Hi everyone,
I was just ruminating on these things this morning (inspired by my new attempt to read the Wilhelm translation of the I Ching in connection with my Confucian studies in connection with my Rissho Ankoku Ron commentary) and decided that I better write them down here as they need to be developed and I don't want to forget them. These thoughts were also prompted by a critique of my presentation on Demythologizing Buddhism (see Ryuei.net for that paper) by Paul Numrich at the AAR. Paul said that in attempting to enlist the ideas of Rudolf Bultmann in demythologizing the Dharma while avoiding the reductionism of mere psychologizing, I had only discussed the ten worlds in terms of their social and ecological dimensions but had not touched upon the transcendent as Bultmann had. This reminded me of the observation of my friend Alex that I did not seem to believe in enlightenment (I have written about that previously).
So I was thinking that Dharma can be approached in three ways:
1. First people need to appreciate reality in terms of causes and effects. This is the moral or ethical awareness of realizing that the actions we take do have consequences and that we must take responsibility for our actions. This is very challenging in its own right. We all may say we know about and believe the law of cause and effect, but how many of us really act like it? How many of us, myself included, act as though the law of cause and effect will make an exception or buy into our rationalizations of what we are doing. The wheel of karma grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly fine.
2. If we have gotten simple responsibility and ethics under our belt we may (I stress "may") have spiritually matured to the point where we can begin to think not so much in terms of cause and effect but causes and conditons. In other words, we begin to appreciate the contingent nature of all phenomena and therefore their impermanence. This includes our own "selves." This is where things get scary and uncomfortable. Where the ground shifts under our feet. In fact, here is where the rug is pulled out from beneath our expections of a happy, secure, stable existence. But here also is where we learn real letting go, real grace, real selflesness. Hopefully it will also lead to a sense of oneness with all other things and compassion stemming from the realization that contingency is also interdependence. Maybe this is a whole other level of apprecation but I will leave it here for now.
3. But beyond cause and effect, beyond causes and conditions, is the uncaused the unconditioned. Here is where the transcendent enters in, though really it was there all along. Uncaused and unconditioned means that it can not be circumscribed in terms of time or space or any of the ways or minds conceptualize, relate to, and deal with the things of common experience. This seems to be something else altogether. And yet the "things" that are causal and conditioned are not really "things" when viewed without the overlay of our conceptions. They open up into emptiness of any set "thingness." And even this emptiness is not some-thing apart from things. Here is where our ideas and forms of expression run out of steam. This is the "you have to be there" experience of awakening. But one can only "arrive" by coming to appreciate the contingent nature of everything and thereby learning to let it all go so that only the unconditioned is there - what can not be grasped or let go of.
So there you have it, I see in myself the need to:
1. Deeply appreciate causes and effects and then to act like it by being more mindful and responsible and, yes, ethical.
2. To move on to a deep appreciation of the causal and conditioned nature of my "self" and all things. To see them from the perspective of universal contingency. In this way I can better accept and let go. And from there to see contingency as leading to an awareness of interdependence and thus compassion. And then the contingecy opens up into...
3. An openess and hopefully increasing awareness of the unconditioned nature that we usually do not see because the conditioned apearances we live and work within are so entrancing. But here is where the transcendent really lies and here is the "source" of boundless love, creativity, and infinite skillful means at work in the first two levels of appreciation and awareness.
Too often, I have seen myself use Buddhism as a kind of stop-gap. A way of manipulating causes and effects so that I can get a more favorable outcome. But this is not even on the level of taking responsibility for my causes and effects. In fact, it is an avoidance of it. A way of saying, "despite my bad causes and lack of good causes, let me bribe the universe by paying lip service to the Dharma and hopefully that will cover up the bad and create a stock of good causes." This kind of practice can even hinder the development of the first of these three stages of spiritual maturity. Insofar as it involves avoiding bad "things" and getting good "things" it most definately prevents the realization of the second state, and there is no need to even think about the third. That is totally obscuted by entancement with mundane events and outcomes approached unethically and in terms of magical thinking.
So actually I have discerned within myself five levels:
1. The raw stage of magical thinking and trying to get something for nothing and avoiding what is actually due.
2. The stage of really taking into account cause and effect and acting ethically and responsibly.
3. The state of really taking into accunt causes and conditions and thereby learning to let go and keep a broader perspective.
4. The stage of understanding that contingency is also interdependence and thereby realizing not just selflesness but compassion as well.
5. The state of realizing the uncaused and unconditioned true nature that is there when one is no longer entranced by causes and conditions. Here is the actual source of perfect wisdom and infinite compassion.
So I wonder, as we babble in Sino-Japanese to our scraps of paper with sumi squiggles, which of these levels are we approaching our practice from?
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
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Posted by Ryuei at November 23, 2004 12:18 PMRev. Ryuei -
"So I wonder, as we babble in Sino-Japanese to our scraps of paper with sumi squiggles, which of these levels are we approaching our practice from?"
My question here would be whether it is even possible to frame this question in a collective manner? It almost has to be an individual matter, doesn't it? And even from an individual standpoint, it will vary from day to day, month to month, and year to year, will it not?
It seems to me that I personally approach my practice from the first 2 levels, and occasionally the 3rd, at different times. I may have once or twice hit the 4th stage, but I couldn't isolate which those times were, today. I fluctuate between these levels; hopefully as I progress I will be approaching my practice more from the higher levels and less from the lower.
Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your comments. You are exactly right. It does fluctuate from person to person and for each person from moment to moment. But I think the question is relevant to all of us as long as we take it as something that can only be answered by each of us. It is really a question to spark awareness and snap us out of arrogance and complacency in our practice (thus my iconoclastic way of stating it).
Actually your comment caused me to realize that these five levels really correlate with the ten worlds, and as we know from studying the gosho the ten worlds are mutually contained and the dominant one in our lives fluctuates - though I believe that there is and can be a growing maturity and thus a growing empowerment to dwell more and more in the higher worlds. So:
Level one is the level of the four lower worlds: the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, and fighting demons - but perhaps even the worlds of humanity and heaven though tempered by a more rational and ethical approach.
Level two would characterize the human and heavenly worlds though certainly not absent to the four higher worlds in different ways. This is illustrated by the precepts associated with each world - the five major precepts for the human world, the ten courses of wholesome conduct for the heavenly world, the ten novice precept (and ful monastic rules) for the worlds of learning (and by implication realization), the ten major Mahayana precepts for the bodhisattvas, and the diamond chalice precept for the buddhas.
The third stage is especially characteristic of the worlds of learning and realization though certainly the bodhisattvas and buddhas are even more thoroughly versed in it and its applications.
The fourth stage characterizes the bodhisattvas though certainly the buddhas have it to sublime degree.
The fifth stage pertains to the buddhas but I would venture to say that the provisional nirvna of the two vehicles and the non-abiding nirvana of the bodhisattvas indicate that they too have at least a glimpse or glimmer of this.
Anyway, I am not claiming any of this is Gospel or Dharma. It is just the course my reflections are following today.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
"Also I was removed from Taiken. I am only telling calmly and reasonably about my experiences and what I think. I just donīt get it.... does anyone have a clue?"
Hahaha. It's just cause and effect Peter. Now can you accept and appreciate this condition?
Ryuei:
Thanks for a very inspiring post. Never seen karma spelled out this way before, but it makes good sense, and has a nice practical notion to it.
Henrik, SGI Copenhagen Denmark
Posted by: Henrik Norberg at November 27, 2004 11:28 AMHi everyone,
I have and will be deleting any comments on my web log that are off-topic and/or not in the spirit of real dialogue. And since this is my weblog I get to be very draconian about this. This is my journal afterall and not a free forum. I do welcome comments and even disagreements, but not to the point of irrelevance and/or flaming.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi Michael,
I agree with your post. Thank you also for the great comments on Taiten.
Best,
Veronica