The Prose & Verse of The Lotus Sutra

Chapter 2
Ways & Means

 Page 4

 

Now we clarify provision and reality. First we make the tetralemma.

  1. All teachings are provisional
  2. All teachings are real.
  3. All teachings are both provisional and real.
  4. All teachings are neither provisional nor real.
  1. All teachings are provisional:
    Like the words of the Sutra say:
    “These are the aspects, appearance as-it-is, nature as-it-is, embodiment as-it-is, power as-it-is, … and consistency from beginning to end as-it-is.”
    With all of them existing as words, they are all provisional.
  2. All teachings are real:
    Like the words of the Sutra say:
    “The One That Has Come skillfully teaches of all things spiritual and pleases all minds.”
    By entering into spirituality all minds are pleased. All things spiritual have always come from the source that is the aspect of serene extinction.
    And the words of the Sutra say:
    “The teaching of The One That Has Come reaches those at all stages of wisdom.”
    And it says:
    “All of them are real and none are false.”
    And then there is the tetralemma of The Four Unexplainables1 that appears in The Great Nirvana Sutra.
  3. All teachings are both provisional and real:
    The words of the Sutra say:
    “These are the aspects, ...”
    And it speaks of:
    “The true spiritual aspect of reality as-it-is.”
    These two clarify that everything is both provisional and real. For example the observation of impurity is both a reality and a falsehood.
  4. All teachings are neither provisional nor real:
    Like the words of the Sutra say:
    “Not the same as anything as anything and not different from anything.”
    And it says:
    And his practice is not a higher, a middle or a lower one,2
    It is neither conditioned or unconditioned,
    It is neither real nor false.”
    Being neither real nor false, it has the aspect of reality as-it-is.
  1. How does one refute the idea that all teachings are provisional? Even if there were a hundred thousand kinds of teachers, with each of them making a hundred thousand different kinds of teachings, there would be no teaching that was not provisional. Even the teachings of The One That Has Come are provisional, much less those of human teachers. Would one rather there was a teaching that was without provisionality? As described before, they are all completely provisional.
  2. How does one refute the idea that all teachings are real? There is only one phenomenal reality - any other one or second one would not be genuine. There is only one ultimate path - would one rather there were a host of ultimate paths? After refuting all of the teachers and entering into reality, would one rather that they all returned to hide in the refuge of their nests and caves?3
  3. How does one refute the idea that all teachings are both provisional and real? With all things being completely provisional and completely real, how would one attain any single way that is beyond the different understandings of others? With everything being both provisional and real in each teaching, there is no one teaching that is just provisional or just real.
  4. How does one refute the idea that all teachings are neither provisional nor real? What endless number of teachings must one be compelled to produce and establish to disprove it?

From just listing the four positions like this, one can faintly observe that there is such a profound vision that is so broad, deep and clear. Why would one rather discourse on it with a bias towards any one of these four positions?

 

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 Footnotes:

1. The tetralemma of The Four Unexplainables1 in The Great Nirvana Sutra:
a. The birth of that which is born
b. The birth of that which is not born
c. The non-birth of that which is born
d. The non-birth of that which is not born

2. And his practice is not a higher, a middle or a lower one: This verse is from the 14th chapter on The Practice of Peace & Contentment. The Buddha's practice transcends these:
a. The Higher Practice - The Bodhisattva practice
b. The Middle Practice - The practice of the spiritually self-awakened (Pratyekabuddha)
c. The Lower Practice - The practice of the spiritual disciple (Sravaka)

3. After refuting all of the teachers and entering into reality, would one rather that they all returned to hide in the refuge of their nests and caves?: All spiritual teachers are teaching about the same reality, however they each have their different vantage points from which they see it. Must they only be seen as clinging to their different points of view (the refuge of their nests and caves). Can one not see that there is a common reality in their different points of view?

 

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