Thinking about this blog’s Essential Concepts series, I realized that, though they were “pagan” and I referenced a Hindu holiday, their presentation remained basically “Western.” I believe that Whitehead, one of the main influences of this philosophy, was inspired by Buddhism. In light of this influence, I researched the type of Buddhism that I understand most resembled this set of concepts.
First, I saw that, logically enough, the “elements” were the same five as those of Hinduism1. These are the same four as are associated with the “West” plus one other, which Wikipedia names, “aether” or “void”. Examining this “fifth element” (particularly the way it is described as one of the Japanese Buddhist Godai,) I realized that it was another aspect of “The Potential,” an aspect which explains the description I had given of this element here: “one of the two most basic aspects of the universe, aligned with what the Upanishads refer to as the ‘feminine’ ‘Prajna – all powerful … the source and end of all.’”
Second, “The Four” as I conceived them correspond with the set of four polarities in Zen Buddhism. These polarities are:
Buddha-nature and Sunyata. According to the Wikipedia entry (as of 7/18/23, 9:38):
The doctrine of the Buddha-nature asserts that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature ... the element from which awakening springs. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras ... state that every living being has the potential to realize awakening. Hence Buddhism offers salvation to every-one… (Scholarly citations removed.)
As to Sunyata, as Zen (Mahayana) Buddhism conceives it…
...In the worldview of these sutras, though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, these objects are "empty" of the identity imputed by their designated labels.2
Taken together, these ideas correspond well to “The Potential,” the polarities being “Prehension” and its outgrowth, “Radical Contingency”.
The World as Absolute and Relative:
The poem, “Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi,” expresses the meaning of these poles, and how they interrelate, as a process with five ranks, or stages. As I understand the passages quoted in the “five ranks” entry of Wikipedia, the process of “Peer Review” would correspond to the Relative pole, and “The Great Conversation” would constitute the Absolute pole. A post I wrote to a message board in 20183 suggests another way to put this concept – that the only absolute of the “universe [is that it] is a creative process,” and that even the gods, as “fellow sufferers,” can separately give only their relative perspectives. As the awareness of limitations I would categorize these poles under “The Sensual.”
Transmission of Enlightenment as Esoteric and Exoteric: The Wikipedia entry quotes Jørn Borup’s (2008) text, Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion, that “the emphasis on ‘mind to mind transmission’ is a form of esoteric transmission, in which ‘the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face’…[while] exoteric transmission requires ‘direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one’s self.’” These concepts fall under “The Integral” and correspond to “Interdependence” and “Primates,” respectively.
Lastly, Enlightenment as Sudden and Gradual: The Wikipedia entry notes that in Peter N. Gregory’s (1991) text, “Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation: Tsung-mi’s Analysis of mind,” Gregory claims that “sudden awakening points to seeing into one’s true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood.” I see these concepts as “Temporal” and would count our “Principle,” “Self-conscious dialogue and growth therefrom,” as “sudden,” and the three “Primary Ideals,” Emotional Management, Critical Thinking, and Empathy, as gradual.
I’ll end by saying that “Spiritual Discipline” overlaps both The Integral and The Temporal categories.
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1 Buddhism, having started in India, incorporated The Hindu elements.
2 Kalupahana, David J. A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited 1994, p. 160-169
3 The message will be under “Viola” on the page. Apparently, the “Find” option of the drop-down menu is now unaccountably combined with “edit.” (Do these edit options even work for a web page? Do people, such as bloggers, who might want such options, need to get them from the drop-down menu?)
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