original self as the ultimate source of wholeness and health. As Hisamatsu has written
in Zen and Culture: The Formless Self and Its Creation:
In Buddhism this genuine subjectivity is intrinsically the complete and final
emancipation, just as this emancipation is genuine subjectivity. Therefore,
genuine subjectivity can work freely or be active without any hindrance. If it
is not active, it could not be called complete and final emancipation. And if
emancipation is lost when it is put into action, it is not genuine subjectivity.
Buddhism’s genuine subject works freely without losing its emancipation.Indeed, for Hisamatsu it is not even limited to Buddhism:
Speaking of this ‘Buddhist subject,’ it may sound like it is a particular subject
in the specific religion known as Buddhism.... It is, however, the ultimate and
true subject of humankind itself. It is called the Buddhist subject only because
it has been decisively realized in Buddhism. But it is not limited to Buddhism;
it is the universal subject of humankind.Hisamatsu is not beating around the bush: Not only is this ‘complete and final
emancipation,’ it is each and everyone’s true self—whether we are aware of it or not.
It is not limited to certain ‘enlightened’ individuals, nor to states of mind,
consciousness, or the individual or collective unconscious. This is one of the reasons
Zen Buddhism prefers the term ‘no-mind.’
What does all this mean for the therapist or caregiver? The Vimalakirti Sutra, a
Mahayana text held in high regard in Zen Buddhism, provides a decisive answer. In
this sutra, when the great layman Vimalakirti is asked about his illness, he responds
that as long as living beings are ill, his illness is prolonged. And when the illness of
all living beings comes to an end, then his illness will also end. Just as loving parents
share in the suffering of their child when ill, and feel relieved when their child recovers,
so does the Bodhisattva (awakening being) suffer out of compassion for all beings.
And where does this ‘illness’ come from? Vimalakirti states that a Bodhisattva’s illness
itself arises out of Great Compassion.
In a word, the formless self is free from all suffering even as it compassionately
‘takes on’ the suffering of all. As Hisamatsu emphasized in conversation with Jung
(and hammered out in detail in his commentary on the Vimalakirti Sutra), awakening
to this formless, original self, we are free from all suffering. As mentioned above, this
is not limited to certain ‘enlightened’ individuals; thus, we naturally and freely take
on the suffering of others to help them awaken and thus realize that they, too, are
originally and fundamentally free from all suffering. Here is the heart of genuine
‘Buddhist therapy.’ I will return to this crucial point at the end.
34 A BUDDHIST MODEL OF THE HUMAN SELF