The disciplined attention of mindful meditation reveals both the interdependence of all phenomena and the unique presence of each entity as it appears to us from moment-to-moment. This unique presence, or ‘suchness,’ is what is denoted by the Sanskrit term, tathatā.
Tathatā, is a key concept in Buddhist practice – particularly in Zen. In realising the importance of tathatā we are recognising and celebrating the reality of what appears to us before the process of labelling, conceptualising and dividing up of what is. In mindful meditation we can encounter the ‘suchness’ of things as they appear to us from moment to moment. This non-linguistic mode of experiencing is not an experience of a transcendent, absolute or ideal reality. This reality does not stand outside of where we are, or beyond our everyday world. It is right here – where we are now. Mindful practices are only ways of waking-up to the here and now, the everyday extraordinary presence of what is – tathatā or suchness.
Another perspective on suchness arises if we consider an analogy with observational drawing. If we sit and draw an object – trying to find an accurate equivalent in marks on a white surface – there is a constant tussle between the preconceptions we have about the object and the thing that is out there in front of us. Say it is an apple. Our idea of the apple is often as strong, or stronger, than the glorious being that sits in front of us. Noticing the unique qualities of this apple, as opposed to all the other fictional apples that exist in our minds or elsewhere in the world, is very difficult. If we are to do justice to this particular apple, we have to let go of our ideas of what an apple looks like and just pay attention to the shape, tone, form and colour that appears in our visual field. There is often a surprise in this process of looking and drawing – we have to make a guess and then see how closely the mark we have made relates to the form in front of us. The actual apple can seem to dissolve into something much more mysterious and odd – a funny collection of sense data that shimmers as we try to pin it down on paper. But, of course, we never can pin it down – it is what it is and our drawing is another ‘is what it is.’ In order to really see and appreciate what it is, we have to forget what we know or imagine, forget the label and feel the presence of what appears to us. Suchness is sheer unadorned presence.
Now it is argued by many people, including most postmodernists, that ‘suchness’ is itself a fiction – that we can have no knowledge of what is in the world that is not framed by language and ideas. According to this view, we cannot set aside, or let go of, the words and ideas that surround, and in a way, construct the apple we are drawing. Another, related, argument suggests that we cannot be sure there is an apple out there in the world – all we can be sure about is that we have sense impressions that we label, ‘apple.’ This is known as phenomenalism in philosophy – the belief that physical objects have no existence in themselves – only perceptual phenomena or sensations are real – everything else is supposition or make-believe. This is a difficult argument to refute, though it seems to me that if I hit you, and you feel pain, there may be something physical that connects us, namely my hand or fist – and my hand or fist exist outside of you. But maybe not.
Sceptical philosophers, such as Pyrrho of Elis (c.360-270 BCE) and the later Roman writer, Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd CE) while questioning more or less everything that is surmised or said about anything, agree to accept that appearances are as they appear to us. Without this agreement, there is no basis upon which we can discuss or investigate. Though they use different terms, sceptics and Zen Buddhists seem to agree that things are as they appear in their sheer presence. Beyond that lies speculation, argument and words, words, words. That an apple-like object is on the table in front of us, is apparent to our senses – but whether it is red or green, or we call it an apple or an orange, or a vegetable or a fruit – these are all open to debate. They lie in the realm of ideas, labels and verbal discourse. This is why I begin my guided meditation with the words: ‘Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.’
The practice of Zen-sitting is an encounter with tathatā or suchness. The well-known reservations that Zen teachers have about words and ideas are rooted in their belief in the importance of tathatā – the presence of what appears, the nameless realm presented to us.
Suchness is often evoked in haiku poems – this is one of the most well-known haiku written by Basho, in a translation by Dom Sylvester Houedard:
FROG
POND
PLOP
And the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa, writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, put it beautifully: ‘Simply trust / Do not the petals flutter down / Just like that.’ (Blyth 1950: 363) The sixteenth-century Christian mystic, Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), puts it rather beautifully: ‘the true heaven is everywhere, even in that very place where thou standest and goest…’ (Boehme 1920: 23)
In The Way of Zen, Alan Watts (1989: 73) writes: ‘The nonverbal, concrete world contains no classes and no symbols… no duality.’ [It is what it is. Everything is what it is.] ‘This reality is the ‘suchness’ (tathatā) of our natural, nonverbal world… there is nothing good, nothing bad, nothing inherently long or short… suchness is the nameless.’ (1989: 127)
So, the terms, no-mind, beginner’s mind, don’t-know mind and Buddha mind, are all pointing to the quality, or activity, of the mind that is non-discriminating, undivided and non-clinging – being-here – experiencing the suchness and the emptiness of all things as they appear to us without clinging, comment or judgment.
Bibliography
Blyth, R.H. 1950. Haiku, Volume 2: Spring. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press.
Boehme, Jacob. 1920. The Confessions of Jacob Boehme. London: Methuen. Online at: https://jacobboehmeonline.com/assets/docs/The-Confessions-of-Jacob-Boehme-by-Jacob-Boehme-ed-by-W-Scott-Palmer-1920.146140314.pdf – accessed 5 May 2024.
Dom Silvester Houedard. 1967. Kinkon. London: Writers Forum Poets Number 14.
Empiricus, Sextus. 1994. Outlines of Scepticism. Cambridge University Press.
Thomas Merton. 1968. Zen and the Birds of Appetite. New York: New Directions.
Alan Watts. 1989. The Way of Zen. New York: Vintage Books.