Living by Vow

by Shohaku Okumura

  Perhaps blind people have this experience frequently. It’s amazing to me to see blind people walking with a white cane. Their feet, hands, and even their canes are their eyes. Their whole body is their eyes. At night our entire body serves as our eyes. When we try to find a lost pillow our whole being, our whole body and mind, becomes our eyes and hands. Darkness has a special meaning in Buddhism. It means nondiscrimination. In the dark we can’t see anything, and so we can’t discriminate between things. We see only one darkness.

  This is a metaphor for our zazen. In complete darkness there is no discrimination. Our body and mind work together as one. The Heart Sutra says there are no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no anything. Because they are not independent, they work together as one, and there is no distinction between eye or nose or tongue. The whole body becomes an eye in the darkness. The whole body becomes a tongue when we eat. We don’t eat and taste with our mouths and tongues alone. We see the food with our eyes, we smell it with our noses, we touch it with our hands. The whole body functions together as one in all our actions. So there are no eyes or ears independent of other organs—all work together. That is the reality of life. This is how our life functions like a person groping for a pillow in the night.

  Yunyan said, “I get it, I get it. I understand what you mean.”

  “How do you understand it?” asked Daowu.

  “The entire body is hands and eyes.”

  Since eyes don’t work in the darkness of nondiscrimination, the whole body becomes eyes and hands.

  Daowu answered, “Good, you expressed reality almost

  completely. But only 80 to 90 percent. There is something

  lacking.”

  Yunyan asked, “That is my understanding. What about you?”

  Daowu replied, “The whole body is hands and eyes.”

  Yunyan used the Chinese “hen shin.” Hen means “entire.” Daowu’s wording was “tsū shin.” Tsū means “whole.” “Entire body” and “whole body” mean the same thing. Their answers were exactly the same. This is Avalokiteśvara. We have many hands and eyes besides our own. Our hands and eyes are universal. Our hands and eyes, our entire body, is part of the whole universe. The whole universe works as one, just like our whole body. There are innumerable hands and eyes. What is this whole universe doing for us? It’s telling us to awaken from our dream of egocentricity and open our eyes. Whether Yunyan’s and Daowu’s expressions are the same or not and why Daowu said Yunyan’s answer was only 80 to 90 percent complete are the points of this koan.76

  Avalokiteśvara is like a person groping for a pillow in the darkness, with body and mind working as one. There is no distinction between eyes, hands, tongue, ear, or nose. The universe functions as one. This is the meaning of egolessness and impermanence. Everything is always changing, but we are blind to all of this. We dream that “I” am here, and unless my desires are fulfilled, my life is meaningless. We try to be successful. We build a fence between our body and mind and other beings in the universe. We say, “This is me. This is my territory. This is my house.” We try to keep things we value inside our territories and things we dislike outside. If we own a lot of valuable things, we consider our lives successful. Our lives are a constant struggle to increase our income and decrease our expenses. This is our way of life. It works because human society is based on artificial conventions to which we all agree in order to make our lives more convenient.

  But outside social conventions this framework doesn’t apply. When we face our death, strategies of accumulation and avoidance don’t work. No matter how successful your life, when you face death, you have to leave everything. Your property, your fame, and all your accomplishments disappear. Avalokiteśvara helps us awaken. Until we wake up to reality our life is like a building without a foundation. The Heart Sutra is about transforming our way of life. It is about waking up to reality and creating a life based on the reality that exists before convention. For us, the practice of zazen is the turning point of this transformation. According to Dōgen Zenji, zazen itself is enlightenment or awakening. Of course, even in our zazen we have delusive thoughts, desires, and emotions. And so we let go of them. This letting go is transformation. Our life is no longer personal, and we live out the universal life force. This is the meaning of zazen.

  BOTH SIDES

  Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva

  When practicing deeply the prajñā-pāramitā

  Perceived that all five skandhas are empty

  And was saved from all suffering and distress.

  Avalokiteśvara was practicing prajñā-pāramitā. We must be careful to remember that prajñā-pāramitā is something to be practiced. Prajñā (wisdom) is not simply a matter of how our brain works. In Shōbōgenzō “Maka Hannya Haramitsu,” Dōgen Zenji refers to the “whole body’s clear seeing.”77 He is reminding us that this wisdom should be practiced with our whole body and mind. Seeing with the whole body and mind means we become one with the emptiness of the five skandhas. These five skandhas are nothing other than our body and mind. When we sit zazen our whole body and mind becomes nothing other than the whole body and mind that is empty. The five skandhas become five skandhas that are completely empty. Zazen is itself prajñā. The five skandhas (whole body and mind) clearly see the five skandhas (whole body and mind). There is no separation between subject and object.

  In early Buddhism body and mind are described as being made up of the five skandhas (aggregates) to emphasize that there is no fixed ego. The five skandhas are form (Skt., rūpa; Jap., shiki), sensation (vedanā, ju), perception (saṃjñā, so), impulse or formation (saṃskāra, gyo), and consciousness (vijñāna, shiki). The first, form, refers to material things that have shape and color. In the case of human beings, form is body. The other four skandhas are mental functions. When we encounter an object we receive sensory stimulation, which may be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This stimulation caused by objects we call sensation. The Chinese character for ju means “reception.” This received sensation creates images or representations in our mind. We call this perception. Impulse (saṃskāra) is the power of mental formation, that is, will or volition. Based on sensation, perception, and impulse, the object is recognized and judgments are formed. This is the function of the fifth skandha, consciousness.

  The Buddha taught that since we are made up of these five constantly changing skandhas, there is no fixed ego, and we are impermanent. Later, in Abhidharma philosophy, Buddhist scholars believed that we are egoless but that these five skandhas exist in an independent, fixed way. Mahāyāna Buddhists criticized this theory. The Prajñāpāramitā Sutras said that these five skandhas are also empty. This emptiness is another way of describing impermanence and egolessness.

  We can be saved from suffering because the cause of suffering is our selfish desire based on an ignorance of impermanence and egolessness. We cling to our body and mind and try to control everything, but we cannot. When we truly see the emptiness (impermanence and egolessness) of the five skandhas of our body and mind, we see that there is nothing to cling to. So we open our hands. This is liberation from the ego-attachment that causes suffering.

  The sutra continues:

  “O Śāriputra, form does not differ from emptiness;

  Emptiness does not differ from form.

  That which is form is emptiness;

  That which is emptiness, form.

  The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.”

  The five elements of our life are all empty, and emptiness is those five skandhas. The phrases “form is emptiness” and “emptiness, form” say that “since A is not different from B, and B is not different from A, then A is B, and B is A.” This is very simple. But this sutra has a more complex meaning. The longer version of the Heart Sutra reads:

  “There are the five skandhas, and those he sees in their ownbeings as empty.

  Hear, O Śāriputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form;

  emptiness is n
o other than form, form is no other than emptiness;

  whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form.”78

  The first sentence says that there are five skandhas, and they are empty. This sentence is very important to our understanding of the Heart Sutra. The Āgama Sutras, a collection of early Buddhist discourses similar to the Pāli Nikāyas, say that all phenomenal beings are aggregates of causes and conditions without any fixed entity. According to the Āgama Sutras, the Buddha affirmed that there is no ego, and we are merely collections of five skandhas. “Ego” means something unchanging and singular that owns and operates this body and mind. The Buddha taught there is no such thing. In Sanskrit “ego” is called ātman. To express the reality of no-ātman (anātman) he stated that only the five skandhas exist, and these various elements form the temporal being that is a person. Later, Abhidharma philosophers believed that the ego or ātman doesn’t exist but that the five skandhas exist as substance. They analyzed these five skandhas into seventy-five elements. A particular combination of elements enables this being to exist as a unique person, and when one of the elements changes, this body and mind changes or even disappears. It’s like atomic theory. Science says this body, desk, or notebook can be divided into smaller and smaller pieces until we eventually come to something that cannot be divided. Greek philosophers called this the atom. The conventional concept of the individual is analogous to the Greek concept of the atom. In the last century we learned that the atom can be split. It is no longer the ultimate particle. The Heart Sutra says the same thing about people. It says that each being is made up of five skandhas, five categories of elements, and these are empty. This line in the sutra is a criticism of the Abidharma philosophy that maintained the five skandhas exist as fixed substance.

  Mahāyāna Buddhists criticized the Abhidharma idea of the selfnature of the skandhas. They believed the five skandhas or elements are empty, that they don’t really exist. The skandhas are dependent on cause and conditions and have no existence independent from other things. In fact, nothing exists except in relationship with all other beings. This fundamental teaching of the Buddha is called interdependent origination.

  Nāgārjuna was one of the greatest Mahāyāna philosophers. His Examination of the Four-Fold Noble Truth in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is helpful in understanding these lines. He identified two levels of truth. The Dharma as taught by the Buddha is not some kind of objective reality. It is the reality of our own lives based on two truths, relative and absolute. He said, “Those who don’t know the distinction between the two truths cannot understand the profound nature of the Buddha’s teaching” (24:9).79 The profound nature of the Buddha’s teaching is prajñā, the Buddha’s wisdom. In order to understand the Buddha’s wisdom, we have to clearly understand this distinction between absolute and relative truth.

  Nāgārjuna continues, “Without relying on everyday common practices (i.e., relative truths), the absolute truth cannot be expressed. Without approaching the absolute truth, nirvana cannot be attained” (24:10). Here “common practices” means relative truth, the way we usually think in our day-to-day lives. For instance, “I am a man. My name is Shohaku Okumura. I am a Buddhist priest. I was born in Japan and came to America. I have two children.” This is our everyday way of explaining who we are. As a teacher, I have responsibilities and now I’m giving a talk. This is common practice, a relative truth. When I say I am Japanese that means I’m not an American. “My name is Shohaku Okumura” means I’m not someone else. “I’m a man” means I’m not a woman. These definitions are relative.

  Nāgārjuna says that the absolute truth cannot be expressed without relying on relative truth. The absolute truth is beyond words, which are relative. That is śūnyatā or emptiness. That is prajñā. Without approaching the absolute truth, nirvana cannot be attained. As long as we stay only in the relative truth, in conventional ways of thinking, we cannot move toward nirvana. Nirvana is the most peaceful foundation of our life. In the realm of relative thinking, this body and mind change with each new encounter or situation. We are always thinking about how to behave in this situation, always adjusting ourselves. Often a situation is competitive, and we have to be careful, either to defend ourselves or become aggressive. It’s a restless way of life. Nirvana is beyond the relativity of subject and object, teacher and student, customer and shop clerk.

  Nāgārjuna continues, “We declare that whatever is relational origination is śūnyatā. It is a provisional name [i.e., thought construction] for the mutuality [of being] and, indeed, it is the middle path” (24:18). “Relational origination” is a synonym for interdependent origination. Everything is interconnected, and because of certain linked causes and conditions this person or this thing exists for awhile. This is not a substance; it is called śūnyatā or emptiness. Because of relational origination, nothing exists independently. The elements of this provisional existence are called the five skandhas. The idea of the five skandhas as fixed and the idea of emptiness contradict each other. If the five skandhas exist independently and permanently, there is no emptiness; if all is really emptiness, there are no fixed five skandhas. This simple sentence in the Heart Sutra is important to understand.

  Form, as we’ve seen, is one of the five skandhas. In the case of human beings, it means our bodies. To say this body is empty means it doesn’t actually exist. In a sense, “form is emptiness” means that form is not form. “Emptiness” means there is no form, and “form” means there is form. So this is not a simple logic at all. Nāgārjuna says that whatever is relational origination is śūnyatā. Emptiness, like all words, is a provisional name without substance that can exist and has validity only in relation to other words.

  Form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness—all five skandhas—are provisional names: names without substance. They are thought-constructions created by our minds. Everything is simply a provisional name. “Shohaku” is a provisional name. “Priest” is a provisional name. “Japanese” is also a provisional name. All of these are simply provisional names for “the mutuality of beings.” This mutuality of beings means that nothing can exist by itself, but only in relationship with other elements. This means everything is empty; everything is merely a provisional name that exists temporarily as a collection of the five skandhas. This way of viewing things, beyond the duality of “independent being” and “nonbeing,” is the middle path.

  Nāgārjuna stated there are two levels of truth: absolute truth (śūnyatā) and conventional truth (provisional being). He said we must see reality from both sides. We must see it as śūnyatā and as a provisional name. This is the middle path. By seeing reality from both sides we can see without being caught up in either side. The Heart Sutra says, “Form is not different from emptiness.” This means form is a tentative or a provisional name. This person Shohaku Okumura is just a provisional name and doesn’t actually exist. That means emptiness. So form is not different from emptiness. This is one way of seeing. This is negation of form, negation of this being. This being looks like existence but isn’t.

  By negating independent being, we become free from attachment to this body and mind. This is a most important point. If we don’t see the reality of emptiness, we cannot become free from clinging to this tentative being that is defined by relative concepts. Through the wisdom of seeing this being as empty and impermanent, we can free ourselves from clinging. This is the meaning of “form is emptiness.” To see that form is emptiness means to negate attachment to this collection of five skandhas. Even though we cling to this body and mind, sooner or later it is scattered. If we really see the reality of emptiness, we are free from ego attachment. This is the meaning of the sentence “Form does not differ from emptiness.” This is the way to negate our relative perceptions and open our eyes to absolute reality.

  However, freedom from attachment to this body and mind is not enough. Once we see the absolute reality that is emptiness, we must return to tentative reality. This is the m
eaning of “Emptiness does not differ from form.” When we really see the emptiness, we become free from this body and mind. That’s okay, but then how shall we live? We cannot live within the absolute truth because without distinctions there is no way to choose. Without making choices we cannot live. To choose a path, we have to define who we are and what we want to do. To accomplish things, to go somewhere, we have to make distinctions. If we have no direction, there is no way to go. So to live out our daily lives we have to return to relative truth.

  Nāgārjuna also said, “A wrongly conceived śūnyatā can ruin a slowwitted person. It is like a badly seized snake or a wrongly executed incantation” (24:11). If we don’t understand emptiness as the middle path, we can become irresponsible. Freedom and irresponsibility can be the same thing. But the Buddha’s compassion means to be free and yet responsible to everything. It is compassion without attachment. Through wisdom we see that everything is empty. Through compassion we return to relative truth. We must think, “How can I take care of this body and mind to keep them healthy so I can help others?” This is what the Buddha taught. To be responsible to whatever situation surrounds us, we have to become free from emptiness. We have to come back to the relative truth of everyday activities and take care of things. So this is not just a formal, simple logic, A is B and B is A. When we say form is emptiness, we negate this body and mind. When we understand that emptiness is form, we negate emptiness. Negate means to let go. To let go of thought means to become free from both sides. Then we can see reality from both perspectives without being attached to either. The wisdom of Avalokiteśvara is the Middle Way that includes both sides. It is not something in between this side and that. From the middle path we see reality from both views, relative and absolute. We simultaneously negate and affirm both sides. To let go of thought means to become free from both perspectives and simply be in the middle (reality).