Skrolli Party 2023

 This weekend, I attended Skrolli Party 2023. Like last time, I participated in the Wild Compo with a graphics work, shown here:

Nature of Buddha

It features a Buddha statue made by me and some computer graphics and photo elements. The title, "Nature of Buddha", refers to "Buddha Nature", a concept that seems easily misunderstood. Buddhism teaches "emptiness of inherent existence", and this should not be replaced with an idea of "Buddha nature as the inherent character of existence", as pointed out in the article "Freedom from Buddha Nature". Buddhism is concerned with freedom, especially freedom from suffering, and this should not be allowed to be replaced with a rigid self-definition of "Self as Buddha". 

"I have Buddha Nature", or, in other words, "I am of the nature of Buddha", is simply a special case of "the conceit 'I am'". From the Alagaddupama Sutta:

And how is a monk a noble one with banner lowered, burden placed down, unfettered? There is the case where a monk's conceit 'I am' is abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. This is how a monk is a noble one with banner lowered, burden placed down, unfettered.

The means of gaining enlightenment are sometimes classified as Jiriki and Tariki, or self-power and other-power, respectively. But, both are mistaken: we think we must get something either through our own power, or with outside help. However, even the earlier expressiong "gaining enlightenment" is wrong, according to the Heart Sutra, which says "no attainment, with nothing to attain". 

Even resting in a state of inaction (wu wei) can become despoiled by the sneaking in of the idea of striving towards some ideal through this inaction; a mental apprehension of natural, effortless inaction as the factual striving towards a goal. 

So, the emptiness of self (ātmaśūnyatā) is not non-existence of self, yet not existence of self, even self as Buddha, either. 

By construing for ourselves an essential nature, and therefore a being, as Buddha or as anything else, is to fall from the peaceful resting beyond being and non-being. Creating a mental object to represent oneself is to move away from the serene emptiness of "No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind". As it says in the Yavalakapi Sutta: 

Anyone who construes is bound by Mara. Anyone who doesn't construe is freed from the Evil One.

So, let us be liberated through lack of construing! 

Prints on RedBubble. I placed #5/7.