it does not collapse. Likewise, the deontological ethics of Man to act ethically is a necessary force to conserve and sustain the ecosystem. The current ecocrises must be mitigated urgently so that their eco-balances are preserved or sustained for the well-being and security of our future generations. Only the environment ethics of Man can preserve the order of equilibrium of the diverge ecosystems. The breach of environment ethics will upset the order of the equilibrium of the diverge ecosystems. The mould of God collapses when the unity of its parts is shattered by human immorality or indiscipline. An ecosystem is the organic, holistic world of elements in which every living or non-living being is a an integral member of the organic earth community. Any deficient member will disturb or upset its equilibrium. An ecocrisis mirrors that the order of equilibrium of the ecosystem has been derailed by the moral deficiency or fallibility of human environment ethics. It is simple: We sink together or we swim together. No one can afford to rock the ocean liner. The earth planet is a space liner on which we, all the global villagers, are on board. ConclusionOf course, in the mundane world, we cannot deny wealth, power and money and so forth. They are means to human wellbeing and happiness. Nevertheless, they are only the created empirical phenomena. They belong only to the conventional or relative realities. The ordinary worldlings are living in the phenomenal world and are ignorant of the Absolute (Brahman, Tao, Buddha, God, or Allah). This situation is akin to merry-making passengers travelling on an ultra-modern luxury ocean liner whose captain, crew and passengers are being unaware of the submerged iceberg lying ahead of the liner. The crew are also obsessed with the extravaganza on the mesmerizing liner. The 2008 financial meltdown suffices to warn us to respect the Truth of Unity of Existence or Emptiness. In actuality, we are all living in a human family or earth community – a common global village. If we do not act responsibly in adherence to the our deontological ethics and the Truth of interdependence or Emptiness, so many other global villagers would also be adversely affected in the global village in which we are intrinsically interconnected. Buddhism is religious philosophy of ecology. The roots of all crises are wrong view, wrong thought and wrong actions due to human fallibilities and vulnerabilities rooted in religious ignorance. Religious communal Truth of Wisdom pertains to right view, right thoughts and right actions leading to wholesome occasions of human experiences of necessary existents. Right actions are environment ethics to conserve the natural environment so that national development is sustainable. Conservation of natural environment does not denote the cessation of national development. National development is the life blood of any nation. It must continue incessantly. What is demanded by religion is sustainable development without upsetting the eco-balances of the diverge ecosystems. This esoteric Truth of eco-balance is heavily focused and emphasized in Hua-yen Buddhism. In fact, it is the main focus of all esoteric religions. Sustaining the mould of God (unity of existence) from collapse is the central concern of all religions. It is the concern for all righteously minded human beings. The universe ought to be managed responsibly and sustainably like the captain of a giant private business corporation through the business strategy of implementation of TQM (Total quality Management). A business is managed through TQM qualitatively to avoid business losses. Likewise, the natural environment must be managed qualitatively through TQM by all governments and citizentries existing on the planet earth. Human behaviours must be monitored and overseen before any crisis errupts. It is more economical to manage the causes – contigent conditions, rather than to treat the toxic crises – the consequences, before they erupt. The 2008 financial crisis should serve as an important edifying lesson to us. At the individual level of TQM, a person should self-examine and self-evaluate his or her conduct through the body, speech and mind daily. He should self-analyse and ascertain whether he or she executes right view of the ecosystem and right thought about his relationship with the natural environment. Having viewed rightly and thought rightly about his correlation with the natural environment, he self-examines whether he speaks in favour of protecting the natural environment ? Next, he should examine his actions: Does my lifestyle help reduce or increase pollutants? Then, he continues to self-examine whether his livelihood is unfriendly or friendly towards the natural environment. Next, he should examine whether or not he or she helps in the collective efforts to promote recycling the wastes or he prefers public transport rather than personal transport. Then, he must exercise right mindfulness and clear awareness that he is an integral part of the ecosystem. Any notion of I or Mine separates him or her from the cosmic unity or cosmic Self. The cosmic Self is Buddha or God awareness. Buddha or God awareness is the awareness of the Emptiness of the world. He constantly reminds himself that being nice to the natural environment is being nice to oneself. Most importantly, he or she incessantly concentrates his or her mind and contemplates on the Emptiness of self and others – the self is Man and others are the members of the natural environment. Thus, it is through the four foundations of mindfulness that manage the TQM of his or her human personality. Right mindfulness and complete intrinsic awareness annihilates the self-centric ego. Having his or her personality of self-centric ego, he or she purifies his mind and obliterate the mental intoxicants or cankers. In this way, the TQM of human personality is consummated so that he or she executes right view, right thought, right speech, right actions, right livelihood, right efforts, right mindfulness and right concentration. Gotama Buddha promulgates a comprehensive TQM known as the Noble Eight Fold Path to rectify the deluded mind and to redeem its innate supremacy – the God or Buddha consciousness. There is no one race more supreme than others. All are equally supreme because there is Buddha-nature or God-head existing innately in all human beings. That all human beings are equal before the law is a very significant religious assertion by the secularists. By intrinsic nature, no one is actually a secularist. Everyone of us is intrincically a supreme religionist. Gotama Buddha and all Prophets unravel that thinking of oneself who is originally a supreme religionist as a secularist is perversion arisen from religious ignorance. References:
   
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