Gateway to Eastern Philosophy: Being-Consciousness-Bliss

Being-Consciousness-Bliss

What is life composed of? According to the Indian philosophers, life is composed of Sat-Chit-Ananda, “Being-Consciousness-Bliss.” What are you really? There are many ways you can answer that question. Paul Reps would say, “You are light.” Somebody else would say, “You are sound cognized as light.” In India they are saying, “You are Being-Consciousness-Bliss,” which is very hopeful, isn’t it. It gives a wonderful feeling.

The Indians are essentially devotional. This is why I believe there is almost no Buddhism anymore in India where, ironically, the Buddha is considered the greatest of its sons. India is devotional, and devotion does not play a part at all in Buddhism – what would you be devoted to? Karma, however, is accepted by everybody in India. Action brings reaction, cause brings effect, and therefore, you can make your future anything that you want. Just plan it the way you want, act that way and set the causes in motion. If you plant a rose seed, you’re not going to get a banana tree. “Plant” sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Just plant that which you want to grow. In Karma yoga, you do the deed so you get the reward in the future. But the Indian feels that at the end of your life, your last thought is what will bring about your reincarnation or transmigration. Your next life depends on your last thought in this life. So you can say, “Well, I’m going to make my last thought a pretty good one.” But of course, your last thought is going to be based on what you stood for in your lifetime.

Another Story: Tea Ceremony Stinks!

Paul Reps was the greatest one I’ve ever known for challenging people’s habit energies. He’d do anything, the worst nonsense, in order to cause people to get out of that little habit.

When he arrived in Japan the first time (and they knew him through his poems and his pictures), he got off the ship. The newspaperman came up to him immediately and said, “Well, now you’re in Japan. What do you think?”

He said, “Tea Ceremony stinks!”

I don’t know how you translate that into Japanese. Paul lived there for eight years and knew only three words in Japanese. “Tea Ceremony stinks!” I’ll tell you what the three were: itai (pain), subarashii (wonderful), sanpo (to stroll).

But he shook up the Japanese with his first steps on dry land!

I’ve seen him shake up other people, too. I would ask in surprise, “Paul, am I hearing right?” Of course he was having fun in doing it, but in addition to that, he teaches as he goes. The more set somebody is in a belief, then the more that person needs shaking up. It’s very good if you can do it.

This is what happens. As soon as you get habit energies, it means there are things you like and things you dislike. You have aversion and attraction. That’s how we lead our lives, isn’t it? Only to an exceptionally spiritual person does it really not matter. My friend Ch’ang Chung-yuan, who wrote a wonderful book called Creativity and Taoism, told me that he lived with D.T. Suzuki in Japan for two years, and they once went to Hawaii together for an international religious conference. They were put up at the Royal Hawaiian, a very fancy hotel. I said to Professor Ch’ang, “What did Suzuki-san think of the Royal Hawaiian?” He answered, “I don’t think he even saw it. It wouldn’t have made any difference if he’d slept on the floor in a little hut or in this luxury at the Royal Hawaiian. I just don’t think he noticed it one way or another.”

That sort of indifference is very hard to come by. When I first got ready to go to India from Japan, I visited the Indian consul, whom I knew in Kobe before I got on the ship. He and two Japanese men took me down to the ship and he said, “Oh, you will be just immersed in India when you get there.” He continued, “You’ll love this and that …” And I said, “Well, well, I really don’t care what I see there.” He said, “I know you don’t have any desires.” I looked at him in astonishment. I said, “You’d be surprised how many desires I have.” Percival, who wrote a wonderful book, said there is a desire body, a subtle body. You can’t be without desire because the desire to be without desire is a desire. This is why, at the end of the 179 negations, you have to have negation of negation.

From the book Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, excerpted and reprinted with permission from Good Karma Publishing, and available on www.gkpub.com.