One-is-in-All, All-is-in-One

(First published 29-Jan-2012)
The principle of identity tells us that A is A and B is B and never the twain shall meet – in other words A is not in B and B is not in A and vice versa. Simply put a flower is a flower and the cloud is a cloud and the flower is not in the cloud nor the cloud in the flower. 

But if we look beyond this form of logical reasoning we will find that the water evaporates from the flower to form the cloud, the cloud forms rain and the rain gets absorbed back in to the flower.

cogito ergo sum
- "I think therefor I am"
 (manta asmiti, Sk.) 
- a notion rejected
by the Buddha with
"non-substantiality"
(anatman)

Similarly, let's take time and space. Time is time and space is space and one is not in the other. But if you look closely it is not so. One is in the other and vice versa. Here is how you can see it. If you create an object in your mind that object will have spatial dimensions of height, width, depth - yes, the simple Cartesian coordinates we have learnt in elementary geometry (Cartesian Coordinate System invented by Rene Descartes, often regarded as the father of modern philosopy) in the measurement of a point in a graph as abscissa x and ordinate y that gives rectangular dimensions and a third, a space of any dimension to give the coordinate n  that is a three-dimension space. And then, you will always add time to it so as to give it an age. 

When you create this 3-dimensional object, let us imagine that you have to start from one point to balloon it in to the image you see. This happens so fast that you fail to see these points or pegs that you used to identify the object and then inflate it to what you see. So when you do that you are creating a space and that creation has to have an elapse of time. So you have in fact created time.

Let me show you another example. If you were to still your mind, slow it down as much as possible through meditation or by being in a tranquil environment, and then observe your mind. When you hear a sound you will find that you can hear it in slow motion. You will be able to detect the start of the sound and its finish, say the start of a car horn and its finish. You then formed an image of the object by which you identified it. Suppose you were to take pencil and paper to delineate what you heard by drawing a line from the start to the finish. You will then find that you have a line that has a start and finish and some length. And, what you have in fact done is to create a space over time or vice versa.

So, when you take matter - our example of water and flower, and time and space you will find that “one is in all and all is in one”. There is a Mahayana Sutra that talks of this principle – the Avatamsaka Sutra. Some scientists who have found this call it the “explicate order” and “implicate order”.  And, when one begins to see things in this manner then one begins to see things beyond the principle of identity of A is A and B is B and see things as originating from and being a mix of the four elements – earth, water, fire and air. Earth is what gives substance, water that holds it together, heat that mixes it and wind that keeps it erect. And, since time was your own creation - when you think of the past, the present, the active present and the future – you will find that the past is in the present and the future and vice versa. If you go further, you will find that there is no beginning and no end. When one comes to this state of analysis it is easy to find an answer in the form of a creator - a god that does solve the age-old dilemma of which came first the chicken or the egg, by which you, once and for all, close the door to true reality.

The principle of identity used to define, identify and discriminate, all we sense all the time, is the conventional truth. Without this we would not be able to carry out our daily tasks. But if we see beyond and see the true nature of all things then we will start seeing things differently – the way that enlightened persons see things. Such persons, in addition to seeing the four elements in each thing see the impermanent, illusory and selfless nature in it. And such things will fail to kindle desires within them because they see it for its illusory, hollow empty nature. So they see it for what it is. And, they can still go about their daily lives without being deceived by the illusions. When you see the illusion as being real and permanent it then sets off desire, craving and attachment, it sets of aversion and hatred and it sets off a mind that wanders in to so many possibilities out of our misapprehension of what it is and what everything else about us is. It falls prey to the speculative nature of the mind that has at its base the primary object of safeguarding us from and against the outside - everything and everyone. So it is important to keep one’s wits about one, keep oneself on guard against straying into the world of reality from true reality. It is a fine line that crosses all the time, very easily through the vehicles of desire, aversion and delusion, the most important of what has been identified as the ten fetters (samyojana) and as habits (habit energy) and latent tendencies (anusaya – experiences that remain dormant within us only to manifest when conditions present themselves). One can do this by being mindful and having a concentrated mind.

Karma in other words are the mental imprints that we have stowed away in our minds from our past actions, which makes us see all things today in the light we see it. They are not just the bad things we have done in the past, they are everything we have done and do, good and bad, that has impacted us to lie dormant in us and manifest at anytime. It is like a pot of thoughts that are constantly being conditioned. There is no doer, there is no seeer, there is no agent, and there is no creator. There is just us. When the Buddha was asked once what his monks did all day long he said they walked, stood, sat, lay down and so on and when he was asked how different that was to what the rest of us do all day long he replied that the difference was that the monks did it with mindfulness, guarding their six senses.


One must realize that the four elements by themselves are empty and an illusion. At the physical level it is if you look at each of them for what they are – they are made up of atoms, protons, neutrons and so on – they finally end up in a void of nothingness as it would seem to scientist today.