[Based on an article written by Aspi B Mistry, published in The Times of India dated 25th July, 2001].
Among the most profound teachings of Buddhism, concerning the ultimate nature of reality, is the concept of the Three Truths, as formulated by Tien-t'ai the Chinese philosopher and teacher. The three truths are the truth of temporary existence (conventional truth), the truth of emptiness (non-sustainability) and the Middle Way. The truth of temporary existence is easy to understand. This newspaper you are holding appears as a separate entity to you distinct from yourself. So is the chair you are sitting on and the various other objects around you. We of course, understand that all these phenomena are transcient, but we find it more difficult to understand that they do not have any inherent existence.
With apologies to the owners and editors of this paper, the Buddha would declare that this newspaper is only emptiness. As the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh says, "If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the logger's father and mother...In fact, we cannot point to one thing (in the universe) that is not here..." But while all the causes and conditions that make the paper are there, is there anything other than these, that we call paper? The paper is 'empty' of any inherent existence. It has no inherent self.
Causes and conditions come together to manifest, from the infinite possibilities of 'emptiness', the truth of temporary existence - the paper, the chair, yourself. They do not do so arbitrarily, but according to a universal law. The third truth is as much an aspect of the reality of all phenomena as emptiness or conventional existence. For a law governing cause and effect is as much embodied in all phenomena, as are the other two truths. This Mystic Law, known variously, sometimes as Buddha nature, is the true aspect of all phenomena. It is now time to turn to the metaphor of the silicon chip. All computers have at least one ROM (Read-Only-Memory) chip as part of their circuitry. The ROM chip is a special type of silicon chip, in that some very crucial programs and instructions are permanently embedded on it. They become operational, the moment an electric current flows through the chip.
This chip is very complicated electronic circuit, made up of thousands of components - transistors, capacitors and resistors. Like all phenomena in the universe, this is its aspect of temporary existence. We can feel it, touch it. It is solid, and we can insert it into the computer's mother board. But it has no inherent existence, other than the components, the causes and conditions that have been collectively given the label 'chip'. We can analyse each component in the same way, till we reach the subatomic particle (waves?) level where we find that "Atoms are not things..." (Heisenberg) and that "The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine" (Sir James Jeans). This is the truth of emptiness of the silicon chip. No inherent self-existence apart from the causes and conditions that make it.
But these causes and conditions in our chip are assembled according to a law - the law of electronic circuits. We can hardly throw together any old electronic parts and expect to create a functioning chip. This law corresponds to the truth of the middle way; it is the Buddha nature of the silicon chip. The Silicon chip remains just an inanimate collection of carbon and silicon atoms, until one more cause/condition, is added to it before it can function as a computer chip (manifest its Buddha nature). We need to pass an electric current through it. It now begins to function according to the true nature of its reality.
The Buddha-nature, the mystic law, the true entity of life, the middle way, is the ultimate reality of the human non-self. The electric current (the mental continuum, the subtle consciousness, life) combines with the components (skandhas, aggregates, form) according to a law (the mystic law, the universal Buddha nature) to manifest the true Buddha as a common mortal.
If the electric current is not stable (defiled by imprints of previous bad karma, ignorance, poisons of greed, anger and stupidity) the chip may malfunction (suffer).
Sometimes, you may need to reboot.
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