HE WHO SEES DHAMMA SEES DHAMMAS: DHAMMA IN EARLY BUDDHISM

[...]in a number of places in the Nikayas it is described how the Buddha by means of step by step instruction (anupubb katha) leads his listeners to a vision of the truth: he talks of giving, virtuous conduct, and heaven; he reveals the danger, vanity and impurity of sense desires, and the benet of desirelessness; and when he sees that the hearts of his listeners are ready, open and without hindrance, are inspired and condent, then he reveals the teaching of the truth that is special to buddhas suering, its arising, its cessation, the path; and at the conclusion of such step by step instruction there arises in his listeners the clear and spotless vision of the truth (dhamma-cakkhu);dhammam518the listeners are now ones who have seen the truth, gained the truth, known the truth, penetrated the truth, gone beyond doubt, removed their questioning, and acquired full condence in what is taught by the Teacher without having to rely on others.15Taking dhamma as close to truth, as opposed to teaching or practice, would also seem to be appropriate in such statements as the well known he who sees dhamma sees me, he who sees me sees dhamma, or he who sees dependent arising sees dhamma, he who sees dhamma sees dependent arising.16 That dhamma in these statements means something like truth is reinforced by the way in which in context they are illustrated by accounts of precisely the early Buddhist understanding of the truth about the way things are: physical form, feeling, recognition, volitions, consciousness are impermanent, suering, and not to be taken as self; the ve aggregates of attachment arise dependent on factors and conditions.Some scholars have suggested that dhamma in the sense of truth becomes hypostasized as the highest metaphysical principle, equivalent to the atman-brahman of the Upanis: ads, almost personied.17Such an interpretation is, of course, controversial and certainly problematic from the point of view the interpretations of traditional Theravada Buddhism.NatureIn the passages referred to in the previous paragraph, the particular vision of truth that the listeners are said to have at the end of the Buddhas instruction is described in each case in the following terms: the dhamma of everything whose dhamma it is to arise, is to cease (yam: kinci samudaya-dhammam: sabbam: tam: nirodha-dhamman ti).The term dhamma used at the end of a bahuvrhi compound in this manner has to mean something like nature or characteristic quality: the nature of everything