中論 (佛教)/13 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆
This text is part of Ryuju’s “Chūron” and was translated into Chinese by Hatomarashi. To summarize the main content:
- discusses the Buddhist concept of emptiness.
- it explains that all phenomena (actions) are delusional and empty because they have no substance.
- a detailed analysis of the impermanence and insubstantiality of the five skandhas (color, reception, thought, action, and perception).
- discusses the absence of the essence of things (autopoiesis) and explores the nature of change.
- critically examines the concepts of “sameness” and “difference” and points out the contradiction between them.
- the teaching of emptiness is intended to abandon fixed views, and it also warns against attachment to emptiness itself.
- explains the theory of karma and depicts the chain of events from obscurity to suffering.
- finally, it states that the understanding of emptiness extinguishes vexations and leads to liberation.
This text provides a multifaceted discussion of the concept of emptiness, which is at the core of Chūkan thought, and offers profound insights into the nature of phenomena.
Yes, specific citations and explanations will be provided for the portions that critically examine the concepts of “identity” and “differentiation”.
Citation:
- The color of a young child is the color of a creeping child. Or the color of old age. All colors are for infants. There is no creeping or old age. The mud bowl is always a bottle that never gets made. What is the reason for this? Because the color is always fixed. When the color of young infants is different from that of crawlers. The rule is that infants do not crawl. The crawling is not made by infants. What is the reason? Because of the difference in color. The color of a child is always the same as that of a boy or a boy’s age. There is no parental relation between father and child.
Commentary:
- Identity (i) Critique:
- If the color (form) of an infant is identical to that of the crawling period or old age, then all periods remain infantile and growth and change cannot be explained.
- For example, a lump of mud will always remain a lump of mud and never become a jar.
- Critique of Differentiality (different):
- If the color of the infant is completely different from the color of the crawling period, then the infant does not become a crawling child and continuity is lost.
- This means that there will be no continuity between infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age; even the parent-child relationship will cease to exist.
- Pointing out inconsistencies:
- If you insist on identity, you cannot explain change, and if you insist on dissimilarity, you cannot explain continuity.
- In other words, we need a middle way understanding that is neither “one” (same) nor “different” (difference).
- An introduction to the idea of the sky:
- This logic shows that things have no fixed essence (autopoiesis) and leads to the idea of emptiness.
- They are made to understand that phenomena are constantly changing, interdependent, and have neither fixed identity nor absolute differentiation.
This section is a typical example of “first and fifteenth days of the ninth lunar month (corresponding to the new moon and full moon)” and illustrates the core of Ryuju’s Chukan philosophy. It emphasizes the importance of avoiding fixed views and understanding the interdependence and non-self (emptiness) of things.
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