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Study and practice clarifies understanding, but a flash of Zen immediately unifies all disciplines compactly.
Antithesis
"Enlightenment[,]" the 1st c. North Indian Asvaghosha declared, "is the highest quality of the mind[, ...] like unto space, penetrating everywhere, as the unity of all."[1]
The late 4th c. Lankavatara Sutra, a major source for north Asian Buddhism and Japanese Zen, speaks of "mind-only; where there are no shadows[;]"[2] while 9th c. Japanese Shingon Buddhism knows "One Mind which is tranquil, without a second, and free from any specific marks." That same source later concludes "mind, the characteristic of empty space, and enlightenment are identical. They are rooted in the spirit of compassion[.]"[3]
Lest materialism chortle only empty-headed easy marks must populate monasteries (true as that may be, by design), a glance back at Vedantic philosophical roots enlarges context. As Katha Upanishad insists: "Brahman alone is - nothing else is."[4] Theists and Anti-Theists alike may agree exalting any particular Name or Names only plays a word game, while the One Mind of the Living God patiently waits.
Kaivalya Upanishad affirms: "By seeing the Self in all beings, and all beings in the Self, one goes to Brahman. That is the only way."[6] Sri Krsna Himself observed: "True knowledge is to see one changeless life in all the lives and in the Separate, One Inseparable."[7] "Even here on earth, creation is conquered by those whose minds are established in equality."[8]
Remedial reading for Abrahamic scholars prone to dismiss all this as high-altitude wandering might include "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."[9] "[I]n him we live, and move, and have our being[,]"[10] after all. Following Paul's "pray without ceasing"[11] suggests steps firmly onto a path toward Enlightenment: "Be still, and know that I am God[.]"[12]
Dharmic and Abrahamic traditions nestle together, nobly justifying Taoism's Two Aspects of Taiji: the yin and yang. One tugs incessantly Omnipresent Sleeve, chatting breaking news to Omniscient Ear; the other says sit down, shut up, and tame your thoughts till Divinity illumines your heart. Both apply; they shape yin and yang of active and passive worship, knowledge and action. And how anything "established in equality" "rooted in the spirit of compassion" "as the unity of all" might conflict with the Gospels, Ku'ran and Tanakh remains elusive: "we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."[15]
Dialecticians see conflict anywhere and target optimally balanced synthesis; iterate to the nth and prepare Enlightenment. The world's religions - together with the world's irreligions - are already One.
Only Zen dawdles in sufficient hearts.
[1] "Asvaghosha's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith," The Bible of the World. Robert O. Ballou, ed. New York, Viking Press, 1959, pp.338-40
[2] Ballou, op.cit., pp.351-52
[3] The Precious Key to the Secret Treasury (Hizo hoyaku), Kukai (Kobo Daishi). Major Works. Translated, with an Account of his Life and a Study of his Thought, by Yoshito S. Hakeda. New York and London, Columbia University Press, 1972, pp.160, 163-221
[4] Katha, The Upanishads, Swami Prabhavananda, F. Manchester. Hollywood, Vedanta Press, 1971, p32
[5] Chandogya, ibid., p117-18
[6] Kaivalya, ibid., p208
[7] The Bhagavad-Gita, The Wisdom of the Living Religions, Joseph Gaer, ed. New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1956, p135
[8] The Bhagavad-Gita, Eliot Deutsch, tr. New York, Rinehart and Winston, 1968, 5:18-19
[9] Ephesians 4:6
[10] Acts 17:28
[11] 1 Thessalonians 5:16
[12] Psalms 46:10
[13] The Glorious Kur'an. Abdallah Yousuf Ali, tr. Libyan Arab Republic, The Call of Islam Society, 1973, ii.115
[14] Acts 17:26
[15] 1 Corinthians 3:9
[16] Chuang Tze (3rd c. BCE), Ballou, op.cit., p507
[17] Friedrich Engels. Dialectics of Nature. (ca. 1887, first published 1925) Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954, p.83
Buddhism's audacity promotes the genius of Vedantic Upanishads, but pointedly neglects to mention Brahman: root and source of all the myriad Hindu universes. Brahman inhabits Omnipresent Omniscience mainly and little else - as though that were not enough. But Buddhism sees no particular value in discriminating Names, inviting everyone simply immediately join the One Mind constituting all reality.
Where one sees nothing but the One, hears nothing but the One - there is the Infinite. Where one sees another, hears another, knows another - there is the finite. The Infinite is immortal, the finite is mortal.[5]
To God belong the East and the West: whithersoever ye turn, there is the Presence of God. For God is All-Pervading, All-Knowing.[13]
The vanity of any one religion pretending monopoly on proper worship gags the mind. Humility cries learn from one another and stand together peaceably in Divine presence, whatever Names you call. All the world's great religions - including especially the indigenous everywhere, whose dream wisdom gathers field, forest and high place yet - form a common, irreplaceable, precious global legacy: God's Wisdom "made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth[.]"[14]
When subjective and objective are both without their correlates, that is the very axis of TAO. And when that axis passes through the centre at which all infinities converge, positive and negative alike blend into an infinite ONE.[16]
Synthesis
Two of Engels' three main laws of dialectics embrace "interpenetration of opposites" and "the negation of the negation"[17]: both surely near the Taoist heart. Every action in Nature, and every thought, sequences incessantly; action inspires reaction, ending in synthesis of opposing forces. Atoms set the pattern in matter; galaxies slow dance through it across tens of billions of years; and people think.
NOTES
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