christopher::: wrote:And you make this powerful assessment based on..... ?
I don't know which part of my post you are calling a 'powerful assessment', but its content as a whole is based on my understanding of the Dhamma as it is found in Theravada texts, and then my understanding of Hua Yen philosophy as it is found in the scholarly works of Garma Chang, Francis Cook, Thomas Cleary and Paul Williams, and then in the more popular presentations of Thich Nhat Hanh, Robert Aitken and other western Zen teachers.
There is no one single way to teach or practice the dhamma, is there?
As Theravada Buddhism is an exclusivist teaching, and not at all a universalist or a relativist one, I don't see how its followers could accept your statement without some important qualifications. In the Dhammapada the Buddha says:
"Of all the paths the Eightfold Path is the best; of all the truths the Four Noble Truths are the best; of all things passionlessness is the best: of men the Seeing One (the Buddha) is the best.
"This is the only path; there is none other for the purification of insight. Tread this path, and you will bewilder Mara.
"Walking upon this path you will make an end of suffering. Having discovered how to pull out the thorn of lust, I make known the path."
(Dhp. 273-5)
Of course this still leaves open the possibility that there may be more than one way to develop the eightfold path. Does Theravada teaching allow for this or is there just a single way to develop the path? If we go by the suttas I think it depends on which factors of the path we are considering.
Right view: insight into the four noble truths is basically the same for everyone, with variations limited to whether the first truth is taught in terms of dukkha or with something else substituted ('nutriment', for instance, as in the Sammaditthi Sutta).
Right thought: the three right thoughts are the same for everyone.
Right, speech, right action and right livelihood: of variable content according to a person's status as a householder or a monastic.
Right effort: the four right endeavours are the same for everyone.
Right mindfulness and concentration: of variable content according to what sort of practice suits a person's character type, as conditioned by his or her past kamma.
So I would say that there are
some permissible variations in how the eightfold path might be developed by different persons, but these variations are not unlimited, and none of them involve making noble right view into something other than discernment of the four noble truths. And there's the rub, for the Theravada/Hua Yen differences mostly do concern right view.
Kind regards,
Ciarán