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Things Are Not as They Seem, Nor Are They Otherwise

As students of Buddhism, we sometimes tend to divide the world into two aspects: the fundamental and the relative. To this division, we may add the ideas that the fundamental characterized by unity, while normally hidden from our view, is actually what is most real, true, and therefore where we seek liberation, while the all-too-familiar relative in which we live with its multiplicity is nonetheless illusory, the source of our bondage, and so what we want to escape. As usual with most everything that is important, it is not so simple. The fundamental and the relative are inextricably linked in every event of our lives, a linkage suggested by the sometimes-used phrase “Things are not as they seem,” referring to the fundamental, and “nor are they otherwise,” referring to the relative. At the November Sanghapala First Tuesday Gathering in Berkeley, Ajahn Amaro addressed the issue of learning how to live with the relative while seeking the fundamental and not rejecting either. Ajahn was accompanied on this visit by Anagārika Sean.

In past Dhamma talks at the First Tuesday Gatherings, Ajahn Amaro has often referred to the notion that, fundamentally, almost everything we believe about ourselves is just a collection of ideas that through sufficient repetition in our minds become accepted as what is true. Similarly, all the conventions of the society in which we live are only agreements that we all accept in order to function harmoniously, but we forget this origin of convenience and take the agreements as statements about reality. Ideas about ourselves and the conventions of society can converge in statements like “I am a successful person” [because I have accumulated great sums of money and society values rich people]. And so it goes. This evening, a question about Stream-Entry during the 5 PM informal tea provided an opportunity to re-examine this theme.

In answering the question, Ajahn Amaro described the three fetters overcome by the Stream-Enterer, finishing with attachment to rites and rituals, which Ajahn broadened to include the conventions of society. During the later Dhamma talk, Ajahn Amaro elaborated on the meaning of release from attachment ot rites and rituals, starting by wishing us a Happy New Year for 2553 (the year just begun in the Buddhist calendar), thereby illustrating that dates and calendar systems are just human constructions. Ajahn then worked his way through several examples of conventions that have meaning only because we agree to give them meaning: terms like “First Tuesday Gathering,” the “correct” side of the road to drive on, university degrees and certificates, religious systems, the value of money and more arcane financial instruments, and many more. In the same way, descriptions about ourselves lack absoluteness. Ajahn Chah used to tell those in his monastery, “There really are no monks or nuns here,” but there is no difference when we insert “man” or “woman,” “Buddhist” or “Christian,” “American” or “British,” or any other terms we used to describe ourselves into Ajahn Chah’s assertion. These are just examples of conventional terms of identification used to facilitate functioning in the group.

At the same time, after some reflection, when we realize that we been buying into ideas and conventions that lack a fundamental basis, it doesn’t work for us to simply stand up straight, take a deep breath, and march out resolving to no longer be bound by what we see as arbitrary rules of behavior. What if we drove our cars on the “wrong” side of the road. Even if there fundamentally is no right and wrong side of the road, we’d be inviting collisions. What would happen if we used the public restrooms reserved for the opposite sex? Even if fundamentally there are no men and women, we’d still get into trouble. The Buddha’s solution was to teach how to use conventions without being bound by them. “Vijjācarana sampanno” (impeccable in conduct and understanding) from the morning chant “Homage to the Buddha” sets the theme of a middle way between attaching and clinging to practices (as in rites and rituals) and to conventions as if they were absolute truth and throwing them out.

To the rational mind, a paradox seems to arise in this teaching: conventions are empty of intrinsic value but still matter completely. Ajahn Amaro illustrated the matter with a reference to one of Ajahn Sumdeho’s favorite Ajahn Chah teachings, paraphrased as “Practicing Dhamma is all about letting go” (a practice with roots in the fundamental), “whereas practicing Vinaya is all about holding on” (a practice with roots in the relative), “but when you figure out how to make these work together, then you’ll be OK.” In other words, acting in harmony with the way of the universe requires accommodation of both the fundamental and the relative. Ajahn Chah well illustrated in himself the ability to live this paradox. He was known for running a strict monastery, and even though he lived by the rules, he was unfettered by them. Conventions were not limiting.

Attaining this ability begins with the familiar practice of examining our experience to uncover the beliefs and the conventions that we unconsciously cling to as what is so and the habitual patterns through which we manifest the clinging. With the reflective wisdom of which Ajahn Pasanno spoke to the Gathering in October, we can develop an understanding of how we buy-in to these beliefs and conventions and then move to breaking the patterns.

“Look at how I did that!”
“Look at how I reacted to that!”
“Look at how I bought into that!”

With the beginning of wisdom, we allow a little bit of space around our experience. This small amount of freedom leads to breaking the bonds that ties us to the beliefs and conventions, while at the same time, they free us to use the conventions without being encumbered by them, without fighting them.

How does one apply this understanding to the “real” world in situations when passions are swirling and the opportunity for getting caught up in them and losing the Dhamma perspective looms large. A question from the audience at the end of the Dhamma talk provided an opportunity to examine this challenge by bringing up a recent and contentious event in the world of the Thai Forest Tradition. Keeping to the theme of the evening, Ajahn Amaro’s counsel was to take advantage of the reflective wisdom that comes from examining one’s views as a way to discern what is at work within us, as a way of helping us know how we really feel. Reflections like “Right now, it feels like this” and “How is the situation affecting me” are more helpful than immediately plunging into the fray, speculating about possible courses of action, possible outcomes, and the like. Once one is grounded in wisdom, then one can ask oneself, “What can I do?” In this way, one has a sense of where one is jumping before one jumps, advice that reminded me of an industrial or laboratory safety expert counseling “never put your feet where your eyes haven’t been first.”