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Anurudha Sutra

Thich Nhat Hanh · July 2, 1998 · New Hamlet, Plum Village, France
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Anuttara differentiates clearly between the Anuradha Sutra and the Ana Luat Da Sutra, emphasizing that the Anuradha Sutra teaches the doctrine of the tetralemma, which transcends the four propositions concerning reality after death:

  • is
  • is not
  • both is and is not
  • neither is nor is not

The Tathagata does not bind truth to any fixed category, but simply points out suffering and the path of liberation—the Four Noble Truths—based on practice and direct contemplation, without letting the mind fall into dualistic reasoning.

When the ascetics of other paths questioned about seeking the Tathagata in form, the World-Honored One repeated through ten questions about the five skandhas (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) that it is impossible to find him within or outside any of the aggregates. This is an invitation to deep contemplation, to let go of all fixed notions of being and non-being, birth and death, in order to directly realize the ontological ground that transcends all dualistic discrimination.

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