THE INNER SCIENCE
OF BUDDHIST PRACTICE
Vasubhandu's Summary
of the Five Heaps with
Commentary by Sthiramati
intro. and trans. by Artemus B. Engle
a Tsadra Foundation Series book
more...
Dharma Quote of the WeekIn short, the Madhyamika theory of ultimate truth is not one that completely discards such teachings as the five heaps, the Four Noble Truths, the Three Jewels, or virtuous and nonvirtuous karma and their results; rather, it assigns them the status of relative truth. The task of identifying the precise nature of ultimate truth and of explaining the degree of falsity present in conventional truth lies at the heart of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Moreover, one cannot rely only on canonical scripture to resolve these issues, as Je Tsongkapa notes in the opening passage from his Essence of Eloquence:
As a verse from the Sutra of Questions Posed by Rastrapala declares:
The world is forced to wander by failing to know
This empty, tranquil, and unoriginated nature.
The Compassionate One enables beings to understand it
Through hundreds of expedient means and reasons.
Seeing that the suchness of entities is extremely difficult to realize and that one cannot become liberated from samsara without realizing it, the Compassionate Master [Buddha Sakyamuni] caused it to be understood using many different forms of reasoning and expedient means. Therefore, those who possess intelligence must apply themselves to the methods by which the nature of that reality can be understood. Moreover, that depends upon being able to distinguish between the Conqueror's scriptures whose meaning requires interpretation and those that are of definitive meaning.
~ From The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice: Vasubhandu's Summary of the Five Heaps with Commentary by Sthiramati intro. and trans. by Artemus B. Engle, a Tsadra Foundation Series book, published by Snow Lion Publications
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