Issue

16th Issue (June, 2010)

Editor's Preface

Theme: Harmony and Happiness through the Application of Dhamma

The highest degree of human peace and happiness  contributing to dentological or  social harmony is drawing out  the innate human highest good of humaneness. Humaneness is derived from latent conscience in Man. Buddhist Dhamma unravels to us that the fruitful drawing out of human conscience of perfect virtue rooted in wisdom is the development of perfect personality view or  worldview. The empowerment of human wisdom centred virtue by conscience  is the innate human moral supremacy rooted in Gnosis.
Gnosis is the complete awareness or rememberance of the Dhamma that manifests human felicity of harmony and happiness. Dhamma is Truth. Confucianly put, Dhamma is Tao. Monotheistically put, Dhamma is God. Dissimilar designations are immaterial. The Truth is : The One is the many; the many is the One. The One and many are Non-duality. Non-duality is Unity of Existence of Anattᾱ or ‘Sῡnyatᾱ. Lasting harmony and happiness are constructed upon the perfect knowledge of the Truth. The world is generally distressed because it is derailed from the Truth – Dhamma.

This innate moral supremacy can only be manifested by the complete annihilation of self-centric ego (ahamkᾱra) of grasping (upᾱdᾱna). The chief agenda of being a Buddhist practioner (in fact any saved faith believer) is to obliterate the grasping upon the Five Aggregates (pañcupᾱdᾱnakkhandha)  of Form (Rῡpa), Feelings (Vedanᾱ), Perceptions (Saññᾱ), Volitions (Saṅkhᾱrᾱ and Consciousness (Viññᾱna). Grasping only ceases after the relational Unity of Five Aggregates is intuitively discerned. Succinctly put, the ‘I’ concept is the hindrance to see the Lord. Only Non-self (Anattᾱ) exists and self (attᾱ) does not exist. Monotheistically put, individuality does not exist and only God (Unity) exists. This is the communal Truth of Wisdom – the Dhamma. This is the Dhamma to be discovered by all major world’s religions.

Soteriologically,  the destruction of grasping upon the Five Aggregates will completely annihilate the illusorily superimposed self-centric ego. The annihilation of self-centric ego will extirpate greed (lobha) and  hatred (dosa0 rooted in delusion (moha). Delusion is erroneous personality view (sakkᾱya diṭṭhi) and false worldview (micchᾱ diṭṭhi). The extirpation of greed and hatred rooted in delusion invigorates deontological ethics of harmonious human interrelationships. The fruit of harmony is happiness. The unity of human hearts in deontological or social relationships involving necessarily interconnected duties and  responsibilities  helps foster human harmony and happiness. Harmony cum happiness is the cornerstone of felicity of human life.

The effacement of self-centric ego from defiled human consciousness leads to human perfection of self-redemption and deliverance. Human perfection is comprehensive Man’s self-rectification through self-redemption of his Original Self of innate ethical supremacy of Man. From the Buddhist perspective, human perfection is manifested in Perfect Man in the form of  Arahanthood, Paccekabuddhahood or Bodhisattavahood. Lasting peace and happiness are only experienced by one who has completely annihilated the self-centric ego of grasping. A Perfected Man is a liberated Gnostic. He is the Wise (Pandita) – a perfect Master of mental appeasement and bliss. The content of bliss is a perfect mixture of harmony and happiness. The lasting Bliss is Nirvᾱna experience.

 A Gnostic or the Wise  is the perfect tamer of ordinary consciousness to dwell in pure  and infinite consciousness of the inner Heart. The inner Heart is the Buddha-mind of perfect Anattᾱ consciousness. Anattᾱ is the cosmic consciousness of Oneness of being – the Absolute Reality of Suchness (Bhῡtatatathatᾱ) of holistic living of Oneness or Wholeness. He leads a Buddha-centred life of Eternity, Bliss, cosmic Self and Purity (Mahᾱyᾱna: Avatamsaka Sῡtra).

Adept execution of the four establishments of mindfulness (cattᾱro satipaṭṭhᾱna) prevents the arising of self-centric ego of grasping (upᾱdᾱna). Buddhist Holistic spirit of co-operative oneness (Dharamkᾱya) is arisen from complete annihilation of self-centric ego of clinging.  Right mindfulness (sammᾱ sati) rooted in right view (sammᾱ diṭṭhi) or intuitive discernment  (dassana) of  Anattᾱ (Unity of Selflessness) is perfection of wisdom (paññᾱ) or knowledge (ñᾱna).  This  wisdom destroys grasping or clinging. Destruction of grasping or clinging is  destruction of self-centric ego. Grasping or clinging  pertains to attachment to the Five Aggregates  (pañcupᾱdᾱnakkhandhᾱ) of Form, Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness as this is I; this is Mine; this belongs to me. The notion of Iness, Mineness or Meness is the manifest of the self-centric ego centred life. The notion of personal ownership is ignorance. The ownership of the multiplicity by the Unity is the Saddhamma (ultimate Truth). Adherence to Saddhama breeds lasting harmony and happiness known as Nibbᾱna or Nirvᾱna. Islamic concept of Nirvᾱna is Baqᾱ’.

The attributes of self-centric ego centred  life  are greed, hatred and delusion. Genuine harmony and happiness are negated or denied by the presence of the illusorily superimposed self-centric ego. Ego breeds attachment and aversion. Attachment and aversion defile the human mind with cankers or mental pollutants (ᾱsava-s). Self-centric ego of grasping upon the Five Aggregates can only be entirely obliterated by the development of insightful Wisdom (Pal.: Paññᾱ; San.: Prajñᾱ) into the Saddhama of the Three Universal Characteristics (Tilakkkana-s) of Existence. The Three Universal Characteristics of Existence are Impermanence (Aniccatᾱ), Suffering or Cessation of Suffering (Dukkha) and Selflessness (Anattᾱ).  Insightful view of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence  is a comprehensive knowledge of the human personality and the entire world.

Only a comprehensive knowledge of Tilakkhana-s will bring about ever- present harmony and happiness in Man. Impermanence is the attribute of all conditioned phenomena of the multiplicity of the empirical world. The permanence or eternity is the Unity underlying the multiplicity. Paradoxically, the Absolute Reality of Existence is the unity of existence of a pair of paradoxes or ooposites. The paradoxes or oppoistes  are  the impermanence of the empirical phenomena and the Permanence or Eternity of the Unity of Existence.

The Unity of Existence is  Buddhist doctrine of  Anattᾱ or Paṭiccasamuppᾱda. Anattᾱ is Selflessness; Paṭiccasamuppᾱda is Dependent Co-arising. Both Anattᾱ and Paṭiccasamuppᾱda are ontologically synonymous in terms of Unity of Existence or Oneness of Being. Unity of Existence or Oneness of Being is the one and only Truth or Dhamma known universally as the Suchness (Bhῡtatathatᾱ)  of Absolute Reality.

From the Mahᾱyᾱna Avatamsaka Sῡtra perspective, it is the Right View (Sammᾱ Diṭṭhi) of the interpenetration or unobstruction between the phenomena and the Principle. In the Heart Sῡtra, this Middle Philosophy of the Bipolar Truth  is depicted thus : Form (Rῡpa) is Emptiness (‘Sῡnyatᾱ) and Emptiness is Form. The multiplicity is in the Unity; the Unity is in the multiplicity. The many and the One are Non-duality (Advaya). Non-duality is Unity of Existence of Oneness. We are all the integral members of a global family.

 Knowing the Middle Philosophy of the unity of the opposites, the wise cease to be deluded by diverse names and forms through the wise strategy of detachment of non-dwelling on names and forms (Diamond Sῡtra). Non-dual Wisdom of detachment of non-dwelling  obliterates self-centric ego of grasping. Ceasing of grasping leads to cessation of  object reification (idolatry). Cessation of object reification is the perfect penetration into the Absolute Unity between Man and the world.

Modernists must return to   Dhamma  in order to develop a comprehensive worldview to address and mitigate  global crises, such as financial crisis, economic recession, global warming, climate change and so forth. Global crises menace human security, harmony and happiness. The esoteric education of Religion or Dhamma trains us to see ourselves and the world perfectly. Perfect discernment of human personality and perfect view of the world constitute the wisdom of Gnosis (Bodhi). The right personality view and errorless worldview are ontological view of dynamic process becoming of unity of Reality of the human personality and also of the world. The ontological view of  static and discrete multiplicity of separate human beings and other myriad things in the cosmos is erroneous worldview. The latent human harmony and happiness will be redeemed when one makes a paradigm shift from static view of multiplicity to the dynamic view of Unity the empirical world. In other words, human beings must develop the full consciousness that we are always necessarily connected to the Absolute Unity of Oneness of the world. Succinctly, self and others are necessarily connected in the Oneness. The Oneness is the dependently co-arisen Unity of Non-duality. Non-duality is the Saddhamma.

 Knowing the Unity of Non-duality as the Absolute, we become more deontologically responsible in our attitudes and conduct to live harmoniously and holistically in fellowship with others. Shepherded by this wisdom, we selflessly, altruistically and compassionately  protect the accomplishment, satisfaction and concrescence of the Whole. The family is the Whole; the community is the Whole; the society is the Whole; the nation is the Whole, the region is the Whole; the world is the Whole. Ontological wisdom breeds non-discriminative love. Non-discriminative love is great compassion. Great compassion ensues from our right vision that we are necessarily  in everything together. We are intrinsically brothers and sisters in this global village. Conflict relationship opposes the Saddhama.

Holisic and process view of dynamic Unity of  Reality is the perfect paradigm of harmonious interpenetration or unobstruction between the phenomena and the Principle. We finally come to the realization the phenomena and phenomena are innately interpenetrative harmoniously in perfect equilibrium so long as Man does not impose toxic conditions to obstruct the dynamic movement of the process Reality of Absolute Unity. The Buddha concept of Nirvᾱna and Islamic God’s concept of Baqᾱ’ should be comprehended in this manner. This is the comprehensive worldview sought by all world major religions.  Nirvᾱna or Baqᾱ’ is none other than the Confucian or Taoist concept of Tao of the unity of yin and yang. In Tao, the pair of harmony and happiness endures permanently or eternally. This is genuine felicity of human life.

I pay homage to the nameless Lord

Editor
Bodhi Journal
June 2010