Vasana wrote: ↑Wed Jun 20, 2018 3:09 pm
Suffering , it's causes and cessation are clearly taught in Mahayana just as dependent origination and the wheel of rebirth is taught in both. It's the spokes of the 4th truth that are presented differently in Mahayana and Zen.
Why would anyone practice Mahayana or Zen for that matter if there were not some foundational motivating factor to begin with ? I.e - the recognition that suffering and dissatisfaction is evident and that these teachings present methods and insights to uproot the causes of those .
So I'm going to try and tackle a subtle point here and hope this illuminates why the 4NT are not emphasized in East Asian Buddhism. For one, see my post above - 4NT are Sravakayana; Nagarjuna's influence; Tientai view.
I'm going to put aside the sources and just try and explain the view, so don't crucify me if my post is not properly footnoted. This is for information purposes.
To define unenlightened life as suffering is rather arbitrary - "coarse". As the higher teachings inform us, there really is no suffering - suffering is the side effect of a glitch in our perception of reality. That said, there are these experiences which the Buddha referred to in order to problematize ordinary life, but his point was not to create some morbid world view - "Suffering, suffering, all is suffering." Rather, his point was to show people how they could be freed from the unwanted side effects of life lived as little more than immediate, largely unthinking reaction to stimuli. By defining Suffering, he set down a dharma against which a path could be formulated, but more importantly, could be ascribed with meaning, that would lead people toward liberation from mistaken perceptions about life and those nasty, uncomfortable side effects on an individual level. This simple view and path could also serve as the creed on which an institution could be founded, the four-fold Sangha, that would endure and share this wisdom for generations to come; Buddha was not merely a wise man; he was a great leader of men who understood how to organize people (around a simple idea - a banner or Standard) into enduring social structures that could survive without a charismatic leader (just as Augustus established a system of government in Rome that endured centuries of inept leadership) (that's the training Gotama received as a boy who would be a king and a general). I digress.
But back to suffering - by defining unenlightened life as suffering, Buddha simplified life to a single, problematic principle. That simple problematic principle implies a simple cause. That simple cause implies a simple solution: bring karma to its end in parinirvana. The actual solution in practice drew on the meditative sciences that were being developed and refined by the sravakas (in the generic, not exclusively Buddhist sense of that word). And now, there was a sangha of lay supporters and dedicated practitioners, endeavoring for parinirvana.
Now Buddha had to address the excess of the pursuit of nirvana, and all these people exerting all their effort to bringing all clinging to an end. First he taught about this greater ideal - the bodhisattva - the being who puts off nirvana in order to work for the liberation of other beings. This expanded the Buddhist path beyond the relatively short religious career of the sravakas - a few life times, at most, until nirvana is attained - to three eons, or more. The 4NT however stays intact though drawn out.
Then he revealed these bodhisattvas who actually put off nirvana until all beings are liberated - essentially a perpetual bodhisattva career.
The 4NT then become indefinite - the completion of the 8 Fold Path is no longer the point, but rather perpetual practice for others... still, theoretically, once infinity is exhausted, the bodhisattva will enter parinirvana.
And then the Buddha goes and reveals, that actually, he himself, is without measure. A lot of gymnastics are performed in some circles trying to reconcile the ever enduring Buddha with the 4NT, but in East Asia, this concern was dropped as an upaya, as the petals of the lotus eventually drop off to reveal the fruit.
If the Buddha is ever enduring, without beginning, without end, then the problem-solution structure proposed by the 4NT no longer makes sense.
A different view emerges about the nature of reality/life, and its this nature of reality that becomes the focus of Buddhist practice at the later stages in East Asian Buddhism. 4NT are like the first proposition to get the conversation going, but as the conversation progresses, its limitations become apparent and its simply relinquished - not rejected, but understood for what it is, an artful beginning, but no longer particularly relevant to the task of full knowledge, and left, effortlessly, like a baby spontaneously releasing its grasp of the rattle to grasp the bottle.
The various Buddhist teachings are cures for particular ailments, but once they cure the particular ailment for which they were prescribed, those teachings themselves become the source of illness and need to be treated by successively more refined medicines. 4NT is a cure for a rather coarse conception of life. In East Asia, the focus became reality itself. As taught in the Tiantai school:
The perfect-and-sudden [method of practicing cessation-and-contemplation] involves taking the true aspects [of reality] as the object from the very beginning. Whatever is made to be the object [of contemplation], it is the Middle; there is nothing that is not truly real. [When one attains the state of contemplation wherein] reality itself (dharmadhatu) is fixed as the object [of contemplation], and thoughts are integrated with reality itself, [then one realizes that] there is not a single color or scent that is not the Middle Way. It is the same for the realm of the individual, the
realm of Buddhas, and the world at large. All [phenomena experienced through] the aggregates (skandha) and senses (ayatana) are thusness; therefore there is no [substantial] suffering that needs to be removed. Since ignorance (avidya) and the exhausting dust [of passionate afflictions (kleša)] are indivisible with bodhi-wisdom, there is no origin [of suffering; i.e., craving] to be severed. Since the extreme [dualities] and false [views] are [indivisible with] the Middle and what is right, there is no path to be cultivated. Since [this cyclic world of] samsara is [indivisible with] nirvana, there is no extinguishing [of craving] to be realized. Since suffering and its causes do not exist [substantially], there is no mundane world [to be transcended]; since the path and the extinction [of craving] do not exist [substantially], there is no transcendent world [to be gained]. There is purely the single true aspect [of reality-as-it-is]; there are no separate things outside this true aspect. For things in themselves (dharmata) to be quiescent is called “cessation” (samatha); to be quiescent yet ever luminous is called “contemplation” (vipassana). Though earlier and later [stages] are spoken of, they are neither two nor separate. This is called perfect-and-sudden cessation-and-contemplation.