The Four Inverted Phenomena

Quote:

“Samsara is full of erroneous, deviant, and unjust views. These include taking the impermanent as permanent, the non-self as self, unhappiness as happiness, and impurity as purity. Only the unsurpassed True Dharma can eliminate these views. Because of this, one should take refuge in the True Dharma.”  The Three Pure Refuge, Chapter 20, Sūtra on Upāsaka Precepts, 

 【生死錯謬邪僻不正，無常見常、無我見我、無樂見樂、不淨見淨，無上正法悉能斷除，以是因緣應歸依法。】《優婆塞戒經》淨三歸品 卷五

Remarks:

Throughout the streams of transmigration, many erroneous, fallacious, and evil views and teachings are constantly circulating in the human world among ordinary people and non-Buddhist practitioners. People inevitably encounter such inverted teachings throughout their transmigration into the human world. Among such teachings are usually the following four.

The first is taking the impermanent as permanent. Regarding the mental consciousness mind as the permanent and indestructible dharma and the true suchness, or stating further that thoughtless pristine awareness is the true suchness and the Buddha-nature is wrongly taking mental consciousness as the permanent dharma. 

The second is taking the notion of no-self as self—that is, affirming that the mental consciousness mind is the permanent and indestructible inner self. The mind of thoughtless pristine awareness (C: 離念靈知) is not the authentic inner self as it is destructible and terminable; it can be born only when manas and mental objects as conditions come into contact with each other.

The third is taking unhappiness as happiness. This is caused by misunderstanding the notion of bliss in the quiescence and cessation of nirvana. The bliss in the quiescence and cessation of nirvana taught by the Buddha refers to the immutable and suchness state of the tathagatagarbha mind away from the six sense objects; such quiescence and cessation denote permanence, so it is called bliss. The notion of bliss does not refer to a perceptive mind experiencing enjoyment; rather, it is without perception, a stateless state with absolute quiescence and cessation. Only this denotes the ultimate bliss, which is permanent and has absolute quiescence and cessation.

The fourth is taking impurity as purity. Only when Buddhist practitioners achieve Buddhahood can they attain absolute purity. Before a Virtual Enlightenment bodhisattva attains Buddhahood, thoughts (extremely subtle habitual seeds) sometimes still flash through his mental consciousness, which denotes impurity. How much more for ordinary bodhisattva practitioners?

The abovementioned four inverted phenomena can be entirely eliminated only after practitioners achieve Buddhahood. In other words, Buddhist practitioners must first take refuge in the Three Jewels and learn the True Dharma under the guidance of a wholesome mentor to overcome difficulties throughout samsara in the human world and eventually attain Buddhahood.

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