五法

pañcadharma. The five laws or categories, of which four groups are as follows:

I.

相名五法 The five categories of form and name:

(1) 相 appearances, or phenomena;

(2) 名 their names;

(3) 分別 sometimes called 妄想 ordinary mental discrimination of them--

(1) and

(2) are objective,

(3) subjective;

(4) 正智 corrective wisdom, which corrects the deficiencies and errors of the last:

(5) 如如 the 真如 Bhutatathata or absolute wisdom, reached through the 如理智 understanding of the law of the absolute, or ultimate truth.

II.

事理五法 The five categories into which things and their principles are divided:

(1) 心法 mind;

(2) 心所法 mental conditions or activities;

(3) 色法 the actual states or categories as conceived;

(4) 不相應法 hypothetic categories, 唯識 has twenty-four, the Abhidharma fourteen;

(5) 無為法 the state of rest, or the inactive principle pervading all things; the first four are the 事 and the last the 理.

III.

理智五法 cf. 五智; the five categories of essential wisdom:

(1) 真如 the absolute;

(2) 大圓鏡智 wisdom as the great perfect mirror reflecting all things;

(3) 平等性智 wisdom of the equal Buddha nature of all beings;

(4) 妙觀察智 wisdom of mystic insight into all things and removal of ignorance and doubt;

(5) 成所作智 wisdom perfect in action and bringing blessing to self and others. IV. 提婆五法 The five obnoxious rules of Devadatta: not to take milk in any form, nor meat, nor salt; to wear unshaped garments, and to live apart. Another set is: to wear cast-off rags, beg food, have only one set meal a day, dwell in the open, and abstain from all kinds of flesh, milk, etc.