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Koan: Duality vs. Non-Duality [1]

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Date: 2024-06-16  

I got a degree as a mathematician and logician, in Math and Philosophy, before I got another as Teacher of Buddhism. I know what two-valued, multi-valued, and monist logic are and what each should be used for. Not raising great waves on dry land, and dust storms on the bottom of the sea.

Trying to treat non-duality as one side of a duality is a great way to tie yourself in knots. There are many cases in the history of Buddhism where we are invited not to do that.

Monk: What is the difference between the awakened and the unawakened man? Master: The unawakened see a difference, and the awakened do not.

How can you cross to the other shore when it is the same shore?

What good, then, are ships and rafts? (They are a past dream.)

Why are training and awakening differentiated since the truth is universal? (Dogen Zenji)

Does a Buddha exist after death, or not, or both, or neither? (The question is unskillful thinking.)

Daoism and Advaita Vedanta have their own takes on this koan.

Advaita Vedānta adapted philosophical concepts from Buddhism, giving them a Vedantic basis and interpretation,[19] and was influenced by, and influenced, various traditions and texts of Indian philosophy.[20][21][22] [It is] vivartavada, the idea that "the world is merely an unreal manifestation (vivarta) of Brahman,"[5]

Or Vishnu’s maya. It hardly matters which name one gives it. The head of the koan in Hinduism is

Tat tvam asi. That art thou.

which we can read as raising the eyebrows and blinking the eyes of old Shakyamuni, or in a multitude of other ways.

The scholars quoted in this Wikipedia article fell headlong into the trap of trying to treat non-duality as one side of a duality, and got themselves all tangled up in whether Hindu non-duality is actually monism or not, whatever that might mean.

In Soto Zen we chant this every day, among other reminders.

Within all light is darkness,

But explained it cannot be by darkness that one-sided is alone.

In darkness there is light

But here again, by light one-sided it is not explained.

Light goes with darkness

As the sequence does of steps in walking;

Sandokai

I hope you don’t think that that is some kind of explanation. Koans are much deeper than that.

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