In the previous post, we discussed Buddha’s journey to enlightenment, stopping when the previous prince became enlightened, started to teach, and was given the honorific title Buddha. In this post, we discuss a few key concepts in his teachings, such as Buddha, enlightenment, and Buddhism, which are all important in understanding the core teachings of Buddha.
1) Buddha, according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit and Pali;” awakened one” or “enlightened one; “… meaning to “awaken” or to “open up” (as does a flower,) and thus traditionally etymologized as one who has awakened from the deep sleep of (unenlightenment) and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge.”
The fundamental thing to understand about a Buddha is that to “encompass all objects of knowledge” requires him to open his consciousness to awake from “the deep sleep of non-luminosity.” In other words, a Buddha’s knowledge does not come from attending school, doing science, learning mathematics, or obtaining a few advanced degrees. Instead, it is from “opening his consciousness.”
Opening one’s consciousness to gain knowledge represents a groundbreaking deviation from the traditional human approach to gaining knowledge through studying. Understanding this groundbreaking deviation is critical to knowing why Buddhism is unique. Buddhist epistemology is unique because Buddha teaches that while studying allows humans to understand visible phenomena of the universe, opening one’s consciousness enables humans to understand invisible realities surrounding humanity. In other words, by using both methods, humans can comprehend both realities we face.
Buddha’s unique epistemology is so critical to understanding Buddhism correctly that it will be discussed before discussing Buddhism in the Epistemology Category, where the catchphrase is “To Understand Buddhism, First Understand Epistemology.”
2) Bodhi, according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit and Pali; “awakening,’ “enlightenment.” These two terms, awakened and enlightened, are often used synonymously.
According to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, in the Astasahasrika-Prajnaparamita-Sutra (Chinese=道行般若波羅蜜經), Buddha defines enlightenment as the “thought of enlightenment is no thought since in its essential original nature thought is transparently luminous.”
In other words, by Buddha’s definition, the state of enlightenment is a state of quiescent mentality. Furthermore, for anyone to be enlightened, they must achieve a state of “no thought.” Indeed, those who deem “What exactly constituted the Buddha’s awakening is unknown” simply lack a good understanding of Buddhism.
Of course, “no thought” does not mean that enlightenment can only be realized when the electroencephalogram shows a straight line upon a person’s death. Instead, “no thought” refers to a quiescent, inactive mind.
Samadhi is a term used in Buddhism to indicate what happens when enlightenment happens.
Samadhi (Chinese=三昧/三摩地), according to The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen, is “a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing “subject” becomes one with the experienced “object” – thus is only experiential content. This state of consciousness is often referred to as “one-pointedness of mind;” this expression, however, is misleading because it calls up the image of “concentration” on one point on which the mind is “directed.” However, Samadhi is neither a straining concentration on one point, nor is the mind directed from here (subject) to there (object), which would be a dualistic mode of experience.”
So, Samadhi is the union of the “no-thought” mentality of the”experienced object” and “experiencing subject” to form a non-dualistic “no thought” mentality.
What is the “experienced object” and “experiencing subject?
- “Experienced Object” refers to the Citta, the quiescent Ultimate Reality of nature permeating the cosmos. Because Citta is quiescent, it is, by Buddha’s definition, “no thought” and enlightened. Citta will be discussed in detail in future posts. For the current discussion, Citta is introduced to explain the role cosmic mentality plays as the “experienced object” of Samadhi.
- “Experiencing Subject” refers to the “no thought” quiescent mental state that a seeker of enlightenment must achieve to be enlightened, by Buddha’s definition.
Samadhi happens when the “no thought” of the enlightenment seeker becomes one with the “no thought” of Citta, the enlightened cosmic mentality. When that happens, the seeker is said to have opened his consciousness to the cosmos awareness, the definition of the quiescent mentality. Opening one’s consciousness allows the enlightened person to access the “experiential content” of Citta. “Experiential content” of Samadhi is the same as “all objects of knowledge” that a person can encompass when enlightened.
Buddha calls opening one’s consciousness to understand the “experiential content” of Citta direct perception. Direct perception allows the enlightened person to realize the quiescent mentality of Citta and the invisible underlying essence of all the visible universal phenomena. In other words, enlightenment leads to the understanding there is “Nothing but Mentality” in the cosmos.
In Buddha’s cosmos, where there is “Nothing but Mentality, “all objects of knowledge” and “experiential content” both represent the empirical data of nature embedded in the mental constructs of everything in the cosmos. Empirical data, by definition, is data that can be experienced. That is the meaning of direct perception. To directly perceive is to experience the “experiential content” of the cosmos. The significance of directly experiencing the “experiential content” of the cosmos is that it leads to understanding how things stand in themselves in nature, i.e., reality as-is.
The uniqueness of Buddhism is that not only did Buddha claim to have realized the Ultimate Reality, but that Buddha taught all humans have the potential to do the same. An example is the enlightenment experience of a contemporary American, Adyashanti. Adyashanti’s enlightenment experience is discussed here.
3) Buddhism, according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is the “closest equivalent” to the Sanskrit word Buddhadharma, meaning “the teachings of Buddha.”
Indeed, Buddhism is the teaching of our historical Shakyamuni Buddha. Buddhism is Buddha’s teaching about how things stand in themselves in the cosmos upon his enlightenment when he directly experienced the “experiential content” of the cosmos.
In his teachings, Buddha never makes assumptions or offers personal opinions in his descriptions of nature. Instead, in Diamond Sutra, Buddha compares himself to an honest reporter reporting on what he has experienced.
Diamond Sutra “is a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sutra from the genre of Prajñāpāramitā sutras. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the Diamond Sūtra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia, and it is particularly prominent within the Chan (or Zen) tradition, along with the Heart Sutra.”
In Diamond Sutra, Buddha promised that, like all Tathagatas of the past, he is “a speaker of the truth, a speaker of veracity, a speaker of thusness, a non-deceptive speaker, and an uncontradictory speaker.”
As with any other educational system, Buddha’s education also has grades of knowledge. These knowledge grades are delineated by the different amount of “all objects of knowledge” the enlightened person experienced.
In Mahayana Buddhism, the goal of the journey in Buddhism is to satisfy Buddha’s soteriological goal, as he states in the Lotus Sutra:
Lotus Sūtra “is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. It is the main scripture on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established. It is also influential for other East Asian Buddhist schools, such as Zen.”
In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha clearly states his soteriological goal as follows,
“I initially vowed.
To make all sentient beings my equal without a difference.
Now that I have fulfilled this vow
That I made in the past.
I can transform them.
So they all enter the path of Buddhahood.”
In other words, Buddha wants all sentient beings to be Tathagatas because Buddha is a Tathagata. In Mahayana Buddhism, there are three significant levels of encompassing “objects of knowledge:” Arhat, Bodhisattva, and Tathagata Buddha.
1) Arhats, known as the “worthy ones,” are enlightened.
It is a major celebratory milestone in Buddhism because Arhats have removed their afflictive obstructions, the first of the two obstructions to enlightenment Buddha teaches. Afflictive obstructions originate from intentions such as greed, hatred, and foolishness. By removing their afflictive obstructions, Arhats are free from samsara, the repeated cycles of determinative birth and death.
However, Arhats still suffer from cognitive obstructions, the second of the two obstructions to enlightenment Buddha teaches. Cognitive obstructions are hindrances that result from misunderstanding the nature of reality. The two obstructions have a causal relationship because cognitive obstructions cause afflictions. In other words, while Arhats understand afflictions, they do not know what causes them.
2) Bodhisattvas
Bodhisattvas (Chinese=菩薩), according to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, lit. “enlightenment being.” The etymology is uncertain, but the term is typically glossed to mean a “being” (sattva) intent on achieving enlightenment (bodhi).” Furthermore, “in the Mahayana traditions, bodhisattva can designate any being who resolves to generate bodhicitta.”
Bodhicitta (Chinese=菩提心), according to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “thought of enlightenment,” or “aspiration to enlightenment:” the intention to reach the complete, perfect enlightenment of the buddhas, in order to liberate all sentient beings from suffering.”
A complete, perfect enlightenment is known in Romanized Sanskrit as anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi (Chinese=無上正等正覺/阿耨多羅多藐三菩提), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “unsurpassed (anuttara), complete (samyak) and perfect enlightenment (sambodhi).” When one achieves anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, one becomes a Tathagata.
3) Tathagata (Chinese=如來), according to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit and Pali, lit. “one who has thus come/gone.” Furthermore, “the secondary denotation of the term is to “understand” things “as they are” (tatha).”
Tathata (Chinese=真如), according to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “In Yogacara/Vijnanavada, the term refers to the ultimate wisdom that is free from the subject-object distinction (grahyagrahakavikalpa).”
To have the ultimate wisdom requires achieving anuttara-samyak-sambodhi and becoming a Tathagata. And, as the definition of bodhisattvas makes plain, the goal of becoming a Tathagata is “to liberate all sentient beings from suffering.” To be liberated from suffering requires understanding that there is “Nothing but Mentality,” and overcoming the cognitive obstructions. Indeed, Buddhism exists because Buddha wants to liberate all sentient beings from their existential suffering. The only way to achieve this goal is to become a Tathagata, like our historical Buddha.
In a future post, we will discuss what that immense knowledge gap between the enlightenment of an Arhat and understanding that there is “Nothing but Mentality” of a Tathagata means in terms of understanding reality.
In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says:
“In Buddha-lands of ten directions,
There is only one dharma vessel,
No two or three,
Except for Buddha speaking expediently.”
In other words, bifurcating Buddhism, such as into Theravada from Mahayana, should only be done expediently. Arhathood certainly is not the end of the journey because they have yet to become like a Tathagata, as Buddha wishes. Only when one becomes a Tathagata and possesses “all objects of knowledge” can one help others to free themselves from their sufferings. While one can choose not to continue the journey in Buddhism for personal reasons, the goalpost of understanding how to be freed from suffering never changes because the natural events causing suffering do not change for personal reasons.
Furthermore, Buddha adds that “all exalted ones of the past, speak one dharma vessel.” According to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Exalted One is “one of the standard epithets of a Buddha.”
All Buddhas of the past have transmitted the same message because Buddhism is about the nature of reality, which does not change according to one’s preferences.
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