THE FRAMEWORK OF LIBERATION
Reading the title of this article, you may be surprised and wonder:
“Liberation is emancipation—how can it be enclosed in a frame? Isn’t it contradictory?”
So, what is a frame? -It’s a mold, a structure or a framework.
For example, when we have a beautiful photo, we need to find a suitable frame, something that fits the photo size and matches the color and tone we like. So, when it is hung on the wall, it looks polish and more elegant.
When we make a birthday cake, the batter has to be poured into a mold, round, square, or rectangular, depending on what shape we want for it.
Similarly, if building a house, we must first draw up a blueprint with the shape and dimensions. Then according to that design, we construct the house. Generally, each person’s life, especially in the previous generations, pursues a common framework: when young, focusing on studying and academic achievements; upon reaching adulthood, working to care for family, parents, spouses, and children; and at the old age, enjoying rest and retirement.
Now, as we step onto the path of spiritual practice, there is also a common structure: the Noble Eightfold Paths, the Four Contemplations for Mindfulness, the Seven Boddhi Sections, and so on. Today, we raise the question: What is the ultimate goal of that framework?
In the suttas “The Simile of the Heartwood” and “The Root of All Phenomena”, the Buddha taught it is the self- liberation.
At a basic level, liberation means the entire freedom and not being bound to anything.
However, that interpretation is too simple. We might mislead it. We might think that moral precepts are the constraints that can deprive our personal liberty. That makes us unable to stay in calmness and liberation. We might strongly go on with further reasons that monastic life is restrained by many moral rules. How could we perform the spiritual practice and experience a mind of clarity and freedom? Wouldn’t it be easier and freer to live the lay life in our family? No precepts to comply, we can help others freely, go where we want, do as we please without needing permission? That would be more comfortable, and we’ll attain the enlightenment faster!
At the first glance, to some of us, it might sound so reasonable.
But folks, that is the voice of the worldly speaking. Diverging by just one millimeter can lead us a thousand miles, not a mile, off the course. Not let’s think of it in the Buddhist viewpoint. Initially, due to not properly understanding the meaning of the term “liberation”, we keep making so many assumptions that we fall deeply into the unrighteous view and unrighteous thinking and even randomly disrespecting the Trio of Jewels.
With that, in the Mahayana sutras, it’s advised not to teach the Dharma for the lay people of zero or bottom spiritual levels of practice. When they don’t understand the Dharma, they might criticize or slander it, the lecturers would make some karmic mistakes with the Triple Gems.
The term “liberation” can bear a deeper meaning from which we can roughly divide into three stages.
1- When alive: our mind is calm, joyful, unglued to any life fluctuation.
2- At death moment: we are not being led by karma but, light-heartedly leaving this mundane life.
3- After death: we are not reborn under the karmic causes. Instead, we calmly abide in the Nirvana. It’s the entire self-liberation.
The mental liberation also provides a content range. From what are we freed? What have controlled and governed us? What have made us distressed, disturbed and undecided, sentimental, nostalgic, regretful? What fuel our hopes and dreams? What impedes us from seeing or meeting?
Generally, self-liberation must occur in three areas:
1- Mind
2- Perception
3- Wisdom
What have mostly influenced our emotions are the unconscious leaking taints, or the deep-rooted habits, bondages and latent karmic causes. They all are the hidden waves that impulse the variations of our mind. Most people, including ourselves, have alternated from joyful or sorrowful just because of the external circumstances. Actually, our mood swings depend on the concealed accumulations of desires, not the surrounding environment. We are happy when what’s happening align with our likes, tendencies and attachments. If not, we are sad and disappointed. That’s why we cannot be self-liberated until those invisible piles of mental defilements get fading and vanish. Our mind, then, is like a crystal lake in the autumn which can clearly reflects the silhouette of a swallow flying over it without a ripple. That’s the mind of self-liberation or the mental liberation.
How could we transfer all those hidden amassments of mental leaks? In the sutra of “All the Subconscious Leaking Taints”, the Buddha instructed various ways.
“Bhikkhus, there are leaking taints that must be ended through the righteous perception, there are leaking taints that must be ended through restraints and protections, there are leaking taints that must be ended through proper use, there are leaking taints that must be ended through tolerance, there are leaking taints that must be ended through abstinence, there are leaking taints that must be ended through elimination, there are leaking taints that must be ended through mind cultivation.”
Our seeing and knowing become true and objective when we practice the As-Is approach. What’s happening we see, hear, feel, and know as-is. We do not modify them by inferring, comparing, reasoning or labeling. We get rid of bias and prejudice. That is the Liberated Perception.
The non-liberated insight is the one achieved from studying and copying. It comes from someone’s structure, not ours yet. When our mind becomes consistently unagitated, the transcendent insight springs up with the brand-new interpretation and realization, the intuitive insight, or the super intuition. The most distinctive trait of the liberated insight is creativity. It means what we realize is something we have never experienced before. Sometimes the explanation is not peculiar to the other, but to us, it is fresh and quite new. We were not aware of it yesterday. Though creative, it results from the golden framework of the Buddhas. When the Nikāya sutra says “This is what I’ve never heard before...”, it refers to this self-arisen wisdom.
We’ve discovered the meaning of liberation in the Buddhist view. Actually, the mental liberation itself is the enlightenment; it is also the end of sufferings. These three, ending of suffering, fully awakening and liberating are deeply interrelated. They are acting as both causes and results on one another. They can be united into one. So, referring to one encompasses all those three.
Now, what could we do to attain the liberation?
From the old days up to now, the path for mind practice is the Virtuous Precepts (Sīla), Concentration (Samādhi), and Wisdom (Paññā). It is also the time-experienced road walked by all Buddhas of the past, present, and future, from the ancient Buddha Vipassī to countless Wheel-Turning Kings (Cakkavatti Rāja) who governed their countries with compassion and wisdom, to our present Buddha, Shakyamuni. They all contributed to build up the perfect tradition of Morality, Concentration and Wisdom. It is the “very framework for liberation.” It is called the mold, the structure, because if we stepped out of it, there would be no perfect result of liberation. The Precepts refer to the pure lifestyle of the saints. Concentration is related to the mind free from worldly attachments. And wisdom, the insight of clarity, equality and impartiality.
Above are the panorama and theory. How are they applied in reality? Historically, from the time of the ancient Buddhas like Vipassī, through the Wheel-Turning Monarchs, Shakyamuni Buddha and a great deal of his disciples, they all experienced the three pivotal stages:
1- Renunciation
2- Mind Practice in Seclusion
3- Awakening
Those three milestones reflect the framework of Precepts, Concentration and Wisdom entirely and perfectly.
- Renunciation: Renouncing families is to strongly cut off the ties of attachments, leaving without looking back. It also releases the burden of leaking defilements and no more longing for wealth, materials, fame, food and sleep.
- Seclusion for Mind Practice: Alone in the forest for mind culture, no more clinging to mundane affairs.
- Awakening: with strenuous efforts and earnest determination in dedicating to our themes, our mind lightens up with the total realization of all mundane aspects and full penetrative recognition of Mind, Dharma and real-life Phenomena.
We have comprehended “the structure of liberation”. We need also reflect further on the term “renunciation”. What is it?
Literally, renunciation means to leave one’s household behind, to abandon one’s family and live alone far away from his beloved. In the Buddha’s time, when a lay person expressed his preference of monastic life, if the Buddha approved it, he immediately became a bhikkhu without any ritual ceremony. Pretty soon, he flawlessly attained the Arhatship. Later, as the Sangha grew larger, some members who were not mature and professional enough, made some errors. Out of compassion, the Buddha, established the precepts serving as reminders and supports for the community. Since then, the moral monastic discipline becomes the vital mind practice for those who are not awakening yet. The Buddhist moral rules are the compass guiding our boats in the correct course of returning to the port safely without committing any unwholesome karma.
When someone heard the Dharma lectured by the Buddha and initiated to renounce his family, he would request “to live in this Dharma and Discipline.” The Dharma are the Buddhist doctrines and Discipline, the virtuous precepts.
The Dharma help to improve the insights, and the Discipline, to better the moral conduct. Until they both are simultaneously well-cultivated, a perfect personality is well-done. That is the viewpoint of the Enlightened. Before the Nirvana immersion, the Buddha reaffirmed the values of Dharma and Precepts by repeating the following advice for all the Sangha:
“After the Tathāgata passing away, let the monastic precepts be your Master.”
“After the Tathāgata passing away, let the Buddhist Dharma be your Guider. But do not rely yourselves on anyone else and anything else.”
The Sangha is considered one of the Gem in the Three Jewels because of two qualities: Wisdom and Moral Conduct. In case we have not yet visualize the vital roles of the discipline in Buddhism, we need deep reflection on it. In case we still think the precepts are restrictive and take our freedom away, push more pressure on us and a household life is freer and comfier as well, we are not truly alligned with “the mold of liberation”. Stumbling out of this frame, we fall back into the worldly life, the territory of the Mãra. Who are they? - Not any other, but ourselves and the ego. When we stay within “the harsh, strict structure” of the moral discipline, we are mentally emancipated from the Mãra’s power.
No wonder the Buddha repeatedly compared the two lifestyles.
“Household living is limited in the road of dusty life. Life of renunciation sounds living amidst the outer space. Staying in a family is so hard to lead a life of chaste and purity as white as a conch shell. Let shave off our hair and beard, renounce family and live by ourselves.”
The Lord strongly stated that. Yet, we sometimes forget and counter it.
Who is right? The Buddha or we, the lay people?
Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như
Sunyata Monastery, July 18, 2021
English version by Ngọc Huyền
Link to Vietnamese article: https://tanhkhong.org/a2581/triet-nhu-snhp018-cai-khuon-cua-giai-thoat
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