Insider/Outsider

What type of wisdom do we need?

One of the key differences between a Dharma view and the theistic and materialist views of reality has to do with the distinctions in ascertaining the true source of all problems in samsara. To begin with, we have to recognize that there is a samsara at all before we can ascertain its source.

Tibetan Buddhists commonly refer to themselves as nang pas, insiders, and relegate all other religious traditions into the category of phyi pa, outsider. Why? It has nothing do with discrimination, rather, it has to do with models of liberation. It might be argued that Advaita, Samkhya, and Taoism be exempt from this category, but we will get to that below.

In Buddhadharma, liberation itself is defined as freedom from rebirth in a condition called samsara. There is no other kind of liberation taught in Buddhadharma. The fundamental stance of Buddhadharma is that liberation cannot found by anyone in any material condition and that liberation cannot be granted by anyone or transferred to another being. Liberation is possible only through personal practice and insight which burns away the afflictions responsible for karma and rebirth. That process is entirely personal and inward and does not depend on any external savior or material condition at all. This is true in all three yānas: Śrāvakayāna, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna. Since liberation in Buddhism is an inner process and does not depend on any kind of external savior or refuge, Tibetans have in the past called themselves nang pas, insiders. I think this is a useful distinction.

“Outsiders” refer to all those who seek relief from consequences of their misdeeds through forgiveness, relying on some outside agency: God, Allah, Krishna, Shiva, etc. While there may be some argument about whether Advaita, Samkhya, and so on can be included here—the Indian Buddhists were quite clear in their analysis of tenets that these siddhāntas are eternalist in orientation, and reject dependent origination. Hence they possess wrong view. For them, liberation depends on relying on an eternal entity that is free from suffering and that eternal entity is outside of the psychosomatic continuum of the five aggregates Hence they too are considered “outsiders.”

We have to consider the position of Secular Buddhists as well. While they may nominally understand that no self exists inside or outside the five aggregates, they are annihilationists who imagine that the consciousness they experience at the moment will cease with brain death. Therefore, they do not accept karma and karmavipaka, and as such, fundamentally reject the Buddha’s teachings on the four kinds of nobles. For them, there can be no actual stream-entrants, etc., because they reject the notion of rebirth. There is no need to talk about the bodhisattva path for these folks. It is of no use for them to pretend to be agnostic, because this kind of doubt is just moha, confusion. Nevertheless, they can practice the vehicle of devas and humans, that is cultivating love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. So we have to consider them half-in and half-out.

Moreover, there is no liberation through improved material conditions for sentient beings. Of course all Buddhists wish that sentient beings have happiness, etc. But we must recognize that there is truly no happiness or liberation through material conditions. Wealth does not make people happy, and poverty does not make people miserable. There are none so poor as authentic bhikṣus and bhikṣunis, and they are the happiest people in the world.

We also have to understand that while it is important to create improved material conditions for sentient beings as much as possible, we cannot mistake this for freeing sentient beings from suffering. If we save one cow from the abattoir we are just hastening death of the one in line behind it. Some will complain, “Eliminate all meat-eating!” but in a world dominated by Christians, Muslims, and Capitalists, this will never happen. The death factories will never stop. Some people may be intoxicated by the Marxist fantasies of a materialist utopia, other people by spiritual fantasies of egalitarian communities run by sagacious elders steeped in indigenous culture but they are equally fantasy. There will never be a materialist or a spiritual utopia in this Saha (Unbearable) Loka. No one is coming to save us. As followers of the Buddha, we have to understand there is no perfect samsara nor is samsara perfectible. We just have to do our best.

As followers of the Buddhadharma, we should be never be seduced by promises of political reform, economic reform, etc. We have to understand the default mode of samsara among sentient beings is warfare and conflict. Peace among humans is a very rare state and it does not last long in any one place in the world. It seems the average is about three generations. If we have a precious human birth—being born with the eight freedoms and ten endowments—we must not waste this, fritter it away on worldly occupations. We need to accept that our wisdom as foolish ordinary people (bālapṛthagjana) is very limited, and we can rarely know the outcome of our collective actions, no matter how well intended. There is no wisdom in the crowd.

To be a true insider is to understand that oneself and only oneself has the keys to unlock one’s own happiness and freedom. There are no external sources to turn toward. Only by understanding one’s afflictive states can one free oneself from karma and its ripening. Only through insight into the nature of reality can one free oneself from the afflictions that drive karma. We cannot do this for anyone else and no one can do it for us. If we are Mahāyāna practitioners, we do so with great compassion, committing ourselves to any of the three bodhisattva vows to attain buddhahood for the benefit sentient beings over as many lifetimes as it takes us to attain true, full awakening. But benefitting others begins with benefitting ourselves, attaining genuine realization and immaculate prajñā. After that, maybe we can truly understand the consequences of the actions of ourselves and others.

There is no Buddhist salvation. We are not saviors and we cannot be saved. Buddhadharma has never operated on a savior model. We can, in like-minded communities, offer each other support in trying times, but even this is not a refuge. The only refuge we have is the Three Jewels, and in reality, the Dharma is our actual refuge. The Buddha passed away 2500 years ago. No one can really say who is an awakened being these days—we might guess, we might think we know, but we have to admit to ourselves our ability to know such things is limited by our profound ignorance and lack of insight. Thus, even the Dharma is only a refuge if we realize its sublime meaning. As the Buddha instructed Ānanda:

All compounded things vanish. Be diligent.