From Limited Life Suffering to Limitless Life Bliss: The Four Limitlessnesses: 制限生苦から無限生楽へ：四無量

From Limited Life Suffering to Limitless Life Bliss: The Four Limitlessnesses

Our sufferings are Four (the inevitable ones of birth, aging, sickness, and death) and Eight (these Four plus the universal ones of not getting the desired, being separated from the beloved, meeting with the disliked, in essence the five aggregates rampant). As human societies expand, they give rise to societal problems like discrimination, exploitation, war, nukes, etc., further causing the global problematique, interrelated problems such as climate change and mass extinctions.

The cause lies in the five aggregates (form, feeling, ideas, formations, consciousness), as said above “in essence, the five aggregates rampant.” It can be said to be the Triple Poisons of survival instinct (desire, divisiveness, and delusion), or the “Triple Only” (only ego, only now, and only money), now often mentioned to criticize egocentric attitudes and actions, especially those of selfish, shortsighted politicians. That is the delusion that becomes divisiveness (discrimination, hatred) and the desire for money.

The solution is to be awakened, as the Buddha (Awakened One) did, to the fact that we are karma-born, -heirs, -owners, and -refuged, and to become friends with all with good karma, serving and saving all. We must, as the Buddha did, still our karmic (past/present body, mouth, mind) Triple Poisons by still sitting, settle in nirvana (no blowing, of karma-winds), see the Dharma (Dharma of all dharmas: Dependent Co-origination), and thereby understand the arising of all phenomena, repaying our grace to all, serving and saving all.

Anyone can settle in nirvana by concentration-meditation (Four/Eight Zen/Samadhi), see the Dharma/Dharma-world, take refuge in it (Dharma refuge), and enter into it (Dharma-body), and that way anyone can live the limitless life, light, love, and liberation of the Four Limitlessnesses (friendship, compassion, joy, and equanimity) in holy (wholly wholesome) equality, peace, health, and happiness, becoming friends with all by becoming free and full (self-refuge), freed from the bondage of the Triple Poisons/”Triple Only.”

August 25, 2023 C.E.

Notes:

The five aggregates (form, feeling, idea, formations, consciousness) were originally organized by the Buddha to analyze a person beyond the common way of two – body and mind – which involve ambiguity, especially of the mind (leading to Soul, Self, Ātman, etc.). Form represents the physical aspect and the rest are psychological ones, though formations include both physical and psychological (bodily, verbal, and mental formations). The original terms for them are rūpa, vedanā, saññā (saṁjñā), saṅkāra (saṁskāra), and viññāṇa (vijñāṇa) (in Pali, and Sanskrit in parentheses, when different).

Buddhist philosophy and practice are based on this fundamental Dharma of the Dependent Co-origination of all dharmas, which is similar to the fundamental law of Causality, but wider, including and stressing the subject, and deeper, including the whole universe, evolution, and depth of existence. Our life is limitless, far beyond our small shallow views of our life. Our ordinary life is usually small and shallow compared to the true universal life in the Dharma world. So, we make our true limitlessly related life into false, limited, separate lives due to our karmic views and actions.

“The Dharma (Norm/Law/Truth/Ethic) of all dharmas (forms/phenomena/ truths/ethics)” is Dependent Co-origination, i.e., all phenomena are interdependently co-originated on limitless causes and conditions. This means that we are interrelated with other beings (other species, elements, stars, etc.), and relatives to each other, and that we must therefore live together harmoniously and strive to make a wholly wholesome world to become harmonious, health, and happy.

The twelve-limbed Dependent Co-origination (bhava-cakka/bhava-cakra, becoming wheel) illustrates how our life goes with the five aggregates (originally identifying and analyzing so-called “self,” later “world”) resulting in suffering due to the triple poisons.

The life system is in a limitlessly interdependent and interrelated system through limitless space and time. If we can acknowledge and activate it, we can function as limitless life, light, liberation, and love, like the crystal balls of the Indra-net, making it holy (wholly wholesome), harmonious, healthy, and happy, calm and clear, collectively and continuously.

Sitting still makes one calm and clear, as a bowl settling down makes the water inside of it become calm and clear, reflecting the world. Constant cultivation of still sitting leads from calming (samatha/śamatha) and observation (vipassanā/vipaśyanā), nirvana and awakening (bodhi), witnessing the of truth world (Dhamma/Dharma-dhātu), and becoming the truth body (Dhamma/Dharma-kāya).

The key practice of sitting still is to still karma, settle in nirvana (nir-vāṇa = ni-vāta: no-wind, of karma), seeing the Dharma, serving and saving all. The Four Limitlessnesses (Brahma-abodes) are friendship, compassion, joy, and equanimity (upekkhā/upekṣā, lit. throwing away, the triple poisons).

The practice of zen (jhāna/dhyāna: meditation), the key and core practice of za-zen, sitting meditation, is to still karma, settle in nirvana, see the Dharma, and serve and save all. This process is categorized in the Four Zen Stages and the Eight Concentration (samādhi) Stages (actually Four Zen Stages plus Four Concentration Stages combined, going together)

Samādhi is essential to go beyond karma (especially its Triple Poisons of desire, divisiveness, and delusion) and settle in nirvana (by sitting still, stilling karma, settling in nirvana, seeing the Dharma/dharmas/Dharma world, and serving and saving all), in which true meditation and its prognosis (paññā/prajñā) can function.

The solution of the global problematique requires the global ethic (issued by the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993 with more than seven thousand people from all religions and from all over the world attending), which is based on the Five Precepts (and the fundamental common elements in the Ten Precepts, the Ten Commandments, etc.).

Ernst Cassirer defined humans as homo symbolicum in his Philosophy of Symbolism, its summary An Essay on Man, where humans are described as skillful in handling the symbolisms of language, myth, religion, art, science, history, etc. The Myth of the State is important to know how states operate.

The Five Ss are the representations of Francisco Bacon’s Four Idola (cave, agora, theatre, species) in Self, Society, Status, and Species, plus Cassirer’s Symbolism.

Karmic views and actions are limited, like those born blind who groped only a part of a huge elephant and fought for their partial findings as being the only right ones. Karma has developed through four billion years of evolution, essentially on the self-survival instinct, magnified by human civilizations, the artificial pyramidal system, fighting for money, matter, and might with the five calamities (delusion, bondage, discrimination, exploitation, and destruction).

A paradigm shift from our artificial, unilateral pyramidal civilization to a natural, cyclical Indra-net life culture for sharing life, heart, and harmony with the five blisses (awakening, freedom, equality, friendship, and peace) is essential to solve the global problematique. Culture is the cultivation of our potential in truth, goodness, beauty, and holiness.

Our coarse views are limited by the short, shallow, small self, like seeing only the apparent competition among plants above ground, but subtle scientific findings show that under the ground micro-organisms connect their root systems to cooperate in nutritional exchange, etc. Micro-organisms help plants and animals, enabling them to go over the land, develop their life functions, create fantastic flora and fauna, and interact with the universe throughout time and space.

Our life is limitless dependent co-origination and co-operation, thus great limitlessness, but due to karmic limited views and actions, we make it limited, small, and shallow in suffering, which is like one ofits bubblesstarting to think of itself as an independent, separated self (conventional, commonsense truth), separate from the ocean, which is transcendent truth beyond bubble thoughts (ultimate, universal truth).

Friendship (mettā/maitṝ) is future saviors in universal religions (intended to mean everyone’s potential to become the true friend in need of all, cf. Friend: Mitra, Mithra, Mazda, Maitreya, Milu, Miroku, Massiah, Messiah).

制限生苦から無限生楽へ：四無量

私達の苦は四苦八苦に纏められる（不可避の生老病死の四苦に普遍的な求不得苦、愛別離苦、怨憎会苦、要するに、五蘊盛苦を加えて八苦）。人間は集団の拡大により、差別、搾取、戦争、核などの社会問題を起こし、更に地球暖化、種大量絶滅などの地球問題群（地球規模の相互関連問題）を生み出しています。

その原因は「要するに、五蘊盛苦」とある通り、私達の業の結果である色受想行識（形態、感受、観念、行為、意識）が引き起こすものです。それは業の生存本能の三毒（貪瞋痴）と言ってよく、今良く自己中心的態度・行動、特に我執の強い短見の政治屋達、について言われる「三だけ」（我だけ、今だけ、金だけ）とも言えるでしょう、即ち我の愚痴が今の瞋恚（差別、憎悪）と金の貪欲になるのです。

その解決は、ブッダ（覚者）がそうした様に、私達が業‐誕生者、‐相続者、‐所有者、‐依拠者であると言う事実に目覚めて、善業により一切と共に友となり一切に奉仕、救済することです。ブッダが実践した様に静坐により業（新旧身口意）の三毒を静止して涅槃（無風、業風の）に安住して諸法の法（現象の法則：縁起＝因縁生起）を見て、それにより一切の因縁生起を知り、報恩し奉仕し助け救うことです。

誰でも静坐・（四・八）禅定により涅槃に安住して法・法界を見てそれに依拠（法洲）し同化（法身）すれば、三毒・「三だけ」に束縛された生から、自由・自治（自洲）により一切と共に友になり聖（全体健全）なる平等・平和・健康・幸福な四無量（慈悲喜捨）の無限生・無限光・無限愛・無限自由を生きることができます。

2023共通年8月25日

註：

１．五蘊（色、受、想、行、識：形態、感受、観念、行為、意識）は元はブッダが普通の（霊、我、アートマンなどに導く）曖昧さのある二分法―身心―そ超えて人を分析する為に組織化されたものです。色（色形：形態）は身体面を、その他は心理面を表します、但し行（行為）は身体と心理（身口意：身体・言論・意識）両面を含みます。その原語は) (パーリ語で、サンスクリット語で違う場合はカッコ内).rūpa, vedanā, saññā (saṁjñā), saṅkāra (saṁskāra), and viññāṇa (vijñāṇa)です。

仏教の哲学と実践はこの諸法の法である縁起の根本法に基づいていますが、これは因果（律）の根本法と同様ですが、更に深く（客体だけでなく、むしろ）主体を含み強調しており（三毒の対処など）、更に深く、一切宇宙、新化、存在の深淵まで含みます。私達の生活は法界の普遍的生命より通常は小さく、浅いのです。だから私達は真の無限に関連する生命を私達の業の見解と行動で誤った、限られた、分離した署生活にしているのです。

「諸法（dharma: form/phenomena/truth/ethic）の法（Dharma: Norm/Law/Truth/Ethic）」は縁起、即ち、一切現象は無量の原因と条件により因縁生起するということです。これは、私達、人間、は他の存在（他種、元素、星など）と相関し互いに相対であり、だから、共に調和して生き、調和的、健康、幸福になる為に全体健全な世界を作らなければならないということを意味します。

十二支縁起（bhava-cakka/bhava-cakra、生成輪、輪廻輪）は（元来は所謂「自己」後に世界を同定し分析する為の）五蘊と共に、三毒の故に苦に成る私達の生がどのように展開するかを例示したものです。

私達の生命組織は無限の時空を通じて縁起と関連の組織です。もし私達がそれを認知し実行するなら、私達は、帝釈網の水晶の珠のように、それを集団的に継続的に、聖（全体健全）なる調和、健康、幸福で、静かに明らかに、無限の生命、光明、自由、愛情として機能出来ます。

静坐は、椀が安住するとその中の水が静謐に透明になり世界を映すように、人を静謐に明澄にします。静坐の常時の修行は止（止静）(samatha/śamatha) と観（観法） (vipassanā/vipaśyanā), 涅槃と覚醒 (bodhi), に導き法界 (Dhamma/Dharma-dhātu：真理世界)を直証し,法身 (Dhamma/Dharma-kāya：真実身)になります。

鍵となる静坐の実践は業を静め、涅槃（nir-vāṇa = ni-vāta: no-wind, 無風、業風の）に安住し、法を見、一切に奉仕し救済するのです。四無量（四梵住）は慈（愛：友情：与楽）悲（泯：抜苦）喜捨（upekkhā/upekṣā）です。

禅（jhāna/dhyāna: 瞑想)、鍵となり核となる坐禅の実践、は業を静め、涅槃に安住し、法を見、一切に奉仕し救済します。この過程は四禅と八定（samādhi）です（実際には四禅と四定は一緒で結合しています）。

定（Samādhi）は業（特にその貪瞋痴の三毒）を超え、（静坐、止業、住涅槃、観法/諸法/法界、一切奉仕・救済し）涅槃に安住するのに必須であり、この中で本当の瞑想とその般若の智慧（paññā/prajñā）が働くことが出来ます。

地球問題群は（1993年シカゴで世界中から諸宗教の七千人を超える人々が集まった世界宗教会議により発出された）地球倫理を必要としますが、これは五戒（と仏教他の十戒の基本的共通要素）に基づいたものです。

エルンスト・カッシラーは人間を言語、神話、宗教、芸術、科学、歴史などの象徴を巧く操るものであるとする「象徴の哲学」やその要約である「人間」等で「象徴人間」と定義しました。「国家の神話」は諸国家がどのように機能するかを知るのに重要です。

五Sはフランシス・ベーコンの四イドラ（洞窟、広場、劇場、種族）の代表しカッシラーの象徴を加えたものです.

業の見解と行動は、生まれつき盲目の者達が巨大な象の一部を撫でて自分たちの部分的発見を唯一の正しいものであるとお互いに争ったように、限られたものです。業は四十億年の新化により、本質的には自己保存の本能により、さらに金・物・力の奪い合いにより五禍（愚痴、束縛、差別、搾取、破戒）をもつ人工的金字塔組織により拡張されたものです。

私達の人工的で一方向の金字塔文明から命・心・和の分かち合いによる五福（覚醒、自由、平等、友情、平和）をもつ自然的で循環的な命帝網文化への枠組転換が地球問題群を解決する為には必須です。文化は私達の真善美聖における潜在能力を修養することです。

私達の粗大な見解は、地上の植物間に見かけ上競争があると見て、短く浅く小さな我により限られていますが、微細な科学的発見は地下に微細生物がその根の組織を繋ぎ栄養交換などで協力させているのです。微細生物は植物、動物を助け、それらが陸上に上がりその生命機能を発展させ、驚異的な植物相、動物相を創造し、時空を通して受注と相互交流するのです。

私達の生命は無限の縁起と協力であり、こうして偉大な無限ですが、業による限られた見解と行動により私達はそれを限られた、小さく浅いものにして苦しんでいるのですが、これは大洋の泡沫の一つがそれから離れ独立した我であり（世俗的・常識的真理）、その泡沫の思いを超えた超越的真理である大洋（究極的・普遍的真理）から分離されている見做す様なものです。