We are all connected, a great weaving of inter-being. A process of an ever-emerging, ever-unolding, act of creation in a state of process flow.
From the Dhammapada Verse 97-98:
“Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think.”
“As irrigators lead water to their fields, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their lives.”
Prof Brook Ziporyn wrote on the Middle Way of the There Truths:
Since the ultimate reality of this compassionate creative activity is thus neither emptiness nor non- emptiness in the narrower noncreative sense, it is called the Center. Since it can appear in an infinity of different forms, in any form at all, without ceasing to be itself, since its all-pervasive Emptiness is expressed as all-pervasive forms, it is eternal and omnipresent: anything that appears anywhere is its expression, so it can never be replaced by anything other than itself; it can never die. This Center, this Middle Way, is what the Nirvana Sutra also calls “the buddha-nature.”
Thisanno Bikkhu wrote: “The present moment is expressed in an intentional act of creation.” Meaning life is not fixed, or deterministic. We are not prisoners or our karma. Rather we create our present moment from the raw materials of our karma in an ever-unfolding drama of creation. As Ziporyn writes: “ we are ourselves the painter.”
Easwaran’s commentary on the Dhammapada states: “When we hear that our personality is no more real than a movie, we may feel dejected, abandoned in an alien universe. The Buddha replies gently, “You don’t understand.”
If life were not a process, if thought were not continuous, we would have no freedom of choice, no alternative to the human condition. It is because each thought is a moment of its own that we can change. That is the essence of the Buddha’s universe and the whole theme of the Dhammapada. If we can get hold of the thinking process, we can actually redo our personality, remake ourselves. Destructive ways of thinking can be rechanneled, constructive channels can be deepened, all through right effort and meditation. “
So what are these The Three Truths?
Emptiness – Lacking a permanent self-essence or independent existence
Provisional – things do exist conventionally through an interdependence upon causes and conditions… “Cause and Effect.”
Middle Way – phenomena exhibit both aspects simultaneously, at each moment, without losing its character, permeating all others and without dissolving the tension between them.
Because things are empty, they are provisional, and because they are provisional they are empty. As Thich Naht Hanh says, "Inter-being."
This is Ichinen Sanzen: Mutual Possession of the Ten worlds
Meaning that we all BE “of” and “in” the World. Fully Liberated. Fully Engaged.
It’s why we chant the Hoben-pon Chapter's “Ju Nyo Ze” section three times: the first recitation is to observe "Emptiness," the second is to observe "Conventionality," and the third time is to observe the "Middle."
In regard to the distinction between the exclusive and non-exclusive Middle Way amongst the many sects of buddhism.
It boils down to this - the Tripitaka and even Shared teachings are both world-denying in that they try to escape the world through emptiness. So, in the Tripitaka and Shared teaching phenomena must simply be something to be detached from because empty.
The Distinct teaching reengages the world and holds emptiness and provisionality in a creative tension, and yet it still looks beyond phenomena to a transcendent principle (the Middle Way). So, there is still a tendency to see actual phenomena as dispensable and not really “where it’s at.” To seek a "higher other power" for solace and salvation. In the Distinct teaching phenomena are dealt with for the sake of the transcendent Middle Way that allows them to be empty and yet provisional.
But the non-exclusive middle of the Perfect teaching [The Lotus sutra] sees that it is the actual concrete phenomena that we have to deal with that is simultaneously empty therefore provisional and therefore the middle-way. In addition, each phenomena is what allows all other phenomena to be empty, provisionally existent, and to have middleness (and vice versa). This means that every phenomena can be viewed as “where it’s at ultimately” and yet not in a way that doesn’t liberate itself by opening up into all other phenomena. In the Perfect teaching the actual phenomena are truly allowed to be themselves and to shine in and of themselves as empty, provisional, and middleness.
As an analogy for Western theistic thinking, it’s the difference between saying that worldly things are without value because God is elsewhere, saying that worldly things have value for the sake of finding God who lets the world be what it is, and finally saying that every worldly thing is somehow itself God and because of that so is everything else you may choose to focus on if you are awake to it.
special thanks to John Hughe’s Blog 500Yojanas for Easwaran’s Dhammapada quote.