WHO SEES DHARMA SEE ME - Piya Tan

TAILS OF FAIRIES
[From Section 2.3.1.4 of Āsaṁsa Bhikkhu Sutta (A 3.13), SD 51.128]
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WHO SEES DHARMA SEE ME

The early Buddhist sense of DHAMMA, KĀYA is that the Buddha, after he has awakened, is ontologically—his state of being in philosophical terms—in the light of non-self, as a person (the teacher), is identical with the Dharma (the teaching and truth). In early Buddhism, this simply means that, even after the Buddha’s death, he can be “seen” in the form of the teaching (dhamma).

Hence, it is famously said in the Vakkali Sutta (S 22.87):

“He who sees the Dharma sees me; he who sees me sees the Dharma”

(yo kho vakkalī dhammaṁ passati maṁ passati, yo maṁ passati dhammaṁ passati),

Here, “sees” means both knowing and understanding buddhahood, leading to self-transformation and awakening.

AWAKENING IS NOT A "THING"

In Mahāyāna and later Buddhism, however, the dharma, kaya (Sanskrit) is considered to be the sameas perfect enlightenment (sambodhi), primordially or eternally existent, transcending all perceptual forms or signless (animitta), and hence impossible to perceive. Amongst its qualities (guṇa) are freedom from all conceptualization (nirvikalpa), liberation from all defilements, and the intrinsic ability to act.

In later forms of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, under the influence of Tantric thought, the Dharma-kāya is considered to be equivalent to the Buddha-mind. Philosophically, then, where the suttas teach that the after-death state of the Buddha or any arhat cannot be described in any way (exist, not exist, both, neither), later Buddhism hypostatized even such an apophatic (negative language) statement [3]—made it into a “reality” or “thing.”

The serious disadvantage of this is that it is still a view. In early Buddhism, any kind of view is a plank in the eye that blinds us from seeing true reality. Plank,” a wordplay on “a long narrow flat piece of wood” and “a main point in the policy of an organization, esp a political party.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary).

I, ROBOT

We can imagine RELIGION to be like a robotics class. We are taught how to make robots. So we create a most beautiful looking humanoid, fully limbed and featured, of just the right colours and proportions, clothed just right. It is even able to talk and reply intelligently to us—so it seems. And we fall in love in with it—we even worship it since it seems far better than we are. Are we human or are we robot now?

This is called THE PYGMALION EFFECT, named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who falls in love with a statue of Galatea he has carved. In our own times, this is also called the Rosenthal effect, a situation where a teacher’s expectation shapes his students, for example, his higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. Broadly, we can say a student becomes what his teacher wants him to be—what is he, then? (Notice how difficult it is to get this when we think we already know EXACTLY what all this means.)

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[1] S 22.87/3:120,28 (SD 8.8): http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/8.8-Vakkali-S-s22.87-piya1.pdf.

[2] See SD 36.9 (4.2.2): http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/36.9-Lakkhana-S-d30-piya.pdf. 

[3] See SD 40a.1 (6.3): http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/40a.1-Notion-of-Ditthi-piya.pdf.