16th Issue (June, 2010) Human Efforts Precede Peace and Happiness Wong Weng Hon IntroductionIn the Dhammapada (Dhp. 25), Gotama Buddha says thus :
In the aforementioned Dhammapada verse, one of the noble utterances of Exalted Gotama Gotama, the key Message of Buddhism (equally pertinent to the communal Message of Truth of other world’s great religions) illuminates our mind that Man must strive on diligently to liberate himself from suffering by his own efforts before the Suchness (Bhῡtatathatᾱ) of the Dhamma or Truth (Sacca) liberates him from suffering (Monotheistic teaching: God will only save only those who save themselves. Human efforts of repentance precede the Grace of God). In the aforementioned utterance of Gotama Buddha, the Exalted One edifies mankind with the wholesome contigent noble efforts of Man in order to emancipate himself from the affliction of suffering or vexation (dukkha). Emancipation is lasting harmony and happiness. Human beings must make efforts to comprehend the Dhamma > it must followed by serious repentance and self-rectification before pure faith is developed. Grace of salvation comes only after serious efforts of repentance for serious self-rectification and self-improvement have been made. There is no free lunch in the world. Necessary EffortsIn the Dhammapada verse, the Exalted Gotama Buddha highlights that the wholesome contigent efforts for a Dhamma practioner or Buddhist Wayfarer to escape from the kammic bondage of unceasing suffering are right efforts, earnestness, discipline and self-control. This wholesome set of contigent efforts is necessitated to develop Wisdom of Insight (vipassanᾱ-pañña) into Insubstantiality (Anattᾱ) of the Five Aggregates (Pañcakkhandhᾱ)2. Wisdom gained develops pure faith in the Dhamma. Complete faith rooted in Wisdom is Gnosis. Intuitive discernment of Insubstantiality of the Five Aggregates or the Unity of Existence of the Five Aggregates is insightful wisdom. Perfection of Wisdom is knowing and seeing that the Unity of Five Aggregate is infinitely expansive. It is the Unity of Existence of the entire cosmos. The entire cosmos consists of three worlds of sensual desire, form, and formlessness in which all sentient beings are interconnected. Fundamentally, the Gnostic knows and sees that Man and his environment is one. The Oneness is the Non-duality (Advaya) between the knower and the known. Non-duality is the infinite concept of Anattᾱ. Non-duality is the communal Truth of organic or perennial wisdom to be discovered by all world’s major religions without exception. Non-duality is the Unity of Existence of process becoming of the world or cosmos. In process Reality, no multiplicity of the discrete entities exist and only cosmic Self (Mahᾱyᾱna Avatamsaka Sῡtra: Dharmadhῡtu pratῑtyasamutpᾱda) of Unity exists. From the Neo-Confucian perspective, it is the infinite Unity of Heaven, Earth and Man. Right View (Sammᾱ Diṭṭhi) of the microcosm3 of the human personality is insightful Wisdom of Anattᾱ. Anattᾱ is the necessary interdependent and interconnected conditional relationships of the dependently co-arisen Unity of Existence of the Five Aggregates. Right Knowledge of Non-self (Anattᾱ) and Unity of Existence of Dependent Co-arising (Paṭṭiccasamuppᾱda) bring forth innate Supreme Virtue of Man. The Dhamma of Virtue breeds harmony and happiness. Inner RefugeThe intrinsic Supreme Virtue of Man is the non-discriminative and ᾱ), boundless sublime virtues of lovingkindness (mettᾱ), compassion (karunᾱ) appreciative joy (muditᾱ) and equanimity (upekkhᾱ)4. These four sublime virtuous states of Man help the wise man safeguard the noble Five Precepts (Pᾱncasῑla-s)5. It also sustains the Ten Wholesome Course of Actions (Dasasῑla-s)6. Non-violation of Five Precepts and the Ten Superior Precepts breeds harmony and happiness. Invigorated and supported by the Right View of microcosm of human personality, the Wise consummates his entire Dhamma Wayfaring. The Dharma journey is the traversing the entire Noble Eight Fold Path (Ariya Aṭṭhaṅgiko Magga)7. The consummation of the Noble Eight Fold Path is the spiritual journey to be traversed by all liberated Buddhist Wayfarers. The development and self-cultivation of the Noble Eight Fold Path are taking the inner refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha within and not without. This inner refuge in Man is expounded as the island of Man by the Exalted Gotama Buddha8. The consummation of the Noble Eight Fold Path is the highest blessedness of harmony and happiness of Nibbᾱna.. Sustained effort is to be interpreted as the continuous diligent effort to complete the entire traversing of the Noble Eight Fold Path. By earnestness, it requires energetic enthusiasm to fulfill the entire ascending three-fold training (tisso-sikkhᾱ) of morality-concentration- wisdom (sῑla-samᾱdhi-paññᾱ).The three-fold training constitutes the core of the Noble Eight Fold Path9. Briefly put, the Path requires the sustained effort to avoid evil, do good and purify the mind. Avoiding evil is the aspect of moral restraint and non-transgression of the Buddhist Precepts. Doing good is the aspect of Buddhist virtue of great compassion. Mental purification is the crucial effort of complete annihilation of the self-centric ego. Self-centric ego is superimposed in human mind due to deluded view of the illusive multiplicity of the empirical world. The superimposed self-centric ego can only be eliminated completely on condition that the necessary dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality of the human personality (microcosm) and that of the cosmos (macrocosm10) is intuitively discerned. The obliteration of the self-centric ego through the Wisdom of Non-duality is unsurpassed harmony and happiness of a liberated Man. Intuitive discernment is self-enlightenment knowledge of the Oneness of the human personality in relation to the family, community, society, nation and world. When the Wise has consummated the entire Dhamma Wayfaring of the Noble Eight Fold Path, no vicissitudes of the storms of life will overwhelm him. Spiritually, the Wise has attained to the state of infinitude and indestructiveness – the deathlessness (amata). Harmony and happiness will forever be present in his life even before he passes away from the terrestrial life on earth. His ego dies before he dies11. He lives in the Pure Land of earthly life.12 The Wise becomes a Tathᾱgata before the disintegration of the Five Aggregates.13 The unsurpassed happiness of harmony is the Nibbᾱna experienced while the liberated Man is still living on earth. Self-centric EgoThe Message of liberation (vimutti)) is the communal Truth of Wisdom to be discovered by all world’s great religions. Liberation is salvation. Salvation is freedom from the imprisonment of the illusory self-centric ego that defiles human consciousness with greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha). As long as one does not intuitively discern the Absolute Reality of Unity underlying the multiplicity and the multiplicity concealing the Unity, a human being is directed and empowered by the self-centric ego. Lasting harmony and happiness exist only when this illusory and unreal self-centric ego has been effaced from the defiled human consciousness. HayathologyIn Buddhism, a Buddhist is liberated if he or she has intuitively penetrated into the Absolute Reality of the Buddha-nature of Anattᾱ and Unity of Existence of Paṭiccasamuppᾱda. In Monotheism, the Monotheists must insightfully apprehend the Absolute Reality of God-head. In Taoism or Confucianism, the Absolute Reality is the great Tao of unity of yin and yang. The Absolute Reality is none other than the Oneness of Being of Unity of Existence designated dissimilarly in dissimilar religions. Dissimilar religions connote different pedagogical means or devices (upᾱyas) to discover the communal Truth of perennial wisdom of Hayathology. Hayathology is the process reality of dynamic process becoming of the unity of contigent causes and conditions. Hayathology is Anattᾱ. Knowing and seeing Anattᾱ breed wisdom and great compassion. Wisdom and compassion are mothers of harmony and happiness. ConclusionRight View of microcosm and macrocosm and their correlationship constitutes the spiritual or theological concept of perennial wisdom of the Dhamma of Anattᾱ. Perennial Wisdom of Anattᾱ breeds perfect virtue of non-discriminative love or great compassion of non-discrimination. The blessedness of non-discriminative wisdom is the immediate tasting of harmony and happiness benefiting oneself and others. All Tathᾱgatas and Prophets concur with the communal Truth of Wisdom : Love the Truth and the neighbour as you love yourself. Love of Truth is the great passion for Wisdom; Love of neighbour is non-discriminative great compassion for all sentient beings. Great compassion rooted in Wisdom generates individual harmony and happiness that will socially benefit others deontologically. The Essence of harmony and happiness is thus : Protecting oneself, one protects others. The highest protection is moral infallibility and vulnerability. Morality rooted in Wisdom of necessary interconnectedness is the mother of societal harmony and happiness. Editor’s Note:The Monotheists fervently defend their gospel Truth that it is the Grace of God but not human works that save the believers. Human works are sins or kamma-s. The Grace of God is pure non-volitional action of Kiriyᾱ. Sins or Kamma-s are carnal actions directed and empowered by self-centric ego. Grace actions or actions of Kiriyᾱ are the pure actions unconditioned by the self-centric ego. Grace of God is God centred action. Kiriyᾱ is Buddha-centred action. God-centred action is Self-Enlightened action of Holy Spirit. Kiriyᾱ is also Self-Enlightened action of pure, infinite consciousness. Holy spirit and Pure, Infinite Consciousness of Dharmakᾱya are synonymous in Essence. Buddhism and Monotheism are thus ontologically reconciled. The Moon in India and that in the Middle East are one and the same. Monotheism connotes one and only Truth and there is no second. Buddhism connotes Self-Awakening to this one and only Truth – Dhamma and there is no second (ekam saccam na dutῑyam). Dhamma is the Truth and God (Haqiqah) is also the Truth. In fact, the ineffable Truth cannot be designated. Truth is beyond beyond God or Buddha. Religious disputation is idolatrous. Endnotes:
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