Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism
Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism
Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism
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Oneness: The Highest <strong>Common</strong> Denominator<br />
formal thought <strong>and</strong> by the empirically defined individual; rather, it<br />
is the indescribable ‘fruit’ of the experience of enlightenment. The<br />
positive content of this enlightenment—absolute Reality—is thus not<br />
denied when the formal designations of that Reality are undermined,<br />
contradicted or ignored. What is contradicted by the Buddha is the<br />
idea that the ultimate Reality can be adequately designated, contained,<br />
<strong>and</strong> still less realized, on the level of formal thought by the individual,<br />
both being bound up by relativity of nama-rupa (name <strong>and</strong> form).<br />
This explains why in some texts even the idea of ultimate reality being<br />
uncompounded is contradicted:<br />
The Buddhas’ reality is subtle <strong>and</strong> hard to fathom;<br />
No words or speech can reach it.<br />
It is not compounded or uncompounded;<br />
Its essential nature is void <strong>and</strong> formless. 47<br />
Referring to the ultimate reality as uncompounded is an error, not because<br />
the ultimate reality is in fact compounded, but because the very<br />
fact of verbally designating it as uncompounded is already tantamount<br />
to an act of compounding. There is the uncompounded reality, on the<br />
one h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> the description of it as uncompounded: putting the two<br />
together means that one has left the presence of the uncompounded <strong>and</strong><br />
embraced the compounded. The final verse in the passage quoted, ‘Its<br />
essential nature is void <strong>and</strong> formless’, could just as well be contradicted,<br />
for the very same reason as one contradicts the idea of reality being<br />
uncompounded. Holding on to the idea of reality being void or formless<br />
itself undermines the voidness of that reality, <strong>and</strong> acts as a mental<br />
barrier preventing one from being submerged in it. Again, according to<br />
The Flower Ornament Scripture:<br />
Things expressed by words<br />
Those of lesser wisdom wrongly discriminate<br />
And therefore create barriers<br />
And don’t comprehend their own minds.<br />
...<br />
If one can see the Buddha,<br />
One’s mind will have no grasping;<br />
Such a person can then perceive<br />
Truth as the Buddha knows it. 48<br />
47. The Flower Ornament Scripture, op. cit., p. 290.<br />
48. Ibid., p. 376.<br />
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