Words of the Buddha saved from 2/2/22

  Refusing to recognize any knowledge of 'things as they really are,' and making a more sober claim to knowledge of 'things as they have come to be', the Buddha was reluctant to accept any notion of the reflecting self) as 'ultimate reality'. Instead, he claimed to know 'the dependently arisen' and, on that basis, formulated the conception of 'dependent arising' [= pratityasamutpada).


In such a context, it was more meaningful for him to speak of [[[artha]] (= fruit, effect, purpose, meaning)] and [[[paramartha]] (= ultimate fruit, etc.)] in the sense of fruit, consequence, or result [[[phala]]). Thus, a good action is one that is fruitful and a bad, unfruitful. The Buddha also recognized that views about good and bad, purity and impurity, are in most cases relative conventions. According to the same text, good and bad are conventions that vary depending upon contexts. These are the ways of the world (loka), often characterized as [[[samvrti]]).... However, there is no indication that, since these are relative conventions, the Buddha advocated the transcendence of both good and bad.