Buddhist Hermeneutics: Understanding the Ultimate Meaning of Text in the Buddhist Traditions

The Indian philosophical Buddhist schools have their own understanding of the Buddha's ultimate view. But there are some expressions that are contradictory with the ultimate view of the Buddha, which they consider to be right and are, therefore, problematic. This led to the emergence of a new interpretative formula and the official beginning of Buddhist hermeneutics in India. This situation became more complicated with the interpretative guidelines attributed to Buddha himself. With regard to text understanding, one of these Buddhist guidelines points to "four reliance" that form the principles of Buddhist hermeneutic: Rely on the Teaching not the Teacher; Rely on the Meaning, not the Letter; rely on the definitve meaning, not the interpretable meaning; rely on wisdom not on Consciousness.