SANLUN

(Redirected from Three Treatise School)

'Sanlun' () or literally 'Three Treatise School' was a Chinese school of Buddhism based upon the Indian Madhyamaka tradition, founded by Nagarjuna. The name derives from the fact that three principal Madhyamikan texts were translated by Kumarajiva and Aryadeva to form the basis for the tradition (The Treatise on the Middle Way, The Treatise on the Twelve Gates, and The One-Hundred-Verse Treatise). Jizang is traditionally the founder of the school.
In 625, the Korean monk Ekan brought the Sanlun school to Japan, where it was known as 'Sanron'. The Sanron sect held that all phenomena are unreal and exist only relatively to one another.
The Three Treatise School basically says that nothing is real. For example, a blind monk can see a fly in his begging bowl without the fly actually existing. Furthermore, since nothing is real, there can be neither affirmation or negation of any truths. So nothing is right or wrong. Everything is beyond all predication.
They identify three kinds of people who object to their beliefs. One group, the Abhidharmists objected that the world has physical substance.