APPLYING ILLUSIONIST CONCEPT TO LIFE

Transcending the Mundane World

What does the concept of illusion have to do with our life in this world? How do we make use of it?

Firstly, even though we now know the world is an illusion, it is a very real world from the standpoint of our eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Because of this relative reality, we have to be responsible to our society, family, and company employees; we need to build a career and provide for our family. We have to abstain from destroying and harming life, from stealing and cheating, etc. Knowing everything to be illusory, we must nonetheless distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil.

The Buddha exhorted us to live by the rules in this world, to discern between good and evil, and to be mindful of cause and effect.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

III. The nature of death

The term “thanatology” was first penned by an American surgeon, Dr. Roswell Park, in an essay published in 1912, which eventually became a field for interdisciplinary studies. The history of this field is only a little over one hundred years. The Tibetan Buddhist text of death, Bardo Tödröl or Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, is over a thousand years old. And Buddhist texts that deal with the subject of death have been around for 2500 years. The process of dying is clearly laid out particularly in the Kālacakra Tantra which was expounded by Buddha Sakyamuni in the year before his parinirvana when he was 80 years old.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

The standard set in the texts regarding actual practice, say, the practice of the six paramitas, is to do it while realizing at all times the empty nature of all phenomena. For example, when releasing life of other beings, one should realize that the person who releases (oneself), the beings released and the act of releasing are all without self-nature and hence illusory like dreams. That is, the action performed is free of the concept of a doer, an object and an action. This constitutes the second of the Three Supreme Methods.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

I. The harm of ignorance

In both Mahayana abhidharma and Sarvāstivāda’s abhidharmakosa, the term used for our negative emotions is kleśa or defilement, and different kinds of defilement have been clearly classified. Even in psychology and medicine, there are not nearly as many terms to describe the various aspects of negative emotions. However, no matter how it is classified, the origin of all defilement is ignorance.

Ignorance also means being deluded. Defilement arises because we don’t know the truth of this world and of ourselves. If the truth is known, there will not be defilement—the reason why ignorance is the origin of defilement.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Refute Ignorance

How do we prove the world is an illusion? A hundred years ago, our ancestors relied entirely on logic to make deductions and come to a conclusion. Today, apart from logic, we can also rely on technology to substantiate the conclusion that all phenomena are ultimately empty.

Perhaps one might ask how matter can be ultimately empty when the more it is divided, the more matter is produced.

In philosophy and mathematics, we refer to things sometimes as infinitely large or infinitely small. However, this is an incorrect concept, since an infinitely small particle simply doesn't exist in this world. For instance, a minute can be divided into sixty seconds; a second can be divided into one hundred even smaller units; if we continue in this way, we end up with something we call infinitely small.

In fact, if a second can be divided indefinitely, time will stop permanently on that second, unable to get past it. Yet we all know, in the objective world, there is a time limit to a second. The two obviously contradict each other.

Similarly, if a molecule or electron can be divided indefinitely, then a building and a grain of rice will be equal in weight and mass. However, we know from experience a grain of rice hardly carries any weight or mass because it is comprised of very few molecules and atoms; a building, on the other hand, is massive and heavy because it is made up of a lot of molecules and atoms.

Why is there a contradiction? This is because there is a gap between our subjective consciousness and objective reality.

In other words, even though in concept a second can be divided into ten thousand units, or a hundred thousand units, etc., all of it is illusory. Just like a high-speed electric fan, we do not see the individual blades, only the circular form as a whole. Or a glass we drink from, we do not see the multitude of molecules and atoms which comprise it, or the many electrons which revolve around the nucleus of each atom. Our eye perception is very limited; we cannot see the true reality of phenomena, only the illusion.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today

Inferior practitioners have no regrets when they die. Although they are not accomplished in their practice, they have not committed too much evil karma in their lifetime and have done their best to practice virtue. So they have no complaints or regrets, and are full of confidence at the end of their lives.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On Death And Rebirth-Understanding Death

Before having realized emptiness, it is not possible to truly free mind of concepts. Then, we can just adopt an “imitative” approach to all actions, which is relatively close to but not quite the real thing. For example, after we have learned the analytical techniques of Madhyamaka, we can fully appreciate the idea that phenomena manifest and, at the same time, are devoid of intrinsic reality, like dreams. However, this is just theoretical understanding, not true realization of emptiness. Let us still use the example of liberating animals. At the time of liberating animals, or at least at the time of dedicating merit after completion of the activity, we can employ the Madhyamaka theory to discern the illusory nature of the doer, the object and the action, thereby imitate the real freedom of concepts for the mind. Though this is not true realization, it is already quite close to it and can be used to train the mindset at the initial stage.

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind

The rationale can be applied to many practices, that is, absent the attainment of realization, some practices are just beyond one’s capability, such as the bardo practice. To someone who has gained realization, even normal activities like eating and sleeping can become a form of practice; it is actually much easier to enter samadhi during sleep and to advance the practice at a faster pace. But undertaking the more advanced practices before attaining realization is at best a mere formality. It is therefore imperative to strive to attain realization of emptiness as soon as possible.

~ Depicted from "THE HANDBOOK FOR LIFE"S JOURNEY : On The Three Poisons - How to Confront Anger

Thus, Buddhism believes all phenomena which arise and cease due to causes and conditions are like a dream, like magic, like a water bubble, like shadow. They are all unreal and illusory.

However, from the standpoint of relative truth, if we want to survive and live a normal life, we need the illusion. If this illusion is shattered, the basis of our survival and our beliefs will collapse.

~ Depicted from ARE U READY FOR HAPPINESS : The Significance of Buddhist Philosophy Today