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The Flower Ornament Lion's Roar Chapter 9
In the 2,600-year history of Buddhism, two main temptations have arisen: to deify the Tathagata as an absolute god, and to attempt to conceal the “self” with a disguised concept. During the Winter Retreat at the Hermitage Under the Starry Sky, the Dharma talk presents the first two schools among the ten schools of the Avatamsaka tradition:
- The School of Self and Dharma Both Exist (Vātsīputrīya): acknowledges a “self” that is neither the five skandhas nor separate from the five skandhas, like fire is not wood but cannot be separated from wood, in order to preserve the notion of practitioner, karmic result, and karma.
- The School of No Self but Dharma Exists (Sarvāstivāda): denies a separate self but affirms that all dharmas—past, present, and future—truly exist, arising and ceasing in each instant and continuing like a river, leading to the concepts of self-continuity (sva-samtāna) and other-continuity.
The practice of non-self is illustrated through various means:
- The example of the “river” and “bathing twice”: both the person and the river are streams of arising and changing, with no fixed subject.
- Neuroscience: the brain operates like an orchestra without a conductor, unable to find a separate “self.”
- Walking meditation: “there is only breathing and walking happening,” there is no “breather” or “walker.” Three gatha verses on tying the breath—tying the steps guide us from the stage of recognizing conventional designation (tying, self) to realization: “tying is breathing, tying is walking, self is also breathing, is walking,” directly realizing non-self in each breath and step.
