Words of Truth

Have you ever sat down to pray and didn't know what to say? 

Or wonder after a tirade all was said would stay? 

Why does some speech have beatific power, while others, source of scorn? 

Whatever one's lot in life, no need to feel forlorn: practice right speech, transform one's circumstance by invoking words of truth and building the best lot from there.

Words of Truth are unfathomable wellsprings of goodness and power. Some select, proper Words of Truth even are like sacred mnemonics and spells, connecting primordial truth to the authenticity of one's particular, altruistic wishes in the present. Some of the most renowned of proper, scriptural Words of Truth are Aśvajit's "Essence of Correlative Arising," also called "Essence of Dependent Origination," &c. 

The meaning and story of these profound words, and some methods to practice them are all discussed in the article below. 

The Essence of Correlative Arising: True Words of the Buddha in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and English

In Sanskṛt

ये धर्मा हेतुप्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागतो ह्यवदत्
तेषां च यो निरोध एवं वादी महाश्रमण

YE  DhARMĀ  HETUPRABhAVĀ HETUṆ  TEṢĀṆ  TAThĀGATO  HYAVADAT 
TEṢĀÑ CA YO  NIRODhA EVAṂ  VĀDI  MAHĀŚRAMAṆAḥ

In Tibetan (from the Sanskṛt)

ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྒྱུ་ལས་བྱུང་། །
དེ་རྒྱུ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་གསུངས། །
རྒྱུ་ལ་འགོག་པ་གང་ཡིན་པ། །
དགེ་སྦྱོང་ཆེན་པོས་འདི་སྐད་གསུངས། །

Chönam Tamchad Gyulay Jung
Degyu Dezhin Shegpé Sung
Gyula Gogpa Gangyin Pa
Gejong Chenpö Dikad Sung

In English (from the Tibetan)

All phenom'na have their cause
Thus the Thus Gone One has spake
Then there's that which halts each cause
Too the Great Ascetic spake

In plain English: 

"Buddha taught that everything happens for a reason.

"Thus there is also a method to change,” saith the Ultimate DIY."

This statement on the Essence of Correlative Arising is the quintessential utterance of the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha). It's the condensation of the Buddha's teaching in two sentences, as spoken by one resplendent monk to a seeker on the street. 

Correlative arising, also known as interdependent origination, dependent arising, &c., is Lord Buddha's most distinguished contribution to humanity and the foundation of all the Buddhist schools’ view to this day. The twelve links of correlative arising, for instance, are an integral part of the very first teaching he gave.

Millions and billions of these very “words of truth” are written or pressed on scrolls rolled up and empowered as Buddha's representative speech in statues and stūpas, monuments and reliquaries worldwide. Even more are aired live as first among Refugees’ daily recitations, prayers, mnemonics and spells.

The utterance is so deeply renowned it became akin to a mantra or spell in its own, seemingly the very moment that it was spoken! Monks beg alms by holding their empty bowls and repeating words such until their bowls are filled. Secret mantra, the unsurpassed tantra, too, relies on this utterance to both bless the speech and increase the magnitude of its secret liturgies.

Aśvajit and The Five Companions, the Provenance of Correlative Emergence

After Prince Siddhartha left the palace in pursuit of the truth he accomplished a variety of yogic methods of the various gurus he met along the way. Not finding the ultimate that he was seeking, he eventually committed to his own brand of extreme asceticism having bested the supposedly best guru of his place and time. The Prince, also known as The Bodhisattva in Mahāyāna Scripture, was followed by Five Companions whose previous guru was the same one bested by the Prince. For six years The Bodhisattva practiced the most difficult of austerities while The Five also engaged themselves nearby... it's related in the story of his ultimate liberation.

One of many austerities we shall relate from The Thus Gone One’s own account, The Play in Full:

“Monks, for eight winter nights I punished and tormented my body. Sweat ran from my armpits and from my forehead. As the sweat fell on the ground, the drops turned into hoarfrost, heated up, and evaporated. Such was the manner, monks, in which my mind brought punishment and torment on my body. Sweat ran from my armpits and from my forehead and, as the sweat fell on the ground, the drops turned into hoarfrost, then grew hot, and evaporated.”

The Bodhisattva cultivated never-before witnessed meditative absorptions in his austerities, and furthermore committed to eating only a single morsel per day for three more years: the first year's juniper berry; the second year's sesame seed; the third year's rice grain per day.

Emaciated beyond all recognition, the Bodhisattva realized the end of his austerity by breaking his fast when a very special bowl of milk was offered by the noble daughter, Sujātā. Consuming the milk, The Prince realized the middle way beyond extremes.

The five companions, who had also been engaged in their own similar but somewhat less extreme struggles all along, attempted to stay The Prince as he made way for great completion at the proverbial vajra seat beneath the bodhi tree. But The Prince was finished with such extreme behavior and was moved to the destiny of his final rebirth:  

... the ascetics five—
Had stayed him, saying all was written clear
In holy Shasters, and that none might win 
Higher than Sruti and than Smriti—nay, 
Not the chief saints!—for how should mortal man
Be wiser than the Jnana-Kând, which tells
How Brahm is bodiless and actionless,
And passionless, calm, unqualified, unchanged,
Pure life, pure thought, pure joy?  Or how should man
Be better than the Karmma Kând, which shows
How he may strip passion and action off,
Break from the bond of self, and so, unsphered,
Be God, and melt into the vast divine,
Flying from false to true, from wars of sense 
To peace eternal, where the silence lives?
But the prince heard them, not yet comforted.

Though no such attainment could have been comprehended by the most accomplished masters of meditation, godliness, and austerity of the day, nevertheless The Bodhisattva knew there was something quite beyond. He took his seat beneath the bodhi tree and committed to realizing the ultimate truth. He defeated Māra's demon hordes, surpassed the seduction of Māra’s goddesses, and realized four meditative concentrations through the four watches of the night. Upon this culmination, The Bodhisattva became known as Thus Gone One, having gone from the limited, so-called self to immortal buddhahood. 

Essential among Thus Gone One's world-shaking epiphanies include how to reverse the 12-fold process of correlative arising (operating at a speed of fractional seconds) beginning with ignorance and ending in old-dead. In proper reversal of the cycle, overcoming ignorance with profound gnosis, the Bodhisattva became Thus Gone One by attaining immortality, perfect and complete awakening.

Thus Gone One did not teach right away. After a few weeks, however, when beseeched by the gods to teach, he determined that his previous guru was best to hear his newly discovered truth. However, his omniscient eye found that the guru had since passed away, and thus those previous five companions in asceticism were deemed the next-best. The five would be first in the world to hear the Buddhadharma. He located them with his eye of wisdom and went to their place at Vārāṇasī, at Deer Park's Hill of Fallen Sages. 

The Five Companions saw who they perceived as The Prince coming from a distance and quickly schemed amongst themselves to disrespect him for giving up his extreme ascetic commitments, eating food again like a glutton.

“Venerable ones, look, here comes that mendicant Gautama, that lazy, gluttonous one who has given up on his ascetic practices. Before, when he practiced austerities, he never managed to manifest any deep wisdom derived from the teachings of superior humans. How much worse are things now! He is not to be emulated as he walks around eating proper food and doing easy practices. That lazy glutton! None of us should approach him to greet him or rise when he comes. Don’t help him by holding his robes or his offering bowl. Don’t offer him food or drink for refreshment, nor a place to rest his legs. We can, however, set up some spare seats and say, ‘Venerable Gautama, these are spare seats. If you like, you may sit.’ ”

However the five could not resist Thus Gone One's overwhelming splendor, "they felt like birds caught in a cage with a fire burning below" and their schemes spontaneously transformed into respects and pleasantries. Their false words and schemes were transformed to truth upon sight of Thus Gone One, who said:

“Monks, do not address the Thus-Gone One as ‘venerable,’ meaning ‘long-lived,’ or you will have failure, adversity, and unhappiness for a long time. Monks, I have actualized immortality and the path that leads to immortality. Monks, I am the awakened one, the omniscient one, the all-seeing one. I have become tranquil and have exhausted all faults.

“Monks, being the master of phenomena, I will teach you the Dharma. Come, listen and understand. Listen intently with open ears, and I will give you instruction and guidance. When I teach and guide you, you will also relinquish all faults and be liberated within a stainless and insightful state of mind. [F.196.b] When you attain realization, you will proclaim: ‘Our births have been exhausted. The religious life has been led. That which ought to be done has been done‍—and nothing else. We therefore know an existence different from this ordinary life.’

“Did you not, monks, earlier say to yourselves: ‘Venerable ones, look, here comes that mendicant Gautama, that lazy, gluttonous one who has given up on his ascetic practices. Before, when he practiced austerities, he never managed to manifest any deep wisdom derived from the teachings of superior humans. How much worse are things now! He is not to be emulated as he walks around eating proper food and doing easy practices. That lazy glutton! None of us should approach him to greet him or rise when he comes. Don’t help him by holding his robes or his offering bowl. Don’t offer him food or drink for refreshment, nor a place to rest his legs. We can, however, set up some spare seats and say, “Venerable Gautama, these are spare seats. If you like, you may sit.” ’ ”

Monks, as soon as the Thus-Gone One had uttered these words, every extremist symbol and banner that the five companions were wearing disappeared in an instant. Instead they each now found themselves dressed in the three robes of a mendicant with an alms bowl and their head shaven. Even their behavior was as if they had already been ordained for a hundred years. This truly was their “going forth”; this very ordination became the essence of monkhood.

Thus Gone One thus proved his omniscience by stating their supposedly private schemes verbatim, and so they received spontaneous ordination! The Five became The Sangha, the prototypical monastic order—on the spot. 

The five ascetic companions, now ordained, received the Blessed One's first teaching—on the Middle Way and Four Noble Truths, and Twelve Links of Correlative Arising. Among these Five Companions was none other than Aśvajit. Soon, Aśvajit realized the truth of these teachings for himself and became an arhat, having led his religious life to nirvana in the end. 

It was one day while Aśvajit was out seeking alms that Śāriputra (he was yet ordained) noticed Venerable Aśvajit's splendor in the public square. Śāriputra waited until the Venerable sat down, then asked, “Who is your teacher and what is your practice?”

Venerable Aśvajit replied to this seeker, Śāriputra, with "Words of Truth": the two sentences known to this day as "The Essence of Correlative Arising".

The seeker, Śāriputra, understood the first sentence on the spot, spontaneously attaining Stream-Entry. By the end of the second sentence he was rushing to tell his best friend, a fellow seeker to be known as Maudgalyayāna, the good news of his finally having found the truth (as they each had long been seeking and promised to relate it to the other if found). Both of them became monks straightaway, Śāriputra and Maudgalyayāna also soon become arhats and even chief disciples of The Blessed One.

The power of truth and the unfathomable quantum of the words that accompany it are merely sketched in the story above, the provenance of Aśvajit's Words of Truth, “Essence of Correlative Arising”. 

How to “Spell” Correlative Arising

The Essence of Correlative Arising, also called the Essence of Dependent Origination, is made into a special utterance, a spell, mnemonic, or mantra simply by placing an OṂ at the beginning and SVĀHĀ at the end. “OṂ” summons the purity of the buddhafield to start, and SVĀHĀ concludes with "so-be-it”—kind of like, "Amen."

OṂ! 
All phenom'na have their cause  
Thus the Thus Gone One has spake  
Then there's that which halts each cause  
Too the Great Ascetic spake
SVĀHĀ!

Je Tsongkhapa's "Praise Correlative Arising"

Watch StevenRAJ resound "Praise Correlative Arising" on Youtube!

Lobzang Dragpa, Good Smarts Renown (1357–1419), popularly known in Tibet as Lord Tsongkhapa, Onion Valleyant, is one of the most prolific and profound intellects of the Tibetan tradition. He was a reformer of the religion and founder of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism (now headed by His Holiness, Dalai Lama). His work brings together Buddha's foundational teaching on Correlative Arising with the latter Buddhist revelations of Middle Way metaphysics as a practical foundation for the practices of altruism—and Tantra on top of that.

One of the most famous, poetical works of Onion Valleyant’s is "Excellent Praise from the Scriptural Threshold of Correlative Emergence." It is at once a praise to its propounder, Buddha Śākyamuni, as it is a teaching, a poem, and a lineage of the view of correlative arising and emptiness. It's written in the form of a classical treatise modeled on the great Indian treatises of yore containing a title, homage, a body text (with practically every imaginable expression of praise) and a dedication for perseverance in its remembrance forever.

Praising the fact of Correlative Arising as being Buddha's most foundational teaching and unprecedented in the world, Tsongkhapa says:

Whoever sees, then speaks, who knows
Then teaches is a teacher unsurpassed
Conqueror, I bow to you who saw 
Correlative arising, to you who taught it so

And,

What could be more amazing than this?
What's more marvelous than this?
All praise to you equals the greatness of this
Any other praise would just not do

The poem, the body of the text, is a marvelous expression in the form of a classical ode, modeled on the principles of classical Sanskṛt’s kāvya poetics. Each four line stanza stands alone as a fully developed thought: sometimes as praise, sometimes as philosophical elucidation, sometimes self-reflective, sometimes critical of opposing attitudes and views, sometimes drawing a natural metaphor, each expression perfect and succinct in each progressing stanza. 

Suffice it to say this poem of fifty-eight stanzas, a masterpiece in its own right, rightfully and truthfully ascribes the essential truth of Buddha Śākyamuni's contribution to the world, the teaching of correlative arising. It even traces the thought and intention of the great charioteers of the Indian Buddhist messianic tradition—Nagārjuna, Asanga, and Candrakīrti in particular. Oh how the truth coalesces in the kindness of one's own root guru that we too may taste its ripened fruit.

"In Praise of Correlative Arising" is a perfect, poetic embodiment of the quantum of truth contained within two sentences, the Essence of Correlative Arising that can be recited every day. Reading and studying it is a great way to deepen understanding on the topic, to fill the spell with ever greater depth and meaning. 

Words of Truth: The Source of Wishes Coming True

The truth of correlative arising is one of many types of words of truth that may be invoked as a means of adding depth and power to one's own prayers and aspirations.

Basically any words spoken by those who have achieved perfect and complete altruism in their thought, speech, and conduct may serve as words of truth and support for one's prayers. For instance, Medicine Buddha made twelve particular aspirations for the benefit of all sentient beings. When he reached his ultimate goal, those aspirations became words of truth in their own right and are spoken by medical professionals and Buddhist devotees as support for their practice to this day. 

Quotes from Scripture and the prayers of the founders and patron saints themselves in all the great and profound world traditions carry truth and power each in their own right. It's common to quote them as a basis that one's own aspirations and pleas come true for the benefit of all beings.

In the Buddhist tradition, when it comes to statements on truth itself—just the facts, as it were—the statement of Aśvajit on what Buddha taught is supreme. Could we go so far as to claim these are also the most factual and relevant words ever spoken in the world?!?

What is the difference, then, between ordinary facts such as 2+2=4 and Aśvajit's statement? The facts of worldly phenomena are subject to change: contrarywise, correlative arising is the foundational truth of all worldly and sublime phenomena. Correlative arising is the gate to changelessness and unshakeable realization of awakening itself.

In the pursuit of truth in life it seems evident that the thoughts and feelings that contain the most mass or charge are typically closest to who we truly are. While our own personal wishes seem so massive in and of themselves, how much more does the quantum of these words of truth compare—spoken for countless generations in the pursuit of the singular, ultimate goal?

Buddha's contribution to this natural, desirous process of ours is pointing out that we as individuals can determine what to accept and what to reject; that there are methods of being the change that we would like to see; that the foundation of what we'd all like to see in the world is predicated on our own authentic thought, speech, and action. Since phenomena are the way we perceive them for a reason, there is definitely a reasonable method in every situation to stop that which is detrimental and increase what's advantageous and good.

How to Cultivate Words of Truth

Reciting the Mantra of Correlative Arising is one method of grounding our spiritual and worldly efforts in a way that will bear the desired fruit in the end. However, since we’re still a bit confused in one way or another, it’s likely that the shifting desires of life might miss the mark of the ultimate goal. That's why it's imperative to pray within the context of complete and perfect enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. 

Begin a practice of meditation, contemplation, or prayer by reciting Words of Truth, then make any other prayers or affirmations that are personally relevant at the time. Finally, dedicate the merit by summing up the truth in the context of the original intention again. 

"By the truth of the words of the Essence of Correlative Arising written and expounded on in this article, may the Buddha's teaching spread far and wide. Having cut through the darkness of the extremes of nihilism and eternalism everywhere, may these words of truth become the foundation for the increase of all good qualities and sublime attainments for all living beings. May every motherly sentient being’s most authentic and altruistic wish spontaneously be accomplished as proof!"

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