may27

Crucial to the hermeneutical approach

is the Mahayana principle

of the four reliances.

These are:

(i) reliance on the teaching,

not on the teacher;

(ii) reliance on the meaning, not on

the words that express it;

(iii) reliance on the definitive meaning,

not on the provisional meaning; and

(iv) reliance on the transcendent

wisdom of deep experience,

not on mere knowledge.

大乘佛教的法四依

指出了詮釋態度的重要關鍵.

如下:

(i) 相信教誨而不是老師;

(ii) 相信語意 而不是表達的詞彙;

(iii) 相信最終所表達的意義, 而不是暫時的意解;

(iv)相信超越一切的智慧, 而不僅是知識.