Notes on Paper Topics 2:
Be sure to provide direct quotations and/or page references to the original readings to document your ideas.
Here are some hints or things to think about in completing your paper.
1. The Goddess and Vimalakirti
One of the keys to this paper topic concerns the relationship between the written dialogue in the “Goddess” chapter of the Vimalakirti Sutra and the surrounding historical circumstances. The dialogue seems quite advanced, in terms of presenting a woman’s viewpoint in an empowered way. What does this imply about the institutional practices to which the chapter is responding? In terms of the emptiness theory represented by the Goddess, what, if any, is the relationship between the inner, religious transformation potentially effected by the realization of emptiness/oneness, on the one hand, and the need for institutional transformation, on the other. Is there an implied relationship between inner and outer transformation? If so, what is it? What questions for criticisms or questions do you have about this view of addressing gender inequality, from a contemporary Western perspective?
2. Sudden and Gradual Enlightenment.
I propose that there are three aspects to the meaning of “Sudden Enlightenment/Awakening”: all at once, instantaneous, and here-and-now. I explain what I mean by this in my paper on the use of this concept by Shinran, the founder of Shin Buddhism: Mark Unno, “The Nembutsu as the Path of the Sudden Teaching.” There is a link to this essay at the bottom of the course page for REL 440 under “additional links.” You can also go directly to the essay at:
https://pages.uoregon.edu/munno/OregonCourses/REL4400002/IASBS7.pdf
In the story of Hui-neng from the Platform Sutra, there is a distinct difference between the image of the protagonist in the first half versus the latter half. In the first half, Hui-neng is an illiterate woodcutter helping at the monastery, not even a monk. In the second half, he appears as the fully realized Zen (Chan) master, learned, and in full command of the complex vocabulary of Zen Buddhism. There also seems to be shift in the characterization of enlightenment or awakening. In the first half, the emphasis seems to be on sudden awakening with very little credence given to the gradual cultivation of awakening. This is exemplified by Hui-neng’s verses (p. 132; p. 212 of Course Pack) composed in response to that of the senior monk, Shen-hsiu (p. 130; p. 211 of CP). Yet, in the second part of the Platform Sutra, Hui-neng seems to make more room for the gradual cultivation of awakening. Is there is contradiction here, or is this a paradox that can be resolved? Are there things we should be looking for other than the philosophical reasoning behind the sudden/gradual distinction?
3. Cosmic Time and Historical Time.
In the story of Amida Buddha and Pure Land Buddhism, Amida Buddha begins his career as a king who renounces his throne to set out on the spiritual quest of awakening of Bodhisattva Dharmakara (see Inagaki, Larger Sutra of Eternal Life). To a certain extent, this resembles the life of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni who renounces his throne as a prince to seek awakening. Likewise, the story of Devadatta, Prince Ajatasatru, and Queen Vaidehi, which begins as a historical account in early Buddhism becomes expanded in the Pure Land sutras (see Inagaki, Sutra of Contemplation) as illuminated by the contemplation of Amida and his Pure Land. Are the stories of the Pure Land sutras revealing the cosmic scale of the realization of awakening and emptiness that was there, hidden, from the beginning, or is it a new disclosure that shows the expansion of the Buddhist vision to cosmic proportions with the advent of Mahayana Buddhism?
4. Tracing Emptiness
Emptiness is a core notion of Mahayana Buddhism that must be understood in the context of the two-fold truth of form and emptiness. I have provided a link at the bottom of the course web site to a translation of “Chapter 24” of the Discourses on the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamaka-karikas): Jay Garfield, "Chapter 24: Examination of the Four Noble Truths," The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (Oxford University, 1995), pp. 293-321.
or you can find it here:
https://pages.uoregon.edu/munno/OregonCourses/REL4400002/nagarjuna_middleway24.pdf
The key passages are verses 24:8-10, 16-20 (pp. 296-298, 302-308). What these verses describe is the following: If something has an essence, including the Buddhist teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths, then it would be essentially different from other things, and no interaction would be possible, since there would be a barrier of absolute difference. Only when one realizes that there is no essence, that everything is emptiness, that there is no barrier to interaction. This interaction is described in terms of “causes and conditions” that create the web of interdependence, or what is called interdependent co-origination, or dependent co-arising (Skt. pratitya-samudpada). This is like the idea that a milkshake is created as a blend of ingredients, but there is no essence of “milkshake-ness” that one can extract from the ingredients. The ingredients combine all at once to create the milkshake. Ultimately, each ingredient is also constituted from “causes and conditions,” and so on, until one realizes that it all just arises as something like a field of pure energy (emptiness/oneness).
Form, then, is a temporary or provisional manifestation of emptiness/oneness beyond form, beyond words, in Nagarjuana. How is this expressed in the legends of Bodhidharma? In the Platform Sutra of Hui-neng? In Dogen?
5. Status of Legends
One of the things to think about in terms of this topic concerns the nature of reality. For a worldview in which history is considered ontologically real (“really real”), whether something actually happened historically is very important. In Mahayana Buddhism and Buddhism generally, what we call history, the world of appearances, is considered illusory, maya, literally ‘dream,’ or ‘illusion.’ In terms of the two-fold truth of form and emptiness, this is the aspect of ‘form.’ Form is real but not ‘solid’ or ‘substantial.’ It exists but only at the level of conventional truth, or the truth that we agree exists in terms of words and language. When we ‘empty’ the mind of this categorical thinking, then the true nature of reality beyond words is revealed: emptiness/oneness. How might this affect the nature and function of stories and ‘legends’? How might this relate to upaya, skillful means?