by Tang Huyen
In February 2004, Tang Huyen — a Vietnamese-born Buddhist scholar who posted prolifically to talk.religion.buddhism through the early 2000s — used a CNN report on a star being consumed by a black hole as a launching point for a dense philosophical argument. The black hole, invisible yet inferred from its effects on surrounding matter, struck him as the perfect image of Christian negative theology: God known only through his manifestations, never in his essence.
From there Tang moves to the central debate in East Asian Buddhism: the two competing theories of Buddha-nature proposed by Japanese scholar Shiro Matsumoto. The "Immanence theory" holds that Buddha-nature is an inner principle dwelling within beings — a Buddhist version of the Hindu ātman. The "Manifestation theory" holds that Buddha-nature is already fully expressed as all phenomenal reality, mountains and rivers and walls and tiles included. Tang argues for the latter: the ultimate is not a hidden substrate accessible only through traces, but the open surface of experience itself.
This is a characteristic Tang Huyen post: rigorous citations (Samyutta Nikaya, Komazawa University journals, Hui-chung, Dōgen, Hsüan-sha), a cross-traditional argument that ranges from patristic theology to Chan masters, and a conclusion that refuses mystification. The ultimate is already here. We do not need to go anywhere else.
CNN reports on a star being eaten by a black hole, and adds:
"Black holes can't be seen, because once matter or light is trapped in one, it cannot escape. Astronomers infer the existence of black holes by noting flare activity around them and also by measuring the speed with which nearby stars and gas orbit. Just before disappearing into a black hole, material is accelerated to nearly light-speed."
This is the direct parallel to the standard negative theology, that God is unknown in his essence (what he is, Latin quid est) but known only in his existence (that he is, quia est), and not known in his essence (Greek ousia) but only in his manifestations or effects (theophania, energeia, this latter often mistranslated as energies, but should be acts, as in acts of God).
Of course the black holes themselves are not completely unknown, as scientists hypothesise that they are made of collapsed particles in extreme condensation, and therefore have extreme gravity, etc., which explains why other things are sucked in from afar and absorbed, etc. But they cannot be seen directly, just as theologians on one hand say that God (in negative theology) cannot be known, yet on the other speculate like mad on him, so in the end he's not quite as unknown as they first make him out to be.
Our very own Toshu (John Neatrour, President of the Association of all Buddhist Organizations in the greater Chicago area, trained and ordained in ancient Soto Zen monasteries of Japan, Kyosi of the Soto Zen School), said (2002-09-01):
"so yes Nirvana is outside the aggregates but only leaves traces of deconditioning within."
Which is his version of the Christian theory of the acts (energeiai, singular energeia, wrongly translated as energies) of God, acts which are the only things we can know of God, who otherwise remains wholly outside of the reach of our knowledge. The Buddha clearly said on the contrary that Nirvana is experienceable, and experienceable as peace, happiness and security.
"Monks! Joy (piti) arises in a monk who, having extinguished the cankers (khina-asava), reflects on the mind liberated from desire, reflects on the mind liberated from hatred, reflects on the mind liberated from delusion. (Ya kho bhikkhave khinavasassa bhikkhuno raga-cittam vimuttam paccavekkhato, dosa-cittam vimuttam paccavekkhato, moha-cittam vimuttam paccavekkhato uppajjati piti)" SN, IV, 236 (36, 29).
Shiro Matsumoto, "Critiques of Tathagatagarbha Thought and Critical Buddhism", Journal of Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Buddhism, Komazawa University, No. 33, Oct 2002, 378–360, here 364–363 mentions two Tathagatagarbha theories, "Buddha-nature Immanence theory" and "Buddha-nature Manifestation theory", then says: "The former corresponds to Indian Tathagatagarbha theory, itself Buddhist version of the 'atman' theory of Hinduism, according to which Buddha-nature ... is considered to dwell within the bodies of sentient beings." "The second theory, i.e., 'Buddha-nature Manifestation theory' is Chinese development of Indian Tathagatagarbha thought, according to which Buddha-nature is already manifested as all phenomenal existences, including non-sentient beings such as trees and stones. In other words, phenomenal things, as such, are regarded as Buddha-nature itself, and are, as it were, totally absolutized."
He then proceeds to quote from Chinese Chan masters and Japanese Zen masters.
Hui-chung: "Non-sentient things such as walls and tiles are all the mind of the old Buddha."
Dōgen: "Everything is Buddha-nature."
There is nothing that is "outside the aggregates but [that] only leaves traces" in here, but everyday things like walls and tiles, and everything. The ultimate is what appears (let us remember that to phainomenon in Greek means what appears). We don't need to go anywhere else, as it is already fully manifest in our sensation.
In another article, "Critical Considerations of Zen Thought", Annual Report of the Zen Institute, Komazawa University, No. 10, Mar 1999, 238–217, the same author presents the same dichotomy in almost the same words, and adds at 222 a very telling point: "It is to be noted that Buddha-nature Immanence theory is obliged to have the dualistic structure, like the general idea of the 'atman' theory ... On the contrary, Buddha-nature Manifestation theory has the structure of extreme monism, where all distinctions, including that between body and soul, are not admitted. Because phenomenal existences or things are, as such, absolutized by the theory, it seems clear that the theory is an ultimate form or an extremity of the theory of 'affirming the realities'."
He then quotes Hsüan-sha: "Mountain is mountain. River is river. There is no place, in the whole world of ten quarters, that is not true." And he comments: "Here every phenomenal existence, especially insentient being, is affirmed as absolute."
On 221 he further quotes Dōgen, this time against the Manifestation theory: "Some people say that to see mountains and rivers is to see Tathagatas. They do not know the way of Buddhas and Patriarchs."
Matsumoto's interpretative English words are somewhat extreme, like "absolutized" and "absolute", but he does present the right idea, namely that for some Chan masters, what is manifest to us in our phenomenal life, however humble, is already as real and ultimate as we're ever to get, from mountains and rivers right down to walls and tiles. (Let us remember again that to phainomenon in Greek means what appears). Nothing that affects us in sensation is untrue, so long as we don't inflict our interpretation on it. And if we leave it to bloom forth on its own accord, without messing around with it, it's as true and ultimate as we are ever to get. And we don't need to go anywhere else (like some state that is outside the aggregates [outside of experience] but that only leaves traces behind) to get it, for it is already all around us, immediately, gaplessly, up front.
This Manifestation theory is at antipodes with negative theology (Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Maximus the Confessor, etc.) and with the theory of Nirvana outside of the aggregates (outside of experience) and leaving only traces behind of our very own Toshu Roshu Tohu Bohu.
Tang Huyen
Colophon
Posted by Tang Huyen to talk.religion.buddhism, alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, alt.zen, and alt.buddha.short.fat.guy on 20 February 2004. Tang Huyen was a Vietnamese-born Buddhist practitioner and scholar who was one of the most substantive voices on the Buddhist newsgroups in the early 2000s, contributing careful cross-traditional scholarship to the often fractious discussions of the period.
This post is a characteristically rigorous exercise in cross-traditional comparison: patristic negative theology (Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Maximus the Confessor), black hole astrophysics, Samyutta Nikaya, and contemporary Japanese Buddhist scholarship (Shiro Matsumoto's Komazawa University articles on Tathagatagarbha). The argument throughout is that the "Manifestation theory" of Buddha-nature — the Chan view that the ultimate is fully expressed in the phenomenal world of mountains, rivers, walls and tiles — is more faithful to early Buddhist teaching than any theology of a hidden, transcendent substrate known only through its traces.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
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