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Four Seals of Dharma
The four seals of Dharma contains the essence of Dharma:
1. All compounded things are impermanent.
2. All emotions are pain.
3. All things have no inherent existence.
4. Nirvana is beyond concepts.
Anything that doesn't contain these four seals is not Buddhadharma.
http://vodpod.com/watch/4328254-hh-karmapa-the-four-seals-of-dharma-1-12-avi
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Miscellaneous/the_4_seals_of_dharma.pdf
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche wrote a book on this topic itself called:
"What makes you not a Buddhist"
1. All compounded things are impermanent.
2. All emotions are pain.
3. All things have no inherent existence.
4. Nirvana is beyond concepts.
Anything that doesn't contain these four seals is not Buddhadharma.
http://vodpod.com/watch/4328254-hh-karmapa-the-four-seals-of-dharma-1-12-avi
http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Miscellaneous/the_4_seals_of_dharma.pdf
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche wrote a book on this topic itself called:
"What makes you not a Buddhist"
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Comments
I think in the theravada schools, the three characteristics of non-self, impermanence and suffering is mentioned. They are basically the same as the four seals.
More references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/various/wheel186.html
As Nyanaponika Thera says:
<!-- robots content="none" --><!-- #H_meta --><!-- #H_billboard --><!-- /robots -->If we contemplate even a minute sector of life's vast range, we are faced with a variety of living forms so tremendous that it defies all description. Yet three basic features can be discerned as common to everything that has animate existence, from the microbe to man, from the simplest sensations to the thoughts of a creative genius:
suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha);
non-self or insubstantiality (anatta).
Of the three, the first and third apply directly to inanimate existence as well as to the animate, for every concrete entity by its very nature undergoes change and is devoid of substance. The second feature, suffering, is of course only an experience of the animate. But the Buddha applies the characteristic of suffering to all conditioned things, in the sense that, for living beings, everything conditioned is a potential cause of experienced suffering and is at any rate incapable of giving lasting satisfaction. Thus the three are truly universal marks pertaining even to what is below or beyond our normal range of perception.
The Buddha teaches that life can be correctly understood only if these basic facts are understood. And this understanding must take place, not only logically, but in confrontation with one's own experience. Insight-wisdom, which is the ultimate liberating factor in Buddhism, consists in just this experiential understanding of the three characteristics as applied to one's own bodily and mental processes, and deepened and matured in meditation.
To see things as they really are means to see them consistently in the light of the three characteristics. Not to see them in this way, or to deceive oneself about their reality and range of application, is the defining mark of ignorance, and ignorance is by itself a potent cause of suffering, knitting the net in which man is caught — the net of false hopes, of unrealistic and harmful desires, of delusive ideologies and of perverted values and aims.
Ignoring or distorting the three basic facts ultimately leads only to frustration, disappointment and despair. But if we learn to see through deceptive appearances, and discern the three characteristics, this will yield immense benefits, both in our daily life and in our spiritual striving.
On the mundane level, the clear comprehension of impermanence, suffering and non-self will bring us a saner outlook on life. It will free us from unrealistic expectations, bestow a courageous acceptance of suffering and failure, and protect us against the lure of deluded assumptions and beliefs. In our quest for the supramundane, comprehension of the three characteristics will be indispensable. The meditative experience of all phenomena as inseparable from the three marks will loosen, and finally cut, the bonds binding us to an existence falsely imagined to be lasting, pleasurable and substantive. With growing clarity, all things internal and external will be seen in their true nature: as constantly changing, as bound up with suffering and as unsubstantial, without an eternal soul or abiding essence. By seeing thus, detachment will grow, bringing greater freedom from egoistic clinging and culminating in Nibbana, mind's final liberation from suffering.
http://ifile.it/1towyip
For the interested, here is my take on the Marks of Existance.
1: Annica "Impermanence"
All things that exist, did not exist.
All things that can exist, might not exist.
All things that exist, will not exists.
All things that will exist, will cease existing.
Nothing never changes.
2: Anataman "Interconnectivity and emptiness"
All things are connected to all things.
All things contain interconnected things.
3: Dukka "Negative Interdependence"
All causes are effects.
All effects are causes.
All causes have many effects.
All effects have many causes.
Negative causes have negative effects.
These are true of all things. If something exists, it is subject to these truths. here, there or at any imaginable point in any imaginable realm. The dukka true of all things takes on a special importance when realised in experience, thus arrised the four noble truths. I think we can see how dependent origination comes into play here.
I have never managed to see the 4th mark as being of the same foundational nature as the other three and suspect it is a later acquisition, it seems to be epistemic rather than ontological. But the three marks/seals are the most profound truths of existence (as opposed to logic and maths) in the way that the 4nts are of experience.
That's my take on it. Not here to argue about it.
namaste
What does it mean to say they contain the essence of dharma?
is it not that Anataman, Annica and Dukka are true of all things?
I'd like to discuss your particular version of the Four Seals. Actually, when it comes to number 2, "All emotions are pain" the Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is taking an extreme view and that's not how the Dharma seal is stated usually, even by the Dalai Lama. I think a more accurate statement unless you're a student of this particular Rinpoche is, "All stained phenomena leads to suffering."
Stained means stained by selfish attachment. Phenomena means more than just emotions, it means thoughts and beliefs. And in English language, we should always use the more accurate suffering instead of the word pain. Saying "All emotions are pain" is like translating the first Noble Truth as "Life is suffering". It's just not honoring the depth of the real statement and leads to misunderstanding.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is quite popular but since this particular list is supposed to separate Buddhist from nonBuddhist, some of us who are not Tibetan Buddhists wonder if he's putting too much effort into defining who is and isn't a Buddhist. What's wrong with the 4 Noble Truths as a defining statement?
I think that Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche does an excellent job of taking difficult information and really simplifying it for people like us. Too, I think sometimes he provokes more thought from people by doing this as well. Through his teachings, he really encourages his students and Dharma practitioners in general to examine things, ask questions, work with your own doubts and so-forth. Possibly another bit of skillful means from Rinpoche here.
As for the statement of his wording of the second Dharma seal, I think that if you examine a little closer you may find the accuracy in his statement. In one sense, we have emotions towards things in general due to our own ignorance, or perhaps a better translation of the term may be "not knowing". We have emotions towards things because we always seem to separate phenomena and experiences as being "self" and "other". I think all emotions do lead to suffering, or "pain" as he put it. Emotions come from dualistic and conceptual thinking as well, based on many things including "our own view". This is one of the problems, I think.
Though the particular wording of Rinpoche and HHDL are different, I think that they do point to the same thing. HHDL's way of putting it also lends to further reflection, as it then makes me want to ask "so how do we define stained phenomena?"
Good discussion!
When I read your summation of anattman I think you pointed out that all things are interconnected with other things. The thought occured to me of the relationship between the four.
Because they are interconnected with impermanent things they themselves are impermanent. Because they themselves are imperment grasping onto them is a negative cause and it results in a negative effect losing what we love or having brought to us something we don't love or not understanding the change that has happened. By going behind grasping we reach peace.
That is anataman, yes.
Actually, I don't think so.
Annataman, is a structural truth. It is true of any universe, even if that universe doesn't have change.
It is only when there is change that there is impermanence.
I can make no sense from this. The Three Marks were true at the big bang, or whatever... they condition all things, including experience, but they are prior to such things.
namaste