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From: jamess@ttidcc.TTI.COM (Jim Schoonover)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Love vrs Hate in Buddhist meditation
Message-ID: <14677@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 19 Mar 90 14:45:44 GMT
References: <14591@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
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In article <14591@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> rsp@PacBell.COM (Steve Price) writes:
>[ Christmas Humphreys writes, in _Concentration and Meditation_ ]
>"...those who hold that love is the guiding principle of life must remember
>that love, like any other principle, would be meaningless without its opposite."
>
>Is love NOT the guiding principle of the universe?
>What is he implying about HATE?  that it is "necessary"? inevitable? useful?
>

What I see in his statement is a recognition of the nature of all
of the pairs-of-opposites.  Neither element of a pair can exist
without the other.  Furthermore, clinging to one is no better than
(or different than) clinging to the other.

The following excerpts from D. T. Suzuki's translation of
"Inscribed on the Believing Mind [Heart]" by Seng-ts'an, third
Patriarch of Zen in China, bear on this issue:

    The Perfect Way knows no difficulties
    Except that it refuses to make preference:
    Only when freed from hate and love,
    It reveals itself fully and without disguise.
    
    A tenth of an inch's difference,
    And heaven and earth are set apart:
    . . .
    Pursue not the outer entanglements,
    Dwell not in the inner void;
    When the mind rests serene in the oneness of things,
    The dualism vanishes by itself.
    . . .
    The two exist because of the one,
    But hold not even to this one;
    When the one mind is not disturbed,
    The ten thousand things offer no offence.
    . . .
    In the oneness of the void the two are one,
    And each of the two contains in itself all the
    ten thousand things:
    . . .
    In the higher realm of True Suchness
    There is neither 'other' nor 'self':
    When a direct identification is asked for,
    We can only say, 'Not two.'
    . . .

I am also reminded of something once said by Nisargadatta Maharaj
(not a Buddhist).  I don't have the exact quote, but it was in
effect: penetrate any one of the pairs-of-opposites and you have
dissolved them all.

--------------
Jim Schoonover   <jamess@tti.com>
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