The Great Calm Observation, Volume 1, Part 3, Page 4

3. In Revealing the Right Inspiration of the Mind, there are three parts:

A. First, the Four Truths
B. Next, the Four Vows
C. Finally, the Six Identities

A. The Names and Aspects of the Four Truths appear in the Noble Practice chapter of The Great Nirvana Scripture. They are:

1. The Four Truths of Birth & Extinction
2. The Four Truths Without Birth or Extinction
3. The Limitless Four Truths
4. The Innate Four Truths

1. The Four Truths of Birth & Extinction

• Suffering and Origination are the cause and effect of this world
• The Path and Extinction are the cause and effect beyond this world

• Suffering is based upon the three aspects of transience¹.
• Origination is based upon the four currents of the mind²
• The Path is based upon therapy and healing, and the elimination of suffering and origination.
• Extinction is based upon extinguishing that which exists, and returning to that which does not exist.

Whether of this world or not, all of these are the different transformations that clarify the Four Truths of Birth & Extinction.

2. The Four Truths Without Birth or Extinction

• There is Suffering that is not compulsory. With all things everywhere being empty³, existence and emptiness are both able to produce emptiness. "With there being form, so there is emptiness. Feelings, thoughts, acts of will, and consciousness are also like this⁴."  Therefore, there is the aspect of suffering that is not compulsory.
• There is Origination that is without blending. With cause and effect both being empty, is there a cause of emptiness that is blended with an effect of emptiness? In the course of all the greed, anger, and stupidity, it is also like this.
• There is The Path that is without duality, without there being a healer as opposed to one that is healed. With there not even being one emptiness, how could there be two?
• Fundamentally, spiritual reality does not actually exist, and so it follows that it is without Extinction.

With there being neither existence nor extinction, we speak of the ‘Four Truths Without Birth’.

3. The Limitless Four Truths

• Upon discriminating it, Suffering has limitless aspects. There are countless types of suffering in a single spiritual realm, much less the ten realms⁵. The wisdom and the eyes of those of the Two Vehicles are unable to know or see this but Bodhisattvas are able to clearly understand it. There are various kinds of hell that can be distinguished - piercing, flaying, severing, and cutting hells, burning, boiling, slicing, and mincing hells. There are many numbers more that are impossible to count or name in hell, much less speaking of the other realms. There are various kinds of physical forms, and various kinds of feelings, thoughts, acts of will, and consciousness⁶ - One would rather count the particles of dust and sand or the drops of water in the ocean. Therefore it is beyond the knowledge and vision of those of the Two Vehicles, and yet the wisdom and eyes of Bodhisattvas are able to penetrate and reach it.
• And Origination has limitless aspects. There are various kinds of mind with greedy desire, anger, and stupidity. There are various kinds of mouths and bodies, originating various numbers of karmas⁷. The bent body has a crooked shadow and the loud voice has a disagreeable echo. Bodhisattvas illuminate all of these without mistake.
• And The Path has limitless aspects. There is the analysis or embodiment of spirituality, and there are the ways and means that are skillful or clumsy, complicated or simple, long-range or short-range. There is that which provisional and that which is real. Bodhisattvas clearly illuminate all of these without mistake.
• And Extinction has limitless aspects. There are the ways and means that are able to extinguish false views of truth and the afflictions of cultivation⁸. Each of these have a main point and consequential aspects. Bodhisattvas clearly see all of these without discrepancy. And there are the ways and means of emptiness, with their various numbers of main points and consequential aspects that are without number. Although they are without number, various numbers are distinguished without mistake and without disorder. And similarly there are ways and means that are able to analyze, embody and so extinguish the four conditions of mortality, the dusts and sands, and ignorance⁹. Although there are all these various kinds and various numbers, this and that are not mixed up. And the Three Siddhanta¹⁰ are distinguished so that there are the various numbers of them. The Siddhanta of the Highest Significance, it follows, is without various numbers. Although it is without various numbers, from the many discourses upon it, there are various numbers of names for it. This is called the limitless Four Truths.

4. The Innate Four Truths¹¹

Everywhere there is the true spiritual aspect of reality that is inconceivable. Only the Truth of the Highest Significance is without various numbers. When one does not go back to various numbers of the Three Siddhanta and all of the other things, this meaning is possible to recognize and it not necessary to narrate any further.

When the Four Truths are matched up vertically with the Four Lands¹²:

1. Where there exists increasing and decreasing, the Land Where All Equally Reside, there are all four kinds of Four Truths.
2. In the Land of Ways and Means there are the last three.
3. In the Land of Real Reward there are the last two.
4. In the Land of Serene Light there is only the last one.

When the Four Truths are matched up horizontally with the Four Lands:

1. The Land Where All Equally Reside is birth and extinction.
2. The Land of Ways and Means is without birth and extinction.
3. The Land of the Real Reward is without limit.
4. The Land of Serene Light is innate.

Next Page         Outline          Home Page

1. The three aspects of transience: Birth, aging, & death

2. The four currents of the mind: (S. Asravas) Views, desires, existence, & ignorance

3. Empty: Void of independent self-existence. See The Three Truths

4. Form, feelings, thoughts, acts of will, & consciousness: The Five Aggregates of Self (S. Skandhas), the elements whose continuity constitute the illusion of a self existence. In reality, they are empty of self

5. The Spiritual Realm: The conditions of life from Hell to Enlightenment

6. Form, feelings, thoughts, acts of will, & consciousness: The five aggregates of self (S. Skandhas), the elements whose continuity perpetuates the notion of an independently existing self

7. Karmas: Actions of the body, mouth, & thinking mind that create one’s spiritual destiny

8. False Views of Truth and the afflictions of cultivation: A reference to Improper Views and Motives, The Klesas or Instigators of Emotional Distress. The Practice of Dharma is designed to eliminate these.

9. The three kinds of delusion that obstruct enlightenment.
A. The four conditions of mortality: attachment to views, and the realms of desire, form and formlessness
B. The dusts and sands: The bewildering complexity of details and minutiae that may be known and that tend to delude, as many as the sands of the River Ganges.
C. Ignorance: This refers to fundamental ignorance, non-understanding of the middle way.

10. The Three Siddhanta: The first three of The Four Siddhanta (methods of instruction) - #1 The Worldly #2 The Personal # The Therapeutic

11. Innate: Uncreated, spontaneous, naturally occurring

12. The Four Lands: The four spiritual worlds;
A. The Land Where All Equally Reside – The world where all live side by side, all ten of the spiritual realms; it has two divisions - the 'impure' (The Saha World) and the 'pure'
B. The Land of Ways & Means – The temporary world where the residents (of the Three Vehicles) have eliminated false views and motives through cultivation but still need to be reborn into the world as Bodhisattvas in order for these benefits to be lasting, as they have only impacted a minute part of the spiritual realm.
C. The Land of the Real Reward – The world where the Bodhisattvas live, those who have created real, lasting benefits for the world that are beyond their own self-benefit.
D. The Land of the Serene Light – The world where the Buddhas live, the realm of the Spiritual Body or Spiritual Life (S. Dharmakaya), the land of eternal bliss. In reality all the others are included in this land but they do fully realize it because of ignorance.

Copyright © Peter Johnson 2001 - All rights reserved

Copyright Policy - Contact the Author at pj@tientai.net

  Since July 9, 2001

FastCounter by bCentral