三谛

(三諦, 三谛)

The three dogmas. The "middle" school of Tiantai says [lang id =1028]卽空, [lang id =1028]卽假. [lang id =1028]卽中 i.e. [lang id =1028]就是空, [lang id =1028]假, [lang id =1028]中; (a) by [lang id =1028]空(sa) śūnya is meant that things causally produced are in their essential nature unreal (or immaterial) [lang id =1028]實空無; (b) [lang id =1028]假, though things are unreal in their essential nature their derived forms are real; (c) [lang id =1028]中; but both are one, being of the one [lang id =1028]如 reality. These three dogmas are founded on a verse of Nāgārjuna's-- [lang id =1028]因緣所生法, [lang id =1028]我說卽是空 [lang id =1028]亦 [lang id =1028]為是假名, [lang id =1028]亦是中道義 "All causally produced phenomena, I say, are unreal, Are but a passing name, and indicate the 'mean'." There are other explanations-- the [lang id =1028]圓教 interprets the [lang id =1028]空 and [lang id =1028]假 as [lang id =1028]中; the [lang id =1028]別教 makes [lang id =1028]中 independent. [lang id =1028]空 is the all, i.e. the totality of all things, and is spoken of as the [lang id =1028]真 or [lang id =1028]實 true, or real; [lang id =1028]假 is the differentiation of all things and is spoken of as [lang id =1028]俗 common, i.e. things as commonly named; [lang id =1028]中 is the connecting idea which makes a unity of both, e.g. "all are but parts of one stupendous whole." The [lang id =1028]中 makes all and the all into one whole, unifying the whole and its parts. [lang id =1028]空 may be taken as the immaterial, the undifferentiated all, the sum of existences, by some as the tathāgatagarbha [lang id =1028]如來藏; [lang id =1028]假as the unreal, or impermanent, the material or transient form, the temporal that can be named, the relative or discrete; [lang id =1028]中 as the unifier, which places each in the other and all in all. The "shallower" [lang id =1028]山外 school associated [lang id =1028]空 and [lang id =1028]中 with the noumenal universe as opposed to the phenomenal and illusory existence represented by [lang id =1028]假. The "profounder" [lang id =1028]山內 school teaches that all three are aspects of the same.