With this post, we start the Supporting Doctrines Category. The Supporting Doctrines Category focuses on Buddhist sūtras to discuss Buddha’s teaching on reality, which the previous posts might not have addressed thoroughly. For example, details on the Ultimate Reality and non-luminosity will be addressed. Also important are the discussions on how Buddha solves other long-unsolved scientific problems, such as dark energy, the expansion of the universe, and the Cosmological Constant Problem, in addition to the already resolved issues, such as the Mind-Body Problem, the Observer Effect, and Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
In this post, we discuss The Two Conditionalities of Dharma (Chinese=二為法), Buddha’s doctrine on the most fundamental bifurcation scheme for all cosmic phenomena.
In the Sandhinirmocana Sūtra, Buddha teaches that all cosmic phenomena fall into one of two categories. One type of phenomenon exists unconditionally, while the other is conditional.
Sandhinirmocana Sūtra (Chinese=解深密經) “is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text and the most important sūtra of the Yogācāra school. It contains explanations of key Yogācāra concepts such as the basal-consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna), the doctrine of appearance-only (vijñapti-mātra), and the “three own natures” (trisvabhāva). It is “one of the most important texts of the Yogācāra tradition…..The sūtra presents itself as a series of dialogues between Gautama Buddha and various bodhisattvas. During these dialogues, the Buddha attempts to clarify disputed meanings present in scriptures of the early Mahāyāna and the early Buddhist schools; thus, the title of the sūtra, which promises to expound a teaching that is “completely explicit” and requires no interpretation *9in order to be understood.“
In the Sandhinirmocana Sūtra, Buddha teaches that “there are two types of dharma, one conditioned, and the other unconditioned (Chinese=一切法者，略有二種，一者有為，二者無為.)”
First, let’s begin by defining the meaning of dharma and condition.
Dharma (Chinese=法), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “factor,” or “element:” a polysemous term of wide import in Buddhism and therefore notoriously difficult to translate, a problem acknowledged in traditional sources; as many as ten meanings of the term are found in the literature.” However, “one of its most significant and common usages is to refer to “teachings” or “doctrines,” whether they be Buddhist or non-Buddhist.” “A second (and very different) principal denotation of dharma is a physical or mental “factor” or “fundamental” “constituent element,” or “simply phenomenon.”
When discussing Buddhist reality, dharma means simply phenomena.
Condition (Romanized Sanskrit=pratyaya; Chinese=緣), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, refers “to the subsidiary factors whose concomitance results in the production of an effect from a cause.” “For example, in the production of a sprout from a seed, the seed would be the cause (Hetu), while such factors as heat and moisture would be conditions (pratyaya.).”
A) Conditioned Dharma (Sanskrit=samskrtadharma), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “a term that describes all impermanent phenomena, that is, “all phenomena that are produced through the concomitance of causes and conditions.” Furthermore, “Buddha is said to have taught: When this is present, that comes to be, / From the arising of this, that arises. / When this is absent, that does not come to be. / From the cessation of this, that ceases.”
Our universe is conditioned dharma because everything is “produced through the concomitance of causes and conditions.”
As discussed in many previous posts, with the advent of the quantum field theory, everything in the universe, from ripples in the quantum realm to giant clusters of galaxies in the sky, are epiphenomena, as these images from Dr. David Tong and Dr. Tony Tyson above show. They are called epiphenomena because they are secondary phenomena derived from fluctuations in the quantum field. When fluctuations are large enough, quantum physicists call the waves epiphenomena. All phenomena exist conditionally because their existence depends on the quantum field fluctuations. When the quantum field stops fluctuating, they cease existing.
As discussed many times earlier, there is a Buddhist equivalent to the quantum field known as non-luminosity. There are many reasons why they are equivalent. However, the three most fundamental reasons are quantization, as the foundation blocks of their respective universes, and epiphenomena.
The difference between the quantum field and non-luminosity is that while what fluctuates in the quantum field is energy, what fluctuates in non-luminosity is mentality. Therefore, while the epiphenomena in the quantum field exist conditionally on the fluctuating quantum field, the epiphenomena in non-luminosity exist conditionally on the fluctuating mentality. This, of course, means that everything in the universe cannot exist when the mind becomes quiescent.
Indeed, as discussed when discussing the enlightenment experiences of a contemporary American and two ancient Chinese monks, the universe disappeared when their minds became quiescent.
Given that all phenomena in the universe are conditioned and “are produced through the concomitance of causes and conditions,” they will certainly disappear when conditions that allow their existence vanish. Therefore, Buddha teaches that all conditioned phenomena are illusions.
“All conditioned phenomena (Romanized Sanskrit=dharma, Chinese=法) are like the illusions of dreams and shadows of bubbles (Chinese=一切有為法; 如夢幻泡影),
like dew and lightening, this is how to have insight into all phenomena (Chinese=如露亦如電, 應作如是觀.”)
B) Unconditioned Dharma (Romanized Sansrkrit=asamskrtadharma; (Chinese=無為法), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, “is “in Sanskrit, (also called) “uncompounded,”…. not conditioned and therefore perduring phenomena that are not subject to impermanence.”
Traditionally, unconditional dharma has belonged to the domains of religions or philosophical thoughts. Many deities in religions worldwide are deemed to exist unconditionally and permanently. In philosophy, philosopher Immanuel Kant postulated the realm of Noumenon, which exists unconditionally as a “thing-in-itself” outside of human perception, in contrast to the phenomenal world.
In Buddhism, however, the unconditioned dharma belongs to the Ultimate Reality of nature. Known as Citta, it is the quiescent mentality of the Ultimate Reality. As the enlightenment of Adyashanti shows, the Ultimate Reality is where there is Nothing but Mentality. In other words, Citta exists uncompounded and unconditioned and as the thing-in-itself, while the Ultimate Reality exists like Noumenton, outside of human perception. However, while Noumenon and the thing-in-itself were Kant’s philosophical opinion, the Ultimate Reality and Citta are phenomena verifiable through enlightenment.
Scientists think the universe should be simple. Indeed, they are correct, and Buddha offers them a very simple cosmos with two bodies of reality, the Ultimate Reality and non-luminosity. However, there is only one reality between these two bodies: mentality. The unconditioned and uncompounded Ultimate Realty is one where the mentality is quiescent, while the conditioned and compounded non-luminosity is where the mentality is active.
In the next post, we will discuss why Buddha’s cosmos is a three-body structure when we discuss Buddha’s doctrine known as Such Is The Way of Dharma.
(If you like this post, please like it on our Facebook page and share. Thank you.)
