Buddha Nature of the Silicon Chip

Among the most profound teachings of Buddhism, concerning the ultimate nature of reality, is the concept of the Three Truths, as formulated by T’ien-t’ai. This Chinese philosopher, and teacher, was the founder of the school that first proclaimed the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Based on the teachings expounded in the Lotus Sutra, the three truths refer to the three aspects of all phenomenon in the universe. These are the truth of temporary existence (conventional truth), the truth of emptiness (non-substantiality) and the Middle Way.

Though the Madhyamika (Middle Way) Schoolhad explored the concept of the Middle Way for years, most definitions circled around the two-but-not-two idea. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Neither existence nor non-existence. The two are not two, but they are not identical. Then, is the Middle Way, merely a convenient third tag for the not-two? It was T’ien-T’ai, and the thirteenth century Japanese sage, Nichiren Daishonin, who clearly defined an understanding of the Middle Way as the Mystic Law, the universal buddha nature.

The truth of temporary existence is easy to understand. This newspaper you are holding appears as a separate entity to you distinct from yourself. So is the chair you are sitting on and the various other objects and phenomenon around you. We of course, understand that all these phenomenon are transient, but we find it more difficult to understand that they do not have any inherent existence.

With apologies to the owners and editors of this paper, the Buddha would declare that this newspaper is only emptiness.

 The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, in his commentary on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra says, “If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply, we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the logger’s father and mother…. In fact, we cannot point to one thing (in the universe) that is not here…” But while all the causes and conditions that make the paper are there, is there anything other than these, that we can call paper? The paper is “empty” of any inherent existence. It has no inherent self. Emptiness is not nothingness. While the paper is not eternal, it is also not non-existent.

Yet the paper in your hand continues to be just that, a newspaper. You will not expect it to turn suddenly into a pussycat. When you go to sleep, you expect to wake up as yourself, not as Red Riding Hood’s grandmother. Causes and conditions come together to manifest, from the infinite possibilities of “emptiness”, the truth of temporary existence – the paper, the chair, yourself. They do not do so arbitrarily, but according to a universal law. The third truth is as much an aspect of the reality of all phenomenon, as emptiness or conventional existence. For the law governing cause and effect is as much embodied in all phenomenon, as are the other two truths. This Mystic Law, known variously, sometimes as buddha-nature, is the true aspect of all phenomenon. And all phenomenon are the manifestation of this life entity.

It’s now time to turn to the metaphor of the silicon chip. All computers have at least one ROM (Read-only-Memory) chip as part of their circuitry. The ROM chip is a special type of silicon chip, in that some very crucial programs and instructions are permanently embedded on it. They become operational, the moment an electric current flows through the chip. Very often the boot ROM chip becomes operational as soon as the system is turned on. It usually does a series of diagnostics, loads the operating system from the hard disk and so on.

Of course, this chip is in essence only a very complicated electronic circuit, made up of thousands of components – transistors, capacitors, and resistors. Like all phenomenon in the universe, this is its aspect of temporary existence. We can feel it, touch it. It is solid, and we can insert it into the computer’s motherboard.

But it has no inherent existence, other than the components, the causes and conditions that have been collectively given the label “chip”. We can analyse each component in the same way, till we reach the subatomic particle (waves?) level where we find that “Atoms are not things….”(Heisenberg) and that “The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine” (Sir James Jeans). This is the truth of emptiness of the silicon chip. No inherent self-existence apart from the causes and conditions that make it.

But these causes and conditions in our chip are assembled according to a law – the Law of Electronic Circuits. We can hardly throw together any old electronic parts and expect to create a functioning chip. This Law corresponds to the truth of the Middle Way of the silicon chip. The Law embedded in the chip. Metaphorically, it is the buddha nature of the silicon chip.

We now have a fully, correctly constructed ROM chip. But it remains what it is, just an inanimate collection of carbon and silicon atoms, until one more cause/condition, the most important one is added to it before it can function as a computer chip (manifest its buddha nature). We need to pass an electric current through it. It now begins to function according to the true nature of its reality.

The buddha-nature, the Mystic Law, the True Entity of Life, the Middle way is the ultimate reality of the human non-self. The electric current (the mental continuum, the subtle, consciousness, life) combines with the components (skandhas, aggregates, form) according to a law (the Mystic Law, the universal buddha nature) to manifest the True Buddha as a common mortal.

If the electric current is not stable (defiled by imprints of previous bad karma, ignorance, poisons of greed, anger, and stupidity) the chip may malfunction (Suffer).

Sometimes you may need to reboot.

Aspi B. Mistry