4. Deconstructing Dharmas
In this section and in some previous sections I have used the term dis-ease and in those cases I am speaking about mostly the ramifications of illness that causes us to be not at ease in our present condition. Because there is separate classification of illness for mental illness and physical illness I use dis-ease to speak about the upset in our mental state caused by illnesses of either body or mind. Now technically mental illness is a physical illness as the brain is a physical organ in the body. But in Western medicine we have a distinction. Dis-ease is my attempt to speak of something different than mental illness. Sometimes previously I have used dis-ease and disease together meaning that both are included, the physical ailment and the minds discomfort with the illness. They are not quite interchangeable but sometimes a solution is found or achieved in both. Since I am not in a two way dialogue with you the reader I can only hope that this offers some clarity. Perhaps my editors will suggest a better solution or perhaps they will recommend including this in an earlier portion of the book.
For the teaching on Deconstructing the Dharma I will need to use dis-ease heavily as different from disease and that is why I felt I needed to clarify this a little.
Here Chih-I relies upon the principal that the self is manifest in the environment. There is a oneness relationship between the condition of the self-mind or realm of one’s self and the environment in which it exists. If one is in the mind-hell-realm then one perceives the environment in a hell fashion. And if one is in the mind-Buddha-realm then the environment is the Buddha land. Chih-I says that when we consider our illness if we view it as a physical affliction then we should see mountains as ill, rivers, as ill, and he even says corpses as ill. Since mountains, rivers, and corpses do not become ill (ignoring the environmental classification of environmentally ill) then there is no illness that is physical.
The mountains, forests, rivers, and so forth do not suffer from such afflictions and so deconstruct the illness as not a physical matter. This is perhaps going to be a huge challenge for many especially if one is so firmly attached to realness of the affliction. Chih-I accepts that this might be the case in which he advises to return to exercises of Contemplation at the beginning of the Cessation practices.
As I consider this it is sort of like in the beginning we realize that there is a tumor in my lung and the physical effect is limitations on breathing, there is the potential of it being cancer, and the uncertainty of what will evolve over time. Let’s say this is the medical diagnosis of the situation. On the other hand the tumor is both real and not real, and it is also neither real nor not real. There is an in-between aspect that begins to transcend the real vs not real. The tumor exists physically according to medical science and yet it doesn’t exist as a separate identifiable experience from my conceptual mind. It exists and it doesn’t exist. And even in its non-existent conception it also continues to exist in its physical presence.
The Vimalakirti Sutra says that it is of the not of the element of earth, it is not apart from earth, it is not a matter of merging. So my tumor is an earth element or is of the earth as is my body. My tumor and my body are not the earth itself. My tumor and my body are not merged with the earth, they do not arise independently of earth, and they are still not earth. In this way the disease is not dis-ease, illness is not dis-ease and so it is not real. Again see the section on Objects as Conceivable and Inconceivable.
I will admit this is somewhat existential perhaps, or esoteric perhaps, definitely metaphysical in nature. This sort of thing may be strange to many in Nichiren Buddhism because in the normal course of teachings these types of explanations are rarely covered. This doesn’t mean they are not a part of Nichiren Buddhism.
Stepping back again. Let me try a different way or putting this. Perhaps you have a house guest who comes to visit you. It might be relative or a friend. The time comes for them to leave and they do not depart. Instead they continue to occupy the guest room you let them sleep in. Even after some heated argument and pleadings they continue to remain. Eventually it becomes clear they will not leave so you make them an offer, a truce if you will. The deal is that they can stay as long as they stay in the room, and you will feed them, on the promise they remain in the room and don’t cause trouble. My tumor, any of my illnesses are all unwelcome house guests to some degree or another.
The more attention I give to them the more space the occupy in my house. They aren’t going to leave any time soon, and perhaps they never will. I continue to feed them, sometimes I feed them good things that really will encourage them to leave, so good for me and not so good for them, but I haven’t broken my agreement. Sometimes I might make them exercise even when they don’t want to perhaps I make them clean up the room or do laundry, after all I never said I would do the wash. The exercise to them is unpleasant and maybe they will decide of their own accord that it isn’t worth it and pack their bags and leave. One can only hope right?
So I try to live a life that is conducive to my good health and conversely it is not so good for the unwelcome house guest. But if I stand outside the door yelling at them to leave my life become preoccupied with the guest and my life turns into hell. If I treat the illness/house-guest as a Buddha would then I am doing things that are good for me and good for them to leave. My compassion is a good cause to entice them to leave me alone without me getting angry or suffering.
That’s not quite right I suppose. But the more real we imagine our illness, the more substance we give it the more our whole environment becomes that illness. But it isn’t possible for plates on the table to be ill, it isn’t possible for the things in our lives to manifest this illness and yet the more real we perceive our illness the more our life turns inward to the illness the more our life manifests dis-ease, the more we see everything as the disease.
Returning to onesness of self and environment, this is a two way phenomena. If we experience a little of the Buddha realm in our environment then it impacts our mind-realm. In Chapter XVI of the Lotus Sutra the Buddha said we look around and we see this world in turmoil, in a great fire. Yet through faith in the Lotus Sutra we can put on the lense of the true nature of reality and see that the world is indeed quite peaceful and beautiful. We may consider our body wracked with pain and plagued with disease and that is an illusion. Our lives are indeed Buddha as the Buddha realm encompasses all the other nine realms and the nine realms contain Buddha. Our illness is both hell and Buddha, depending upon our mind. Our mind gains clarity through our faith and study of the Lotus Sutra. Our faith is nurtured and grows from our reciting the sutra and chanting Namu myoho renge kyo.
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