01 Meditation Panel Preface.indd - United Nations Day of Vesak 2013

Conference
II. Vajrayā na Perspectives
Two Realities/Truths:
Buddhism approaches the understanding of the mind pragmatically and phenomenologically
and secondarily, analytically. 7 Perhaps this is because the main purpose is the elimination of suffering
(du kha), and the path to accomplish it is experiential. 8 The experiential nature is demonstrated clearly
by the doctrine of dependent origination (prat tyasamutpada). Common to Theravada, Mah yana
and Vajray na, the doctrine describes the twelve links that constitute the causal nexus by which
ignorance of reality (avdya) - the rst link - leads to old age and death - the last link. Conversely,
the same doctrine also describes how the same twelve links can lead to freedom from ignorance, old
age and death. In each case the critical fulcrum is the mind. The doctrine of dependent origination,
initially stated by akyamuni Buddha, propounds the process according to which one inexorably
and inevitably either devolves to perceive mere appearances or evolves to perceive reality as it is. 9
Much like a physician who diagnoses an illness and its causes and then proceeds to treat it,
the Buddha diagnosed: the illness, suffering, and its causes - the twelve links of dependent
origination. The way to liberation, he said, was the Noble Eightfold Path (See footnote 8).
It is important to recognize that the doctrine is not a metaphysical theory in the sense
normally employed by western analytic philosophy. Rather, it is a means of practically analyzing
the chain of causation by which suffering arises and can therefore be eliminated. According to
Vajray na, dependent origination has three levels of interpretation. 10 At the rst level, each of
the twelve links, individually and jointly, is considered to be conventionally but not ultimately real.
That is, the manner in which the links appear does not correspond with the way they actually are.
And yet, it would be false to say that the links do not exist. They exist conventionally in the sense
that the links explain the nexus of causation in which most of us are entrapped and they appear real
to the conventional mind (a mind which misperceives appearances as reality). For example, death
appears conventionally to be something inevitable and inherently existing. However, according to
the teachings, when ignorance of ultimate reality is eliminated the chain of dependent origination
is broken; birth, old age and death no longer occur. 11 So, we might ask whether conventional reality
supervenes on ultimate reality? This will be discussed below.
At a deeper level, dependent origination is understood to apply to all phenomena insofar
as everything is composed of parts and the whole does not exist independent of its parts. So, for
example, under analysis, a table is said to exist dependent upon its parts and the parts, in turn, can
7
This is not to say that analysis in Vajray na is unimportant but rather that analysis is subservient to experiential insight.
But consider Jay Gareld according to whom rationality in Buddhism is to be most highly praised since it is necessary
to subvert reason and to articulate non-conceptual insight. M dhyamaka and Methodology: A Symposium on Buddhist
Theory and Method. You Tube accessed 20 September 2011. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWY0Tyhu9MM)
8
In the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, akyamuni Buddha proclaimed the Four Noble Truths as the means to
extricate oneself from suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path, the Fourth Noble Truth, stated that the meansto do this were
Right Views, Right Aspirations, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and
Right Rapture. Coomaraswamy (1964) p. 38
9
“That being present, this becomes; from the arising of this, that arises. That being absent, this does not become: from
the cessation of that, this ceases” Majjhima Nik ya, ii 32 quoted in Coomaraswamy (1964) p. 94
10
Dalai Lama (2000) p. 35-37
11
Each of the four Schools of Vajray na Buddhism has given a somewhat different interpretation of the two truths.
For our purposes however, we need not concern ourselves with these differences. For a more detailed discussion see
Newland (1999), Takchoe (2011)
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