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WHAT IS ZEN BUDDHISM?
PART II - SAMSARA AND NIRVANA
by Ming Zhen Shakya
The aim of any meditation technique is to transcend ego-consciousness, that is, to go from ego-awareness to the state in whichthe ego doesn't exist. This is a tall order, one that specifiesa division of experience.
On one side we have Nirvana - unconditional loves,permanent values - the Real world, our heaven. No egos andno judgments, just God in all His Persons - and peace, joy,truth and freedom - and the Eternal moment. We enter Nirvanathrough the act of meditation.
On the other side we have ego-awareness or Samsara as wecall it... this is the Buddhist equivalent of hell... it is theworld of illusion - appearances, judgments, opinions,conditional loves and values... the world that measures distanceand history by Greenwich Mean Time.
Samsara is the hellish world of time and space and theshifting shapes which energy assumes, the fluctuating worldwhich is apprehended by the senses and presided over by thejudgmental ego. This is the world that the Buddha described asbeing "bitter and painful."
Why do we call Samsara hell? Let's take a look at the worldof the ego. Suppose I see a woman who's wearing a yellowsweater. I would be making a Nirvanic utterance if I saidsimply, "I see a woman wearing a yellow sweater." I would bemaking a Samsaric utterance if I said, "I see a woman wearing ahideous yellow sweater." By my contemptuous, judgmentalstatement, by my egotistical usurpation of the exalted rank"Arbiter of Fashion" I have placed myself in the hell of Samsarabecause I now must stand trial for every garment I wear. I mustcommit much of my time and energy, and my financial resources, tolooking good because I dare not ever be caught wearing anythinghideous. Nobody will love me for dressing well; but if I make afashion blunder then all those whom I have criticized willgleefully get their revenge.
In all our egotistical judgments - about clothes or art, orour instantaneous opinions about other people's guilt orinnocence, or their sincerity or duplicity - about anything atall - we place ourselves at hellish risk.
Jesus said it best. "Judge not and ye shall not be judged."
In Samsara we believe that a man who drives a Cadillac is abetter man than a man who drives a Ford because a Cadillac is abetter car than a Ford. Right? And the man who wears a Rolexspends his time better than a man who wears a Timex... Isn'tthat how it goes? In Samsara we believe that the quality of apossession magically adheres to the possessor. People who haveexpensive junk are much happier than people who have cheap junk.How painful it is to learn that this belief is false... thatthis illusion defines deceit itself.
Thorstein Veblen, the great economist, wrote a book calledThe Theory of the Leisure Class. In it he comparessterling silver flatware to stainless steel flatware. Now, ifyou eat eggs or tomatoes - or many other foods - with sterling,you'll get this vile-tasting chemical reaction. You don't getthis reaction with stainless steel. So stainless steel in manyways is superior to sterling. But be honest: a great hostesswould sooner commit hara kiri with a butterknife than lay outanything but sterling.
In his famous Allegory of the Cave, Plato likens people wholive in the everyday world of ego-conscious existence, that isto say, Samsara, to people who have been chained since birthinside a Cave. They sit there facing the rear wall of the caveand their heads are so restrained that they cannot look around.Immediately behind them is a stage upon which marionette figuresare moving; and behind this stage is a large fire. The firecasts the marionettes' shadows on the rear wall. And thesemoving shadows, then, are all that the chained people see. Theyregard them as real. But this isn't Reality, it's Maya ...Illusion...Samsara. Shadows of the shadow world... the worldof the ego.
Transcendent Reality, or Nirvana, is what is seen in thebrilliant sunlight outside the cave. There truth can be seen inits pure Ideal Forms. But few people ever try to freethemselves from their chains to go out into the light. Peoplealways get into their dreary ruts and don't want to trustanything outside their own little niches.
Plato ended his allegory by saying that if a person ever gotout of the cave and then in a mad desire to help his fellow manreturned to tell them about that beautiful real world outside,they'd call him crazy and if he didn't shut up, they'd kill him. [Next page.]
