{"id":86559,"date":"2019-03-20T03:50:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T10:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86559"},"modified":"2019-03-20T03:50:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T10:50:19","slug":"how-can-we-know-the-dancer-from-the-dance-a-comment-on-the-recent-dialogue-about-the-anatta-doctrine-in-buddhism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/03\/20\/how-can-we-know-the-dancer-from-the-dance-a-comment-on-the-recent-dialogue-about-the-anatta-doctrine-in-buddhism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018How can we know the dancer from the dance?\u2019 A comment on the recent dialogue about the anatta doctrine in Buddhism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Rohana R.Wasala<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was recently an exchange of views published in The Island<\/em> newspaper between February 22\nand March 14, 2019 and here in Lankaweb<\/em>\nin the same period concerning the concept of \u2018anatta\u2019 in Buddhism\n(traditionally translated into English as soullessness, no-soul, non-self,\netc). One of the most definitive responses, in my view, was from Ven. Bhante\nDhammika of Australia (\u2018myself, yourself, no-self\u2019\/The Island, March 8, 2019). He\nhas hinted that he might further elaborate his explanation in the future, which\nwill definitely prove useful for all of us students of Buddhism. Except for\nBhante Dhammika, all the others who contributed to this discussion in their own\nadmirable ways, I think, are in the same category (of students of Buddhism).Of\ncourse, even learned monks including Bhante Dhammika, in my view, would prefer\nto describe themselves as students of Buddhism until they are ultimately\n\u2018Awakened\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhante Dhammika\u2019s use of a billiard ball analogy to suggest how,\nprobably, mental energy passes on at the death of a person to be reborn\nelsewhere would be quite attractive to those who think that the concept of\nrebirth is indispensable for Buddhism. Science teacher Bodhi Dhanapala from\nCanada (The Buddha\u2019s \u2018Anatta\u2019 doctrine and mathematical thinking\u2019 Lankaweb, March\n12, 2019) has a thought provoking thesis relating to the same subject from a\nmathematical point of view (which I am still trying to grasp as a layman,\nthough). He thinks that the cycle of rebirth in the Buddha\u2019s teaching is a\nPROCESS or a becoming, and that the Buddha\u2019s focus in his first sermon is the\ncycle of rebirth within one lifetime, which is SAMSARA; there is no reference\nto a next birth. This, I think, is not to say that belief in a cycle of deaths\nand births that goes beyond this life should be rejected. It\u2019s only that such a\nbelief, whether true or false, does not matter to Buddhism. We are dying and\nbeing born again all the time; cells in our bodies are replaced everyday and we\nchange physically every moment; we change mentally even faster. The pali term\n\u2018nama rupa\u2019 (Name and Form, or physical and mental energies, as Ven. Dr W.\nRahula translates the term \u2013 Pl. see below) refers to these two changing\nphenomena. The process of arising and dying (Samsara) exists whether there is a\nnext life or not. I am among those who are attracted to Bodhi Dhanapala\u2019s\nopinion. Bhante Dhammika\u2019s view (expressed in the two concluding paragraphs of\nhis article) is uncertain in this regard. Bhante Dhammika\u2019s illustration of the\nchanging nature of the physical identity of a person over time within their\nlifetime by comparing the current physical image of a grandmother to a\nchildhood photograph of her is an effective way of explaining the illusion of\ncontinuity in flux (illusion of a fixed identity or self) that we experience\neveryday. He draws our attention to the Buddhist teaching\u2019s insistence on the\nnecessity of the experiential \u2018realization\u2019 of the ultimate truth as distinct\nfrom a mere intellectual grasp of the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the exception of Bhante Dhammika and Bodhi Dhanapala, none\ntried to spell out their own understanding or interpretation of the term\n\u2018anatta\u2019 precisely or at all; nor did the others try to offer a\/the commonly\naccepted definition of the anatta concept. Of course, this was not an omission\non their part. It was probably because the initial focus of the dialogue was\nnot \u2018anatta\u2019 itself, but the challenges the idea faced in history and still\nfaces from religio-ideological rivals of what is considered pristine Buddhism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally, Ven. Dr Walpola Rahula, an undisputed authority on\nBuddhism (including both the dominant sects of Theravada and Mahayana) explains\nSamsara as \u2018continuity of existence, cycle of existence\u2019. There is a very good\nexplanation that touches on this subject in Chapter III of his classic treatise\non Buddhism \u2018What the Buddha Taught\u2019(1959) under the heading The Second Noble\nTruth: Samudaya: \u2018The Arising of Dukkha\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr\nAsoka Weerakkody (\u2018Anatta\u2019 \u2013 what\u2019s in a name?\u2019\/The Island, February 27, 2019)\nwrote: Buddhism (or preferably, Dhamma) is a uniquely logical form of belief,\ncompared to all others. But anatta is its Achilles\u2019 heel. The basic triad of\ndhamma, anicca, dukkha is easy enough to comprehend. They are real; you see\nthem and feel them. But anatta in contrast is a metaphysical concept, which does\nnot sit easily with the rest of the concepts\u201d. Logical or illogical mere\nunquestioning belief or faith has no place in Buddhism.  Bodhi (Awakened or Awakening) through one\u2019s\nown effort without the help of an external agent is the goal of Buddhism. To\ntalk about a \u2018basic triad of dhamma, anicca, dukkha\u2019 that excludes \u2018anatta\u2019 is\nunusual. The actual formula is \u2018anicca, dukkha, anatma\u2019. In what sense Dr\nWeerakkody used \u2018dhamma\u2019 here is not clear to me. (The term dhamma is applied\nin Theravada Buddhism in multiple senses as explained by Dr Walpola Rahula in\n\u2018What the Buddha Taught\u2019: the word has the meanings of \u2018Truth, Teaching,\nrighteousness, piety, morality, justice, nature, all things and states\nconditioned or unconditioned, etc.) Dr Rahula explains nibbana\/nirvana as an\nunconditioned state. In this connection (that is, regarding the term \u2018dhamma\u2019),\nhe refers to three verses in the Dhammapada<\/em>  as \u2018extremely important and essential in the\nBuddha\u2019s teaching\u2019. They are nos 277, 278 and 279. The three verses together\nenumerate the three characteristics of \u2018anicca, dukka, anatta\u2019 (transience,\nsuffering, no-self). These traits are collectively called \u2018Tilakkhana\u2019 or the\nThree Characteristics (of Existence); all three are metaphysical concepts\n(i.e., philosophical ideas about the nature of reality or what we\nconventionally take to be reality). The three Dhammapada<\/em>  verses state in\nturn: \u2018All conditioned things (samkara) are anicca or impermanent\u2019, \u2018All\nconditioned things (samkara) are dukkha or suffering\u2019, but \u2018All states (dhamma)\nare without self or anatta\u2019 (I have here marginally modified Dr Rahula\u2019s\nEnglish renderings of the opening lines of the three verses without altering\ntheir meaning.) He explains why the Buddha said \u2018All states (dhamma) are\nwithout self\u2019, instead of \u2018All conditioned things (samkara) are without self\u2019:\nThat is because the Buddha wanted to categorically deny an unchanging eternal\nSoul or Atman either within an individual or outside. In order to do this, he\nreplaced \u2018samkara\u2019 with \u2018dhamma\u2019 in the third verse. The term samkara (or\nconditioned things) means the Five Aggregates, all conditioned things and\nstates, physical and mental. But \u2018dhamma\u2019 includes both conditioned and\nnon-conditioned things, the Absolute, Nirvana; all are without self. So, the\nBuddha teaches that \u2018All dhammas are without Self\u2019, there is no Self, no\nAtman, not only in the Five Aggregates, but nowhere else too outside them or\napart from them\u201d, as Dr Rahula puts it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconcept of anatta is of pivotal importance to  Buddhism; it is its lynchpin, not its\nAchilles\u2019 heel.  Dr Rahula explains why\nanatta should be considered crucial to the Buddha\u2019s teaching and how the anatma\ndoctrine is unique to Buddhism. He also suggests how it distinguishes Buddhism\nfrom other religious teachings. This information is found in Chapter VI titled\n\u2018The doctrine of no-soul: Anatta\u2019 in \u2018What the Buddha Taught\u2019, where he\nwrites:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two ideas are\npsychologically deep-rooted in man: self protection and self-preservation. For\nself-protection man has created God, on whom he depends for his own protection,\nsafety and security, just as a child depends on its parent. For\nself-preservation man has conceived the idea of an immortal Soul or Atman,\nwhich will live eternally. In his ignorance, weakness, fear and desire, man\nneeds these two things to console himself. Hence he clings to them deeply and\nfanatically. \u2026\u2026. \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026  According to\nBuddhism, our ideas of God and Soul, are false and empty. Though highly\ndeveloped as theories, they are all the same extremely subtle mental\nprojections, garbed in an intricate \nmetaphysical and philosophical phraseology. \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. The Buddha knew this\nquite well. In fact, he said that his teaching was \u2018against the current\u2019\n(patisotagami), against man\u2019s selfish desires\u2026..\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, the anatma\ndoctrine separates the Buddhist teaching from other religious traditions that\nare based on the concept of Soul or Atman. Professor Carlo Fonseka\u2019s gracefully\nlighthearted claim that he has formulated the aphorism that the anatta\ndoctrine divides Buddhism from all other religions, and unites all forms of\nBuddhism\u201d (The Island\/February 22) is a well authenticated one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a word about\nthe verse line \u2018How can we know the dancer from the dance?\u2019 in the title of\nthis essay. It is from Irish poet W.B. Yeats\u2019 poem Among School Children <\/em>(1926). This poem lends itself to a Buddhist\ninterpretation. It can be read as a meditation on the impermanence,\ninsubstantiality, and unsatisfactoriness of our existence. We know that, by his\ntime, many English and other European intellectuals had long been taking a\nspecial interest in Eastern languages, cultures, religions, and philosophies,\nand had been deeply impressed by what they discovered. Yeats himself was\ninterested  in Indian \u2018mysticism\u2019. In\nBuddhism, however, he came across something very different. Among School Children <\/em>can be described\nas a reflection on Tilakkhana or the Three Characteristics (the subject of the\nthree Dhammapada<\/em>  verses referred to above): anicca,\ndukkha,and  anatma (impermanence,\nunsatisfactoriness, and soullessness), the realization of which is the Path to\nPurity. He relates these to his own sixty year old life and the unrequited love\nthat he had in his youth for a very beautiful woman (Maude Gonne, Irish nationalist\nand fiery revolutionary). He himself was not bad looking as a young man; he too\n\u2018had pretty plumage once\u2019, he modestly claims. Though Yeats loved the woman\npassionately, she rejected his four times repeated marriage proposal, before\nmarrying someone else. In the poem, Yeats (then a Senator, \u2018a \u2026 public man\u2019 at\nsixty years of age) makes an official visit to an elementary school in Dublin.\nHe is shown around by a nun. Looking upon \u2018one child or the other there\u2019 he\ndreams of the Ledaean  beauty (Maude\nGonne) whom he loved in the distant past. Her present image  (\u2018hollow of cheeks\u2019, lean and haggard)\n\u2018floats into the mind\u2019. Thinking of his own similar decrepit condition, he\nmuses whether a youthful mother, were she to visualize her sixty-year-old son,\nwould think him<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A compensation for the pang of his birth,
\nOr the uncertainty of his setting forth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(i.e.,\nwhether he was worth the pain of bearing him and the anxieties involved in\nlaunching him into the world as a separate individual). Youth passes; beauty\ndecays; love doesn\u2019t last. We worship only images of our own making. There is\nno essence to them. The images that the nuns worship are not different. They\nalso break hearts, because they are insubstantial. They are  products of their imagination, too. What we\ntake to be substantial are only empty images, mere self-born mockers of man\u2019s\nenterprise\u201d (creations of our own imagination) as Yeats derisively describes\nthem in this philosophical poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfour lines at the end of the poem deal with the theme of insubstantiality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 O chestnut\ntree, great rooted blossomer,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe above two lines, the poet addresses an imaginary chestnut tree and asks it\nwhat is its true identity, its substance or essence, or its \u2018soul\u2019 as it were:\nis it the leaf, the flower, or the trunk? We know it\u2019s none of these. The name\nchestnut tree is applied to all of them together as a single living organism\nthat \u2018blossoms\u2019. When the constituent parts are taken apart, the chestnut tree\ndisappears, no essence is left. There is nothing by way of any\n\u2018chestnuttreeness\u2019. The metaphor here is from nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last two lines use an image from the human world, that of the\ndancer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O body swayed to music, O brightening\nglance,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we know the dancer from the dance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2018How can we know the dancer from the dance?\u2019\npresents another fine illustration of the anatma concept. The dancer is lost in\nher dancing. She is not conscious of herself during the dance. That is, in her\ncomplete absorption in her performance, she\u2019s apparently got rid of even the\nillusion of  \u2018Self\u2019 that she normally\nexperiences in life like all of us. (According to Ven. Rahula, getting absorbed\nin what one does, without having the consciousness \u2018I am doing this\u2019, is real\nMindfulness.) As far as the spectators are concerned, the dancer ceases to\nexist when the dancing stops (you can\u2019t separate the dancer from the dance).\nYeats\u2019 dancing figure helps one to make sense of the Buddhist teaching that\nthere is doing, but no doer; there is suffering, but no sufferer, etc. That is,\nin the case of what we conventionally identify as an individual, suffering is a\nreality, a truth, but the \u2018sufferer\u2019 is an illusion, is non-self. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R.Wasala There was recently an exchange of views published in The Island newspaper between February 22 and March 14, 2019 and here in Lankaweb in the same period concerning the concept of \u2018anatta\u2019 in Buddhism (traditionally translated into English as soullessness, no-soul, non-self, etc). One of the most definitive responses, in my view, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}