ABSTRACT

The task of translation presents three challenges: faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. The difficulty of translating scriptures involves faithfulness and expressiveness; “faithfulness” must primarily be based on “positivist Buddhism,” while “expressiveness” must reflect one’s ability to penetrate the “Three-Vehicle Bodhi”; and through “elegance,” one must ensure that the true principles and profound meanings are reflected in the writing. In the Tang Dynasty of China, Xuanzang is indeed an enlightened “positivist Buddhist” and had full penetration of the “Three-Vehicle Bodhi.” He was able to clearly and systematically demonstrate the objective of the Dharma and its sequence of actual cultivation, as well as to present the principle of the ultimate truth explicated by Buddha Sakyamuni based on his “direct perception of mind.” This article holds that a Buddhist practitioner or a Buddhist scholar must follow the positivist and dialectical principle of the three means of valid cognition, namely through direct perception, logical inference, and scriptural authority, as a means of correct cultivation and doing research. Only after becoming an “enlightened positivist Buddhist” can one fully and correctly comprehend the essence set forth in the scriptures.