Unavoidable signs of a world-wide collapse in civilization are everywhere to be found. The signs are prolific throughout Europe, The Middle East, the continent of the America’s and into Asia. It would be insulting to the intelligence of my readers to plough through the laundry list of all of the related problems, but at the heart of them all exists one single toxic seed: The seed of “I’m right and you’re wrong.” In different terms, that characteristic is called self-righteousness or simpler yet, “Egotism.” I have written much about this driving force that’s pressing us all toward the abyss, including in particular three books, More Over, The Non-Identity Crisis and The Other Side of Midnight. All of them are cut from the same bolt of cloth. Their consistent theme is one of misidentification: Not understanding the true nature, at the core, of what it means to be human.
A return to a doctrine of one of the most enlightened humans of all time may help in informing this message, and I refer to Nagarjuna (c. 150-250 CE) who made a significant contribution towards grasping our essence, which was later developed as Buddhism, moved from India into China where it linked up with Taoism. The second of these tributaries evolved in China with the life of Bodhidharma who seems to have brought with him Nagarjuna’s teachings, as well as the Lankavatara Sūtra which followed many of the tenets outlined by the consciousness only school of Yogacara. Whereas Nagarjuna is known as the father of Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhidharma is considered as the father of Chan, which subsequently came to be known as Zen. Nagarjuna established the philosophical foundation and Bodhidharma rooted the tenets into psychic turf. The tenet was (and is) known as the “Two-Truth Doctrine” and works out as follows.
Nagarjuna said we all live within two truths: A conventional truth and a sublime truth. The first truth is, and has always been, clearly evident. The second truth is not, and has never been evident, yet the second is the source of the first and these two are irrevocably cemented together. His exact words were, “Without knowing how they (sic, truths) differ, you cannot know the deep; Without relying on conventions, you cannot disclose the sublime; Without intuiting the sublime, you cannot experience freedom.”
The first truth (and surprisingly the second as well) is binary, meaning composed of two dimensions clearly distinct and opposite from each other. This is the basis for discrimination (or perhaps in less inflammatory terms), the ability to discern differences between one thing and another, such as right and wrong. And when the matter of self-centered judgement is added to this truth, the result is selfishness, opposition, inflexibility and in many cases violence. This is the realm of conditions, one set of conditions set against another set, and since conditions are, by nature always in flux it is impossible to remain steady without judgement.
Then according to Nagarjuna, we must become aware that this conditional realm is different from the realm of the sublimely unconditional. The curious observation about this awareness is that, since these two realms are polar, the realm of the unconditional is not binary, yet the relationship between the first and the second is. The unconditional is the realm of unity, tranquility and equity, whereas the realm of the conditional is one of disunity, hostility and selfishness. Unfortunately, we average humans are not even aware of the realm of the unconditional sublimity and assume all that exists is the realm of conditionality. That’s the first error of Nagarjuna’s doctrine: not knowing they are different, because knowing anything requires contrast, but even when recognizing there is a second truth (and how they are different), that kind of knowing remains a figment of the imagination, in other words, rational.
The second, and most important aspect of his doctrine, is that so long as we don’t “intuit” the sublime, we will never gain freedom and thus remain in a bondage, governed by discriminatory conflict. Now the interesting thing about intuition is that it is a transrational (metaphysical) experience of emersion into pure, unapplied consciousness. Applied consciousness is one of rational distinction, judging one thing in contrast to another, and nearly without exception ending up in conflict. However, while in a state of pure, non-applied consciousness, there is nothing to compare since it is a realm of united, unconditionality, where we experience oneness with all.
Sadly, the major source of conflict in the world today (and perhaps forever) is rooted in the three political/religious combinations of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, all of which share common ideas regarding God and our human beginnings, while none of them practices the peace to which they aspire. Religion, in the ordinary sense, by the assessment of many, is the major source of continuing violence throughout time. In the words of Mark Twain, “Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out...and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel…And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for ‘the universal brotherhood of man’—with his mouth.”
