The issue of truth in Buddhism.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

The Buddha learners need to have enough intellectual capacity to learn, to realize the true points of the holy teaching, to believe and embark on the great experience of life, the experiment that Prince Siddhartha finished gloriously and brilliantly under the Bodhi tree.

In a previous article, we have seen that Buddhism advocates a broad, thorough, and supreme Knowledge (Supreme Master of the Virtue of Perception). This Knowledge is based on spiritual experiences, on the enlightened liberation of a Buddha who has transcended ignorance and samsara. The Knowing is the knowing of the true nature of all things, the Knowing of the true face of all phenomena (the cross-sectional item).

Buddhism advocates that human knowledge can be achieved to truth, provided that people have to convert the current knowledge into the wisdom of Bat Nha. The knowledge of sentient beings has an inferior ability because it has been obscured by so many delights.

That truth, that true face, is called true as, is true, is Buddha; In short, truth. The question of truth in Buddhism is conceived like?

Buddhism advocates that human knowledge can be achieved to truth, provided that people have to convert the current knowledge into the wisdom of Bat Nha. The knowledge of sentient beings has an inferior ability because it has been obscured by so many delights. Now that we can kill those delusions, we can transform the Knowledge (knowledge) into Tri (Bat Nha) and with this ability, people can receive the Being directly.

The single way of learning distinguishes three types of knowledge that human knowledge can possess:

1. - Understanding by quantity

Quantities mean discrimination, comparison, and understanding. Present time is the direct knowing of things in the present time and the present space. This knowledge does not need to go through a mediated inference. I saw in front of me a dictionary. That "seeing" is quantitative, the ability to perceive directly without thinking. Can be considered temporarily as an intuitive way.

Buddhism advocates: because there is an element of ignorance, ignorance has caused things "barbaric" it. That ignorance is called ignorance (avidya).

But there are cases of true phenomena and there are cases of false phenomena. See the rope, let it be the rope, that is "true amount" (present amount right). Seeing the rope, panicked for being a snake, it is "the amount of money" (showing the wrong amount). Freak means the same as true, but it is actually wrong.

2. - Knowledge in proportion

This ratio means comparison, deduction and comparison. If we ask "can there be rain tomorrow afternoon" our present volume cannot be answered because it can only know the current and the present. Tomorrow afternoon means what happened at another time, so it is thanks to another reasoning ability: that possibility is in proportion. Just as when I asked, "Is there anything in the heart of the earth" my presentness cannot answer, because being here is not a thing in the current place, it is impossible to know if there is no deductive effect? . So we need to use the ratio.

What's behind that wall of smoke? Percentage answered that there was fire. Because of its deduction "to have smoke means to have fire". If behind a wall there is a real fire, it is called "true weight" (true ratio), but if behind a wall there is something other than fire but can also cause smoke (like a fire motor vehicles, for example), it is called "tồn billion" (wrong amount).

Although we only need to be aware of things in the present and the present, we still make mistakes. Proportion of having to reach out to things at other times and in other localities makes it easier to make mistakes. Consequently, the compassionate reflection of proportion often leads us to fear away from reality. The great questions about life, on nature, which cannot be solved by virtue, are of course due to proportion. But proportions often lead us to the metaphysical borders far from wide and often to virtual unintended variables. Ngoc Hoang, God, Nam Tao, Bac Dau, Apple Quan, Pham Thien etc ... are all products of proportions. Within the scope of experiments, the percentage also proved to be very wrong, let alone when it was beyond the experiment. The free and daring wings of our proportions take us everywhere, but when we return we bring only unbelievable theories.

The image of truth is only a means to show truth, not truth. Beings must rely on that image to find the truth by study, by practice.

So, why can sentient beings' knowledge not come to truth? The main reason is in the amount and the amount. But why is not sentient being purely true and arguably the amount of truth and truth?

Buddhism advocates: because there is an element of ignorance, ignorance has caused things "barbaric" it. That ignorance is called ignorance (avidya).

The enlightened ones are those who have destroyed the ignorance, destroys the existing amount and the amount of energy, developed to the extreme of the true amount and the quantity. The latter two possibilities, after the ignorance has been eradicated, can reach its highest state of wisdom, the Prajna (Prajna), in order to be able to receive the truth of the ten thousand truths directly.

The enlightened ones, after attaining the truth, immediately think about teaching for people who have not yet attained. But the absolute truth cannot use an inferiorly simple instrument of language to be able to interpret and explain. So, even if enlightened beings have the ability to interpret, they can also explain the influence of truth and the method of achieving truth, but cannot explain itself of truth.

"Truth is the moon. My teachings are the fingers pointing to the moon. Don't mistake my fingers to be the moon."

The image of truth is only a means to show truth, not truth. Beings must rely on that image to find the truth by study, by practice. Although it is not the truth itself, the image is also beyond the imagined figures of false geodesy, crazy delusions about the truth of tales.

Therefore, truth is not in the sutras, and the sutras are only a means of showing truth. So the Buddha taught:

"Truth is the moon. My teachings are the fingers pointing to the moon. Don't mistake my fingers to be the moon." If he followed the scriptures to explain, to find the truth in the lines of words, it is that he only knows how to look at his fingers but does not know the moon. But leaving the scriptures altogether can fall into the wild of delusion. So one of the patriarchs said, "Y the explanation of the Buddha, the three wrongful Buddhas; the cup of loss, or the ghost theory", means: If you leave the sutras then you will fall into the evil spirits of Maou. "

So in addition to the two types of knowledge, namely quantity and quantity, we also have a third type of understanding: holy quantity.

Must "see" to be able to hear. Because if you believe, you can only imagine "it". But how to imagine? The countryside doctor decided to look through the microscope

3. - Knowledge by holy amount

This understanding is based on the teachings of enlightened beings. These are the "fingers pointing to the moon" whereby ordinary people have the means to become enlightened saints.

But for these saints, we must also keep a reserved attitude of inquiry. Because we have not realized it directly, we do not know "experimentally" that truth is really a truth, or is it just a jumble of proportions like so many other things. Here, there must be faith. But this faith must also be built upon observations and preliminary experiences.

For example, while people are stubbornly accepting everything as being, having the ego, and hearing the Buddha teach a truth that encompasses the impermanence of non-self, one must control whether it is true that everything is impermanent. fall or not. If so, that may be one of the foundations of faith.

We take one more example in the following fake story:

In one area, people are contagious. A doctor studied the disease and healed many people. The disease gradually lessens raging in that area. A countryside doctor visits the doctor.

The Buddha learners need to have enough intellectual capacity to learn, to realize the true points of the holy teaching, to believe and embark on the great experience of life, the experiment that Prince Siddhartha finished gloriously and brilliantly under the Bodhi tree.

The doctor, who is a brilliant microbiologist, tells our country doctor that there are creatures so small, that the naked eye (l'oeil nu) cannot see it; These creatures destroy the human body and make many very dangerous infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, epidemic, smallpox ... It is hard to believe, the farmer shook his head. I can't believe it when I haven't heard anyone speak of such a bizarre "truth". If you believe it right away it's superstition, even if it's true. Without believing, there is no way to see the truth - see germs.

In fact, the doctor was originally a learned scientist, the truth (germs make disease) he saw very clearly, but did not know how to believe the country doctor! He then temporarily declared (means) that these "germs" were like hooks, or spreads. But the "truth" of the scientist said, to the countryside is "too metaphysical", too hard to believe. What kind of worm is like a hook, like a spread? What insects do not see? Can't see but know like a spread, like a hook?

Previously, the countryside doctor said that the disease was caused by demons and murder. "Devil, murder" is the crazy delusion, is the product of billions. Now "hook bacteria" is holy amount. Can the countryside be able to believe this truth "hook-hook bacteria" (?)

At first it was suspected. But after retesting, I found that there were some truths that I could believe: Before the doctor came, people had exorcised many exorcisms, why did the illness not lessen? Why does the doctor give anyone medicine? Doctors study better, wiser than themselves, who can deny that? If you do not know clearly, if the guess is dim, then the truth of "hookworm", how can that be the basis for a good medicine? Moreover, listening to the explanation of germs, about microscopes, the farmer has found it very suitable. So the farmer believes.

This knowledge is made possible through the teachings of the enlightened ones. These are the "fingers pointing to the moon" whereby ordinary people have the means to become enlightened saints.

But the news is not enough. Must "see" to be able to hear. Because if you believe, you can only imagine "it". But how to imagine? The countryside doctor decided to look through the microscope And after "hard work of mind", many new phen "germs truths" are seen. Now is a direct realization. And the other lens is indeed Bat Nha Tri, which is "the ultimate form of perception".

The country doctor was not satisfied with the doctor's description, wanting to "see germs" directly. He knew that the imagination described by the doctor, though not as wrong as when he expected the devil to kill, was still not quite right. So the Buddhist learners are also dissatisfied with the fingers pointing to the moon, the shadows of truth, though that figure has far surpassed the delusion of proportion.

The Buddha learners need to have enough intellectual capacity to learn, to realize the true points of the holy teaching, to believe and embark on the great experience of life, the experiment that Prince Siddhartha finished gloriously and brilliantly under the Bodhi tree. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.22/12/2019.