Page 25 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

means 'teaching' or 'doctrine', but here it means something quite
different. According to the Hinayana there is in reality no such

objective existent or thing as, for instance, a house, a tree, or a
man. If we look at these things closely, if we examine and analyse
them, they become, as it were, insubstantial. Ultimately they

tend to reduce themselves to a flux, a flow of irreducible
elements which are impersonal, non-substantial, psychophysical

processes. These are known as dharmas.

According to the Mahayana, however, Wisdom consists in

reducing the dharmas themselves to Sünyatä. When we see
things in terms of objects and persons, this, the Mahayana would

say, is on account of our gross delusion. And this gross delusion is
removed by our learning to see these objects and persons in
terms of dharmas. But the Mahayana goes on to say that even

seeing things in terms of dharmas is not to see them in their
ultimate reality. We see things in terms of dharmas on account of

subtle delusion and this too must be removed. As we remove it
by knowing, by seeing, that the dharmas themselves are Sunyata.
Wisdom in the Mahayana sense is known as the Perfection of

Wisdom, the Prajna-paramita. The Perfection of Wisdom is
concerned with seeing Sunyata everywhere, at all times, under

all circumstances.
The third and fourth kinds of Sunyata are peculiar to the
Mahayana.

(iii) Maha Sunyata, or Great Emptiness. In the Mahayana, 'maha'

always means 'pertaining to Sunyata'. The Mahayana is 'the
Vehicle of Sunyata'.

In the Maha Sunyata we see that the distinction between the
conditioned and the Unconditioned is not ultimately

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