“If the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear as it is—infinite”

(William Blake)

  Escaping from the clatter of cyber land for a few moments to discover how we may proceed with our innermost thoughts and dreams, not agreeing or disagreeing, asking, what is it we desire our lives to be, to become?

  The Great Enlightened One, the Buddha, “in him there is no defilement, no contamination, no attachment. His moral breeze and virtuous fragrance deeply permeate all.” Always a new beginning, “attaining that which has never been before.”

  No need to make resounding proclamations; no need to engage in disputes. Reach instinctively beyond discriminations and dichotomous thinking, manifesting our buddha-nature. Become so instilled with the Buddha’s teachings that in moment-to-moment experiences and communication, ignorance is overcome—compassion, a heart-beat away.

  When mind has been emptied and light has been called upon to purify the consciousness, freed from its attachments, self-serving discriminations—this is true liberation from suffering. When allowing the infinite potential of Buddha-mind to operate in unconstrained spontaneity, the common, rational ego is no longer in control, nor controlling factor. When the true nature of self is realized, the ego becomes a “lens of pure crystal” focusing all pervasive cosmic light. No shadows of pride, possessiveness cloud its purity. Conscious mind learns to be silent and attentive, attuned to transcendental knowledge, Mind Only.

  There is only One Mind, the substance of which cannot be differentiated. Accepting the miracle of existence—comprehending the governing force of primordial energy, the universal force which causes everything to live, we may return each moment to the realization of the archetypical essence of being and become more attentive to the world and people in our world, here and now.

  Human suffering is brought about by the accumulation of self-serving, ego-centric desire and the illusion that our ego-self is in control. All living beings, all phenomena come into being from emptiness, one substance with universal energy, therefore equal in the value of their existence. To devote one's self to the great life force of the universe and attain a spiritual unity with it; to obey reason and live in accordance with the greater life of the universe, is to discover “the great compassionate heart”—buddhahood itself, the karmic necessity of our existence.

  We are told by cosmologists and quantum physicists that the universe began breaking perfect symmetry into a huge, hot cauldron of energy governed by forces we do not understand completely. These forces exist today in our world. Without them the very fabric of existence bound together by these forces would not exist. Nothing has an independent existence. We are all part of one inseparable web of relationships.

  “Implied in new theories of physics (Timothy Ferris in “Beyond Newton and Einstein” – N.Y. Times, 9/26/82) “all the known forces in nature are manifestations of one basic interaction and that once, long ago, were part of a single, universal process.”

  Humanity continues as part of that “universal process.” Disagreeing or agreeing—contending rather than intending in realms of conditioned existence (dharma), inhibits the perfect symmetry of Mind which is neither created nor annihilated, but simply is. In the teachings of the Buddha, particularly in “great vehicle” Mahayana sutras, as the Lotus Sutra, “Original Mind” is called tathata, or ultimate nature of Mind without any attributes, the same as the mind of pure self—buddha-nature, vesture of pure, unqualified reality (dharmakaya), the soul of nirvana.

  May not the One mind of pure self, buddha-nature, be in itself, perfect symmetry? All dharmas, “laws” or elements of conditioned existence depend on Mind for their being and have Mind as their substance. From this standpoint, all conditioned existence is illusory and imaginary, and their being is in reality non-being. By contrast with these unreal existences, One Mind, tathata,  is the only real thing existing  in this world.

  Yet even though these conditioned existences (dharmas) have no being in reality because they originate in illusion and fancy, they nevertheless appear to be created and annihilated. But when such unreal existences are created, One Mind is not brought into existence, and when they are annihilated, One Mind does not perish. Uncreated, One Mind is never augmented; imperishable, it is never diminished. And as it never increases or decreases, One Mind is called tathata, ultimate nature, without attributes.

  Concentration means knowing that all dharmas, conditioned existences, have from the beginning no tathata of their own, are never created or annihilated by themselves, but are created and arise as productions of illusion and imagination. Created dharmas are in truth, non-existent. They are only the One Mind, the substance of which cannot be differentiated. If one seizes this standpoint, then in total mental calm one can stop the flow of false ideas. This is concentration.

  Insight means knowing that dharmas are neither created nor annihilated, but originate in and arise out of One Mind to serve an illusory and fanciful worldly purpose. They are like the illusions of dreams, seeming to exist when they do not exist. To know this is to attain insight, to aspire to the mind of  non-existence.

  When concentration is achieved, Pure Mind is merged through insight with non-dual nature and is harmoniously united with all beings. Calmness, tranquility and purity, depth, stability and quietude emerge. Inner silence is pure and pellucid, appearing without the appearance of movement, acting without the appearance of action.

  Thus it is, all conditions of existence are originally the same everywhere without differentiation and the nature of One Mind is existence. This is the root of the most profound dharma nature.

  When insight is attained, the root of Pure Mind and the activity of the phenomenal world are manifest without obstacle, spontaneously showing forth the capability of all things pure and impure.

  When there is concentration, our mind is everywhere the same. When there is concentration, one dwells ever in nirvana. When there is concentration one is not polluted by the world. When there is concentration, one attains eternal silence in the process of acting.

  This “truth of One Reality” is at the core of the Buddha’s teachings in the Lotus Sutra–the fundamental oneness of energy, non-differentiation at the heart of things, the one law that calls all things into being and moves them. This is called the real aspect of things. We are all one substance with this law and caused to live by it.  One’s own mind is intrinsically one with primordial energy, the imperishable life-force of the universe.

  “I also see bodhisattvas, persons of great compassion, who  observe that the nature of all existence is not in two opposing forms, but like space.” – Lotus Sutra

  How then shall we proceed? Releasing the personal ego is perhaps the first step, enabling us to find the imperishable life-force which exists in all things, in all beings. Serving this life-force is the great true compassion.

  From the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue, the closing sutra of The Threefold Lotus Sutra: “The Buddha said to Ananda, Do you listen to me attentively! Do you listen to me attentively, ponder, and remember it! Of yore on Mount Gridhrakutha and in other places the Tathagata has already extensively explained the way of one reality.

The Buddha Wisdom is pure and minute,
 faultless and unhindered,
penetrating through infinite kalpas.

Like a meteor, like darkness, as a flickering lamp,
An illusion, like hoar-frost or a bubble,
Like clouds, a flash of lightning, or a dream,
So is all conditioned existence to be seen. – Diamond Sutra

Taken and edited from the writings of Nikkyo Niwano, Buddhism for Today, a Modern Interpretation of The Threefold Lotus Sutra, and Niwano’s other writings; the Kosei/Weatherhill English translation of The Threefold Lotus Sutra; and Hui-ssu in Taisbo Daiskyo, in The Diamond Sutra, from final teachings of the Buddha, with supplemental texts. General Editor, Raghavan Iyer. August 12, 1983; Concord Grove Press, London, Santa Barbara, New York. Copyright 1983, The Pythagorean Sangha.

“ego, a pure crystal” taken from symbol for 1°  Leo in An Astrological Mandala, The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases, by Dane Rudhyar, published by Random House, 1973 [hardcover and paperback].