Friday, March 1, 2024

吉藏 二諦章 (549-623) (Negativity vs Vitality)

True nonduality is to say nothing. 

既然無話可說,禪宗遂誕生於此刻,

Second, there is Jizang’s doctrine of the two levels of truth. For Jizang the two levels of truth are not, as they are for Candrakcrti, two natures possessed by all things. Rather, they are levels of teaching which are, as such, not fixed but provisional, taking the student through a step-by-step dialectical ascent to a state of nonconceptuality. This ascent is composed of three phases. At the first level people have conceptions of existence, and these are opposed with emptiness (= nonexistence here?). At this level existence is conventional truth, empti- ness ultimate truth. It is now important to negate emptiness as well, in order that the mind does not become fixed, attached to emptiness and thereby duality. At the second level, therefore, existence and emptiness are conventional truth, nonduality is the ultimate truth. By ‘nonduality’ here, Jizang explains, neither existence nor emptiness is meant. Third, both duality and nonduality are conventional truth, while neither-duality-nor-nonduality is the ultimate truth (Erdizhang (Erh-ti-chang), trans. in Chan 1963: 360). This is the denial of all views, all extremes, and with the denial of all views and concepts the mind is able to shine forth in a nonconceptual state of prajña. (Paul Williams, 2e, 2016, pp. 82-83)





這是吉藏兄,極其聰明的,對於空的破解,意思是說,所有嗜講虛無者,皆被吉藏兄破邪顯正,