The problem of two truth's

Hi.

Often in Buddhism there's talk about "the two truths".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine

http://www.dhammaweb.net/dhamma_news/view.php?id=390

http://www.lotsawahouse.org/patrul/two_truths.html

http://www.mandalamagazine.org/1996/twotruths.asp



As i see it, most talks on the "two truths", or on the "relative and ultimate" or the "universal and the particular," are talks on general Buddhist teaching for beginners and for introduction to the non-Buddhist public and they are beneficial in that regard.
Another way of sayin mostly the same is reading the Five Ranks and its interpenetration of the "absolute and the relative".

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-FiveRanksofTsaotung.html

http://books.google.se/books?id=smNM4ElP3XgC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=Five+Ranks+buddhism&source=bl&ots=ZKvxVex0eq&sig=3hc13YAbzgiR6WHD3Yi7sf13K9Y&hl=sv&ei=PIufSdWaFIaS0AW38LiCDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result

http://www.kaihan.com/fives.htm#2


http://civet-cat.skandinaviskzencenter.org/civet-cat/zen-writings/five-ranks.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/five_ranks.html


The problem is that people are led to believe that there are "two truths" that exist as objects of the mind.

The teaching of the two truths is somewhat fundamental to Zen Buddhism.
What is also fundamental to Zen Buddhism is the teaching of the "one-truth" of "no-truth."
This is the Diamond Sutra's "Dharma of No-Dharma", and the Lankavatara Sutra's "all things are discrimination of mind."
The essential difference is that the teaching of the two truths stays within the field of conceptualizations about the Dharma while Zen points (using terminology such as "no-thought") directly to the One Mind.
But there really is no difference.

Any pointing (whether via the Two Truths Doctrine or some terminology of One Mind) is in consciousness, and hence concept-based.
It is all a concept.
Furthermore, consciousness is incapable of knowing anything about that which stands prior to consciousness.
And so we have the various teachings, including Zen, which utilize concepts to suggest that which only direct experience can verify.
Moreover, this "verification" itself appears in consciousness.
And it is translated into concepts for communication purposes.
That's simply more interpretation on perception.
When interpretation ends, thought ends.
When thought ends, there is "silence".
"Our" "actual" "condition".

Or to put i a little better...

Those who do not understand
The division of these two realities
Do not understand the profound true reality
Of the Buddha's teaching.

Without reliance on conventions,
The ultimate cannot be taught.
Without realization of the ultimate,
Nirvana will not be attained.

~Nagarjuna

And to top this one off.

Many mind, many matter.
One mind, one matter.
No mind, no matter.

May the force be with you
Fugen