by Kogen Mizuno
The aim of Buddhism, and the hope of the Buddha, is that all people may be shown how to become ideal human beings, and at the very last, be removed from ignorance and drawn toward wisdom. Human education, in Buddhist terms, is to instruct people about what has value, for both the individual and society, leading them away from valueless conditions to those of greater and greater value, finally creating an ideal human being and an ideal society.
From the point of view of Buddhism, the difference between religious values in human beings is, broadly speaking, whether a person is an ordinary ignorant being or an enlightened sage. More simply, this is a distinction between delusion and realization. The ordinary being can further be divided into two, inner ordinariness and outer ordinariness. The former applies to a believer in Buddhism who sees things from the Buddhist standpoint and knows about Buddhism, but has yet to reach the true realization called enlightenment. The latter indicates someone who knows nothing at all about the Buddha’s teachings.
A sage, or wise person, knows the truth of Buddhism correctly, and through right belief and practice manifests that value that comes from making Buddhism one’s ideal. Such a person is called a “being of supreme manifestation.” There are a great many stages in the attainment of the wisdom of sage hood, and Buddhism broadly divides them into four: the shravaka, or hearer; the pratyekabuddha, or solitary buddha; the bodhisattva; and the buddha. There are a number of divisions within the degree of shravaka and bodhisattva, from initial realization to supreme enlightenment.
I will avoid complicated explanations, and just say here to summarize, that in Buddhism we progress from our present state of ignorance toward sage hood and that even when we reach that stage, there are additional categories as our wisdom is further heightened and refined, until we advance to the highest state of human perfection. This applies not only to individuals-societies too progress until they reach the ideal state called the Buddha Land.
The Defilements and Enlightenment What is most important in Buddhism is the progression from ignorance to wisdom. The basic condition for becoming a sage is to rid oneself of the three defilements that all human beings have and attain the first stage of realization. The defilements lie in the mind and prevent us from attaining the Buddhist ideal. The three main defilements as they appear in the Agamas, the earliest sutras, are called the “three fetters”: being tied to a belief in a permanent self, to doubt, and to heretical practices. “Fetters” is another term for “defilements.”
Belief in a permanent ego means self-centred views and ideas. Buddhism does not recognize a substantial self that neither dies nor is born, nor does it recognize any kind of unchanging of fixed state among phenomena. Rather, it understands that all things are moved by conditions, that whether good or bad, phenomena undergo constant movement and change. In the ways we think, too, fixed attachment based no thoughts of the substantial self merely deepens our pride and arrogance. If we constantly think about others and things as a whole, we will not fall into the trap of rejecting others in our search for our own good. When we put others before ourselves, we become selfless, eliminating our egotistical views. This is to be modest and without arrogance. To rid ourselves of this false view of self is the first condition for attaining enlightenment.
Doubt is not just to feel doubtful in a general way, but to doubt the truths of good and evil, of cause and effect, saying that there is neither good nor evil, nor retribution for our actions, nor any effects of causality in the past, present, and future. This is not merely doubt, but a denial of good and evil, and of karmic retribution. Thus, it is also termed “Wrong view.” In the words of Zen master Bogen (1200-1235) as recorded in Shushogi, the Manual of Practice and Realization of the Soto sect, “You should stop associating with those deluded people in this present world who are ignorant of the law of causality and karmic retribution. They are unaware of the existence of the three stages of time and are unable to distinguish good from evil.” Such people do not understand that the laws of cause and effect extend into the past, present, and future and have no idea of their good or bad results.
Such karmic good and evil are not something that can be extinguished once and for all; their effects remain long after the action has been concluded and they will bring about some form of reward or retribution. We cannot deny causality. Rather it is important that we correctly understand the law of cause and effect, and good and evil, which the law of causality, and abandon all false views. Responding to people from other religions who wished to enter Buddhism, Shakyamuni allowed those without false views, who did not deny good and evil and karmic retribution, to be ordained immediately. However, he did not permit those with such false views to enter, instead submitting them to four months of training to eliminate the views, and allowing them to be ordained only when it was confirmed that they no longer harboured them.
The third of the defilements, being tied to heretical practices, means to adopt them and have faith in them. In other words, it is to adhere to mistaken beliefs. Such beliefs include superstitions or incorrect practices that set up a false ideal as the greatest good, and use dubious or imperfect methods or devices to reach that goal. We should not associate with those who hold to such mistaken ways of thinking.
A person who has these three defilements-a false idea about the self, false views about causality, and superstitious or heretical beliefs-cannot become a sage. When we have eliminated them, we are said to have gained “initial enlightenment.” We take the first steps to sage hood only by removing them from ourselves. Once we have reached this stage, we cannot perpetrate any bad action. Even if we wanted to, we could not do so, for we are now progressing along the path to supreme enlightenment. People who have committed themselves to this goal and who have flung off the three fetters are therefore called ‘Those who are rightly established” (those certain to attain supreme enlightenment.)
By entering the ranks of the rightly established, we have really moved away from the realms of the ignorant ordinary person and of the sage. That we no longer do wrong is not because we are forced by others not to, but because the impulse derives from a spontaneous, autonomous urge within ourselves. All of the Buddha’s discourses were given to bring people at least to the stage of the rightly established, for then all actions will be taken in accordance with the Buddha Dharma. Study, work, everything in our lives will take place in the light of the Buddha’s teachings, and our society, made up of like-minded people, will become a Utopia, a Buddha Land.
Buddhism and the World’s Teaching Are the Same
The Zen teacher and moralist Suzuki Shosan (1579-1655) wrote in Shimin Nichiyo (Of Daily Use for the Four Classes of People): “Whatever work you do; it is all the work of the Buddha. What people do is their Buddhahood.” Thus, all kinds of work, whether it be farming or commerce or industry, can be said to be the action of the Buddha. An amendment is needed here, however. All work is the action of the Buddha as long as it benefits others and rejects the three fetters that we talked about above. The Lotus Sutra, in the chapter “The Merits of the Preacher,” says: “If any good son or good daughter, receives and keeps this sutra, if he [or she] refers to the popular classics, maxims for ruling the world, means of livelihood, and so forth, all will coincide with the True Law [Dharma].” For a true Buddhist, instructions concerning daily life and guidance for society will all be in accordance with the Buddha Dharma.
Suzuki Shosan’s words do not imply that certain types of work, such as medicine or education, are necessarily more “sagelike” than worldly. Rather, doctors work in accordance with the Buddha Dharma if they have realized the Truth and rejected the three fetters and teachers educate in accordance with the Buddha Dharma if they have realized the Truth and rejected the three fetters. It is not a matter of the type of work done, but of the attitude and outlook of the worker.
Thus, it is whether the mind of the worker is sage like or worldly that determines the nature of the work itself. What is important is the idea that all work can be holy, or sage like; what determines this is if the three fetters have been broken or not.
Self and Nonself In education the importance
In education the importance of establishing identity has long been propounded. In Buddhism, however, the opposite is true: “Throw away the false view of self and reach a state of nonself.” At first glance, self and nonself seem to be contradictory, but are they in fact incompatible?
Nonself is also known as emptiness (shunya). Logically it refers to the absence of any ultimate self-nature, which means that there is no unchanging condition or form that can be called self. “Unchanging” implies that something exists completely alone and of itself, unconnected to anything else. However, there is nothing within society or human life that can exist in this way. Everything, both temporally and spatially, exists through mutual relationships, connected one to another, and is characterized by the unlimited possibilities for change.
Practically, the concepts of nonself and emptiness appear as the ideals of nonattachment and no hindrance. A mind dwelling in nonattachment sees that nothing, neither ourselves nor our possessions, is fixed and permanent and that we cannot cling to any hope that anything in this conditioned existence is stable or unchanging. The attainment of no hindrance comes with the perfection of nonattachment, so that no obstacles impede us and our minds are free and unhindered. In this state we are in harmony with the Dharma. Confucius said: “When I reached the age of seventy, I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the bounds.” This is what is meant by no hindrance. The Buddhist ideal is the perfection of the individual so that he or she can act spontaneously and with complete freedom in every aspect of life.
Since nonself is the condition of emptying the ego, all self-centred views and passions disappear. We no longer fear others needlessly, feel hatred toward them, or flatter them, or act arrogantly or angrily. Since we can always take the wide view and act according to a correct understanding of things, we feel compassion for all human beings, other living beings, and the whole realm of nature. We do not feel antagonism between ourselves and others, or towards our surroundings, but are able to embrace them entirely. In this way, nonself can be called the “great self,” one’s true self that is completely free and unfettered.
Thus, it is clear that both “self” and “identity” as they are generally understood, as long as they are based on selfish and self-centred desires, lead to false ideas about a permanent self, to self-interest and to conceit, which are not compatible with the Buddhist idea of nonself. Only the self can be the master of the self:
Who else can be its master?
A well-trained self
Truly attains that master ship so difficult to achieve.
Dhammapada, 160 The self being spoken of in this verse is the true self. The “well-trained self” has been disciplined according to a certain standard, which is the Dharma. It is no longer the lawless self that has been left to its own devices. We could also call this standard what Kant referred to as moral law. A person who has attained his or her true self acts freely in accordance with the Dharma in whatever he or she thinks or does.
Be a Lamp unto Yourselves
About three months before he died, the eighty-year-old Shakyamuni became ill at the end of the rainy season retreat. When he finally recovered, his disciple Ananda said to him:
“When I saw the World-honoured One fall ill, I felt all the strength leave my body. However, I then thought that the World- honoured One would not enter nirvana without saying something to his disciples, and so I felt some relief.”
Shakyamuni replied: “There is no secret in the Dharma of the Tathagata that he wants to keep hidden from his disciples. So, Ananda, both now and after my death, be a lamp unto yourselves, being your own refuge, seeking no other refuge, make the Dharma your lamp, with the Dharma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.”
Thus, with these simple worlds, the Buddha left his disciples with a guide as to how they should train themselves after he was gone. “Be a lamp unto yourselves, make the Dharma your lamp.” This is the very essence of spiritual training, the ideal we should seek in human education.
To achieve the purpose of education, being a lamp to ourselves and making the Dharma our lamp is most appropriate. By being a lamp unto ourselves we can free ourselves from the three fetters and from the false belief in a permanent self, and through the light of the Dharma, we can do away with the false views that deny causality and karmic retribution, and with mistaken beliefs that are contrary to the True Dharma of the Buddha’s teachings.
Source: The Maha Bodhi, July 2002 – December 2002, 2546 B.E Vol, No 110
Kogen Mizuno is a renowned authority on early Buddhism and Pali texts. Now retired, he was President of Komazawa University inTokyo, where he also taught Buddhology. Among his Books in English are Basic Buddhist Concepts and Essentials of Buddhism.
