P.2
Reality, according to Mahayana Buddhism, has three levels of perception, known also as the three bodies (trikaya) of Buddha: nirmanakaya, the physical body of the founder, that is subject to change; sambhogakaya, the body of the boddhisattvas; and dharmakaya, the ultimate nature of all things. The dharmakaya state is also called suchness or emptiness (devoid of attributes). Although any resemblance to the Hindu Vedanta is denied, there are at least two important aspects that suggest the contrary. First, the pure state dharmakaya, the absolute body of the Buddha and, at the same time, the fundamental nature of the universe is described in the same way as Brahman:
How should enlightened beings see the body of Buddha? (dharmakaya) They should see the body of Buddha in infinite places. Why? They should not see Buddha in just one thing, one phenomenon, one body, one land, one being - they should see Buddha everywhere. Just as space is omnipresent, in all places, material or immaterial, yet without either arriving or not arriving there, because space is incorporeal, in the same way Buddha is omnipresent, in all places, in all beings, in all things, in all lands, yet neither arriving nor not arriving there, because Buddha's body is incorporeal, manifesting a body for the sake of sentient beings. (Garland Sutra 37)
This statute of the Buddha allows him to become manifested whenever people become ignorant, have no more interest in getting spiritual wisdom, and are too concerned with carnal lusts. The same message appears in the discourse of Krishna of theistic Hinduism (Bhagavad Gita IV,7-8). The resemblance is even greater by the fact that the boddhisattva beings (as the Hindu avatars) are mediators between humans and Ultimate Reality. This is the second resemblance, the substitution of the Hindu gods with the Buddhist boddhisattvas, which might be interpreted as a penetration of the Hindu bhakti tradition in Buddhism.
In conclusion, Mahayana Buddhism is a pantheistic religion, with an impersonal Ultimate Reality (the dharmakaya) and personal beings (the boddhisattvas) acting as intermediaries between humans and it.
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Ultimate Reality in other Eastern Religions
Taoism
Like the Hindu Vedanta or Buddhist Mahayana, Taoism states an impersonal Ultimate Reality that is both the creator principle and the eternal truth of universe. It is the Tao, the immutable and unchanging principle that is the basis of multiplicity and the impulse that generates all forms of life. The founder of Taoism, Lao Tse (6th century BC), stated in his important writing, Tao-te Ching:
There was something undifferentiated and yet complete,
Which existed before heaven and earth.
Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change.
It operates everywhere and is free from danger.
It may be considered the mother of the universe.
I do not know its name; I call it Tao. (Tao-te Ching 25)
In the same way as the Hindu Brahman or Buddhist Dharmakaya, Tao is the source in which originate and return all the manifestations of the world:
All the flourishing things
Will return to their source.
This return is peaceful;
It is the flow of nature,
An eternal decay and renewal. (Tao-te Ching 16)
Tao holds two complementary and opposite modalities that are present in all creation: Yin and Yang (Yin - the female principle of darkness, potentiality, regression; and Yang - the male principle of light, activity and progress). Their dynamic and the proportions in which they become mixed at a certain moment determine any given aspect of nature or living beings: day and night, seasons, life and death. Any personal existence, gods or humans, receive their wisdom from Tao, being merely inferior and temporary forms of its manifestation:
[Tao] is its own source, its own root. Before heaven and earth existed it was there, firm from ancient times. It gave spirituality to the spirits and gods; it gave birth to heaven and to earth. (Chuang Tzu 6)
The Taoist divinities are probably reminiscences of an ancient Chinese pantheon, many of them being humans at their origin and then proclaimed gods as time passed. This is probably the result of a late syncretism that tried to combine devotion to the ancient Chinese gods with classic Taoism, as a way of making it more acceptable to the lay people. Later religious developments such as deities, temples, priests, rites and symbolic images are foreign to the spirit of Taoism. Deities like the Jade Emperor (Yu-huang) and The First Principal (Yuan-shis Tien-Tsun) are considered in some traditions to be gods, while other deities like the three Pure Ones (San-ch’ing) are more like Buddhist bodhisattvas, acting as manifestations of Lao Tse.
Confucianism
Rather than a religion, Confucius (6th century BC) founded an ethical system in order to harmonize social relations in the Chinese state. For this reason it is hard to say that Confucianism, at least in its original form, is a true religion. Although Confucius respected the religious traditions of his time, he gave them a mere ethical interpretation. The supreme principle in the universe according to him is the moral law, a universal principle, omnipresent, hidden and eternal:
There is no place in the highest heavens above or in the deepest waters below where the moral law is not to be found. (Doctrine of the Mean 12)
Following the moral principles means to conform oneself to the will of heaven, but more metaphysical speculations about heaven and afterlife are useless (Analects 7,20).
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ULTIMATE REALITY AS A PERSONAL GOD IN THE THREE MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD - CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM AND ISLAM
The three great monotheistic religions of the world have a personal God as Ultimate Reality. First we will present the difference brought by Christianity among the world religions in defining what God is, and then show the distinctive aspects of Judaism and Islam.
The personal and triune God of Christianity
Christianity presents an Ultimate Reality totally different to all we have found in the other religions. The intuition of the wise men of the East almost never diverged from pantheism as the determinant view of existence. Brahman of the Upanishads or of Shankara's Vedanta, Shiva of Tantrism, the Dharmakaya of Mahayana Buddhism or the Chinese Tao, all represent an impersonal Ultimate Reality. Most forms of theistic Hinduism are no exception, as their gods are merely inferior manifestations of the impersonal Absolute.
Christianity holds a totally different position. The Ultimate Reality of the universe is the personal and triune God. He exists as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, without beginning and without having his origin in a primordial impersonal essence. As the Athanasian creed states:
In this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and coequal.
There are some important things to clear up about the origin and meaning of the term "person" (Latin persona, Greek prosopon). Initially used in the Greek ancient theater for the actors’ mask, the term designated in Hellenistic philosophy "the masked face of the impersonal being". The term used for the impersonal essence of reality was ousia, and its determined, singular forms were called hypostasis. If Christian theology had been only a form of Hellenistic philosophy, it should have said that the hypostases - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - are mere functional aspects of the divine nature ousia. The novelty brought by Christian theology is the fact that each person of the Holy Trinity has the fullness of divine nature, and the ontological character of the Ultimate Reality is defined only by the reality and relation that exists between the three hypostases, in the Holy Trinity "of one substance". A major contribution in defining this aspect was made by the Cappadocian fathers of the Church (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzen).
The Holy Trinity should be understood neither as a sum of three Gods (tri-theism), nor as a mono-personal God that assumes successively three distinct forms (the modalistic heresy). God’s being does not exist outside the three persons, but only as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they are the only way for God's existence. So there cannot exist an Ultimate Reality "beyond" or "above" the Holy Trinity, as in pantheism (Brahman as the ultimate nature of the gods). Therefore none of the three hypostases, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can be considered a kind of Hindu Ishvara, a first manifestation of the impersonal Brahman. Christian theology overthrew the values of Hellenistic metaphysics in order to adapt its terms to the new revealed reality. In defining divinity, the accent must be transferred from an impersonal Ultimate Reality to the personal character of the Holy Trinity and the relation between the three hypostases. Here is the origin of the term "divine person" (from the Latin persona), and (derived from it) the term "human person".
The triune God of Christianity exists by Himself. He proclaimed to Moses: "I am who I am" (Exodus 3,14). He is sufficient in Himself and by Himself, not depending on any exterior element. His existence is expressed through love, omnipotence and omniscience, among which there is perfect unity and harmony. None is manifesting itself by infringing on the other because the Holy Trinity is perfect in love, will and deed. Associated with these characteristics are justice and immutability. God’s immutability is not a reminder of Brahman Nirguna's immobility, but an absolute stability in truth and good. Likewise, when the Apostle John proclaims that "God is love" (1 John 4,8) this should not be interpreted as an expression of the impersonal primordial energy, but as form of expressing the supreme unity of the tri-personal communion. It doesn't just mean that God has love, as a quality, but that He is love, that this is His way of being in the Trinity, each person existing not just for himself, but for the others, in a perfect communion of love.
(The following links should be helpful for understanding the concept of Holy Trinity:
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Trinity, and of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit; On "Not Three Gods";
Early Christians on the Trinity)
The God that presents Himself in the Bible cannot be equated with any god of the Hindu pantheon. They are only aspects of an impersonal Absolute, manifestations that will finally be absorbed by it. The triune God of Christianity is different from Krishna, who is a slave to the cyclic manifestation and annihilation of the universe (Bhagavad Gita 9,7-9). According to Christianity, God does not create the same world many times, but just once, and then not out of a necessity that surpasses him. Neither can He be equated with the "Hindu trinity" Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). The three Hindu gods are reminiscences of the old Vedic polytheism, from where they have been later assimilated as primary products of Brahman's manifestations. The "Hindu trinity" cannot be an equivalent of the Christian Holy Trinity, but rather a kind of pagan tri-theism.
The God of the Bible has no equivalent in the other world religions. There is no deeper Ultimate Reality above him, a kind of Brahman, as Meister Eckhart suggested. He is not an Ishvara manifested out of Brahman (or a Deus manifested out of Deitas, according to Eckhart), a god that comes and goes, located far beyond the impersonal absolute. The triune God of Christianity does not admit the existence of a "deeper reality" in which He originated, because He says:
I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God (Isaiah 44,6).
As a consequence, it is absurd to define a superior and esoteric way (apara-vidya), that aims at the impersonal Absolute, and an inferior exoteric way (para-vidya) for those who are so limited that they are satisfied with a personal manifestation of the absolute. Christianity cannot be assimilated as a form of bhakti-yoga, a way accessible for the inferior and weak people to attain the impersonal Ultimate Reality of the world. We will return to this aspect in a further file.
The nature of creation in Christianity
Directly linked to what we accept as Ultimate Reality is the significance we grant to the physical world. Being consequent to the idea of the fundamental unity of the world in Brahman, pantheism has to consider the physical world and man as manifestations of Brahman, manifestations of the same primordial essence to which they are destined to return. For this reason, it can be said that the impersonal Absolute is incomplete without his "creation", i.e. without the manifestation of his potentiality. The manifestation of Brahman is a necessity derived from its very nature. A similar situation is to be found in the Samkhya-Yoga, where prakriti (the primordial substance) transforms itself into the forms of the world. In Eastern religions creation is always a transformation (or manifestation) of a primordial impersonal unity. It is not a replacement of "nothingness" with "something", but a transformation of the Ultimate Reality from one ontological condition into another. What once existed in unity becomes multiplicity and manifestation, an actualization of preexistent virtualities.
Things are different with the creation presented in the Bible. An unprecedented element in world religions, God creates the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo) and not out of his own substance (ex Deo). This "nothing" has no ontological statute, it is not a primordial substance, because prior to creation, nothing existed except God. Creation ex nihilo is not an artifice of Christian philosophy, but the only possibility compatible with the existence of a personal God as Ultimate Reality. The psalmist writes about the act of creation:
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (Psalm 102,25-27)
The creation presented in the book of Genesis is an act intended and completed by the Creator, not out of necessity, but of desire and love. The beginning or cause of the world is not an impersonal necessity or a blind manifestation of an undetermined nature, but the product of the free choice of the personal and triune God.
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God and creation in Judaism and Islam
The God of Judaism is the God of the Old Testament, God the Father of Christianity, so that the Old Testament is common to the two religions. Although there are some hints pointing to the Triune God in the Old Testament, Judaism accepts only God the Father as the true God. The rejection of Jesus Christ as God the Son represented precisely the appearance of Christianity as a new world religion. The God of orthodox Judaism is the same as God the Father of Christianity, having the same attributes. In time, however, some Judaic sects, such as the Kabbalah for instance, rejected the personal God and adopted a pantheistic view of Ultimate Reality: “Bear in mind, that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, the upper simple light has filled entire existence” (The Tree of Life, 1). This “simple light” or “endless light” is not the personal creator of the Old Testament, but rather an equivalent of the Hindu Brahman.
The other great monotheistic religion of the world, Islam, also has a personal god as Ultimate Reality. Allah is presented in the Quran as an eternal being, transcendent and almighty. In the 112th Surra it is stated:
Say, He is God, the One!
God, the eternally Besought of all!
He neither begets nor was begotten.
And there is none comparable unto Him.
Allah seems to have the same attributes as God the Father of the Old Testament, since the influence of the Old Testament on the Quran is beyond doubt, given the many episodes taken over from the Bible and reinterpreted.
The following links should be helpful for understanding how the content of the Bible and the Quran was transmitted during history:
“The Bible and the Quran” - An Historical Comparison (manuscript, documentary and archaeological analysis)
“The Textual history of the Quran and the Bible”, by John Gilchrist.
The Triune God of Christianity is considered to be a heresy, both in Judaism and Islam, an attempt against monotheism. Therefore, Allah cannot be the same with God the Father of the Old Testament, because he clearly states that belief in the Trinity is one of the worst possible heresies and sins:
Surely, unbelievers are those who said, "Allah is the third of the three [in a Trinity]". But there is no god but One God. And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the unbelievers among them (Quran 5,73).
However a strictly mono-personal, not tri-personal, God cannot be perfect in his personal attributes because some of them are defined only in relation with another person (for instance love, goodness, and compassion). Such a god is conditioned by his creation in order to be loving, caring and good, because otherwise he has no one toward whom to express these attributes. A god that depends on his creation (mankind) to be perfect (or perfect since creation) in his personal attributes is less than perfect. A possible solution to this problem would be that God and creation should always coexist, but this would mean that God is not the creator, and that is absurd. The only possible solution is the Holy Trinity "of one substance" in which there is an absolute communion of nature, will and deed, who creates man not out of necessity, but out of his superabundant love.
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Conclusion
The world's religions hold very different views on Ultimate Reality. More than different, they are even irreconcilable one with another. Indeed, the impersonal Brahman of the Upanishads, who balances between the manifested state and unmanifestation (the same as Shiva in Tantrism), or the lack of any transcendental being, as stated by Theravada Buddhism, are positions that cannot be reconciled with the personal God of the monotheistic religions. Even among the many branches of Hinduism are stated irreconcilable positions (see for instance the gods of the Vedas, the Brahman of Vedanta, Vishnu of the theistic trends stated by Ramanuja and Madhva, and Ishvara of the Yoga darshana).
On the other hand, a personal God as Ultimate Reality cannot be at the same time a manifestation of an impersonal Absolute (as in some cases of Hindu theism) and a being above whom there is no deeper reality (as the monotheistic religions claim). Even the three great monotheistic religions of the world state irreconcilable positions concerning the nature of God. He must be either tri-personal (the triune God of Christianity), or mono-personal (as in Judaism and Islam). Considering all these alternatives, we cannot accept the claim that the world's religions are parts of a unique spirituality, or parts toward the same transcendental finality. |
