the eye in a subtler and more indirect way, can apperceive the source of seeing, through a direct and timeless recognition that bypasses the mind.
The process is rather like solving a figure-ground puzzle where it’s difficult to distinguish the image from the background. You pore over the picture with curiosity and perhaps a little perplexity, until you suddenly realize that the vase you’ve been staring at is also two faces touching; once you see the faces, you wonder how you could ever have missed them. Or like rummaging around the house before an important appointment, frantically searching for your keys, only to discover that they were buried in your pocket all along. Or even more embarrassing, like hunting for your sunglasses until someone points out that they’re already perched on top of your head. “Ah, here they are,” you say. “I knew they were there somewhere.” The recognition is immediate and quite ordinary—like opening the door to your home and stepping through.
ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE TRUTHS
Beneath the paradoxical metaphors of the open secret and the gateless gate lies a crucial philosophical distinction common to both Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: the two truths. At the level of absolute, or ultimate, truth, you’re already enlightened, already Buddha, already perfect and completejust the way you are, and everything in every direction shines with the same inherent perfection. Nothing needs to be added or taken away, figured out or improved, because nothing is ever problematic. Past and future, cause and effect, do not exist, only this timeless moment, the eternal Now, in which manifest reality is constantly springing forth in some mysterious and ungraspable way. At the level of relative, or conventional, truth, you may not enjoy the peace and contentment of Buddhahood because you haven’t yet recognized your inherent perfection, and you read teachings and engage in practices in order to experience the ultimate for yourself. Problems are constantly arising and requiring your attention, situations demand improvement, and reality (at least at the superatomic level) closely follows the law of cause and effect.
Both truths apply simultaneously; rather than being mutually exclusive, they’re inseparable, and the goal of the spiritual enterprise is to acknowledge and embrace them both. In fact, they’re merely flip sides of the same nondual reality that includes both the personal realm of thoughts and feelings and the transpersonal realm of pure awareness; the apparent world of work, family, and relationships and the essential world where everything is merely an expression of the One. Even using words like
realms, worlds
, and
levels
gives the mistaken impression that they’re separate in some way, which they’re not. The Heart Sutra says that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form, in a formulation we’ll be exploring again and again. Form is no other than emptiness, and emptiness no other than form. The mind can’t wrapitself around this paradoxical truth—you can only experience it directly, beyond the mind.
----
Breathe and Reflect
Take a few moments to consider this paradox, but don’t try to figure it out with the mind. Instead, let your body resonate to the phrase “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” Notice how your body responds.
----
As an example, take your closest relationship. If you see yourself and your partner or friend only as two separate personalities attempting to learn your life lessons and maximize your potential for growth and development, you will definitely achieve a certain level of intimacy. But you may miss the deeper experience of knowing that the two of you are already essentially one and that love is who you both are fundamentally, beneath the personal issues. When you embrace both truths, you can have the freedom and equanimity that comes with seeing the empty, luminous, dreamlike nature of these two apparently separate selves and at the same time enjoy
The process is rather like solving a figure-ground puzzle where it’s difficult to distinguish the image from the background. You pore over the picture with curiosity and perhaps a little perplexity, until you suddenly realize that the vase you’ve been staring at is also two faces touching; once you see the faces, you wonder how you could ever have missed them. Or like rummaging around the house before an important appointment, frantically searching for your keys, only to discover that they were buried in your pocket all along. Or even more embarrassing, like hunting for your sunglasses until someone points out that they’re already perched on top of your head. “Ah, here they are,” you say. “I knew they were there somewhere.” The recognition is immediate and quite ordinary—like opening the door to your home and stepping through.
ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE TRUTHS
Beneath the paradoxical metaphors of the open secret and the gateless gate lies a crucial philosophical distinction common to both Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: the two truths. At the level of absolute, or ultimate, truth, you’re already enlightened, already Buddha, already perfect and completejust the way you are, and everything in every direction shines with the same inherent perfection. Nothing needs to be added or taken away, figured out or improved, because nothing is ever problematic. Past and future, cause and effect, do not exist, only this timeless moment, the eternal Now, in which manifest reality is constantly springing forth in some mysterious and ungraspable way. At the level of relative, or conventional, truth, you may not enjoy the peace and contentment of Buddhahood because you haven’t yet recognized your inherent perfection, and you read teachings and engage in practices in order to experience the ultimate for yourself. Problems are constantly arising and requiring your attention, situations demand improvement, and reality (at least at the superatomic level) closely follows the law of cause and effect.
Both truths apply simultaneously; rather than being mutually exclusive, they’re inseparable, and the goal of the spiritual enterprise is to acknowledge and embrace them both. In fact, they’re merely flip sides of the same nondual reality that includes both the personal realm of thoughts and feelings and the transpersonal realm of pure awareness; the apparent world of work, family, and relationships and the essential world where everything is merely an expression of the One. Even using words like
realms, worlds
, and
levels
gives the mistaken impression that they’re separate in some way, which they’re not. The Heart Sutra says that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form, in a formulation we’ll be exploring again and again. Form is no other than emptiness, and emptiness no other than form. The mind can’t wrapitself around this paradoxical truth—you can only experience it directly, beyond the mind.
----
Breathe and Reflect
Take a few moments to consider this paradox, but don’t try to figure it out with the mind. Instead, let your body resonate to the phrase “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” Notice how your body responds.
----
As an example, take your closest relationship. If you see yourself and your partner or friend only as two separate personalities attempting to learn your life lessons and maximize your potential for growth and development, you will definitely achieve a certain level of intimacy. But you may miss the deeper experience of knowing that the two of you are already essentially one and that love is who you both are fundamentally, beneath the personal issues. When you embrace both truths, you can have the freedom and equanimity that comes with seeing the empty, luminous, dreamlike nature of these two apparently separate selves and at the same time enjoy
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