Kenosis and Sunyata

1.      Introduction

The doctrine of Sunyata in Buddhism seems to have a similar meaning to self-emptying (kenosis) in Christianity. However, if we try to look both concepts more deeply, we will find that both of them come from a completely different starting point: Buddhism's starting point is the mystery of human suffering and how humanity evades suffering while the Christian perspective is the mystery of incarnation of God in Jesus Christ.

In this paper I will try to see the concept of Sunyata and its relationship with humanity in Buddhism and then try to compare it to my Christian understanding of God and God's relation to humanity. In so doing, I try to investigate some key elements, of which could open up some opportunities for a dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism.

2.      Starting Point: the Truth in Buddhism

The Buddhist's understanding of Sunyata, I think, comes from their understanding of humanity in relation to creation where everything is interdependent. The truth about it is that the existential phenomenon of humanity is suffering.  Humanity is bound by a cycle of suffering: the experience of giving birth, sickness, death, and then re-birth. If one wants to get rid of all this suffering, she/he should get rid of all her/his desires, wants or needs. This way can be achieved by self-discipline, i.e., through the noble eightfold path: right beliefs, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right vocation, right effort, right attention (meditation) and right concentration. By following these eight paths one can hope to reach the state of an Arahat where she/he is freed from the necessity of re-birth.

This starting points show us that in Buddhism self-discipline and practice are needed in order to achieve enlightenment and to get rid of suffering. Those who reach this state of life can experience SUNYATA. It means that humanity has an opportunity to experience "emptiness" in this life. An experience of Sunyata is an experience of Buddha and enlightenment in this life.

 

3.      The Buddhist's Concept of Sunyata

Sunyata is the Sanskrit word for "zeroness" or "emptiness". This doctrine in Buddhism is used to explain the doctrine of the relativity and interdependence of all phenomena. According to Nagarjuna (the Indian Buddhist philosopher who founded the Middle Doctrine School and one of the chief of Mahayana Buddhism, lived in 100-165), Sunyata is not nothingness, but it is truth or the absolute reality of things or "suchness" of the universe. Sunyata is not being as distinguished from beings, nor is it a transcendent God distinguished from this world, nor is it nothingness distinguished from somethingness of ordinary life. It is not to be found outside oneself, nor to be found inside oneself. If it were any of these things, or if it were found in any particular place, it would be a relative emptiness, not ultimate reality.

Sunyata, therefore, is simply a name for the ultimately un-nameable force that makes things in its uniqueness, be what they are (James W. Heisig, Spirituality Today, Autum 1987, Vol.39). It seems to me that the concept of Sunyata is like Tao (the universal soul of nature or the all pervading energy of nature) in Taosim, which can never be put into a concept. It is an unnamed name.

 

4.      Sunyata and its Relationship with Humanity

When we acknowledge that Sunyata is the truth or the absolute reality of all things -its force is to make things be what they are-, we then can see that humanity in their existential reality of suffering because of desires, needs and wants can achieve its uniqueness as human by experiencing Sunyata by doing or following the noble eight-path in their lives. This condition is based on the fact that Buddhism has been a religion of practice rather than of grace. According to Japanese thinkers, in the absolute selflessness of pure experience, one finds the ultimate reality (Sunyata) that grounds our derivative experience of subjective selfhood and the objective world. All subjective and objective realities of conscious experience are forms of pure experience, which are unified by the self. Therefore, the unity of pure experience in humanity finds the oneness of reality as Sunyata, i.e., the original and true self of all things.

5.       A Comparative Study: The God of Christianity

 In Christianity the mystery of incarnation of Jesus Christ becomes the crucial point because it was the moment that God, who is far and transcendent became human in Jesus Christ who was, is and will be close to humanity and creation and immanent in human history. Therefore, God who became man in Jesus Christ has a special relation to creation. This means that God is the source of all creation. The doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, "creation is never from nothing, but out of God" shows us an understanding of God as the source of all. We, therefore, can use the doctrine of Sunyata by saying "creatio ex sunyata". It means that absolutely transcendent God is absolutely immanent in creation. Creation is the act in which God communicates God's reality.

The second point I want to make is that the God of Christianity is the God who has a special relationship with the humanity. Humanity was created in the image and likeness of God and humanity is sanctified by the presence of God in Jesus Christ. This consequence is for the benefit of humanity because of the grace brought by Jesus Christ. Dr. Rewata Dhamma, who spoke of Buddhist-Christian dialogue in London 27 March 1993, stated that:

In Christianity, one can also say that we all have an original union with God, given the creative kenosis of God at the ground of our being, and that we can obtain a realization of this fact through a redemptive union with God. But there is a major difference here between Buddhism and Christianity. In Buddhism one can become a Buddha in the realization of emptiness (by self discipline). But in Christianity, one cannot say that one can become a Christ in realization of the redemption. Rather, this Christian realization is a participation in Christ's redemptive kenosis.

The third point is the self-emptying of Christ found in Phil. 1:5-11. The Person of Jesus is the self-emptying God. The suffering of Jesus and his death on the Cross depicted the profound realization of his self-emptiness. Masao Abe, in Divine Emptiness and Historical Fullness: A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation with Masao Abe (Edited by Christopher Ives, 1995), on his theological reflection on the self-emptying of God by focusing on the kenosis hymn of Philippians 2:5-11, states that:

In the case of Christ, kenosis is realized in the fact that one who was in the form of God emptied himself and assumed the form of a servant. It originated in the Will of God. It is not that God become something else by his partial self-giving, but that God is something --or more precisely, that God is each and every thing-- by his total self-emptying. Only through this total kenosis is God truly God. Here we realize the reality of God which is entirely beyond conception and objectification. This kenotic God is the ground of the kenotic Christ.

6.      Conclusion

The ideas of Sunyata in Buddhism and Kenosis in Christianity have some similarities as well as differences but these elements may be developed further for dialogue. Sunyata is the absolute reality of all things which in the Christian understanding can be identified with God as the source of all creation. Sunyata in Buddhism can be gained by self-discipline and Kenosis in Christianity can only be achieved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  We, therefore, can learn from Buddhist's self-discipline. By personal prayer and meditation, we can achieve our self-emptying, which is the mark of our discipleship; the mark of our genuine desire to live in Christ.

A Hope from the Lake of Galilee and Dead Sea

I was fascinated and amazed to find out about the two big lakes in Palestine/Israel: Lake of Galilee or Lake of Gennesareth or Lake of Tiberias and Lake of Death or Death Sea. These two lakes give me a food for thought and to reflect on our life. They give insight on our life and deepen our being human.  

If you are Christian and you read the New Testament, you will find out that Jesus was calling His disciples on the bank of the Lake of Galilee, teaching on the boat by the shore-side of the lake, walking on the water of the lake, asking Simon Peter to catch fish on that lake, even after His Resurrection Jesus was appearing on the lake side, roasting some fish. So why was the Lake of Galilee so important for the people in Jesus’ time? It was because the lake gave life to the surroundings: people were coming to catch fish in the lake because so many fish were there; people were taking water from the lake for their daily use; even some big villages were found by the side of the lake. We can say that this lake gives life to the living creatures there.

I am just a bit of curious to see on the Google Map about this region of that lake. I discover that there are so many big farms and town by the side of the lake. There are lives by and in the lake.

Moreover, it is at the south of the Lake of Galilee, following the river Jordan, we will find another lake, called Death Sea or Lake of Death. Why people call it such name is that I don’t know but by its name we can say that that there is no living creature in it or by its side. By the fact that this lake has a high contain of salt or hyper saline water that make floating easily, it brings no life in it.

Interestingly these two lakes: Lake of Galilee and Lake of Death, gets the water from the same source, that is, the Jordan River. From north of the country, flowing the Jordan River that fills the Lake of Galilee and flowing trough and it enters the Lake of Death.

The question that comes up in my mind and that brings a sense of wonder within myself is that why do both lakes get different result: one brings life and other brings death, even though the two receive the same source of water? The Lake of Galilee spreads life in, around, and by itself while the Lake of Death produces no life around itself.

Therefore, why does the lake of Galilee spread life and brings life to every creature which is in contact with it? The answer is laid upon its ability to open itself. On the south part of the lake, there is an opening, which brings the water from the lake to flow out from the lake. This opening is the key. As water of the river Jordan flows to the lake from the North, the lake also allows its water to flow out at the South. The lake receives fresh water from the River Jordan and continues to refresh itself by allowing its water flowing out the lake. That is why the Lake of Galilee always produces the fresh water for the living creatures around itself and brings life to all.

On the other side, why does the Lake of Death produce death within and surround itself?  As we know that wherever, the high contains of salt in the water, there will be not any organism found in it. That is the nature of the Death Sea (the Lake of Death). But why does it produce high density of salt? Looking at the hot climate in this region, in which evaporation is very high, we will find some minerals coming in stay within the lake and make the lake contained high density of salt. So the key answer here is that Death Sea receives all the water coming in from River of Jordan but stops all the water within itself. There is NO an opening to let its water flowing out. Because of this, the Lake of death brings death and there is not a single living habitats staying within the lake and its shore-side is full of black mud which is not suitable environment for living creatures. However, in this deserted place and abandoned area like Death Sea, the goodness and blessings coming out from the lands. As we know that the black mud of the death sea contains many minerals for human body; the minerals of black mud can be used as a therapeutic and cosmetic treatments.

Nature gives a lesson for being humans; there are some moral lessons we can learn from the facts of the nature of both the Lake of Galilee and the Lake of Death above for our life. 

It is about life. Life is a mystery like nature but it can reveal itself when we come to meditate and contemplate it. Life has its own beginning, process, and purpose; such as river does it with life, it has source of streams, the process of flowing river and of filling the lake/sea, and at the end to fulfill the purpose on its ways. We are here and we want to see life; every experience we encounter and live is the experience of life but what do we see in life? What do we do with our life? How do we see life as a fairness of life? Is it a blessing and a grace? It depends on us who live our life.

However, life is not seen only from our human perspective, because it is also from the faith in God. That is God’s perspective. It means that life has its own source, that is, God. God is the source of life. As it is from God, life has its own goodness, blessings, and graces. When the life that flows from God touches other beings, they become alive and bring life. Even non-living beings have a goodness and blessings.

What is more, like the Lake of Galilee which brings life, should our life be. But in order to have life, we should open ourselves to share the blessings we receive freely from God. We must open ourselves to pour out each blessing that comes from God. We become the channel of God’s blessings to others. Not like the Lake of Death which brings death and no life found in it because it receives water and refuses to open it to sharing the water to others, should not be our life.  Our openness to others brings life and our self-selfishness brings death to others.

However, we cannot be so negative about our life when we see that our life is like a dead sea. Even though it is so, we know that we can still use this condition (dead sea condition) for the betterment of our life; we should have a hope because “at the end of this dark tunnel of our life, there is always a light”. We can make use of our bad and darkness experiences and turn them into something useful for our life and the life of others. I remember a writer said “the purpose of our life is to help others but if you cannot help them, at least don’t hurt them”. So, be a blessing for others because of the free blessing you have received from God.