翻譯名義集 4.72

4.72

[*Mārga*:] Or rendered *banna*; in the Jin language, 'path'. The *Fajie cidi* states: "Path takes 'ability to lead through' as its meaning. There are two kinds of paths: first, the true path, which is the true contemplation of the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, the three gates of liberation, and the practice of wisdom focused on principle—this is named the true path. Second, the auxiliary path: within the contemplation of attained understanding, all various counteractive methods and the various dhyānas are auxiliary paths. These two support each other and can lead through to nirvāṇa, hence it is named the path." These four Chinese and Sanskrit terms appear in the *Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish*. The Abhidharma states: "When the Buddha spoke the Four Truths in the sacred tongue for the Four Heavenly Kings, two understood and two did not understand; when he spoke in the Vedic tongue, one understood and one did not understand; when he spoke in the Licchavi tongue, all four kings understood." Thus we know that the names of the Four Truths are not uniform. If these Four Truths are differentiated in terms of medicine and illness: suffering and origin are mundane cause and effect, which belong to illness; the path and cessation are supramundane cause and effect, which correspond to medicine. If distinguished by ultimate and conventional truth, there are three meanings: first, all four truths are ultimate, as the *Nirvāṇa-sūtra* states: "In the past, neither I nor you saw the four true truths; therefore we have drifted for so long in the great ocean of the suffering of birth and death." Second, all four truths are conventional, as the *Zhiguan* states: "If cessation is not yet ultimate, how could the other three truths be so?" Third, one is ultimate and three are conventional, as the *Śrīmālādevī-sūtra* states: "Of these four noble truths, three are impermanent and one is permanent." It also states: "Therefore the truth of suffering, the truth of origin, and the truth of the path are not the supreme truth, are impermanent, and are not a refuge. Only the truth of the cessation of suffering, being free from conditioned marks, is permanent." Furthermore, the *Nirvāṇa-sūtra* clarifies that there are four kinds of Four Truths: first, the Four Truths of arising and ceasing; second, the Four Truths of non-arising; third, the Four Truths of the immeasurable; fourth, the Four Truths of the unconstructed. The *Śrīmālādevī-sūtra* also clarifies four kinds: first, the constructed Four Truths; second, the measurable Four Truths; third, the unconstructed Four Truths; fourth, the immeasurable Four Truths. However, the sequence of exposition in these two sūtras differs slightly. Jingxi asked: "Why establish the distinction between these four kinds of Four Truths?" Answer: "Truths originally are not four; truth is simply the principle. The principle is not even one, how could there be four? Thus we know that depending on the great compassionate vow-power of the Tathāgata-garbha's identical essence of the provisional and real, and according with the capacities of beings, they are employed only because it cannot be avoided. Because the capacities and suitabilities differ, this results in gradations of teachings. From the one real principle, provisional principles are unfolded; the two principles of provisional and real can be expressed by distinct teachings, hence four kinds of differentiated teachings arise: the Tripiṭaka teaching expounds arising and ceasing, the Shared teaching expounds non-arising, the Distinct teaching expounds the immeasurable, and the Perfect teaching expounds the unconstructed. For this reason Tiantai clarifies the dharma of the four kinds of Four Truths."