the four levels of pratitya samutpada

8/10/2019 The Four Levels of Pratitya Samutpada

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THE JOURNAL

OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF

BUDDHIST STUDIES

C O - E D I T O R S - I N - C H I E F

GregorySchopen

Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Roger Jackson

Fairfield Un iversity

Fairfield, Connecticut, USA

E D I T O R S

Peter N.

Gregory

University

of Illinois

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

Alexander W. Macdonald

University

de

Pans

X

Nanterre, France

Steven Co llins

Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Ernst S teinkellner

University of Vienna

Wien,

Austria

Jikido Takasaki

University of Tokyo

Tokyo,Japan

Robert Thurman

AmherstCollege

Amherst,

Massachusetts, USA

Volume 11

1988

Number 1


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C O N T E N T S

I . A R T I C L E S

1.

T h e Fo ur Leve ls ofPratitya-

SamutpadaA ccording to the

Fa-hua h siiani,

by

Carl Bielefeldt 7

2.

O n th e Possibil ity of a N on exi s ten t Object

of Con sc iousness : Sarvas t ivadin an d Da rs tant ika

T h e o r i e s ,

by Collett Cox 3

j

3 .

MagicalUpayain theVimalakirtinirdes'a-sutra,

by

Edward Ham lin gg

4 . Bu dd his t Sanskr i t in theKalacakra Tantra,

by John Newman

j 23

5 . Tw o New Frag m ents o f Bu ddh i s t Sans kri t M anus c r ip t s

from Centra l Asia ,by

Richard Salom an and

Collett Cox 1^1

6. So m e Reflections on R.S.Y. Ch i 's

Buddhist Form al Logic,

byTomJ.F.Tillemans j 55

I I . B O O K R E V I E W S

1. Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism, by Peter M ansfield

(C harle s Hallisey) 173

2. Studies in

the

Bud dhist Art of South Asia,

ed . A. K. N ara in

(Rober t L . Brow n) ]75

3 .

Trad itions ofMeditation in Chinese Buddhism,

ed. Pe te r N . G regory (H enr ik H . Soren sen) 179

L I ST O F C O N T R I B U T O R S

185


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The Four Levels ofPratitya-samutpada

According to the

Fa-hua hsiian i

by Carl Bielefeldt

L

The historical status of the Madhyamika school in China and

Japan, like its famous doctrine of the middle way, is not easy

to grasp.' On the one hand, of course, all the major traditions

of East Asian Buddhism claim Nagarjuna as a patriarch and

claim to embrace hismadhyamaka teaching; on the other hand,

except for a few scholastics of medieval China and early Japan,

none of the East Asiatic traditions have identified themselves

directly with the Madhyamika school or made the works of its

founderlet alone of its later representatives, of whom they

were largely ignorantthe primary textual basis of their sys

tems.

T he

Madhyamaka-kdrikds,

which modern scholarship has

made so famous in the West, may have been basic reading for

most well-educated Buddhists, but it rarely attracted prolonged

attention, and it is probably fair to say that most who read it

did so less in search of ultima te answers than in prep ara tion for

what were considered more sublime expressions of the

Mahayana.

Already in the fifth century, even as theKdrikds and other

early treatises of the major India n schools were becoming avail

able in China, scholars there w ere tur nin g their attention to the

question of the relationship among these schools; and by the

sixth a nd seventh centuries, when the country was learning the

new literature of the Yogacara, they were creating their own

original syntheses of the Indie materials. While the content of

these new systems inevitably owed much to the imported

sastra

literature, their structure was often built on indigenous inter

pretative categorieslike substance and function

(t'iyung),

prin-

7


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8 J IA B S V O L . U N O . 1

c i p l e a n d p h e n o m e n a (li shih), s u d d e n a n d g r a d u a l {tun chien),

and the l ike; and whi le they could not fai l to take into account

the famous prajnd-pdramitd doct r ine of empt iness and i t s expl i

ca t ion in Ma dhy am ika , they were mo re insp i red by cer ta in

sutras

of part icular popular i ty in China, especial ly thoselike the

Sad-

dharma-punaUirika, M ahaparinirvana, a n d Avatainsaka that ex

pressed a posi t ive interpretat ion of the absolute, as

asunya,

as

th edharma-kdya,a n d tathdgata-garbha,an d so on , an d that offered

hope of a s ingle great vehicle , or

ekaydna,

in which all forms of

Buddhism could be reso lved . The so-ca l led Three Trea t i se (San

lun)

school of Chi - t sang , supposed to represen t Eas t As ian

Madhyamika, was i t sel f such a synthet ic system.

Of these new C hinese sys tems , no ne was m or e charac ter i s ti c

of the age nor more inf luent ial than that of the great s ixth-cen

tury T ' ien-t 'a i scholar Chih-i (538-597). Inspired as i t was by

th e

Lotus Sutra,

no ne was m ore com m i t t ed t o t he h igher Bud

dhism of the on e vehic le . Yet p robably n on e was m or e sy m pa the

t ic to (what i t s author took to be) the ins ights of Nagarjuna 's

m iddle w ay. In wh at fol lows, I w ant to ex plo re som e feature s

of this system in part icular i t s famous schema of doctr inal

classification

(p'an chiao)

to give a sense of how it so ug ht to

incorporate the teachings of the middle way into i t s vis ion of

the one vehicle . Rather than t ry here to discuss the schema in

the abst ract , I shal l focus on a s ingle concrete example a core

sam ple, as it were of how Chih-i ' s system actual ly func t ioned

in the analysis of a specif ic Buddhis t doctr ine; I shal l then go

on to make one or two more genera l observat ions about the

pr inc ip les a t work in the example .

//

T h e d oc tr ine I w ant to use for this sam ple is the fam ous

Buddh i s t t each ing o f

pratitya-samutpdda,

or condi t ioned or ig ina

t ion, especial ly as this is expressed in the classical formula of

the twelvefold chain of causat ion. Few doctr ines are more ven

erab le or more cen t ra l ly p laced in Buddhis t t rad i t ion than the

dvadasdnga-pratitya-samutpdda.

It was, after al l , supposed to be

the ins ight into the t ruth of this chain that most occupied the

Buddha h imsel f as he sa t on the

bodhi-manaa;

and t he

sutras


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LEVELS OFPRATlTYASAMUTPADA

9

sometimes said that to see this truth was itself to see the

dharma

and to see the Buddha .

2

N a g a r j u n a

himself,

though of course

his a rguments for empt iness a re based more on the genera l

principle of relativity than on the specific cause and effect re

la t ionships of the twelvefold chain, never theless seems to have

taken the ancient formula of the chain quite ser ious ly and de

voted several discussions to it .

9

Yet, for all this, probably few

doctr ines would seem less immediate ly susceptible to interpreta

t ion as an express ion of the sor t of supreme Mahayana en

vis ioned by Chih- i . Buddhis t contempla t ive t radi t ion had regu

larly consigned the investigation of the twelvefold pratltya-samut-

pada

a long wi th mindfulness of brea th ing, re f lec t ions on

im pu ri ty, an d t he like to the lowly, prel im inar y m edita t ion s

in tended as ant idotes to unwholesome s ta tes .

4

I n d i an c o m m e n

ta tors on Nagar juna ( including Pir igala , whom Chih- i read) had

tended to dismiss his discuss ion of the chain as merely conven

t ional

(sawvrti)

teaching, intended for the edif icat ion of the

srdvaka.'

No less than the

Lotus Sutra

itself (at least in

Kumaraj lva ' s vers ion) identif ied the doctr ine as a teaching in

tended for the re la t ive ly unsophis t ica ted unders tanding of the

pratyeka-buddha.

6

H en ce it is crucial to Chih -i 's vis ion of the intel

lectual and e thical coherence of the one great vehicle that he

be able to show w hy this do ctr in e was so cen tra l to the t radi t io n

and how, despi te ap pea ran ces to the con t ra ry , it could func t ion

even at the highest levels of the religion.

Chih- i ' s extens ive corpus contains qui te a few discuss ions

of

pratitya-samutpdda,

many of which ref lect t radi t ional ways of

ha nd lin g the twelvefold chain . In his inf luentia l org aniz at ion

of contempla t ive technique , for example , he t rea ts medi ta t ion

on condit ioned or iginat ion as one of the f ive techniques for

genera t ing wholesome s ta tes

(shanken);

7

like the

Lotus Sutra,

h e

associates the twelvefold chain with the

pratyeka-buddha-yana.*

Yet he a lso has a more exal ted reading of the chain that extends

its s ignificance across the entire range of the buddha-dharma,

f rom the bas ic teachings of the Hinayana through the supreme,

pe r f ec t en l igh tenment o f the Buddha

himself.

For my purposes

h e r e ,

the mos t impor tant example of such a reading occurs in

th e Miao-fa lien-hua ching hsiian i, hi s ex ten ded com me nta ry on

the "dark impor t , " or deeper meaning, of Kumara j lva ' s vers ion

of the Saddharma-puv4arlka. T h e work is largely organ ized


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10 J IABSVOL. U N O . 1

around a detai led analysis of the theoret ical impl icat ions of the

Chinese t i t le of the sutra. In its second fascicle, in the context

of his discussion o f the first wor d of the t i t le, Ch ih-i dist in gu ishe s

six objects of Buddhist wisdom (ching-miao), as the second of

which he takes u p the do ctr in e ofpratltya-samutpdda."

Chih-i divides his interpretat ion of

pratltya-samutpdda

into

four categories , or levels , of unders tanding, to which he ass igns

the fol lowing ra th er unw ieldy nam es : (1) conceivable or ig inat ion

and cessat ion

(ssu-i sheng mieh),

(2) conceivable non-originat ion

and non-cessa t ion (ssu-i wu-sheng wu-mieh), (3) inconceivable

originat ion and cessat ion (pu-ssu-i sheng-m ieh), and (4) inconceiv

ab le non-or ig ina t ion and non-cessa t ion (pu-ssu-i wu-sheng um-

mieh).

As the na m es sugges t , the four a re ar ra ng ed in two gro up s

of two: first, pratltya-samutpdda is divided into the conceivab le

an d inconce ivable; th en , each of these is sub-divided into or igi

na t ion and cessa t ion and non-or ig ina t ion and non-cessa t ion .

The hermeneut ica l ca tegor ies of the conceivable (cintyd),o r

what can be grasped by the reason, and i t s opposi te (acintyd)

are common, of course , no t on ly th roughout Chih- i ' s wr i t ings

but in Buddhism in genera l . This ep i s temologica l d ichotomy i s

ident i f ied by Chih-i he re wi th w ha t is m or e pro pe rly a rel igious

or mora l d i s t inc t ion be tween the mundane

(chieh-nei; laukika)

a n d t r a n s m u n d a n e

{chieh-wai; lokottara).

Th ese t e rms de r ive

from the t radi t ional Buddhis t d is t inct ion between the s tate of

those dominated by the def i l ements

(yu-lou; sdsrava)

and the

pris t ine s tate of the

drya,

who has a t t a ined the

andsrava

stages.

T h u s ,C hih-i 's analysisof pratltya-samutpdda beg ins with a dist inc

t ion be tween two spheres of appl ica t ion or unders tanding of

the doct r inethat o f the def i l ed wor ld of o rd inary exper ience ,

and tha t o f the immacula te wor ld of the advanced adept .

1 0

Each of these spheres is again divided into two, according

to two ways of t reat ing themin terms of or iginat ion

(utpdda)

and cessat ion (nirodha), and in t e rms of non-or ig ina t ion and

non-cessa t ion . These two k inds of t rea tment , says Chih- i , a re

intended for those of dul l

(tun)

and acu t e

(li)

facult ies respec

tive ly . T h o u g h he does no t e labo ra te the po in t here , a re ferenc e

near the end of h i s d i scuss ion to the t e rms "phenomena" (shih)

and "p r inc ip l e"

(li)

indicates that he also identifies the two with

these metaphys ica l no t ions , commonly used in T ' i en- t ' a i and

other Chinese exeges i s for the Buddhis t ca tegor ies of samvrti-


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V S

OFPRATITYASAMUTPAD A 11

satya (su ti), or conventional truth, and

paramartha-satya chen

ti),

or ultimate truth ." Th us, both the munda ne and transm undan e

spheres can be discussed for the dull in the more easily under

stood terms of the phenomena that comprise them, and for the

acute in the more subtle terms of the principle that underlies

such phenomena. These identifications, then, allow Chih-i to

treatpratitya-samutpadaon four levels of discourse : (1) m un da ne

phenomena, (2) mundane principle, (3) transmundane

phe nom ena , and (4) transm und ane principle; and

we

can expect

a relationship among the four such that (1) is to (2) as (3) is to

(4).As we shall see, this relationship

is

central to the T'ien-t'ai

p an

chiaosystem.

Well over half of Chih-i's discussion ofpratitya-samutpada is

concerned with his first level of understanding, that of conceiv

able origination and cessation. Since this represents what he

considers the lowest understanding, the space devoted to it

might seem somewhat surprising, and one might have expected

him to move quickly on to the higher and more sublime realms

of interpretation. In fact, however, the attention paid here to

the details of the basic teaching appears quite characteristic of

Chih-i's appr oach . Elsewhere in his writings

as

well,it

is

precisely

the lower teachings that seem to receive the most detailed and

thorough treatment, while the higher understanding is often

passed over quite quickly. In o ne sen se, of course, this imba lance

may be inevitable, since the lowest level is usually, as here, con

cerned with the more detailed scholastic teachings of the

abhidharmikas;

but it is also suggestive of the importance Chih-i

placed on a firm gro un din g in the basic doctrines of B uddhism

and a measure of the conservative, classical approach he took

to the religious life. Th is app roach gives to his teach ing a stron g

sense of what the Chinese like to call "gradualness" {chien) as

opposed to the flashier "sudden"

(tun)

style that is often held

up as more characteristic of East Asian Buddhism.

The section on the first level ofpratitya-samutpada is com

posed of two parts: a general explanation and a discussion of

some additional considerations. The former provides a basic


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12

J IAB SVOL. U N O . 1

definit ion of the doctrine and identifies i t as the characteris t ic

unders tand ing o f casua i i ty tha t d i s t ingu ishes Buddh ism f rom

the theor ies o f the non-Buddh is t s .

This [teaching of

pratitya-samutpada)

differs from that of the

infidels

{wai-tao).

They falsely m aintain that phen om ena originate

from Isvara,or from na ture (skih-ksing; prakfti,) or from atoms

(wei-ch'en;

arm),

or from male and female, or without cause. Th ese

various false the ories d o no t accord with the principle of the way

(tao-li).

But this correct [doctrine of]

pratitya-samutpada

differs

from such false notions. It holds simply that ignorance

{avidya)

in the past produces in the perverted mind

(tien-tao

hsin; vi-

paryasta-citta)

the predispositions

{samshdra),

which bring forth in

the present the fruit of suffering in the six destinies in different

ways according to [whether one's

karma

is] good or evil.

12

On the basis of the Smrtyupasthdna-sutra, Chih- i draws an

analogy between the f i rs t three members of the twelvefold

chain

avidya, samskdra,

a n d

vijndna

and a pa in ter , his pa int

and h is p ic ture: the ignorant mind is l ike a pain ter , us ing the

various shades of good and evi l

karma

to p roduce the reb i r th

consc iousness (pratisandhi-vijndna) in the six destinies.

1

' ' He then

summarizes the firs t level by saying that the chain revolves

th rough the th ree t imes l ike a whee l , the members a r i s ing and

ceas ing aga in and aga in in moment a f te r momenthence , the

des ignat ion " twelvefold pratitya-samutpada of or ig inat ion and

cessation."

In the ra ther lengthy sect ion devoted to addi t ional consid

erat ions , Chih- i takes up several t rad i t ional technical topics on

the twelvefold chain that we find in the

abhidharma

l i t e ra tu re ,

inc lud ing var ious app roa ch es to the d is t inc t ions be tween de pe n

d en t p ro d u c t i o n {pratitya-samutpada)an d d ep en d e n t o r i g in a t io n

(pratitya-samutpanna),

the d iv is ion of the twelve members in to

the th ree t imes (san shih)an d the i r app l ica t ion to the m atu r a t ion

of the indiv idual , the s imul taneous occurrence of the twelve in

a single moment, the cause and effect of the firs t and last mem

bers respect ively , the members occurr ing in each of the three

loka {san chieh),

and so on.

1 4


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V S OFPRATlTYASAMUTPADA 13

IV.

T h e second section deals with thepratitya-samutpadaof con

ceivable non-origination and non-cessation, intended for those

of acute faculties. In sharp contrast to the preceding, it is very

brief and d irect, stating simply tha t all m em bers of the twelvefold

chain are like em pty space (hsu-k'ung), like an apparition

(knan-

hua) and therefore ungraspable (pu-k'e-te).Chih-i does not

bother to give here any arguments for the emptiness of con

ditioned entities but merely cites theSuvarrta-prabhasa-sutra to

the effect thatavidyd does not exist of itself but only in depen

dence on deluded ideas{wanghsiang; vikalpa), or false thinking

ipu-shan ssu-wei; ayonifo-manaskdra).

15

T h us , he leaves it to th e

rea de r to supply the major prem isei.e., that dep end ently exist

ing entities are emptyand the conclusionthat, therefore,

avidya is empty. He then covers the remainder of the chain by

poin ting out as the po pu lar simile has itthat, jus t as the

magician produces elephants, horses, necklaces, and people,

which the d elude d take to be real, soavidya magically produces

the

karma

of th e six destinies. Finally, by me ans of an othe r

well-known simile, Chih-i explains the religious significance of

non-origination and non-extinction: "When one realizes that

the vine [he has taken for a snake] is not a snake, fear of it will

not orig inate , and not origin ating, it will not cease. This is called

the twelvefoldpratUya-samutpddaof conceivable non -origination

and non-cessation."

16

V.

The third section, that dealing with thepratUya-samutpdda

of inconceivable origination and cessation, is perhaps the most

interesting and difficult. This level of interpretation is said to

refute the "lesser"(hsiao)un dersta ndin g and reveal the "greater"

{ta), teaching the transmundanedharma for the sake of those of

both dull and acute faculties. The discussion here concerns the

cittamatra teaching that th e m ind is the cause of all

dharmas.

This

teachingisintroduc ed by a quo tation from theAvatamsaka-sutra,

which employs the same painting simile we have seen in the

first section: "The mind is like a painter producing the various


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14 J IABSV OL. U N O . 1

five skandhas. Throughout a l l wor lds , t he r e i s no th ing no t p ro

duced f rom the mind." '

7

In expl icat ing what i t means for the

mind to produce phenomena, Chih- i f i rs t c i tes two conf l ic t ing

views of the dlaya-vijndna: "Some say that the dlaya p r o d u c i n g

all dharmas is the t rue consciousness (chen

skik);

others say that

th e

dlaya

p roduc ing a l l

dharmas

is the 'unsinking' consciousness

(wu-mo shih)

tha t i s neut ra l

(wu-chi; avyakfta)

and ignorant . "

1 8

N ei th er Chih- i no r h is famo us co m m en ta to r Ch an- jan identi fies

here the proponents of these two views, but the text does refer

us to an ot he r d i scussion of them in the auth or ' s Mo-ho chih-kuan,

f rom which i t would appear that he assigns them respect ively

to the so-cal led Ti- lun and She- lun schoolsi.e . , the s ixth cen

tury Chinese exege t ica l t r adi t ions emphas iz ing, in the former

case,

V a s u b a n d h u ' s c o m m e n t a r y t o t h e Dasabhumika-sutra (Shih

ti ching lun) and, in the la t ter , the Mahdydna-samgraha (She ta-

sheng lun).

In the same discussion, Chih-i rejects the views of

both schools , arguing in ef fect that the former mistakenly iden

tifies citta wi th the u l t imate dharmatd, while the latter fails to

account for any re la t ionship be tween the two.

19

T h e p r o b l e m ,

he says in our text , comes f rom at tachment to the real i ty of the

svabhdva (hsing), which leads to asatkaryavdda u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f

casual i ty akin to the Samkhya theory of the evolut ion of the

world f rom prakfti (ming-ch'u)an un de r s t an d in g we have a l

ready seen Chih-i reject in the f irst section.

Having thus dismissed these two views, Chih- i goes on to

s ta te what he holds to be the cor rec t unders tanding of the Bud

dhis t t eaching tha t the mind produces the

dharmas.

Not by themselves, not by anoth er, not by both, and not w ithout

cause [do the

dharmas

arise.] Acco rding to these four propos itions,

[the production of the

dharmas

by the m ind] is inconceivable. Yet

given the conditions of the four

siddhanta, [pratitya-samutpdda]

can still be explained.

20

Here Chih- i employs the opening verse of the Kdrikds to

es tabl i sh tha t the occur rence of dharmas is inconceivablei.e. ,

that they have only provisional real i ty and in their own nature

a r e ungra spab le .

2 1

Their occurrence, he says, is l ike the ar is ing

of images in a dream: though we say tha t the dream produces

images , the na ture of the dream i t se l f cannot be grasped; s imi-


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LEVELS OVPRATITYASAMUTPADA

15

larly, though we say that avidyd p roduces the o the r members o f

the twelvefold chain, the status

of avidyd

itself ca nn ot be g ras pe d

by any of the four p rop osi t io ns

(ssuchii;

catuskoti)*'

2

Nev er the less ,

in accordance wi th the four siddhanta (ssu hsi-t'an), or heurist ic

m eth od s of th e Bu dd ha 's teach ing , we can still discuss th e a rising

of

samskdra

an d th e rest of the twelvefold c hain from th e m ind

ofavidyd.

23

With th i s reminder tha t t he t each ing o f t ransmundane phe

n o m e n a l

pratltya-samutpdda

is established only as a device for

the sake of the prac t i t ioner , Chih- i proceeds to a considera t ion

of the actual content of this teaching as i t appl ies to those ad

vanced bodhisattvas of the andsrava-dhdtu, w ho , a l th ou gh freed

f rom the mundane rea lm o f the

klesas,

still t ra ns m igr ate in th e

manomayakdya (i-sheng shen). Here he re l ies on the Ratnagot-

ravibhdga

doctrine of the four spiri tual obstacles to ul t imate

l ibe ra t ioncond i t ions (yuan;pratyaya), causes

(yin;

hetu), or ig ina

tion (sheng; utpdda), and cessat ion {mieh; nirodha)to draw out

the higher significances of the twelvefold chain.

2 4

"Co nditions" refers toavidyd;

[ cause ]

to

samskdra;

"origination"

to

nama-rupa

and the rest of the five [present effects]; (the three

members,

trsnd,updddn,

and

bhava,

are to be und erstood as

above;) "cessation" tojdti andjard-marariam. These twelve are

numerically the same as those of the mundane {pratltya-samut

pdda],

but their meaning is very different.

25

Chih-i then uses the tradit ional division of the twelvefold

chain intoklesa, karmaa n d vastu (ordubkha) to show the relat ion

sh ip be tween i t s members and the

Ratnagotravibhdga's

doct r ine

of the four higher inverted views(tien-tao; viparydsa) impu r i ty

(pu-ching; aiuddhi),

selflessness

(wu-wo; andtman),

suffering

(k'u

dufrkha),a n d i m p e r m a n e n c e(tuu-ch'ang;anitya) that still ch ar ac

t e r i ze the unders t and ing o f even the advanced

bodhisattva:

the

klesa of co nd ition (i .e. ,avidyd, etc. ) prev en ts th e real izat ion of

pur i ty ; thekarma of cause (i.e.,samskdra, etc.), the realization of

selfhood; the

vastu

of origination (i .e. ,

vijnana,

etc.), the realiza

tion of bliss; [the vastu of] cessation (i.e.,jard-marai^am), the

rea l iza t ion of permanence .

2 0


12/25

16

J IA BSV O L. U N O . 1

VI.

Final ly , our text br ief ly considers the four th and highest

level of

pratitya-samutpdda,

that of inconceivable non-or iginat ion

and non-cessa t ion . Here Chih- i quotes the Nirvdna-sutra to the

effect that the twelvefold

pratitya-samutpdda

is i tsel f the buddha-

n a t u r e (fo-hsing).

27

T h e ident i f icat ion is w orked ou t by m ea ns of

correspondences between the three divis ions of the twelvefold

c h a i n i n t o

klesa, karma

a n d

vastu

and the th re e aspec ts , or

causes , under which the Nirvdria-sutra t r ea t s t he buddha- na -

tu r ethe cause o f app r ehens ion

(liao yin),

the cause of condi

t ions (yiianyin), and the cause p r o pe r (chengyin) i.e., th e inte l

lectual , e thical , and metaphysical causes ident i f ied with

bodhi,

moksa, a n d dharma-kaya respectively.

2 8

T h u s , t h e klesa m e m b e r s

(i.e.,

vijndna, tfsnd

a n d

updddna)

are associated with

bodhi;

the

karmam e m b e r s(samskdraa n d bhava)withmoksa;and the r em ain

ing , the

vastu

member s , w i th

dharma-kaya.

On the basis of these

cor respondences , the th ree d iv is ions of the chain are fu r ther

identif ied with the four

gunas (ssu te)

of

nirvana

taught in the

s a m e sutra. The a r gumen t r uns somew ha t a s f o l low s : t heklesas

are themselves

bodhi; bodhi

is by defin it ion free from de filem en t;

henc e , t he

klesas

a re themselves the u l t imate pu r i ty(ching;

suddhi)

o r

nirvana.

In l ike fashion,

karma

is identif ied with the ult im ate

self

{wo; dtman)

of

nirvana,

a n d

vastu

with the bliss

(lo; sukha)

a n d p e r m a n e n c e (ck'ang; nitya)P

VII.

In the sections immediately following his analysis of the

four levels of

pratitya-samutpdda,

Chih- i goes on, in a pat tern

typical of his exeget ical m eth od s, to m ake several gen eral poin ts

about the character and signif icance of this analysis. In a section

on "d is t inguish ing the coarse and sub t le" (pan ts'u miao), he

makes expl ici t i t s h ierarchial s t ructure, point ing out that , whi le

there are no levels in the object {ching) of pratitya-samutpdda

itself,

there are mo re or less p ro fou nd un de rs ta nd ing s of the

object, which, l ike the famous Nirvdna-sutra simile of the ref ine

ment of milk , progress f rom the "coarse" to the "subt le ." From

the per spec t ive of the four th level, co r res po nd ing to the u l t imate


13/25

LEVELS O F PRATITYASAMUTPADA

17

reality

(shih)

of the m idd le way t a u g h t in the one vehicleof the

Lotus Sutra, all t h r e e of the lower levels are "coarse" because

mere ly exped ien t

(ch'iian).

30

The succeeding sec t ion,

on

" o p e n i n g

the

coarse

to

reveal

the subt le" (k'ai ts'u hsien miao), r e m i n d s us of a no th e r , r a the r

different implication of the one vehicle : that the classification

ofthe lower teachingsascoarseisitself bas edon acoa rse un de r

s tand ing . Chih- i he re quo te s the line from the

Lotus Sutra

in

which the Buddha says , Mydharmaissubtle {miao)and difficult

to unde rs tand . " S ince all t h r e e of the lower teachings are par t

of the

buddha-dharma,

the a r gum e n t goe s , it follows that even

they (insofar

as

they

are the

express ion

of the

Bu ddha ' s m i r a c u

lous

upaya)

are subt le and inconceivable .

3 1

In his last section, on "d i sce rn ing the m i n d " {kuan hsin),

Chih- i points out the re l igious implications of his analysis: to

discern

one

m o m e n t

of

i gno r a nc e (wu-ming)

is

i tse lf enlighten

m e n t

(ming).

E a c h m o m e n tof t houg h t c on ta in salltwelve m em

be rs of the cha in , and, s ince these members are ul t imately the

four vir tues of nirvana, to d iscern the m isitselftod iscern in her

ent permanence , b l iss , se l fhood,

and

pur i ty .

In

such discern

m e n t , them ind cons tant ly abidesin thew o m bof thearyas (sheng

t'ai), from which it is des t ined to em erg e in to fu ll enl ig hten

ment.*

2

VIII.

S uc h ,

in

ou t l ine ,

is

Ch ih-i 's m ult i-faceted ac cou nt

of the

twelvefold chain. His basic notion that the doc t r i ne of pratltya-

samutpada

could be thus dis tr ibuted over several levels of in

t e r p r e t a t i on is by nom eans wi thou t p rece den t :the Nirvdna-sutra

itself,

for e x a m p l e o n e of Chih-i 's favori te scriptures and the

o n e

he

cites

as

au thor i ty

for his

final sectionhas

its own

four-

tiered divisionof the doctr ine , associa ted with the four typesof

Buddh i s t a de p t :

sravaka, pratyeka-buddha, bodhisattva,

and

buddha;

5

*

similarly,

the

Ta-chih-tu

lun,

which East Asian tradit ion

a t t r ibutestoN a ga r juna , andwhich regula r ly prov idesthesource

for so m u c h of Chih-i 's materia l , identif ies three types of twel

vefold chain: for the

prthagjana,

for those on the two vehicles

an d

bodhisattvas

not yet established in e m p t ine s s

(anutpattika-


14/25

18 J IABSVOL. U N O . 1

dharma-ksanti), and for the advanced bodhisattva.

M

Such scr iptural

precedents no doubt provided inspi ra t ion for the t rea tment of

pratitya-samutpada in our passage, but the s t ructure of this t reat

ment remains Chih- i ' s own and c lear ly ref lects the par t icular

pr inc iples of h i s la rger projec t to br ing the whole of Buddhism

into a s ingle co he ren t system. H er e I wa nt to ad d ju st a few

words about those pr inciples as they re la te to the s ta tus of the

middle way.

In recent years , there has been some deba te about the exac t

nature of Chih-i 's classif ication system and i ts relation to the

doctr inal schemas through which i t was taught by la ter T ' ien- t 'a i

t radi t ion,

3 5

bu t the re is no do ub t tha t the most or ig ina l and

im p or ta nt fea ture of that system is th e do ctr ine of th e so-called

"four teachings"

(hua-fa ssu chiao)

that divides the

buddha-

dharma in to "ptfaka" (tsang), " c o m m o n " (t'ung), "dist inct" ipieh),

a n d " c o m p l e t e "

(yuan).

Put very briefly and schematically, the

f i r s t cor responds to the Hinayana teaching on dharmas, i n t e n d e d

for

sravaka

a n d

pratyeka-buddha

vehicles, the second to the basic

Mahayana t each ing o f sunyata tha t l eads onto the bodhisattva-

ydna, the th i rd to the advan ced M ahayan a t each in g o fcitta-mdtra

that is "distinctive" of the

bodhisattva-ydna,

and the last to the

"comple t e , " pe r f ec t unde r s t and ing o f t he Buddha tha t bo th

transcends and unif ies a l l the other teachings. I t should be im

mediate ly obvious that such a fourfold divis ion stands behind

o u r

pratitya-samutpada

passage; and, in fact , though he does not

make the connect ion in our text , la ter on in the same work,

Chih-i explicit ly assigns his four levels of interpretation to the

four teachings.

3 6

While we may (or may not) want to applaud Chih- i ' s in

genui ty in br inging pratitya-samutpada into accord with his own

system, so far rem ov ed in t im e, space , an d spir i t f rom th e an cien t

Buddhis t formula of the twelve niddna, for the T ' ien - t 'a i m aste r

himself,th i s success mus t have seem ed only a na tura l e labora t ion

of the passage on dependent or ig ina t ion by Nagar juna tha t i s

su pp os ed to have prov ided the m etaphysica l basi s for the sys tem.

Th is is th e verse , Madhyamaka-kdrikds 24 :18, in which, according

to Kumaraj iva 's t ransla t ion, i t i s sa id,

Phenomena produced by causes and conditions,

We declare to be empty;


15/25

LEVELS O FPRATJTYASAMUTPADA 19

Again, they are called provisional names,

Or, again, they are what is meant by the middle way."

A par t icula r un de rs t an di ng of th is famou s passage ( the only

one, as far as I know, in which theKdrikdsactual ly uses the ter m

madhyama-pratipat)

is sa id to have provided the inspira t ion for

the teachings of the Firs t Patr iarch of Tien- t 'a i , Hui-wen (f l .

ca . 550) , and to have been handed down to his disc iple , Hui-ssu

(515-577) , by whom i t was t ransmit ted to Chih- i . The under

s tanding in ques t ion i s formula ted by the T ' ien- t ' a i teachers as

the i r charac te r i s t ic doc t r ine of the three t ru ths

(san ti).

Th i s

doc t r ine unde r s t ands Naga r juna ' s ve r s e to be des c r ib ing con

di t ioned phenomena in te rms of three leve ls of t ru th : the empty

(k'ung; sunyatd), the provis ional (chia; prajnapti), and the midd le

(chung; madhyama). Very br ief ly put , the three t ruths can be

expressed somewhat as fo l lows : condi t ioned dharmas, w h e n u n

ders tood on the f i rs t level , are empty

oisvabhdva;

on the second

level , this em pti ne ss is seen n ot as th e tota l ne ga t ion of th e

dharmas but as the aff i rmation of their condit ional i ty, or "provi

s ional ly" real s ta tus ; on the third level , the two categories of the

em pty and p rov i s iona l a r e un de r s too d to be nond i f f e r en to r ,

put in o ther te rms , the u l t imate t ru th about the

dharmas

is un

d e r s t o o d

to

l ie in a middle ground, f ree f rom the extremes of

the empty and provis iona l .

What i s mos t immedia te ly s t r ik ing and mos t pecul ia r about

this reading of Nagar juna 's verse is that i t seems to isola te his

famous teaching of sunyata as but one pole , se t off f rom both

the condi t ioned phenomena of the f i r s t l ine and the provis ion

a lly es tabl i shed p h en om en a of the th i rd , an ex t rem e tha t is i tsel f

to be overco m e, or resolved, by h is m iddle way. Such an un de r

s tanding of empt iness , qui te common in Eas t As ian exeges is , i s

well expressed in the other formula by which Chih- i most f re

quen t ly d i s cus s e s the movement among the th r ee t ru ths . Th i s

is ad op ted f rom the

P'u-sa ying-lo ching,

a n i m p o r t a n t

sutra

g e n

eral ly th o u g h t to have bee n wri t ten in C hi na in th e f if th cen tury ,

which expla ins the re la t ionships among the three t ru ths in te rms

of (1) ente r ing the empty f rom the provis iona l

(ts'ung chia ju

k'ung), (2 ) ente r ing the provis iona l f rom the empty (ts'ung k'ung

ju chia),

and (3) the u l t imate middle way

(chung-tao ti-i i).

38

Though a t f i r s t g lance i t appears here tha t the empty and


16/25

20

J IA B S V O L . U N O . 1

the provis ional a re mere ly two opposing poles , Chih- i tends to

read the "provisional" of the f i rst l ine in the

Sutra

formula as

cor responding to the condi t ioned phenomena in the f i r s t l i ne

of Nagar juna 's verse ; hence he gives the formula a s t rongly

dia lec t ica l charac ter , such tha t i t moves through four "mo

men t s" from the thes is of dharmas, to the ant i thesis of sunyatd,

through a higher synthesis of the two in

prajnapti,

to the final

synthesis (of empt iness and the provis ional ) in

madhyama.

Clearly, sunyatd is the crucial "moment" in this dialect ic , the

higher "pr inc iple ," as Chih- i ca l l s i t in our example , tha t leads

bo t h i n t o a nd be yond t he t r a nsm unda ne phe nom e na o f t he

Mahayana . As such, i t i s not mere ly the opposi te of the

dharmas

but , l ike the provisional , must funct ion on two levels: f i rst , in

oppos i t ion to the dharmas a s the i r mere nega t ion ; and second ,

as the higher negat ion of the opposi t ion tha t accounts for the

u l t ima te un i ty o f the two po les . Whe the r o r no t Nagar juna

himself would st i l l recognize himself in this dialect ical interpre

tat ion of his vers e, i t is pro bab ly possible to read i t as an inter est

ing exten sion of h is re m in de r tha t em pt in ess is a l so em pty of

svabhava.

S

'

J

IX.

T h e re is on e f inal fea ture of Chih- i ' s

pratitya-samutpdda

teaching to which I should l ike to cal l a t tent ion in closing. If

the metaphysica l leve ls we have seen here are supposed to be

suppl ied by Nagar juna 's verse , the logic of these levels and the

re l ig ious s ignif icance a t tach ed to the m seem to com e f rom wh at

st r ikes me as an ext remely in terest ing coalescence in Chih- i ' s

th ou gh t of two anc ient B ud dh ist form ulae . T h e f irs t is the well-

known rhe tor ica l device of the

catuskoti

o r " four p ropo s i t ions . "

Th i s dev ice, t h ro ug h which the speaker is tho ug ht to exha us t

a l l meaningful posi t ions on a topic , was of course much ap

preciated by Nagarjuna, and in fact we have seen his use of i t

qu o ted in ou r exa m ple to e s tab li sh the mere ly p rov i s iona l na tu re

ofcitta-mdtra.As in th is case , N aga r jun a ten ds to use the form ula

to negat ive ends, as a means to the refuta t ion of o thers ' v iews.

40

Chih- i , however , a l so has a more posi t ive , more metaphysica l

read ing of the four p ropos i t ions tha t a ss igns to each member a


17/25

LEVELS OFPRAT'lTYASAMUTPADA

level of t ru th exact ly co rre sp on din g to o u r four levels ofpratitya-

samutpdda.

Though he does no t invoke the formula in our pas

sage ,

the relat ionship is made expl ici t e lsewhere in his wri t ing,

where each of the teachings is ass igned a basic metaphysical

propos i t ion , such tha t thepifaka asser ts being (yu);t h e c o m m o n

teach ing , empt ines s

(k'ung,

here obviously equivalent to non-

be ing[wu])\the dist inct asser ts bo th; and th e perfect , nei th er .

4

'

In recent years , thecatufkofihas occup ied a nu m be r o f com

menta tors , who have been par t i cu lar ly d i s turbed by the th i rd

and fourth members , which seem to confl ict wi th the laws of

non-cont rad i t ion and of the excluded middle respect ive ly .

4 2

It

m ay w ell be th at i t was his ow n a w are ne ss of such logical confl icts

that led Chih-i to ass ign these two members to the realm of the

"inconceivable." Yet , whatever we may say of other uses of the

formula, Chih-i 's actual application of i t to his four teachings

clearly resolves these di ff icul t ies . The apparent contradict ion of

the thi rd proposi t ion disappears in the dis t inct ion, central to

his "dis t inct" teaching, between

paramdrtha

a n d

sarfivrti

rea lms

of discoursea dist inction we have seen reflected in Chih-i 's

asser t ion that , whi le the mind i t sel f cannot be ul t imately es tab

l ished, i t can st i l l be treated for heurist ic purposes as the cause

of phenomena. The "d i s t inc t" t eaching here i s p rec i se ly tha t

form of Buddhism that seeks to "s t raddle" the two realms of

discourse, for the sake of the advanced

bodhisattva,

wh o , t hou gh

already established in emptiness, st i l l needs to cult ivate the

h i g h e r

dharmas

o f t h e t r a n s m u n d a n e p a t h . T h e f o u r th p r o p o

s i t ion, according to Chih-i , does indeed t ranscend the two-

valued logic presupposed by the law of the excluded middle; i t

does so on the basis of the "complete" teaching of the buddha

vehicle, which specifical ly posits a higher "middle" ground to

which the pred ica tes "be ing" and "empt iness" do not apply .

As inter es t in g as Chih-i 's h ierarchical r ea din g of the

catu koti

may be in itself, perhaps more s t r iking is the way in which he

is able, once the formula is read in this way, to lay its logical

pat tern over the seemingly qui te unrelated spi r i tual hierarchy

depic ted by the t rad i t ional B udd his t m odel o f the mdrga. In this

over lay , as should be apparen t f rom our example , the asser t ion

of be ing , chara cterist ic o f the first level of tea ch ing , is associated

with the

laukika

path; i t s denial , wi th the ins ight into empt iness

that leads one to the lokottarap la ne ; the h ighe r a f fi rmat ion of


18/25

22

J IA BSV O L. U N O . 1

both b eing an d i ts denial th en g uide s the bodhisattvaa long the

u p p e r

bhumis

of th e

bhavana-marga\

and the s t i l l h igher negat ion

of both leaves him at the u l t ima te m iddle way of theasaiksapa th

of the Buddha.

4

*

In this kind of over lay, then, the spir i tual development of

each individu al ad ep t on the s tages of themargais bu t an insta nc e

in microcosm of the development of Buddhism i tselfa case,

as i t were, of ontogeny recapi tulat ing phylogeny. Or to put the

matter from the other side, the kind of analysis of the levels of

Buddhis t doct r ine tha t we have seen in our example

oipratltya-

samutpdda

envisions (ifIm ay be allowed this con fusion of anc ien t

tongues) a sor t of "meta-marga," in which both the formal re

lat ionships of the var ious conf l ict ing Buddhis t doctr ines and

the concre te h i s to r ica l development o f the d i spara te Buddhis t

doct r ina l l i t e ra ture r ecap i tu la te the inheren t metaphys ica l and

spir i tual s t ructure of the one great vehicle on which each indi

vidual Buddhis t must make his way to the f inal goal of Buddha-

hood promised by the

Lotus Sutra.

N O T E S

1. A vers ion of th is paper was or iginal ly presented to the panel on

"M iddle i sm: Nag ar juna and H is Successor s ," F i f teen th A nnu al Co nferen ce

on So uth Asia, Univers i ty of W isconsin , Mad ison, 198 6.1 sho uld l ike to expres s

my thank s to Prof s . Rog er Jackson and Jose Cab ezdn fo r co m m ent s o f fered

at tha t r ead ing .

2 . E.g. , Mahd-samnipata-sutra (Ta-chi ching, T . 3 9 7 : 1 3 a l 5 - 1 6 ) .

3 .

E.g . , in cha pte r 26 of his

Madhyamaka-karikas {Chung lun,

T . 1 5 6 4 :36 b - c ) ; an d i n h i s Pratitya-samutpada-hrdaya-karikas (Yin-yuan hsin lun;

see T . 165 1-165 4) . For an exce l len t s tudy o f Nagar jun a ' s t r ea tm ent o f th e

chain in the lat ter , see Kaj iyama Yuichi , "Chukan ha nojuni shi engi kaishaku,"

Bukkyo shiso shi

3 ( 1 9 8 0 ) , 9 0 - 1 4 6 .

4 . Especially in the com m on sc hem a of the five

samatha

co n t em p la t i o n s

known as the wu ting-hsin kuan, am o n g w h ich m ed i t a t i o n o n pratitya-samutpada

is r eco m m e n d e d a s an an t i d o t e t o

moha.

A discussion of these pract ices can

be found in Ominami Ryusho , "Go te i sh in kan to go mon zen ," in Sek iguch i

Sh in d a i ,

B ukkyo no jissen genri

(1977) , 71 -90 .

5 .

Chung lun,

T . 1 5 6 4 :36 b

18;

s imilar ly , Bhavaviveka 's

Prajnd-pradipa-

vrtli {Pan-jo teng lun shih,

T . 1 5 6 6 : 1 3 1 b l 3 ) .

6 . T . 2 6 2 :3c 23 - 24 . H er e , as e l s ew h er e i n t h e li t e r a tu re , t h e

dvadaianga-

pratitya-samutpdda is set in contrast to the four aryan t ru ths , t augh t fo r the

irdvakas,

and the s ix

pdramitds,

in tended fo r the

bodhisattvas.

For a genera l


19/25

L E V E L S O F

P R A T I T Y A S A M U T P A D A

23

t reatment of some of the various interpretat ions given the twelvefold chain

in the Mahayana l i terature, see Mitsukawa Toyoki , "Dai jo but ten ni mirareru

ju ni en gi ," in

Engi

no

kenkyu, Bukk yogaku k enkyu (toku-shu)

3 9 -4 0 (19 85) , 1949.

7. See, e .g . , h is popular Hsiao chih-kuan, T .1915 :469cl0f f . The f ive

co r re s p o n d t o t h e

wu ting-hsin kuan.

8. E.g., in his

Tz'u-ti ch'an men,

T . 1916:480c 15.

9. T. 1716:698b29ff. Th is sect ion has recent ly been t ra nsla ted by Paul

Swanson , in h is "T he Tw o T ru th s Cont roversy in Ch ina and C hih- i' s Th reefo ld

Truth Concept" (Ph.D. dissertat ion, Univers i ty of Wisconsin, 1985),

5 3 0 - 5 6 1 ;

t ranslat ions appearing herein below are my own. The other f ive objects dis

cussed by Chih-i in this sect ion are the ten "suchnesses" (shihju) of the Lotus

Sfitra, the four [dryan]t ru t h s (ssu ti), the two t ru ths (erh ti), the th ree t ru ths

(san ti), and the one t ru th (i ti).

10 .

In technical T ' ien-t 'a i parlance,

chieh-nei

refers to all states within

the th ree wor lds

(san chieh),

prior to the el iminat ion of the so-cal led

chien-ssu

afflictions (i.,e., thedars'ana-heyaa n d

bhdvand-heya kleidvarana,

as dis t inguished

from the two types of

jneydvarana

that Chih-i calls

ch'en-sha

a n d

wu-ming).

11.

E .g ., a t 70 0a l7 .

12 .

69 8c 6- l 1 . All the views of the infidels he re , wi th the except ion of

" f a t h e r an d mo t h e r " (fu mu), appear in Pirigala's l ist of false doctrines corrected

by the teaching of

pratitya-samutpdda, Chung lun, T.1564:lbl8ff.

13 .

Pa rap h ra s e o f

Nien-ch'u ching,

T .721 :135a 17 .

14 .

69 8c 2 8-6 99 b2 8. For a discussion of som e of Chih-i ' s m aterial in this

sect ion, see Ni t ta Masaaki , "Chugoku Tendai ni okeru inga no shiso," in

Bukkyo Shiso Kenkyukai , ed. , Bukkyo shiso 3: Inga (1 9 7 8 ) , 25 3 -27 2 .

15 .

After Chin kuang-ming ching, T .6 6 3 : 34 0 b l 5 , w i t h s o me o mi s s i o n s ;

for the l i terature on this not ion that the twelvefold chain depends on false

thinking, see Mitsukawa,

op cit.,

3 5 - 4 4 .

16 .

6 9 9 c 7 - 8 .

17. After Hua-yen ching, T . 2 7 8 : 4 6 5 c : 2 6 - 2 7 .

18 .

699cl416. The t e rm

wu-mo

here comes from one t radi t ional in

t e rpre ta t ion of

dlayaasalaya,

"not s inking."

19. Mo-ho chih-kuan,

T .1 9 1 1 : 5 4 a2 3 -b 6 . T h e a rg u m en t o f t h is p as s ag e

would seem to be that , if , following (what Chih-i takes to be) the Ti-lun

pos i t ion , we iden t ify the source o f ph en om en a wi th dharmata, which is nei ther

subject nor object , then we cannot explain in what sense i t iscittat h a t p ro d u c es

phenomena; on the o ther hand , i f , fo l lowing the ( repu ted) She- lun pos i t ion ,

we identify this source with an

dlaya

dist inct from

dharmata,

we can not exp la in

the re la t ionsh ip be tween the

dharmas

and the

dharma

n a t u re .

2 0 .

6 9 9 c 2 0 - 2 2 .

2 1 . O m n / t t n

)

T . 1 5 6 4 : 2 b 6 .

2 2 .

Chih-i appl ies the

catuskofi

to the d re am in the

Mo-ho-chih-kuan

(T .

1911:54b8ff) , to show that the dre am can no t be unde rs to od as ar is ing from

the mind of the d reamer , the condi t ion of s l eep , bo th o r ne i ther . The dream,

in this analogy, is to the mind as the

dlaya

is to

dharmata..

2 3 . And see the paral lel passage at

Mo-ho chih-kuan,

T .1 9 1 l : 5 4 c7 . T h e

four siddhdnta here der ive f rom the Ta-chih-tu lun (T. 150 9:5 9b 18ff), in which


20/25

24

JIABS VOL.

11

NO . 1

i t is sa id that the Buddha uses four types of teaching: the worldly

(shih-chien),

to encourage prac t ice ; the indiv idua l

(wei-jen),

to promote v i r tue ; the ant idota l

(tui-ch'i), to counte rac t ev i l ; and the ca rd ina l meaning

(li-i i),

to br ing about

e n l i g h t e n m e n t . T h e

Fa-hua hsiian i

(686bff) discusses the four a t some length,

in te rpre t ing them according to ten d i f fe rent a spec ts and re la t ing them to the

f our

dryan

t ruths, the four levels of pract i t ioner , and so on. For discussion of

these re la t ionships, see Kawakatsu Mamoru, "Shi shi tan gi to kyoso ron," in

Sekiguchi ,

Bukkyo no jissen genri,

3 0 3 - 3 1 8 .

2 4 . For the

Ratnagotravibhaga

teaching (of which Chih- i 's passage here

is an a bbre viat io n) , see

Chiu-chingi-sheng pao-hsing lun,

T . 1611:830a28ff . Chih -

i 's discussion is marred by the fact that throughout he consistently subst i tutes

hsiang

("mark") for the

fdstra's yin-hsiang.

2 5 . 70 0a 4-7 ( the pa ren the t ica l c lause he r e is Chih- i ' s ). T he re la t ionships

be ing es tabl i shed in th is passage depend upon the common organiza t ion of

the twelvefold chain into three divisions

(san tao

o r

san lun)

d is t r ibuted over

the three t imes. (This t r ipar t i te division, found in the

Mahdvibhdsa, Abhidharma-

kosa,

e tc . , is a lso em plo yed by Nag arju na in his

Pratltya-samutpdda-hrdaya.)

Chih- i 's schema here can be shown as fol lows:

pralydya:

hetu:

utpdda:

nirodha:

klesa:

karma:

vastu:

PAST

1)

avidyd

2) samskdra

P R E S E N T F U T U R E

8) tr^srid

9)

upddana

10) bhava

3)

vijndna

4) ndma-rupa

5)

saddyatana

6)

sparsa

7)

vedand

11)

jdti

12)

jard-maranam

2 6. 7 0 0 a 7 - 1 6 ; p a r a p h r a s i n g t h e

Sdstra

at T. 1611:830b 13ff.

27. Ta-pan nieh-pan ching,

T . 3 7 4 : 5 2 4 b 7 .

2 8.

For this teach ing , see

T.374:530aff.

29. 700a 16 - 2 7 . Th e

gunas

he re a re , of course , the four or ig ina l

vi-

paryasas.

T he re la t ionships am on g the m em ber s of these li st s can be shown

as follows:

liaoyin:

yuan yin:

chengyin:

bodhi:

moksa:

dharma-kdya:

klesa:

karma:

vastu:

suddhi:

dtman:

sukiia:

nilya:

1) avidyd

8) trsnd

9) upddana

2) samskdra

10) bhava

3)

vijndna

4) ndma-rupa

5) saddyatana

6)

sparsa

7)

vedand

11)

jdti

12 )

jard-maranam


21/25

L E V E L S O FPRATlTYASAMUTPADA 2 5

3 0. 700a27ff.

3 1 . 700b22ff; th e

Lotus Sutra

l i ne occu r s a t T .262 :6c l9

32 700c5ff

3 3 .

T . 3 7 4 : 5 2 4 b 2 . T h e

Sutra

goes on he re to identify the twelvefold cha in

wi th the Buddha-na tu re , w i th

paramdrtha-sunyatd,

wi th the middle way , Bud-

d h a h o o d , a n d

nirvana.

3 4 . T.1509:a27ff.

3 5 . The a rgumen t s have been b rough t toge the r in Sek iguch i ,

Tendai

kyogaku no kenkyu (1978) .

3 6 . 709b ; and see Chan - j an ' s sub -com men ta ry , Hsiian i shih-chien

T.1717:848b26 , e l l , e tc . In the T ' ien- t ' a i sys tem, the second teach ing i s "com

m on " to all thre e vehicles, in the sense th at all real ize

sunyatd

the two vehicles

through what is called

"analy tic em pt in ess "

(hsi-k'ung); the bodhisattva,

t h r o u g h

"essen t ia l empt iness"

(t'i-k'ung).

3 7. T . 1 5 6 4 : 3 3 b l l .

3 8 . T J 4 8 5 : 1 0 1 4 b l 9 - 2 1 .

3 9 . E.g., at

Kdrikas

1 2 : 1 0 - 1 1 , 8 :8 . Chih- i ' s no t ion here tha t Nagar juna ' s

middle way cor responds to the h igher , se l f -negat ing funct ion of empt iness

ref lects the sor t of statements one f inds in the Nirvana Sutra: e .g . , "The

Bu dd ha -na tur e i s ca l led em pt iness in i ts card ina l m ea nin g

(ti-i i k'ung;

paramdrtha-s'unyatd).

Th is em ptin ess is cal led wisdom

(chih-hui).

T h e e m p t i n e s s

spoken of here consis ts in no t see ing e i ther empt iness o r non-empt iness

(pu-

k'ung). . . . T o see every th ing as em pty an d no t to see it as non -em pty i s no t

wh at is cal led the m iddl e way." (3 74 :52 4b l2ff) A ge ne ral discussion of the

Ch inese no t ion

of

the middle way as a th i rd , h igher t ru th appeared some

years ago in the p ages of this jo ur na l , in W halen Lai , "N on- dua li ty of the

Two Tru ths in Sin i t ic Madhyamika: Or ig in of the Third Tru th ," 2 :2 (1979) ,

4 5 - 6 5 .

For more spec i f ic compar ison of the T ' ien- t ' a i and Ind ian in terpre ta

t ions of

Kdrikas

24 :18 , sec Naka mu ra Ha j ime , "Chu do to kukan , " in

Yuki kyoju

shoju kinen: Bukkyo shiso shi ronshu

(1964) , 139 -180 .

4 0. The closest study of Nagarjuna 's uses of the catuskofiin th e Kdrikas

has been done by Tachikawa Musash i ; see , e .g . , h is recen t Ku no kozo: Churon

no ronri

(1986) .

4 1 . E.g., in

Ssu-chiao i,

T . 1929:73a . T his sor t of h iararch ic read ing of

th e

catusko[i

in the

Kdrikas

is not without i ts Indian paral lels. Candrakir t i , for

ex am ple , uses it to explicate verse 18:8, the only passage in which N aga rjun a

himself employs the four proposit ions in an aff irmative sense to claim that

the Buddha teaches tha t every th ing i s rea l

{shih; tathya),

not real

(fei shih; na

tathya), bo th an d n e i the r . Th e f ir st , says Ca ndr ak i r t i , is in te nde d to imp ress

the wor ld ly wi th the Buddha ' s comple te knowledge of the wor ld ; the second ,

to cu re th e bel iever of his bel ief in real ism; th e third , to dist inguish the o rdin ary

and enlightened views; the last , to f ree the advanced pract i t ioner f rom the

final traces of the

dvaranas. {Prasannapadd

3 7 0 - 3 7 1 )

4 2 . While the logic of the catuskofi has been discussed by R obins on,

Jayati l leke, etc . , perhaps the clearest statement of the basic logical problems

was given by Frits Staal, in

Exploring Mysticism

(1975); for a discussion of the

ac tua l impl ica t ions of the schema in Mahayana l i te ra ture (and addi t ional b ib

l iography on the top ic) , see David Ruegg , "T he Uses of the Four Proposi t ions

f the

Catusko(i

an d th e Prob lem of the Desc ript ion of Reali ty in M aha yan a


22/25

26

J I A B S V O L . 11 N O . 1

Buddhism,"Journal o)'Indian Philosophy 5:1-2, (9-12/1977), 1-71.

43 .

In Chih-i's stan dard terminology, the second me mb er of the

catufkoti

corresponds to the wisdom eye

(huiyen)

of the two vehicles that attains

sarva-

jnata

{i-ch'ieh

chih);

the third member represents thedharmaeye{fa yen)of the

bodhisattva that achievesmdrga-jnatd (tao chungchih)\ and the last is the omnis

cientbuddha eye(Jo yen) that has realizedsarvahdra-jnata (i-ch'ieh chungchih).

Glossary

A. Names and Terms

ch'ang %

Chan-jan",$.fr;

cheng yinf_

ffl

ch'en-sha %$

chen shihj j i^ '

chen ti

fy^k

chia


23/25

LEVELS OF

PRATITYASAMUTPADA

27

san chieh t-^ - wei-ch'en

OK.%

san lun ^$^> wei-jenjfok^

San lun >^ & , wo ^

san shih

^H L

wu>ir

san tao f^jL wu-ch 'ang -&T&

s a n d ^ - i i wu-chi -V;ik

shan k e n j^ fL wu -ming -*n>Fj

She-lun ^ f a t ^ wu-mo shih - sr x l K

sheng wu ting-hsin kuan $ . ^ 1 ^ $ ^

sh en g t'ai 3r fj wu-wo - V -ft

shih yin \3

shih-chien -W yin-hsiang\?7^e

shih-hsing-' -*- yu ^

shih ju -f 4


24/25

28 J IABSVOL . U N O . 1

B. Authors and Titles

Bukkyo Shiso Kenkyukai

/\u%&&V

,Bukkyo shiso: Inga

Bukkyo shiso shi/jutHL^rft t -

Chin kuang-ming ching

^X&fl

i&

Chiu-ching i-sheng pao-hsing lun^^L'^.

i 'V i

-Jy

Chung lun ^ ify

Engi no kenkyu tyjgoTq'fc' ,Bukkyogaku kenkyu ( tokushu) l\\>&

Fa-hua hsiian i ',\fy M\

Hsiao chih-kuanYt.tyk

Hsiian i shih-chien

t ^ t t f .

Hua-yen ching

$&**'

Kajiyama Yuichi

WM t- ,

"C huk an ha no ju n i sh i eng i

ka i sha ku" * t o f i L t ^Uf c & ( *K.

Kaw akatsu M am or u \fl|ft , "Shi shi tan gi to kyoso ro n "

W&s

M iao-fa lien-hua ching hsiian i ^'\)&A6l.ly

Mitsukawa Toyoki

%\

f.

, "Dai jo but te n ni m irar eru ju n i eng i"

Mo-ho chih-kuan f ^ i h w /

Na ka m ur a Ha j im e * t t f c , "C hud o t o kuka n "

*&V?W

U

Nien-ch'u ching $Lm-$i

Nitta Masaaki %\ xg04 f ,"Ch ugo ku T en da i n i oke ru inga no sh i so"

O m i n a m i R y u s h o

K$%1%,

"Go teishin kan to go mon zen"

Pan-jo teng lun shih %%& ft H

P'w-5a ;ymg-/o eAwg tyjkVLiW

Se kig uc hi S hi nd ai jjfly ) , u% \*1*i

s

*'

She ta-sheng lun%i^^^f

Shih ti ching lun m& ty

Ssu-chiao

i

VJ7

$ C ^

Ta-chi ching

/ ^ ^ - ^ l

Tach ikaw a Musash i

M

i^fti ,

/CM

no Aozo:

Churon no ronri

Ta-chih-tu lun^JHKiff

Ta-pan nieh-p'an ching f v ^ l ^ j t i f t


25/25

LEVELS OFPRATlTYASAMUTPADA

29

Tz'u-ti ch'an menX ^

,

f\

Yin-yuan hsin lun

Vg^c**^

Yuki kyoju shoju kinen: Bukkyo shiso shi ronshu ^i$ij&&

the four levels of pratitya samutpada

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