Both philosophers and scientists in the West function in the context of P-B which explains why profound principles and truths elude them. In this essay we explore in detail some of the essential differences between P-B and P-A, between the relative and the Absolute. We can begin with a caveat for all scientists and philosophers concerning human identity: You are not your body, mind or emotions. You, in fact, don’t exist!
Two friends were in a bar having a beer when their worldviews clashed. The physicist after several more beers suggested that they settle one contentious question by arm-wrestling and placed his elbow on the bar. The mystic without putting his arm in place said “go ahead push.” Whereupon the physicist said, “put your arm up here, I have nothing to push against.” “Even if I do put my arm up there,” said the mystic, “there would still be nothing to push against.”
In the tongue-in-cheek sport of aggravating scientists and philosophers, it is only fair to acknowledge that they are doing the best they can considering that they are mesmerized by their false selves. We don’t want to be insensitive but the truth is more valuable than a given person’s ego or all egos in the world for that matter, because the ego doesn’t exist, there is nothing to “push against.” Therefore, we are not being mean, just having fun. For those who like the sense of control and dominance derived from arm-wrestling—skip this essay.
We stir and mix and stare into the fire, but for all that we fail of our desire.
Chaucer
One of Chaucer’s pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales is speaking about the medieval science of alchemy but might just as well be characterizing the labors of modern science. If our desire in the pursuit of scientific knowledge is to relieve our existential anxiety, eliminate violence, cure disease, feed the starving, stop the destruction of the environment, or heal the mentally and physically ill, then science and philosophy are woefully limited.
Alchemy, medieval science, depended on the belief that all phenomena, all objects were various combinations of air, water, fire and earth. Modern science is still grounded in the existence of phenomena or objects. The 21st century scientist has the same chance of fabricating “gold” in his reductionist search for a more desirable reality that the medieval alchemist had—that is to say—none. The Dalai Lama guides our first steps in the search for truth. “Phenomena do exist, but not in the way we think they do.”
If phenomena or “matter” has no inherent existence, then physicists have had nothing to “push against,” nothing to work with since medieval alchemists began manipulating earth, air, fire and water. What did the Dalai Lama mean in his statement that begins this very challenging but necessary exploration?
All fruitful inquiries in the search for truth must begin with the First Noble Truth, life is suffering. This is not a philosophical tenet, it is an experiential observation of what is happening. “From the time we are born to the time we die we suffer mental and physical pain, the suffering of change, and pervasive suffering of uncontrolled conditioning [creating the energy centers of our survival strategy and conforming to our role in the story of the collective unconscious].”
We cannot find the truth (Simple Reality) unless we transcend illusion (that which obscures truth). Let’s start with the most stubborn illusion right off the bat, the precious “I” or “me,” the false self often called the ego (thanks to Freud). This most convincing of all illusions cannot be omitted in the content of The Simple Reality Project just because it is difficult, although Buddha sometimes did just that.
In cutting his students some slack, Buddha sometimes taught in the context of P-B perhaps thinking that they would be able to grasp the most profound aspects of P-A incrementally. “This is why even Buddha, on occasion, taught that living beings and other phenomena inherently exist. Such teachings are the thought of Buddha’s scriptures, but they are not his own final thought. For specific purposes, he sometimes spoke in non-final [relative] ways.”
The Dalai Lama will be our guide through the thicket of apparent reality and we will continue to repeat the key words and principles in the vernacular of Simple Reality in bold type. How would the Dalai Lama explain the apparent existence of an individual, separate body with a personality (the false self)? To repeat and paraphrase His Holiness; yes I exist, just not the way I think I do.
When, where and how did the Dalai Lama himself learn what he would call the principle of “emptiness” (illusion)? In the early sixties he was thinking about a passage he had read by Tsongkhapa teaching that phenomena are dependent on conceptuality (the intellect). “… it was as if lightning coursed within my chest.”
The experience that the Dalai Lama had was similar to that of Buddha in his archetypal meditation under the Bodhi tree. In Simple Reality we refer to The Great Insight, the archetypal “peak experience” of Oneness. Nothing is separate from anything else, but interconnected as in a “web” of Creation.
In light of how powerful this experience was for him, we quote the passage by Tsongkhapa in its entirety: “A coiled rope’s speckled color and coiling are similar to those of a snake, and when the rope is perceived in a dim area, the thought arises. ‘This is a snake.’ As for the rope, at that time when it is seen to be a snake, the collection and parts of the rope are not even in the slightest way a snake. Therefore, that snake is merely set up by conceptuality [illusory perception of the senses and interpretation of a deluded mind].”
“In the same way, when the thought ‘I’ arises in dependence upon mind and body, nothing within the mind and body—neither the collection [the mind’s story about the memory of the past and the imagined future] which is a continuum of earlier and later moments, nor the collection of the parts at one time, nor the separate parts, nor the continuum of any of the separate parts—is in even the slightest way the ‘I.’ Also there is not even the slightest something that is a different entity from mind and body that is apprehendable as the ‘I.’ Consequently, the ‘I’ is merely set up by conceptuality in dependence upon mind and body; it is not established by way of its own entity.”
A key word use by the Dalai Lama in explaining the “emptiness” or illusion of the separate false self is “inherent,” defined as “existing as an essential constituent or characteristic, intrinsic.” Look for these words and remember that all form lacks intrinsic or inherent existence.
Let’s digress for a moment and review the purpose of learning about emptiness. Why do we need to know that the body, mind and emotions do not define human identity? The first noble truth in the words of the Dalai Lama: “From the time we are born to the time we die we suffer mental and physical pain, the suffering of change, and pervasive suffering of uncontrolled conditioning [the behaviors we created pursuing plenty, pleasure and power].” Our unconsciousness or lack of awareness of Oneness is therefore the cause of our suffering. “The fundamental cause of suffering is ignorance [unconsciousness]—the mistaken apprehension that living beings and objects inherently exist.”
Meditation is for the Dalai Lama his central practice and how he came to understand the cause of suffering as identifying with the body, mind and emotion. “This is when my understanding of the cessation of the afflictive emotions [reactions] as a true possibility became real.”
Another reason for realizing the illusion of inherent existence is the creation of compassion. “Therefore, full spiritual practice calls for cultivating wisdom [response in the present moment] in conjunction with great compassion and the intention to become enlightened [commitment to waking up] in which others are valued more than yourself. Only then may your consciousness be transformed into the omniscience [awareness] of a Buddha.”
Context is all important in determining human identity and behavior. “To understand selflessness [no “me” or no “I”], you need to understand that everything that exists is contained in two groups [paradigms] called the two truths: conventional [P-B, the relative or unconsciousness] and ultimate [P-A, the Absolute or the present moment].”
In P-B our beliefs, attitudes and values affirm phenomena that “seem” to be good or bad, ugly or beautiful but they are only so in the relative sense, that is, when compared to something else. Affects and conditions can cause the bad to become good or the ugly to become beautiful since neither had inherent existence.
Should we turn to our scientists and philosophers for some relief from the divergent thinkers of the East? The Dalai Lama thinks not. “We have established that when any phenomena is sought through analysis [using the intellect], it cannot be found.” The only way we can hope to grasp the truth of emptiness (illusion) is not through the mind’s higher level thinking skills (analysis, synthesis and evaluation) but by sitting in a room quietly by ourselves and turning within as both the Dalai Lama and Buddha did.
“Only when emptiness is directly realized [experienced] during completely focused meditation is there no false appearance. At that time, the dualism of subject [the observer] and object [phenomena] has vanished, as has the appearance of multiplicity; only emptiness appears.” For example, the distinction between the related pairs, intellect and intuition, emotion and feeling, and reaction and response is experienced and internalized as a new reality, Simple Reality.
This is the experience of the so-called enlightenment that Buddha had under the Bodhi tree and that we can all have. Until then life becomes a cat and mouse game of now you see it, now you don’t. Neither the cat (scientist) nor mouse (philosopher) exist. Don’t tell them. It will only make them confused.
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in the Simple Reality Trilogy
by Roy Charles Henry:
Where Am I? Story – The First Great Question
Who Am I? Identity – The Second Great Question
Why Am I Here? Behavior – The Third Great Question
