Letting go of viewpoints
Posted: December 16, 2008 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Buddhism, Religion, Theravada, Zen | 8 Comments »Since last friday, I’ve been mulling over the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta (MN 72), or “To Vacchagotta on Fire”, which I had recently mentioned in another post. I especially have been moved by this dialogue:
Vacchagotta: “Does Master Gotama have any position at all?”
The Buddha: “A ‘position,’ Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata [the Buddha] has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: ‘Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception… such are mental fabrications… such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.’ Because of this, I say, a Tathagata — with the ending, fading out, cessation, renunciation, and relinquishment of all construings, all excogitations, all I-making and mine-making and obsession with conceit — is, through lack of clinging/sustenance, released.”
What makes the Buddha such an amazing figure is that he has completely let go of his own opinions, beliefs and judgments, and just sees things as they are. While reading Brad Warner’s book, Sit Down and Shut Up,* I remember that Dogen, founder of Soto Zen Buddhism, spent a lot of time teaching that through meditation and letting go, one stops piling up regular old reality with our thoughts and feelings of it. I am beginning to appreciate how true this is, even when one believes they’re being a good Buddhist.
Viewpoints tend to narrow the angle of one’s perception, whereas the right Dharma expands it.
I am reminded of a cryptic and difficult sutra in the Pali Canon, the Madhupindika Sutta (MN 18),** The Honeyball Sutra, where the Buddha says:
“If, monk, with regard to the cause whereby the perceptions and categories of complication assail a person, there is nothing there to relish, welcome, or remain fastened to, then that is the end of the obsessions of passion, the obsessions of resistance, the obsessions of views, the obsessions of uncertainty, the obsessions of conceit, the obsessions of passion for becoming, and the obsessions of ignorance. That is the end of taking up rods and bladed weapons, of arguments, quarrels, disputes, accusations, divisive tale-bearing, and false speech. That is where these evil, unskillful things cease without remainder.”
Wise words indeed.
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu
* – Despite one’s personal feelings on the author, I have to say it was a very helpful commentary on Dogen’s text, the Shōbōgenzō. I learned quite a bit.
** – Ajahn Brahm gives a good audio lecture on this sutra. Honestly, it kind of freaked me out when I listened to one part in the middle.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
Curious about your comment about Brad Warner. From what I’ve been able to tell, he acts as a sort of watchdog for egotism in the practice, but it does make me uncomfortable that he writes for SuicideGirls.
I have mixed feelings on the fellow, but he does take his Zen seriously, so I respect him for it. Why does the SuicideGirls thing bother you, if you don’t mind my asking? I’ve seen the website once, decided it wasn’t my thing, and never went back. His writing for them is probably just part of the whole “Punk Buddhist” movement that seems popular these days. I am far from anything remotely punk, so I can’t say I relate in any case. :p
Best wishes to him in any case.
I wonder: is it a problem to think “It is harmful to steal money from old ladies”? Its a viewpoint, after all. As a Buddhist, should I let it go?
Ah, but read the sutra carefully. It’s not that the Buddha just empties his mind, but that he observes reality objectively and gains insight from it. One can then determine (obviously enough) that stealing money from old ladies is harmful to those ladies and ultimately the perpetrator. In your blog, your related post on pooping your pants runs the same way. Just try it sometime when you’re at work, and you’ll gain plenty of insight into why the toilet is preferable. Or, if you prefer, just ponder the matter for a bit, and you’ll probably decide the same.
There’s a funny old Zen story about a student who proclaimed all was an illusion, so the Zen master smacked him on the head and said “was that an illusion”?
But in all seriousness, people really do seem to think you’re supposed to empty out your mind, and presto! you’re a Buddha. Instead, it’s more of an issue of questioning all your beliefs and assumptions up to this point. The Buddha doesn’t get bogged down in dogma because he just teaches what he observes in life, even when it should be painfully obvious to the rest of us, and isnt.
P.S. As the Buddha says above, not clinging to one viewpoint or another also saves us from those awkward moments after we’ve had a political argument with someone at work, and someone takes it a bit too far. Speaking from experience.
SuicideGirls doesn’t strike me as being very punk, if you really deconstruct it. I can’t tell you why it makes me uncomfortable, I just get this weird feeling that it’s just as exploitative as your average porn site. The girls are supposedly behind it, but I sense a male manipulator somewhere in the background. My response is intuitive, so I have no solid argument, but it also seems like someone who supposedly upholds the Five Precepts would think twice about writing for a porn site. Ya know, the same way one is uncomfortable with Chogyam Trungpa abusing alcohol.
WT there have certainly been some suggestions that you are right about the SG site:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.04.06/suicidegirls-0601.html
I’m with you – I think that ‘ministering’ to people in such sub-cultures is fine and good, but when Warner’s writings become a draw to the site itself that is inherently problematic.
You know, that was kind of the impression I got too. Despite it’s expression of “punk-ness” I did feel that it was just another porn site, with a clever name. By the name, I expected something more poetic and tragic somehow, not just girly photos. It’s not very original. No matter how “zen” you make it out to be, the fact is is that the Five Moral Precepts are what they are. A person who observes then, at the short-term sacrifice of a little entertainment, is a noble person, a person who is praiseworthy and faultless (and with no guilty conscious either). Speaking from personal experience, being freed of a guilty conscious is a real nice feeling, especially when you have kids who look up to you.
In my studies of Buddhism, I have seen some really devoted and sincere Buddhist monks like Bhikkhu Bodhi, Yin-Shun and Shunryu Suzuki get sidelined by hypocrite teachers with slick teachings. It’s tragic, but that’s life, and that’s just another example of the Counterfeit Dharma. A really cool and little-known sutra in the Pali Canon is the Counterfeit Dharma Sutra (SN 16.13):
You can see how this causes one to go off the track and get a big ego, leading others astray as well.
Hi K,
Thanks for posting that excellent article.
I think when one ministers to any group or sub-culture, there is an inherent risk of going off the deep-end, if one doesn’t have adequate, professional training, or oversight from a larger body. That’s why I get leery of one-off gurus or teachers who teach a good talk, but have no oversight. Larger, more traditional Buddhist organizations are boring and stodgy, but I appreciate that more and more as time goes on.