THE BUDDHIST PARADOX
An Essay by Greg Stone
PDF version of the essay.
"Anyone familiar with the ancient religious philosophy of Buddhism has no doubt come across one of the most puzzling paradoxes in any spiritual study: the apparent conflict between the “no soul” doctrine (anatta) and belief in reincarnation. If one has no soul,who or what is reincarnated, and how?"
- Is Buddhism a materialistic philosophy?
- Or is Buddhism a religious philosophy with supernatual elements?
- Can Buddhism stripped of its spiritual core still make sense?
- When the Buddha spoke of past lives, was it a parable or are they real?
Read this essay to discover the core of Buddhist teachings.
THE CHRISTIAN DILEMMA
An Essay by Greg Stone
Is Christian Theology in danger because it lacks an understanding of the spirit?
Will the Templeton Theologians denial of spirit put an end to Christianity?
Philosophy Discussed in Under The Tree
In Under the Tree, philosophical questions which may be newto the reader are considered. The following notes are provided for the reader who wishes to delve deeper into the subject.
Under The Tree - The Philosophy
The three primary philosophers mentioned in Under the Tree who promoted Idealism, are the Buddha, Plato, and Bishop Berkeley.
Plato believed the world we perceive consists of imperfect copies of perfect ideas, or forms.
An excellent exposition of Plato's thoughts can be found in Fred Alan Wolf's book, The Spiritual Universe.
"For Plato, the soul was pure, unchanging, simple, invisible, coherent, and eternal. By simple, he meant not complex—made of many parts. Unchanging meant the soul was outside of temporal influence— in fact, eternal. The soul’s coherency meant it held together; it was incapable of fragmenting into separate parts. Most important, the soul was rational and, through its rationality, capable of a clear view of reality."
"One of the earliest inquiries on the pure soul comes from Plato’s Republic. Plato saw the soul a something separate from the body. But, the soul was often confused by being in the body due to misguided thinking brought on by a confusion of the senses."
Plato also wrote about the phenomenon we call the Near Dear Experience.
In The Republic, Book X in which Plato relates the tale of Er a soldier killed on the battlefield, who spent time in the Afterlife, then returned to describe his experiences on the Other Side.
"He was slain in battle, and ten days afterward, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pyre, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world."
George Berkeley, an Anglican Bishop, championed Idealism within the Christian community. His classic work on Idealism, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Published in 1710. Hackett Publishing in 1982), is well worth reading.
"From the principles we have laid down, it follows, human knowledge may naturally be reduced to two heads, that of ideas, and that of spirits. Of each of these I shall treat in order. And first as to ideas or unthinking things, our knowledge of these has been very much obscured and confounded, and we have been led into very dangerous errors, by supposing a twofold existence of the objects of sense, the one intelligible, or in the mind, the other real and without the mind: whereby unthinking things are thought to have a natural subsistence of their own, distinct from being perceived by spirits. This which, if I mistake not, has been shown to be a most groundless and absurd notion, is the very root of skepticism; for so long as men thought that real things subsisted without the mind, and that their knowledge was only so far forth real as it was conformable to real things, it follows, they could not be certain that they had any real knowledge at all. For how can it be known, that the things which are perceived, are conformable to those which are not perceived, or exist without the mind?"
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge by Bishop Berkeley
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BUDDHIST LITERATURE
Thousands of texts are available on Buddhism. A good "third person" historical view can be found in Karen Armstrong's Buddha.
The yogin experienced progressively four mental states that seemed to introduce him to new modes of being: a sense of infinity; a pure consciousness that is aware of only itself; and a perception of absence, which is, paradoxically, a plenitude. Only very gifted yogins reached this third ayatana, which was called "Nothingness" because it bore no relation to any form of existence in profane experience. There were no words or concepts adequate to describe it. It was, therefore, more accurate to call it "Nothing" than "Something."
Monotheists have made similar remarks about their experience of God. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians have all, in different ways, called the most elevated emanations of the divine in human consciousness "Nothing." They have also said it is better to say that God did not exist, because God was not simply another phenomenon
An excellent presentation of Buddhist thought can be found in the dialogue between a Western philosopher and a Buddhist monk in The Monk and the Philosopher by Jean-Francois Revel and Matthieu Ricard. Questions most westerners might ask are posed by Jean-Francois and answered by Matthieu, who also has a background in Western science.
"What's called wisdom in Buddhism is the elucidation of the nature of the phenomenal world, of the nature of the mind. What are we? What is the world? In the end, and above all, it's the direct contemplation of absolute truth, beyond all concepts. That's wisdom in its most fundamental aspect."
"But Buddhists add that what guides the workings of the brain and its decisions is the nonmaterial consciousness. ... By its very nature, consciousness escapes the methods of investigation used by physical scientists. But not to be able to find something is no proof of its nonexistence. Buddhism's choice is based upon experience acquired through contemplation."
One of my favorite books on Buddhism, Breaking the Circle: Death and the Afterlife in Buddhism, by Carl Becker of Kyoto University, presents Buddhist concepts in a clear and easy to understand manner.
"The Buddhist view is that this life is but one of millions of continuous lives of suffering, destined to continue indefinitely until the cycle is broken. This necessitates a path of selflessness and discipline that leads to enlightenment and freedom from the wheel of rebirth. Thus, not only death but the inescapability of survival is essential to Buddhist philosophy."
"He [Buddha] said that his understanding of rebirth was gained not from metaphysical speculation nor from Hindu mythology, but from direct paranormal perception of the workings of the universe.
"The Buddha maintained his teachings were completely empirical in the sense of being experience-based. He invited his students and followers to come to their own conclusions based on their own meditations. Today, most modern people seem to lack the meditational and parapsychological abilities that the Buddha gained through long years of asceticism.
"The Book of the Dead, then, is not a Dantean description of eternal heavens and hells. Rather, it is a chronological review of the gateways to numerous postmortem levels of experience during the intermediate state between incarnations, usually lasting twenty-eight to forty-nine days. Its imagery incorporates all of the afterlife possibilities that Buddhists have yet envisioned....based...on a profound philosophy of idealism buttressed by a long tradition of experience in yoga meditation."
Breaking the Circle: Death and the Afterlife in Buddhism, by Carl Becker
Luminous Emptiness by Francesca Fremantle is the best work I've found for understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead; in Fremantle's book the teachings are referred to by the more accurate name of Liberation through Hearing. The teachings guide the recently deceased through the bardos, the stages after death.
"The outline of the teachings concerning death--dissolution of the elements of the body followed by rebirth in accordance with one's previous actions---is accepted by all schools of Buddhism. But the existence of a period of transition between death and rebirth is not held by all, and there are different ideas about its nature. Liberation through Hearing presents us with very elaborate descriptions of all these processes, which are not found in such a complete form in any other tradition."
Fremantle was a student of Trunga Rinpoche, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado.
The Lotus Sutra (translated by Burton Watson) sheds light on the confusion that sometimes surrounds the contradictory messages of the "no soul" doctrine and reincarnation.
"The Buddhas in their capacity as leaders
preach nirvana to provide a rest,
But when they know you have become rested,
they lead you onward to the Buddha wisdom."
Based in Santa Barbara, B. Alan Wallace has served as an interpreter for the Dalai Lama, particularly in conferences regarding science and Buddhism. Buddhism with an Attitude is another well written book that presents ideas taken from the Tibetan school of Buddhism.
"I have often heard the claim that religious people cling to beliefs in the immortality of the soul or the continuity of individual consciousness after death because they simply cannot cope with the reality of personal annihilation at death. I find this hypothesis dubious at best. Which is more daunting: to consider the Buddhist hypothesis that each of us will experience the ethical consequences of our behavior in future lifetimes, or to believe that death will simply terminate our experience forever, with no more problems and no more worries? I think that in many cases people cling to the speculative notion of personal extinction at death as an absolute fact because they are intimidated by the thought that they might depart this life and consciously enter a vast unknown."
The Heart Sutra: Translation and Commentary by Red Pine is an exposition on foundational concepts in Buddhism.
"The third level of prajna is transcendent wisdom, which views all things, whether mundane or metaphysical, as neither permanenent nor impermanent, as neither pure nor impure, as neither having a self nor not having a self, as inconceivable and inexpressible. While mundane wisdom and metaphysical wisdom result in attachment to views, and thus knowledge, transcendent wisdom remains free of views because it is based on the insight that all things, both objects and dharmas, are empty of anything self-existent."
BUDDHIST WEBSITES
At beliefnet.com one can subscribe to daily e-mail excerpts from Buddhist teachings. The carefully-chosen selections are usually thought provoking and inspiring. These daily e-mails are a good way to achieve a gradient introduction to the subject.
The following site hosted by Anthony Flanagan answers questions you may have on the subject. Though Anthony and I disagree on interpretations of some key Buddhist concepts, I find Anthony to be a gracious host and guide to the writings of the Buddha. "Buddhism" by Anthony Flanagan
The following site provides a wealth of references to Buddhism that explore its deeper, transcendent nature. Given his encyclopedic grasp of the texts of Buddhism, Zenmar can refer visitors to many worthwhile sources. Zenmar's Site
Discussion of Idealism
The philosophical foundation for much of Under the Tree, is Idealism.
In this philosophy, thought is primary, the material secondary. God or spirit precedes any and all material conditions; the thoughts of God or spirits becomes the material realm. "In the beginning was the Word" is another statement of the same concept.
Idealism thus includes a supernatural or spiritual viewpoint when it comes to the origin or creation of the universe.
Idealism postulates material conditions emerge from the spiritual or supernatural. This directly contradicts Materialism which argues consciousness, life, and the universe emerge from purely material conditions.
In Idealism, spiritual thought is primary; in Materialism, matter is primary.
These opposing philosophies are the foundations upon which most debates regarding the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness rest.
The clash between the opposing philosophies leads to an interesting dynamic in the religion-versus-science discussion. Skeptics argue spiritualists and those who hold a belief in the supernatural lack "real world" objective proof or evidence for their views.
Skeptics chide the spiritualist for living in the fantasy world of the subjective, claiming the subjective is unreliable and unworthy of consideration. They accuse the spiritualist of descending into solipsism.
Digging deeper, however, one finds it is the materialistic skeptic, who rests his case on a weak foundation. When we subject the skeptics' claim of an objective world to scrutiny, we find the only way the materialist knows anything is through his conscious awareness, his subjectivity.
The skeptic has no way to know anything, except through his subjective awareness. The "objective" materialist, like the idealist or spiritualist, relies upon his subjective awareness for knowledge.
The skeptical materialist replies that his observations can be duplicated by others, he has the agreement of others, and thus there is an objective world "out there."
This is the premise of the scientific method. Bob observes A, Betty observes A. Thus A must be objectively real. But both observers rely upon subjective awareness to know A.
If we are diligent in our analysis of the situation, we can only go so far as to state A is an inter subjective reality. The most we can assume is a reality of agreement.
Both Bob and Betty might be hallucinating, they might be sharing a common illusion. The objective world may be nothing more than inter subjective agreement. It may have no existence independent of the subjective awareness of Bob and Betty.
How can we know if the "world out there" is objective and exists independent of any subjective awareness?
We have to subtract all subjective awareness from the universe first, then see what is left. Is there anything remaining after we subtract all subjective awareness?
Therein lies the problem. After subtracting all subjective awareness we can no longer know anything, as that is our only way of knowing.
This means it is impossible, even in theory, to confirm the existence of an "objective world" independent of our subjective awareness. The objective world might be only an inter-subjective illusion. We have no way to prove otherwise.
This turn of events is quite upsetting for the materialist, who previously assumed he had objective proof in his corner. Instead, we find his argument built on a house of cards. He belief in an objective world turns out to be a matter of faith. A terrible fate for a keptic.
On the other hand, it is possible to go beyond faith to research whether or not the universe is an Idealistic universe.
Given our knowledge is based in the subjective, we can explore whether or not that subjectivity gives rise to physical conditions. It is not an easy task, but there is at least a theoretical possibility of success.
The two great questions that stand before modern science, the question of the origin of the universe and the question of the nature of consciousness both demand a better understanding of Idealism. Science will be forced to consider new paradigms.
Under the Tree ties an ancient line of thought into our very contemporary search for answers.
Other Philosophies
For those interested in the broader scope of philosophy, and curious about how the various lines of philosophical reasoning fit together, I recommend Common Sense, Science, and Scepticism by Alan Musgrave.
"Berkeley called his idealist metaphysic 'immaterialism,' because of its denial that matter or material objects exist. Most of Berkeley's readers think that immaterialism is an absurd philosophy. Berkeley claimed that it was the only philosophy which could avoid an even greater absurdity, namely scepticism. As he saw it, the choice lay between materialism and scepticism or immaterialism and certainty."
Philosophy & Science
A text that takes a look at the philosophy of science is The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn.
"There is, I think, no theory-independent way to reconstruct phrases like 'really there'; the notion of a match between the ontology of a theory and its 'real' counterpart in nature now seems to me illusive in principle."
One of my favorites when it comes to discussions of philosophy, particularly Buddhism and science, is Alan Wallace's collection of essays, Buddhism & Science.
"It is true that Buddhism fails to fit neatly into any of our categories of religion, philosophy, and science, for the simple reason that it did not develop in the West, where these concepts originated and evolved. Buddhism offers something fresh and in some ways unprecedented to our civilization, and one of its major contributions is its wide range of techniques for exploring and transforming the mind through firsthand experience."
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