During what I suspect has been my fourth reading of Sekkei Harada’s book The Essence of Zen, I came to realize how to overcome the trouble I was having in understanding the difference between the “self” and “real-Self” in Zen literature. Key to this new insight was an expanded understanding of the term Dharma. One use of the term Dharma is reality as-it-is. This is the essence of Zen; the Dharma, the Way - and it is everywhere at any time.
Let's start in this moment. The present moment as-it-is, denotes a condition where there is no separation between yourself and “other.” No judgments; no better than, or worse than. One of the main purposes for my meditation practice is to bring an end to the “seeking mind” and to live accepting the present moment, just as-it-is.
Dropping the ego-self, immersing one’s attention wholeheartedly in the work of this moment, and making an effort to let go of attachment to preferences is the practice of Zen. When the ego-self intervenes, it inserts opinions, interpretations, judgments, and preferences. It requires that you see “this” by comparison to “that.” This is not seeing things as-they-are.
By the term ego-self, I am referring the process whereby each person relates to the world from the standpoint of “I” and “other.” We experience life dualistically. There’s a deeply imbedded sense of “me,” which is juxtaposed to, and separate from, “you” and all “other”.
In expressing proof of its existence, the human organism perceives or experiences the sense of a self (ego or “me”) and proclaims that since “I” can see, and hear, and feel, and think – an “I” therefore exists. We accept this as an argument for there being a permanent entity: the “self.” My world of perception and cognition however, arises out of, and is expressed in, the notion of ego-self. The ego-self is the sum, or result, of the functions of the aggregate of the mind/body. This aggregate of processes is in continual flux and therefore impermanent.
To say that things are Impermanent, is to say that there is no condition that is fixed or determined for any length of time, just as the term No-self speaks to the fact that there is no permanent, single entity that corresponds to a “self.” All things come into existence through conditions and they disappear because of conditions. Results unavoidably issue forth from causes; that’s the way it is.
All conditions are contingent upon the presence, or absence, of causes. Seeking is a condition for the arising of clinging, just as desire is a condition for the arising of disappointment. And desire is contingent upon labeling something as necessary or pleasurable. This is the Dharma; the way-it-is for us as human beings in this material world of form. And the idea of a “self” is the result of the conditions that have arisen out of the nature of human existence, also referred to as skandhas, or the Aggregates of Attachment, in Buddhist cosmology.
So if you are like me, and you are finally able to wrap your mind around it all up to this point, you will likely experience some consternation when you read in the literature about something called the real-Self (or sometimes referred to as the true-Self). It seems to fly in the face of what you have struggled so hard to understand thus far. What follows is how I have escaped the grasp of my confusion.
I came to recognize the term Dharma to be representing existence. Cosmic life “as-it-is” (often referred to as the “One” or Oneness). In other words, "what is" before our dualistic mind categorically apprehends and then processes those aspects of Oneness which it is able to register. Only then was I able to slowly allow myself to soften around a new understanding. Two seemingy juxtaposed ideas, yet recognized as one idea from two perspectives; No-self and real-Self.
The “real-Self” is the Dharma. This is an existential fact embodied in “the way it is” - “isness” – the essence of all things constantly cycling through eternal change. In this case each passing moment - time - is simply the arising of new causes and conditions. However, the key or operative idea here is change. We are not composed of a concrete entity called “me” going through a process of change. We are change; change is what we are. And our real-Self, is that eternal changing; the Dharma. In other words, we are this changing as it represents itself to our senses at any given instant….and then it (we) change, over and over and over. Our senses cannot process this Dharma. We are not constructed in such a way as to be able to process this truth of each moment. Sentience is our sentence.
Life is the continual flux or flow of arising conditions (or causes depending upon what term you are most comfortable with). Dharma is the term I'm using to represent this flow of life, including the human organism, as it is happening, or unfolding. Therefore, I offer the term Dharma as a representation of the real-Self as opposed to the ego-self that I colloquially identify as “me.”
The “real-Self” is this unfolding. It’s not a discreet entity that has longevity amid an otherwise changing world. It is the change itself and is essentially all things; the Dharma, the Way, and even that misunderstood notion of a separate, abiding self to which we are so attached.
Our real-Self can be undestood as part of the “Oneness” which cannot be named or perceived because it is empty of divisions or separation into parts that the human mind requires for understanding. This Unity or Oneness is an undifferentiated whole-ness out of which our mind identifies limited parameters of sensory experience.
What we refer to as discreet entities (named things) are actually contingencies: processes of change through the arising of causes, or aggregates of causes (called conditions), acting upon other conditions.
It is not possible for any single thing to exist on its own, or by itself alone. In our universe of forms, Emptiness refers to an emptiness of discreet units that correspond to the object named, as well as the illusion of the divisions my mind constructs in order to perceive what is referred to as “me.”
Even in our world of material forms, if I think something is true or real, it means I have added a characteristic (say, reality or truth) to the object or thing perceived. Perception offers only “is-ness,” so there remains a gap between that thing, as-it-is, and that which constitutes the name I have given it as in “real” or “true.”
My mind has deconstructed the wholeness –that thing as-it-is - into parts or discreet dualistic units; the “real” or “true” juxtaposed with the unreal or false. In order for there to be a reality, or a truth, there must be a non-reality or untruth; a dualistic “other.” Such is the fact of life in the world of ten-thousand things.
On the other hand, the life of one who has realized the true-Self, is one in which dualities are noted but not clung to as ultimate truth. In other words, this manner of being in the world is to dwell peacefully in this moment…now.
Practically speaking, whether one does something for another, or for oneself, the life of Zen is to forget all that comes before and after, and really do each deed for the purpose of the deed itself: here, now. This is to be your “real-Self.”
Namaste
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