T he Buddhist concept of great compassion based on identity in substance, when explained in terms of science, means that in the entire universe there is no independent entity which can be isolated. Each part of the universe is closely connected to every other part in a net of interwoven energy and light. The so-called individual entity is only a part of this indivisible net of light, a small universe. The rhythmic movements of the formation and decay of this small universe are identical to that of the great universe.

David Bohm (a well-known physicist deeply influenced by Einstein and Krishnamurti), in his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order, repeatedly mentions such concepts found in the Avatamsaka Sutra as the one containing the many, great and small being mutually inclusive, the sea of Buddhalands appearing in a single dustmote, and interwoven layers of light. In his masterpiece, The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra also cites that in the smallest universe, which is the world of the atom, the balance between the two interacting forces of the electrons and the nucleus—the electrons are on the one hand attracted to the nucleus, but on the other hand reluctant to become confined in a limited space next to the nucleus and intuitively want to fly outwards—is the basis of the myriad phenomena in the universe. For example, people turning in the cycle of rebirth are on the one hand drawn in by the desires of life (like the electrons being drawn in by the nucleus) so they become deluded, create bad karma (the cause of delusion), and accumulate a myriad afflictions and sufferings (the result of delusion); on the other hand, within their inherent roots of wisdom, there exists a hidden force—the Buddha-nature—which is ready to come alive. Thus through either gradual or sudden enlightenment, they extinguish the accumulated sufferings by means of the proper Way (the cause of enlightenment) and aspire to reach the other shore (the result of enlightenment) (like the electrons trying to fly outwards).

The balance of the interacting forces of this small universe expresses the central doctrine of Buddhism—suffering, accumulation, extinction, and the Way. The underlying philosophy of this doctrine—that each grain of sand is a world unto itself, that all things are void in nature but arise due to conditions, and that one should compassionately save all beings—are all hidden in the poem “White Universe.”

“W hite Universe” starts out by indicating that any event or thing (any conditioned dharma) occurring in the universe of overlapping time and space conceals within itself the voidness of its original nature. The color white is the combination of all colors. In a very simple physics experiment, let’s use the colors orange, red, yellow, green, blue, and purple to represent the myriad phenomena of the mundane world—success, failure, prosperity, decay, sorrow, joy, separation, union, anger, stupidity, attachments, and so on. Suppose we put these colors on a disk and spin it. As the speed of spinning increases, we find that the vivid colors start to fade in intensity, until eventually the disk spinning at high speed appears white. Let us try using this expedient method to interpret “form itself is emptiness.”

The high and low seem to refer to speed, but actually they refer to the high and low levels of time and space. Levels of time and space are just levels of our state of consciousness (wisdom). The higher our wisdom, the better our ability to understand our original nature in which “originally there is not a thing.” The ultimate level of wisdom is the state of Buddhas who have attained unsurpassed, right, equal , and proper enlightenment.

I ce in the sky, snow on the ground. / Numberless tiny bugs die in the cold, or sleep in hibernation. The writer is speaking Dharma using images from Nature. “The sound of flowing creek is, in fact, manifesting the truth of the Buddha-nature.” The writer takes death not as the end of life, but as the beginning of another journey. Take a look! The three words “sleep in hibernation” are most inspiring for Chan investigation. All of you tiny creatures who die in the cold: go ahead and hibernate for the time being! In the philosophy of Shiva, the Hindu god of dance, any process in time and space and any life can be divided into four parts (that is, the four-step dance):

That which is small as a grain:
    production, formation, change, and extinction
That which is short as one day:
    morning, noon, evening, night
Human life: birth, growth, aging, death
The universe: formation, dwelling, decay, and annihilation

The transmigration of all lives is merely Nature doing her four-step dance over and over.

The above-mentioned “extinction,” “night,” “death,” and “annihilation” can generally be represented by “annihilation.” And “annihilation” is again the beginning of “production,” “morning,” “birth,” and “formation.” The ending of the fourth step is the beginning of the first step. Thus the cycle revolves. Lao Zi’s statement, “Being great, it flows. It flows far away. Having gone far, it returns” also describes the certainty of reincarnation and transmigration. Let us look at the following two verses which coincide with the “White Universe” in expressing that all things are void in nature but arise due to conditions:

The night kisses the fading day,
Whispering to his ear:
“I am death, your mother.
I am to give you fresh birth.”             —Rabindranath Tagore

O wild West Wind (...).
Destroyer and preserver (...)
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
(...) If winter comes,
Can spring be far behind?
            — from “Ode to the West Wind”
            by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Hibernate, you creatures who are dying in the cold! Professor Fred Alan Wolf, who calls himself a visionary physicist, came up with a vision—also based on Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics—that human beings never die, but merely go through changes in their levels of consciousness (transmigration in the six realms). They merely change their address in the universe. The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) used the following words to describe the beautiful scene of deja vu one encounters after reincarnation, before one has escaped the cycle of transmigration and entered Nirvana:

Someday I shall sing to you,
In the sunrise of some other world.
"I have seen you before,
In the light of earth,
In the love of man.”             —Rabindranath Tagore

This short poem envisions only the beautiful side of the hazy future. In reality, both good and bad karma will inevitably follow us into another life through transmigration, as we bob up and down in the sentient world full of love, hate, and the bitterness of separation. “If you want to know the causes you created in previous lives, just look at the retribution you are receiving in this life. If you want to know what retribution you will receive in future lives, just look at what you are doing in this life.” Consequently, reincarnation is but the echo of conversations between the self of the present life and the self of previous lives. Ordinary people fear consequences, while Buddhists fear causes. Truly, there’s a good reason. The Taiwanese poet Zhao Weiming wrote the following poem to encourage people to add more weights to the good side (by doing good deeds in secret and avoiding evil) of the scale of causes and effects (previous causes and later effects).

All have gone,
And all shall return.
Those perished shall revive.
Let’s cherish our present life.

“I n the midst of stillness you should contemplate, and within movement you should investigate. The English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) said, “Poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility.” The best state in Chan is when the mind is pure. However, amid worldly noise and the commotion of the myriad illusory transformations of the universe, if one can contemplate with a still mind, one can also investigate and awaken to impermanence and to the truth that all dharmas are empty.

Dragons spar and tigers wrestle in continual playful sport; / Ghosts cry and spirits wail, their illusory transformations strange. According to the Master, that is what he saw during meditation. I asked him whether he actually saw these things, and with which eye (the third eye?). The Master replied, “There’s no need to ask. I saw it, and that’s it. What I saw was also empty.”

The crying and wailing of demons and ghosts such as Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Hussein, the sparring and wrestling of dragons and tigers such as Alexander the Great and Kublai Khan, and the stories told in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms are conversation topics for drinking and chatting fishermen who like to gaze at spring flowers and the autumn moon. The true nature of all these great events, which is emptiness, is expressed in this Western aphorism:

History is what transforms tumultuous
    conquerors into silent footnotes.

A fictitious historian used a palindrome that resembles the yin and yang diagram, to describe how Napoleon, from being a powerful emperor, was exiled to the island of Elba as a prisoner. This mournful statement about the impermanent nature of worldly affairs moves people to tears: “Able was I ere I saw Elba.” (Note: the “r” in “ere” is the center of the sentence, and the letters on both sides are symmetrically matched.) Ere means before. Therefore, the wisdom of the Vajra Sutra glistens with the Buddha light in our minds, “All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, like dewdrops and lightning. We should contemplate them thus.”

→To be continued