ICHINEN SANZEN
Buddhism
has a conception called Ichinen Sanzen.
This is a principle that every life moment [Ichinen]
possesses all 3, 000 possible worlds. 'Ichinen'
indicates life essence and 'sanzen', the phenomena it
manifests. This principle which is contained in the Lotus Sutra was developed
by T'ien Tai, the Chinese Buddhist Master, based on
the Lotus Sutra. At each moment life experiences one of ten life states called
ten worlds. Each of these worlds possesses the potential for all ten within
itself making 100 possible worlds. Each of these 100 worlds possesses ten
factors. The ten factors are a principle of clarifying life's entity and
function and consists of appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, internal
cause relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and the consistency from
beginning to end. Finally, each being is different from all others as expressed
through the three realms of existence which include the individual, society and the environment. The individual consists
of five aggregates, namely perception, conception, volition, consciousness and
form. What is significant is entity. Entity is neither existence nor
non-existence and has direct contact with the true entity.
THE TEN WORLDS
In Buddhism, perception
is geared to the total phenomenal reality expressed through the life states of
the ten worlds. These are life states and not psychological states and are an
expression of the total fusion of mind, body and environment that a person is
in. Thus it is said that the environment mirrors the life of a person just as a
shadow mirrors a body. Buddhism also says that when we change our life state we
change the total phenomenal reality around us like a fisherman drawing in his
net takes in all the catch with him at the same time.
As we change our
reality, we change the observable phenomena around us as we are changing our
belief fields.
As this happens
we construct memory and meaning transducers which add on to our current ones
and also enfold our total experience to give a greater understanding of our
place in the universe.
Key terms:
Ten
Worlds - (Jikkai) Ten life conditions that a single
entity of life manifests in the course of the flow of time. Originally the Ten Worlds were viewed as
distinct physical places each with its own particular inhabitants. In light of
the Lotus Sutra, however they are interpreted as potential conditions of life
inherent in each individual. They are Hell (jogoku), Hunger
(gaki), Animality (chikusho), Anger (shura), Humanity
or Tranquillity (nin), Heaven or Rapture (ten), Learning (shomon), Realisation (engaku), Bodhisattva (bosatsu)
and Buddahood (butsu). The
Ten Worlds is a component principle of ichinen sanzen.
The prevailing
world order is the result of the existence of different levels of reality and
the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the ever changing nature of
life and life states (ichinen Sanzen).
