Thursday, June 23, 2016

Conditioned dharma and Unconditioned dharma (1)

The followings are the First and the Second of Forty Tenets of Plum Village.

(First of Forty Tenets of Plum Village)
"Space is not an unconditioned dharma. It manifests together with time, matter and consciousness."

(Second of Forty Tenets of Plum Village)
"In the historical dimension, every dharma is a conditioned dharma. In the ultimate dimension, every dharma is an unconditioned dharma."

(My commentary)
Unconditioned dharma or the ultimate dimension (noumenal world) can't be described by notions. I understand that there are two types of the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth in the phenomenal world (interdependent co-arising) is conditioned. The ultimate truth in the noumenal world (non-separation or wholeness) is unconditioned because of the extinction of all notions. Both of them are non-duality but the meanings are different. The former non-duality is based on separation (notions), but the latter non-duality is based on non-separation (extinction of all notions). Nirvana is the extinction of all notions. So, we need to understand the ultimate truth in the noumenal world to attain full enlightenment.

The simplest explanation will be that all phenomena are conditioned because there are only relative truths in this phenomenal world. This is scientifically proved by the general theory of relativity of Albert Einstein.

If I add the conventional truth in the phenomenal world, there will be three truths. The conventional truth in the phenomenal world is also conditioned and is based on the duality. Here are three truths' examples.
(1) conventional truth in the phenomenal world: Transform your suffering to happiness.
(2) ultimate truth in the phenomenal world: Suffering is no other than happiness.
(3) ultimate truth in the noumenal world: Suffering is impossible without separation.
If you can't understand the difference in above three truths, you have no chance to understand the true meaning of emptiness, or the Heart Sutra.

In the Heart Sutra, "無苦集滅道" (there is no suffering, there is no making of suffering, there is no secession of suffering, there is no path leading to secession of suffering) is stated. That's the ultimate dimension (noumenal world). For more details, listen to the following Thay's Dharma talk on "The Science of the Buddha" in "The Ground of Right View". 
http://tnhaudio.org/tag/four-kinds-of-nutriments/page/2/
If you didn't understand the ultimate truth in the noumenal world (wholeness), it is the proof that you have not attained full enlightenment (Nirvana). I am convinced that the Buddha and Thay understood the ultimate truth in the noumenal world (wholeness). In other words, even if you understand the ultimate truth in the phenomenal world, if you don't understand the ultimate truth in the noumenal world, you can understand Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity but can not understand David Bohm's theory of the Implicate order and the Explicate order.

In the ultimate dimension, or in the noumenal world, there is no separation because of the extinction of all notions. So, in the ultimate dimension, or the wholeness, suffering is impossible. That is Nirvana.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/implicate-order-explicate-order
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/3-versions-of-oneself

Thích Nhất Hạnh