PHIL 104

(ASIA 104/RELS 104)

San Jose State University

Instructor: Bo Mou
HANDOUT 20

Topic 6
6.2

Buddhism

Two Types of Buddhism

Hinayana (the Small Vehicle) Buddhism, which was the mainstream Buddhism within Indian Buddhism or
Pali Buddhism (Buddhism delivered in the Indian Pali language):

(1) It emphasizes that Each individual rides one's own 'Small Vehicle' to save oneself and takes self-enlightenment
with wisdom as its ideal.
(2) It is thoroughly atheistic and hence refuses to look upon the Buddha as God.
(3) As far as the potential Buddhahood of all living beings, Buddha nature is something to be attained by each man
at certain time during his round of births and death.
(4) Its metaphysics is pluralistic realism: with rejecting the distinction between the world as appearance and the
world as it is in itself, we directly perceive ultimate reality; ultimate constituents (dharmas) are distinct and
irreducible.)

Mahayana (the Great Vehicle) Buddhism (minority trend within Indian Buddhism):

(1) It stresses that all individuals ride together in the Great Vehicle toward salvation and takes the compassionate
salvation of others as its ideal.
(2) It sees that the masses of persons are too weak and frail to face life fraught with suffering and misery without
turning to some transcendental source of help, love, and mercy; it assures the masses hat the Transcendental
Buddha (the historical Buddha is identified only as its incarnation) knows and helps every suffering being; in
this way, it offers faith and hope to the weak and timid; so prayer and worship play a great role.
(3) Buddha nature is always present in every sentient being; every living being is a potential Buddha; samara
(mundane existence as chain of birth and death) and nirvana are not two different ontological realms but one
and the same reality seen from different points of view; when ignorance is overcome, this same world will be
experienced as nirvana; one then realizes that one has always been in nirvana, only one was not aware of it
owing to the veil of ignorance.
(4) We cannot directly perceive ultimate reality but only the phenomenon world as captured through our senses and
intellect; ultimate reality is Emptiness (sunyata) in the sense that it is non-dual, nameless, formless, uncreated,
and ineffable; it can only be apprehended in non-sensual, non-intellectual intuition (prajna) [According to some
versions of Mahayana, the historical Buddha is the phenomenal manifestation, one among many, of the
transcendental reality.
The Mahayana, so to speak, is liberal while the Hinayana is conservative. The Mahayana Buddhists criticize the
Hinayana ideal as selfish, while Hinayanists criticize Mahayanists as departing from the original teaching of
Buddha.
Geographically, Mahayana spreads in north and east Asia and is thus called the 'Northern Buddhism', while
Hinayana (nowadays usually called Theravada for some historical reason) is strong in south and southeast Asia
and is thus also called the 'Southern Buddhism'. Though a minority trend within Indian Buddhism and in
south/southeast Asia, Mahayana Buddhism is now the mainstream Buddhism worldwide.
Within Mahayana Buddhism, the Madhyamika school and the Chan/Zen school (resulting from the Madhyamika
being combined with some elements of classical Daoism after Mahayana spread to China) most influential.

The Fate of Indian Buddhism

The fate of Indian Buddhism is somehow ironic: Its influence dimished in the country of its origin, while it gained
strength elsewhere as it acculturated itself to surrounding countries and some East Asian countries like China and
Japan. The reasons for Buddhisms decline in India include:
Hinduism experienced a gradual revival, and especially Sankaras teachings became widespread.
Islamic rule in India eventually worked to suppress the growth of Indian Buddhism. Around the 13th
century, thousands of Buddhists fled India and sought refuge in Tibet and Nepal.
Royal support of Buddhism lessened.
Buddhisms increasing devotional emphases made it more difficult for adherents to discern its distinction
from Hindu practices. Buddhism, primarily Hinayana (the Small Vehicle) Buddhism, was still, in the eyes
of many Hindus, a monastic-centered system and therefore was disconnected from public affairs.
6.3

The Buddhist School of the Middle Way on the Double Truth at Different Levels

There are two major schools in Mahayana Buddhism: the Madhyamika school and the Yogacara school (also called
the Consciousness-Only School). The former is more influential. We focus on it. The Madhyamika school is also
called the School of Emptyness or the School of the Middle Way, or the Three-Treatise School. Nagarjuna
(second century C.E.) is generally regarded as the founder of this school. We focus on its doctrine of double truth
which contributes to some core idea of Chan/Zen Buddhism to be discussed.
Two Major Schools in Mahayana Buddhism

The Madhyamika School (the School of Emptyness or the School of the Middle Way, or the ThreeTreatise School)

The Yogacara school (the Consciousness-Only School) The former is more influential. We focus on it.

The founder of the Madhyamika school is Nagarjuna (second century C.E.).

The Doctrine of Double Truth
There are two kinds of truth
Truth in the common sense
Truth in the higher sense
They both exist on varying levels:
What, on the lower level, is the truth in the higher sense, become, on the higher level, merely truth in the common
sense.
Three levels of double truth:

The first level:

The common people take all things as really you (having being, existent) and know nothing about wu
(having no being, non-existent), while the Buddhas have told them that actually all things are wu and
empty.

The second level:

To say that all things are you is one-sided, but to say that all things are wu is also one-sided. They are both
one-sided. At this level, the Buddhas would say that what is you is simultaneously what is wu.

The third level:

But to say that the middle truth consists in what is not one-sided (that is, what is neither you nor wu), mean
to make distinctions. At this level, this is merely common sense truth; the higher truth consists in saying
that all distinctions are themselves one-sided: things are neither you nor wu, neither not-you nor not-wu,
and the middle path is neither one-sided nor not-one-sided.
Compare with Zhuangzis transcendental perspectivism