We could call the Buddha the conqueror of appearances or the same, illusion. His triumph was to overcome the human belief that our world is real when in fact it is unreal and painful. We might even call our world a high definition illusion.
Maybe the pixels in our illusory world that make it appear are, precisely, the smallest composition or combination possible which is a dyad (a unit = “as if” one). This in Buddhism is vijñāna.
While the ‘I’ conceit is the first to arise in the mind of the seeker it is already combined into a unit. There is an implicit dyad-ness in this unit. When the inquiry “Who am I?” is pursued we can’t get beyond this dyadic condition. Even being in the moment or in the here and now is this implicit unit but one dyadic, nevertheless.
We have reached, let us say, the minimal unit of appearance or the same a pixel. In no way have we transcended it. Here begins the so-called spiritual journey of the seeker.
With regard to all appearances whether outside of this body of flesh or inside of it, according to the Buddha, all this is not mine, I am not this, it is not my self or ātman. So we might ask, “Who then am I?” To find the right answer to this question is the most subtle journey of all.
Whether we call it nirvana, satori, or kenshō it means the same thing, we have arrived at the transcendent or tathatā. I should add that this arrival cannot be shared with others least of all by language. Language, we could say, is directional. It cannot mysteriously produce the object of our search or transport us to the revelation of our Buddha-nature. Our true nature is always here but we are always looking in the wrong direction.
Comments