Recent Essays/Post-37

The Four Noble Truths and Right Eightfold Path in the Ultimate Continuum

[[ |300px|thumb| ]] The Ultimate Continuum, the main classic on the theory of buddha-nature in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, is considered to be a commentary on the last turning of the wheel of dharma. According to the Indo-Tibetan Mahāyāna tradition, the teachings of the Buddha are classified into three successive turnings or pronouncements (བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་). Based primarily on the content and purport and only secondarily on the time of the sermons, the three wheels are the first wheel of pronouncements on the four noble truths (བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་དང་པོ་བདེན་པ་བཞིའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་), the middle wheel of pronouncements on absence of characteristics (བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་བར་པ་མཚན་ཉིད་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་), and the last wheel of pronouncements on proper differentiation (བཀའ་འཁོར་ཐ་མ་ལེགས་པར་རྣམ་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་).

The first wheel or set of sermons is said to have been delivered to a general audience—including followers of both Mahāyāna and Śrāvaka vehicles—and to have contained topics commonly accepted by most followers of the Buddha. It was kicked off at Deer Park in Varanasi, when the Buddha gave the sermon on the four noble truths to the five ascetics. The second wheel or set of teachings is said to have been delivered on Vulture Peak and other places mainly on the topic of emptiness or absence of characteristics or self-existence about a year after the Buddha gave his first sermon. The teachings mainly include what is known as the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, which deal with the cultivation of the wisdom that discerns reality or the way things are. The final wheel is composed of teachings delivered at places such as Vaiśālī and Kushinagara on the topic of the ultimate and provisional truths and on how to distinguish different realities. Sūtras on buddha-nature generally fall into the category of this final wheel.

For this reason, the Ultimate Continuum is considered a commentarial treatise which synthesizes and encapsulates the purport of the sūtras of the third wheel and highlights the differentiation of different realities. Yet, the Ultimate Continuum also contains verses which capture the gist of the teachings belonging to the first and second wheels. As the world observes the day of the Buddha’s first sermon on the four noble truths, it is worth noting that Verse IV.52 of the Ultimate Continuum contains one of the most succinct explanations of the four noble truths using the medical analogy.

vyādhir jñeyo vyādhihetuḥ praheyaḥ svāsthyaṃ prāpyaṃ bheṣajaṃ sevyam evam/
duḥkhaṃ hetus tannirodho ’tha mārgo jñeyaṃ heyaḥ sparśitavyo niṣevyaḥ//

ནད་ནི་ཤེས་བྱ་ནད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་ནི་སྤང་བྱ་ལ། །
བདེ་གནས་ཐོབ་བྱ་སྨན་ནི་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ་བ་ལྟར། །
སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་དང་དེ་འགོག་པ་དང་དེ་བཞིན་ལམ། །
ཤེས་བྱ་སྤང་བྱ་རེག་པར་བྱ་ཞིང་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ། །

Just as a disease is to be known, the cause of the disease is to be relinquished,
The state of well-being is to be attained, and medicine is to be relied upon,
Suffering, [its] cause, its cessation, and likewise the path, respectively,
Are to be known, to be relinquished, to be reached, and to be relied upon.

Similarly, Verse IV.46 talks about how the shower of the right eightfold path is released from the vast cloud of the Buddha’s compassion.

śītaṃ svādu prasannaṃ mṛdu laghu ca payas tat payodād vimuktaṃ/
kṣārādisthānayogād atibahurasatām eti yadvat pṛthivyām//
āryāṣṭāṅgāmbuvarṣaṃ suvipulakaruṇāmeghagarbhād vimuktaṃ/
santānasthānabhedād bahuvidharasatām eti tadvat prajāsu//

ཇི་ལྟར་བསིལ་དང་ཞིམ་དང་འཇམ་པ་དང་། །ཡང་བའི་ཆུ་ནི་སྤྲིན་དེ་ལས་ཐོན་པ། །
ས་ལ་བ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་གནས་འབྲེལ་བས། །ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོའི་རོར་ནི་འགྱུར་བ་བཞིན། །
དེ་བཞིན་འཕགས་པའི་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ཆུའི་ཆར། །རབ་ཡངས་བརྩེ་སྤྲིན་སྙིང་པོ་ལས་ཐོན་པ། །
འགྲོ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གནས་ཀྱི་དབྱེ་བ་ལས། །རྣམ་པ་མང་པོའི་རོ་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར། །

Cool, sweet, clear, soft, and light is the rain that is released from clouds,
[But] it assumes a great many tastes due to coming in contact with places on earth that are full of salt and so on.
Likewise, the rainwater of the eightfold [path of the] noble ones that is released from being contained in the vast cloud of compassion
Assumes many kinds of tastes due to the differences in the places that are the mind streams of beings.

(English translations of the verses from When the Clouds Part)

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