What Buddhism Teaches Us in Times of Uncertainty — Practice of the Nonduality and Authentic
Previously on What Buddhism Teaches Us in Times of Uncertainty, I talked about master Dōgen’s teachings on realising our true nature in practice. In practice, we just practice. We do not practice for a reward, instead, we just practice, without any expectation, without questioning means and ends. Practice without any expectation and purpose is to have faith in our nature, have faith in manifestation of our nature.
Practice and enlightenment are two sides of a coin, there are different patterns on the two sides, yet they serve the same value. If we only take one side of a coin, if one side of a coin vanished or damaged, it can no longer serve the same value or any value.
Practice and enlightenment transcend oneness and difference on that account. So as action and success, action is the means and ends, it is by itself meaningful and does not look for a reward of success.
If one acts to strive for success, one is affected by the outcome, filled with happiness for success and fell in dismay for failure.
If one acts to strive for success, one only acts when a positive outcome is predicted, one determines what is success and what is failure, predicts which action leads to ‘success’ or ‘failure’, in spite of flawed judgments, unpredictable effects, and everchanging standards of ‘success’ and ‘failure’.
If one acts to strive for success, one would only act for the future, ignoring here-and-now, getting worried for the uncertainty.
Therefore, it is such grandeur of Dōgen putting practice and enlightenment together. Instead of craving or waiting for positive outcomes, we should always practice and act, and practice and action can be manifested in all forms, inasmuch as they are realising our Dharma nature.
We may now understand what is practice and why practice, then, how to practice?
Practice of Nonduality
When practice and enlightenment is put together, when means and ends is put together, the fixated view of duality is broke. Often, we are blinded by dualistic views like poor or better, shallow or deep, inferior or superior. We do not acknowledge there are often more than two exclusive facets of truth and reality.
In Genjōkōan, Dōgen pointed out the many faces of truth and reality. For a fish, water is where it lives and it dies without water; for a bird, sky is where it lives and it dies when it departs from sky. Hence, for a fish, water is life, for a bird, sky is life. Water and sky are life, but for a fish, sky is not life, for a bird, water is not life, a fish does not live like a bird, so does a bird not live like a fish.
All these viewpoints are true, but each of them “is one-sided, relative and misleading if taken in an isolated context”. Truth and reality are manifested in many ways for different beings, we have views corresponding to our capacities, none of these views is complete.
This is why Dōgen strongly opposed the idea of Zen Sect or five sects, opposed the idea of dividing Buddha’s teachings. It is still relevant today, not only in religious sector, people are keen on grouping and giving names to different perspectives, judging which is high and which is low.
Indeed, though there are many divisions of Buddha teachings, they all point to the same Dharma. Dōgen insisted that “each part of each division is an inclusive realization of the whole of the Buddha’s teaching, and that no realization of this teaching negates or excludes another”. Drawing differences and claiming superiority are the results of fixated dualistic views, blinding us from the Way.
Strikingly true today, many would single out one side of truth, possess it like it’s their own truth, splitting people with other views, claiming which view is better and which is worse. Yet, the truth of reality does not lie in one or many sides, it goes beyond oneness and difference, it can only be approached holistically and dynamically.
And practice enables us to understand truth and reality. It helps us understand our biased and incomplete perceptions of the world, which in turn allows us to be flexible, be open to others’ opinions, knowing that we all share some biases.
Living in times of sectarianism in ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, economic status, educational level and other areas, Dōgen’s words of truth serve as an important reminder to us.
Practice of the Authentic
Then, does it mean we have to take all the views as truth, accepting every view? Embracing nonduality is often read, and misread as neutrality, indifference, undifferentiation, atemporality, freedom from moral choice and commitment and so forth.
Dōgen did not claim so. In Bendōwa, he stated that “for a Buddhist the issue is not to debate the superiority or inferiority of one teaching or another, or to establish their respective depths. All he needs to know is whether the practice is authentic or not”.
Dōgen did not accept every sutras or teachings from patriarchs, he examined these teachings with a gold standard — whether it is authentic or not.
At first glance, it appears to be contradictory to the attitude of nonduality. Yet, nonduality embraces duality rather than abandon it, it is necessarily rooted in duality.
Judging something superior or inferior, deep or shallow, authentic or fake, are all duality. To go beyond duality, first we have to understand and accept duality, because duality itself is reality and truth, though only a part of, we cannot approach reality and truth without duality.
When we learn the many aspects of reality and truth, like we learn that water is life to a fish and sky is life to a bird, we go beyond duality. To go beyond nonduality, consider “If we say that we regard life as the bird or the fish, it sounds like we are separating life from the bird or the fish. This being so, it ought to be that water is water and bird is bird”.
Put it differently, duality is truth, non-duality is also truth, both of them are truth, but if we regard truth as duality or nonduality, we are separating the truth of duality and the truth of nonduality.
Truth is truth, so does authentic is authentic. In this way, we are able to draw some insights from it: not to be bound by fixated dualistic views, going beyond oneness and difference, upholding the guiding principle — truth at the same time.
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References:
Abe, M., & Waddell, N. A. (Trans). (2002). The Heart of Dōgen’s Shobogenzo. State University of New York Press.
Cross, C., & Nishijima, G. (Trans). (2005a). Master Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, Book 2.
Cross, C., & Nishijima, G. (Trans). (2005b). Master Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, Book 3.
Heine, S. (1981). Multiple Dimensions of Impermanence in Dōgen’s” Genjōkōan”. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 44–62.
Kim, H. J. (2007). Dōgen on Meditation and Thinking: a Reflection on his View of Zen. NY: SUNY Press.
Nishiari, B. (2011). Commentary by Nishiari Bokusan. Dōgen (Ed), In Dōgen’s Genjō-kōan: Three Commentaries. CA: Counterpoint.
Okumura, S. (2010). Realizing Genjōkōan: The Key to Dōgen’s Shobogenzo. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Steineck, R. C. (2018). ‘Religion’ and the Concept of the Buddha Way: Semantics of the Religious in Dōgen. Asiatische Studien-Études Asiatiques, 72(1), 177–206.
Suzuki, S. (2011). Commentary by Shunryu Suzuki. Dōgen (Ed), In Dōgen’s Genjō-kōan: Three Commentaries. CA: Counterpoint.
