玄奘大學宗教學系教授、系主任兼文理學院院長=Professor and Director, Department of Religious Studies, Hsuan Chuang University
關鍵詞
中道=Middle Path; 緣起=Dependent Origination; 十二緣起=Twelve Conditional Links; 八正道=Noble Eightfold Path; 緣起中道=Middle Path of Dependent Origination; 八正道中道=Middle Path-the Noble Eightfold Path; 八不中道=Eight Negations Theory of Middle Path; 四門不生=“Cannot come to existence from Four Gates”; 空=emptiness; 無諍=no dispute (abiding in harmony)
”Without veering to the two extremes, the Buddha expounds the teaching of the Middle Path” In the Samyuktāgama, this teaching is always closely connected to the explanations of Dependent Origination and the Twelve Conditional Links, so as to present/illustrate the meanings of ”emptiness” or ”non-self.” This teaching targets a common challenge faced by sentient beings, attachment, and aims to rectify wrong view and thought as such. This is also the main theme that Venerable Yin Shun examined in his book ”A Contemporary Discussion on the Teaching of Mādhyamika,” when backtracking to the teachings of early Buddhism.Later, in the Madhyamāgama, the Buddha started teaching the Middle Path from the perspectives of ethics and daily discipline. These discourses are still closely linked with the teaching of Dependent Origination. But they have moved a step further into highlighting a daily discipline that ”does not indulge in the two extremes of neither suffering nor happiness” and the teaching of the ”Noble Eightfold Path” that has great ethical significance. The articles ”A Discussion on the Middle Path” and ”Buddhism - The Middle Path” written by Venerable Yin Shun, were elaborations on these themes.There are two main points in this article: firstly, to discuss the original meaning of ”Middle Path” by analysing the ”two-negations” and ”four-refutations” phrases, as found in the Samyuktāgama. This is the teaching of the ”Middle Path of Dependent Origination.”Secondly, to explore the extended meaning of ”Middle Path” based on the discourses found in the Madhyamāgama. That is, to analyse the two-negations phrase of ”not to indulge in the two extremes of neither suffering nor happiness, ”and the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the teaching of the ”Middle Path - the Noble Eightfold Path”.By further investigating the original and extended meanings of the Middle Path in these two aspects, this article comes to the conclusion that, in the sutras of early Buddhism, the ideology of the two-negations-”neither exists nor not exist,” ”neither permanent nor discontinuous,” ”neither identical nor different-and the four-refutations which explain all that exists-”cannot exist by itself, cannot be created by others, cannot be created by self and others, cannot exist without causes”-convey the original meanings of the ”Middle Path.” Whereas the two-negations that highlight ”do not indulge in the two extremes of neither suffering nor happiness” in daily life, and the Noble Eightfold Path that teaches ethical conducts and practice, signify the extended explanations of the ”Middle Path.”
