Baishui Zen

Today’s post finishes off our goal of tying together the most basic concepts to the Buddhist path by addressing the last two of the Noble Truths as discussed previously, and explaining what is essentially the goal of Buddhism. Different sects of Buddhism have different views on this concept, but essentially, all Buddhists agree that the point of Buddhism is to attain “liberation” or “enlightenment” or “Nirvana.” In this post, we’re going to discuss the elimination of dukkha, or discontentment and suffering, detail a bit more about how this comes about from what was said previously, and then discuss these three terms and the extent to which they are synonymous, as well as how they diverge.

First and foremost, if it is possible to eliminate suffering from our lives, this is obviously a worthwhile goal above just about anything else. When secular people talk about their other goals in life, almost always the elimination of suffering is the ultimate reason why they set that goal, although sometimes it’s the pursuit of certain pleasures. We’ve discussed the extent to which the pursuit of pleasures can also be a kind of suffering, primarily through this lens of discontentment, and so these individuals can still be thought of as trying to surround themselves with pleasures to avoid suffering. They’re just misguided in how they’re going about it. This is ignorance in motion, if you will.

His Holiness tells us that there are essentially two factors which make it possible to achieve liberation. These factors are the “clear light nature of mind,” and what he calls the “adventitious nature of defilements.” Adventitious is kind of like a neutral version of serendipity. It means roughly, purely accidentally. Happening by chance rather than design. The two fit together. The clear light nature of mind is a way of talking about our ability to perceive and cognize, which makes both true and false cognitions possible. It allows wisdom and ignorance both. That we happen to acquire varying degrees of ignorance is basically random chance. This is what is meant by “adventitious,” I think. Moreover, that it’s possible to perceive and cognize clearly means that we might overcome our ignorance.

The great Indian sage and 14th Buddhist Patriarch Nagarjuna famously exposited a 12-link chain leading from ignorance to cyclic existence and rebirth, samsara, in his Treatise on the Middle Way, Here are the links:

1. Ignorance
2. Karmic formations
3. Consciousness
4. Name and form
5. Six sense organs
6. Contact
7. Sensation
8. Craving
9. Grasping
10. Becoming
11. Birth
12. Old age and death

At this point in time, there is no need to understand the exact rationale he used to go from each link to the next. Broadly speaking, the chain expresses the idea that by failing to comprehend dependent origination and emptiness properly, our senses provide us with experiences which we think of as positive and crave. By clinging to these sensations, we fall into patterns and habits which karmically cause us to cycle through existence over and over throughout this lifetime, and for the eschatologically inclined, the lifetimes which follow. Nagarjuna’s disciple Aryadeva said succinctly how to break this chain:

The consciousness that is the seed of existence has objects as its sphere of activity. When selflessness is seen in objects, the seed of existence is destroyed.

A key component to Buddhist philosophy on this point is the concept of cultivation. Hopefully, many readers will feel after perusing the posts in this series that they have come away with a grasp on the basic tenets of Buddhist thought, on an intellectual level. I hope that I do a good job laying out the ideas for you to engage with. But this is just the beginning of one’s understanding of Buddhism. In order to truly advance along the path, it is not enough to do a kind of metaphysics, convince yourself of dependent arising, and simply declare yourself a buddha. We must actively practice these concepts so that they are both intellectually clear, but also intuitive and instinctive in life. This involves basically a theory component, and a practice component, although I don’t think a Buddhist is likely to use those terms.

The theory component consists of active mental training, often in the form of meditations. These can be specific mantras or reflections on passages and teachings, as well as rituals designed to physically demonstrate a metaphorical or spiritual practice. Sometimes they are simple exercises of self-reflection and observation. There are hundreds of practices designed to help different people cultivate their minds, and what kinds of practices a Buddhist meditation teacher may prescribe to a student depends strongly on the upbringing of the teacher, as well as their personal views. The practical component is about extending the teachings from philosophy to life. One of my favorite examples of this comes from the Nirvana Sutra, which we are reading on this blog. Let me skip ahead some and show a streamlined quote:

“What is generosity, and what is not perfected generosity? One sees one who begs, and one gives. This is giving, but not perfectly so. When there is none that begs, but one opens up one’s heart and gives of one’s own accord, this is perfected generosity. One gives according to the time. This is giving, but not perfectly so. One practices eternal giving – this is perfected generosity. One gives to others and later regrets it. This is giving, but not perfectly so. One gives and does not regret it. This is perfected generosity.”

This is an extension and application of the doctrine of emptiness and dependent arising. How so? It is best explained by the simple Zen saying: “no gift, no giver, no recipient.” All of these components are empty of inherent existence, so to give to others is no different from to receive, but provides peace to someone else who may not yet realize this along their own path. Even an enlightened being still needs to eat, so providing for them freely and without any hesitation or remorse when capable is a way of realizing dependent origination in life, while benefitting someone else. It also gets us good karma for a higher rebirth.

To return to the key concept, the point is that because Buddhist thought consists of active cultivation of correct thinking and behavior through meditations, we can train ourselves to be free of our ignorance, and break this chain once and for all. By eliminating ignorance, we eliminate suffering and discontentment. By eliminating discontentment, we eliminate cyclic existence all together. What will remain when all ignorance is removed, and the chain fully shattered? This brings us to the idea of the buddha nature.

The buddha nature or buddha potential is the ability for each and every person to become a buddha, by fully eliminating their ignorance and having correct conceptions of all things. It is an infinite potential. As we have said before, Buddhists believe that the nature of mind is to pass from life to life, as it is not destroyed with the body upon death. Therefore, when all that remains is the buddha nature, one understands the existence of their pure mind from beginningless time. The crucial point here is that the buddha nature is realized not by acquiring it – it is something that exists within us already. We realize it by removing defilements or afflictions and delusions. In Zen Buddhism in particular, it is said that the way we realize our buddha potential is by fully comprehending our own nature, both our emptiness as well as the light-like nature of mind, and the emptiness of the world. Again we see this throughline – dependent origination is the source of all confusions. Bodhidharma agrees. “All living things share one fundamental nature, obscured by defilements and delusions.”

Another view of the buddha nature that may help us understand, is to consider that it does not just reside in our minds, but can also abide in objects, making it omnipresent, in a sense. A personal favorite Zen koan expresses this idea:

Dongshan asked Yunyen, “Who can hear it when non-sentient beings preach the dharma?”

Yunyen said, “It can only be heard by other non-sentient beings.”

Dongshan asked, “Do you hear it, Master?”

Yunyen said, “If I heard it, then you would not hear me when I preach the dharma.”

Dongshan answered, “That being the case, then I do not hear your teaching.”

Yunyen replied, “You don’t even hear my teaching, how could you hear the teachings of the insentient?”

 Dongshan achieved a great awakening upon hearing this and composed this poem:

Wondrous! Marvelous!
The teachings of the insentient are inconceivable.
If you listen with the ears, you won’t understand.
When you hear with the eyes, then you will know.

What’s going on here? It’s always a bit tricky, if not silly, to try to explain a Zen koan, whose function is to tickle the mind into understanding a piece of Zen philosophy rather than through direct explication. Nevertheless, allow me to say just a few words to try to scratch the surface.

Dongshan was at this time a competent adept of Zen practice, and will go on after departing from Yunyen to become one of the greatest Zen masters of all time. Yunyen is his primary teacher. What are the teachings of non-sentient beings? This refers to dependent origination. A non-sentient being is a funny way for a Zen practitioner to refer to an ordinary object. How can it be that ordinary objects, without independent or inherent existence, preach the teachings of the Buddha? By doing the things that all objects do – being confluences of causes and conditions which allow them to enter this world for a time in the minds of others, before eventually returning to nothingness. When we comprehend this emptiness directly, and the objects are banished all at once in our mind, we have heard their teaching with our eyes, as if the mind has banished them right then and there. Yunyen’s apparent roast is as if to say, “you haven’t fully internalized what I have taught you. Since you are not enlightened yet, I don’t believe that you don’t hear me. I think you hear a lot, because you’re not ready to hear the teachings of the mundane.”

And, this was more or less correct. It took Dongshan quite some time to be fully realized. He left Yunyen arguably not enlightened yet, even some years after this interaction. In their final encounter, Yunyen asked Dongshan if he would return to his hometown. In other words, asking if he was giving up on the path. Dongshan said no. Yunyen said that if he leaves, it will be very hard for them to meet again, but Dongshan said, “it will be hard not to meet,” and composed one more famous Zen poem:

Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recedes far from you.
Today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him.
He is no other than myself, but I am not now him.
It must be understood in this way in order to merge with suchness.

The word “suchness” here is a little bit hard to explain, which is why it’s already a bit awkward to translate from Chinese, but it essentially also refers to the fundamental nature that Bodhidharma mentions. The suffix ‘ness’ means a state or a quality or property, and “such” means “of a particular type,” and usually refers to a type either previously or about to be mentioned. The context here is that the “type” in question is the essence of existence – things exactly as they are and nothing more. This is the buddha nature that all things possess. Their quality of being exactly as they are, while they are, before their causes and conditions pass, and their emptiness is revealed. Since the buddha nature is what remains when everything temporary or afflictive has been removed, and objects are inherently empty, you might get the idea from thinking that the objects, which actually come from your mind, express their buddha nature through you. This is how one can hear them preach, but only silently.

All of this is to say, what Dongshan means by “to merge with suchness,” is to realize the buddha nature within him, e.g. to become fully enlightened.

It is very likely that this concept still feels quite slippery. If it was easy to understand, we would all be living Buddhas. What’s important to take away from this introductory discussion is that it is impossible to be a fair-weather sort of Buddhist. To be a Buddhist means to practice both internally and externally to eliminate incorrect conceptions, so that we can be free from ignorance, and eliminate suffering. That this particular concept feels slippery is exactly why such practice is necessary. Things may only start to fit after some time, and we will continue to discuss ways in which one might start practicing on this blog.

Liberation from suffering is what it means to be enlightened. Enlightenment is often thought to be an intellectual thing because of its use in English. While I don’t think this is outright wrong, I think it is slightly misleading, as purely intellectual understanding can be superficial, as we’ve discussed. To the extent that it has an intellectual component, it refers to the light-like nature of mind. It even has “light” in it. It’s about fully and correctly cognizing the nature of things as they are. As we’ve discussed here, when one does this, one breaks the chain of cyclic existence, and thus is liberated. Nirvana is a slightly different but related concept. It literally means “to extinguish” or “to blow out,” and it refers to the extinguishment of the self, once again referring to dependent origination, as well as feelings of craving and desire, and finally, of suffering. The word for “extinguish” is used because these things are very often likened to flames which are to be put out. More on this will inevitably follow in our discussions of the Chinese, but that is a tangent for another day. The crux of the matter is that these three concepts are inextricably linked through dependent arising, and to achieve them is roughly synonymous with realizing one’s buddha potential.