[ Chapter 06]
NON-DUALITY
Truth
occupies a very important position in the Buddha's teaching. The Four Noble
Truths are the hub of the wheel of the Dhamma. Truth (//sacca//) is one
of the ten perfections to be cultivated in order to purify oneself.
Truth can have different aspects. If we
want to find an end to suffering, we have to find truth at its deepest
level. The moral precepts which include "not lying" are a basic training
without which one can't lead a spiritual life.
To get to the bottom of truth, one has
to get to the bottom of oneself, and that is not an easy thing to do, aggravated
by the problem of not loving oneself. It naturally follows that if one
wants to learn to love oneself, there must be hate present, and we are
caught in the world of duality.
While we are floating around in the world
of duality, we can't get to the bottom of truth, because we are suspended
in a wave motion going back and forth. There is an interesting admonition
in the //Sutta Nipata//, mentioning that one should not have associates,
which prevents attachments. This would result in neither love nor hate,
so that only equanimity remains, even-mindedness towards all that exists.
With equanimity one is no longer suspended between good and bad, love and
hate, friend and enemy, but has been able to let go, to get to the bottom
where truth can be found.
If we want to find the basic, underlying
truth of all existence, we must practice "letting go." This includes our
weakest and our strongest attachments, many of which aren't even recognized
as clinging.
To return to the simile of the truth to
be found at the bottom, we can see that if we are clinging to anything,
we can't get down to it. We're attached to the things, people, ideas and
views, which we consider ours and believe to be right and useful. These
attachments will keep us from getting in touch with absolute truth.
Our reactions, the likes and dislikes,
hold us in suspense. While it is more pleasant to like something or someone,
yet both are due to attachments. This difficulty is closely associated
with distraction in meditation. Just as we are attached to the food that
we get for the body, we are equally attached to food for the mind, so the
thoughts go here and there, picking up tidbits. As we do that, we are again
held in suspense, moving from thought to breath and back again, being in
the world of duality. When our mind acts in this way, it cannot get to
rock bottom.
Depth of understanding enables release
from suffering. When one goes deeper and deeper into oneself, one finds
no core, and learns to let go of attachments. Whether we find anything
within us which is pure, desirable, commendable or whether it's impure
and unpleasant, makes no difference. All mental states owned and cherished
keep us in duality, where we are hanging in mid-air, feeling very insecure.
They cannot bring an end to suffering. One moment all might be well in
our world and we love everyone, but five minutes later we might react with
hate and rejection.
We might be able to agree with the Buddha's
words or regard them as a plausible explanation, but without the certainty
of personal experience, this is of limited assistance to us. In order to
have direct knowledge, it's as if we were a weight and must not be tied
to anything, so that we can sink down to the bottom of all the obstructions,
to see the truth shining through. The tool for that is a powerful mind,
a weighty mind. As long as the mind is interested in petty concerns, it
doesn't have the weightiness that can bring it to the depth of understanding.
For most of us, our mind is not in the
heavy-weight class, but more akin to bantam weight. The punch of a heavy-weight
really accomplishes something, that of a bantam weight is not too meaningful.
The light-weight mind is attached here and there to people and their opinions,
to one's own opinions, to the whole duality of pure and impure, right and
wrong.
Why do we take it so personal, when it's
truly universal? That seems to be the biggest difference between living
at ease and being able to let the mind delve into the deepest layer of
truth, or living at loggerheads with oneself and others. Neither hate nor
greed are a personal manifestation, nobody has a singular claim on them,
they belong to humanity. We can learn to let go of that personalized idea
about our mind states, which would rid us of a serious impediment. Greed,
hate and impurities exist, by the same token non-greed and non-hate also
exist. Can we own the whole lot? Or do we own them in succession or five
minutes at a time for each? Why own any of them, they just exist and seeing
that, it becomes possible to let oneself sink into the depth of the Buddha's
vision.
The deepest truth that the Buddha taught
was that there is no individual person. This has to be accepted and experienced
at a feeling level. As long as one hasn't let go of owning body and mind,
one cannot accept that one isn't really this person. This is a gradual
process. In meditation one learns to let go of ideas and stories and attend
to the meditation subject. If we don't let go, we cannot sink into the
meditation. The mind has to be a heavy- weight for that too.
We can compare the ordinary mind to bobbing
around on the waves of thoughts and feelings. The same happens in meditation,
therefore we need to prepare ourselves for becoming concentrated. We can
look at all mind states arising during the day and learn to let go of them.
The ease and buoyancy which arises from this process is due to being unattached.
If we don't practice throughout the day, our meditation suffers because
we have not come to the meditation cushion in a suitable frame of mind.
If one has been letting go all day, the mind is ready and can now let go
in meditation too. Then it can experience its own happiness and purity.
Sometimes people think of the teaching
as a sort of therapy, which it undoubtedly is, but that's not its ultimate
aim, only one of its secondary aspects. The Buddha's teaching takes us
to the end of suffering, once and for all, not just momentarily when things
go wrong.
Having had an experience of letting go,
even just once, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it means getting
rid of a great burden. Carrying one's hate and greed around is a heavy
load, which, when abandoned, gets us out of the duality of judgement. It's
pleasant to be without thinking; mental formations are troublesome.
If we succeed even once or twice during
a day to let go of our reactions, we have taken a great step and can more
easily do it again. We have realized that a feeling which has arisen can
be stopped, it need not be carried around all day. The relief from this
will be the proof that a great inner discovery has been made and that the
simplicity of non-duality shows us the way towards truth.
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DharmaNet Edition 1994
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Transcribed for DharmaNet by Maureen Riordan
Sincere thanks Dr.
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12/07/00)
Computer layout: Thieu Manh
Update : 01-01-2002
