Lower Evolution and Higher Evolution

Lower & Higher Evolution

A Buddhist Scientific Perspective

By Assaji Tanchangya 

One way to understand the evolution of human being is to take “God” as the creator of the world and the beings. This notion is held by religions like Hinduism, Christianity and also Islam. In the primitive world, people were at a lost to understand why some of the phenomena like rain, storm, thunderstorm, etc occurred beyond their control. So their natural tendency was to infer some kind of single external power like God controlling the universe. Around the 4^th-10^th century of medieval period,  when the development of western science took place, the idea of God and the geocentric view of the universe were challenged by the early scientists like Thomas Aquinas and later in 16^th century by Copernicus and Galileo too. The theory of evolution was anticipated by a number of thinkers, by Kant, Hegel, and others – even, according to some, by Aristotle himself. But Charles Darwin was the first to trace the operation of evolution in detail within the field of biology.  To attempt to refute the principle of evolution in that field today would be like saying the earth is flat. It is the given basis for all the biological sciences. If anything, the idea of evolution has invaded all sorts of other disciplines, from politics to astronomy, one could fairly say that just like Elizabethan age was dominated by the concepts of order and hierarchy, and so the modern world is dominated by the concept of evolution.

In taking up science and Buddhism we have to draw some precise boundaries. Scientific knowledge depends on the knowledge of the senses – but just because Buddhism has never tried to resist the evidence of the senses, that does not make it a ‘scientific religion’. It is true in Buddhism the spirit of empirical, open-minded inquiry as evidenced by the Kālāmasutta of Samyuttanikhāya are never abandoned, at the same time also Buddhism has never lost its sights from recognizing a transcendental reality – which is not of course, a provable scientific hypothesis. Buddhism therefore looks at the rational knowledge of the senses in the light of a fusion of reason with emotion in a higher faculty of archetypal knowledge which we may call vision or insight. It is not a question of justifying Buddhism in scientific terms, but rather of understanding sense-derived knowledge by means of knowledge that is not sense-based. In other words, the knowledge that is derived from the sense fits into a much larger pattern of knowledge that is not derived from the senses. From a Buddhist point of view, there is a hierarchy of level of being and consciousness, a hierarchy of degrees of spiritual attainment, which seems to be reflected in the whole process of evolution.

According to the principle of evolution life is not just existence. It is a process – a process of becoming – and humankind is not something apart from the rest of nature, as the theistic religions usually teach. Humankind itself comes under the operation of this great process of becoming. It too is evolving and developing, not just towards new forms of existence and organization, but towards new and higher levels of being. 

There are two different ways of looking at any evolving phenomenon: in terms of its past or in terms of its future. The first of these ways of looking at phenomena – in terms of its origin – is traditionally called the genetic approach; the second - in terms of its destination or purpose – is the teleological method. So if we take an example of humankind at its best – someone who is intelligent, self-aware, morally responsible, and sensitive to others and to the world around them – we should be able to look at them from each of these two perspectives. From a genetic perspective, we can look back at the complex evolutionary process described by Darwin (that nearest to human beings are chimpanzee), including that critical point at which self-consciousness – or more precisely, reflexive consciousness, which is roughly identifiable with specifically human consciousness – emerges from simple animal sense-consciousness. This whole process we can characterize, form the Buddhist point of view, as the ‘lower evolution’. But there is also the teleological perspective: we can also look at what an aware human being may develop into, what they are in process of developing into, and this development we may distinguish as the ‘higher evolution. We have got so far in the evolutionary terms propelled by the unconscious urge to grow and develop which fuels the origin of species, but to enter into the higher evolution takes conscious effort, or what we call spiritual practice. The lower evolution is the province of the biological sciences, leaving the higher evolution to be mapped out by the religions of the world, especially, of course, by Buddhism.

The teaching of Paticcasamuppāda formulates: this being, that becomes, from the arising of this, that arises. This not being, that does not become; from the ceasing of this, that ceases’. It means all coming into being in dependence on certain conditions, and disappearing when those conditions disappear. So we may simply say that in dependence upon the lower evolution arises the higher evolution.  Paticcasamuppāda expresses the middle way between seeing the lower evolution as essentially the same process as the higher evolution and seeing them as completely different processes. The basic Buddhist approach is in this sense scientific – it describes what happens without necessarily committing itself to an interpretation of those facts.  Within this universal framework of conditionality, however, there are two types of conditionality. On the one hand there is ‘cyclic’ mode of conditionality, a process of reaction between opposite factors: death arising in dependence on suffering – and vice versa. On the other hand, there is a cumulative development of positive factors progressively augmenting each other, and this ‘spiral’ mode of conditionality provides the basis for the spiritual life. The essential characteristic of a positive mental state is that it does not produce a negative reaction but instead produces a further positive factor. An act of true generosity, for example, is not succeeded by a niggling resentment when your gift does not seem to be appreciated. You simply derive joy from giving. It hardly needs saying that the cyclical principle governs the lower evolution, while the spiral mode of conditionality comprises the higher evolution.

By taking an evolutionary perspective we can discern some absolutely fundamental practical principles of the spiritual life. Within the lover evolution forms of life develop as a group – evolution works as a collective process – whereas the higher evolution is necessarily individual, which means that one individual can outstrip the rest. It is for this reason that self-awareness, mindfulness, is the starting point – the growing point – of the higher evolution. It is as though self-awareness generates a degree of energy sufficient to carry you through the whole process of the higher evolution in a single lifetime. Buddhist practice is concerned solely and exclusively with the development of the individual, that is with the higher evolution.

In the spiral mode of the higher evolution, there are about 12 stages of spiritual path that are all linked together progressing from one stage to another finally leading to perfect happiness and rest:

1.     In dependence upon Suffering (Dukkha), arises Faith (Saddha).

2.      In dependence upon Faith, arises Joy (Pamojja): things like food, sex, and sleep begins to come under control of that higher nature.

3.     Independence upon Joy, arises Rapture (Piti) or ecstasy: like listening to a marvellous symphony, looking at the sunset, hairs stand on end, some people shed tears.

4.     In dependence upon Rapture, arises Calm (Passaddhi)

5.        In dependence upon Calm, arise Bliss (Sukha): a state of intense happiness, all our emotional energies are integrated, No craving, no fear, no anxiety, no guilt, no remorse.

6.       In dependence upon Bliss, arises Concentration (Samadhi): completely happy and concentrated.

7.        In dependence upon Concentration, arises Knowledge and Vision (Yathabhutajnanadarsna): seeing things as they really are. Begin to see reality. Transition of meditation to wisdom. Conditioned to unconditioned, seeing a ghost and a changed man

8        In dependence upon Knowledge and Vision, arises Withdrawal (nirveda, Pali Nibbida): sometimes translated as disgust, but it is too strong, Like seeing a mirage in a desert, like playing all the games but knowing they are simply games, child and adult. 

10.        In dependence on Withdrawal, arises Dispassion (vairaga, Pali viraga): fixed state of actually being detached. Anything may happen to us, but we cannot really be disturbed, like Buddha while attached by Mara.

11.        In dependence upon Dispassion, arises Freedom (Vimukti or Pali Vimutti): Ceto vimukti and prajna vimukti, this is the goal of Buddhism. The taste of Freedom (vimukti-rasa)

12.       In dependence upon Freedom, arises Knowledge of the Destruction of the Asravas (asravaksayajnana, Pali, asavakkhayanana), one is not only free, but one knows that one is free.

These twelve stages, from ‘suffering’ right up to ‘knowledge of destruction of the asravas’, constitute the Spiritual Path. They also constitute the whole process of what we call the Higher Evolution. We can see very easily from this formulation how the whole spiritual life is a natural process of growth. Each succeeding stage of the path is the product of the overflow – the product of the very excess, of the very prodigality of the preceding stage. As soon as one stage reaches its fullness, it inevitable passesstage of the spiritual path, we shall attain Buddhahood.