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Transcript of Thich Nhat Hanh English Dharma Talks
109 A New Teaching on the Twelve Nidanas
By Thich Nhat Hanh
Publish in the Mindfulness Bell # 63 Summer 2013
We know that there is
a dimension of reality called the historical dimension. We live in our time; we
live in history. Therefore, in the historical dimension, we recognize birth and
death, being and nonbeing, you and I, as different things. The father is not
the son. The father has one passport, the son has another passport.You cannot
mix them. The left is not the right, the above is not the below. That is what
happens in the historical dimension.
In the historical
dimension, we see things as separate; they exist outside of each other. Father
is outside of son. A cloud is outside a flower. That is what we call the
conventional truth. The conventional truth is helpful; it works in the
historical dimension. It’s like classical science represented by Newton. We can
apply that kind of science in technology and so on.
But now we have
another kind of science, quantum physics, that goes deeper, and we begin to
discover another kind of truth. In quantum physics, things are quite different.
In classical physics, a wave can only be a wave; it cannot be a particle. But
in quantum physics, a wave can be a particle and a particle can be a wave. And
a particle can be everywhere at the same time, not just in one place. Its
nature is non-local. So this other kind of science seems to contradict the
truth seen in the historical dimension.
In meditation, we
also see two kinds of truth. We see the conventional truth, but if we look
deeper, we can see differently. We see that the cloud is not outside of the
flower and the father is not outside of the son. Looking deeply into the son,
you see the father. There is a way of practice that leads us from the
historical dimension to the ultimate dimension.
In the ultimate
dimension, we touch the ultimate truth, where you cannot take the left out of
the right, where you cannot take the father out of the son, because things
inter-are. In order to understand, to touch this ultimate dimension, we have to
learn how to release the notions that we use in conventional truth.
What the Buddha said
concerning the genesis of the world is very simple. He did not say that the
world is created by God. He said that the world comes into being because of the
interconnection between things. He said: This is because that is. So simple.
This is the teaching of genesis in Buddhism.
In Plum Village we
have a simple image to illustrate this: the left and the right sides of a sheet
of paper. The left cannot be by itself alone. The left has to lean on the right
in order to be. The right has to lean on the left in order to be. They are
connected. Without the left, there is no right; without the right, there is no
left. This is because that is. The same is true with above and below, father
and son, and flower and cloud. Everything.
The Buddha taught
that in the historical dimension, we follow the principle of identity: “A” is
only “A,” it cannot be “B.” He used the notions of the historical dimension to
lead us slowly into the ultimate dimension. That is skillful means. We begin by
believing this is not that. But the Buddha slowly shows us that this is in
that. He uses the notion of this and that to lead us to a dimension where this
and that are one, are inside of each other. The notion of being and nonbeing
can be removed. This is the teaching of conditioned genesis, the teaching of
inter-arising, of co-arising.
This teaching uses
notions and concepts to help us release notions and concepts. It has the power
to connect us with ultimate truth. The teaching has to be careful, leading us
slowly to the ultimate dimension. In this way it can connect us with the
ultimate truth.
Interbeing
In the ultimate
truth, we use words like “emptiness.” “Emptiness” is an expression that is
equivalent to “God.” God is the ultimate, emptiness is the ultimate. Emptiness
is the absence of notions and concepts. You cannot describe God with notions
and concepts. You cannot say that God is or is not. To say that God exists is
nonsense, to say that God doesn’t exist is nonsense, because notions of being
and nonbeing cannot be applied to the ultimate. The notion of being and
nonbeing can be used in the historical dimension, but not in the ultimate
dimension. We need some skillfulness to move from the historical to the
ultimate. The term “interbeing” is skillful, because it still uses the word
“being,” but it helps us to get out of the notion of being.
To get out of the
notion of being and nonbeing, you use the insight of interbeing. Nothing can be
by itself alone. Everything has to inter-be with everything else. So the notion
of interbeing, although it is a notion, helps to lead you to the ultimate
truth. It helps you to be connected with emptiness. Interbeing means you cannot
be by yourself alone; this is because that is. You can only inter-be.
Interbeing is a kind of notion that can help you get the insight that will free
you from the notion of being and nonbeing. Interbeing can connect the
conventional truth to the ultimate truth, so it can lead you to emptiness.
Sunyatapratisamyukta.
Pratisamyukta is “connected with.” Sunyata is “emptiness.” Connected with
emptiness. There is a kind of wisdom called wisdom of adaptation, or wisdom of
conformity, that helps you to connect with emptiness. This wisdom is the
insight into interbeing or conditioned genesis. With this insight, you are on
the way that can lead you to the ultimate truth. You need the wisdom of
adaptation because this teaching can help you conform and be connected with the
ultimate truth. So the Buddha and the patriarchs deliver the teaching on
interbeing that can adapt and connect you with the ultimate truth represented
by emptiness.
Restoring the Meaning
of the Nidanas
The teachings of the
twelve nidanas, or twelve links, presented in many sutras do not seem to help
us connect with the ultimate truth. They belong to the category of conventional
truth. They aim more at explaining samsara, reincarnation. That is why we have
to restore the nidanas so they will lead us to the ultimate truth. Instead of
twelve nidanas, we can use five nidanas; that is enough.
The twelve nidanas
begin with avidya, which is ignorance, delusion. Delusion is the better word.
According to this teaching, avidya gives rise to samskara, which has been
translated as “impulses,” “action,” or “disposition.” Action, here, is like
karma. With karma, there are three kinds of action: action by the body, action
by the mouth, and action by the mind. So avidya, delusion, gives rise to wrong
action, wrong impulses, the kind of energy that is blind and that will bring
suffering.
Then because of
samskara, there is vijnana, consciousness. Based on consciousness, there will
be body and mind, nama-rupa: name-form. Name means mind, form means body.
Because we have body and mind, we have six sense organs and their objects.
Sadayatana, sense organ and object. Mental consciousness is one of the six.
Because we have the sense organs and their objects, we have contact, sparsa.
Contact, touch.
Because of contact,
there will be feeling, vedana. Because there is feeling, there is
attachment,trsna. Craving. Because you have craving, you are caught. Upadana.
Grasping. Because there is grasping, there is existence. Bhava. Being. Because
there is being, you have to be born, jati. And to suffer samsara,
reincarnation. Because you are born, you have to grow old and die,jaramarana.
So that is the
classical way of presenting the nidanas. But as we study Buddhism, we hear the
Buddha speaking of nidanas in different ways. Sometimes he says there are only
three, sometimes four, sometimes five, sometimes six. Twelve is only one of the
ways to explain co-arising, interconnection.
When Thay was a
student in the Buddhist Institute, he learned that these twelve links represent
three times and two layers of cause and effect. The first two links, the first
two nidanas, belong to the past. For example, in a former life I became deluded
and did many actions, so I had to be reborn into this life. This life is
represented by eight nidanas: consciousness, name-form, sense organs, contact,
feeling, craving, grasping, being. After this body disintegrates, I will
continue with the next life; I will be born again and die again. It’s very
clear that the twelve nidanas, when taught in this way, aim to explain
reincarnation, rebirth, but are not aiming to help us touch the ultimate
dimension.
As a student, I also
learned that there are two layers of cause and effect. What I have done in the
past is the cause: the effect of those actions is this consciousness, this body
and mind, these six organs, this contact, and these feelings. Because of the
deluded actions in the past, I had to inherit all this. This is the first layer
of cause and effect. Because I produce craving and grasping, and create being,
these three nidanas serve as cause again, which will lead to the effect of
birth and death in the future. This is the second layer.
This is the teaching
of three times and two layers of cause and effect. As a student, I believed my
teacher and I accepted the teaching, but as I continued to learn and to
practice, I found that this teaching can be used only on the level of
conventional truth. It is not Buddhism at its best, because its aim is not to
lead us to ultimate truth, but only to explain the mechanism of rebirth.
Correcting
Misinterpretations of the Buddha’s Teachings
Thay has found many
problems with the traditional interpretation of the Buddha’s teaching. The
first problem is that we have to understand the word “samskara” differently.
The basic meaning is “formation.” “Samskara” means phenomena, things. A flower
is a samskara. A tree is a samskara. A body is a samskara. Anger is a samskara.
Anything that relies on everything else to express itself is a samskara. That
is why the word “formation” is a very good English translation of “samskara.”
We know that all
formations are impermanent. The flower is a formation because it is made only
of non-flower elements. The non-flower elements have come together and produced
the flower. The flower has no private essence, no nature of its own. Its
existence depends entirely on non-flower elements, and if you remove any of the
non-flower elements, the flower cannot be. A flower is a formation. The same
thing is true with a cloud, with a human being, with a tree, with everything.
Everything we see is a formation. That is the actual meaning of the word
“samskara.”
Because of our
ignorance, we see formations as having a separate existence, as having their
own nature. We see formations as existing outside of each other, independently.
The world we are observing in us and around us is the world of our mental
construction rather than the world of reality itself. We don’t see samskara as
they truly are. So samskara are formations, understood as selves and dharmas,
as things that exist by themselves, having their own true nature, and they exist
outside of each other. We see things that way because of delusion.
In the case of an
enlightened being, a buddha or a bodhisattva, delusion is transformed, and when
the darkness is removed, the light is there. So in the case of the Buddha,
instead of having avidya, he has vidya — wisdom, or insight. He still sees
samskara, formation, but when he looks at a flower, he sees the flower in the
light of interconnection, inter-arising, co-arising. He sees the flower not as
its own self, or as something that can exist by itself. He can see all things,
all formations, as they are: namely, without self, without permanence.
We also see samskara,
but we see a formation as permanent, as having a self which exists separately
from other formations. So there are two ways of looking at samskara, the
enlightened way and the deluded way.
Because we see
samskara as having true nature, we solidify our delusion; and because of our
delusion, we see formations as having separate existence, self, and permanence.
Samskara, for us, is having a self and an own nature; samskara, for the Buddha,
does not have self or its own separate nature. That is the difference between
delusion and wisdom.
The Five Skandhas Are
Not of Themselves Suffering
The second weakness
of this presentation is that if we have craving, grasping, and attachment to
being, we blame our five skandhas as the cause. It is taught that because we
have a consciousness, a body and mind, six sense organs, contact, and feelings,
we have craving and gasping and being. This is the second set of cause and
effect.
But look at a Buddha.
He also has consciousness, he also has body and mind. He also has six sense
organs, contact, and feeling. But why doesn’t he have craving? We have craving
and aversion, like and dislike. When you like this world, you want to survive.
When you hate this life, you want to commit suicide. So you crave for being or
you crave for nonbeing. Those who suffer so much, who do not like to be alive,
they also have a craving — craving for nonbeing, very tempting sometimes.
A buddha has all
these links, but he can produce freedom, non-attachment, compassion, loving
kindness. So you cannot blame your body and mind for your afflictions. That is
the second shortcoming of the teaching.
When I see the
suffering all around me, if I have mindfulness and concentration, I allow
myself to get in touch with the suffering, and I allow compassion and loving
kindness to be born. These are very good things to allow to develop. That is
why to say that contact and feelings can only bring craving and grasping is not
true. It can bring enlightenment, it can bring understanding, it can bring
love. That is why the traditional teaching on the twelve nidanas aims only at
explaining reincarnation, samsara, transmigration, and can be used only on the
level of the conventional truth. It does not belong to the set of teachings and
practice that can be adaptive and connected with the ultimate truth.
So you have delusion.
You look at a formation and you don’t see its true nature. You see formations
as having a self, as being permanent, as existing outside of each other. When
you see formations in that way, as things that exist outside of each other, you
think that they have a beginning and end, that there is birth and death.
However, when you contemplate a cloud, you see that it is not possible for a
cloud to die. To die means that from something you become nothing, and that is
not the case of the cloud. A cloud cannot become nothing. A cloud can become
snow or rain, or ice, but it’s impossible for a cloud to die.
With wisdom, the
Buddha looked at formations and saw that their true nature is the nature of
no-birth and no-death. If you touch the nature of no-birth and no-death in a
formation, you are truly seeing that formation as it is. Science is capable of
finding no-birth and no-death. The first law of thermodynamics, the law of the
conservation of matter and energy, tells us that the nature of matter and
energy is no-birth and no-death. You cannot create matter; you cannot destroy
matter. You cannot create energy; you cannot destroy energy. You can only
transfer matter into energy, energy into another kind of energy, or energy into
matter. But you do not have the power to create new matter, or to destroy
energy. In this way, physicists, chemists, scientists can understand the nature
of no-birth and no-death.
In the realm of
meditation, if we look deeply with mindfulness and concentration, we can see
the nature of no-birth and no-death of a cloud. A cloud hasn’t come from
nothing, from nonbeing; a cloud has come from steam or from water.
The notion of birth
and death always goes along with the notion of being and nonbeing. The
shortcoming of this presentation is to blame suffering on being. But how can
being be possible without nonbeing? So being, here, should be understood as
being and nonbeing. In fact, we suffer not because of being, but because of the
notion of being and the notion of nonbeing. Contact and feelings can bring
either craving or aversion, or compassion or freedom. It depends on how we use
the sense organs and contact.
So the traditional
presentation is not complete. Contact and feeling can give rise to grasping,
but also to releasing and freedom. We suffer because we cling to the notion of
being and nonbeing; either we are afraid of being or we are afraid of nonbeing.
But with wisdom, not only are you free from the notion of birth and death, you
are also free from the notion of being and nonbeing. No being, no nonbeing.
In the historical
dimension, to be or not to be is the question, but in the ultimate dimension,
to be or not to be is no longer the question. You are free from both notions,
and there is no fear anymore. You are not drowned in the waves of birth and
death, being and nonbeing. You are free, and that is nirvana. Nirvana is
perfect freedom, because you see formations as they truly are. And the true
nature of these formations is no-birth and no-death, no being and nonbeing.
With that kind of insight you enjoy nirvana, without fear, without craving.
But with delusion,
you see formations as self and as permanent. You see them in the light of birth
and death, being and nonbeing. That is why you navigate always in the realm of
samsara.
So we need only five
nidanas:
delusion/wisdom
formations
birth–death/no
birth–no death
being–nonbeing/no
being–no nonbeing
samsara/nirvana
Five nidanas. If you
don’t have delusion, then you see formations as they really are, and then you
don’t see birth and death anymore. You are not caught in the notion of being
and nonbeing anymore, and you get out of samsara: you are in nirvana. You don’t
have to go to nirvana, nirvana is right there. Nirvana is already, since the
non-beginning.
With some
skillfulness, we can always begin here on the level of the conventional truth.
With that skillfulness, we slowly get out of the conventional realm of truth.
We use the wisdom of adaptation, we use the wisdom of conformity, to see the
nature of reality, and to help people to slowly get out of these notions and
concepts using the Middle Way. The Middle Way helps you to be free from pairs
of opposites, birth and death, being and nonbeing, inside and outside, object
and subject, and so on.
It will be very
interesting if scientists of our time learn how to go the Middle Way, because
many of them are still asking questions like, “What is the cause of the
universe, the cosmos? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why?” So they
are still caught in these notions of beginning, ending, being, and nonbeing.
The wisdom of adaptation, the wisdom of conformity, help us to practice and to
offer the practice in a way that helps us to be con- nected with the ultimate
dimension presented by emptiness.
Edited by Barbara Casey and Sister Annabel, True Virtue
110 Take Refuge in Mother Earth
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