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© Anonymous, April 22, 2013 at 4:38 PM (http://tantrismuskritik.blogspot.tw/2013/04/why-vijnanas-sense-roots-or-five.html?showComment=1366619898684#c6905816502299628476")
Some people think that here the Buddha was talking about the Three Samadhis rather than the Three Dharma-Seals.
In reality, the Three Samadhis are the same as the Three Dharma-Seals. Other sutras in the Agamas Sutras also contain numerous accounts of the Emptiness Samadhi, No-Appearance Samadhi and Samadhi of Having Nothing, also known as the Emptiness Samadhi, No-Appearance Samadhi and Wishlessness Samadhi, or the Emptiness Samadhi, No-Appearance Samadhi and No-Fabrication Samadhi. These Three Samadhis actually refers to the Three Dharma-Seals.
One may ask: Why were the Three Dharma-Seals called the Three Samadhis?
This actually has to do with the true realization of the Buddha dharma.
They are called the Three Dharma-Seals when we come to understand their essence. But when one has truly realized the Three Dharma-Seals, one’s wisdom will arise, and by then they should be called the Three Samadhis.
For example, when a sound-hearer has realized the Three Dharma-Seals, it means that he has attained the First Fruit and realized part of the Three Samadhis, thereby acquiring a basic understanding of them. By now, the Three Samadhis are also called the Three-Liberation-Ways.
This First Fruit sound-hearer would see that the attainment of liberation must start from emptiness, from where one proceeds to no-appearance and finally arrive at wishlessness. Or it can be said that, he would start from the Emptiness Samadhi, the liberation through emptiness, and proceed to no-appearance and no-fabrication, until finally attaining the ultimate liberation from the cycle of births-and-deaths.
An enlightened Mahayana bodhisattva can also realize the Three Dharma-Seals.
If a Mahayana bodhisattva is said to have realized the Three Dharma-Seals, it means that he has become enlightened and at the same time eliminated the misconceptions about the self; in other words, he has realized the Three Dharma-Seals along with the Three Samadhis of the Sound-Hearer Vehicle.
Once he has realized the Three Dharma-Seals, he would be able to understand the Three Samadhis or the Three Liberation Ways like the sound-hearers mentioned before. Nonetheless, after a bodhisattva has realized the Three Dharma-Seals, the wisdom that he brings forth is superior to that of the sound-hearers. What this means is that the requirement for realization is the reason why the Three Dharma-Seals is being called the Three Samadhis. (Part 2)
The realization of the Three Dharma-Seals can bring forth in a Mahayana bodhisattva the insightful samadhi of liberation with regard to the overall reality of the three realms, together with the wisdom of true reality and the prajna wisdom. The level of the Three Samadhis he has realized thus surpasses the ones realized by sound-hearers.
ReplyDeleteWe can understand from the basic principle mentioned above that the realization of the Three Dharma-Seals will bring forth the Three Samadhis, for the realization of the Three Dharma-Seals will bring out some sort of conviction with respect to the dharma-realm [dharmadhatu].
What kind of conviction is this? It’s a decisive and unwavering understanding about the overall appearance (characteristics) of the dharma-realm, which will bring forth wisdom. Insomuch as such understanding and wisdom are unshakeable and will bring about one’s correct insight of liberation with conviction, one is said to have attained the samadhi of liberation. Thus, the Three Dharma-Seals is actually the Three Samadhis and vice versa. The Three Samadhis refer to the conviction (which corresponds with the mental function of concentration) that is brought about by personal realization of the Three Dharma-Seals.
Now that you understand why the Three Dharma-Seals are called the Three Samadhis and the Three Liberation Ways, I’ll give a detailed discussion of the Three Dharma-Seals.
To help you better understand the content of the Three Dharma-Seals, I’ll divide them into two types: among the Three Dharma-Seals (“all formations are impermanent, all dharmas are of no-self, and nirvana is tranquility”), we can begin with observing the ones about all formations and all dharmas.
What these two dharma-seals underscore is the immensity of the number of dharmas and therefore they can be grouped as one type. “Nirvana is tranquility” is the second type of dharma-seal because it does not concern an amount but point to the existence of a particular dharma. Therefore, we can group the Three Dharma-Seals into two types: one refers to all formations and all dharmas, which are dharmas of an arising-and-ceasing nature, whereas the nirvana is the second type and refers to a dharma of a neither-arising-nor-ceasing nature, one that is characterized by no birth, no cessation, coolness, realness, everlasting and unchangeable.
I have to remind again, the most important thing in learning Buddhist teachings is that the Buddha dharmas should be put together, from the start to the end that all have to be fitted into a whole picture. Like a complete jigsaw puzzle, instead of bits and pieces. Otherwise there will be no true wisdom in it. (Part 3)