IV. Right Understanding of 'Non-self' and the World of 'True-self'

  

IV. Right Understanding of 'Non-self'

and the World of 'True-self'

 

 

1. Right Meaning of the Doctrine of 'Non-self': 'Non-self'

Is the Concept Limited to the Phenomenal World

 

2. Buddha's Holding of a Lotus Flower at the Vulture Peak Congregation Was His Teaching of 'Non-self'

and the Realm of Essential Substance

 

3. The Realm of Noumenon of the Four Virtues of Nirvana: Buddha's Exposition of the Realm of 'Self'

 

4. True-self is the Substance of Soul Itself: the Hero

of the Sentient Being in Hell Who Advances

from Hell to Attaining the Buddhahood

 

 

IV. Right Understanding of Non-self

and the World of True-self

 

1. Right Meaning of the Doctrine of 'Non-self': 'Non-self'

Is the Concept Limited to the Phenomenal World

 

I want to investigate the right concept of the doctrine of 'non-self'. It has been mislead for a long time, but we can define its concept very clearly without much problem. 'Non-self' is one of the Tri-dharma mudra, or the seal of three universal laws, and its right meaning is that, "There is no everlasting 'true substance' called 'I' or 'ego' in the phenomenal world."

If we explain it more plainly, "The substance that is called 'self' is nothing but the collection of five aggregates that arose through interaction of causality and does not last forever. That is, as we all get old, get sick, die, and then disappear, the everlasting substance of 'myself' does not exists in the phenomenal world." The five aggregates are: rupa, or material qualities; vedana, or feeling; sanna, or perception; sankhara, or karmic actions; and vijnana, or the mind. This doctrine of impermanence could also be applied to all the phenomenal world in the universe.

 

If we say that, "There is no everlasting substance of myself in the phenomenal world, that means 'non-self 無我)'"; and if we say that, "myself in the phenomenal world is not 'my substance', that means 'no-self 非我)'." This concept of 'no-self' includes not only our physical body but also our tainted mind. In other words, it even includes our soul that has been tainted by unsubstantial attributes such as karmic obstructions, and this is the logical basis for the substance of soul of 'no-self' to become the substance of transmigration, and then 'the true substance of myself' becomes the 'true-self'.

 

Now I want you all to pay attention to my emphasis on the 'phenomenal world'. Please understand unconfused that the meanings of 'non-self' and 'no-self' are both established in the realm of the phenomenal world. Whether you say that there is no true substance of myself ('non-self 無我'), or say that ‘I' or 'myself' in the phenomenal world is not my substance ('no-self 非我)', they do not mean that they deny even my true substance in the realm of noumenon, or the ultimate reality.

 

However, the scholars made a big mistake by extending the concept which is limited to the phenomenal world to the realm of 'ultimate substance or reality', which eventually brought forth the denial of the 'true-self' in the realm of the ultimate substance. In other words, they made a big blunder by interpreting the concept of 'non-self' as an 'absolute non-self', the total denial of the subsistence of self.

This is exactly the strained interpretation of the doctrine of 'non-self'. On the other hand, if we say 'no-self' instead of 'non-self', it tacitly acknowledges the subsistence of true-self'. The misleading doctrine of 'non-self' eventually brought forth the denial of the two kernels of the Buddhist doctrine of the rebirth in the six realms of karmic existence and the enlightenment of birth and death. It also provided the logical basis for the disturbance of the existence of Buddhism itself.

 

I want to quote a part of the dharma discourse of the Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, delivered in April 2010 during the dharma service at Hyeonjisa Daejon Center in connection with the Buddha's discourse on 'non-self':

 

The reason the Buddha discoursed about 'non-self' was to release the sentient beings from their attachment to the idea of being or subsistence (有). As I have mentioned earlier, 'non-self' does not necessarily mean that there is no movement of subject, self, or ego. You must cut off the idea of selfish and egoistic ego (小我) of the sentient being to avoid committing the evil karma to enter the heavenly realm and then reborn in a human form to hear the Buddha's discourse and finally be free from the everlasting cycle of transmigration. This was the reason that the Buddha discoursed not to be selfish or egoistic. One must not, in no case, raise the idea of 'self'. This means there is no idea of self. This is what the Buddha had in mind when the Lords said about 'non-self'. One must not raise the idea of self. The thought that only think about oneself is egoistic 'small-self (小我)'. The 'self' with no idea of 'self'. This is 'non-self'. No Bodhisattva at least in the realm of the Pure Land in the West has the idea of 'self'.

What the Diamond Sutra says is right. In the Pure Land in the West, there is neither a mark of 'self' or the concept of ego as real, nor a mark of personality or a separate being, nor a mark of sentient being, nor a mark of life or soul. In other words, when one reaches the stage of Bodhisattva, you find no trace of the idea of 'self' or ego.

The true Bodhisattva is the one who is full of compassion and tries to help the people afflicted with pain. This is the true 'self' of Bodhisattva who keeps the 'self' without the idea of 'self'. Such is the 'real-self'--'self' without the idea of 'self', ego, or me.

 

Sometimes, when the World-honored proclaims important issues before the Buddhas from the infinitely great manifold cosmos of the Buddha realms, the Lord declares, "I, the World-honored, proclaim before all of you such and such." "I, the World-honored, . . ." the Lord says. However, the World-honored has no idea of 'I' or 'self'. What the Lord has in mind is the sentient beings.

The true meaning of 'non-self' the Buddha says is, "You should not think about or raise the idea of 'self' or ego." This was the true meaning when the Buddha mentioned the word 'self', not that there is no 'self'. Even now, people has a misleading idea that 'non-self' means there is no 'self'. That is the main reason the Buddhism is not only criticised wherever it goes and disappeared from India, its birthplace.

If the people understood the true meaning of what the Buddha said about 'self', and if the scholar monks of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism contended with the Indian scholars, the unsurpassed teachings of Buddha would rather have absorbed Hinduism, and not the vice versa.

 

 

2. Buddha's Raising a Lotus Flower at the Vulture Peak Congregation Was Lord's Teaching of 'Non-self'

and the Realm of Essential Substance

 

 

When the Buddha raised a piece of golden flower before the great congregation at the Vulture Peak Mountain, Kasyapa, understanding what it means, made a subtle smile, and this story is handed down to us as "a subtle smile to the raising of a flower (拈花微笑)."

According to the book, the 21st Century Message of Buddha, written by the Great Master Jajae Manhyeon, this story at the time of the Vulture Peak congregation was an artful liberative means to teach the sentient beings the doctrine that all the phenomenal beings are vain and untrue without true entity.

The modern version of the Vulture Peak episode by Sambhogakaya, or the Body of Bliss and the Great Master Gwangmyeong Mandeok is the exactly the story of Buddha raising a flower to the great congregation and the respond of a subtle smile of Maha Kasyapa to the question of Buddha.

At the time of the Vulture Peak congregation, the Buddha only raised a flower to the assembly, but the book teaches us through dialogues. I want to quote some of the dialogues:

 

One time the World-honored manifested as Immaculate Vairochana Buddha, worked for a while and then manifested Himself again as the Body of Bliss, of course in deep samadhi. He asked with a beautiful flower in his hand:

 

"What is this?"

"It is called a flower, which has never been existed."

"Has this flower the substance?"

"No! There is no substance of the flower."

 

This scene at the time of the Vulture Peak congregation was for the Buddha to teach the lessen which is beyond the phenomenal world. All living beings are just like this flower, vain and unreliable without true substance. This is the Buddha's teaching of the doctrine of 'non -self'.

 

This discourse of Buddha was to teach the truth of two worlds, the phenomenal world where there is no true substance, and beyond the phenomenal world of ultimate reality or substance. The Great Master Jajae Manhyeon explains the words of the World-honored as follows:

 

Everything under the sun arises according to affinity and when the affinity dissolves to be, it fades away just like a withered flower. This is the reason why we should not be attached to anything with discrimination and say that this is mine or that is yours. So is our life. It is just like a fading flower. This was Buddha's teaching that there is nothing that has everlasting substance.

 

I think we now understand Buddha's teaching on the doctrine of 'non-self'. What the important point is that we should not miss here is that Buddha made it clear that there is a realm of ultimate reality or substance beyond the phenomenal world of 'existence' and 'non-existence'.

If that is true, we can say that in the realm of ultimate substance, there subsists a certain substantial and permanent subsistence, not impermanence, and 'true-self' not 'non-self (無我)' or 'no-self (非我)'.

It was a great fortune for us that Buddha expounded clearly the doctrine on the substance of 'true-self' in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra before the Lord entered the great extinction. We pay our gratitude to the Lord Buddha with all our heart.

 

 

3. The Realm of Noumenon of the Four Virtues of Nirvana: Buddha's Exposition of the Realm of ‘Self'

 

 

Mahaparinirvana Sutra is also called simply the Sutra of Great Demise. The Sutra of Great Demise has two versions. The Hinayana version that describes chiefly the true facts of Buddha's great passing, and the records of Buddha's great passing with an addition of philosophical as well as theological meanings of the Mahayana version. However, the Mahayana version again has two versions. The northern version translated in Chinese by Dharmaraksha (曇無識) during the time of Beiyang (北凉) of China and the southern version translated by bhikku Huiyan (慧讓) during the time of Liusong (劉宋).

In this book, I am going to quote from both versions according to the need; the southern version from the Korean rendition of the Complete Collection of Eighty Thousand Buddhist Sutras translated by the Translation Institute of the Buddhist Sutras of Tongguk University, and the northern version translated in Korean by mister Hwang Yong.

The Mahayana version of Nirvana Sutra treats the thoughts of permanent abiding of the Buddha-body (佛身常住), the four virtues of nirvana: permanence, pleasure or joy, self or personality, and purity, and the innate Buddha-nature of all sentient beings. From all these, I am going to discuss chiefly on the subjects of the four virtues of nirvana which have some relations with the thought of 'non-self' in this book.

 

The chief thought that runs throughout the Parinirvana Sutra is the subsistence of the realm of noumenon of the four virtues of nirvana, and the World-honored expounds clearly the substance of true-self not 'non-self' in the Sutra. I am going to quote the passages from the northern version of the Sutra.

 

Bhikkus! You all must take these words into your heart without fail. When the World-honored Tathagata manifests Himself as the Great Healer, the King of Medicine, to drive out the evil practice of the Outside Ways, and when the World-honored gradually becomes friendly with the kings of sentient beings, the Lord will teach them forthwith that to abandon the deluded thoughts of the Outside Ways.

When the Lord said that there are neither self, the sentient beings, nor life, as those spots devoured by worms appear as letters, all the Outside Ways took these words as truth, and so did all the sentient beings and accepted them as Buddha's words and then called it 'non-self' and spread the deluded idea of 'non-self'.

 

What the Tathagata said about the 'non-self' nature of all phenomena was an artful liberative means to deliver the sentient beings, not the deluded idea about the 'self or ego' the people of the world believe. Yet the Lord discourses again about the self. However, it is just like a noted physician revealing his secret recipe to heal the patient.

Therefore, you all must know that 'self' not only subsists, but it is also permanent and everlasting, the dharma that never wears out. It is also virtuous, self-manifesting, and a wholesome medicine. So is Tathagata who expounds the orthodox dharma, and all the fourfold retinue, bhikkus, bhikkunis, the male and female lay people, should learn all these as such.

 

I want to summarize it briefly so that one may understand it easily. When the Buddha said that no 'self', no sentient being, and no span of life exists, and they are all pure daydreams, and there is nothing whatsoever that can be called 'self'. it was an artful liberative means for the Outside Ways and the sentient beings to abandon the deluded idea about 'self'. However, the Outside Ways and the sentient beings took them to be true and believed that there really subsists no 'true-self'.

I expound again about the true substance of 'self'. I repeat again that it is just like a noted physician who prescribes a recipe according to the condition of a patient. Therefore there must be no mistake that there really subsists an everlasting 'self'.

 

I am going to quote again from the Great Pervading Light of the Universe and Noble and Virtuous King Bodhisattva Section, Vol. XX in the southern Nirvana Sutra:

 

There is not a movement of Tathagata, because everything is permanent, joyful, self, and pure. Yet there also are movements, the movements of coming and going, lying down, and revelation of nirvana. Therefore, it is not correct to say that there is no movement.

 

There also are five doubts that must be cut off in the volume XIX of the Noble and Virtuous King Bodhisattva Section of the southern Nirvana Sutra:

 

1) Doubt about the parinirvana of Buddha.

2) Doubt about the permanent subsistence of Buddha.

3) Doubt about, "Is Buddha always happy and joyful?"

4) Doubt about, "Is Buddha always immaculate without any stain?"

5) Doubt about the subsistence of 'self' or 'ego' in Buddha.

 

This means you should not doubt the four virtues of nirvana the Buddha is enjoying after attaining the great nirvana.

The volume XXIII of the same section of the Sutra also enumerates eight features of nirvana. They are four additions of extinction, fair nature, substance, and truth to the original four virtues of nirvana:

1) The permanence in Dharmaa-body with no birth and death.

2) Joy of nirvana without any suffering.

3) Unobstructed true or cosmic self.

4) Purity of dharma without any defilement.

 

The following is again a quotation from the northern version of the Nirvana Sutra:

 

The four virtues of nirvana are the great nirvana, and the domain of refuge of the saints of the three vehicles (三乘) is also the great nirvana. . . . It is the great nirvana because this is where they deliver the sentient beings without the fear of affliction. It is also the domain where there is no fear of the three evil path or realms and where one can be the parents of all sentient beings.

It is also the great nirvana, because it is the domain where one can be a great hero. It is also the great nirvana, because it is the domain so mysterious and where you can conceive the ideas of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. The great nirvana is also the domain where the great-self (大我), the true personality, or selfless-self abides, who is possessed of eight great self manifestations (八大自在).

 

The following is a quotation from the Lion's Roar Bodhisattva section of the southern version of the Nirvana Sutra:

 

I never said that "all sentient beings have no self." What I said was that "all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature." If so, isn't the Buddha-nature myself? In this sense, I didn't say that there is no self at all, but as all the sentient beings could not perceive the Buddha-nature, they think everything is impermanent, there is no joy, no self, and everything is not pure, and this is their idea of complete negation of subsistence.

 

The following is a quotation from the Lion's Roar section of the northern version of the Nirvana Sutra:

 

The middle path or Way is the Buddha-nature and the four virtues of nirvana. However, as the sentient beings are unable to perceive the Buddha-nature, it is natural that they regard everything to be impermanent, no pleasure, non-self, or without self-entity, and impure. To put it metaphorically, it is like a poor man who doesn't know the great treasures in his own house, gains the treasure with the help of an enlightened master, and the great treasures he happen to possess are none other the four virtues of nirvana: the permanence in Dharma-body with no birth and death; joy of nirvana without any affliction; unobstructed true or cosmic self, or personality of Buddha; and purity of dharma without any defilement.

As the Buddha-nature is neither the cause nor effect (非因非果), and it is also the four virtues of great nirvana, its meaning is truly profound. And as there is neither knowing (無知) nor seeing (無見), and greatly mysterious, it is the stage of Bodhisattva, beyond the realm of mundane world.

 

The reason I have quoted so many passages from the sutras, which might have made the readers boring, was to convince the readers about 'substantial-self (實體我)' which subsists (存在) in the realm of ultimate substance or reality (本體界) through four virtues of nirvana (涅槃四德) discussed in the Nirvana Sutra.

Such is the reiterating emphasis of the truth (實際) of the realm of ultimate substance in the Nirvana Sutra. If so, how could anyone release the misleading doctrine of 'non-self' and disregard the Buddha's words in the Nirvana Sutra? We understand that there are some revisions as well as renovations in the Mahayana sutras by scholars in the later age. Still, they are fundamentally the treasured words of Buddha.

Had our scholars investigated the issues of the doctrine of 'non-self' and the thought of 'true-self' with a careful comparison and had defined the real issues at the early stage, the misleading doctrine of 'non-self' would not have been established as the orthodox teaching of Buddhism for so long.

It is my sincere wish for the readers to believe that we have now confirmed that there are the subsistence (存在) of four virtues of nirvana in the realm of ultimate reality and the substance of my permanent and everlasting self.

We saw unquestionably that in the realm of ultimate substance or reality, there subsists 'subsistent-self (有我)' not 'non-self (無我)'; not 'no-self (非我)' but 'true-self (眞我)'; not 'small-self (小我)' but 'great-self (大我)'

If that is true, I want to compare the realm of ultimate substance (本體界) of permanence (常), pleasure or joy (樂), true-self (眞我), and purity (淨) with the features of the phenomenal world (現象界). Let's compare the four seals or insignia of the dharma, the fundamental teachings of Buddha first: 'Impermanence' of "Whatever is phenomenal is impermanent." with 'permanence'; 'affliction' of "all is dhukka or affliction" with pleasure or joy; 'non-self' of "all is anatta" with 'self' or 'ego'; and as "the timeless void is nirvana" reflects the feature of the realm of ultimate substance, it naturally becomes 'purity' itself. If we were to explain it, it is the opposite concept of impurity of the affliction and defilement of the phenomenal world.

The realm of ultimate substance or reality means the realm where a complete liberation from birth and death is achieved. In other words, it is the realm of the Bodhisattva of the Pure Land and Buddha, and it offers us a great insinuation.

From this insinuation, we can draw the doctrine of the subsistence of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Accordingly, the view that the transmigration in the six spheres of karmic existence and the realms of enlightenment such as the Pure Land of Utmost Bliss, the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, etc. subsist only in the realm of mind is an absolutely indubitable heretical doctrine.

Our after life? An undeniable hard fact is that when a person dies, fortunately he might be reborn in the heavenly realm. But who knows, his final destination might be the dreadful hell, or he might be reborn as an animal.

The self in the realm of ultimate substance or reality is my true and original substance, as well as the true-self. However, what does it mean exactly? It means the substance of our soul. We finally have drawn out the subsistence of our soul. Now I am going to investigate the substance of soul more in detail.

 

 

4. True-self Is the Substance of Soul Itself: the Hero Who Advances from the Hell to Attaining the Buddhahood.

 

 

Until now, the Buddhist sectors refused to acknowledge the subsistence of the noumenon of soul. The same has been with the Korean Buddhism. However, in our daily life, we perform the sacrificial rite for the deceased ancestors at home and the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead at the temple. The sorcerers and the spirit mediators also have abilities to see the spirits and bring them forth to talk with them. Such practices have been familiar to us for a long time.

In other words, in our daily lives, the subsistence of soul is accepted without any thought of resistance. Of course, there could be many people who think otherwise. However, the strange thing is that the most Buddhist sectors do not officially acknowledge the subsistence of soul. What is the reason?

It is perhaps due to the mislead concept of the doctrine of 'non-self' for quite a long period of time. Until now, our Buddhist sectors had a misleading idea that the doctrine of 'non-self' is a concept that can never be acknowledged as a certain everlasting substance.

What's more, such mislead idea of 'non-self' of Buddhism has been claimed for some 2,000 years to distinguish it from the everlasting substance of atman in Hinduism. However, Buddhism has a deeper and detailed knowledge about the substance of soul than Hinduism and will be able to win the contest with the doctrine of Hinduism in this field. We can also distinguish its value from that of Hinduism.

 

However, in truth, it is not easy to find the Buddha's detailed explanations about the substance of soul in the sutras. Yet, it is not difficult to understand the reason if we consider the following factors. The first is that if one is to understand such profound ideological doctrine, he must reach the stage of Buddha. The second is that to this kind of philosophical matters, the World-honored maintained the neutral or indeterminate stance (無記) without giving a definite answer.

However, the Lord, instead, instructed us the subsistence of the reality of soul through factual examples. A good example is the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead (遷度) even at the time of Buddha. There is a story which tells that the Buddha personally delivered the great disciple Moggalana's mother through the ceremony, and we can find the story in the Sutra of Moggalana.

The four virtues of nirvana in the Nirvana Sutra we have observed above also offer the evidence which acknowledges the substance of soul which is also the true-self in the realm of the ultimate substance.

Along with this, we also find the examples of diverse concepts the Buddha used in the sutras, which relate to the idea of substance of soul such as 'consciousness of body or touch (識身)', 'consciousness of god (識神)', 'soul and spirit (魂魄),' 'god-consciousness (神識)', Gandharva, or 'scent-eater (乾達婆)', an intermediate state of the dead spirit between heaven and hell (中陰) in Anguttrara-nikaya, or Graduated Collection, Samyutta-nikaya, or United Collection, the Maharatnakuta Sutra (大寶積經), the Original Vows of the Medicine or Healing Buddha Sutra (藥師如來本願經), etc.

For example, in Samyutta-nikaya, the intermediate state of the dead spirit between heaven and hell of Bhikkhu Vakhalli, is expressed as consciousness of body or touch. This dead spirit is the No. 4 spiritual substance.

The Yeongsan Buddhism proclaims home and abroad that the everlasting substance of soul is our true or ultimate substance and subsists as our true-self. We also make it clear that this doctrine is the orthodox dharma of the Buddha. We are now going to investigate the substance of soul more in detail.