三学：The Triple Learnings

 

 

三学

 

お早うございます！

ブッダは三毒が苦と輪廻の原因であると説いたが、その解決法を三学で示した。三学（tisso sikkhā/śikṣā）は戒(sīla/śīla)、心(citta)、慧paññā/prajñā）の学習で心学は定学（正定は禅）で、戒定慧の三学とされています。

Sīlaは一般に物の本性（普遍法縁起による在り方）を意味し人間は人と人との間柄（親愛：友愛）に基づく行動規範である戒で、誰でも守るべき五戒（不殺生、不偸盗、不妄語、不邪淫、不飲酒）を修養すること。

Citta は過去以来の業と縁によって形成・集積された心的全体であり、受・想・思・識などの諸作用を包含する。坐禅による心学は業集積心（臓・脳：情意）を静め、浄め、調え、縁起法界に適合する修学である。

Paññāは般若と音訳される翻訳不可の術語ですが梵語prajñāの英語pro-gnosisが示すように先-見（正見：真智）で涅槃での覚醒：法現観による予見・予後（診断解決）を含む世間知を超えた出世間智の修行である。

ブッダが「歩いて世界の果てには達しない」と言ったのは物質界のことではなく精神界のことで娑婆世界（sahaを忍耐とし忍土とされるが、atma-loka 我界に対するsaha-loka共世界）を超える涅槃の事でしょう。

集団業四苦で戒が守られない現今では五戒を守る地球倫理は大切で、これにより自己中心から共同社会が可能だが、禅は正定（総合）で戒を守り、法界を現観・実践する慧を可能にする。学び行う実践が大切です。

ブッダの教法は普遍法縁起に基づいており、世間の三毒に対する療法として三学が考えられ、業から法（縁起）、身から心（意情知）、古から新（脳層）などと四禅の内容・深化や進化とも合わせ新化されたい。

縁起世界も業世界も変化・動揺が激しく暴流：滝流と呼ばれるが業三毒の暴風に晒される生命・人生は辛苦に満ちている。盲亀浮木の稀有の一生を極楽へ導くのは法三学です。共に友の平等平和世界を得ましょう！

有難うございます。

 

The Triple Learnings

 

The Buddha taught that the Triple Poisons—greed, hatred, and delusion—are the causes of suffering and samsara. As the remedy, he taught the Triple Learnings (tisso sikkhā; Skt. tri-śikṣā): the cultivation of sīla (śīla), citta, and paññā (prajñā). Traditionally these are known as the trainings in morality, meditation, and prognosis, as he defined meditation (jhāna/dhyāna: chan: zen) as the right samadhi (synthesis: (sammā-samādhi)) of citta.

Sīla originally means the intrinsic nature or characteristic of a thing—its proper way of existing according to the universal law (Dharma) of Dependent Co-origination. For human beings, sīla is the ethical principle governing relationships among people, founded upon friendship and freedom (priya-dhāman: beloved domain). Its practical cultivation begins with the Five Precepts: refraining from killing, stealing, falsity, sexual misconduct, and intoxicants. These are now “global ethic” that everyone should observe.

Citta is the totality of the heart-mind formed through karma and conditions from the long past. It encompasses the various mental functions, including feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), volition (cetanā), and consciousness (viññāṇa). Through sitting meditation (zazen), the training of citta calms, purifies, and harmonizes this karmically accumulated heart-mind—embracing “heart-brain-body system”—so that it accords with the Dharma of Dependent Co-origination.

Paññā (prajñā) is traditionally transliterated into Chinese as 般若 (hannya) because it is a technical term that cannot be fully translated. As suggested by the Sanskrit prajñā—comparable in its structure to the idea of pro-gnosis, “fore-knowing”—it signifies true insight into suffering, cause, solution, practice (four holy truths): the awakened realization of nirvāṇa through synthesis of the Dharma of all dharmas (forms/phenomena). It is therefore a supramundane wisdom (cf. witness/existential) that transcends ordinary worldly knowledge.

When the Buddha declared that “one cannot reach the end of the world by walking,” he was not referring to the physical universe but to the mental world, i.e., nirvāṇa, transcending karma. The Sahā-world (Sahā-loka) has traditionally been interpreted as the “Patient World,” deriving saha from “patience.” However, it may also be understood as the shared world (saha-loka), in contrast to the self-world (ātma-loka as claimed in the Upanishads). Liberation is the transcendence of the self-world into a shared-world of the Dharma.

Today, collective karma has produced the four collective sufferings—dictatorship, war, nuclear weapons, and ecological catastrophe—because the ethical precepts are widely violated. A global ethic based on the Five Precepts is therefore indispensable. By observing them, humanity can move from self-centeredness toward a cooperative harmonious society. Zen, Right Synthesis, integrates and fulfills sīla, while making possible the paññā that directly realizes and embodies the Dharma-realm. Only practice makes perfect genuine learning.

The Buddha’s teaching is entirely founded upon the universal law of Dependent Origination. The Triple Leanings were devised as a practical path for overcoming the Triple Poisons that dominate the world. Today they deserve to be reinterpreted in light of contemporary knowledge: from karma to Dharma (Dependent Co-origination), from body to mind (volition, emotion, and cognition), from ancient understanding to modern science, and in relation to the progressive development represented by the Four Jhānas (Zen).

Both the world of karma and the world of Dependent Co-origination are worlds of constant change and turbulence, described in the scriptures as a violent flood or raging torrent. Human life, exposed to the storms generated by karmic greed, hatred, and delusion, is therefore filled with hardship. Yet this exceedingly rare human life—likened by the Buddha to the chance of a blind turtle coming up from the bottom once in a hundred years, sticking its head into a hole of a floating log in a vast ocean—can be guided toward Nirvāṇa (Paradise, Sukha-vati: lit. Comfort-filled) through the Triple Learnings founded upon the Dharma.

May we cultivate them together and realize a world of friendship, equality, and peace for all!

Thank you.

 

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