Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

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Oneness: The Highest Common Denominator Subhuti: ‘If, O Lord, outside Suchness no separate dharma can be apprehended, then what is that dharma that will stand firmly in suchness, or that will know this full enlightenment, or that will demonstrate this dharma?’ Buddha: ‘Outside Suchness no separate dharma can be apprehended, that could stand firmly in Suchness. The very Suchness, to begin with, cannot be apprehended, how much less that which can stand firmly in it. Suchness does not know full enlightenment, and on the dharmic plane no one can be found who has either known full enlightenment, will know it, or does know it. Suchness does not demonstrate dharma, and on the dharmic plane, no one can be found who could demonstrate it.’ 42 Nobody, not even the Buddha, can ‘demonstrate’ the Absolute, because such a demonstration requires concepts and language, and the Absolute/Suchness transcends all such concepts. For this reason, the Buddha stresses the need to be stripped of all ‘thought-coverings’ (acitta-āvaranah): thought, by its very nature, ‘covers’ and thus obscures the source or substance or root of its own consciousness. It is only when thought assumes the nature of a transparent veil over its own substratum of consciousness that authentic wisdom is attained. If thought is ‘seen through’, then the thinker, the agent of thought, is in a sense extinguished before the source and goal of thought. To say ‘thinker’ is to deny the sole reality of the absolute nature of consciousness—whence the paradox that the Dharma is both ‘known’ by the Buddha and unknown by him; it is both attained and not attained: Therefore, O Sariputra, it is because of his nonattainmentness [sic] that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings … and in the end he attains to Nirvana. 43 Let us again turn to al-Ghazālī, who provides a corresponding formulation, referring not to ‘thought-coverings’ but to ‘individual faculties’. The highest spiritual sciences (al-ma‘ārif, pl. of ma‘rifa) are only revealed to the individual through spiritual states of ‘unveiling’ (mukāshafa), and these, in turn, are predicated upon the extinction 42. Prajnāpāramitā Sutra, A/27:453, cited in ibid., p. 37. 43. Heart Sutra, verses 37–43, cited in ibid., p. 93. 53
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 of the individual’s consciousness. Fanā’ is the essential pre-requisite of this unveiling because: The contingencies of the ego, together with its passions, exert an attraction towards the sensible world, which is a world of error and illusion. The Real unveils itself completely at death, with the cessation of the power of the senses and the imagination which turn the heart towards this lower world … Fanā’ refers to a state wherein the senses are pacified, not preoccupied; and the imagination is in repose, not generating confusion. 44 This may be seen as a mystical commentary on the following verses of the Qur’ān: Whoso migrates for the sake of God will find much refuge and abundance in the earth, and whoso forsakes his home, being a fugitive to God and His Messenger, and death overtakes him, his reward is then incumbent upon God. God is ever Forgiving, Merciful (4:100). The death of the body is prefigured in that death of the lower soul in the state of fanā’. Let us return to Nāgārjūna’s fundamental distinction between the ‘two truths’, as this will help place in context the concordance between the two traditions as regards the conception of the pure Absolute: ‘The teaching of the doctrine by the Buddhas is based upon two truths: truth relating to worldly convention and truth in terms of ultimate fruit.’ 45 It is on the level of conventional truth (samvrti-satyam), that one can situate the explanations pertaining to the whole process of dependent origination, impermanence, and suffering. The truth or reality pertaining to ‘ultimate fruit’ (paramārtha), however, transcends this entire domain. The word ‘fruit’ (artha, Pali: attha), which can also be translated as consequence or result, draws our attention to the existential unfolding of reality consequent upon enlightenment: the discovery of ‘the truth’ or ‘reality’ (satyam) 46 is not to be found on the level of 44. See his treatise Kitāb al-Arba‘īn fī usūl al-dīn (Beirut: Dar al-Afaq al-Abadiyya, 1979), pp. 44–45; and for discussion on this and other similar passages from al-Ghazālī’s works, see Farid Jabre, La Notion de la Ma‘rifa chez Ghazālī (Paris: Traditions les Lettres Orientales, 1958), p. 125. 45. From his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, 24:8, cited by David Kalupahana, Nāgārjūna—The Philosophy of the Middle Way, op. cit., p. 331. 46. As in the Arabic word haqq, the Sanskrit satyam can be translated both in terms of reality and truth. 54
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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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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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