Emptiness misconceived
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 4: ‘Postmodernism and the academic mindset.’ Sunyata Those casually or more deeply involved with Buddhism often bandy around the word Sunyata (pronounced shun-yata) or Emptiness, without necessarily comprehending—or even getting very close to—its true meaning: they assume it means something like ‘nothing is real.’ The truth is that the ‘mother of all (Buddhist) doctrines’—and the basis for sunyata—is praticca-samutpada or Dependent Arising: in short, Conditionality. This doctrine expresses the Buddha’s central insight that ‘all phenomena are dependently or conditionally arisen,’ thus they have no ‘own-nature / inherent-existence (svabhava).’ Nothing is self-supporting; nothing exists independent of (other) conditions. Sagaramati: ‘Sunyata means that some “X” is “empty [sunya] of inherent existence,” that’s all. As we have said, sunyata and praticca-samutpada are the self-same doctrine seen in two ways. Therefore the doctrine of sunyata does not negate phenomena, but only negates that which has never existed, i.e. the illusion of “self-nature” that we attribute to phenomena. After insight into the emptiness of phenomena, the “same” phenomena are leftover: pots still carry on being pots; They don’t suddenly disappear into some fictitious emptiness. Fire still produces heat to keep us warm, etc. All that changes is our deep seated attitude to things: the way we are attached and dependent on them, the way we see and relate to them and cling to them for a sense of who we are, a sense of identity.’[1] In fact, according to Nagarjuna, sunyata, praticca-samutpada and the Middle Way are coterminous in meaning: ‘Whatever is dependently arisen (praticca-samutpada) That is explained to be emptiness (sunyata,) That, being a dependent designation (prajnapati,) Is itself the Middle Way[2] Non-self The Middle Way is the path between the two extreme views of ‘Eternalism’ and ‘Annihilationism,’ where Eternalism is the belief in fixed unchanging essences, such as an eternal creator God or an unchanging fixed self. Annihilationism is the belief that at death nothing of the person continues. These two views lead to the corresponding extreme religious outlooks of puritanical theistic religion in the former case and laissez faire hedonism in the latter. As with most things, the helpful option is somewhere in the middle: that is, acknowledging that there is some moral structure to the Universe, but approaching that humanely: in a way that is based in awareness and experience rather than dogma and religious doctrine. There is a self, an agent, but that self can be changed, for better or worse (ethically) moment-to-moment. The reaction of Lauren...
Nirvana as Perpetual Self-Transcendence
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from Insight and Ethics. Nirvana as Perpetual Self-Transcendence ‘Staying right there’ means being steady in that insight, and ‘the ending of the mental fermentations’ is a synonym for Nirvana. I think what this scripture is saying is we attain Nirvana when we are steady in the insight that the higher mental state we are in (represented by any of the eleven states) is conditioned and volitionally produced, and thus is impermanent. We know it will decay (if the conditions that support it change;) we know we will need to keep bringing it into being volitionally (i.e., want it to continue be present; for the reason that it is helpful to living beings). The state of Nirvana then is not a static state but a dynamic one, one of perpetual self-transcendence. As insight arises you begin to no longer slide down the hill, or at least only to a lesser degree. As insight deepens the oscillations lessen until finally at Enlightenment it is as if you come to rest on the hilltop, a state which looks static but which is actually dynamic; when abiding in the elevated state the Enlightened person is constantly aware of its conditioned nature and of the need to counteract any tendency of the state to decay; it therefore does not decay. In dependence on knowledge and vision of things as they really are there arises disenchantment (Sanskrit: nirveda; Pali: nibbida) Disenchantment[1] As we begin to see into the nature of things as they really are, we begin to expect disappointment from that which is impermanent; we know it will eventually go and so, while we might enjoy the experience as it lasts, we become disenchanted with it. Buddhaghosa offers a simile; a man fishing thinks he has caught a fish; however when he puts his hand into the mouth of the net underwater, instead of pulling out a fish he grasps a snake with three marks on its’ head (i.e., the laksanas). Terrified, he uncoils the snake from his arm, swings it around his head a few times to weaken it, and then flings it back into the water; the man sees the dangers in Samsara. In dependence on disenchantment there arises dispassion (Sanskrit: vairagya; Pali: viraga) Dispassion As the person with insight becomes disenchanted with those things that he was formerly passionate about dispassion naturally grows for them. In dependence on dispassion there arises liberation (Sanskrit: vimukti; Pali: vimutti) ...
Insight and Ethics
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from Insight and the Spiral Path. Insight and Ethics Some Buddhists posit an experiential disconnect between the samatha practices of ethics (sila) and meditation (samadhi), and wisdom or insight, making statements like: ‘The attitudes, worldviews, motivations and teachings that best support sila and samadhi are not the best for approaching prajna (wisdom). When taken at face value, some teachings helpful for insight practice may contradict teachings oriented to ethics and concentration. This can be a barrier to insight practice.’ But I wonder if such statements are not based upon the misreading of anatta as ‘no self’ (i.e., no agent) instead of as ‘non-self’ (i.e., part agent), as evidenced by a passage in the same document; ‘there is no question of getting rid of a self, because there has never been one there to begin with.’ If there was a shift from (part) agency at the level of ethics and meditation to no agency at the level of insight that would be a problem, but I do not think that is the case; (part) agency carries all the way through ethics, mediation and wisdom, like the lettering in a stick of rock. Rather than the Buddhist path culminating in a still state at the bottom of a ‘spiritual well’ the path is more dynamic than that; in a Buddhist scripture called the Atthakanagara Sutta[1] a householder called Dasama asks the Buddha’s cousin Ananda a question: “Venerable sir, is there a single quality declared by the Blessed One (the Buddha)—the one who knows, the one who sees, worthy & rightly self-awakened—where the unreleased mind of a monk who dwells there heedful, ardent, and resolute becomes released, or his un-ended fermentations go to their total ending, or he attains the unexcelled security from the yoke that he had not attained before?” In other words, a single quality, that mindfully dwelt upon, leads to Nirvana. Ananda replies that there is, but he then goes on to describe not one but eleven elevated meditative states, each of which he describes as that single quality, that mindfully dwelt upon, leads to Nirvana. The eleven states are: the four dhyanas of form[2] the first three formless dhyanas the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through loving kindness’[3] the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through compassion’[4] the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through sympathetic joy’[5] the state of mind called ‘liberation of mind through equanimity’[6] And, crucially, when the meditator has attained one or another of those states,...
Insight on the Spiral Path
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 7 minute read This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from The Fourth Dhyana. Vipassana meditation In general, vipassana meditation takes place on a firm foundation of samatha meditation. ‘Vipasyana, the insight method of meditation, reveals our self and our world as they are beyond our assumptions and self-referencing emotions. It is direct experience, not abstract understanding, and contrasts with samatha methods such as mindfulness of breathing that prepare the mind for vipasyana by cultivating profound concentration and strong, positive emotional integration. Vipasyana is generally preceded by samatha practice, because if concentration is wavering, the mind will be unable to rest in the special object of vipasyana meditation. And when insight comes, a stock of calm, strength and happiness is needed in order to absorb its revelatory, visionary impact.’[1] Hence: In dependence on concentration there arises knowledge and vision of things as they really are (yathabhutajnanadarshana) Knowledge and vision of things as they really are On the basis of the fourth dhyana, the monk is now ready to reflect on the nature of reality. ‘Then with the mind composed, quite purified, quite clarified, without blemish, without defilement, grown pliant and workable, fixed, immovable, he directs his mind to …’[2] To some extent we have already been reflecting on the way that things are; in the sense of understanding that the bottom line for all sentient beings is that they desire happiness and do not want to suffer, and that the way that happiness is brought about is through wanting it for all beings—in the cultivation of metta towards them—and in bringing mindfulness to the situation to see precisely what needs to happen in order to bring it about. And we saw that we needed to understand how the mechanism of Conditionality pervaded all aspects of that process, so that a constructive approach to overcoming suffering could be followed, as represented by the dhyanas. With insight—or wisdom—practice, we now come to explore the more destructive aspect of Conditionality; the fact that whatever we possess; create; love; are attached to, to the extent that it exists in Samsara; Unenlightened Conditioned Existence, will eventually fall apart. This truth is expressed in the three laksanas (Sanskrit: trilakshana; Pali: tilakkhana), or marks of Conditioned Existence; that all such phenomena are impermanent (anicca), insubstantial (anatta) and thus unsatisfactory (dukkha). To understand how the former fits in with the latter, it will be useful to consider a metaphor. The Anatta Doctrine and the potential hill[3] The Buddha was born 2,500 years ago in India, into a...
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