The Two Saccas

Sacca or Truth is the constant faithfulness or concordance of the term, which names a thing, to or with that thing's intrinsic nature.

It is of two kinds, to wit:

1. Sammuti-sacca, conventional or relative truth.
2. Paramattha-sacca, or ultimate Truth.

Of the two, conventional truth is the truthfulness of the customary terms used by the great majority of people, such as "Self exists", "a living soul exists" "men exist", "Devas exist", "Sakkas exist", "elephants exist", "head exists" and so on. This conventional truth is the opposite of untruth, and so can overcome it. It is not a lie or an untruth when people say:

"There probably exists an immutable, permanent, one continuous self or living soul which is neither momentarily rising nor passing away throughout one existence," for this is the customary manner of speech of the great majority of people who have no intention whatever of deceiving others. But according to ultimate truth, it is reckoned a Vippallasa or hallucination which erroneously regards impermanent as permanent and non-self as self. So long as this erroneous view remains undestroyed, one can never escape from the evils of Samsara, the wheel of life. All of the foregoing alike holds good when people say "a person exists" and so on.

Ultimate truth is the absolute truthfulness of assertion or negative in full and complete accordance with what is actual, the elementary, fundamental qualities of phenomena. Here stating such truth in affirmative form, one may say: "The element of solidity exists", "the element of extension exists", "the element of cohesion exists", "the element of kinetic energy exists", "mind exists" "consciousness exists", "contact, feeling and perception exist", "material aggregates exist" and so on. And expressing such truth in a negative form, it can be said: "No self exists", "no living soul exists", no person exists", "no being exists", "neither does an elephant exist", "nor do hands, nor legs, nor any members of the body exist", "neither does a man exist nor a Deva" and so on. In saying here "No self exists" "no living soul exists" we mean that there is no such ultimate entity as a self or living soul which persists unchanged during the whole term of life, without momentarily coming to be and passing away. In the expression: "No being exists" and so forth, what is meant is that nothing actually exists but material and mental elements. These elements are neither persons nor beings, nor men, nor Devas etc. Therefore there is separate being or person apart from the elements. The ultimate truth is the diametrical opposite of the hallucination, and so can confute it. One who is thus able to confute or reject the hallucination can escape from the evils of Samsara, the evolution of life.

According to conventional truth, a person exists, a being exists; a person or a being continually transmigrates from one existence to another in the ocean of life. But to ultimate truth, neither a person nor a being exists, and there is no one who transmigrates from one existence to another. Here, it may be asked: "Do not these two truths seem to be as poles asunder?" Of course they seem to be so. Nevertheless we may bring them together. Have we not said: "According to conventional truth" and "according to ultimate truth"? Each kind of truth accordingly is truthful as regards its own mode of expression. Hence if one man should say that there exists a person or a being according to conventional truth, the other to whom he speaks ought not to contradict him, for these conventional terms describe what apparently exists. And likewise, if the other says there exists neither a person nor a being, according to ultimate truth, the former ought not to deny this, for in the ultimate sense, material and mental phenomena alone truly exist and in strict reality they know no person or being. For example: Men dig up lumps of earth from certain places, pound them into dust, knead this dust with water into clay, and from this clay make various kinds of useful pots, jars and cups. Thus there exist various kinds of pots, jars and cups in the world. Now when discussion takes place on this subject, if it were asked: "Are there earthen pots and cups in this world?" The answer, according to the conventional truth should be given in the affirmative, and according to the ultimate truth, in the negative, since this kind of truth admits only the positive existence of earth out of which the pots and so forth were made. Of these two answers the former requires no explanation in as much as it is an answer according to the established usage; but as regards the latter, some explanation is needed. In the objects that we called "earthen pots" and "earthen cups", what really exists is only earth; not pots nor cups, in the sense of ultimate truth: because the term "earth" applies properly not to pots and cups but to actual substantial earth. There are also pots and cups made of iron brass, silver, and gold. These cannot be called earthen pots and cups, since they are not made of earth. The term "pots" and "cups" also are not terms descriptive of earth but of ideas derived from the appearance of pots and cups, such as their circular or spherical shape and so on. This is obvious, because the terms "pots" and "cups" are not applied to the mere lumps of earth, which have no shape or form of pots and cups. Hence it follows that the term "earth" is not a term descriptive of pots and cups, but of real earth; and also the terms "pots" and "cups" are not terms descriptive of earth but of pictorial ideas (santhana-pannati) which have no separate elementary substance other than the dust of clay, but are mere conceptions presented to the mind by the particular appearance, form, and shape of the worked-up clay. Hence the negative statement according to the ultimate truth, namely, that "no earthen pots and cups exist" ought to be accepted without question.

Now we come to the analysis of things in the ultimate sense. Of the two kinds of ultimate phenomena, material and mental, as mentioned above, the former is of twenty-eight kinds:

(I) The four great essential elements, viz:

1. The element of solidity.
2. The element of cohesion, or the holding, the fluid.
3. The element of kinetic energy.
4. The element of motion.

(II) The six bases, viz:

5. The eye basis
6. The ear basis
7. The nose basis
8. The tongue basis
9. The body basis
10. The heart basis

(III) The two sexes, viz:

11. The male sex
12. The female sex

(IV) One species of material quality of life, viz:

13. The vital force

(V) One species of material quality of nutrition, viz:

14. Edible food

(VI) The four sense fields, viz:

15. Visible form
16. Sound
17. Odor
18. Savor

These eighteen species are called Jatarupani or genetic material qualities, as they possess the power of production.

(VII) One species of material quality of limitation, viz:

19. The element of space

(VIII) The two communications, viz:

20. Intimation through the body
21. Intimation through speech

(IX) The three plasticities, viz:

22. Lightness
23. Pliancy
24. Adaptability

(X) The four salient features, viz:

25. Integration
26. Continuance
27. Decay
28. Impermanence or death.

These last ten species are called Ajatarupani or non-genetic material qualities, as they do not possess the power of production.