삼론학의 不二中道와 원효의 無二中道 고찰

Abstract

I’ll examine the differences between the middle way as the non-duality in the study of the three treatises and the middle way free from dualistic extremes in the Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra. In the study of the three treatises, the absolute truth and the conventional truth are mentioned as non-being and being, emptiness and existence, truth and convention etc and the middle way of not being dualistic extreme is manifested as not being either the absolute truth or the conventional truth. In the one level of the twofold truth, being is the conventional truth and emptiness is the absolute truth. However, if you are attached to the emptiness, ‘neither emptiness nor existing’ is presented as the new kind of the absolute truth. If you are again attached to neither emptiness nor existing as principle law, everything, neither emptiness nor existing as well as existence and emptiness is downgraded to the conventional truth and the third absolute truth can be supposed as ‘neither emptiness nor existing, neither non-emptiness nor non-existing.’ If you are attached to the absolute truth of the three levels of the twofold truth, three phrases of ‘existing·emptiness·neither emptiness nor existing’ and a phrase of ‘neither emptiness nor existing, neither non-emptiness nor non-existing’ are illustrated as the fourth absolute truth. After all, the study of the three treatises applies the negative dialectic which turns the absolute into the conventional and repeats the cycle. The study embodies ‘the dialectical system of the triangle’ that limitlessly iterates the three stages of the absolute truth, the conventional truth and the middle way as the non-duality. In the Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra, Wonhyo illustrated the middle way free from dualistic extremes as five stages by employing unique terms: the conventional truth is parikalpita-svabhāva, that is, all teaching of the conventional truth, the absolute truth is pariniṣpanna-svabhāva, that is, initial enlightenment, the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth is paratantra-svabhāva, the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth is pariniṣpanna-svabhāva, that is, original enlightenment and the middle way free from dualistic extremes is the stage at which the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth and the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth coexist. The system of the middle way free from dualistic extremes is using ‘the structure of circulation like a circle.’ Wonhyo peculiarly dispatched the conventional truth, revealed the absolute truth and melted the twofold truth, which made it possible to naturally derive the result of ‘affirmation’, not forcibly abandoning negation. The middle way free from dualistic extremes is Wonhyo’s stage of enlightenment stage. The middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth is the ultimate substance, that is, the foundation of thusness and the middle way from the standpoint of the conventional truth is the action that has the foundation of thusness. Since Wonhyo achieved the bodhisattva stages of practice beyond the ground of joy, he introduced the middle way free from dualistic extremes as the stage of enlightenment. Wonhyo wrote in his latter days the middle way free from dualistic extremes which is very different from the middle way as the non-duality in the Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra and its system and foundation are original in Korea, which cover the twofold truth of the truth and convention, Madhyamaka, and Yogâcāra.