Where is Ultimate Truth?
If Nirvana is right
here in front of us like the hidden three-dimensional picture, ultimate truth
is also right here too because they refer to the same thing. To have a better
comprehension, readers must not forget the fact about a single hair hindering
the mountain. The first thing we must do is change the word “truth” to
“reality” and we leave the term “ultimate” aside for the moment. I will first
of all explain the term “reality”.
Initially, I must ask
readers not to think too far away and too complex. I am not talking about
reality in terms of real events happening in the world, which relate to all
sorts of today’s problems. We are going to look at something much closer to us;
so close that it is a matter of here and
now. It doesn’t matter where we are and what we are doing. I would like you
to look around yourself at this very immediate moment. Our sensory experience
right now is the exact kind of reality
I want to talk about. Our sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch right now
are the only real things that no-one can deny their existence. These are
reality and certainly not dreams, thoughts or concepts. If we are standing in
the midst of a vast daffodil field, and someone comes along and says these are
not daffodils but puppies, we know that there is no need to argue.
Alternatively, if we are listening to our favorite music and someone says this
is the sound of an airplane; or if we are stroking our new soft wooly cardigan
and someone says it feels very smooth like stroking plastic, we know that there
is no need to talk any further.
Our sensory
experiences are real enough that we need no confirmation. Consequently, what we
cannot experience right now is not reality according to the above definition.
Suppose we are doing our private business in the bathroom, we know the three
bedrooms are next to the bathroom and the living room is downstairs and our
children are watching television, but although we know they are facts, they are
not reality. Reality is our immediate sensory experience, which is everything
we can sense in the bathroom. Everything apart from that, although they are
facts, they are not real and therefore they can be faulty because our children
could be in the kitchen instead and our living room might be on fire or
flooded. We can see that the immediate event of the bedrooms and the living
room exist only in our thoughts and memory and therefore not reality.
Consequently, all the thoughts which are too far away like thinking about
yesterday, tomorrow or thinking about our intellectual knowledge and so on are
not reality according to this meaning I put forward. They are not reality
because they are not our immediate sensory experience. We can subsequently see
that reality in this meaning moves with ourselves. If there are no sensory
organs, there is no reality. As a result, reality as the immediate moment is a
constant dynamic moment, which exists exactly like the second hand of a clock,
which doesn’t stop. Once we finish our business in the bathroom and walk into
the bedroom, our reality changes. The bathroom becomes a dream and the bedroom
becomes reality. We later come downstairs and into the living room, our
immediate reality moves along with us. If we want to understand the ultimate
reality or Nirvana that the Buddha talked about, we must first of all
understand reality in this simple meaning.
Next, I will relate
this to the Buddha’s term Rupa which means matter, corporeality. Most Buddhists
think that it only refers to our physical body when it is used together with
Nam, which means mental function. In fact, when the Buddha mentioned Rupa, he
means everything that we can sense with our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.
In other words, Rupa refers to all sights, sounds, tastes, smell and touches. Sometimes
the Buddha used the term world, universe or ocean in place of Rupa. The Buddha
did not refer to the round globe or the unlimited space or the vast area of
water. World, universe and ocean are only a few sights among all the sights we
can perceive through our eyes. Consequently, Rupa, world, universe or ocean
have the same meaning which refers to all sights, sounds, smells, tastes and
touches and this meaning covers absolutely everything in the universe. We can
begin to see the connection between Rupa or universe and the term reality I
talked about earlier. The reality of the universe in the Buddha’s term means
the reality of our sensory experience at this immediate moment. To find the
reality of the universe does not mean that we have to get on a space ship and
travel into space so that we can find a new experience and probably the final
frontier. The reality of the universe is right here in front of us.
If we can understand
reality in such a simple meaning, we only need to bring back the term “ultimate”.
Where is the ultimate reality of the universe? Wherever our reality is, the
ultimate reality is also there. It cannot be elsewhere. The following true
story might be able to help those who have little dust in their eyes understand
the ultimate reality of the universe.
When Ajahn Kowit
Khemanandha, my most beloved spiritual teacher, was a monk on a remote island
in Songhla province, a boy of 7-8 years old asked him a very direct question.
“Venerable Uncle sir, why does everything have a name?” many people might think
that this is a child’s innocent question. Some might even think what kind of stupid question was that? Of
course, everything has got to have a name. I have brought this story up every
now and again in my writing because to me this question is the answer to the
heart of Buddhism.
To be more precise,
this boy could see the ultimate reality of the universe and that’s why he asked
such an intriguing question. This is the exact experience when Pahiya begged
the Buddha to teach him the essence of Buddhism. The Buddha kindly told him:
“Pahiya, when you see
sights, just see; when you hear sounds, just hear; when you smell smells, just
smell; when you taste tastes, just taste; when you feel something, just feel.
If you can do all these things, Nirvana is not far from you.” Pahiya entered
Arahantship the moment the Buddha finished his teaching.
If we can do what the
Buddha told Pahiya, we will not see names in everything. This was what the boy
could experience; he saw no names in everything and that’s why he could not
understand why adults call everything by a name. In other words, this boy could
see things as they are (Ta-tha-ta). This is the state of the ultimate reality
which nothing can go beyond. The state that cannot be anything else but being
what it is (A-nan-ya-tha-ta). However, although this boy could see the ultimate
reality of the universe, he was not enlightened like Pahiya because he did not
know what that state was for. To see ultimate reality and to know what it is
for are two different states. To see the experience is compared to holding a
piece of jigsaw puzzle in our hands whilst to know what is for is compared to
being able to find the right place for that piece of jigsaw puzzle. We can hold
a piece of jigsaw puzzle for a long time but we cannot find the right place for
it. After we can see or experience ultimate reality, we still need to have the
intuitive knowledge (nana) which tells us that this experience is indeed the
ultimate reality. This intuitive knowledge (nana) can only happen when we
follow the fourth noble truth or the noble eightfold path which begins with
having the right view and ends with practising the right meditation. That’s why
this boy on the island cannot enter Arahantship like Pahiya did. Nonetheless,
this boy is holding a crucial piece of jigsaw puzzle in his hand. Should he be
lucky enough to practise the four foundations of awareness, he will not have
problems in understanding the fourth foundation of awareness.
I told the story about
the boy because I want to encourage people to see that ultimate reality is not
as far as away as we think. It is right here hidden away like the three
dimensional picture. We only need to remove the single strand of hair from our
eyes and then we can see the whole mountain right in front of us. This boy
could see ultimate reality where everything has no name because his mind was
innocent and less complex. We adults have too many thoughts and memories and
think in such a complex way that it obstructs our innocent perception. People
whose minds revolve around gain and loss can never see the mountain right in
front of them. Nevertheless, ultimate reality or ultimate truth where
everything has no name, Nirvana and the end of suffering are all the same
thing.
Finally, we reach the
point of asking the crucial question of how we can make ourselves experience
ultimate reality. The answer is we must practise Vipassana-bhavana or the four
foundations of awareness. These are the different stages of practice which can
help to reduce the complexity of the mind. The simplicity of the mind will
allow us to experience the universe of sights, sounds, smells, taste and touch
in the most innocent way. On the day we can truly see no names in absolutely
everything, we can also see ultimate reality or the ultimate truth.
Metaphorically speaking, we have found the crucial piece of the jigsaw puzzle
and we begin to hold it in our hands. As long as we keep on with the practice,
the intuitive knowledge (nana) will follow and then we will know exactly how
ultimate reality link with us. When that happens, to enter Nirvana or to end
suffering permanently is the light that we can clearly see at the end of the
tunnel. People who haven’t heard of the four foundations of awareness should
quickly find experts and learn from them. If we cannot know ultimate reality,
we can hardly know anything else although we appear to know so much.