Truth and Method in the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra

Abstract

The problem of the relationship between truth and method, as indicated by the title of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s magnum opus, has not only been explicitly treated in hermeneutics, but has also been taken as the most fundamental issue in the history of philosophy.What is truth? What is method? How is truth revealed through method? In this article, I will address these questions to the Samdhinirmocana Su¯ tra (hereafter, SNS), an Indian Yoga¯ca¯ ra philosop_hical scripture that had been translated into Chinese four times since the fifth century. The text I use here is Xuan Zang’s (602–664) Chinese translation.