Professor Lin Chong'an: The Computer Before Us and Its Dependent Origination and Emptiness

眼前计算机的缘起性空

The Dependent Origination and Emptiness of the Computer Before Us

Lin Chong'an, 2007

(1) The ordinary person's view:

We all see the computer before us through undistorted visual consciousness. This is accurate perception—nothing wrong with it, consistent with how things appear in everyday life. So the computer before us is "conventionally existent" (名言有).

(2) The Svātantrika master's view:

We all see the computer through undistorted visual consciousness. This is accurate perception, consistent with ordinary experience, so the computer is "conventionally existent." Yet when we look more closely, although the observer doesn't affect the object (the computer), the limits of human senses mean that what we see doesn't quite match the computer as it really is—appearance and reality diverge. So for the observer, the computer before us is "established through mind-based imputation" (以心增上安立). It arises dependently, like an illusion. It isn't truly existent, and so it is empty of true existence (真实有空).

(3) The Prāsaṅgika master's view:

We all see the computer through undistorted visual consciousness. This is accurate perception, consistent with ordinary experience, so the computer is "conventionally existent." When we look more closely, not only does what we see of the computer differ from the computer itself because of the limits of human senses, but the observer necessarily affects the computer—light must strike the computer and reflect into the observer's eyes. So the computer before us is "established only through conceptual imputation" (唯以分别安立). It doesn't exist from its own side. It is empty of self-nature, empty of own-characteristics. Subject and object interact—this is the most subtle view of dependent origination. A computer is form (色), and so this is precisely "form is emptiness, emptiness is form; form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form." The same holds for the mental factors of "feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness." Within dependent origination and emptiness, they too mutually influence one another and exist only through conceptual imputation.