Echoing Nagarjuna’s two truths the Buddha taught a conditioned reality and an unconditioned reality which he personally realized in deepest meditation. In order to get to the latter, which is ultimate, we have to use the former which is conventional or worldly, otherwise the unconditioned truth cannot be taught. It is like serving food. A plate and flatware are required, although they are not food.
Conventional information such as the Buddha’s discourses is, at bottom, like a raft which can be useful for crossing to the other shore of awakening—but the raft is of no ultimate value. In the same way, these discourses can help to orient us, properly, to where lies the unconditioned truth, which is transcendent.
Conventional knowledge is capable of preparing us, in other words, to see the absolute. But this same knowledge may well deceive us if we are not careful. By deceiving us, we might believe we are on the right path still believing that the fluctuating, temporal mind is the true Mind.
Conventional truth, because it is conditioned, also veils the unconditioned. The veiling is meant to conceal, not reveal. Under the burden of ignorance the average person (prithagjana) has to undeceive themselves, constantly, which is a difficult task. Indeed, the average person is wrongly trying to make conventional sense of the Buddha’s teaching which is contrary to the conventional. There is, properly, no conventional reading of Buddhism whereby one sees what the Buddha saw becoming awakened.
Conventionally, for example, I can say the first noble truth is suffering but from the awakened, unconditioned perspective suffering only arises by attaching to the conditioned. To be totally free of suffering one has to undeceive themselves which is to say, in other words, fully detach themselves from the psychophysical body of suffering in such a way that they are fully and completely reliant on the unconditioned. This is where conventional truth cannot pass. It is more like Mumon’s gateless barrier.
Comments