The 生我 "Self" of 道生 Dào shēng

道生

Transcendental Self?

道 生 Dàoshēng (Tao Sheng) 355-425

Within samadhi meditation, Buddhaghosa taught that deep meditation upon the egolessness of things could lead to awakening. In other words, the elimination of self, through seeing its emptiness, was sufficient in and of itself to obtain the goal.

The self of which he spoke was generated in each apparent individual by ascribing characteristics –necessarily formulated in language and extracted from phenomenal experience– to this perception.

On the basis of the Maha Parinirvana Sutra, Daosheng believed that the prevalent Chinese Buddhist view of the self was naive and simplistic.

Just because the apparent mundane self as a phenomenal experience is devoid of permanence, and therefore of reality, does not deny the possibility of a transcendental Self. 

Daosheng saw in the idea of the universality of the Buddha-nature the affirmation of a metaphysically indescribable self, the germ of which is present in every sentient being. For Daosheng, this meant that 生我, sheng-wo, the true Self, is the Buddha-nature in all beings.

But let us examine this 生我, sheng-wo, more closely, for it is best translated as "giving birth to the I."

That giving birth may be termed transcendental inasmuch as it is not a cognitively conscious self. It is part of the right brain process of essence in which the six elements of seeing, hearing, etc., not the contents of those elements, are perceived as one element and transformed into five plus one which becomes "observing," the objects of observing being the other five elements.

It is this observing self, which has just a simple function that is transformed by the left hemisphere into a cognitive self, which is later generated as separate from all other phenomena.

The mystery of the One and the many cannot encompass that which abides with any normal discursive thought. Thus, Daosheng taught that this transcendental "true" Self  was Sunyata.

He saw this samsara, the "ocean of illusive phenomenal existence," as a pilgrimage, the goal of which is union of this "self" with Buddha.

The full realization of the Buddha-nature was not only therefore not considered nihilistic, but the Bodhisattva Path emerging as a mirror of this "Self Buddha Nature" was the natural course for any self-conscious being seeking the truth.

This True Self is beyond all differentiated states and conditions and cannot be said to act either for better or worse.

Of course this 生我, sheng-wo, is not Sunyata, for Sunyata lies beyond this particular element of essence and even function.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Dào shēng's  views on enlightenment were considerably more controversial, initiating centuries of debate. They were summed up in his enigmatic declaration, "Buddhahood is achieved through instantaneous Enlightenment."

For Dàoshēng, Awakening, considered traditionally as the entry into nirvana, cannot be described in psychological or ontological terms, since both pertain to samsara.

It is considered a "state of mirror-like voidness" corresponding in some measure to the Confucian ideal of wu, non-being, and the nameless dao. Awakening then can be perhaps best characterized as absolute Truth.

His absolute truth then was not at all a progressive step after a long series of relative truths, but a different ballgame altogether. This meant for him that Samsara was not a state opposed by Awakening. In this he was correct.

We know now that one does not move, upon Awakening, away from Samsara the illusions. The illusions persist. Neither does his concept of liberating this true self play any more than a part in liberation, so that one can walk within stained samsara with impunity and virtue.