FORM IS EMPTINESS, EMPTINESS IS FORM
What Science Says about Emptiness
Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form! What is really amazing is not only this statement is now a scienti¬fically accepted fact, but that it is said in Buddhism twenty centuries before science. Before relativity and quantum mechanics presented a new world-view to the public, most people would have thought the Buddhist masters were talking non-sense.
What we regard as form, such as a bacterium or an elephant, is not dif-fer¬ent from emptiness, and what we regard as emptiness, like the empty space in front of us or the vacuum bet¬ween galaxies, is not different from form. Similarly, feeling, thought, activity and consciousness are emptiness; and emptiness are also feeling, thought, activity and consciousness. For example, when you see a tree falling down and hear its crashing sound onto the ground, both your feeling (or perception) of sight and feeling of hearing are not ultimately real. In other words, there is in reality no falling tree and no crashing sound. All your thoughts, all the activities you perform and your consciousness of yourself as a living being are all illusory! Why this is so, will be explained in some detail later in this chapter.
In case you think that this illusion of a falling tree and crashing sound is a non-sensical idea thought up by some outlandish mystics, listen to what our modern scientists have to say. Dr Graham Phillips, speaking in a context without any inkling of religion or mysticism, and from whom this example of a falling tree is taken, explains:
There is an old philosophical question: if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it actually make a sound! The ans-wer, which may surprise you is : no, it doesn't. The reason is that that familiar thing we call sound does not exist out there, it's a creation of the human mind. When a tree falls, it disturbs the air in its immediate vicinity and in so doing, creates sound waves. These waves travel through the air, eventually run into your ear and cause your eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are then turned into sound by the brain -- in this case into the sound of the falling tree. However, if there aren't any ears or brains in the vicinity of the tree when it comes crashing down, no sounds are made.
Dr Graham Phillips, however, thinks that the ears and the brains as well as the sound waves are real, although the purpose of his example is to point out that according to quantum physics, considered by many as the greatest scientific achievement of the present twen¬tieth century, nothing is real unless it is being observed. He starts his chapter which he aptly calls "Creating Reality" with a startling quotation from David Mermin: "We now know that the moon is demonstrably not there when nobody looks." Graham Phillips continues:
This seemingly ridiculous statement is neither the utterance of a madman nor the nebulous words of an eastern mystic. The proclamation was made by physicist, David Mermin, from Cornell University in the United States. Professor Mermin made the bold declaration, which he wants you to take quite literally, to clarify the state of affairs in physics at the moment. The situation is that a number of today's physicists believe that every¬thing in the universe, including this book and the room in which you are sitting, is not there unless it is being observed. Even an object as big as the moon only has reality bestowed upon it if it is being watched.
You will be even more astonished to find that Buddhist wisdom not only has stated this cosmic truth centuries earlier, but also it is more profound, as will be obvious as you read on.
Sariputra and Arahantship
Amongst the Buddha's Sravada disciples the one reputed to be foremost in wisdom is Sariputra. The Heart Sutra is addressed by Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva to Sariputra. A Sravada, literally meaning "a hearer", is one who attains enlight¬en¬ment at the Arahant level through hearing the teaching of the Buddha. It was a tradition in ancient India that the highest teaching was not written down, but must be transmitted orally from a master to his disciples. Of course, merely listening to the teaching was not enough -- this only provided the understanding; the disciple must practise cultivation, particularly meditation, so that he had a direct experience of the truth of the teaching.
The principal means of spiritual cultivation of a Sravada is the Four Noble Truths, which state that:
- living in samsara (the endless cycle of rebirth) is suffering;
- the cause of suffering is desire;
- to eliminate suffering one has to eliminate desire;
- the way to accomplish this goal is the Noble Eightfold Path.
As most people, including many Buddhists, do not fully understand the meaning of emptiness in this context, they miss the beauty and grandeur of Buddhism. Emptiness or sunyata, which is the principal teaching in Mahayana Buddhism and the main theme of the wisdom sutras of which the Heart Sutra provides the gist, has been explained in detail in Chapter 5, and will be further elaborated here and in the next chapter. It should be noted that the attain¬ment of emptiness is not only the supreme goal of Mahayana Buddhism, but also that of the other two major tradi¬tions of Buddhism today, namely Theravada Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism.
Emptiness in Theravada and Vajrayana
All the four kinds of liberation of the mind prac¬tised in the highest Theravada meditation -- appamana cetovimutti, akincanna cetovimutti, sun¬nata ceto¬vimutti, and animitta cetovimutti -- are different approaches to attaining emptiness, generally called nibbana in Theravada terminology. In appamana ceto¬vimutti (liberation of infinite thought), all thoughts are eliminated; in akincanna cetovimutti (liberation of infinite attachment) all desires are eliminated; in sunnata cetovimutti (liberation of the empty mind) all traces of the ego are eliminated; in animitta ceto¬vimutti (liberation of infinite characteristics) all phenomenal characteristics are eliminated. The elimi¬nation of all these phenomenal aspects leads to the attainment of emptiness, which is the undifferentiated, unseparated ultimate reality.
The description of nibbana most frequently used by Theravadins is the extinction of greed, suffer¬ing and delusion, which is actually another way of describing emptiness, i.e a blissful state of mind emptied of greed, suffering and delusion. Theravada masters also stress that nibbana is not merely nothingness. The well known Theravada master, Narada Maha Thera, says:
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One must not thereby infer that Nibbana is nothing but the extinction of these flames (of lust, hatred and delusion). The means should be differ-entiated from the end. Here the extinction of the flames is the means of attaining Nibbana. To say that Nibbana is nothingness simply because one cannot perceive it with the five senses, is as illogical as to conclude that light does not exist simply because the blind do not see it.
Attaining nibbana or emptiness is of course also the ultimate of Vajrayana Buddhism, where the Heart Sutra is a fundamental scripture. Explaining the theme of the Heart Sutra -- form is emptiness, and emptiness is form -- the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso says:
That form is emptiness means that the final nature of forms is their natural voidness of inherent existence. Because forms are dependent-arisings, they are empty of an independent self-powered entity.
That emptiness is form means that this natural voidness of inherent existence -- this final nature, emptiness, which is the absence of a basic, self-powered principle of these things that exist in the manner of depending on other factors -- makes possible the forms that are its sport or are established from it in dependence upon con¬ditions. Since forms are those that are empty of true establishment -- since forms are the bases of emptiness -- emptiness is form; forms appear as like reflections of emptiness.
In the above quotation, "natural voidness of inherent existence" refers to ultimate reality. Forms, or phenomena like houses and butterflies that we per-ceive with our senses, are emptied of an independent entity, i.e. they are not real entities by themselves. They are dependent-arisings, i.e. their arisings or appearances depend on a set of conditions. For exam¬ple, because of the way our eyes see, our minds operate and other conditions particular to us, we perceive the houses and the butterflies. If the conditions are different, such as if we had different types of eyes and minds, or if the houses and butterflies were enshrouded in a thick layer of mist, we would perceive them differently or not at all.
Viewing from the other perspective, ultimate reality is emptiness, because it is actually emptied of any entities existing by themselves. Due to various conditions, emptiness appears as forms or phe¬no¬menal entities to us. Other beings with a different set of conditions may not perceive these entities. Similarly, what may appear as entities to these beings may not be perceived by us at all. For example, what appear as palaces to gods, may appear as empty space to us. Hence, form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.
Emptiness of the Other Skandhas
Form is one of the five skandhas that constitute a being or any entity; the other four skandhas are feeling, thought (or perception), activity (or mental formations) and consciousness. Like form, all the other skandhas are phenomenal illusion; in ultimate reality they are empty.
Feeling, the second of the five skandhas that constitute a person, is neither an expression nor description of ultimate reality; it is illusory and relative, and its arising is dependent on a set of conditions. Stephen Jay Gould, whose scienti¬fic writings have won him many awards, supplies some interesting examples of creatures which "conduct their lives in a way that tends to evoke feelings of pain or disgust when we empathize with them by applying the inappropriate standards of our own social codes." In order to grow, a species of tiny flies known as cecidomyian gall midges devour their mother from the inside. A type of beetle called micromalthus debilis inserts its head into its mother's genital aperture to devour her! Our feelings of pain and disgust are relevant only to us, and are non existent to these creatures. Gould explains that in situations where food supply is ephemeral but super¬abundant, their conduct is the most efficient strategy for both mothers and offsprings to ensure survival of the species.
To say that feeling is not real, does not necessarily imply that your love for your wife or husband, or for God is not true. Your feelings may be true (or false) in our ordinary phenomenal world, but in the transcendental dimension of cosmic reality everything, including your wife or husband and God, is an illusion. Understood superficial¬ly, this shocking statement about the illusion of God, like the Zen master advocating the killing of the Buddha if you meet him, is blas¬phemy; but understood in the light of this teaching about emptiness, it is deeply spiritual! In the pheno¬menal world, God, Buddha or by any name the Supreme Divinity is known, is differentiated and separated from you, a mere mortal. But when you achieve perfect enlighten¬ment, you and God and Buddha are one and the same, because Ultimate Reality is undifferentiated and unseparated. That is why many great religious teachers exclaim during their deepest spiritual ecstasy that they are in God (Tao, Brahman, etc) and God is in them.
Thought, the third skandhas in the constitution of a being, is emptiness; and emptiness is thought. After their "enlightenment" attained through the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, scien¬tists are now convinced that the so-called external world is a creat¬ion of mind. Bohr's principle of complementarity (which states that an electron is both a wave and a particle) and Heisenburg's principle of uncertainty (which states that no one can define the momentum and direction of a particle at the same time) have esta¬blished the fact that the experimenter's thought directly affects the result of his experiment at the sub-atomic level. Countless experiments have confirmed that where and when a particle or a wave appears depends on how scientists decide to measure it.
The Buddha's teaching is even more startling. Mind not only creates the phenomenal world at the sub-atomic level, but at all levels, including the macro level of man and the galactic level of the universe. All the heavens and hells, as well as the very world we live in, are not ultimately real, but created by the mind! This does not mean that our world, heavens and hells are not there; that we merely imagine their existence. Our world, heavens and hells are "real" in the phenomenal dimension; just as atoms and molecules are real and definite in classical physics. But when we are perfectly enlightened, we eliminate thought, thus eliminating the pheno¬menal realms of worlds, hea¬vens and hells created by thought, and attain empti¬ness or transcendental cosmic reality.
How does mind or thought create the so-called external world? This can be answered from two pers¬pect¬ives, that of self and of phenomena.
What we are is the result of what we think. The kind of self or life a being is born into, depends on three factors, namely his karma, his consciousness and the dying thought in his previous life. Mind is dir¬ectly involved in all these three factors which attract the appropriate skandhas (or necessary ingre¬dients) for the next rebirth. For example, if the consciousness of a being is imprinted with bad karmic effect, and his dying thought is that of fear, he would be reborn as an animal. If his karma is good, he is conscious of the existence of hea¬vens, and he is happy and peaceful at the moment of death, he would be reborn as a hea¬venly being.
What a person thinks will be translated into his speech and action, and all these three factors contri¬bute to his karma, which in turn dictates his life activity, which is the fourth of the five skandhas making up that person. Hence, a person with noble thought will become noble, and generate good karma, whereas one with evil thought will become evil, and generate bad karma. This cosmic truth is so simple, although the explana¬tion of its operation may be complex, that many people may not believe in it. A person's activity, which is dependent upon his karma, operates only in the phenomenal realm. In ultimate reality there is no activity; it is uniform and tranquil. Hence activity is ultimately empty.
Thought also belongs to the faculty of intellec¬tual consciousness, which receives and interprets the pheno¬menal world through five types of sense conscious¬ness, namely eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consci¬ous¬¬ness, and body-consci¬ous¬ness. All these six types of consciousness are permanently recorded in the manas-consciousness, which corresponds to the subconsciousness or unconsci¬ous¬ness in western psychology. The total consciousness of all the individuals of this species of beings since time memorable is stored in the alaya consciousness or collective consciousness.
The eight types of consciousness enable all beings of the same class to interpret and perceive ultimate reality, which is actually undiffer¬entiated emptiness, as phenomena particular to them, whereas the same phenomena will appear differently to beings of other classes. Thus, what appears as a mountain to a human will also appear as a mountain to other humans because they possess the same set of five types of sense con¬sciousness, similar operation of their intellectual consciousness and manas consciousness, and a common store of alaya consciousness. But what humans regard as a mountain may be invisible to other beings, such as gods and fairies, who possess a different set of con-sciousness. Similarly what appears as solid matter to heavenly beings may be invisible to humans. Hence, modern scientists who are puzzled as to why individual minds of countless people create the same external reality, or where the missing ninety nine percent of the matter of the universe has gone to, may draw some inspiration from the Buddha's teaching.
In the phenomenal dimension, consciousness is real, and the various types of consciousness as well as the consciousness of different beings are different¬iated and separated. For example, eye-consciousness is different from ear-consciousness, and the eye-consci¬ous¬ness and ear-consciousness of one being are separate from those of another being. But in the transcendental dimension, there are neither different nor separate types of con¬sciousness; everything is Universal Con¬sciousness, emptied of all phenomena.
Liberation of Self
The five skandhas of form, feeling, thought, act¬ivity and consciousness are brought together to make up a being or self. As form, feeling, thought, activity and consciousness, in ultimate reality, are empty, i.e they do not have absolute, independent existence, and their phenomenal or apparent existence is illusory and relative, the being or self is not ultimately real. Experiencing this ultimate reality, where the personal self has merged with the Universal Self, is the liber¬ation of self towards enlightenment.
It is important to note that the personal self, some¬times referred to as the soul, is actually an integral, organic part of the Universal Self or Cosmic Soul. Thus, in the transcendental dimension, there is no personal self or soul, just as there are no differ¬entiated or separate entities whatsoever. In other words, in ultimate reality there are not only no individual souls, there are also no animals, birds, books, cars, trees, streams, hills, stars and any entities whatsoever; ultimate reality is undifferen¬tiated and unseparated.
But in the phenomenal dimension, the self or soul exists, just as all other beings and phenomena exist. Failing to understand the difference between the pheno¬menal and the transcendental dimension, or interpreting differ¬ently the provisional use of the term "self" or "soul", has resulted in heated debates among different Buddhist schools as whether the self or soul exists, as has been discussed in some detail elsewhere in this book.
Virtually all schools of the Mahayana and the Vajrayana traditions believe in the existence of the soul. Because they have not attained a spiritual level ready for perfect enlighten¬ment, many Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists aim for rebirth in heaven, rather than actua¬lizing transcendental cosmic reality. If there were no soul, this aim of going to heaven would become meaningless.
Of the eight traditional Hinayana schools, only the Theravada is still popular today. The Theravada school vehemently propounds that there is no self or soul; the Pudgala¬vada school strongly proposed that the soul existed; while other Hinayana schools were divided in this issue. Like their Mahayana and Vajrayana brethren, many Theravada Buddhists are not ready for perfect enlightenment yet, but Theravadin teaching seldom men¬tions about rebirth in heavens. The majority of Theravada followers emphasize cultivation of moral purity hoping that they will accumulate blessings to be reborn as monks in future lives so as to devote full time to attaining enlightenment. Mahayanists and Vajrayanists regard the Theravadin beliefs of non-soul and of spiritual progress over many lives as self-contradict¬ory. If there is no self or soul, who or what progresses from one life to another? Theravadins answer that it is not the self or soul who trans¬migrates, but the karmic force generated by the collection of the five skandhas, provisionally called a person, that links one life with the next. Nibbana or enlightenment is the termination of this karmic force, thus emancipating the provisional person or self from the chain of birth and rebirth.
However, according to the Mahayana and the Vajra¬yana traditions, the emancipation from self to realize emptiness is only one part of perfect enlightenment, the other part being the emancipation from dharmas, or elemental particles and forces that constitute pheno¬mena. Theravadins believe that dharmas are ultimately real, though they exist only momentarily. Mahayanists and Vajrayanists believe that dharmas are also illu¬sory; perfect enlightenment, therefore, involves not only emancipation from self but also emancipation from dharmas, and this will be explained in the next chapter.
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