it may be expressed, whether as being and non-being, or as oneness and manyness, or as this and that, or as causation and no causation, or as form and no-form, or as assertion and negation, or as Samsara and Nirvana, or as ignorance and knowledge, or as work and no-work, or as good and evil, or as purity and defilement, or as ego and non-ego, or as worldly and super-worldly, ad infinitum..."
From the point of view of awakened awareness, that is of unity or even nonduality, the perception of separation of objects is from discernment. From unawakened awareness/mind, all is experienced as duality, or manyness. This by discrimination, which is by logic and intellect. The concept of unity and manyness being the same can be arrived at by seeing a model of manyness and oneness integrated into a single object, representing the one. Imagine a sphere with projections radiating outward, like the quills of a porcupine, or the fingers of a glove.
It can be surmised from this sutra that when self-realization occurs, discrimination is discarded and a state of non-discrimination is attained. Avoiding the use of these words, or veiling them, or negating, may be closer to the Truth but is less effective for teaching.
Buddha's teaching about discrimination and manyness: (p. 35 from Suzuki's translation)
The Blessed One said to the Lord of Lanka, thus: "Ask, thou Lord of Lanka; the
Tathagata has given thee permission [to ask], delay not, whatever questions thou desirest to
have answered, I will answer each of them (15) with judgment to the satisfaction of your
have answered, I will answer each of them (15) with judgment to the satisfaction of your
heart. Keeping thy seat of thought free from [false] discrimination, observe well what is to besubdued at each stage; ponder things with wisdom; [seeing into] the nature of the inner
principle in thyself, abide in the bliss of Samadhi...Later in the text:
principle in thyself, abide in the bliss of Samadhi...Later in the text:
518. Those who believe in the oneness or the manyness [of cause], those who imagine
Brahma god or the authority of Isvara, (330) those who take the sun and the moon for an
element—they are not my sons. (p. 189)Nisargadatta uses discrimantion in a different sense:
To know itself the self must be faced with its opposite -- the not-self. Desire leads to experience. Experience leads to discrimination, detachment, self-knowledge -- liberation. And what is liberation after all? To know that you are beyond birth and death. By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream. (p. 59, I Am That)
To know itself the self must be faced with its opposite -- the not-self. Desire leads to experience. Experience leads to discrimination, detachment, self-knowledge -- liberation. And what is liberation after all? To know that you are beyond birth and death. By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream. (p. 59, I Am That)
discernment and discrimination ..I blame the foreigners ,their command of english as a second language often exceeds mine in both style and vocabulary!
ReplyDeleteI think 'discernment' here refers to seeing different things in the world yet knowing they're all made from the same stuff (me).
And (lol) 'discrimination' is seeing objects as separate and thus there is the challenge of understanding things with the mind and logic.