Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

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Oneness: The Highest Common Denominator dharmas are baseless. While he practices the six perfections he should not take anything as a basis 33 … Where there is duality, there is a basis. Where there is non-duality there is lack of basis. Subhuti: How do duality and non-duality come about? The Lord: Where there is eye and forms, ear and sounds, [etc., to:] where there is mind and dharmas, where there is enlightenment and the enlightened, that is duality. Where there is no eye and forms, no ear and sounds, [etc., to:] no mind and dharmas, no enlightenment and the enlightened, that is non-duality. 34 It may seem strange at first sight that even ‘the enlightened’ are included in the sphere of duality. The reason is that, from this point of view of pure enlightenment, nothing but that quality of pure consciousness exists; if one speaks of the consciousness that belongs or pertains to an individual, then there is, unavoidably, a duality: the one who is conscious, and the content of his consciousness. This is precisely what is taught in the mystical Islamic doctrine of fanā’. Fanā’ and Non-duality The discerning of a subtle dualism in the consciousness of one who is enlightened, or on the path to enlightenment, finds expression in the text of al-Ghazālī cited earlier. In the following passage, he describes and evaluates the state of those sages who have attained ‘extinction’ (fanā’): They become intoxicated with such an intoxication that the ruling authority of their rational faculty is overthrown. Hence one of them says, “I am the Real!” (anā’l-Haqq), another, “Glory be to me, how great is my station!” 35 ... When this state gets the upper hand, it is called “extinction” in relation to the one who possesses it. Or rather, it is called “extinction from extinction”, since the possessor of the state 33. Basis translates upādhi: ‘Having in his person attained the deathless element which has no “basis”, by making real the casting out of “basis”, the Perfect Buddha, of no outflows, teaches the griefless, stainless state.’ Itivuttaka, 62 (p. 82 of Buddhist Texts Through the Ages). 34. Satasāhasrika, LIII, f.279–283. Cited in Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, op. cit., pp. 174–175. 35. These are famous theopathic utterances (shathiyāt), by Mansūr al-Hallūj and Bāyazīd al-Bastāmī, respectively. 49
c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s l a m a n d b u d d h i s m is extinct from himself and from his own extinction. For he is conscious neither of himself in that state, nor of his own unconsciousness of himself. If he were conscious of his own unconsciousness, then he would [still] be conscious of himself. In relation to the one immersed in it, this state is called “unification” (ittihād) according to the language of metaphor, or is called “declaring God’s unity” (tawhīd) according to the language of reality. 36 The paradoxes uttered by the Buddha—as well as the identification of the Buddha with the Dharma, or with Suchness, or Nirvāna, etc.—might be seen as expressions of a tawhīd at once radical and mystical, which is strictly predicated on extinction, nirvāna, precisely: ni = ‘out’; vāna = ‘blowing’, the idea being akin to a flame being blown out by the wind. If Buddhist teachings are read in the light of the chasm which separates language—and with it, all formal concepts—from the reality consummated through enlightenment, many puzzling paradoxes will be grasped as inevitable shadows cast on the plane of thought by that which deconstructs all thought, and negates the limitations of specific consciousness: the negation of these limitations of specificity implies the affirmation of liberating infinity. Whatever can be distinctively perceived by the mind is other than the ultimate truth, and is thus to be relinquished. Thought has to give way to being; in other words, ‘mental fabrication’, to quote the Avatamsaka Sutra, is to give way to a state of enlightened being: Having no doubt as to truth, Forever ending mental fabrication, Not producing a discriminating mind: This is awareness of enlightenment. 37 The fact that this absence of ‘discrimination’ is far from a kind of vacuity or thoughtlessness in the conventional sense is brought home by the Sutra of Hui-neng. 38 Referring to the perfect wisdom 36. The Niche of Lights, op. cit., pp. 17–18. 37. The Flower Ornament Scripture—A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, op. cit., p. 292. 38. This sutra has the distinction of being ‘the only sutra spoken by a native of China’, according to Wong Mou-lam, translator of this sutra. The name ‘sutra’ is normally applied only to the sermons of the Buddha, and this shows the high esteem in which this discourse is held in Ch’an (Zen in Japan) Buddhism. 50
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Common Ground Between Islam and Bud
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First published in 2010 by Fons Vit
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Contents, continued Loving Compassi
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In the Name of God, the Compassiona
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Introduction to Common Ground By H.
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Preface by Professor Mohammad Hashi
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Page 24: Common Ground Between Islam and Bud
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c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s
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Epilogue The Common Ground of Sanct
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COMMON GROUND BETWEEN ISLAM AND BUD
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Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

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