The Zennist

The modern view treats truth as that which emerges from scientific consensus. But that is an impediment to truth. In fact, its basis is third-person knowledge. It is not fundamental enough. The modern scientific theme (orienting principle) cannot see the singular light beyond code 0/1. But if we take a deep look at code it's a division of the monad (≈ Schrödinger's one mind singulare tantum). This is προαρχή (before the beginning). It is even before thinking and thought which can only arise from an unarisen singular mind (Skt. cittamātra ≈ monad). But science is only concerned with pragmatic truth, truth which is useful and of course limited. What is interesting about this theme it allows us to postulate that we live in a sim-world and the natural bodies that we use are tokens or avatars (Donald D. Hoffman). This sim-world must be codable. In spite of this situation, it is the very monad that comes shining through when for a brief moment the code is transcended (anastasis).

Looking at Christianity through the Lens of Buddhism

Christianity has a fundamental problem when seen through the lens of Buddhism—one it may never overcome. The post-resurrection Christ, as portrayed in early Gnostic texts, is not a dead man who came back to life in flesh, but one who transcended the flesh and teaches others to do the same. This version of resurrection is much closer to the Buddhist path of illumination.

The meaning of resurrection itself becomes a point of deep contention. We may reasonably surmise that early Christianity was split between those who understood resurrection as spiritual awakening and those who believed it meant everlasting life in the flesh.

Oddly, despite all the negative things Christianity says about the flesh, it ultimately affirms its return in glorified form. Why this emphasis on the flesh at all? It begins to resemble a miracle tale told to fools—a tale that comforts rather than awakens.

This raises a more important question: How much of Christian teaching has been shaped or altered to promote belief in miracle tales, rather than genuine transformation? From a Buddhist standpoint, this is not the Dharma—it’s a distraction from it.

Gospel according to Mary Magdalene: the Christian Bardo

There was the great schism between the Orthodox Christian church and the Catholic Church in 1054. When I look at it through a Buddhist lens, the Catholic Church has been turned over to the Archons (ἄρχοντες), the supposed rulers/wardens of our samsaric sim-world from which there is little, if any, escape. If we look at the Gospel according to Mary Magdalene, composed as a post-resurrection gospel, it sheds light on something Christians have not given much attention to, which is significant to the faith and its survival.

In a nutshell, those who have just died must face the Seven Wrathful Powers constituted by the Archons who lead the faithful to perdition, preventing a jailbreak. They have entered what Buddhists know as the Bardo, or in Sanskrit, antara. In other words, a person just doesn't die and go to heaven; they die and are judged by their errors, which they succumbed to because of the power of the Archons. They have been deceived, but not just externally, but from deep within, by the very religious attitude which they believe is Christian, but which is a path of the Archons.  The Christian has lost sight of the theme that salvation is a process of inner transformation — a liberation from the grip of these powers before death. Even those people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs), having been in the Bardo, who return to the sim-world of the archons, have only just begun a journey of inner transformation which is far from complete. 

Mary Magdalene’s Gospel depicts a Bardo-like journey through an in-between state that must be faced. The Seven Powers of Wrath are: 1) primordial nescience, the “blind spot” that hides origin; 2) craving; 3) mis-knowing that reifies appearances; 4) acquiescence to impermanence; 5) identification with the condition of embodiment; 6) rationalizations that justify clinging; 7) the self-righteous will to dominate. These powers are well within each individual, especially in today's complex world. 

Buddhism, it could be argued, because it is older than Christianity, is more advanced. There is enough to warrant that the religious practitioner in both religions is not going to be saved by some God or some super cosmological force. Even the belief that after death one just goes to oblivion at death has no heft in Buddhism or Christianity. The root fact is that both religions see the human being as a person in ignorance of their divine nature. Each person has the choice to either make a jailbreak from Samsara and the archons or become continuously reborn into a sim-world that is literally going around in circles. Oblivion is not an option.

There is a light (prabhāsa ≈ pure unmodified Mind) beyond the code 0/1. For those who wish to play in this coded sim-world—the avatars—you have to face in the opposite direction of this light as you descend into Plato's cave (VII chapter of the Republic). In this darkness all is nāmarūpa, 0/1. For those who wish liberation we can turn to the epistrophē (ἐπιστροφή) of Plotinus literally meaning "a turning back,"— a reversion of the soul to its source—our prabhāsa (nonlocal reality?).

Procession = the soul turning toward the cave, embracing 0/1, nāmarūpa.
Existence = living among the shadows, taking form seriously.
Epistrophē = realizing that all forms are veils, and turning back to the prabhāsa.

The Book of Life is quite mystical. On its many pages we can see our entire life from infant to an aging adult. We are troubled by what the book portends — suffering without end. No jailbreak here. From the master's true perspective the student's imagination is being reflected on luminous pages. Also, the master knows that if words and images appear in the pages this luminosity is not diminished. On the other hand, for the student the Book of Life is a real story about the student's suffering and countless failures. The student wants the master to unravel his travails and explain why he did all these things hopefully to erase his guilt. Now here comes the joke. The master looks at the student and asks, "Have you ever thought about seeing a psychiatrist?"

Punarbhava or rebirth really suggests the constant conversion of the one into bhava or continuous existential diversity which we, as human beings, experience as ‘birth and death’. To understand this more fully, it is important to keep in mind that the universe is constituted of one medium (a singular light) which is capable of infinite self-modification or the same, infinite diversification. For those undergoing rebirth, this conversion process is both mysterious and perplexing since the one medium leaves no trace of its unmodified nature in the process of diversifying itself.

It is true, QM has been verified by scientific consensus. But that really says nothing about what is truly "knowable" which is limited by our human approach to the knowable. It is put into the framework of duality, a subject-object relationship. A deeper analysis shows this to be relativism. Truth is either relative to objective standards sufficient for experimentation, or it is subjective falling into solipsism. Even more, it must be third-person knowledge, that is, shareable knowledge. For some of us this is hardly a suitable theme (the orienting principle) to get us to what is truly knowable. Others like myself are not happy with the popular approach. Figures like David Bohm (implicate order), Bernardo Kastrup (analytic idealism), and Donald Hoffman (conscious realism) propose non-dual models inspired by QM and consciousness studies. As it is fairly obvious to see, they have to fight an uphill battle or wait until their adversaries die out. They appear to be making a jailbreak so that they are not fully embraced by the scientific consensus. If we move to Buddhism and Vedanta (Gaudapada) the theme has changed. It is closer to Erwin Schrödinger's notion of one mind singulare tantum. Mind is the one irreducible fact; multiplicity is a perceptual artifact (maya) being something like projections of Mind: the illusion of an objective extended world. These projections are real in a certain restricted way since there are "vibrations" of Mind; not Mind itself that can only be realized by our conformity with it from its own side.

Entering the coitus of my parents—an embryo—
Embodied once more in what is not my self.

Transfigured at last, I leave the dark adit:
Placenta become the saffron robes of a monk.

The singular radiance of prabhāsa shines;
Lord of Duality, bewildered, begins to weep.

The once-terrifying gloom holds no sway.

Kyõgen's "Man up in a Tree" koan

香嚴和尚云、如人上樹、口啣樹枝、手不攀枝、脚不踏樹。
Kyõgen Oshõ said, "It is like a man up in a tree hanging from a branch with his mouth; his hands grasp no bough, his feet rest on no limb.

樹下有人問西來意、不對即違他所問、若對又喪身失命。
Someone appears under the tree and asks him, 'What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West?' If he does not answer, he fails to respond to the question. If he does answer, he will lose his life.

正恁麼時、作麼生對。
What would you do in such a situation?

The moment the being “bites the branch” this is also the instant consciousness (vijñāna, the being to be reborn) descends into the parents’ fertilized ovum, generating nāma‑rūpa—name‑and‑form. From that first clutch, the whole twelve‑link spiral of dependent arising erupts. In our study of Zen we realize we can't keep clutching branches. At the same time we can't see how to escape from this horrible predicament.

Mumon's Verse 頌曰

香嚴眞杜撰 Kyõgen is truly thoughtless;
惡毒無盡限 His vice and poison are endless.
唖却納僧口 He stops up the mouths of the monks,
通身迸鬼眼 And devil's eyes sprout from their bodies.

Taking refuge in the three jewels or tri-ratna of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, is different than what is usually understood by Buddhists. These three refuges are separate.

Going to the Buddha refuge is the highest and the most difficult refuge, which begins with the attainment of buddhatā, the direct intuition of our true nature that goes beyond the sphere of the non-self or anātman, consisting of the five grasping aggregates (upādāna‑skandha) that make up the illusory person. This is the beginning of becoming a Buddha, which is not a person but a transfiguration into an unbounded, radiant bulk. The former somatic body is a mirage-like projection.

Going to the Dharma refuge is deep reliance and faith (śraddhā) in the teachings of the Buddha whereby we shed the accumulations of erroneous thinking coming to the true (avitathatva). This causes an orientation to the mysterious principle (dharmatā) that underlies the teachings of the Buddha that transcends the human world. It is like a living algorithm that re‑codes the nervous system until the default program of dual knowing (vijñāna) collapses into non‑dual knowing (jñāna).

Going to the Sangha refuge refers to the community of those beings who follow the Dharma and aspire to realize the Buddha-nature (buddhatā). 

The tri-ratna, as three autonomous gateways, highlights specific competencies—direct gnosis, correct view, communal resonance. Upon fulfillment, however, the very separateness collapses, revealing a single jewel facetting itself into Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha for the sake of beings still entranced by duality.