HomeREADING:
The Tathagata's Nirvana is where it is recognized that there is nothing but what is seen of the mind itself; is where, recognizing the nature of the self-mind, one no longer cherishes the dualisms of discrimination; is where there is no more thirst nor grasping; is where there is no more attachment to external things. Nirvana is where the thinking-mind with all its discriminations, attachments, aversions and egoism is forever put away…Nirvana is where…is where compassion for others transcends all thoughts of self…Nirvana is…is where the manifestation of Noble Wisdom that is Buddhahood expresses itself in Perfect Love for all; it is where the manifestation of Perfect Love that is Tathagatahood expresses itself in Noble Wisdom for the enlightenment of all;--there, indeed, is Nirvana!
There are two classes of those who may not enter the Nirvana of the Tathagatas: there are those who have abandoned the Bodhisattva ideals… Then there are the true Bodhisattvas who, on account of their original vows made for the sake of all beings, saying, "So long as they do not attain Nirvana, I will not attain it myself," voluntarily keep themselves out of Nirvana. But no beings are left outside by the will of the Tathagatas; some day each and every one will be influenced by the wisdom and love of the Tathagatas of Transformation to lay up a stock of merit and ascend the stages. But, if they only realised it, they are already in the Tathagata's Nirvana for, in Noble Wisdom, all things are in Nirvana from the beginning.
LANKAVATARA SUTRA
SERMON:
Good Morning!
I want to begin by acknowledging that in today’s sermon I am connecting concepts from two different religious traditions that might seem to be incompatible. At one level, the categories of thought are just too vastly separated to meld, though I believe that in delving deeper into the spiritual message behind or beneath them, they do in fact speak a similar message.
I am speaking to the Middle Eastern thinking that gave is at the heart of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Baha’i Faith traditions and to the South Asian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
In the Middle Eastern theologies a person is born, lives their life and then after death typically is judged on what they have done in life. Based upon that judgment they either enter Heaven or suffer some form of penalty—Hell, Purgatory or extinction.
In the Calvinist tradition, only 144,000 people will get to Heaven, all others are condemned to Hell. Augustine claimed that the number of the saved will be equal to the number of the fallen angels who followed Satan, that when the full complement of the heavenly host is filled by god, the doors will shut. In other mainstream Christian traditions, Heaven is offered to all, but one’s actions decide whether one is admitted. In the Universalist tradition, which forms part of our heritage, all are saved. Everyone ends up, ultimately, in Heaven.
Several points here: each person has a soul and is an entity; when (if) you get to heaven, you are you, though you may be a shining or transformed you. And, each person gets one lifetime to gain salvation.
In the South Asian traditions, life is a cycling wheel of birth, death and rebirth; all living things are caught on this wheel which entails pain and suffering. The goal is to escape that cycle, to escape this material world or Samsara. One builds up Karma (think of it as life credits or life debits) according to whether one engages in good or evil acts. Should you fail to escape you are reborn according to the acts that you did in your previous life; you rise to a higher life level than you were before or you sink to a lower life level. You might be born as a gnat or as a human.
Within Hinduism, if you are born as a human being you will be born into one of four general castes, each with multiple subdivisions. The highest caste, the Brahmans, are ready, if they do well in this life, to ascend to the next and final level, they may escape at the end of this lifetime. If you are a lower caste person, the way to earn credits is to be a good lower caste person, to serve the Brahmans well.
(This clearly is a brief and perhaps quite shallow review, but it is the best I can do this morning.)
Note that there is nothing in what has been said that guarantees ultimate release, and yet there is an implied guarantee in that if you fail you keep getting another chance to change your ways. It may take lifetimes, but no matter who you are and no matter what you do in life you receive another chance. While Hinduism does have heavens and hells, these are temporary places. In essence, in Christian terms, this life is both Hell and Purgatory.
There are many schools of Hinduism, but the Vedanta school is perhaps the most important. This looks to the Vedas and the Upanishads as revealed truth. The Vedanta read the message of the Vedas and Upanishads as being that Brahman is the creator of all, that all souls are portions of him, and that in the end all souls will be absorbed back into Brahman. They differ on whether the souls will remain separate entities or will simply merge back into Brahman like a drop of water into the ocean. Vedanta scholars point to quotes in the Upanishads, especially The four great Vedic statements
“I am Brahman” from The Brhadaranyakopanisad
“This Self is Brahman” from the Mandukyopanisad
“Brahman is Consciousness” from the Aitareyopanisad
And Tat Tvam Asi (“Thou Art That”), the so-called Maha Vakya (great dictum) from the Chandogyopanisad
These all, they say, show that the essence of every person is Brahman.
One of the greatest exponents of Vedanta Philosophy was Sankara who lived in the 700’s, some 12 hundred years after Buddha. In his writing, he compares Brahman and individual souls as a fire and its sparks. He states that “the one highest self which is within all beings appears as individual souls”. So our separation--that is, our separation from Brahman, from the world, from all other living beings—is only apparent and dissolves when we have proper knowledge. Sankara states “Gradually all souls obtain release and so there will finally be an end of the entire Samsara and the Samsara state of all souls”.
It is a bit of a stretch, but hear the similarity to the Universalist view that we are already saved. And Sankara’s teaching sounds very much like the teaching of Origen, the Christian father who died in 232. Origen claimed that all souls were created together and existed in happiness; that they tired of happiness and fell, but only through carelessness. Ultimately, all will be restored to full happiness with God.
It was against the background of Hinduism that Buddhism developed, and it accepted most of the Hindu view of the world and of life. We are trapped in the Samsara and escape is the goal. In the Buddhist tradition that escape leads to Nirvana.
Buddha actually had very little to say about Nirvana itself. The earliest writings have him describe this life, and point to Nirvana as the alternative, but without much description of what Nirvana is. Mostly, it is the cessation of suffering. In the few references to Buddha’s comments on Nirvana he makes in some of the earliest writings, there seems to be no distinction between “the emancipation of heart and mind” on the one hand and Nirvana on the other, as if the process is Nirvana. For example, a famous Buddhist poem translates as:
How transient are all component things.
Growth is their nature and decay:
They are produced, they are dissolved again:
And then is best when they have sunk to rest.
In the Maha Sudassana Jataka Buddha is said to have stated about this poem, “Understand…that ‘then is best when they have sunk to rest”…their sinking to rest, their cessation, comes from the cessation of the whole round of life, and is the same as Nirvana. That and this are one”. “That and this are one” sounds very reminiscent of “Thou Art That”.
So it seems that Nirvana is not a place, and not some positive goal to be reached, it is rather the escape from pain and suffering, from the round of birth, death and rebirth. Buddha did describe it as “neither being nor not-being”. This strikes me as not terribly different from, or at least hinting at a strong similarity to Sankara’s Vedanta religion where souls are absorbed into and disappear into Brahman. The raindrop no longer exists as a separate entity; it is has disappeared into and is now part of a larger existence. If I read both correctly, one becomes part of the oneness of All.
This is not heaven in the Universalist sense, but it is virtually indistinguishable from my Humanist belief that we life briefly and then are reabsorbed into the cosmos from which we arose, our intellect and sense of self dissolving with our life’s breath. {And that is why I must be careful not to be too sure about my interpretation of both Buddhism and Vedanta Hinduism; I may be reading in that which I desire to see. But I think my reading is close to the truth.}
Where Buddhism differs from Hinduism is on the means or path to release and on who is eligible for release and when.
In the Buddhist tradition, the caste system is dispensed with and any person can achieve enlightenment and release in this lifetime, in fact, in this moment. It is Universalist in that sense that Nirvana is offered to all.
But the Universalist question is, “Does everyone reach Nirvana?”. What speaks against universal Nirvana is that one must follow the 8 fold noble path in order to achieve release.
However, as I stated before, the implicit answer is, “Yes” since one gets to keep trying with each new birth.
Combine this with the teaching of the Buddha that new Buddhas arise from time to time “as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men”.
That is, in Buddhist thinking, living things are continually reborn into the world, but so is the message of release. And the compassion of the Buddha almost could not allow anyone fail in the final quest for release.
One modern strain of Buddhism (a mere 800 years old), is the Jodo Shinshu or True Pure Land tradition, which promotes belief in Amida Buddha. One of it priests, Hozen Seki, has said:
“If I believed that there were any condition in Amida’s embrace, I would abandon this ministry…I believe that all beings, when they die, are embraced by the Amida Buddha—cats, dogs, whatever they may be. Nor does it matter if they have never heard of Amida’s teachings or recited the nembutsu”. (The nembutsu is a chant.)
In Pure Land Buddhism, believers are reborn but into the Pure Land of Amida where the normal distractions of this life do not tempt one from the path, and where Buddha and the Boddhisatva’s preach and teach continuously. It is from there that one attains Enlightenment, now easily. (That is, when you die you go to a kind of remedial school.) And there it is, Buddhist Universalism. Ultimately all are “saved”.
Does it have to be Universal? In religion, does everyone have to be saved or find release? Are there not some people who are so evil or do such evil that they should never escape from punishment? And am I not the one to decide who they are? Is that not the question that really underlies the other ones? “Don’t I get to decide who goes to Heaven or Nirvana?”; after all these belong to me, they are my heaven or Nirvana, not God’s or Buddha’s!
While it does not define Nirvana, release or enlightenment, perhaps, maybe even surely, one sign or component of these is that I am not only willing but that I will that every person, every creature should reach release; that I have let go of resentment against those who have harmed me, that I have let go of judgment and condemnation of others. That is the Universalist spirit. It is the Buddhist compassion for all.
For, to paraphrase the Lankavatara Sutra, “no beings are left outside by the will of the Tathagatas; some day I will be influenced by the wisdom and love of the Tathagatas of Transformation to lay up a stock of merit and ascend the stages. But, if I only realised it, I am already in the Tathagata's Nirvana for, in Noble Wisdom, all things are in Nirvana from the beginning.”
And so, may the compassion of Buddha fill me with understanding even for the worst and least deserving of creatures. May I see in myself the same impulses, cravings and desires that I see in them, and so come to know them better. May I find within my self the peace of soul to set myself free from judgment and condemnation. And may we all meet together at that gateway to that place, Heaven or Nirvana or the Cosmos, where all find their peace of heart and mind and soul.
So let it be.
Return to
Home
Return to Sermons Index