by Tang Huyen
"There is no more secret to Buddhism than that. Ultimately one makes one's mind open, transparent and inviting. One opens up in openness, transparence, invitation, without putting up a resistance to anything."
The common idea of a God who is not only non-personal but also actively impersonal is that he is the universal basis or substance (in the most general sense) that lies at the bottom of the world and that specifies itself into the details of the world, by means of agglutination or solidification — gelling. The backward path to him is the reverse, the fluidification of the details of the world that were solidified during its creation. Hegel has the expression: Flüssigwerden. The process in both directions is wholly impersonal. The process is physical in Hinduism, mental in Buddhism.
Here is A. K. Warder's translation of the Buddhist cosmogony, from his Indian Buddhism:
When the universe is evolving the majority of beings pass away from their world-of-radiance bodies and come to this world. They remain for a very long time made of mind, feeding on joy, self-luminous, living in the sky and staying beautiful. At that time, there is just one mass of water, obscurity, the darkness of obscurity. The Sun and Moon are not discerned, nor the constellation of stars, nor day and night, nor the month and the fortnight, nor the year and the seasons, nor male and female. Beings are classified simply as "beings."
Then at some time or other, after a long time, an "enjoyment earth" became spread out over the water for those beings. Just like the skin on hot milk as it cools, so it appeared. It had colour, scent and taste. Its colour was like that of ghee or butter. Its taste was like that of pure, sweet, wild honey.
Then a certain being, being wanton, thought "Sir! What can this be?" and tasted the enjoyment earth with a finger. As it tasted the enjoyment earth with its finger it was pleased, and desire (tṛṣṇā) arose within it. Other beings following the idea of that being tasted the enjoyment earth with their fingers. As they tasted the enjoyment earth with their fingers they were pleased, and desire arose within them. Then those beings fell upon it, breaking it in pieces with their hands in order to eat it. Because of this their self-luminosity disappeared.
When the self-luminosity disappeared the Sun and Moon appeared, the constellation of stars appeared and days and night were discerned. As the months and fortnights were discerned, so were the year and the seasons. To this extent the universe evolved again.
These beings continued for a long time feeding on the enjoyment earth, and as they did so "roughness" appeared in their bodies. Colour and "discolouration" were also discerned, so that some were beautiful and some ugly. The beautiful ones despised the ugly, and in consequence of this pride and arrogance the enjoyment earth disappeared. Afterwards a fungus appeared on the ground, like a mushroom, which had a similar taste to the enjoyment earth, and beings fed for a long time on that. As they did so their bodies became still rougher and more various in colour, and the beautiful ones became more proud and arrogant until the fungus disappeared. Then a creeper appeared, with the same delicious taste. The same process continued and it too disappeared.
Then when the creeper disappeared, a rice plant appeared for those beings, which ripened without cultivation, was without any husk or coating on its grains, was sweet scented and produced rice. If this was collected in the evening for the evening meal, it had grown again and was ripe in the morning. If it was collected in the morning for the morning meal, it had grown again and was ripe in the evening. No reaping was discerned. Then those beings fed on the rice which ripened without cultivation — their bodies became still rougher and more coloured and discoloured, and the characteristic of the female appeared in the woman, and of the male in man. And a woman thought about a man excessively, and a man about a woman. Thinking about each other excessively, passion occurred in them and lust arose within their bodies. Through the condition of lust they indulged in the natural law (dharma) of sex. When other beings saw them indulging in the nature of sex, some threw mud, some threw ash, some threw cow dung, crying: "Perish! Dirty!" "How could a being do that sort of thing to a being?" Now at present, too, in some countries, when a bride is led out some people throw mud, some ash, some cow dung. So they follow ancient tradition, a primeval expression, but they do not grasp its meaning.
What was agreed to be bad (a-dharma, bad custom, unlawful) at that time, is at present agreed to be good (dharma, good custom, lawful). At that time those who indulged in the nature of sex were not allowed to enter a village or town for a month or two months.
So, here is one very wise observation that smacks of modern anthropology: "What was agreed to be bad (a-dharma, bad custom, unlawful) at that time, is at present agreed to be good (dharma, good custom, lawful)." Convention changes over time, and can reverse itself, from one extreme to the other, back and forth. People follow ancient tradition, a primeval expression, but they do not grasp its meaning.
One inference that can be made is very profound and has its equivalent in Stoic cosmology: in the beginning of each cycle, beings are endowed with self-luminosity and are very flexible, and become coarser, thicker, more rigid as time goes on.
Which implies its contrary: to regain the self-luminosity of the beginning, one makes oneself less coarse, less thick, less rigid, though one does so only in mind.
Which is the Buddhist training course in a nutshell. Ultimately one makes one's mind open, transparent and inviting, that's all. One opens up in openness, transparence, invitation, without putting up a resistance to anything. One opens up in non-knowledge and non-resistance — if one pretended to know ahead of time what one was to open up to, that would be to put up a box for what one wants to open up to to fit into, and that would be resistance and not non-resistance. There is no more secret to Buddhism than that.
Colophon
Posted to talk.religion.buddhism on 27 July 2008, in the "Voo-dooy / controlling interests" thread. Author: Tang Huyen. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.
The cosmogony TH quotes is from A. K. Warder, Indian Buddhism (Motilal Banarsidass, 1970, 3rd ed. 2000), translated from Pāli sources including the Aggañña Sutta (DN 27). Warder's observation about convention reversing — what was a-dharma is now dharma — is one of those moments where the ancient canon reads as contemporary anthropology. TH's theoretical frame (gelling/Flüssigwerden/ungelling) links Buddhist soteriology to Hegel's cosmological vocabulary, with the key distinction: Hinduism's reversal is physical, Buddhism's is mental. The "opening up in non-knowledge and non-resistance" formula is the concise technical statement of this and recurs throughout the later corpus.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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