Truth

 Truth

In certain contexts meanings such as 'teaching' or 'practice' seem not

to fit; a meaning closer to 'truth' - the truth about the world or reality

as directly realized and taught by the Buddha - seems to be required.

Thus in a number of places in the Nikayas it is described how the

Buddha by means of step by step instruction (anupubbl kathii) leads

his listeners to a vision of the truth: he talks of giving, virtuous

conduct, and heaven; he reveals the danger, vanity and impurity of

sense desires, and the benefit of desirelessness; and when he sees that

the hearts of his listeners are ready, open and without hindrance, are

inspired and confident, then he reveals the teaching of the truth that is

special to buddhas - suffering, its arising, its cessation, the path; and

at the conclusion of such step by step instruction there arises in his

listeners 'the clear and spotless vision of the truth (dhamma-cakkhu),; 

96 RUPERT OETHIN'

the listeners are now 'ones who have seen the truth, gained the truth,

known the truth, penetrated the truth, gone beyond doubt, removed

their questioning, and acquired full 'confidence in what is taught by

the Teacher without having to rely on others' .15

Taking dhamma as close to 'truth' , as opposed to teaching or

practice, would also seem to be appropriate in such statements as the

well known 'he who sees dhamma sees me, he who sees me sees

dhamma' , or 'he who sees dependent arising sees dhamma, he who

sees dhamma sees dependent arising' . 16 That dhamma in these statements means something like 'truth' is reinforced by the way in which

in context they are illustrated ' by accounts of precisely the early

Buddhist understanding of the truth about the way things are:

physical form, feeling, recognition, volitions, consciousness are

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impermanent, suffering, and not to be taken as self; the five aggregates of attachment arise dependent on factors and conditions.

Some scholars have suggested that dhamma in the sense of 'truth'

becomes hypostasized as the highest metaphysical principle, equivalent to the iitman-brahman of the Upani�ads, almost personifiedY

Such an interpretation is, of course, controversial and certainly

problematic from the point of view the interpretations of traditional

Theravada Buddhism.