Rome Wasn't Destroyed in a Day

Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself

George Bernard Shaw

Funnily, a Buddhist prescription to what 'life is about' would be the exact opposite of what George Bernard Shaw suggested. If we ask a typical Buddhist practitioner what life is all about, he would quite possibly tell us: "Life isn't about finding yourself, life is about destroying yourself!"

Sounds quite radical. However, that's not the end of it. If we look into the Madhyamika teaching and practice, we may end up being startled upon finding even more radical explanations. However, before we go into that level of detail, we need to first set the stage appropriately.

Levels Of Buddhist Practice

Generally speaking, there are four levels of Buddhist practice, as exemplified in the four types of Buddhist practitioners:

• Common folk (i.e. Buddhist wannabes)
• Shravakas (i.e. 'hearers', the ones who hear the Buddha’s teaching and adopt it for their personal salvation)
• Pratyekabuddhas (i.e. the self-enlightened ones)
• Bodhisattvas (i.e. the ones who wish to save all sentient beings)
• Buddhas (the fully accomplished, perfect ones)

Of course, common folk are the heavily deluded practitioners, the ones who believe in real substance underlying all life's experiences. These people may engage in the Buddhist practice, at which point they will undergo training to try and shed the cast of the coarsest illusions.

Shravakas, on the other hand, are the ones who had already managed to shed the heavy cast of more coarse delusions, and who are capable of attaining the cessation of their own personal emotional turmoil. Such practitioners have experienced the taste of nirvana, the complete cessation of personal emotional turmoil.

Pratyekabuddhas are more advanced than Shravakas because they have penetrated the worldly illusion. They realize that all experiences are hollow to the core, in the sense that they do not possess identity.

Bodhisattvas are the most advanced on the path, due to the widening of the scope of their practice. Upon raising compassion in their hearts, certain Buddhist practitioners enlarge the scope of their practice from being concerned about their own salvation to assuming a more altruistic outlook. All of a sudden, such practitioners realize that, without liberating all beings, they won't be able to ever find the final peace. Such people are then known as Bodhisattvas.

Finally, Buddhas are the ineffably perfect, fully accomplished beings, who are treading the path of no more learning.

The Madhyamika Level

Nagarjuna introduced a very pointed teaching, which systematizes the core of the Buddha’s recondite teachings. This teaching is not suitable for the common folk, or for Shravakas or even for Pratyekabuddhas. Only Bodhisattvas can enter the Madhyamika path, because their vows of undying love toward all beings help them gain strength and stamina required for practicing this extreme path.

It is the most radical, uncompromising path there could ever be. It goes beyond substantialism/nihilism. In terms of answering the Bernard Shaw's bon mot, Madhyamika proponent may say something like the following:

"Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is abut destroying not only yourself but also the entire realm of phenomena!"

From the above we can glean that Madhyamika practice negates, in the wholesale manner, the reality of the entire range of human experiences.

In terms of the various levels of Buddhist practitioners, the Buddha knew that different people are characterized by different range when it comes to the scope of their practice. Thus, different types of practitioners reach their level of exhaustion at different times. Common folk are, or course, the first ones to fall exhausted to the ground. To them, the Buddha delivered encouraging words in the sense that if they persist, they will be reborn in much more agreeable circumstances.

Shravakas, by the virtue of their disciplined practice, are characterized by the much farther-reaching range. Still, even those practitioners have relatively short range, after which they cannot keep pushing their practice. To them, the Buddha delivered encouraging words explaining the bliss of nirvana, the final repose. Of course, nirvana, designed for Shravakas, is not really the final repose, it is merely an oasis, a place to rest and gather one's strength.

Pratyekabuddhas and Bodhisattvas are much more resilient, as they are prepared to invest extreme effort in order to reach the far shore. To Pratyekabuddhas, the Buddha delivered the soothing words explaining how all the phenomena are devoid of substance, of real existence.

To Bodhisattvas, the Buddha delivered the final teaching explaining that both the personal self, as well as the phenomenal self, have no reality. Both classes of phenomena are illusory, to be regarded as mirage, a reflection in the glass, a moon reflected in the pond, etc.

This is actually the Madhyamika level, which teaches that not only the personal self is nowhere to be found, but also the phenomena (the no-self) are empty, not findable.

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

As the famous saying goes, it took considerable effort to build a city the size and the splendor of Rome. Certainly not something that could be accomplished overnight. However, as it turns out, as long as it may have taken to build Rome, it certainly took much longer to destroy it. Once a magnificent facility gets built, it assumes a life of its own, and tends to be very resilient, resisting true change. Thus, we see from the history textbooks that it took many lifetimes (read: generations) of persistent destructive behavior to finally destroy this magnificent city.

The same applies to the self. It takes some time to build it and to polish it, but it certainly takes much, much longer to demolish it.