https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_F_cxM9d5Q&t=3043s
The quotation you’re reflecting on draws heavily from the teaching of the Diamond Sutra, especially its doctrine of non-self and emptiness (śūnyatā). Let’s unpack the key idea step by step.
1. “Humans are made of non-human elements”
In the Diamond Sutra, the Buddha repeatedly undermines fixed identities. A “self” is shown to be a conceptual designation placed on constantly changing aggregates—body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.
To say “humans are made of non-human elements” means:
Your body is composed of earth, water, air, heat—none of which are “human.”
Your mind is shaped by language, culture, ancestors, experiences—none of which are individually “you.”
There is no separate, independent essence called “human.”
This is the insight of interdependence: everything “is” only because of everything else.
2. “The Buddha is made of non-Buddha elements”
The same logic applies to the Buddha. The historical Gautama Buddha was not a metaphysical exception to causality. He was also composed of parents, food, culture, teachers, air, and time.
In Mahāyāna thought, even “Buddha” is a provisional label. If you look deeply, you don’t find a permanent Buddha-essence. You find interbeing.
This undercuts the idea of the Buddha as a supernatural being separate from the world.
3. So why is bowing not worship?
In many religious traditions, bowing implies:
Submission to a higher power
Petitioning a deity
Acknowledging divine authority
But in this context, bowing is something different.
If:
The Buddha is not an independent, supernatural entity, and
You are not a separate, independent self,
then bowing is not a self worshiping an other.
Instead, it becomes:
A. A practice of non-separation
When you bow, you are acknowledging the awakened nature that is not separate from you.
B. A meditation on emptiness
The act becomes contemplative:
Who is bowing?
To whom?
What is being honored?
The categories dissolve.
C. An embodied insight
Bowing physically enacts humility—not humiliation, but the release of ego-structure. It is a somatic way of practicing non-self.
4. Bowing as meditation
Meditation, in the Buddhist sense, is sustained awareness of reality as it is. If bowing is done mindfully:
You are aware of body movement.
You are aware of intention.
You contemplate interdependence.
- You release the illusion of separateness.
Thus the act becomes a vehicle of insight, not devotion in the theistic sense.
5. The paradox the Diamond Sutra likes
The sutra often says things like:
“The Buddha is not the Buddha; therefore he is called the Buddha.”
This linguistic strategy prevents reification. The name remains, but the fixation dissolves.
So when you bow:
You bow to the form.
You simultaneously know the form is empty.
That knowing is meditation.
If you’d like, we could also examine this through a linguistic lens—how the sutra uses paradox and negation structurally to destabilize ontology.
