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The Middle Way 09
After studying the last three gathas of Chapter 10 of the Middle Treatise, such as “Inside is burning but not burning – outside is burning but not burning, and burning is not being burned,” we are invited to look deeply into the nature that transcends the discrimination between inside–outside, burning–not burning, in order to recognize the reality that is beyond language and form. Fire does not arise from fuel, nor does it arise by itself – fuel does not arise from fire nor by itself; this is a metaphor to help us see that there is no independent or self-existing cause: all phenomena are unborn, not self-arisen, not other-arisen, not arisen together, not arisen without cause. To understand the sutra, we must see its relation to our own suffering, fear, or craving, helping us to let go of artificial discrimination and to dwell peacefully in mindfulness.
Teaching about the four notions of arising in the Middle Way Treatise, the Buddha said that all theories that constitute the world fall within these four categories, but transcending them is the teaching of non-arising – Nirvana, which means no birth and no death. The four notions of arising are:
- self-arising
- arising from others
- arising from both self and others
- arising without cause
Transcending all four is to see non-arising, no birth and no death, liberation from birth and death and from afflictions.