Significance of The Four Seals of Buddha

Significance of The Four Seals of Buddha

 

by 

Geshe Gedun Tharchin

The Buddha's method of helping others is to introduce the transformation of their lives into a state of liberation through sharing his own experience of enlightenment. This experience led him to affirm the Four Noble Truths. 

 

The fundamental dynamic element of transforming suffering into liberation is the ultimate reality of all phenomena, namely the emptiness of all phenomena, particularly the emptiness of the self. 

Meditating on the emptiness of all phenomena, beginning with the emptiness of the self, is a method of cultivating wisdom that eliminates the concept of dualism, which views the two truths as distinct. Dualism sees the two truths, emptiness and the interdependent nature of any phenomenon or self as two distinct entities. From the perspective of Middle Way philosophy, the concept of dualism presents an obstacle to the acquisition of knowledge regarding the true nature of phenomena. 

Accordingly, the Middle Way, Emptiness and the dependent nature of phenomena are to be understood as a single concept, in order to gain insight into the four noble truths of Dharma.

In order to cultivate the wisdom that realizes the emptiness, non-duality and the Middle Way, it is essential to cultivate the realization of the four dharma seals in a gradual manner. The four seals constitute a fundamental component of the four noble truths.

In consequence, the Dharma seals serve as criteria or attributes that are employed in order to ascertain, from the perspective of Buddhism, whether an individual adheres to the teachings of the Buddha.  
 

There are three distinct versions of the Dharma Seals. 

1. In East Asian Buddhism, the Three Seals comprise impermanence, no-self and nirvana. 

2. In Theravada Buddhism, the Three Seals are impermanence, no-self and dukkha. 

3. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Four Seals are impermanence, dukkha, no-self and nirvana.  

      ༈ འདུ་བྱེད་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་རྟག་ཅིང༌།

        ཟག་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ།

        ཆོས་རྣམས་སྟོང་ཞིང་བདག་མེད་པ།

        མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཞི་བའོ། །

These four lines are commonly translated as follows:
1. All conditioned phenomena are impermanent.
2. All contaminated phenomena are suffering.
3. All phenomena are empty and devoid of an inherent self.
4. Nirvana is peace.

The four seals can be described in a more straightforward manner as follows:
1. All phenomena are constituted by a complex network of causes and conditions, and thus are subject to change and impermanence.
2. All phenomena associated with mental delusion have the potential to cause suffering.
3. All phenomena are characterised as being of an empty and non-self nature.
4. One who has transcended sorrow is at peace.

In the context of Tibetan tradition, The Four Seals are translated into ལྟ་བ་བཀར་བཏགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞི། which is translated literally as "The Four Seals characterising the philosophical view of the teachings of Buddha".

An alternative translation in Tibetan is ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་བཞི། which is a designation used in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to refer to a synthesis of the Buddha's teachings. The term is understood to encompass all teachings of the Buddha that are included within the Four Seals.

In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, the Four Seals are believed to serve the function of distinguishing Buddhist teachings from non-Buddhist teachings. A comparable concept can be found in the Pali tradition, where the three marks or seals of existence play a similar role.

In this reflection, we will examine the four Seals of Self, I or Person. The I or Self or Person is constituted by a complex network of causes and conditions. This is evident in the general concept of dependent dependent arising. It is widely acknowledged that the Person, I or Self is subject to change and subject to cessation, which implies impermanence. However, these general insights do not address the fundamental issues of suffering and pain.  

What, then, are the necessary steps to effect a transformation of life into liberation? It is necessary to cultivate the wisdom that realises the first three seals, which entails a profound knowledge and understanding of the entire process of existence, including the causes that brought about the phenomenon in question and the conditions that sustain it. 

 

Furthermore, it is necessary to inquire into the process of the existence of the self, I, ego, or person, which is neither within nor without the realm of composed things, neither singularly each of them nor a combination of them.

Once it is understood that the self, person, or I does not exist as a single, independent, tangible reality, the same can be said of the causes and conditions that compose it. Ultimately, it may be realised that the self, person, or I, as it has been understood for a considerable length of time, is nothing more than a name that has been mistakenly conceived as a false reality.   

It can be seen that the concepts of impermanence and suffering do not exist in the way that is commonly perceived; rather, they are a product of a false concept of dualism. In other words, they are not objective realities, but rather names that have been established by thought.

The practice of meditating on these initial three principles, with the aid of study, contemplation, and reflection, gradually reveals insights that dispel ignorance and eventually lead to profound wisdom. This wisdom recognizes the non-duality of the middle way, the emptiness of the self and phenomena, and transforms the sorrowful life into one of liberation. This realization is known as the fourth seal, or Nirvana, which can be understood as peace.

This is also a concise overview of the complete practices outlined in Prajnaparamita Mantra, Gate Gate ParaGate ParaSamGate Bodhi.

 

Rome: 24.11.2024