False imagination teaches that such things as light and shade, long and short, black and white are different and are to be discriminated; but they are not independent of each other; they are only different aspects of the same thing, they are terms of relation, not of reality. Conditions of existence are not of a mutually exclusive character; in essence things are not two but one. Even Nirvana and Samsara’s [sangsara] world of life and death are aspects of the same thing, for there is no Nirvana except where is Samsara, and no Samsara except where is Nirvana. All duality is falsely imagined. [Trans. D. T. Suzuki]
In terms of practical psychology this means that there is no actual distinction between our ordinary, everyday experience and the experience of Nirvana or spiritual freedom. But for some people this experience is binding and for others liberating, and the problem is to achieve what the Lankavatara calls that “turning about in the deepest seat of consciousness” which effects the transformation.
Now the Mahayana was more thoroughgoing in its statement of this problem than even Vedanta. For what is our ordinary, everyday experience? It is not just our awareness of external circumstances or even such ordinary activities as walking, eating, sleeping, breathing, and speaking; it includes also our thinking and feeling—our ideas, moods, desires, passions, and fears. In its most concrete form ordinary, everyday experience is just how you feel at this moment. In a certain sense Buddhism is very much a philosophy and a psychology of the moment, for if we are asked what life is, and if our answer is to be a practical demonstration and not a theory, we can do no better than point to the moment—now! It is in the moment that we find reality and freedom, for acceptance of life is acceptance of the present moment now and at all times. This is not to give the impression that the psychological process is a succession of lightning-quick acts of acceptance, as if they were hurried jabs with a sword that have to be thrust home before the enemy of “making a virtue of acceptance” has spoiled things by carrying us once again into the vicious circle. Acceptance of the moment is allowing the moment to live, which, indeed, is another way of saying that it is to allow life to live, to be what it is now (yathabhutam). Thus to allow this moment of experience and all that it contains freedom to be as it is, to come in its own time and to go in its own time, this is to allow the moment, which is what we are now, to set us free; it is to realize that life, as expressed in the moment, has always been setting us free from the very beginning, whereas we have chosen to ignore it and tried to achieve that freedom by ourselves.
For this reason Mahayana Buddhism teaches that Nirvana or enlightenment cannot really be attained, because the moment we try to attain it by our own power we are using it as an escape from what is now, and we are also forgetting that Nirvana is unattainable in the sense that it already is. To quote the Lankavatara Sutra:13
Those who are suffering or who fear suffering, think of Nirvana as an escape and a recompense. They imagine that Nirvana consists in the future annihilation of the senses and the sense-minds; they are not aware that…this life-and-death world and Nirvana are not to be separated.
And again:
Some day each and every one will be influenced by the wisdom and love of the Tathagatas of Transformation [Buddhas appearing in the world] to lay up a stock of merit and ascend the stages [of spiritual achievement]. But, if they only realized it, they are already in the Tathagata’s Nirvana, for, in Noble Wisdom [arya-prajna], all things are in Nirvana from the beginning.
Indeed, from beginningless time, Nirvana has been achieved for us and we have only to accept or realize it. It is much the same, psychologically speaking, as the Grace of God in Christianity, but because of our pride we will not recognize it in our experience of this moment and so do not allow ourselves to be free. In the words which Edwin Arnold put into the Buddha’s mouth
Ye suffer from yourselves. None else compels
None other holds you that ye live and die,
And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kiss
Its spokes of agony,
Its tire of tears, its nave of nothingness.
Therefore to those who, in this pride, are trying to use enlightenment as an escape from themselves the Mahayana says:
When people attain Enlightenment but still continue to cherish the notion of Enlightenment, it means that Enlightenment itself has become an obstructing delusion; therefore, people should follow the path to Enlightenment until in their thoughts worldly passions and Enlightenment become one thing.
And again in the Saptasatika:14
Bodhi [Enlightenment] is the five offences, and the five offences are Bodhi.…If there is one who regards Bodhi as something attainable, something in which discipline is possible, that one commits self-arrogance.
From one point of view this is dangerous wisdom. There is no better antidote to spiritual pride, but, on the other hand, it might be used as an excuse for any amount of licentiousness. In Buddhism, wisdom is power and sometimes its symbol is a thunderbolt (dorje)—a gigantic force that may be used for good or ill. For reasons that will shortly appear, I do not feel that it is a force for ill when rightly understood, but Buddhism took no chances and never neglected to keep in the forefront the Buddha’s moral precepts. By themselves these precepts and their observance do not produce that wisdom. But they prepare the ground for it and make man safe for it, disciplining him so that he acquires a taste for morality and becomes less and less likely to use the power of wisdom against his own interests and those of human society. The monastic moral code of Buddhism is perhaps stricter than that of any other religion, and though this code becomes absurd when the secret of that wisdom has been lost, it is tremendously important when the real thing flourishes. Some of us wish that the West would put the same restrictions on the use of the physical powers of science. Sometimes I believe that the Mahayana scriptures were made long and difficult reading so that lazy monks who might try to abuse them would go to sleep in their studies. Even so, there is no doubt that the Hindu mind found a glorious opportunity for subtle hairsplitting in setting out the fine distinctions between Nirvana and sangsara, enlightenment and ignorance, for the Mahayana scriptures form the largest bible in the world. The whole Mahayana Canon comprises some sixteen hundred works, some of the longer ones, of which there are an appreciable number, running into as many as a hundred and twenty volumes! Even so, we are told that certain parts of it have been lost.
Taoism and the I Ching
In form rather than content the native Chinese religion of Taoism presents a refreshing contrast. It has only four important scriptures, all of which are eminently readable, straightforward, and brief; these are the works of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, and Huai-nan Tzu. Its basic principles, however, are so close to those of Buddhism that the two faiths often became blended and were able to improve one another in many ways, especially as to form and method. According to tradition Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, was a contemporary of the Buddha and also of Confucius.15 Although some, after a modern fashion, have denied his existence the story persists that Lao Tzu was a court librarian who, before departing to the western mountains to end his days in retirement, left behind the short collection of sayings known as the Tao Te Ching. Chuang Tzu lived some four hundred years later and stands in somewhat the same relation to Lao Tzu as St. Paul to Jesus Christ; his writings are longer and in some ways more developed than Lao Tzu’s, one of their chief features being a large supply of anecdotes and parables which are an unending feast of wisdom and humor.