lotusinthemud

Connect to the Buddha inside you

 

You lack nothing of the wisdom and perfection of the Buddha, right at this moment.

~ Elihu Genmyo Smith, “No Need to Do Zazen, Therefore Must Do Zazen”

Return to your True Nature

 

Real Zen is the practice of coming back to the actual right-now-in-this-moment self, coming back to the naturalness, the intimacy and simplicity of our true nature.

~ Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, “An Introduction to Zen”

Interbeing with Thich Nhat Hanh: An Interview - February 1995

Photograph by Simon Chaput

Thich Nhat Hanh and Helen Tworkov

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was born in central Vietnam in October 1926 and became a monk at the age of sixteen. During the Vietnam War, he left his monastery and became actively engaged in helping victims of the war and publicly advocating peace. In 1966, he toured the United States at the invitation of the Fellowship of Reconciliation “to describe the aspirations and the agony of the voiceless masses of the Vietnamese people.” As a result, he was threatened with arrest in Vietnam and unable to return. He served as the chairman of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation during the war and in 1967 was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Over the years, Thich Nhat Hanh has made efforts to help Vietnamese children affected by the war and to ensure the safety of boat people. For the past several years he has been leading mindfulness retreats for American Vietnam War veterans, psychotherapists, environmentalists, social-change activists, and many others.

He lives in exile now in Plum Village, a retreat center in southern France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees. He is the author of over sixty books, including Call Me by My True Names, Being Peace, and Old Path, White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (Parallax Press). His forthcoming book, Living Buddha, Living Christ, will be published by Riverhead Books in September. This interview was conducted by Helen Tworkov in Plum Village in February 1995.

Photograph by Simon Chaput

Tricycle: Hundreds of thousands of people are in touch with Buddhism only through you. What is important for them to know?

Thich Nhat Hanh: [Laughing] To know about Buddhism—or to know about themselves? It is important that we understand that Buddhism is a way of life. People may be interested in learning about Buddhism because they have had some difficulties with their own religion. But for me, Buddhism is a very old, broad tradition. It is part of the heritage of humankind, and if you don’t know what it is, you don’t profit from its wisdom.

Tricycle: Can everyone benefit?

Thich Nhat Hanh: Buddhism is more of a way of life than a religion. It is like a fruit. You may like a number of fruits, like bananas, oranges, mandarins, and so on. You are committed to eating these fruits. But then someone tells you that there is a fruit called mango and it would be wonderful for you to try that fruit. It will be a pity if you don’t know what a mango is. But eating a mango does not require you to abandon your habit of eating oranges. Why not try it? You may like it a lot. Buddhism is a kind of mango, you see—a way of life, an experience that is worth trying. It is open for everyone. You can continue to be a Jew or a Catholic while enjoying Buddhism. I think that’s a wonderful thing.

Zen Is ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya:

Zen is
“a special transmission outside the scriptures,
not founded upon words and letters.
pointing directly to the heart,
seeing into one’s own true nature,
attaining buddhahood.”

What does this mean? What does it not mean?

Commonly this is taken to mean that Zen rejects scriptures and even writing. However, Zen practitioners do recite and study the scriptures and write vast amounts, so this is wide of the mark. In trying to understand this passage one should be more concerned with what it does say, rather than with what it seems to exclude.

The scrptures are necessarily either an outside view or a record. By outside view I mean the perspective of one who views a situation from a distance. Thus the scriptures can advocate and define compassion, but they cannot, by their nature, actually convey the experience of compassion, except, perhaps, sometimes via stories. Yet an encounter with another human being might do this.

Thus, the notion of “a special transmission outside the scriptures” refers to that extra quality that arises through direct encounter with a living being. Of course, there are some readers who have such developed empathic sensitivity that even in reading they can enter into an intimate connection with the author, so that we do have examples in the history of Buddhism of important transmissions occurring when a person ripe for sagehood read a particular passage written by a former saint long dead, but even then what is actually “transmitted” or “awakened” has the quality of a personal and unique person to person meeting. It is quite different from mere intellectual study and understanding.

The words and letters that appear do so in response to such experience. The encounter is the root and the words and letters are the branches and leafs. It is a question of prioritisation. We may say exactly the same in respect of other formalities. Zen is a special transmission outside the rituals and forms, not founded on procedures and conventions. The rituals, formalities, procedures and conventions grow up afterwards. They are a means of expression of the Dharma, but if the essence is not established first, then they are lacking in the vital content. However, when the vital element is present, then a ritual can itself become an encounter.

Thus, at a certain stage, one may need to abandon “sundry practices” so that pure faith may have space in which to appear. One then becomes “a person of no rank” who is completely without personal resource. However, once the peaceful mind of faith is established, all practices naturally can become means of expression of the true Dharma, and the “peaceful mind” becomes a generator of dynamic engagement. When things happen in this correct order, the stream is crossed and perspective is reversed.

To put this another way, what counts is not so much the content of a communication as its effect. The same words on different occasions may have different effect and dissimilar words on different occasions may lead to similar effects. The effect is that the heart is touched. Commonly the heart is locked away in a dark cave, hidden by a labyrinth of tortuous tunnels, traps and dead ends. Yet in a moment of intimate contact, suddenly all is clear and open. Yet to grasp this intellectually does not in itself mean that it actually happens.

The awakened person is natural. He or she is simply what they are. Their true nature is not an embarrassment, even though evidently it is ever so human. To meet such a person is disarming. The dark cave is no longer necessary. Dharma encounter is spacious. In such moments buddhahood is attained again and again.

If, with Dogen, we say that Buddha mind is mirror-like, we can understand that in such moments one responds to another just as reflections appear in the mirror. The mirror appropriates nothing, distorts nothing. In Buddhist language, the image cannot be defiled. This is spontaneity that opens the heart.

Paradoxically, the heart then generates forms of expression and Zen then issues as words and letters, rituals and styles, and thus brings the scriptures to life. It is, however, this living enactment that matters beyond theoretical understanding.

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Koan and Anjin ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya:

BRINGING TWO IDEAS TOGETHER

Koans are usually associated with Zen and the term Anjin is usually associated with Pureland so nobody ever writes about a relationship between them. However, if we pan back and look at the general configuration of Buddhism as a whole, it is a spiritual path upon which one or several awakenings occur as distinct life changing pivot points along the way and anjin is one of those, together with the state it gives rise to, and koans are stories about what leads to a person - usually a famous sage - arriving at such a point, together with a focus upon the spiritual problem or obstacle exemplified in that person's life.

SETTING OUT ON THE BUDDHIST WAY

A person starts out on he spiritual path - “goes forth from his castle” - finds the Buddhadharma and takes refuge. This is the first step in becoming a Buddhist and we often put a ritual around it to give it public recognition. If a person is serious they enter into some kind of Buddhist training - they acquire a “practice”. This may be meditation, chanting mantras, prostrations, various rituals, nembutsu or simply living in the presence of a teacher (called satsang). In this way a person learns about Buddhist theory, stories and lore and grows through a training of character. He makes progress through many of what our ancestors used to call improving experiences.

AWAKENING

This might be the whole of a person’s Buddhist experience in one lifetime. However it is also possible that along the way some awakening may occur. We can call this by many names. It is a paravritti - a turning around - or we could say a change of heart. In a way it is a second conversion, taking refuge having been the first, or, in more Buddhist language, we might say a second going forth. According to tradition it might be called satori or kensho, or, in the Pureland trandition, shinjin, or the attainment of anjin. Each of these names and descriptions describes a slightly different nuance or aspect of what we are talking about.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS

Now Buddhism is full of stories of the spiritual ancestors, and when we read these stories we see that nearly all of them had such a turning point and their life story pivots around it. This can easily lead us to a greedy or ambitious mind - “I want one of those experiences for myself”. This, of course, then sets up a paradox. We realise intellectually that our craving for experience actually gets in the way of any such transition actually occurring in our own case, because satori comes unbidden and anjin is when one is seized, not when one seizes.

SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE

This battle between head and heart can become a focus of one’s spiritual struggle. It may be formulated differently in different cases and against different traditional backgrounds. In Zen they talk about having a dilemma that is like being a fish with an iron ball stuck in its mouth - it can neither swallow it nor spit it out. In Pureland, it is the dilemma of the person who wants to have faith but cannot find it and, in large degree, cannot find it because the wanting to possess it obstructs the necessary letting go.

A METHOD

One of the ways that the ancients found to help people stuck in this spiritual dis-ease was to give them a story to study so that they came to understand the matter more fully. It is said that this method originated in China, but although it was no doubt developed in China it surely has its root back in India. This is because it has always been a practice to give the adept a Buddhist name and these names were often the names of former heroes of the tradition. If you were named Shariputra, you would certainly then want to know all about the original Shariputra and his life and spiritual path, how did he come to go forth, what did he discover, how did it change him, what became of him, what did he teach and so on. So the study of the stories of past masters must go back to early times. This is not to mention the fact that we all study the life of Buddha himself which is a classically archetypal example of the spiritual search, transformation and ministry.

THE CASE OF SHAKYAMUNI

We see that Buddha pursued his koan to the utmost and only “solved” it by being totally defeated by it. When he had tried every yogic penitential practice to its limit, he realised that everything he had done had been vain, ignoble and useless. This was humbling. He then had a night of contemplation in which he saw that he was still just as afflicted by the “forces of Mara” - lust, envy, spite, greed, hate, delusion - as ever, but realised there was a different way of seeing all this, a way that turned them into celestial flowers. This was his satori. This was his awakening of faith. It was a great change of heart which manifested in his subsequent life. No longer did he torture himself. No longer did he seek a solution for himself. Now he went forth for the sake, not of himself, but for all sentient beings. He had been turned around.

ANJIN

Anjin literally means “peaceful mind” and in practice means “settled faith”. Shakyamuni’s faith was so settled he did not have to think about it, but it bore him through all kinds of hardships and obstacles over the next fifty years. At first he did not know what to do, but then a god appeared and told him that “There would be some who would understand” and so his teaching mission began. When we are seekers, none of us knows what our true mission is. We are too wrapped up in our own salvation, which nowadays commonly takes the form of some kind of self-perfection project. We want to realise our ego-ideal. If we think about enlightenment, we see it in these terms, as something that will make our ego-ideal even more shiny. We do not really understand.

THE SHAKYAMUNI KOAN

Koans developed from the stories used in China into a much more succinct form in the less literate society of Japan. The whole thing got distilled into a line or two that sought to hit the nub of the spiritual issue. If we were to turn the story of Shakyamuni into such a one-liner we might say: “Show me your celestial flower: where is it now?” or “When you have abandoned everything, what have you still got?” or “As Mother Earth is your witness, what is she saying?”

KOAN IN PURELAND

One can work with such questions, again and again confronting one’s own smugness of intellect or frustration with one’s nature. Can I genuinely produce a celestial flower? Am I really ever willing to abandon everything? Dare I face Mother Earth? In all of these self-serchings one is questioning one’s faith and its seeming lack. Thus koans are all about anjin and I think that they can have just as important a role in Pureland as in the Zen tradition.

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Dharmavidya's latest book 'Dark Side of the Mirror' - an update

Dharmavidya's latest book on Dogen's Genjo Koan, 'Dark Side of the Mirror' is available to buy via the ITZI site

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Dharmavidya's latest book

My copy has arrived today:

Silent Illumination ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya writes:

There is a form of Zen or Chan meditation that is called silent illumination. It has been said that illumination simply means awareness and that this method is, therefore, that of sitting still in complete awareness, simply allowing life to pass by.

I have a different idea of silent illumination. Illumination means light. Silent illumination refers to what lights us up. It does so quietly and this is why it is called silent. As imagery, one might think of being lit by the light of the moon on a dark night. One stands in silent wonder and the silver radiance covers the world.

What really lights us up is something mysterious, something that in Buddhism is called other power. It is called other power because it has nothing to do with self.

The main thrust of Buddhist teaching is that it takes us away from self and into real life. In my last piece, The Hypnotic Self, I tried to explain what is meant by self by showing how it is that when thoughts about self-worth interpose themselves one loses contact with reality and so does not learn the lessons that reality has to teach us.

The idea that illumination means awareness has two problems. The first is that it begs the question, awareness of what? Buddha clearly taught that awareness of some things is wholesome and awareness of some other things is unwholesome. Meditation can be defined as holding the mind upon a wholesome object. Usually advocates of silent illumination advise that one let the mind be aware of whatever shows up, but not attach to any of it. This, however, does not seem to have been what Shakyamuni did nor taught. These are technical problems of Buddhist method.

The second, and much bigger problem, is that awareness is a characteristic of the meditator and can even be reduced to being a skill to be learnt. This is overly suggestive of self-power. Buddhism is not a matter of lighting ourselves up, but of being lit up by Dharma that is beyond self. It is our own little light that obscures the great light, and thinking that we ourselves can be such a great light is a kind of hubris that blinds us. A candle flame held close to the eye will prevent one seeing the sun or the moon, even though the latter are a thousand times greater.

One is silently illuminated when one takes life neat. This means letting the self become dark. Turn off your own light. Let in the bigger light.

This is like falling in love. When one falls in love, something - the beloved - something that is outside of oneself - impacts upon one forcefully. One is then lit up. One becomes kinder, more energetic, more understanding. One feels to be walking on air. It is a state of joy. One benificence overflows, but it is not a product of training oneself nor of artificially generating the goodwill - it is like flowers falling from heaven.

Of course, falling in love with a fallible mortal is bound to lead to some disappointment and disillusion after a while, but the experience illustrates a great principle. In falling in love one is taken out of oneself. It is this principle of being taken out of oneself that Buddhism extends to a universal and absolute path of salvation. It is salvation from ourselves. Then, all lit up, one becomes a shiny person, a myokonin.

I have said that the self becomes dark. I could just as well have said that it becomes silent. Self tends to manifest in a lot of internal chatter. This self-talk drowns out signals from the universe in rather the way that if you wear your walkman into the forest you will not hear much bird song. When self falls silent one will be illuminated.

This does not require a particular sitting posture. It is not a physical yoga. It is aided by modesty, practicality and a sense of humour, but ultimately it is a matter of what the Taoists call wei wu wie - doing what one does while not doing anything pretentious with it.

Self is conceit. It is pretentiousness and pretending leads us into delusion. However flattering our delusions may be, they are as nothing to the illumination that is always silently waiting for us to quieten down enough to receive it.

One of the simplest ways to approach this is to call the name of the Buddha. Names are powerful and naming the embodiment of other power is a fine way to cut through to real life.

Thus, we learn to say the name when anything happens. Spill the milk - call the Buddha! This learned reflex allows the situation to simply be what it is. No blame. No recrimination. Only great acceptance. Only silent illumination.

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The Famous Dialectic of Chan ~ Dharmavidya

The most famous classic of Chan Buddhism (Chinese Zen) is the Platform Sutra 六祖壇經. The sutra presents the teachings of Huineng 慧能 (638-713) [However, the text went through many revisions and the ten chapter edition that is currently taken as authoritative actually dates from 1291]. The most read section is the first chapter which records the competition for succession to Hongren 弘忍, the fifth patriarch. There were two contenders, Huineng and Shenxiu 神秀. The competition was conducted by the writing of a verse. The verse should show the author's understanding of the fundamental meaning of Chan.

The verse of Shenxiu is as follows

The body is the bodhi tree,
The mind like a mirror bright.

Ceaselessly, diligently, wipe the mirror
Let no dust alight!

Huineng then wrote a rejoinder to this verse

Fundamentally bodhi has no tree,
The mirror has no stand.
Originally there is not a single thing
Upon which dust could land.

These two verses are of enormous importance in understanding the deep meaning of Buddhism. On the one hand, there is the work of cleaning the mind. On the other hand, there is the realisation that mind itself cannot be contaminated. All delusion is adventitious and ephemeral. To not work at the practice is to sink further into delusion, yet to work too hard at the practice is to take delusion too seriously. What is one to do?

All Buddhist practices seek to cut through this seeming contradiction in one way or another. We could say that if Shenxiu's verse is the thesis, Huineng's is the antithesis; and the task is to find the synthesis.

Whether we see a Bodhi Tree
Or a mirror bright
When we welcome everything
Dust will shine with light.

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The Jewel Mirror Samadhi ~ Dharmavidya

Translation & commentary ~ D. Brazier

The following is a translation and commentary upon a famous Chinese Buddhist text. I am not a language scholar, so my translation is not perfect and, in any case, such texts are open to a variety of interpretations. However, the purpose here is to examine the text both from the point of view of Dharma practice and from that of psychotherapy and counselling.

There is, therefore, a commentary upon each line that has two parts. “Dharma Commentary” contains notes relevant to the meaning of the text and its significance in Buddhism. “Therapy Commentary” takes the line in question as a maxim for psychotherapy and suggests its application.

The text is about the “mirror mind” and is about the relationship between master and disciple or, equally, therapist and client. Here we are teasing out the nature of this relationship at different levels. For simplicity, the therapist is referred to as “she” and the client as “he”, but the principles apply the same whatever the gender of client and therapist may be.

There are also, for reference, three appendices at the end relating to Dong Shan's principle of the “Five Ranks” or “Five Positions”.

Author:
Master Dong Shan Liang Jie 洞山良价 (Tozan Ryokai, 807-869) and his leading disciple Caoshan Benji 曹山本寂 (840-901) are regarded as the founding figures of the Caodong School in China which became Soto in Japan. Master Dong Shan is especially noted for this text and for his associated doctrine of Five Ranks (五位). It seems likely that the present text was one of the inspirations for Dogen Zenji's seminal text Genjo Koan upon which I have also done some work for presentation in another publication.

The Jewel Mirror Samadhi Song

Thus, by Buddhas and ancestors, the Dharma is secretly transmitted.
Now that you have it, guard well.
Snow upon a silver plate, a white egret hiding in moonlight,
Similarity is not identity. Similars, when together, can be distinguished.
You'll not see it in what people say, you'll see it in their spontaneous responses and reactions.
Acting and achieving in the old familiar way you miss the slip – look again, wait, look to the longer context.
Too far away and too close are both wrong, as in relation to a great fire.
Fancy words that are merely rupa are themselves klesha.
True radiance comes in darkest night; the dawn brings no dew.
This rule benefits beings; use it to uproot all kinds of dukkha.
Although uncontrived, it is not wordless.
Thus facing the jewel mirror, rupa images regard one another.
You are not it, but it is definitely you.
It's like a baby, complete in five ways
Neither going nor coming, neither arising nor staying.
Ma-ma, wa-wa; speech without speech,
In the final analysis, the object is not attained because the speech is not yet right.
In the double li hexagram, the one who stands upright and the one who bows depend upon one another
You make your threefold division, but to get the result you rework it into five.
Like the chih grass taste, like the vajra.
In their encounter, disciple and master embrace and display the central mystery.
To know the ancient way is to know the way ahead; take it to heart and it will take you along.
If reverent, then happy. Nothing can go wrong.
The truth that Heaven bestows is nonetheless mysterious; not even to be classed with delusion and enlightenment.
All in due season, with the ripening of causes and conditions, its glory quietly emerges.
Fine, it penetrates hell; great, no cell can hold it.
A tiny mistake and you lose the tune
Now we have sudden and gradual and sectarian meanings take their stands
The sects separate, setting up rules and standards
Yet, if one plumb them to the very depths, it will be found that true nature flows quite naturally.
Outwardly calm yet agitated within, one is like a tethered colt or a trapped mouse.
From pity, as dana paramita, the former sages performed the Dharma
by such paradoxical means as black silk performing pure whiteness.
When muddled thought is extinguished, the willing heart comes into its own [i.e. is liberated].
To walk hand in hand with those of old, one must inquire of the ancient ways.
Along the Buddha Way: ten kalpas contemplating the bodhi tree.
Thus the tiger's tattered ears; thus the horse's old grey leg.
Therefore, for the downcast, a jewelled footrest, a noble chariot.
Therefore, astonishingly, there are dutiful cats and pure cattle.
Emperor Yi could hit a target at a hundred yards by dint of skill and strength.
But how will you make to meet two arrows in mid-air straight on?
How make the wooden man sing, the stone damsel dance?
This cannot arrive by vijñana cravings, much less include discriminative thought.
The minister serves the king, the child respects the father.
Without service there is no loyalty, without respect, no support.
Make use of this secret practice, be the foolish being completely.
Only in each making the other successful can the master within the master be inherited.

COMMENTARY

TITLE

The Jewel Mirror Samadhi Song

寶鏡三昧歌

Commentary: The Jewel 寶 generally refers to the “mani”, or “wish fulfilling jewel”, that represents the seemingly magical effect of Dharma. The Mirror signifies the mind of one who has let self fall away. Samadhi means concentration, but has a wider implication than the English word, signifying a state transcending ordinary consciousness in which the spontaneous activity of the mind automatically reflects the Dharma.

A jewel has many facets and so reflects in many directions at the same time. Everything reflects everything, but, in particular, there is an important reflection effect between master and disciple and, similarly, also between individual and Buddha. Beyond the relationship between master and disciple is the relationship that they together have to the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The jewel mirror thus also refers to the “Three Jewels”. It is the influence of the threefold jewel coming through that actually heals. It is this deeper connection that makes the reflection between master and disciples or between therapist and client deeply meaningful. The master-disciple relationship itself reveals the jewel mirror and only exists because of the jewel mirror.

The therapist who employs a Buddhist psychology approach has a sense of the Buddha as present in the relationship and as being the jewel mirror. The truth that emerges through the therapy process is Dharma. It is the deep meaning of human heartedness and of “the depths of the soul”. We, therefore, must approach this work in a spirit of great humility. What we discover by working with a client is no small thing. It is not a fault in a psychological mechanism that needs fixing, it is something much more important. The client embodies the Dharma and the client's “problem” or “koan” that is ripening in their life is like a chink of light reflected from the jewel mirror.

Thus, it is not simply that “the relationship heals”, it is that the relationship gives access to the meaning of life exemplified in a particular instance. This is portentious. It moves us. We feel it. We are touched and moved. These “touchings” and “movings” are not always easy to put into words, but the therapist must learn to allow herself to be touched and moved and to find in that deep involuntary effect something of great worth, something to respect infinitely. In this infinite respect the Dharma is made manifest.

LINES

Line 1

Thus, by Buddhas and ancestors, the Dharma is secretly transmitted.

如是之法佛祖密付

Dharma Commentary

Secret transmission
The Dharma is passed down directly, heart to heart. The point here is that we should not think that the Dharma is something merely intellectual, nor that it is a matter that can be figured out if one is just sufficiently clever. The Dharma is more connaisance than savoir, “caught” rather than “taught”, experiential rather than didactic. The didactic elements are signposts. All over France there are signposts to Paris, but no study of the signposts, however exhaustive, will ever substitute for a visit to the city. The Dharma is found in the spontaneous, nonpossessive love that exists between a true master and a true disciple. It is a mirroring of mutual esteem, supported by shared esteem for the Dharma.

Thus
Buddhist scriptures generally begin, “Thus have I heard...” The term tatha in Sanskrit can be translated as “thus” or “such”, hence tathata as “thusness” and Tathagata as an epithet of Buddha. The whole idea of “thusness” has a particular cachet in Buddhism, referring both to the transmitted Dharma and to the idea that Dharma is simply things as they are - “thus”. It would, therefore, also be possible to translate this first line as “By Buddhas and ancestors, the Dharma of thusness is secretly transmitted.”

By Buddhas and Ancestors
The Buddhas and ancestors are eternally transmitting this Dharma. This is the religious sense of Buddhism. We are not merely talking about a theory, but a living presence. Things emerge in the Dharma relationship that are not traceable to the individuals and their personal karma. Something more is at work.

Therapy Commentary

The “Dharma of thusness” refers to a certain kind of spontaneity or naturalness. An aim of therapy is to help the client to arrive at such a state of freedom from inner conflict, such that the mind can be trusted and anxiety then can subside. In therapy a special kind of relationship space is created within which certain qualities can be transmitted. It is also a space within which a person feels able to be more spontaneous and to follow the hidden thread of their deeper thoughts and feelings. There is a heart to heart connection between therapist and client which creates a freedom, where the client feels trusted and immune to destructive criticism. In therapy, different things happen at different levels. Superficially the client may obtain reassurance and may learn some things from the therapist. This process of learning and reassurance, however, can be the medium within which a deeper meeting occurs in which there is a real opening, heart to heart, by means of which a deep healing takes place. This all happens secretly. It is not necessarily conscious to either therapist or client. It is the fact that there is no contrivance or manipulation that makes it possible.