LIMITED AND UNLIMITED

By Thich nu Tịnh Quang

We think about the past, present, and future in a time frame. In our existence, we define ourselves three times. This is an inevitable result of phenomena and mind, and also a process of causes and conditions of dharmas and concepts.

From a finite perspective, we exist in conditioned frames as a social order. Who we were in the past can shape who we are today, but sometimes it's no longer a matter of the present. The future is unknown but it can be known.

When we do something, we can also recognize the element of the future, especially, what belongs to us and is for us; like when cleaning the house, cooking a dish... our attention on the present has a shadow of the future and is pushing us into the past, just finished. Rather, we are never at a complete point in time, just a continuous circle that never stops.

Body and mind (five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness) are constantly affected by causes and conditions, and the karmic set of the senses is activated by painful feelings and pleasant feelings, the causes of craving and disturbing emotions. In a relative time frame, in limited space, our experience is clouded by delusion from ignorance (avijja: ignorance); we experience the natural outcome of nama and rupa processes as reality at every moment in our lives; in other words, we see the world through the windows of this ignorance. Attachment is the finite characteristic of afflictions.

In the suttas, the Buddha often mentioned the Dharma of arising and passing away (Uppada Vaya Dhmmino), meaning the same as arising and ceasing or that whatever arises due to causes and conditions ceases[1]. Thus all that exists is finite, and finite because there is no permanent subject that is invariant to things and thoughts; all is our perception, as if it were real, or accepted to be real. These delusions are only abstract ideas for finite things in infinite space. The Block Universe Theory states that our universe can be viewed as a giant four-dimensional block of space, containing all that happens. Every minute, every second that passes relentlessly propels us forward, carrying us through our lives and toward an unfathomable end. What the experience of time tells us about this. But what if our present, past and future already existed? With this view, time seems to have never flowed.

According to this logic, what we do tomorrow will not be what we thought it would be. When you complete a work like destiny in time, you attach value to it. This is, in essence, an illusion in itself rather than a fundamental property of nature or your own.

Physicist Lee Smolin wrote that "The future is not a reality and there can be no definite reality or truth about the matter of the future." The future is just the present continuous, just "the process by which future events are created from current events.” [2] There is a fixed place for finiteness in common sense when, for example, we divide a river into three sections: the front, the middle, and the back, but a river is really just a stream that is constantly moving; the river's infinity lies in the fact that it is independent of time and ideas. In the state of 'innocent' (in Mencius' words), or Lao Tzu's 'no-action' [3], or 'spontaneity' (Zen), reality is limitless, not thoughts or concepts. Usually that's when we reach the shore of 'reality without form'[4] where we are no longer controlled by our ways of thinking from opinions, habits, feelings, desires, comparisons, joys and sorrows. Being one with all things, heaven and earth, and with our ego, is not the opposite of the other. Instead, it is the outer, the infinite, and the source of all things. This is the origin of gamma in connection with delta or the basis for another or many others. Γ ∪ Δ = {x| x∈Γ ∨ x∈Δ}).

In the definition of the root of the Tao, the first element is also compared to vanity, which is empty in Buddhism. All the equations of practice are only limited means to reach the limitless view, when the six senses and the six sense objects no longer attract each other. In the state of 'presenting the mind of emptiness', all natural phenomena are empty, unobstructed, nothing can affect our original mind[5]. This is also the time when we are completely free in the external world with full of strife, suffering, and afflictions.

In order to face or reach a state of mind with 'infiniteness' or 'no-self', how must we observe internally and externally? The Buddha advises us that: "...in seeing is only vision, in hearing is only hearing..."[6]. What is visible and hearable is what is present, without interference or the shadow of thought. When we look at a flower, it's just looking; listening to the breath is just listening; listening to sound is just listening; looking at a person is just looking...; no shadow of self, no perception; this moment is called mindfulness of reality; there is no birth of perceptions, there is no cessation of perceptions, no birth of afflictions and no cessation of afflictions; it was an inconceivable moment of silence. Still experiencing the basic senses of seeing, hearing, and touching, but without the interference of perception in order to observe, hear, and touch. This is experiencing the senses of seeing and hearing with liberated and infinite wisdom. In reality, you're not leaving the finite, but you're still at peace and free. The Finite is also seen as the active state, the Infinite as tranquility (stillness). For all external environment without moving the mind is called Pure; when you reach the state of Purity, but you do not cling to it, it is called No Tranquility (because emptiness is present in what is, stillness does not leave activity). In practice, when reaching the state of 'non-purity,' the practitioner does not even bring up the concept of 'no-purity' (because all thoughts are delusional) which is outside of 'non-purity' (there is no state called non-purity). The state of 'non-purity', as well as the state of 'non-purity', is totally pure.[7]

That is, we accept existence as real—that we live in motion. Accepting non-realization is also considered a delusion. Existence, non-existence, dynamic, static, definite, negative, and negation of the negation... with the external or the internal, with the body or mind are all delusions. Let go of all thoughts, in a moment of complete silence of thought, is really peaceful; it is when we 'see only see, hear only hear...'

As with the infinite, it can't be seen or described, but we can't separate it either; it isn't one or two; it's one with us, like ourselves, so what we say about the Infinite in Taoism or Buddhism is just a concept. That's also the sentence that Măzǔ Dóiyī answered to Páng Jūshì when he questioned him: "...Wait until you finish drinking Jiangxi water, I'll tell you." So, Nothingness is in Being, just as life is in Death, the two exist together.

Being and not-being, living and not-living, are only forms of transformation. We think that when yellow leaves fall, they are dead, but in reality they are becoming soil and giving life to trees.

Generally speaking, we live in a state of finiteness where the mind is non-agitated, non-deluded... we are free, unobstructed, or infinite. And only in the moment of absence of thoughts - a moment of silence and stillness, can we experience the infinite immensity like a flow through time and space in myriad forms and colors.

From ENTERING THE GATES OF MEDITATION

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[1] Yan kinci Samudaya dhammam, sabbantham nirodha dhammam (Samyutta Nikaya)

[2] "The future is not now real and there can be no definite facts of the matter about the future..." Physicist Lee Smolin added at a 2017 conference.

[3] “...无为,无我,无欲,居下,清虚,自然”(道德经)

[4]“世尊在靈山會上,拈華示眾,眾皆默然,唯迦葉破顏微笑。世尊云:“吾有正法眼藏,涅槃妙心,實相無相,微妙法門;不立文字,教外別傳,付囑摩訶迦葉”(五燈會元·七佛·釋迦牟尼佛)

[5]“若悟真心本空 万法自然消殒.” (萬法歸心論)

[6] “Ditthe Ditthamattam Bhavissati, Sute Sutamattam Bhavassati.” (Bāhiya Sutta)

[7]“一切处无心是净;得净之时不得作净想,名无净;得无净时,亦不得作无净想,是无无净。无净无无净,即是毕竟净”(六祖坛经笺注