The concept of the two truths is associated with the
Mādhyamaka school of
Mahāyāna Buddhism, whose founder was the 3rd-century
Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher
Nāgārjuna, and its history traced back to the
earliest years of Buddhism.
Early Indian Buddhism Theravāda In the
Pāli Canon, the distinction is not made between a
lower truth and a
higher truth, but rather between two kinds of expressions of the same truth, which must be interpreted differently. Thus a phrase or passage, or a whole
Sūtra, might be classified as
neyyattha,
samuti, or
vohāra, but it is not regarded at this stage as expressing or conveying a different
level of truth.
Nītattha (Pāli; Sanskrit:
nītārtha), "of plain or clear meaning" and
neyyattha (Pāli; Sanskrit:
neyartha), "[a word or sentence] having a sense that can only be guessed". '
or ' (Pāli; Sanskrit: ''
), meaning "common consent, general opinion, convention", and paramattha
(Pāli; Sanskrit: paramārtha
), meaning "ultimate", are used to distinguish conventional or common-sense language, as used in metaphors or for the sake of convenience, from language used to express higher truths directly. The term vohāra
(Pāli; Sanskrit: vyavahāra
, "common practice, convention, custom" is also used in more or less the same sense as samuti''. The
Theravādin commentators expanded on these categories and began applying them not only to expressions but to the truth then expressed:
Prajnāptivāda The
Prajñaptivāda school took up the distinction between the conventional () and ultimate () truths, and extended the concept to
metaphysical-phenomenological constituents (
dharma), distinguishing those that are real (
tattva) from those that are purely conceptual, i.e., ultimately nonexistent (
prajñāpti).
Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism with 84
Mahāsiddhas (), Tibetan Buddhist thangka'' currently preserved in the
Rubin Museum of Art, New York City
Mādhyamaka school The distinction between the two truths (
satyadvayavibhāga) was fully developed by
Nāgārjuna (), founder of the
Mādhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy. Mādhyamika philosophers distinguish between
saṃvṛti-satya, "empirical truth", "relative truth", "truth that keeps the ultimate truth concealed", and
paramārtha-satya, ultimate truth. •
Paramarthika (transcendental reality), also referred to as
Parinispanna in Yogācāra literature:
The level of a storehouse of consciousness that is responsible for the appearance of the world of external objects. It is the only ultimate reality. •
Paratantrika (dependent or empirical reality):
The level of the empirical world experienced in ordinary life. For example, the snake-seen-in-the-snake. •
Parikalpita (imaginary). For example, the snake-seen-in-a-dream.
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra The
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, one of the earliest
Mahāyāna Sūtras, took an idealistic turn in apprehending reality. Japanese Buddhist scholar
D. T. Suzuki writes the following explanation:
East Asian Buddhism When
Buddhism was introduced to China by
Buddhist monks from the
Indo-Greek Kingdom of
Gandhāra (now Afghanistan) and
classical India between the 2nd century BCE and 1st century CE, the two truths teaching was initially understood and interpreted through various ideas in
Chinese philosophy, including
Confucian and
Taoist ideas which influenced the vocabulary of
Chinese Buddhism. As such,
Chinese translations of Buddhist texts and philosophical treatises made use of native Chinese terminology, such as
"T’i -yung" (體用, "Essence and Function") and "
Li-Shih" (理事, Noumenon and Phenomenon) to refer to the two truths. These concepts were later developed in several
East Asian Buddhist traditions, such as the
Wéishí and
Huayan schools. The doctrines of these schools also influenced the ideas of
Chán (Zen) Buddhism, as can be seen in the
Verses of the Five Ranks of
Tōzan and other Chinese Buddhist texts. Chinese thinkers often took the two truths to refer to two
ontological truths (two ways of being, or levels of
existence): a relative level and an
absolute level. For example, Taoists at first misunderstood
emptiness (
śūnyatā) to be akin to the Taoist notion of non-being. In the
Mādhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy, the two truths are two
epistemological truths: two different ways to look at reality. The
Sānlùn school (Chinese Mādhyamikas) thus rejected the ontological reading of the two truths. However, drawing on
Buddha-nature thought, such as that of the
Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, and on
Yogācāra sources, other Chinese Buddhist philosophers defended the view that the two truths did refer to two levels of reality (which were nevertheless
non-dual and inferfused), one which was conventional, illusory and impermanent, and another which was eternal, unchanging and pure.
Huayan school The
Huayan school or "Flower Garland" school is a tradition of
Chinese Buddhist philosophy that flourished in
medieval China during the
Tang period (7th–10th centuries CE). It is based on the
Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and on a lengthy Chinese interpretation of it, the
Huayan Lun. The name "Flower Garland" is meant to suggest the crowning glory of profound understanding. The most important philosophical contributions of the Huayan school were in the area of its
metaphysics. It taught the doctrine of the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena, as expressed in
Indra's net. One thing contains all other existing things, and all existing things contain that one thing. Distinctive features of this approach to Buddhist philosophy include: • Truth (or reality) is understood as encompassing and interpenetrating falsehood (or illusion), and vice versa • Good is understood as encompassing and interpenetrating evil • Similarly, all mind-made distinctions are understood as "collapsing" in the enlightened understanding of
emptiness (a tradition traced back to the Indian Buddhist philosopher
Nāgārjuna) Huayan teaches the
Four Dharmadhātu, four ways to view reality: • All dharmas are seen as particular separate events; • All events are an expression of the absolute; • Events and essence interpenetrate; • All events interpenetrate.
Absolute and relative in Zen Buddhism (1200–1253), Japanese
Zen master and founder of the
Sōtō school of
Zen The teachings of
Chán (Zen) Buddhism are expressed by a set of polarities:
Buddha-nature (
tathāgatagarbha),
emptiness (
śūnyatā), absolute-relative,
sudden and
gradual enlightenment (
bodhi). The
Prajnāpāramitā Sūtras and
Mādhyamaka philosophy emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form", as it's written in the
Heart Sutra. The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into the
Chinese culture, which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not tell how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the
Verses of the Five Ranks of
Tōzan and the
Oxherding Pictures.
Essence-function in Korean Buddhism The polarity of absolute and relative is also expressed as "essence-function". The absolute is essence, the relative is function. They can't be seen as separate realities, but interpenetrate each other. The distinction does not "exclude any other frameworks such as
neng-so or "subject-object" constructions", though the two "are completely different from each other in terms of their way of thinking". In
Korean Buddhism, essence-function is also expressed as "body" and "the body's functions": A metaphor for essence-function is "A lamp and its light", a phrase from the
Platform Sutra, where "essence" is the lamp and "function" its light.
Tibetan Buddhism Nyingma school The
Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of
Tibetan Buddhism. The following sentence from
Mipham the Great's exegesis of
Śāntarakṣita's
Madhyamālaṃkāra highlights the relationship between the absence of
the four extremes (''mtha'-bzhi
) and the non-dual or indivisible two truths (bden-pa dbyer-med''): ==Understanding in other traditions==