Growing Into Light

...by ensuring that the paradigm will not be too easily surrendered, resistance guarantees that scientists will not be lightly distracted and that anomalies that lead to paradigm change will penetrate knowledge to the core...

The Structure of Scientific Revolution, by T.S. Kuhn







Human beings find names essential. Names are discriminating; they distinguish one thing from another. By distinguishing one object from another object, we are aided in understanding the world. If we did not know the nature of an object to which we have given a specific name, it could not be distinguished from another object. Therefore, discrimination is essential to understanding objects. But names are not everything.

Another unique aspect of human beings is this: people by nature manufacture all kinds of tools. Names are also tools. With names we handle objects. But inventing tools may lead to the "tyranny of tools." When tools become tyrannical, instead of our making use of them, they rebel against their inventors and take revenge. Then we are made tools of the tools we make. This strange process is especially noticeable in modern life. We invent many machines, which in turn control human affairs, our human life. Machines, especially in recent years, have inextricably entered our life. We try to adjust ourselves to the machines, because the machine refuses to obey our will once it's out of our hands.

In our intellectual processes, ideas can also be despotic, for we cannot always control the concepts we use. We invent or construct many ideas, many concepts. They are very useful to us in dealing with our life, but convenient ideas frequently control their inventors and become despotic. Scholars who invent ideas forget that they formulated them in order to handle realities for a specific purpose. Each science, whether it is called biology or psychology or astronomy, works with its own premises and its own hypotheses. Each science organizes the field it has chosen--whether it be stars, animals, fish, and so on---and works with those realities according to the conceptual scheme especially devised to study them for our understanding. In pursuing their theories and using their formulations, scientists sometimes find themselves in situations that cannot be explained by their concepts. Then, instead of dropping those ideas and trying to create new concepts so that the unexpected difficulties can be included and handled, they often stick to the first ideas that they devised and try to make the new realities obey those ideas. Or they simply exclude anything which cannot be covered by the network of ideas they have created.

You might say that some scientists catch fish in a net with certain standardized meshes. Those fish that cannot be scooped up and captured in the net will be dropped--they won't be considered worth saving. The scientist-fishermen just take up those that can be caught in their net and try to explain their catch by means of the ideas they already possess. Other fish are considered not to exist. The person holding the net says, "These fish exist, caught in my net. All others don't exist...."

Such conclusions are altogether unwarranted. If scientists were content with reaching conclusions on what they can survey or measure, that would be all right. If they maintain that beyond that they do not know and don't venture any theory or hypothesis, that is also all right. But sometimes blinded by their own brilliance, by whatever success they have already achieved within certain boundaries, they try to extend that achievement beyond the established boundaries, as if they had already surveyed and measured that which is beyond what they already know. That is the trouble with some scientists.

Now the problem with ordinary people is that they blindly rely on what scientists say. But scientists must always make conditional statements, for they all begin with certain hypotheses. When scientists could not explain light, for example, they invented what they called "wave theory." But the wave theory did not account for all phenomena connected with light, so scientists introduced "quantum theory." This made the explanation of other phenomena possible, but then scientists discovered that in order to explain all phenomena they had to use both theories. Unfortunately, the two theories contradict each other, so that when the wave theory is adopted quantum theory must be thrown out. And when the quantum theory is utilized the other theory must be discarded. But certain phenomena exist, and scientists cannot deny their reality. Thus, however, contradictory they may be, both theories have to be adopted. Somehow they have to coexist.


Furthermore, we have the five senses, and our knowledge of reality is connected with them. If we had another sense, or two or three more senses beyond the existing five, we might find something altogether different existing. If we say that our five senses exhaust reality, that is presumptuous on our part. We can say, however, that as far as our five senses and our intellect are concerned, the world is to be understood, explained, and interpreted in a certain way. But there is no way to deny the existence of something (it may or may not be proper to speak of "someone") higher or deeper, something that covers the field more extensively. There may be something beyond the measure of our five senses and our intellect. We may possess some such thing in ourselves, perhaps largely under-developed. If we have another way of coming into contact with reality that is much deeper, more extensive, than our senses and intellect permit, it is presumptuous of us to deny such an intuition, and claim, "There is no such thing---nothing exists outside my senses and intellect."

~*~
Buddha of Infinite Light, by D.T. Suzuki




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In order to KNOW, we must keep in mind the fact that reasoning and emotion, while indispensable as a foundation for our believing, can never give us that final, complete and everlasting inner “knowing” that for all our years dispels doubt as light dispels darkness. The light can come only from the high Self, for it is The Light.

This shining and wonderful thing which we are discussing has been the subject of numberless esoteric teachings and writings. They may all be summed up in the cryptic command, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

The intuitive knowing has been called “realization” in some lands. In Christian circles of a very early day it was called “illumination” because so many were able to see the High Self as a white light unlike any earthly light. Later on, the word “baptism” came to be substituted for “illumination” and the true meaning was gradually lost.

The early sages of Islam were inclined to veil the Secret less heavily. In the Kashf Al-Mahjub we can still read the final conclusion reached after long deliberation by a great sage whose bible was the Koran.

He wrote:
“You must know that the knowledge concerning the existence of the spirit is intuitive…, and the intelligence is unable to apprehend its (the spirit’s) nature.
Our search for God is our search for ourselves…..

Growing Into Light, by Max Freedom Long, pp. 59-60

The Infinite Spring

Wan-sung says,

"The moment one particle is brought up,
the whole earth is contained in it.
Who is it that can open the borders and extend the land as a lone rider with a single lance,
and so can be the master anywhere and encounter the source in everything?"


If everything is interdependent, then everything is part of the existence of every thing. Using this one quintessential understanding of universal interdependence, it is possible to extend the horizons of consciousness by means of the infinite network of causality. In this way, we are in the midst of the limitlessness even in the midst of the finite, what determines the depth and breadth of our world is the richness or poverty of our perception.


Once as the Buddha was walking along with a group, he pointed to the ground and said,
"This place is suitable for building a sanctuary."

Shakura, Emperor of Angels, struck a blade of grass in the ground and declared,
"The building of the sanctuary is done."

The Buddha smiled.


Buddha traveled in the company of all beings. Shakra, the Emperor of Angels, is also called Indra. In the Avatamasaka teaching, the pearl net of Indra in the skies above reflecting the world below represents the infinite network of interdependence phenomena and principles.

Buddha points at the ground and says it is suitable for a sanctuary; this stands for the universal principle, which is everywhere. Indra plants a blade of grass in the ground and declares the sanctuary built; this stands for the concrete manifestation of principle in phenomena. Realizing the perfect correspondence of the abstract and the concrete is the third of four realms of reality in Avatamsaka Buddhism and the third of five ranks in the Ts'ao-Tung school of Ch'an Buddhism.




T'ien-t'ung said in verse:

Infinite spring in the hundred grasses;
Picked up in what comes to hand, it's used familiarly.
The glorious embodiment of virtuous qualities,
Leisurely Buddha leads by the hand into the red dust,
Able to be master in the dust;
A visitor shows up from outside Creation,
Life enough as it is whenever he is,
Not minding if he's not as clever as others.


The infinite spring in the hundred grasses is the universal principle underlying phenomena. When this universal principle is realized, it can be illustrated in anything.

An embodiment of virtuous qualities represents Buddha as embodying abstract truth in concrete manifestations. The practice of enlightenment is actualized in the ordinary world, while the enlightenment of the practitioner is independent of objects.

The Emperor of Angels is the guest from outside of Creation. The idea of being "outside Creation" in this case refers to a total perspective on the whole of being, rather than a limited perspective from an isolated point of view. The sufficiency of his life wherever he is refers to his ability to experience everything as part of everything else; unconcern for his comparative lack of cleverness refers to the actual reality of universal interdependence, which does not need to be artificially constructed to be true.



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...listening furthered

The more ripe a cluster of rice becomes, the lower it bows down its head.

A Japanese proverb





Shin Buddhism, or the teachings of Shinran (1173-1262), teaches us the importance of humility, the most important universal virtue. Many people think that the ultimate goal in Buddhism as well as human life is to become good. But according to Shinran, it is to become humble. Being good is not good enough; we must become humble persons. We must know our evilness, the existence of our ineradicable egoism. We must know our ignorance, the limitations of our intellects. We must become humble persons who can say, "I'm evil and ignorant." In order to explain that Shin Buddhism teaches us the importance of humility, let me first discuss the two stages of life that Shinran experienced.


The most important event in Shinran's life was his meeting with Honen (1133-1212), the founder of the Jodo School, when Shinran was twenty-nine. This event divided his life into two stages: the period before the meeting was the first stage and the period after it was the second stage.


When Shinran met Honen, Shinran realized that he had had a shallow view of Buddhahood. His thoughts on the subject went through a total transformation. Before Shinran met Honen, Shinran thought that a Buddha was a "good" and "wise" person-a holy person who was possessed of wonderful virtues. In order to become such a Buddha, Shinran attempted to purify himself by eliminating evil passions. But he could not attain Buddhalhood. Not only was he unable to become a Buddha, he was feeling more and more depressed and miserable. His goal of Buddhahood seemed far away. He could not understand what was wrong.


When Shinran met Honen, Shinran saw a Buddha in him. But the Buddhahood that he saw in Honen was totally different from what he had anticipated. More than anything else, Shinran was moved because Honen was a humble student. Honen identified himself only as a student of Shan-tao (613-681), a Chinese Pure Land master. Honen said that the only important thing for him was to learn from his teacher. This way, Honen embodied the spirit of a Buddha by the name of Namu Amida Butsu (Bowing Amida Buddha). Namu (Bowing) is a part of the Buddha's name. The Buddha's name symbolizes the humblest human spirit. Before Shinran met Honen, he had thought that a Buddha was a teacher, a respected and worshipped person. But now, having met Honen, he realized that a Buddha was actually a student, a respecting and worshipping person.


Further, before Shinran met Honen, he had thought that a Buddha was a "good" and "wise" person. But now Shinran realized that such an understanding of Buddhahood was a shallow one. He realized that he had been seeing Buddhahood only objectively, from outside. He had not known the subjective reality of Buddhahood--what a Buddha would say about himself. Although people would see a Buddha from outside and describe him by saying, "He is good and wise," a Buddha would describe himself by saying, "I'm evil and foolish." Having met Honen, who had deep insight into his own evilness and ignorance and said, "I'm evil and foolish," Shinran realized that the true essence of Buddhahood was humility--deep insight into one's own evilness and foolishness.


Thus in the first stage, i.e., before he met Honen, Shinran thought that a Buddha was a "good" and "wise" person, and Shinran made efforts to become such a Buddha. But in the second stage, i.e., after he met Honen, Shinran realized that the essence of Buddhahood was humility--studentship and insight into evilness and ignorance.


Thus, having been moved by Honen's humble spirit, Shinran also became a humble student. He recognized that he had ineradicable egoism at the basis of his being and that he had no goodness that he could rely on as the basis of his liberation. Thus he stopped his practices designed to transform himself into a holy person. He realized that a wonderful Dharma tradition had already been given to him and that the only thing necessary for him was to listen to it. This realization was his liberation.



"What Is Shin Buddhism?"
by Dr. Nobuo Haneda

Reprinted by permission of the The Maida Center of Buddhism,
2609 Regent Street,
Berkeley, CA 94704,
(510) 843-8515
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