Preface and Chapter 1 Introduction, Of the Book, God is No-thing. The Apophatic Assertion, The
Salvation for Humankind – revised -. Copyright Rodger Ricketts Psy.D.,2022. All rights reserved.
Protected by international copyright conventions. No part of this chapter may be reproduced in any
manner whatsoever, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, without express permission of the
Author publisher, except in case of brief quotations with due acknowledgement. Publisher
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Preface
After 40 years of active study and practice on the Buddha’s teachings and
having written four books on what I call ‘Buddha-inspired psychology,’ I
recently found a very insightful perspective that expanded what I had
learned before. The perspective is that the Buddha’s teachings are a form of
Apophatic Theology, thereby; they inherently undercut any easy attempts at
codification. The revelation of Emptiness or Sunyata with the Divine is
experienced rather than defined and categorized through limited language
descriptions. With such an emphasis on first-hand, personal experience, the
insight of intrinsic nature through Awakening runs contrary to the abstract,
‘positive’ Cataphatic theology. This book is a unique and cogent perspective
that investigates and promotes the Buddha’s teachings as a ‘negative’,
Apophatic theology.
While there are scholarly books and research articles on the topic of
Apophatic theology, very few incorporate the Buddha’s teachings and
scientific thought. In this book, I aspire to show that indeed the Buddha’s
and science’s teachings and insights can be succinctly integrated into the
Apophatic spiritual tradition that spans cultures and time. Within the larger
scope of the canons of ‘via negativa’, the Buddha’s teachings of
Nothingness or Emptiness or Sunyata and recent scientific insights are
clearly a part of the Apophatic spiritual tradition.
This revised book goes beyond what was in the first edition and instructs the
reader even more deeply about the topic. From a broad, modern perspective,
my aim is to make accessible for those who are on their own spiritual path
of personal discovery the universal teachings of the Buddha.
I have always appreciated that the Buddha taught universal truths that are
applicable everywhere and throughout time. The integration of these truths
with other teachers of Apophatic theology has affirmed my belief in this
universality. Even with my forty years of research studies, attendance of
temple retreats with monks and lay lectures and meditation practice, I have
only now found this instructive link between the Buddha’s teachings with
other teachers of the Apophatic tradition. I want to share these insights with
my fellow spiritual path voyagers. I believe they too will find it as
interesting and illuminating as I have.
Chapter One
Introduction
In the past 40 years as a clinical psychologist and student of the Buddha, I
became aware of the many similarities between the two studies. This
awareness led me to successfully integrate both in my own life and clinical
practice the benefits of combining the perspectives. As a result, I have
written four books explaining my perspective on the Buddha’s psychological
benefits for wellness and happiness.
In the past year, I learned Apophatic theology or Apophaticism. This
research introduced me to Western and other Apophatic writers resulting in
my defining the Buddha’s teachings as an example of a mystical or
Apophatic perspective.
There are clear similarities between the Buddha’s writing and Angelus
Silesius and other Apophatic theology writers. While there is some
scholarship about this similarity, unfortunately, it is rarely discussed in
either mainstream Buddhist or Christian literature. This lack of discussion
prompted me to integrate relevant aspects of my previous writings on the
Buddha’s teachings with the Apophatic perspectives and highlight what I
believe are important correspondences.
In the past, I had read some works of Christian Mystics like Meister Eckhart
and the book of the Cloud of Unknowing, but I never was specifically
introduced to the Apophatic tradition. This past year as I began to read the
Apophatic works of Angelus Silesius and Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius, I realized that the Buddha’s teachings could be rightly considered
Apophatic. This realization opened a new dimension of comprehension and
relevance for me about what I had written in my previous books and essays
on the Buddha’s teachings.
Apophaticism wonders how to speak about the indescribable or immanent
Existence or Absolute, instead of the common use of the pronoun or noun,
like ‘God’ or an equivalent – with its language/meaning associations or
exaggerations attached to it. The Apophatic writers prefer to use the
reference of Mysterious or No-thing. Philosopher Mulla Rajab affirmed
“…an unqualifiable and attribute-less nature of ‘God’.”
Also, philosopher Maimonides explained that ‘God’ must be free of
properties and is thus unlike anything else and indescribable. At times in my
chapters, I have used the designation of (X) instead of ‘God,’ etc., to avoid
this quandary. As the reader goes through the chapters in this book, they will
soon understand further this dilemma of designation, which is a useful
lesson in Apophatic theology.
In the following chapters, the reader will notice that I have placed emphasis
on the Buddha’s teachings throughout because I have found his ancient
teachings have the most in-depth and complete analysis of an Apophatic
training and perspective. These chapters about the Buddha’s teachings and
Apophatic writings, while not encyclopedic, are not only for intellectual
curiosity but as a living testament of truth with positive consequences not
only for the wellness and well-being of the individual but for society and the
whole Gaia. When understood and incorporated into one’s life, this is
enlightening. Clearly, in this book I inform and advocate.
To conclude, with this book’s analysis of the Apophatic, the Buddha’s
teaching and modern scientific insights, one develops a cogent scientific and
modern understanding of the inherent restrictions to fully comprehend the
mysterious nature of existence or Being. The middle way is an alternative
term for the Eightfold Path, and we do not hold extreme positions in any
way. When all words collapse into silence, we resist labeling that Wonder
with another name; therefore, we realize that we can only say ‘it is what it
is.’
Everything is impermanent and interacting with all. It is all like a flame
feeding from the original source but soon to extinguish. All form is brief and
a manifestation of the great mysterious source. Rodger R Ricketts
The student asked the teacher, ‘What is the meaning of life?’ The teacher
replied, ‘Life is the meaning. Nurture the gift of life in yourself and other
sentient beings. Support the inherent will to survive and thrive within the
natural residence of the ecosystems of existence. Be kind and wise.’ Rodger
R Ricketts
Preface and Chapter 1 Introduction, Of the Book, God is No-thing. The Apophatic Assertion, TheSalvation for Humankind – revised 2022
10 Feb
Siddhartha’s Existential Crisis/ The Buddha’s Resolution
16 MarSiddhartha’s Existential Crisis/ The Buddha’s Resolution
All copyrights are held by the author Rodger R Ricketts, Psy.D.
“He, who injures living beings, is not Noble. He is called Noble, because he is
gentle and kind towards all living beings.” Buddha.
“In the past, monks, and also now, I teach Dukkha and the cessation of Dukkha.”
Buddha
Introduction
This book examines relevant factors, as different from the Traditional texts’
stories, regarding Siddhartha Gautama’s psychological crisis causing him to
leave his home and renounce the secular life at age 29. A primary assertion of
this paper is that the traditional story of the ‘Four Sights’ is allegorical and the
description of Siddhartha’s psychological and emotional response to them is
better understood what modern psychology calls an existential crisis or crisis in
understanding life. An apparent significant factor in his renunciation is that
Siddhartha Gautama and his family were members of the Kshatriya or
warrior/leader caste, and it is a fact which is usually not elaborated on in many
Traditional texts.
Dukkha, or often translated as suffering, was the key element of Siddhartha’s
crisis and is the focus of all Buddhist doctrine in the Four Noble Truths. The
Buddha put suffering as the focus of his inquiry and he taught the doctrine of
The Four Noble Truths; the truth of suffering (Dukkha), the truth of the origin
of suffering (Samudāya), the truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha), and
the truth of the Path to the cessation of suffering (Magga). However, in
Buddhist thought there is a wide discussion about the meaning of suffering. In
this book, a definition of Dukkha with its variations will be
provided. Siddhartha’s response to suffering became the impetus for him to
seek a life of renunciation to answer his perplexity about Dukkha and its
cessation.
Finally, Gautama Siddhartha’s original crisis, told in the symbolic story of the
Four Sights, strongly brought the problem of Dukkha to the forefront of his
awareness. This is the significance of the legend from the Four Sights. Their
lesson is that besides ordinary physical and emotional pain, there is a deeper
existential grief and discontent resulting from one’s awareness of life’s inherent
impermanence and groundlessness. Awakening or Enlightenment became the
basis of the resolution of his personal crisis leading to the formulation of the
Four Noble Truths.
Since most people try to understand the Buddha’s teachings from the common
perspective based on duality, substantialism and egotism, suffering is
understood as physical or emotional pain- unhappiness in the sensual,
material, egotistical sense of aversion and disappointments in life. In the past,
when this perspective was used, the Buddha’s teachings were interpreted as a
pessimistic theory due to the impossibility that one can always have or keep
what he/she wants; therefore, the interpretation was ‘Life is Suffering’.
Nonetheless, this is not the teaching of the Buddha.
This paper advocates that instead the Buddha found a solution to existential
sorrow and alienation and the greed and hatred created through being
ignorant of the true nature of life.
Veiled Reality: Affirmations of the Apophatic from Physics
2 FebChapter 9 Veiled Reality: Affirmations of the Apophatic from Physics – The God
is No-Thing An Apophatic Assertion: An Introduction for Humankind’s
Transpersonal Actualization– revised -. Copyright Rodger Ricketts Psy.D.,2023.
All rights reserved. Protected by international copyright conventions. No part of
this chapter may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, or stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted, without express permission of the
Authorpublisher, except in the case of brief quotations with due
acknowledgement.
Chapter 9
Veiled Reality: Affirmations of the Apophatic from Physics
We have seen that science supports the apophatic assertion that a
transcendent reality is beyond the normal range of human perception
and conceptualization. Yet, at the same time, the Transcendent is a
reality in the human life process. We have also seen that awakening or
transcending the ignorance of duality is a common experience of the
mystic. I will now highlight how the theoretical physicist Bernard
d’Espagnat argues that we cannot directly know the transcendental
reality or mind-independent reality:
When, in its spirit, quantum theory and Bell’s theorem are used as
touchstones, the two main traditional philosophical approaches,
realism and idealism, are found wanting. A more suitable
conception seems to be an intermediate one, in which the mere
postulated existence of a holistic and hardly knowable MindIndependent Reality is found to have explaining power. […] This
model considers Reality as not lying in space and time, indeed
being a priori to both, and it involves the view that the great
mathematical laws of physics may only let us catch some glimpses
on the structures of the Mind-Independent Reality.
(On Physics and Philosophy (2006) vol. 41)
D’Espagnat calls this model “veiled reality” to suggest that the
mind-independent reality, like the transcendental of transcendental
idealism, is, for the most part, unconceptualizable. “Veiled reality”
refers to a “world” independent from human perception, brain structure,
and the language of our minds’ participation in knowledge. D’Espagnat,
as well as others, also assert that we are directly involved in this
actuality; we exist in it. We are an integral part of the actual. We are
“swimming” in it. Reality is not a specific area of the universe that
exists separate from our senses. Our limitation is that we can delineate only an exceedingly small aspect of it.
As the Buddha taught, d’Espagnat explains that sense impressions
and sensations are genuine, as are our sense organs. In sight and color,
both the photons, or waves, as well as the retinal cones are actual and
their interactions create our vision. The same is true of our other
sensations. This is the middle way of understanding our place in reality.
We do not have to seek our participation in it; we are a part of it.
However, in our dualistically based ignorance, we normally take our
cognitive representations, or pictures of reality, to be reality itself.
However, under certain meditative conditions, we can understand how
our subject/object dualistic world creates this illusion—the illusion that
is our ignorance.
As the Buddha explained in a descriptive explanation of the
doctrine of kamma and dependent origination, life has a certain
predictability; certain conditions have their origins in certain other
conditions. Life is not total randomness, but it is also not total
determinism. We see a similar approach in d’Espagnat’s account of the
“veiled reality”; we know we are participating in it when we obtain
approximately the same results, regardless of our methods of
investigating a phenomenon or replicating behaviors. Stability is a
reliable criterion of reality. In other words, a reasonable or practical
attitude is one that recognizes that events can be created when a certain
cause or causes originate them.
Space and Time
The Buddha’s teachings suggest that how we experience time and space
has important implications. As Buddhist Scholar Sue Hamilton (2000)
notes,
[…] if the structure of the world of experience is correlated with
the cognitive process, then it is not just that we name objects,
concrete and abstract, and superimpose secondary
characteristics according to the senses. It is also that all the
structural features of the world of experience are cognitively
correlated. Space and time are not external to the structure but
are part of it.
Therefore, everything that is knowable in temporal and spatial
terms is dependent on our subjective cognitive process. In the Buddhist
Sutta, “There is no first beginning, no first beginning is knowable.”
(Samyutta Nikaya 15.1-2) Hamilton continues,
If the entirety of the structure of the world as we know it is
subjectively dependent, including space and time, it follows that
the very concept of there being origins, beginnings, ends, extents,
limits, boundaries, and so on, is subject-dependent. The entirety
of temporality and of spatial extension are concepts which do not
operate independently of subjective cognitive processes.
Indeed, as discussed in a previous chapter, language has
significant influence on our concepts and experience of reality. In her
study How Languages Construct Time, (2011), Lera Boroditsky
summarized:
How people conceptualize time appears to depend on how the
languages they speak tend to talk about time—the current
linguistic context, what language is being spoken, and also the
particular metaphors being used to talk about time in the moment.
Further, people who conceptualize space differently also
conceptualize time differently, suggesting that people co-opt
representations of the physical world/space in order to mentally
represent more abstract or intangible entities. Taken all together,
these findings show that conceptions of even such fundamental
domains as time differs dramatically across cultures and groups;
the results reveal some of the mechanisms through which
languages and cultures help construct basic notions of time.
The influence of language over thought patterns is deeply pervasive,
affecting even basic concepts such as space and time.
While the transcendental idealism model assumes that reality is
embedded in space and time, in contrast, the Buddha and other
apophatic mystics teach that space and time do not exist outside of us
but are a part of our cognitive constructions, observing and reckoning
the transformation or the constant change of reality. Renowned
theoretical physicist John L. Bell explains it thus: “Gödel explained it
this way… there could be no such thing as an objective lapse of time,
that time or, more generally, change, is an illusion arising from our
special mode of perception.” Or as the information philosopher Ruth
Kastner wrote, “Time is the measurement of change.” Angelus Silesius
says, “Time is of your own making, Its clock ticks in your head. The
moment you stop thought Time too stops dead.”
The physicist d’Espagnat takes a similar position:
I am therefore inclined to think that ‘the Real’—alias human
independent reality—is not embedded in space-time. And indeed,
I go as far as speculating that, quite the contrary, the nature of
space-time is […] not ‘nominal but phenomenal,’ that space-time
is a ‘reality’—for us.
He emphasizes the fact that our experience of space-time is subjective
to our cognitive constructions of phenomena.
Wolfram Schommers takes a similar perspective on space and
time:
We normally assume that our sensations produced by the brain
are identical with reality itself, but this should not be the case as
we have argued that space-time cannot be outside the brain
because space-time has to be considered as an auxiliary element
for the representation of physically real processes. In other words,
the outside world, the material bodies, cannot be embedded in
space-time….Space and time are obviously elements of the brain;
they come into existence due to specific brain functions.
(1998)
This model asserts that even space and time are intimately linked
in our cognitive experience, resulting in a composition of a reality
constructed by our cognitive representations. All form is temporary,
transforming, and impermanent, including (X). Instead, there is the
Present and the constant transformation of manifestations. Or as
physicist David Bohm said, “Ultimately all moments are really one.
Therefore, now is eternity.”
We are all Interconnected even with the Universe 