{"id":274,"date":"2012-04-11T05:26:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T03:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/?p=274"},"modified":"2012-04-11T05:26:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T03:26:52","slug":"dharmata-in-the-questions-of-maitreya-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/dharmata-in-the-questions-of-maitreya-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dharmat\u0101 in the Questions of Maitreya, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cQuestions of Maitreya\u201d chapter in the Perfection of Wisdom texts shows us that we may substitute the wider Buddhist term dharmat\u0101 for the specifically Yog\u0101c\u0101ra Buddhist term parini\u1e63panna in verse 6 of stanza 1 of the Book of Dzyan. As we see from The Secret Doctrine<\/em>, we could also substitute the Advaita Ved\u0101nta term p\u0101ram\u0101rthika for it (vol. 1, p. 356): \u201cSays a \u2018Gupta Vidya\u2019<\/em> S\u016btra: \u2018In the beginning, a ray issuing from Param\u0101rthika (the one<\/em> and only true existence), it became manifested in Vyavah\u0101rika (conventional existence) which was used as a Vahan<\/em> to descend into the Universal Mother, and to cause her to expand (swell, brih<\/em>)\u2019.\u201d In Advaita Vedanta we also have a listing of the three modes of existence that would correspond to the three svabh\u0101vas of Yog\u0101c\u0101ra Buddhism, and to the three aspects taught in the \u201cQuestions of Maitreya.\u201d These are: p\u0101ram\u0101rthika, \u201cultimate\u201d; vy\u0101vah\u0101rika, \u201cconventional\u201d; and pr\u0101tibh\u0101sika, \u201cfalse appearance,\u201d i.e., \u201cillusory.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are seeking a Book of Dzyan, which, as said before, must necessarily use some set of terminology. From the indications we have, at least some of its terminology is distinctive Yog\u0101c\u0101ra Buddhist terms. Nonetheless, other formulations of the same ideas would be possible; and according to the above quotation from a \u201cGupta Vidya\u201d or \u201cHidden Knowledge\u201d S\u016btra, do in fact exist. This quotation uses distinctive Advaita Ved\u0101nta terms. Despite the fact that these systems combat each other exoterically, their teachings are considered identical in the Secret Doctrine. It makes no difference that those who are regarded in the Secret Doctrine as being high initiates, when giving their exoteric teachings, argue against each other. The great Advaita Ved\u0101nta teacher \u015aa\u1e45kar\u0101c\u0101rya refutes the Buddhists, and the great Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tsongkhapa refutes his fellow Buddhist Jonangpas, precisely because their doctrine is too much like that of Advaita Ved\u0101nta! On this issue, see the important paragraph spanning pp. 636-637 of vol. 2 of The Secret Doctrine<\/em>. So we proceed with bringing in parallel terms and ideas that have historically linked the Yog\u0101c\u0101ra teachings and the Perfection of Wisdom or Madhyamaka teachings, from Haribhadra to Dolpopa.<\/p>\n

The \u201cQuestions of Maitreya\u201d chapter of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras in 18,000 and 25,000 lines has been translated into English by Edward Conze in his 1975 book, The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom<\/em>, pp. 644-652 (attached as Questions of Maitreya-English-Conze<\/span><\/a><\/span>). He and Shotaro Iida had previously edited and published the original Sanskrit text in their 1968 article \u201c\u2018Maitreya\u2019s Questions\u2019 in the Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101,\u201d in Melanges D\u2019Indianisme a la Memoire de Louis Renou<\/em>, pp. 229-242 (attached as Questions of Maitreya-Sanskrit-Conze Iida<\/span><\/a><\/span>). The late Edward Conze was practically the sole translator of the massive Perfection of Wisdom texts throughout his lifetime, and every student of these texts in English translation owes him a large debt of gratitude. Conze\u2019s translations have been criticized by Robert Thurman in his Foreword to Lex Hixon\u2019s 1993 Mother of the Buddhas<\/em>, p. xvi, as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cHis translations thus resemble cookbooks full of recipes translated with a dictionary by someone who has no idea what the foods and spices are, who has never cooked or never eaten such a meal. I have assigned his translations to classes of students, decade after decade, with the invariable result that they feel confused, mystified, and shut out of the real message of the text.\u201d<\/p>\n

While what he reports about his students being confused by Conze\u2019s translations is no doubt true, the reason he assigns for this is unlikely, and is unfair to Conze. The earlier part of this paragraph associates \u201cbasic preconceptions of nihilism\u201d with Conze, says that he \u201cdid not himself practice the yoga of transcending wisdom,\u201d and that \u201cHe never found the liberating logic of what might superficially appear to be meaningless paradoxes or irreconcilable contradictions.\u201d This is not the impression that I get of Conze from his various journal articles and books, as well as oral information from former students of his. In fact, Conze had a difficult time in academia for the same reason that Thurman did at the beginning: He was a believer in Buddhism at a time when it was thought that scholars could not remain objective if they believed in what they studied.<\/p>\n

The difficulty with Conze\u2019s translations is not that they are dictionary translations by someone who does not know what the text is talking about, but rather that he used stock translations of technical terms that are not normal English (such as \u201cown-being\u201d for svabh\u0101va), and never stopped to give notes explaining their meaning. Conze had a huge amount of material to translate, and he did not write extensive explanatory notes like his colleague Etienne Lamotte was famous for. Thurman concludes: \u201cPrajnaparamita<\/em> still cries out for a completely revised presentation.\u201d I agree, but not because of thinking that Conze seriously misunderstood the material.<\/p>\n

I will give a new translation of the definitions of the three ways in which dharmas are to be seen, from the \u201cQuestions of Maitreya,\u201d shortly. In the meantime, one can try to understand Conze\u2019s translation of them, found on p. 648 (attached above). He here translates dharmat\u0101 as \u201cdharmic nature.\u201d There are several significant misprints in this book, such as \u201cearth\u201d for \u201cdeath\u201d on p. 644, that further hinder one\u2019s understanding. Although I regard writing in books as a cardinal sin, I have here made an exception and have written in pencil in the margins a few corrections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cQuestions of Maitreya\u201d chapter in the Perfection of Wisdom texts shows us that we may substitute the wider Buddhist term dharmat\u0101 for the specifically Yog\u0101c\u0101ra Buddhist term parini\u1e63panna in verse 6 of stanza 1 of the Book of Dzyan. As we see from The Secret Doctrine, we could also substitute the Advaita Ved\u0101nta term […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dhatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}