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Buddha-nature

March 06, 2023

"Busshō" redirects here. For Dōgen's book from the Shōbōgenzō, see Busshō (Shōbōgenzō).

Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including tathata ("suchness")[note 2] but most notably tathāgatagarbha and buddhadhātu.[note 3] Tathāgatagarbha means "the womb" or "embryo" (garbha) of the "thus-gone" (tathāgata),[note 4] or "containing a tathāgata", while buddhadhātu literally means "Buddha-realm" or "Buddha-substrate".[note 5]

The moon hidden by the clouds is a metaphor for Buddha-nature. "Throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, beings are perverted by deluded thoughts, and their original Buddha-nature is naturally buried by the afflictions. It is like the bright moon hidden by clouds. Once they have awakened to the source of these thoughts, it is like the bright moon emerging from the clouds.[1][note 1]

Buddha-nature has a wide range of (sometimes conflicting) meanings in Indian and later East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist literature. Broadly speaking, the terms refer to the potential for all sentient beings to be a Buddha,[4][5][6][7][8] since the luminous mind,[9][10][11] "the natural and true state of the mind,"[12] the pure (visuddhi) mind undefiled by kleshas,[9] is inherently present in every sentient being, and is eternal and unchanging.[13][14][15] It will shine forth when it is cleansed of the defilements, c.q. when the nature of mind is recognised for what it is.

The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (written 2nd century CE), which was very influential in the Chinese reception of the Buddhist teachings,[16] linked the concept of tathāgatagarbha with the buddhadhātu.[17] The term buddhadhātu originally referred to relics. In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, it came to be used in place of the concept of tathāgatagārbha, reshaping the worship of the physical relics of the Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation.[18]

The primordial or undefiled mind, the tathagatagarbha, is also equated with sunyata;[10] with the alaya-vijñana ("store-consciousness", a yogacara concept);[10] and with the interpenetration of all dharmas. The Chinese Yogacara school came to regard buddha-nature as an eternal ground[19] and the ultimate source and support of all phenomenal reality.[20] The Chinese Madhyamaka based its understanding of emptiness on the Indian sources and not on Daoist concepts which previous Chinese Buddhists had used,[19] and sought to remove all ontological connotations of the term as a metaphysical reality. It saw buddha nature as being synonymous with terms like "tathata," "dharmadhatu," "ekayana," "wisdom, '' "ultimate reality," "middle way" and also the wisdom that contemplates dependent origination.[21]

Etymology

Tathāgatagarbha

The term tathāgatagarbha may mean "embryonic tathāgata",[22][23] "womb of the tathāgata",[22] or "containing a tathagata".[24] Various meanings may all be brought into mind when the term tathagatagarbha is being used.[24]

Compound

The Sanskrit term tathāgatagarbha is a compound of two terms, tathāgata and garbha:[22]

  • tathāgata means "the one thus gone", referring to the Buddha. It is composed of "tathā" and "āgata", "thus come",[22] or "tathā" and "gata", "thus gone".[22][25] The term refers to a Buddha, who has "thus gone" from samsara into nirvana, and "thus come" from nirvana into samsara to work for the salvation of all sentient beings.[22]
  • garbha, "womb",[22][26] "embryo",[22][26] "center",[26] "essence".[27][note 6]

Asian translations

The Chinese translated the term tathāgatagarbha as rúláizàng (如来藏),[22] or "Tathāgata's (rúlái) storehouse" (zàng).[29][30] According to Brown, "storehouse" may indicate both "that which enfolds or contains something",[30] or "that which is itself enfolded, hidden or contained by another."[30] The Tibetan translation is de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po, which cannot be translated as "womb" (mngal or lhums), but as "embryonic essence", "kernel" or "heart".[30] The term "heart" was also used by Mongolian translators.[30]

The Tibetan scholar Go Lotsawa outlined four meanings of the term Tathāgatagarbha as used by Indian Buddhist scholars generally: (1) As an emptiness that is a nonimplicative negation, (2) the luminous nature of the mind, (3) alaya-vijñana (store-consciousness), (4) all bodhisattvas and sentient beings.[10]

Western translations

The term tathagatagarbha first appears in the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras,[31] which date to the 2nd and third centuries CE. It is translated and interpreted in various ways by western translators and scholars:

  • According to Sally King, the term tathāgatagarbha may be understood in two ways:[22]
  1. "embryonic tathāgata", the incipient Buddha, the cause of the Tathāgata,
  2. "womb of the tathāgata", the fruit of Tathāgata.
According to King, the Chinese rúláizàng was taken in its meaning as "womb" or "fruit".[22]
  • Wayman & Hideko also point out that the Chinese regularly takes garbha as "womb",[28] but prefer to use the term "embryo".
  • According to Brown, following Wayman & Hideko, "embryo" is the best fitting translation, since it preserves "the dynamic, self-transformative nature of the tathagatagarbha."[23]
  • According to Zimmermann, garbha may also mean the interior or center of something,[32] and its essence or central part.[33] As a tatpuruṣa[note 7] it may refer to a person being a "womb" for or "container" of the tathagata.[34] As a bahuvrihi[note 8] it may refer to a person as having an embryonic tathagata inside.[34] In both cases, this embryonic tathagata still has to be developed.[34] Zimmermann concludes that tathagatagarbha is a bahuvrihi, meaning "containing a tathagata",[24][35][note 9] but notes the variety of meanings of garbha, such as "containing", "born from", "embryo", "(embracing/concealing) womb", "calyx", "child", "member of a clan", "core", which may all be brought into mind when the term tathagatagarbha is being used.[24]
  • In addition to Zimmerman's statement that tathagatagarbha most natural means "containing a Tathagata," Paul Williams notes that garbha also means "womb/matrix" and "seed/embryo," and "the innermost part of something." The term tathagatagarbha can thus also imply "that sentient beings have a tathāgata within them in seed or embryo, that sentient beings are the wombs or matrices of the tathāgata, or that they have a tathāgata as their essence, core, or essential inner nature."[35] According to Williams, the term tathāgatagarbha "may also have been intended simply to answer the question how it is possible that all sentient beings can attain the state of a Buddha.[36]

Buddhadhātu

The term "buddha-nature" (traditional Chinese: 佛性; ; pinyin: fóxìng, Japanese: busshō[22]) is closely related in meaning to the term tathāgatagarbha, but is not an exact translation of this term.[22][note 10] It refers to what is essential in the human being.[37]

The corresponding Sanskrit term is buddhadhātu.[22] It has two meanings, namely the nature of the Buddha, equivalent to the term dharmakāya, and the cause of the Buddha.[22] The link between the cause and the result is the nature (dhātu) which is common to both, namely the dharmadhātu.[37]

Matsumoto Shirō also points out that "buddha-nature" translates the Sanskrit-term buddhadhātu, a "place to put something," a "foundation," a "locus."[38] According to Shirō, it does not mean "original nature" or "essence," nor does it mean the "possibility of the attainment of Buddhahood," "the original nature of the Buddha," or "the essence of the Buddha."[38]

In the Vajrayana, the term for buddha-nature is sugatagarbha.

Indian Sutra sources

Earliest sources

According to Wayman, the idea of the tathagatagarbha is grounded on sayings by the Buddha that there is something called the luminous mind[9] (prabhasvara citta[12]), "which is only adventitiously covered over by defilements (agantukaklesa)"[12] The luminous mind is mentioned in a passage from the Anguttara Nikaya:[39] "Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is defiled by incoming defilements."[40][note 11] The Mahāsāṃghika school coupled this idea of the luminous mind with the idea of the mulavijnana, the substratum consciousness that serves as the basis consciousness.[9]

From the idea of the luminous mind emerged the idea that the awakened mind is the pure (visuddhi), undefiled mind. In the tathagatagarbha-sutras it is this pure consciousness that is regarded to be the seed from which Buddhahood grows:

When this intrinsically pure consciousness came to be regarded as an element capable of growing into Buddhahood, there was the "embryo (garbha) of the Tathagata (=Buddha)" doctrine, whether or not this term is employed.[9]

Karl Brunnholzl writes that the first probable mention of the term is in the Ekottarika Agama (though here it is used in a different way than in later texts). The passage states:

If someone devotes himself to the Ekottarikagama, Then he has the tathagatagarbha. Even if his body cannot exhaust defilements in this life, In his next life he will attain supreme wisdom.[4]

This tathāgatagarbha idea was the result of an interplay between various strands of Buddhist thought, on the nature of human consciousness and the means of awakening.[41][42][16] Gregory comments on this origin of the Tathagatagarba-doctrine: "The implication of this doctrine [...] is that enlightenment is the natural and true state of the mind."[12]

Avatamsaka Sutra

According to Wayman, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (1st-3rd century CE) was the next step in the development of the buddha-nature thought after the concept of the luminous mind:

[W]here it is taught that the Buddha's divine knowledge pervades sentient beings, and that its representation in an individual being is the substratum consciousness.[9]

The Avataṃsaka Sūtra does not contain a "singular discussion of the concept",[23] but the idea of "a universal penetration of sentient beings by the wisdom of the Buddha (buddhajñāna)" was complementary to the concept of the Buddha-womb.[23] The basic idea of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is the unity of the absolute and the relative:

All in One, One in All. The All melts into a single whole. There are no divisions in the totality of reality [...] [I]t views the cosmos as holy, as "one bright pearl," the universal reality of the Buddha. The universal Buddhahood of all reality is the religious message of the Avatamsaka-sutra.[43][note 12]

All levels of reality are related and interpenetrated. This is depicted in the image of Indra's net. This "unity in totality allows every individual entity of the phenomenal world its uniqueness without attributing an inherent nature to anything".[44]

Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra

The Lotus Sutra (Skt: Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), written between 100 BCE and 200 CE, does not use the term buddha-nature, but Japanese scholars of Buddhism suggest that the idea is nevertheless expressed or implied in the text.[45][46] In the sixth century Lotus Sutra commentaries began to argue that the text teaches the concept of buddha-nature and, according to Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline Stone, "the Lotus Sutra came to be widely understood as teaching the universality of the buddha-nature."[47] The sutra shares other themes and ideas with the later tathāgatagarbha sūtras like the tathāgatagarbha sūtra and several scholars theorize that it was an influence on these texts.[48][49][50]

The tenth chapter emphasizes, in accordance with the Bodhisattva-ideal of the Mahayana teachings, that everyone can be liberated. All living beings can become a buddha, not only monks and nuns, but also laypeople, śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and non-human creatures.[48] It also details that all living beings can be a 'teacher of the Dharma'.

The twelfth chapter of the Lotus Sutra details that the potential to become enlightened is universal among all people, even the historical Devadatta has the potential to become a buddha.[51] The story of Devadatta is followed by another story about a dragon princess who is both a nāga and a female, whom the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī proclaims will reach enlightenment immediately, in her present form.

Tathāgatagarbha Sūtras

 
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra states that the tathāgatagarbha is like the grain of rice contained inside of the husk of the rice plant
 
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra uses the image of a Buddha within a lotus flower as a metaphor for the tathāgatagarbha
Main article: Tathāgatagarbha sūtras

There are several major Indian texts which discuss the idea of buddha-nature and they are often termed the tathāgatagarbha sūtras. According to Brunnholzl "the earliest mahayana sutras that are based on and discuss the notion of tathagatagarbha as the buddha potential that is innate in all sentient beings began to appear in written form in the late second and early third century."[4] Their ideas became very influential in East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The Tathāgatagarbha sūtras include the Tathāgatagarbha sūtra, Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa, Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, and the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra.[52]

Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra

The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra (200-250 CE) is considered (...) "the earliest expression of this (the tathāgatagarbha doctrine) and the term tathāgatagarbha itself seems to have been coined in this very sutra."[53] It states that all beings already have perfect Buddha body (*tathāgatatva, *buddhatva, *tathāgatakāya) within themselves, but do not recognize it because it is covered over by afflictions.[54][55][56][57][58]

The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra uses nine similes to illustrate the concept:[59]

This [tathāgatagarbha] abides within the shroud of the afflictions, as should be understood through [the following nine] examples: Just like a buddha in a decaying lotus, honey amidst bees, a grain in its husk, gold in filth, a treasure underground, a shoot and so on sprouting from a little fruit, a statue of the Victorious One in a tattered rag, a ruler of humankind in a destitute woman's womb, and a precious image under clay, this [buddha] element abides within all sentient beings, obscured by the defilement of the adventitious poisons.

Another one of these texts, the Ghanavyuha Sutra (as quoted by Longchenpa) states that the tathāgatagarbha is the ground of all things:

... the ultimate universal ground also has always been with the Buddha-Essence (Tathagatagarbha), and this essence in terms of the universal ground has been taught by the Tathagata. The fools who do not know it, because of their habits, see even the universal ground as (having) various happiness and suffering and actions and emotional defilements. Its nature is pure and immaculate, its qualities are as wishing-jewels; there are neither changes nor cessations. Whoever realizes it attains Liberation ...[60]

Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra

The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra (3rd century CE[61]), also named The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala, centers on the teaching of the tathāgatagarbha as "ultimate soteriological principle".[62] Regarding the tathāgatagarbha, it states:

Lord, the Tathagatagarbha is neither self nor sentient being, nor soul, nor personality. The Tathagatagarbha is not the domain of beings who fall into the belief in a real personality, who adhere to wayward views, whose thoughts are distracted by voidness. Lord, this Tathagatagarbha is the embryo of the Illustrious Dharmadhatu, the embryo of the Dharmakaya, the embryo of the supramundane dharma, the embryo of the intrinsically pure dharma.[63]

In the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra there are two possible states for the tathāgatagarbha:

[E]ither covered by defilements, when it is called only "embryo of the Tathagata"; or free from defilements, when the "embryo of the Tathagata" is no more the "embryo" (potentiality) but the Tathagata (actuality).[5]

The sutra itself states it this way:

This Dharmakaya of the Tathagata when not free from the store of defilement is referred to as the Tathagatagarbha.[64]

Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra

According to the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra (2nd c. CE[65]), tathāgatagarbha has the following fundamental natures:[note 13][note 14]

  • Neither arising nor ceasing - tathāgatagarbha permanently exists in the world, never arises, and therefore is never destroyed or perished.[note 15]
  • Independence - tathāgatagarbha possesses the intrinsic nature of independently existing without relying on other dharmas. Therefore, all worldly phenomena of aggregates, sense-fields, and elements have the nature of arising and ceasing but tathagatagarbha possesses the intrinsic nature of independence. In addition to tathagatagarbha itself, the intrinsic natures of tathagatagarbha also originally exist without increasing and decreasing and do not change owing to the variance of any conditions.[note 16]
  • Non-perceptiveness - tathāgatagarbha is not the perceptive mind; it does not have the perceptual functions of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing regarding the six external sense-objects which the perceptive mind has and therefore does not have the nature to discriminate goodness or badness either.[note 17]
  • Invariability - the tathāgatagarbha and its fundamental natures have the quality of permanence, eternity, imperishability, or diamond (vajra) nature. These are sustained everlastingly and do not change according to the variance of time and space. The Aṅgulimālīya states: "Permanence is the Buddha-nature," "Eternity is the Buddha-nature," "Invariability is the Buddha-nature," "Non-badness is the Buddha-nature," "Non-damage is the Buddha-nature," "No sickness is the Buddha-nature," "Non-aging is the Buddha-nature,"[note 18]
  • Storability - tathāgatagarbha stores a sentient being's seeds of all phenomena, including the seeds of good, bad, and neutral karmas.

Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra

 
A Sui dynasty manuscript of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra

The early buddha-nature concept as expressed in the seminal 'tathagatagarbha sutra' named the Nirvana Sutra is, according to Kevin Trainor, as follows:

Sentient beings are said to possess a sacred nature that is the basis for them becoming buddhas [...] this buddha-nature is in fact our true nature [...] universal and completely unsullied by whatever psychological and karmic state an individual may be in."[3]

The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (written 2nd century CE) was very influential in the Chinese reception of the Buddhist teachings.[16] The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra linked the concept of tathāgatagarbha with the buddhadhātu.[17] Kosho Yamamoto points out that the Nirvana Sutra contains a series of equations: "Thus, there comes about the equation of: Buddha Body = Dharmakaya = eternal body = eternal Buddha = Eternity."[67] According to Shimoda Masahiro, the authors of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra were leaders and advocates of stupa worship. The term buddhadhātu originally referred to relics. In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, it came to be used in place of the concept of tathāgatagārbha. The authors used the teachings of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra to reshape the worship of the physical relics of the Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation.[18] Sasaki, in a review of Shimoda, conveys a key premise of Shimoda's work, namely, that the origins of Mahayana Buddhism and the Nirvana Sutra are entwined.[68]

The buddha-nature is always present, in all times and in all beings. This does not mean that sentient beings are at present endowed with the qualities of a Buddha, but that they will have those qualities in the future.[69] It is obscured from worldly vision by the screening effect of tenacious negative mental afflictions within each being.[note 19] Once these negative mental states have been eliminated, however, the Buddha-dhatu is said to shine forth unimpededly and the Buddha-sphere (Buddha-dhatu/ visaya) can then be consciously "entered into", and therewith deathless Nirvana attained:[70]

[T]he tathagatagarbha is none but Thusness or the Buddha Nature, and is the originally untainted pure mind which lies overspread by, and exists in, the mind of greed and anger of all beings. This bespeaks a Buddha Body that exists in a state of bondage.[71]

According to Sallie B. King, it does not represent a major innovation, and is rather unsystematic,[17] which made it "a fruitful one for later students and commentators, who were obliged to create their own order and bring it to the text".[17] According to King, its most important innovation is the linking of the term buddhadhatu with tathagatagarbha.[17] The sutra presents the buddha-nature or tathagatagarbha as a "Self". The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra refers to a true self. "The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṅa Sūtra, especially influential in East Asian Buddhist thought, goes so far as to speak of it as our true self (ātman). Its precise metaphysical and ontological status is, however, open to interpretation in the terms of different Mahāyāna philosophical schools; for the Madhyamikas it must be empty of its own existence like everything else; for the Yogacarins, following the Laṅkāvatāra, it can be identified with store consciousness, as the receptacle of the seeds of awakening.[72] Paul Williams states: "[...] it is obvious that the Mahaparinirvana Sutra does not consider it impossible for a Buddhist to affirm an atman provided it is clear what the correct understanding of this concept is, and indeed the sutra clearly sees certain advantages in doing so."[73] but it speaks about buddha-nature in so many different ways, that Chinese scholars created a list of types of buddha-nature that could be found in the text.[17] Paul Williams also notes:

Nevertheless the sutra as it stands is quite clear that while [...] we can speak of [the tathagatagharba] as Self, actually it is not at all a Self, and those who have such Self-notions cannot perceive the tathagatagarbha and thus become enlightened (see Ruegg 1989a: 21-6).[73]

Williams further explains that, while speaking of a Self, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra does not determine this further than that which "enables sentient beings to become Buddhas."[31]

Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (compiled 350-400 CE[74]) synthesized the tathagatagarba-doctrine and the ālāya-vijñāna doctrine. The Lankavatara Sutra "assimilates Tathagata-garbha thought to the Yogacara-viewpoint, and this assimilation is further developed in [...] The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana".[75] According to the Lankavatara Sutra tathāgatagarbha is identical to the ālaya-vijñāna, known prior to awakening as the storehouse-consciousness or 8th consciousness.[76] The ālāya-vijñāna is supposed to contain the pure seed, or tathagatagarbha, from which awakening arises.[12]

The Lankavatara-sutra contains tathagata-garba thought, but also warns against reification of the idea of buddha-nature, and presents it as an aid to attaining awakening:

Is not this Tathagata-garbha taught by the Blessed One the same as the ego-substance taught by the philosophers? The ego as taught by the philosophers is an eternal creator, unqualified, omnipresent, and imperishable.
The Blessed One replied: [...] it is emptiness, reality-limit, Nirvana, being unborn, unqualified, and devoid of will-effort; the reason why the Tathagatas [...] teach the doctrine pointing to the Tathagata-garba is to make the ignorant cast aside their fear when they listen to the teaching of egolessness and to have them realise the state of non-discrimination and imagelessness[77]

According to Alex and Hideko Wayman, the equation of tathagatagarbha and ālāya-vijñāna is innovative:

It is plain that when the Lankavatara-sutra identifies the two terms, this scripture necessarily diverges in the meaning of one or both of the terms from the usage of the term Tathagatagarbha in the earlier Sri-Mala or of the term ālāya-vijñāna in the subsequent Yogacara school.[78][note 20]

Indian commentaries

The tathāgatagarbha doctrine was also widely discussed by Indian Mahayana scholars in treatises or commentaries, called śāstra, the most influential of which was the Ratnagotravibhāga (5th century CE).

Ratnagotravibhāga

The Ratnagotravibhāga, also called Uttaratantraśāstra (5th century CE), is an Indian śāstra in which synthesised major elements and themes of the tathāgatagārbha theory.[23] It gives an overview of authoritative tathāgatagarbha sutras, mentioning the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra, the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, the Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa and the Mahābherīharaka-sūtra.[81] It presents the tathāgatagarbha as "an ultimate, unconditional reality that is simultaneously the inherent, dynamic process towards its complete manifestation".[82] Mundane and enlightened reality are seen as complementary:

Thusness [tathata] defiled is the Tathagatagarbha, and Thusness undefiled is Enlightenment.[5]

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the tathāgatagarbha is seen as having three specific characteristics: (1) dharmakaya, (2) suchness, and (3) disposition, as well as the general characteristic (4) non-conceptuality.[10]

According to the Ratnagotravibhāga, all sentient beings have "the embryo of the Tathagata" in three senses:[83]

  1. the Tathāgata's dharmakāya permeates all sentient beings;
  2. the Tathāgata's tathatā is omnipresent (avyatibheda);
  3. the Tathāgata's species (gotra, a synonym for tathagatagarbha) occurs in them.

The Ratnagotravibhāga equates enlightenment with the nirvāṇa-realm and the dharmakāya.[5] It gives a variety of synonyms for garbha, the most frequently used being gotra and dhatu.[82]

This text also explains the tathāgatagarbha in terms of luminous mind: "The luminous nature of the mind Is unchanging, just like space."[84]

Other possible Indian treatises on buddha-nature

Takasaki Jikido notes various buddha nature treatises which exist only in Chinese and which are similar in some ways to the Ratnagotra. These works are unknown in other textual traditions and scholars disagree on whether they are translations, original compositions or a mixture of the two. These works are:[85]

  • Dharmadhātvaviśeṣaśāstra (Dasheng fajie wuchabie lun 大乘法界無差別論), said to have been translated by Paramartha and attributed to Saramati (the same author which the Chinese tradition states wrote the Ratnagotra).
  • Buddhagotraśāstra (佛性論, Fó xìng lùn, Buddha-nature treatise, Taishō 1610), said to have been translated by Paramartha and is attributed by Chinese tradition to Vasubandhu
  • Anuttarâśrayasūtra, which according to Takasaki "is clearly a composition based upon the Ratna."

Madhyamaka school

Indian Madhyamak a phi"losophers interpreted the theory as a description of emptiness and as a non implicative negation. Bhaviveka's Tarkajvala states:

[The expression] "possessing the tathagata heart" is [used] because emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and so on, exist in the mind streams of all sentient beings. However, it is not something like a permanent and all-pervasive person that is the inner agent. For we find [passages] such as "All phenomena have the nature of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. What is emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness is the Tathagata."[86]

Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya states: "One should know that since [the alaya-consciousness] follows the nature of all entities, it is nothing but emptiness that is taught through the term 'alaya-consciousness.'"[86]

Go Lotsawa states that this statement is referencing the tathāgatagarbha doctrine.[86] Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya also argues, basing itself on the Lankavatara sutra, that "the statement of the emptiness of sentient beings being a buddha adorned with all major and minor marks is of expedient meaning".[86]

Kamalasila's (c. 740-795) Madhyamakaloka associates tathāgatagarbha with luminosity and luminosity with emptiness:

This statement "All sentient beings possess the tathāgata heart" teaches that all are suitable to attain the state of unsurpassable completely perfect awakening since it is held that the term tathāgata expresses that the dharmadhātu, which is characterized by personal and phenomenal identitylessness, is natural luminosity.[87]

Uniquely among Madhyamaka texts, some texts attributed to Nagarjuna, mainly poetic works like the Dharmadhatustava, Cittavajrastava, and Bodhicittavivarana associate the term tathāgatagarbha with the luminous nature of the mind.[84]

Yogacara scholars

See also: Transformations of consciousness

According to Brunnholzl, "all early Indian Yogacara masters (such as Asanga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, and Asvabhava), if they refer to the term tathāgatagarbha at all, always explain it as nothing but suchness in the sense of twofold identitylessness".[87]

Some later Yogacara scholars spoke of the tathāgatagarbha in more positive terms, such as Jñanasrimitra who in his Sakarasiddhi equates it with the appearances of lucidity (prakasarupa). Likewise, Brunnholzl notes that "Ratnakarasanti generally describes the tathagata heart as being equivalent to naturally luminous mind, nondual self-awareness, and the perfect nature (which he considers to be an implicative negation and not a nonimplicative negation)."[88]

Alaya-vijñana

The Yogacara concept of the alaya-vijñana (store consciousness) also came to be associated by some scholars with the tathāgatagarbha. This can be seen in sutras like the Lankavatara, the Srimaladevi and in the translations of Paramartha.[89] The concept of the ālaya-vijñāna originally meant defiled consciousness: defiled by the workings of the five senses and the mind. It was also seen as the mūla-vijñāna, the base-consciousness or "stream of consciousness" from which awareness and perception spring.[90]

To account for the notion of buddha-nature in all beings, with the Yogacara belief in the Five Categories of Beings, Yogacara scholars in China such as Tz'u-en (慈恩, 632-682) the first patriarch in China, advocated two types of nature: the latent nature found in all beings (理佛性) and the buddha-nature in practice (行佛性). The latter nature was determined by the innate seeds in the alaya.[91]

Trikaya doctrine

Around 300 CE, the Yogacara school systematized the prevalent ideas on the nature of the Buddha in the Trikaya or three-body doctrine. According to this doctrine, Buddhahood has three aspects:[92]

  1. The Nirmana-kaya, or Transformation-body, the earthly manifestation of the Buddha;
  2. The Sambhogakāya, or Enjoyment-body, a subtle body, by which the Buddha appears to bodhisattvas to teach them;
  3. The Dharmakāya, or Dharma-body, the ultimate nature of the Buddha, and the ultimate nature of reality.[citation needed]

They may be described as follows:[citation needed]

The first is the 'Knowledge-body' (Jnana-kaya), the inner nature shared by all Buddhas, their Buddha-ness (buddhata)
[...] The second aspect of the Dharma-body is the 'Self-existent-body' (Svabhavika-kaya). This is the ultimate nature of reality, thusness, emptiness: the non-nature which is the very nature of dharmas, their dharma-ness (dharmata). It is the Tathagata-garbha and bodhicitta hidden within beings, and the transformed 'storehouse-consciousness'.

Chinese Buddhism

The tathāgatagarbha idea was extremely influential in the development of East Asian Buddhism.[41] When Buddhism was introduced to China, in the 1st century CE, Buddhism was understood through comparisons of its teachings to Chinese terms and ways of thinking. Chinese Buddhist thinkers like Zhi Mindu, Zhidun, and Huiyuan (d. 433) interpreted Buddhist concepts in terms of the Chinese neo-daoist philosophy called 'dark learning' (xuanxue).[19] This tendency was only later countered by the work of Chinese Madhyamaka scholar-translators like Kumarajiva.

The buddha nature idea was introduced into China with the translation of the Mahaparanirvana sutra in the early fifth century and this text became the central source of buddha-nature doctrine in Chinese Buddhism.[21] Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra some Chinese Buddhists supposed that the teaching of the buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths.[93] This idea was interpreted as being similar to the ideas of Dao and Principle (Li) in Chinese philosophy.

Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana was very influential in the development of Chinese Buddhism [16] said to have been translated by Paramartha (499-569). While the text is traditionally attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of the text is extant. The earliest known versions are written in Chinese, and contemporary scholars believe that the text is a Chinese composition.[94][95]

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana offers a synthesis of Chinese buddhist thinking.[96] It sees the buddha-nature doctrine as a cosmological theory, in contrast to the Indo-Tibetan tradition, where the soteriological aspect is emphasized.[97] It described the "One Mind" which "includes in itself all states of being of the phenomenal and transcendental world".[97] It tried to harmonize the ideas of the tathāgatagarbha and ālāya-vijñāna:

In the words of the Awakening of Faith — which summarizes the essentials of Mahayana — self and world, mind and suchness, are integrally one. Everything is a carrier of that a priori enlightenment; all incipient enlightenment is predicated on it. The mystery of existence is, then, not, "How may we overcome alienation?" The challenge is, rather, "Why do we think we are lost in the first place?"[16]

In Awakening of Faith the 'one mind' has two aspects, namely tathata, suchness, the things as they are, and samsara, the cycle of birth and death.[96] This text was in line with an essay by Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty (reign 502-549 CE), in which he postulated a pure essence, the enlightened mind, trapped in darkness, which is ignorance. By this ignorance the pure mind is trapped in samsara. This resembles the tathāgatagarba and the idea of the defilement of the luminous mind.[96] In a commentary on this essay Shen Yue stated that insight into this true essence is awakened by stopping the thoughts - a point of view which is also being found in the Platform Sutra of Huineng.[96]

The joining together of these different ideas supported the notion of the ekayāna, the one vehicle: absolute oneness, all-pervading Buddha-wisdom and original enlightenment as a holistic whole. This synthesis was a reflection of the unity which was attained in China with the united Song dynasty.[98]

In Chinese Yogacara and Madhyamaka

By the 6th century CE buddha nature had been well established in Chinese Buddhism and a wide variety of theories developed to explain it.[21] One influential figure who wrote about buddha nature was Ching-ying Hui-yuan (523-592 CE), a Chinese Yogacarin who argued for a kind of idealism which held that: "All dharmas without exception originate and are formed from the true[-mind], and other than the true[-mind], there exists absolutely nothing which can give rise to false thoughts."[21]

Ching-ying Hui-yuan equated this 'true mind' with the alaya-vijñana, the tathāgatagarbha and "Buddha-nature" (fóxìng) and held that it was an essence, a true consciousness and a metaphysical principle that ensured that all sentient beings will reach enlightenment.[21] According to Ming-Wood Liu "Hui-yuan's interpretation of the buddha-nature doctrine represents the culmination of a long process of transformation of the "Buddha-nature" from a basically practical to an ontological concept."[21]

The Chinese Yogacara school was also split on the relationship between the tathāgatagarbha and ālayavijñāna. Fa-shang (495-580), representing the southern Yogacara, asserted that they were separate, that the alaya was illusiory and impure while buddha-nature was the ultimate source of all phenomenal reality.[20] In the northern school meanwhile, it was held that the alaya and buddha-nature were the same pure support for all phenomena.[20] In the sixth and seventh centuries, the Yogacara theory became associated with a substantialist non-dual metaphysics which saw buddha nature as an eternal ground. This idea was promoted by figures like Fazang and Ratnamati.[19]

In contrast with the Chinese Yogacara view, the Chinese Madhyamaka scholar Jizang (549–623 CE) sought to remove all ontological connotations of the term as a metaphysical reality and saw buddha nature as being synonymous with terms like "tathata," "dharmadhatu," "ekayana," "wisdom, '' "ultimate reality," "middle way" and also the wisdom that contemplates dependent origination.[21] In formulating his view, Jizang was influenced by the earlier Chinese Madhyamaka thinker Sengzhao (384–414 CE) who was a key figure in outlining an understanding of emptiness which was based on the Indian sources and not on Daoist concepts which previous Chinese Buddhists had used.[19] Jizang used the compound "Middle Way-buddha-nature" (zhongdao foxing 中道佛 性) to refer to his view.[99] Jizang was also one of the first Chinese philosophers to famously argue that plants and insentient objects have buddha-nature, which he also termed true reality and universal principle (dao).[99]

In the 20th century, the influential Chinese master Yin Shun drew on Chinese Madhyamaka to argue against any Yogacara influenced view that buddha-nature was an underlying permanent ground of reality and instead supported the view that buddha-nature teachings are just an expedient means.[19] Yin Shun, drawing on his study of Indian Madhyamaka promoted the emptiness of all things as the ultimate Buddhist truth, and argued that the buddha-nature teaching was a provisional teaching taught in order to ease the fear of some Buddhists regarding emptiness as well as to attract those people who have an affinity to the idea of a Self or Brahman.[19] Later after taking up the Buddhist path, they would be introduced to the truth of emptiness.[19]

In Tiantai

In the Tiantai school, the primary figure is the scholar Zhiyi. According to Paul L. Swanson, none of Zhiyi's works discuss buddha- nature explicitly at length however. Yet it is still an important concept in his philosophy, which is seen as synonymous with the ekayana principle outlined in the Lotus Sutra.[6] Swanson argues that for Zhiyi, buddha-nature is:

an active threefold process which involves the way reality is, the wisdom to see reality as it is, and the practice required to attain this wisdom. Buddha Nature is threefold: the three aspects of reality, wisdom, and practice are interdependent--one aspect does not make any sense without the others.[6]

Buddha-nature for Zhiyi therefore has three aspects which he bases on passages from the Lotus sutra and the Nirvana sutra:[6]

  1. The direct cause of attaining Buddhahood, the innate potential in all sentient beings to become Buddhas, which is the aspect of 'true nature', the way things are.
  2. The complete cause of attaining Buddhahood, which is the aspect of wisdom that illuminates the true nature and the goal of practice.
  3. The conditional causes of attaining Buddhahood, which is the aspect of the practices and activities that lead to Buddhahood.

The later Tiantai scholar Zhanran would expand the Tiantai view of buddha-nature, which he saw as synonymous with suchness, to argue for the idea that insentient rocks and plants also have buddha-nature.[100]

In Chan Buddhism

In Chan Buddhism, buddha-nature tends to be seen as the (non-substantial) essential nature of all beings. But the Zen tradition also emphasizes that buddha-nature is śūnyatā, the absence of an independent and substantial "self".[16] In the East Mountain Teaching of early Chan, buddha-nature was equated with the nature of mind, while later on any identification with a reificationable term or object was rejected.[11] This is reflected in the recorded sayings of Chan master Mazu Daoyi (709–788), who first stated that "Mind is Buddha," but later stated "Neither mind nor Buddha."[note 21]

Chan masters from Huineng (7th-century China),[102] Chinul (12th century Korea),[103] Hakuin Ekaku (18th-century Japan)[104] to Hsu Yun (20th-century China),[105] have taught that the process of awakening begins with the light of the mind turning around to recognize its own true nature, so that the 8th consciousness, ālayavijñāna, also known as the tathāgatagarbha, is transformed into the "bright mirror wisdom". According to D.T. Suzuki, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra presents the Chan/Zen Buddhist view of the tathāgatagarbha:

[The Buddha said,] Now, Mahāmati, what is perfect knowledge? It is realised when one casts aside the discriminating notions of form, name, reality, and character; it is the inner realisation by noble wisdom. This perfect knowledge, Mahāmati, is the essence of the Tathāgata-garbha.[106]

When this active transformation is complete, the other seven consciousnesses are also transformed. The 7th consciousness of delusive discrimination becomes transformed into the "equality wisdom". The 6th consciousness of thinking sense becomes transformed into the "profound observing wisdom", and the 1st to 5th consciousnesses of the five sensory senses become transformed into the "all-performing wisdom".

The influential Chan patriarch Guifeng Zongmi (780–841) interpreted buddha-nature as "empty tranquil awareness" (k'ung-chi chih), which he took from the Ho-tse school of Chan.[20] Following the Srimala sutra, he interpreted the theory of emptiness as presented in the Prajñaparamita sutras as provisional and saw buddha-nature as the definitive teaching of Buddhism.[19]

According to Heng-Ching Shih, the teaching of the universal buddha-nature does not intend to assert the existence of substantial, entity-like self endowed with excellent features of a Buddha. Rather, buddha-nature simply represents the potentiality to be realized in the future.[7]

Hsing Yun, forty-eighth patriarch of the Linji school, equates the buddha-nature with the dharmakāya in line with pronouncements in key tathāgatagarbha sūtras. He defines these two as:

the inherent nature that exists in all beings. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, enlightenment is a process of uncovering this inherent nature … The Buddha nature [is] identical with transcendental reality. The unity of the Buddha with everything that exists.[107][108]

Korean Buddhism

In the Korean Vajrasamādhi Sūtra (685 CE), the tathāgatagarbha is presented as being possessed of two elements, one essential, immutable, changeless and still, the other active and salvational:

This "dharma of the one mind", which is the "original tathagatagarbha", is said to be "calm and motionless" ... The Vajrasamadhi's analysis of tathagatagarbha also recalls a distinction the Awakening of Faith makes between the calm, unchanging essence of the mind and its active, adaptable function [...] The tathagatagarbha is equated with the "original edge of reality" (bhutakoti) that is beyond all distinctions - the equivalent of original enlightenment, or the essence. But tathagatagarbha is also the active functioning of that original enlightenment - 'the inspirational power of that fundamental faculty' .... The tathagatagarbha is thus both the 'original edge of reality' that is beyond cultivation (= essence) as well as the specific types of wisdom and mystical talents that are the byproducts of enlightenment (= function).[109]

Japanese Buddhism

 
A Japanese Kamakura period reliquary topped with a cintamani (a "wish fulfilling jewel"). Buddha nature texts often use the metaphor of a hidden jewel (buddha-nature) which all beings have, but are unaware of.

Nichiren Buddhism

Nichiren (1222–1282) was a Buddhist monk who taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra as the exclusive means to attain enlightenment, and the chanting of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō as the essential practice of the teaching. Nichiren Buddhism includes various schools with diverging interpretations of Nichiren's teachings.

Nichiren Buddhism views the buddha-nature as "The inner potential for attaining Buddhahood", common to all people.[110] Based on the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren maintained that "all living being possess the Buddha nature",[111] being the inherent potential to attain Buddhahood: "The Buddha nature refers to the potential for attaining Buddhahood, a state of awakening filled with compassion and wisdom."[112]

The emphasis in Nichiren Buddhism is on "revealing the Buddha nature" - or attaining Buddhahood – in this lifetime [113] through chanting the name of the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra: "[T]the Buddha nature within us is summoned forth and manifested by our chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo."[114]

The potential for Buddhahood exists in the whole spectrum of the Ten Worlds of life, and this means that all people, including evil doers, have buddha-nature,[115] which remains as a dormant possibility or a theoretical potential in the field of emptiness or non-substantiality until it is materialized in reality through Buddhist practice.

In his letter "Opening the Eyes of Wooden and painted Images" [116] Nichiren explains that insentient matter (such as trees, mandalas, images, statues) also possess the Buddha nature, because they serve as objects of worship. This view regards the buddha-nature as the original nature of all manifestations of life – sentient and insentient – through their interconnectedness:

This concept of the enlightenment of plants in turn derives from the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which teaches that all life—insentient and sentient—possesses the Buddha nature.[117]

Zen Buddhism

The founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dōgen Zenji, held that buddha-nature (busshō 仏性) was simply the true nature of reality and Being. This true nature was just impermanence, becoming and 'vast emptiness'. Because he saw the whole universe as an expression of buddha-nature, he held that even grass and trees are buddha-nature.

Therefore, the very impermanency of grass and tree, thicket and forest is the Buddha nature. The very impermanency of men and things, body and mind, is the Buddha nature. Nature and lands, mountains and rivers, are impermanent because they are the Buddha nature. Supreme and complete enlightenment, because it is impermanent, is the Buddha nature.[118]

The founder of Sanbō Kyōdan lineage of Zen Buddhism, Yasutani Haku'un Roshi, also defined buddha-nature in terms of the emptiness and impermanence of all dharmas:

Everything by its very nature is subject to the process of infinite transformation - this is its Buddha- or Dharma-nature. What is the substance of this Buddha- or Dharma-nature? In Buddhism it is called ku (shunyata). Now, ku is not mere emptiness. It is that which is living, dynamic, devoid of mass, unfixed, beyond individuality or personality--the matrix of all phenomena.[119]

A famous reference to buddha-nature in the Zen-tradition is the Mu-koan:

A monk asked Zhaozhou Congshen, a Chinese Zen master (known as Jōshū in Japanese), "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou answered, "It does not." (wú Chinese, mu in Japanese)[120]

Shin Buddhism

The founder of the Jōdo Shinshū of Pure Land Buddhism, Shinran, equated buddha-Nature with shinjin.[121]

Tibetan Buddhism

Main article: Rangtong-Shentong

In Tibetan Buddhist scholastics, there are two main camps of interpreting buddha-nature. There are those who argue that tathāgatagarbha is just emptiness (described either as dharmadhatu, the nature of phenomena, or a nonimplicative negation) and there are those who see it as the union of the mind's emptiness and luminosity (which includes the buddha qualities).[122]

The Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism favors what is called the rangtong interpretation of Prasaṅgika Madhyamaka philosophy.[123] They thus interpret buddha-nature as an expedient term for the emptiness of inherent existence. Other schools, especially the Jonang,[124] and Kagyu have tended to accept the shentong, "other-empty", Madhyamaka philosophy, which discerns an Absolute which "is empty of adventitious defilements which are intrinsically other than it, but is not empty of its own inherent existence".[125]

These interpretations of the tathagatagarbha-teachings has been a matter of intensive debates in Tibet.[126]

Nyingma

In the Nyingma school doctrines on buddha-nature are generally marked by the tendency to align the idea with Dzogchen views as well as with Prasangika Madhyamaka, beginning with the work of Rongzom (1042–1136) and continuing into the work of Longchenpa (1308–1364) and Mipham (1846–1912).[127] Mipham Rinpoche, the most authoritative figure in modern Nyingma, adopted a view of buddha-nature as the unity of appearance and emptiness, relating it to the descriptions of the Ground in Dzogchen as outlined by Longchenpa. This ground is said to be primordially pure (ka dag) and spontaneously present (Ihun grub).[128]

Germano writes that Dzogchen "represents the most sophisticated interpretation of the so-called "Buddha nature" tradition within the context of Indo-Tibetan thought".[129]

The 19th/20th-century Nyingma scholar, Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal, sees the buddha-nature as ultimate truth,[130] nirvana, which is constituted of profundity, primordial peace and radiance:

Buddha-nature is immaculate. It is profound, serene, unfabricated suchness, an uncompounded expanse of luminosity; nonarising, unceasing, primordial peace, spontaneously present nirvana.[131]

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche sees an identity between the buddha-nature, dharmadhātu (essence of all phenomena and the noumenon) and the Three Vajras, saying:

Dharmadhatu is adorned with dharmakaya, which is endowed with dharmadhatu wisdom. This is a brief but very profound statement, because "dharmadhatu" also refers to sugata-garbha or buddha nature. Buddha nature is all-encompassing ... This buddha nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky. It is indivisible from the three vajras [i.e. the Buddha's Body, Speech and Mind] of the awakened state, which do not perish or change.[132]

The Nyingma meditation masters, Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, emphasise that the essential nature of the mind (the buddha-nature) is not a blankness, but is characterized by wonderful qualities and a non-conceptual perfection that is already present and complete, it's just obscured and we fail to recognize it.[133]

Speaking in the context of Nyingma, Dzogchen Ponlop expresses the view that there exists within vajrayana Buddhism the doctrine that we are already buddha: '... in the vajrayana, we are buddha right now, in this very moment'[134] and that it is legitimate to have 'vajra pride' in our buddha mind and the already present qualities of enlightenment with which it is replete:

Vajra pride refers to our pride and confidence in the absolute nature of our mind as buddha: primordially, originally pure, awake and full of the qualities of enlightenment.[135]

Kagyu

According to Brunnholzl,

Virtually all Kagyu masters hold the teaching on buddha nature to be of definitive meaning and deny that the tathagata heart is just sheer emptiness or a nonimplicative negation. Though the Kagyu approach has certain similarities with Dolpopa's view, it is generally less absolute than the latter's and shows several significant differences, such as not claiming that the buddha qualities exist in their full-blown form even in confused sentient beings and not making such an absolute distinction between the two realities as Dolpopa does (the exception is Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, who largely follows Taranatha and Dolpopa but at times blends their positions with the Third Karmapa's view).[136]

In Kagyu the view of the Third Karmapa is generally seen as the most authoritative. This is the view that buddha-nature is "mind's luminous ultimate nature or nondual wisdom, which is the basis of everything in samsara and nirvana."[137] Thrangu Rinpoche sees the Buddha-nature as the indivisible oneness of wisdom and emptiness:

The union of wisdom and emptiness is the essence of Buddha-hood or what is called Buddha-nature (Skt. Tathagata-garbha) because it contains the very seed, the potential of Buddhahood. It resides in each and every being and because of this essential nature, this heart nature, there is the possibility of reaching Buddhahood.[138]

Sakya

Sakya Pandita (1182–1251) sees the buddha-nature as the dharmadhatu free from all reference points, and states that the teaching that buddha-nature exists in all beings is of expedient meaning and that its basis is emptiness, citing Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya.[139] The Sakya scholar Rongtön meanwhile, argued that buddha-nature is suchness, with stains, or emptiness of the mind with stains.[140]

Sakya scholar Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364), like the Gelugpas, held that the buddha-nature teachings were of expedient meaning and that the naturally abiding disposition is nothing but emptiness, however unlike them, his view was that the basis for these teachings is the alaya-vijñana and also that buddha-nature is the dharmakaya of a buddha but "never exists in the great mass of sentient beings".[136]

According to Brunnholzl, in the works of the influential Sakya scholar Gorampa Sonam Senge (1429–1489), buddha-nature is

nondual unity of minds lucidity and emptiness or awareness and emptiness free from all reference points. It is not mere emptiness because sheer emptiness cannot be the basis of both samsára and nirvána. However, it is not mere lucidity either because this lucidity is a conditioned entity and the tathágata heart is unconditioned.[140]

Sakya Chokden meanwhile argues that the ultimate buddha-nature is "minds natural luminosity free from all extremes of reference points, which is the sphere of personally experienced wisdom and an implicative negation."[141]

Jonang

The Jonang school, whose foremost historical figure was the Tibetan scholar-monk Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361), sees the buddha-nature as the very ground of the Buddha himself, as the "permanent indwelling of the Buddha in the basal state".[142] According to Brunnholzl, Dolpopa, basing himself on certain tathāgatagarbha sutras, argued that the buddha-nature is "ultimately really established, everlasting, eternal, permanent, immutable (therzug), and being beyond dependent origination."[136] This is the foundation of what is called the Shentong view.

The Buddhist tantric scripture entitled Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti), repeatedly exalts, as portrayed by Dolpopa, not the non-Self but the Self, and applies the following terms to this ultimate reality : 'The Buddha-Self, the beginningless Self, the solid Self, the diamond Self'. These terms are applied in a manner which reflects the cataphatic approach to Buddhism, typical of much of Dolpopa's writings.[143]

Cyrus Stearns writes that Dolpopa's attitude to the 'third turning of the wheel' doctrines (i.e. the buddha-nature teachings) is that they "are the final definitive statements on the nature of ultimate reality, the primordial ground or substratum beyond the chain of dependent origination, and which is only empty of other, relative phenomena."[144]

Gelug

An early Tibetan translator, Ngok Lotsawa (1050–1109) argues in his commentary to the Uttaratantra that buddha-nature is a non-implicative negation, which is to say that it is emptiness, as a total negation of inherent existence (svabhava) that does not imply that anything is left un-negated (in terms of its svabhava). Another early figure, Chaba Chokyi Senge also argued that buddha-nature was a non-implicative negation.[145] The Kadampa tradition generally followed Ngok Lotsawa by holding that Buddha- nature was a nonimplicative negation. The Gelug school, which sees itself as a continuation of the Kadampas, also hold this view, while also holding, as Chaba did, that buddha-nature teachings are of expedient meaning.[145]

Kedrub Jé Geleg Balsang (1385–1438), one of the main disciples of Tsongkhapa, defined the tathāgatagarbha thus:

It is the emptiness of mind's being empty of being really established that is called "the naturally pure true nature of the mind." The naturally pure true nature of the mind in its phase of not being free from adventitious stains is called "sugata heart" or "naturally abiding disposition."[145]

Brunnholzl states that the view of Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen (1364–1432) is "that the tathàgata heart is the state of a being in whom mind's emptiness is obscured, while buddhas by definition do not possess this tathàgata heart."[145]

The 14th Dalai Lama sees the buddha-nature as the "original clear light of mind", but points out that it ultimately does not exist independently, because, like all other phenomena, it is of the nature of emptiness:

Once one pronounces the words "emptiness" and "absolute", one has the impression of speaking of the same thing, in fact of the absolute. If emptiness must be explained through the use of just one of these two terms, there will be confusion. I must say this; otherwise you might think that the innate original clear light as absolute truth really exists.[146]

Rimé movement

The Rimé movement is an ecumenical movement in Tibet which started as an attempt to reconcile the various Tibetan schools in the 19th century. In contrast to the Gelugpa, which adheres to the rang stong, "self-empty", or Prasaṅgika point of view,[147] the Rimé movement supports shen tong (gzhan tong), "other-empty", an essential nature which is "pure radiant non-dual consciousness".[124] Jamgon Kongtrul says about the two systems:

Madhyamika philosophies have no differences in realising as 'Shunyata', all phenomena that we experience on a relative level. They have no differences also, in reaching the meditative state where all extremes (ideas) completely dissolve. Their difference lies in the words they use to describe the Dharmata. Shentong describes the Dharmata, the mind of Buddha, as 'ultimately real'; while Rangtong philosophers fear that if it is described that way, people might understand it as the concept of 'soul' or 'Atma'. The Shentong philosopher believes that there is a more serious possibility of misunderstanding in describing the Enlightened State as 'unreal' and 'void'. Kongtrul finds the Rangtong way of presentation the best to dissolve concepts and the Shentong way the best to describe the experience.[148]

Modern scholarship

Modern scholarship points to the various possible interpretations of buddha-nature as either an essential self, as Sunyata, or as the inherent possibility of awakening.

Essential self

Shenpen Hookham, Oxford Buddhist scholar and Tibetan lama of the Shentong tradition writes of the buddha-nature or "true self" as something real and permanent, and already present within the being as uncompounded enlightenment. She calls it "the Buddha within", and comments:

In scriptural terms, there can be no real objection to referring to Buddha, Buddhajnana [Buddha Awareness/ Buddha Knowledge], Nirvana and so forth as the True Self, unless the concept of Buddha and so forth being propounded can be shown to be impermanent, suffering, compounded, or imperfect in some way ... in Shentong terms, the non-self is about what is not the case, and the Self of the Third Dharmachakra [i.e. the Buddha-nature doctrine] is about what truly IS.[149]

Buddhist scholar and chronicler, Merv Fowler, writes that the buddha-nature really is present as an essence within each being. Fowler comments:

The teaching that Buddha-nature is the hidden essence within all sentient beings is the main message of the tathagatagarbha literature, the earliest of which is the Tathagatagarbha Sutra. This short sutra says that all living beings are in essence identical to the Buddha regardless of their defilements or their continuing transmigration from life to life... As in the earlier traditions, there is present the idea that enlightenment, or nirvana, is not something which has to be achieved, it is something which is already there... In a way, it means that everyone is really a Buddha now.[150]

Sunyata

According to Heng-Ching Shih, the tathāgatagarbha/buddha-nature does not represent a substantial self (ātman). Rather, it is a positive language expression of emptiness (śūnyatā), which emphasizes the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices. The intention of the teaching of tathāgatagarbha/buddha-nature is soteriological rather than theoretical.[7]

Paul Williams puts forward the Madhyamaka interpretation of the buddha-nature as emptiness in the following terms:

… if one is a Madhyamika then that which enables sentient beings to become buddhas must be the very factor that enables the minds of sentient beings to change into the minds of Buddhas. That which enables things to change is their simple absence of inherent existence, their emptiness. Thus the tathagatagarbha becomes emptiness itself, but specifically emptiness when applied to the mental continuum.[151]

Critical Buddhist interpretation

Several contemporary Japanese Buddhist scholars, headed under the label Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyō, 批判仏教), have been critical of buddha-nature thought. According to Matsumoto Shirõ and Hakamaya Noriaki of Komazawa University, essentialist conceptions of buddha-nature are at odds with the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination and non-self (anātman).[152][153] The Buddha nature doctrines which they label as dhātuvāda ("substantialism,"sometimes rendered "locus theory" or "topicalism") and "generative monism" is not Buddhism at all.[154] As defined by Matsumoto, this "locus" theory or dhātuvāda which he rejects as un-buddhist is: "It is the theory that the single (eka, sama) existent "locus" (dhatu) or basis is the cause that produces the manifold phenomena or "super-loci" (dharmah)."[155] Matsumoto further argues that: "Tathagatagarbha thought was a Buddhist version of Hindu monism, formed by the influence of Hinduism gradually introduced into Buddhism, especially after the rise of Mahayana Buddhism."[155] Other Japanese scholars responded to this view leading to a lively debate in Japan. Takasaki Jikido, a well known authority on tathagathagarbha thought, accepted that Buddha nature theories are similar to Upanishadic theories and that dhātuvāda is an accurate expression of the structure of these doctrines, but argues that the Buddha nature texts are aware of this and that Buddha nature is not necessarily un-Buddhist or anti-Buddhist.[8][155] Likewise, Hirakawa Akira, sees buddha-nature as the potential to attain Buddhahood which is not static but ever changing and argues that "dhātu" does not necessarily mean substratum (he points to some Agamas which identify dhatu with pratitya-samutpada).[8]

Western scholars have reacted in different ways to this idea. Sallie B. King objects to their view, seeing the buddha-nature as a metaphor for the potential in all beings to attain Buddhahood, rather than as an ontological reality.[156] Robert H. Sharf notes that the worries of the Critical Buddhists is nothing new, for "the early tathāgatagarbha scriptures betray a similar anxiety, as they tacitly acknowledge that the doctrine is close to, if not identical with, the heretical ātmavāda teachings of the non- Buddhists."[154] He also notes how the Nirvāṇa-sūtra "tacitly concedes the non-Buddhist roots of the tathāgatagarbha idea."[154] Sharf also has pointed out how certain Southern Chan masters were concerned with other interpretations of Buddha nature, showing how the tendency to critique certain views of Buddha nature is not new in East Asian Buddhism.[154]

Peter N. Gregory has also argued that at least some East Asian interpretations of Buddha nature are equivalent to what Critical Buddhists call dhātuvāda, especially the work of Tsung-mi, who "emphasizes the underlying ontological ground on which all phenomenal appearances (hsiang) are based, which he variously refers to as the nature (hsing), the one mind (i-hsin)...".[157] According to Dan Lusthaus, certain Chinese Buddhist ideologies which became dominant in the 8th century promoted the idea of an "underlying metaphysical substratum" or "underlying, invariant, universal metaphysical 'source'" and thus do seem to be a kind of dhātuvāda. According to Lusthaus "in early T'ang China (7th–8th century) there was a deliberate attempt to divorce Chinese Buddhism from developments in India." Lusthaus notes that the Huayen thinker Fa-tsang was influential in this theological trend who promoted the idea that true Buddhism was about comprehending the "One Mind that alone is the ground of reality" (wei- hsin).[158]

Paul Williams too has criticised this view, saying that Critical Buddhism is too narrow in its definition of what constitutes Buddhism. According to Williams, "We should abandon any simplistic identification of Buddhism with a straightforward not-Self definition".[159]

Multiple meanings

Sutton agrees with Williams' critique on the narrowness of any single interpretation. In discussing the inadequacy of modern scholarship on buddha-nature, Sutton states, "One is impressed by the fact that these authors, as a rule, tend to opt for a single meaning disregarding all other possible meanings which are embraced in turn by other texts".[160] He goes on to point out that the term tathāgatagarbha has up to six possible connotations. Of these, he says the three most important are:

  1. an underlying ontological reality or essential nature (tathāgata-tathatā-'vyatireka) which is functionally equivalent to a self (ātman) in an Upanishadic sense,
  2. the dharmakāya which penetrates all beings (sarva-sattveṣu dharma-kāya-parispharaṇa), which is functionally equivalent to brahman in an Upanishadic sense
  3. the womb or matrix of Buddhahood existing in all beings (tathāgata-gotra-saṃbhava), which provides beings with the possibility of awakening.[161][162]

Of these three, Sutton claims that only the third connotation has any soteriological significance, while the other two posit buddha-nature as an ontological reality and essential nature behind all phenomena.[163]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The image of the moon as the Buddha-nature comes from the Platform Sutra. Dogen treats this metaphor in Shobogenzo 43, Tsuki ("On the Moon as One’s Excellent Nature"). Compare also:
    • A Zen master, Ryokan, lived a life of simplicity in his hut near the mountains. When he was away one night, a thief broke in only to find nothing worth stealing.
      Just then, Ryokan returned. “You have travelled far to visit me,” he told the burglar. “I cannot let you return empty handed. Here are my clothes, please accept them as my gift.”
      The baffled thief took the clothes and vanished.
      Naked now, the master gazed at the moon. “Poor man,” he sighed, “How I wish I could give him this glorious moon.” (Zen Story: Steal the Moon)
    • "Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes. You must not be attached to the coming or the going." (Seung Sahn, Clear Mind Is Like The Full Moon)
    • According to McRae (2003, p. 61-65), in the famous story of the verse-contest in the Platform Sutra, the two verses are actually complementary:

      The body is the bodhi tree.
      The mind is like a bright mirror's stand.
      At all times we must strive to polish it
      and must not let dust collect.

      Bodhi originally has no tree.
      The mirror has no stand.
      The Buddha-nature is always clear and pure.
      Where is there room for dust?

      According to McRae, "T]he verse attributed to Shenxiu [does refer] to a constant practice of cleaning the mirror [...] Huineng's verse(s) apply the rhetoric of emptiness to undercut the substantiality of the terms of that formulation. However, the basic meaning of the first proposition still remains."

      See also Joko Beck, Everyday Zen (2008), p.19-20 and p.63 on the mirror verses:
      Now while the verse of the Sixth Patriarch is the true understanding, the paradox for us is that we have to practice with the verse that was not accepted: we do have to polish the mirror; we do have to be aware of our thoughts and actions; we do have to be aware of our false reactions to life."
  2. ^ Buddha-dhatu, mind, tathagatagarbha, Dharma-dhatu, suchness (tathata).[2]
  3. ^ Sanskrit; Jp. Busshō, "buddha-nature".
  4. ^ Enlightened one, a/the Buddha
  5. ^ Kevin Trainor: "a sacred nature that is the basis for [beings'] becoming buddhas."[3]
  6. ^ According to Wayman & Wayman, the term garbha takes on various meanings, depending on its context. They transalte a passage from the Sri-mala-sutra as follows: "Lord, this Tathagatagarbha is the Illustrious Dharmadhatu-womb, neither self nor sentient being, nor soul, nor personality. Is the dharmakaya-embryo, not the domain of beings who fall into the belief in a real personality. Is the supramundane dharma-center, not the domain of beings who adhere to wayward views. Is the intrinsically pure dharma-center, not the domain of beings who deviate from voidness".[28]
  7. ^ In Sanskrit grammar a tatpuruṣa (तत्पुरुष) compound is a dependent determinative compound, i.e. a compound XY meaning a type of Y which is related to X in a way corresponding to one of the grammatical cases of X.
  8. ^ A bahuvrihi compound (from Sanskrit बहुव्रीहि, bahuvrīhi, literally meaning "much rice" but denoting a rich man) is a type of compound that denotes a referent by specifying a certain characteristic or quality the referent possesses.
  9. ^ In the Maraparinirvana Sutra the term tathagatagarbha replaces the term buddhadhatu, which originally referred to relics. Worship of the physical relics of the Buddha was reshaped into worship of the inner Buddha.[18]
  10. ^ For the various equivalents of the Sanskrit term "tathāgatagarbha" in other languages (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese), see Glossary of Buddhism, "tathagatagarbha"
  11. ^ Harvey mentions AN 1.10: "Monks, this mind (citta) is brightly shining (pabhassara), but it is defiled by defilements which arrive". AN 1.49-52 gives a similar statement
  12. ^ Each part of the world reflects the totality of the cosmos:
    quote
  13. ^ Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra (央掘魔羅經) Vol. 2: "Those who preach the Dharma should praise tathagatagarbha for its natures of permanency and reality. If one does not preach this way, then because one abandons tathagatagarbha, one should not sit on the lion throne, similar to that a caṇḍāla (旃陀羅) should not ride a king's elephant. All Buddhas pursue the arising of tathagatagarbha with various expedient methods but fail because non-arising is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the unreality of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because reality is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the impermanence of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because permanence is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the non-eternity of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because eternity is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the variability of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because invariability is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue no silence of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because silence is the Buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the badness of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because non-badness is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the damage of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because non-damage is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the sickness of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because no sickness is the uddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the aging of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because non-aging is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the defilement of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because undefilement is the buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity."
  14. ^ Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra Vol. 2: "At that time, Aṅgulimālīya says the following verses: 'Tathagatagarbha manifests in the various worlds without knowing, evil views, and mistaken views; one should not be afraid while hearing the Buddha's correct Dharma that no-self will be attained after abandoning oneself. Tathagatagarbha is dissociated from arrogance, body, and life; the broad definition of tathagatagarbha is the world. One should bear the above concepts and be patient."
  15. ^ Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra Vol. 2: "All Buddhas pursue the arising of tathagatagarbha with various expedient methods but fail because non-arising is the Buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity."
  16. ^ Taishō Tripiṭaka Meeting of Father and Son Sūtra (父子合集經): "The king of gandharvas makes offerings for listening to the great pure Dharma. This Dharma exists in the reality and its original intrinsic natures do not increase or decrease; if one is attached to the phenomenon and discriminates it, then tathagatagarbha is not attainable. This Dharma is neither real nor empty. Due to the emptiness of its dharma-nature, the Buddha does not say anything."
  17. ^ The Sutra Explaining Undefiled Praise (說無垢稱經): "The Dharma does not have the nature of discrimination because it is dissociated with the mental consciousness."
  18. ^ Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra Vol. 2: "All Buddhas pursue the impermanence of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because permanence is the Buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the non-eternity of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because eternity is the Buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity. All Buddhas pursue the variability of tathagatagarbha's intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because invariability is the Buddha-nature; it manifests with countless wondrous appearances, purity, and solemnity." "Tathagatagarbha neither ages nor dies."[66]
  19. ^ The most notable of which are greed 貪, hatred 嗔, delusion 癡, and pride 慢
  20. ^ In the Seminal Heart series of Dzogchen a distinction is made between kun gzhi, c.q. ālaya, "the base of it all", the samsaric basis of consciousness, of all the samsaric appearances; and gzhi, "the nirvanic basis known as the ground."[79] Sam van Schaik: "....the Seminal Heart distinction between two types of basis, the nirvanic basis known as the ground (gzhi) and the samsaric basis of consciousness, the ālaya (kun gzhi).[79] Philip Kapleau, in "The Three Pillars of Zen", drawing from Harada roshi, discerns a "Pure Consciousness" or "Formless Self" underlying the ālāya-vijñāna.[80] This 9th consciousness was also mentioned by Paramārtha, a 6th century Indian translator working in China.[2]
  21. ^ Compare Mazu's "Mind is Buddha" versus "No mind, no Buddha": "When Ch'an Master Fa-ch'ang of Ta-mei Mountain went to see the Patriarch for the first time, he asked, "What is Buddha?"
    The Patriarch replied, "Mind is Buddha." [On hearing this] Fa-ch'ang had great awakening.
    Later he went to live on Ta-mei mountain. When the Patriarch heard that he was residing on the mountain, he sent one of his monks to go there and ask Fa-ch'ang, "What did the Venerable obtain when he saw Ma-tsu, so that he has come to live on this mountain?"
    Fach'ang said, "Ma-tsu told me that mind is Buddha; so I came to live here."
    The monk said, "Ma-tsu's teaching has changed recently."
    Fa-ch'ang asked, "What is the difference?"
    The monk said, "Nowadays he also says, 'Neither mind nor Buddha."'
    Fa-ch'ang said, "That old man still hasn't stopped confusing people. You can have 'neither mind nor Buddha,' I only care for 'mind is Buddha."'
    The monk returned to the Patriarch and reported what has happened. "The plum is ripe." said the Patriarch."[101]

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Sources

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Further reading

General
  • Kalupahana, David J. (1992), A history of Buddhist philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
  • Sallie, B. King: Buddha Nature, State University of New York Press 1991, ISBN 0-7914-0428-5
China
  • King, Sallie B. (1989). . Philosophy East and West. 39 (2): 151–170. doi:10.2307/1399375. JSTOR 1399375. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014.
  • Lusthaus, Dan (1998), Buddhist Philosophy, Chinese. In: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Index, Taylor & Francis
  • Lai, Whalen, (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on September 16, 2012
Tibet
  • Brunnholzl, Karl (2009), Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 978-1-55939-318-8
  • Hookham, S.K. (1991), The Buddha Within: Tathagatagarbha Doctrine According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga, SUNY Press
Japan
  • Harada, Sekkei (2008), The essence of Zen. The Teachings of Sekkei Harada, Wisdom Publications
Critical Buddhism
  • Hubbard, Jamie; Swanson, Paul Loren, eds. (1997), Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism, University of Hawai'i Press

External links

  • , Robert H. Sharf
  • "Nirvana Sutra": full text of "Nirvana Sutra", plus appreciation of its teachings. and (2,6 MB)
  • The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra A Mahāyāna Text
  • Hodge, Stephen (2009 & 2012).

March 06, 2023
buddha, nature, busshō, redirects, here, dōgen, book, from, shōbōgenzō, busshō, shōbōgenzō, refers, several, related, mahayana, buddhist, terms, including, tathata, suchness, note, most, notably, tathāgatagarbha, buddhadhātu, note, tathāgatagarbha, means, womb. Busshō redirects here For Dōgen s book from the Shōbōgenzō see Busshō Shōbōgenzō Buddha nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms including tathata suchness note 2 but most notably tathagatagarbha and buddhadhatu note 3 Tathagatagarbha means the womb or embryo garbha of the thus gone tathagata note 4 or containing a tathagata while buddhadhatu literally means Buddha realm or Buddha substrate note 5 The moon hidden by the clouds is a metaphor for Buddha nature Throughout the twenty four hours of the day beings are perverted by deluded thoughts and their original Buddha nature is naturally buried by the afflictions It is like the bright moon hidden by clouds Once they have awakened to the source of these thoughts it is like the bright moon emerging from the clouds 1 note 1 Buddha nature has a wide range of sometimes conflicting meanings in Indian and later East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist literature Broadly speaking the terms refer to the potential for all sentient beings to be a Buddha 4 5 6 7 8 since the luminous mind 9 10 11 the natural and true state of the mind 12 the pure visuddhi mind undefiled by kleshas 9 is inherently present in every sentient being and is eternal and unchanging 13 14 15 It will shine forth when it is cleansed of the defilements c q when the nature of mind is recognised for what it is The Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra written 2nd century CE which was very influential in the Chinese reception of the Buddhist teachings 16 linked the concept of tathagatagarbha with the buddhadhatu 17 The term buddhadhatu originally referred to relics In the Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra it came to be used in place of the concept of tathagatagarbha reshaping the worship of the physical relics of the Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation 18 The primordial or undefiled mind the tathagatagarbha is also equated with sunyata 10 with the alaya vijnana store consciousness a yogacara concept 10 and with the interpenetration of all dharmas The Chinese Yogacara school came to regard buddha nature as an eternal ground 19 and the ultimate source and support of all phenomenal reality 20 The Chinese Madhyamaka based its understanding of emptiness on the Indian sources and not on Daoist concepts which previous Chinese Buddhists had used 19 and sought to remove all ontological connotations of the term as a metaphysical reality It saw buddha nature as being synonymous with terms like tathata dharmadhatu ekayana wisdom ultimate reality middle way and also the wisdom that contemplates dependent origination 21 Contents 1 Etymology 1 1 Tathagatagarbha 1 1 1 Compound 1 1 2 Asian translations 1 1 3 Western translations 1 2 Buddhadhatu 2 Indian Sutra sources 2 1 Earliest sources 2 2 Avatamsaka Sutra 2 3 Saddharma Puṇḍarika Sutra 2 4 Tathagatagarbha Sutras 2 4 1 Tathagatagarbha Sutra 2 4 2 Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra 2 4 3 Aṅgulimaliya Sutra 2 4 4 Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra 2 5 Laṅkavatara Sutra 3 Indian commentaries 3 1 Ratnagotravibhaga 3 2 Other possible Indian treatises on buddha nature 3 3 Madhyamaka school 3 4 Yogacara scholars 3 5 Alaya vijnana 3 6 Trikaya doctrine 4 Chinese Buddhism 4 1 Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana 4 2 In Chinese Yogacara and Madhyamaka 4 3 In Tiantai 4 4 In Chan Buddhism 5 Korean Buddhism 6 Japanese Buddhism 6 1 Nichiren Buddhism 6 2 Zen Buddhism 6 3 Shin Buddhism 7 Tibetan Buddhism 7 1 Nyingma 7 2 Kagyu 7 3 Sakya 7 4 Jonang 7 5 Gelug 7 6 Rime movement 8 Modern scholarship 8 1 Essential self 8 2 Sunyata 8 3 Critical Buddhist interpretation 8 4 Multiple meanings 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Sources 13 Further reading 14 External linksEtymology EditTathagatagarbha Edit The term tathagatagarbha may mean embryonic tathagata 22 23 womb of the tathagata 22 or containing a tathagata 24 Various meanings may all be brought into mind when the term tathagatagarbha is being used 24 Compound Edit The Sanskrit term tathagatagarbha is a compound of two terms tathagata and garbha 22 tathagata means the one thus gone referring to the Buddha It is composed of tatha and agata thus come 22 or tatha and gata thus gone 22 25 The term refers to a Buddha who has thus gone from samsara into nirvana and thus come from nirvana into samsara to work for the salvation of all sentient beings 22 garbha womb 22 26 embryo 22 26 center 26 essence 27 note 6 Asian translations Edit The Chinese translated the term tathagatagarbha as rulaizang 如来藏 22 or Tathagata s rulai storehouse zang 29 30 According to Brown storehouse may indicate both that which enfolds or contains something 30 or that which is itself enfolded hidden or contained by another 30 The Tibetan translation is de bzhin gshegs pa i snying po which cannot be translated as womb mngal or lhums but as embryonic essence kernel or heart 30 The term heart was also used by Mongolian translators 30 The Tibetan scholar Go Lotsawa outlined four meanings of the term Tathagatagarbha as used by Indian Buddhist scholars generally 1 As an emptiness that is a nonimplicative negation 2 the luminous nature of the mind 3 alaya vijnana store consciousness 4 all bodhisattvas and sentient beings 10 Western translations Edit The term tathagatagarbha first appears in the Tathagatagarbha sutras 31 which date to the 2nd and third centuries CE It is translated and interpreted in various ways by western translators and scholars According to Sally King the term tathagatagarbha may be understood in two ways 22 embryonic tathagata the incipient Buddha the cause of the Tathagata womb of the tathagata the fruit of Tathagata According to King the Chinese rulaizang was taken in its meaning as womb or fruit 22 Wayman amp Hideko also point out that the Chinese regularly takes garbha as womb 28 but prefer to use the term embryo According to Brown following Wayman amp Hideko embryo is the best fitting translation since it preserves the dynamic self transformative nature of the tathagatagarbha 23 According to Zimmermann garbha may also mean the interior or center of something 32 and its essence or central part 33 As a tatpuruṣa note 7 it may refer to a person being a womb for or container of the tathagata 34 As a bahuvrihi note 8 it may refer to a person as having an embryonic tathagata inside 34 In both cases this embryonic tathagata still has to be developed 34 Zimmermann concludes that tathagatagarbha is a bahuvrihi meaning containing a tathagata 24 35 note 9 but notes the variety of meanings of garbha such as containing born from embryo embracing concealing womb calyx child member of a clan core which may all be brought into mind when the term tathagatagarbha is being used 24 In addition to Zimmerman s statement that tathagatagarbha most natural means containing a Tathagata Paul Williams notes that garbha also means womb matrix and seed embryo and the innermost part of something The term tathagatagarbha can thus also imply that sentient beings have a tathagata within them in seed or embryo that sentient beings are the wombs or matrices of the tathagata or that they have a tathagata as their essence core or essential inner nature 35 According to Williams the term tathagatagarbha may also have been intended simply to answer the question how it is possible that all sentient beings can attain the state of a Buddha 36 Buddhadhatu Edit The term buddha nature traditional Chinese 佛性 pinyin foxing Japanese busshō 22 is closely related in meaning to the term tathagatagarbha but is not an exact translation of this term 22 note 10 It refers to what is essential in the human being 37 The corresponding Sanskrit term is buddhadhatu 22 It has two meanings namely the nature of the Buddha equivalent to the term dharmakaya and the cause of the Buddha 22 The link between the cause and the result is the nature dhatu which is common to both namely the dharmadhatu 37 Matsumoto Shirō also points out that buddha nature translates the Sanskrit term buddhadhatu a place to put something a foundation a locus 38 According to Shirō it does not mean original nature or essence nor does it mean the possibility of the attainment of Buddhahood the original nature of the Buddha or the essence of the Buddha 38 In the Vajrayana the term for buddha nature is sugatagarbha Indian Sutra sources EditEarliest sources Edit According to Wayman the idea of the tathagatagarbha is grounded on sayings by the Buddha that there is something called the luminous mind 9 prabhasvara citta 12 which is only adventitiously covered over by defilements agantukaklesa 12 The luminous mind is mentioned in a passage from the Anguttara Nikaya 39 Luminous monks is the mind And it is defiled by incoming defilements 40 note 11 The Mahasaṃghika school coupled this idea of the luminous mind with the idea of the mulavijnana the substratum consciousness that serves as the basis consciousness 9 From the idea of the luminous mind emerged the idea that the awakened mind is the pure visuddhi undefiled mind In the tathagatagarbha sutras it is this pure consciousness that is regarded to be the seed from which Buddhahood grows When this intrinsically pure consciousness came to be regarded as an element capable of growing into Buddhahood there was the embryo garbha of the Tathagata Buddha doctrine whether or not this term is employed 9 Karl Brunnholzl writes that the first probable mention of the term is in the Ekottarika Agama though here it is used in a different way than in later texts The passage states If someone devotes himself to the Ekottarikagama Then he has the tathagatagarbha Even if his body cannot exhaust defilements in this life In his next life he will attain supreme wisdom 4 This tathagatagarbha idea was the result of an interplay between various strands of Buddhist thought on the nature of human consciousness and the means of awakening 41 42 16 Gregory comments on this origin of the Tathagatagarba doctrine The implication of this doctrine is that enlightenment is the natural and true state of the mind 12 Avatamsaka Sutra Edit According to Wayman the Avataṃsaka Sutra 1st 3rd century CE was the next step in the development of the buddha nature thought after the concept of the luminous mind W here it is taught that the Buddha s divine knowledge pervades sentient beings and that its representation in an individual being is the substratum consciousness 9 The Avataṃsaka Sutra does not contain a singular discussion of the concept 23 but the idea of a universal penetration of sentient beings by the wisdom of the Buddha buddhajnana was complementary to the concept of the Buddha womb 23 The basic idea of the Avataṃsaka Sutra is the unity of the absolute and the relative All in One One in All The All melts into a single whole There are no divisions in the totality of reality I t views the cosmos as holy as one bright pearl the universal reality of the Buddha The universal Buddhahood of all reality is the religious message of the Avatamsaka sutra 43 note 12 All levels of reality are related and interpenetrated This is depicted in the image of Indra s net This unity in totality allows every individual entity of the phenomenal world its uniqueness without attributing an inherent nature to anything 44 Saddharma Puṇḍarika Sutra Edit The Lotus Sutra Skt Saddharma Puṇḍarika Sutra written between 100 BCE and 200 CE does not use the term buddha nature but Japanese scholars of Buddhism suggest that the idea is nevertheless expressed or implied in the text 45 46 In the sixth century Lotus Sutra commentaries began to argue that the text teaches the concept of buddha nature and according to Stephen F Teiser and Jacqueline Stone the Lotus Sutra came to be widely understood as teaching the universality of the buddha nature 47 The sutra shares other themes and ideas with the later tathagatagarbha sutras like the tathagatagarbha sutra and several scholars theorize that it was an influence on these texts 48 49 50 The tenth chapter emphasizes in accordance with the Bodhisattva ideal of the Mahayana teachings that everyone can be liberated All living beings can become a buddha not only monks and nuns but also laypeople sravakas bodhisattvas and non human creatures 48 It also details that all living beings can be a teacher of the Dharma The twelfth chapter of the Lotus Sutra details that the potential to become enlightened is universal among all people even the historical Devadatta has the potential to become a buddha 51 The story of Devadatta is followed by another story about a dragon princess who is both a naga and a female whom the bodhisattva Manjusri proclaims will reach enlightenment immediately in her present form Tathagatagarbha Sutras Edit The Tathagatagarbha Sutra states that the tathagatagarbha is like the grain of rice contained inside of the husk of the rice plant The Tathagatagarbha Sutra uses the image of a Buddha within a lotus flower as a metaphor for the tathagatagarbha Main article Tathagatagarbha sutras There are several major Indian texts which discuss the idea of buddha nature and they are often termed the tathagatagarbha sutras According to Brunnholzl the earliest mahayana sutras that are based on and discuss the notion of tathagatagarbha as the buddha potential that is innate in all sentient beings began to appear in written form in the late second and early third century 4 Their ideas became very influential in East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism The Tathagatagarbha sutras include the Tathagatagarbha sutra Anunatva Apurnatva Nirdesa Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra and the Aṅgulimaliya Sutra 52 Tathagatagarbha Sutra Edit The Tathagatagarbha Sutra 200 250 CE is considered the earliest expression of this the tathagatagarbha doctrine and the term tathagatagarbha itself seems to have been coined in this very sutra 53 It states that all beings already have perfect Buddha body tathagatatva buddhatva tathagatakaya within themselves but do not recognize it because it is covered over by afflictions 54 55 56 57 58 The Tathagatagarbha Sutra uses nine similes to illustrate the concept 59 This tathagatagarbha abides within the shroud of the afflictions as should be understood through the following nine examples Just like a buddha in a decaying lotus honey amidst bees a grain in its husk gold in filth a treasure underground a shoot and so on sprouting from a little fruit a statue of the Victorious One in a tattered rag a ruler of humankind in a destitute woman s womb and a precious image under clay this buddha element abides within all sentient beings obscured by the defilement of the adventitious poisons Another one of these texts the Ghanavyuha Sutra as quoted by Longchenpa states that the tathagatagarbha is the ground of all things the ultimate universal ground also has always been with the Buddha Essence Tathagatagarbha and this essence in terms of the universal ground has been taught by the Tathagata The fools who do not know it because of their habits see even the universal ground as having various happiness and suffering and actions and emotional defilements Its nature is pure and immaculate its qualities are as wishing jewels there are neither changes nor cessations Whoever realizes it attains Liberation 60 Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra Edit The Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra 3rd century CE 61 also named The Lion s Roar of Queen Srimala centers on the teaching of the tathagatagarbha as ultimate soteriological principle 62 Regarding the tathagatagarbha it states Lord the Tathagatagarbha is neither self nor sentient being nor soul nor personality The Tathagatagarbha is not the domain of beings who fall into the belief in a real personality who adhere to wayward views whose thoughts are distracted by voidness Lord this Tathagatagarbha is the embryo of the Illustrious Dharmadhatu the embryo of the Dharmakaya the embryo of the supramundane dharma the embryo of the intrinsically pure dharma 63 In the Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra there are two possible states for the tathagatagarbha E ither covered by defilements when it is called only embryo of the Tathagata or free from defilements when the embryo of the Tathagata is no more the embryo potentiality but the Tathagata actuality 5 The sutra itself states it this way This Dharmakaya of the Tathagata when not free from the store of defilement is referred to as the Tathagatagarbha 64 Aṅgulimaliya Sutra Edit According to the Aṅgulimaliya Sutra 2nd c CE 65 tathagatagarbha has the following fundamental natures note 13 note 14 Neither arising nor ceasing tathagatagarbha permanently exists in the world never arises and therefore is never destroyed or perished note 15 Independence tathagatagarbha possesses the intrinsic nature of independently existing without relying on other dharmas Therefore all worldly phenomena of aggregates sense fields and elements have the nature of arising and ceasing but tathagatagarbha possesses the intrinsic nature of independence In addition to tathagatagarbha itself the intrinsic natures of tathagatagarbha also originally exist without increasing and decreasing and do not change owing to the variance of any conditions note 16 Non perceptiveness tathagatagarbha is not the perceptive mind it does not have the perceptual functions of seeing hearing feeling and knowing regarding the six external sense objects which the perceptive mind has and therefore does not have the nature to discriminate goodness or badness either note 17 Invariability the tathagatagarbha and its fundamental natures have the quality of permanence eternity imperishability or diamond vajra nature These are sustained everlastingly and do not change according to the variance of time and space The Aṅgulimaliya states Permanence is the Buddha nature Eternity is the Buddha nature Invariability is the Buddha nature Non badness is the Buddha nature Non damage is the Buddha nature No sickness is the Buddha nature Non aging is the Buddha nature note 18 Storability tathagatagarbha stores a sentient being s seeds of all phenomena including the seeds of good bad and neutral karmas Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra Edit A Sui dynasty manuscript of the Nirvaṇa Sutra The early buddha nature concept as expressed in the seminal tathagatagarbha sutra named the Nirvana Sutra is according to Kevin Trainor as follows Sentient beings are said to possess a sacred nature that is the basis for them becoming buddhas this buddha nature is in fact our true nature universal and completely unsullied by whatever psychological and karmic state an individual may be in 3 The Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra written 2nd century CE was very influential in the Chinese reception of the Buddhist teachings 16 The Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra linked the concept of tathagatagarbha with the buddhadhatu 17 Kosho Yamamoto points out that the Nirvana Sutra contains a series of equations Thus there comes about the equation of Buddha Body Dharmakaya eternal body eternal Buddha Eternity 67 According to Shimoda Masahiro the authors of the Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra were leaders and advocates of stupa worship The term buddhadhatu originally referred to relics In the Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra it came to be used in place of the concept of tathagatagarbha The authors used the teachings of the Tathagatagarbha Sutra to reshape the worship of the physical relics of the Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation 18 Sasaki in a review of Shimoda conveys a key premise of Shimoda s work namely that the origins of Mahayana Buddhism and the Nirvana Sutra are entwined 68 The buddha nature is always present in all times and in all beings This does not mean that sentient beings are at present endowed with the qualities of a Buddha but that they will have those qualities in the future 69 It is obscured from worldly vision by the screening effect of tenacious negative mental afflictions within each being note 19 Once these negative mental states have been eliminated however the Buddha dhatu is said to shine forth unimpededly and the Buddha sphere Buddha dhatu visaya can then be consciously entered into and therewith deathless Nirvana attained 70 T he tathagatagarbha is none but Thusness or the Buddha Nature and is the originally untainted pure mind which lies overspread by and exists in the mind of greed and anger of all beings This bespeaks a Buddha Body that exists in a state of bondage 71 According to Sallie B King it does not represent a major innovation and is rather unsystematic 17 which made it a fruitful one for later students and commentators who were obliged to create their own order and bring it to the text 17 According to King its most important innovation is the linking of the term buddhadhatu with tathagatagarbha 17 The sutra presents the buddha nature or tathagatagarbha as a Self The Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra refers to a true self The Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṅa Sutra especially influential in East Asian Buddhist thought goes so far as to speak of it as our true self atman Its precise metaphysical and ontological status is however open to interpretation in the terms of different Mahayana philosophical schools for the Madhyamikas it must be empty of its own existence like everything else for the Yogacarins following the Laṅkavatara it can be identified with store consciousness as the receptacle of the seeds of awakening 72 Paul Williams states it is obvious that the Mahaparinirvana Sutra does not consider it impossible for a Buddhist to affirm an atman provided it is clear what the correct understanding of this concept is and indeed the sutra clearly sees certain advantages in doing so 73 but it speaks about buddha nature in so many different ways that Chinese scholars created a list of types of buddha nature that could be found in the text 17 Paul Williams also notes Nevertheless the sutra as it stands is quite clear that while we can speak of the tathagatagharba as Self actually it is not at all a Self and those who have such Self notions cannot perceive the tathagatagarbha and thus become enlightened see Ruegg 1989a 21 6 73 Williams further explains that while speaking of a Self the Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra does not determine this further than that which enables sentient beings to become Buddhas 31 Laṅkavatara Sutra Edit The Laṅkavatara Sutra compiled 350 400 CE 74 synthesized the tathagatagarba doctrine and the alaya vijnana doctrine The Lankavatara Sutra assimilates Tathagata garbha thought to the Yogacara viewpoint and this assimilation is further developed in The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana 75 According to the Lankavatara Sutra tathagatagarbha is identical to the alaya vijnana known prior to awakening as the storehouse consciousness or 8th consciousness 76 The alaya vijnana is supposed to contain the pure seed or tathagatagarbha from which awakening arises 12 The Lankavatara sutra contains tathagata garba thought but also warns against reification of the idea of buddha nature and presents it as an aid to attaining awakening Is not this Tathagata garbha taught by the Blessed One the same as the ego substance taught by the philosophers The ego as taught by the philosophers is an eternal creator unqualified omnipresent and imperishable The Blessed One replied it is emptiness reality limit Nirvana being unborn unqualified and devoid of will effort the reason why the Tathagatas teach the doctrine pointing to the Tathagata garba is to make the ignorant cast aside their fear when they listen to the teaching of egolessness and to have them realise the state of non discrimination and imagelessness 77 According to Alex and Hideko Wayman the equation of tathagatagarbha and alaya vijnana is innovative It is plain that when the Lankavatara sutra identifies the two terms this scripture necessarily diverges in the meaning of one or both of the terms from the usage of the term Tathagatagarbha in the earlier Sri Mala or of the term alaya vijnana in the subsequent Yogacara school 78 note 20 Indian commentaries EditThe tathagatagarbha doctrine was also widely discussed by Indian Mahayana scholars in treatises or commentaries called sastra the most influential of which was the Ratnagotravibhaga 5th century CE Ratnagotravibhaga Edit The Ratnagotravibhaga also called Uttaratantrasastra 5th century CE is an Indian sastra in which synthesised major elements and themes of the tathagatagarbha theory 23 It gives an overview of authoritative tathagatagarbha sutras mentioning the Tathagatagarbha Sutra the Srimaladevi Siṃhanada Sutra Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra the Aṅgulimaliya Sutra the Anunatva Apurnatva Nirdesa and the Mahabheriharaka sutra 81 It presents the tathagatagarbha as an ultimate unconditional reality that is simultaneously the inherent dynamic process towards its complete manifestation 82 Mundane and enlightened reality are seen as complementary Thusness tathata defiled is the Tathagatagarbha and Thusness undefiled is Enlightenment 5 In the Ratnagotravibhaga the tathagatagarbha is seen as having three specific characteristics 1 dharmakaya 2 suchness and 3 disposition as well as the general characteristic 4 non conceptuality 10 According to the Ratnagotravibhaga all sentient beings have the embryo of the Tathagata in three senses 83 the Tathagata s dharmakaya permeates all sentient beings the Tathagata s tathata is omnipresent avyatibheda the Tathagata s species gotra a synonym for tathagatagarbha occurs in them The Ratnagotravibhaga equates enlightenment with the nirvaṇa realm and the dharmakaya 5 It gives a variety of synonyms for garbha the most frequently used being gotra and dhatu 82 This text also explains the tathagatagarbha in terms of luminous mind The luminous nature of the mind Is unchanging just like space 84 Other possible Indian treatises on buddha nature Edit Takasaki Jikido notes various buddha nature treatises which exist only in Chinese and which are similar in some ways to the Ratnagotra These works are unknown in other textual traditions and scholars disagree on whether they are translations original compositions or a mixture of the two These works are 85 Dharmadhatvaviseṣasastra Dasheng fajie wuchabie lun 大乘法界無差別論 said to have been translated by Paramartha and attributed to Saramati the same author which the Chinese tradition states wrote the Ratnagotra Buddhagotrasastra 佛性論 Fo xing lun Buddha nature treatise Taishō 1610 said to have been translated by Paramartha and is attributed by Chinese tradition to Vasubandhu Anuttarasrayasutra which according to Takasaki is clearly a composition based upon the Ratna Madhyamaka school Edit Indian Madhyamak a phi losophers interpreted the theory as a description of emptiness and as a non implicative negation Bhaviveka s Tarkajvala states The expression possessing the tathagata heart is used because emptiness signlessness wishlessness and so on exist in the mind streams of all sentient beings However it is not something like a permanent and all pervasive person that is the inner agent For we find passages such as All phenomena have the nature of emptiness signlessness and wishlessness What is emptiness signlessness and wishlessness is the Tathagata 86 Candrakirti s Madhyamakavatarabhasya states One should know that since the alaya consciousness follows the nature of all entities it is nothing but emptiness that is taught through the term alaya consciousness 86 Go Lotsawa states that this statement is referencing the tathagatagarbha doctrine 86 Candrakirti s Madhyamakavatarabhasya also argues basing itself on the Lankavatara sutra that the statement of the emptiness of sentient beings being a buddha adorned with all major and minor marks is of expedient meaning 86 Kamalasila s c 740 795 Madhyamakaloka associates tathagatagarbha with luminosity and luminosity with emptiness This statement All sentient beings possess the tathagata heart teaches that all are suitable to attain the state of unsurpassable completely perfect awakening since it is held that the term tathagata expresses that the dharmadhatu which is characterized by personal and phenomenal identitylessness is natural luminosity 87 Uniquely among Madhyamaka texts some texts attributed to Nagarjuna mainly poetic works like the Dharmadhatustava Cittavajrastava and Bodhicittavivarana associate the term tathagatagarbha with the luminous nature of the mind 84 Yogacara scholars Edit See also Transformations of consciousness According to Brunnholzl all early Indian Yogacara masters such as Asanga Vasubandhu Sthiramati and Asvabhava if they refer to the term tathagatagarbha at all always explain it as nothing but suchness in the sense of twofold identitylessness 87 Some later Yogacara scholars spoke of the tathagatagarbha in more positive terms such as Jnanasrimitra who in his Sakarasiddhi equates it with the appearances of lucidity prakasarupa Likewise Brunnholzl notes that Ratnakarasanti generally describes the tathagata heart as being equivalent to naturally luminous mind nondual self awareness and the perfect nature which he considers to be an implicative negation and not a nonimplicative negation 88 Alaya vijnana Edit The Yogacara concept of the alaya vijnana store consciousness also came to be associated by some scholars with the tathagatagarbha This can be seen in sutras like the Lankavatara the Srimaladevi and in the translations of Paramartha 89 The concept of the alaya vijnana originally meant defiled consciousness defiled by the workings of the five senses and the mind It was also seen as the mula vijnana the base consciousness or stream of consciousness from which awareness and perception spring 90 To account for the notion of buddha nature in all beings with the Yogacara belief in the Five Categories of Beings Yogacara scholars in China such as Tz u en 慈恩 632 682 the first patriarch in China advocated two types of nature the latent nature found in all beings 理佛性 and the buddha nature in practice 行佛性 The latter nature was determined by the innate seeds in the alaya 91 Trikaya doctrine Edit Around 300 CE the Yogacara school systematized the prevalent ideas on the nature of the Buddha in the Trikaya or three body doctrine According to this doctrine Buddhahood has three aspects 92 The Nirmana kaya or Transformation body the earthly manifestation of the Buddha The Sambhogakaya or Enjoyment body a subtle body by which the Buddha appears to bodhisattvas to teach them The Dharmakaya or Dharma body the ultimate nature of the Buddha and the ultimate nature of reality citation needed They may be described as follows citation needed The first is the Knowledge body Jnana kaya the inner nature shared by all Buddhas their Buddha ness buddhata The second aspect of the Dharma body is the Self existent body Svabhavika kaya This is the ultimate nature of reality thusness emptiness the non nature which is the very nature of dharmas their dharma ness dharmata It is the Tathagata garbha and bodhicitta hidden within beings and the transformed storehouse consciousness Chinese Buddhism EditThe tathagatagarbha idea was extremely influential in the development of East Asian Buddhism 41 When Buddhism was introduced to China in the 1st century CE Buddhism was understood through comparisons of its teachings to Chinese terms and ways of thinking Chinese Buddhist thinkers like Zhi Mindu Zhidun and Huiyuan d 433 interpreted Buddhist concepts in terms of the Chinese neo daoist philosophy called dark learning xuanxue 19 This tendency was only later countered by the work of Chinese Madhyamaka scholar translators like Kumarajiva The buddha nature idea was introduced into China with the translation of the Mahaparanirvana sutra in the early fifth century and this text became the central source of buddha nature doctrine in Chinese Buddhism 21 Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra some Chinese Buddhists supposed that the teaching of the buddha nature was as stated by that sutra the final Buddhist teaching and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths 93 This idea was interpreted as being similar to the ideas of Dao and Principle Li in Chinese philosophy Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana Edit Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana was very influential in the development of Chinese Buddhism 16 said to have been translated by Paramartha 499 569 While the text is traditionally attributed to Asvaghoṣa no Sanskrit version of the text is extant The earliest known versions are written in Chinese and contemporary scholars believe that the text is a Chinese composition 94 95 Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana offers a synthesis of Chinese buddhist thinking 96 It sees the buddha nature doctrine as a cosmological theory in contrast to the Indo Tibetan tradition where the soteriological aspect is emphasized 97 It described the One Mind which includes in itself all states of being of the phenomenal and transcendental world 97 It tried to harmonize the ideas of the tathagatagarbha and alaya vijnana In the words of the Awakening of Faith which summarizes the essentials of Mahayana self and world mind and suchness are integrally one Everything is a carrier of that a priori enlightenment all incipient enlightenment is predicated on it The mystery of existence is then not How may we overcome alienation The challenge is rather Why do we think we are lost in the first place 16 In Awakening of Faith the one mind has two aspects namely tathata suchness the things as they are and samsara the cycle of birth and death 96 This text was in line with an essay by Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty reign 502 549 CE in which he postulated a pure essence the enlightened mind trapped in darkness which is ignorance By this ignorance the pure mind is trapped in samsara This resembles the tathagatagarba and the idea of the defilement of the luminous mind 96 In a commentary on this essay Shen Yue stated that insight into this true essence is awakened by stopping the thoughts a point of view which is also being found in the Platform Sutra of Huineng 96 The joining together of these different ideas supported the notion of the ekayana the one vehicle absolute oneness all pervading Buddha wisdom and original enlightenment as a holistic whole This synthesis was a reflection of the unity which was attained in China with the united Song dynasty 98 In Chinese Yogacara and Madhyamaka Edit By the 6th century CE buddha nature had been well established in Chinese Buddhism and a wide variety of theories developed to explain it 21 One influential figure who wrote about buddha nature was Ching ying Hui yuan 523 592 CE a Chinese Yogacarin who argued for a kind of idealism which held that All dharmas without exception originate and are formed from the true mind and other than the true mind there exists absolutely nothing which can give rise to false thoughts 21 Ching ying Hui yuan equated this true mind with the alaya vijnana the tathagatagarbha and Buddha nature foxing and held that it was an essence a true consciousness and a metaphysical principle that ensured that all sentient beings will reach enlightenment 21 According to Ming Wood Liu Hui yuan s interpretation of the buddha nature doctrine represents the culmination of a long process of transformation of the Buddha nature from a basically practical to an ontological concept 21 The Chinese Yogacara school was also split on the relationship between the tathagatagarbha and alayavijnana Fa shang 495 580 representing the southern Yogacara asserted that they were separate that the alaya was illusiory and impure while buddha nature was the ultimate source of all phenomenal reality 20 In the northern school meanwhile it was held that the alaya and buddha nature were the same pure support for all phenomena 20 In the sixth and seventh centuries the Yogacara theory became associated with a substantialist non dual metaphysics which saw buddha nature as an eternal ground This idea was promoted by figures like Fazang and Ratnamati 19 In contrast with the Chinese Yogacara view the Chinese Madhyamaka scholar Jizang 549 623 CE sought to remove all ontological connotations of the term as a metaphysical reality and saw buddha nature as being synonymous with terms like tathata dharmadhatu ekayana wisdom ultimate reality middle way and also the wisdom that contemplates dependent origination 21 In formulating his view Jizang was influenced by the earlier Chinese Madhyamaka thinker Sengzhao 384 414 CE who was a key figure in outlining an understanding of emptiness which was based on the Indian sources and not on Daoist concepts which previous Chinese Buddhists had used 19 Jizang used the compound Middle Way buddha nature zhongdao foxing 中道佛 性 to refer to his view 99 Jizang was also one of the first Chinese philosophers to famously argue that plants and insentient objects have buddha nature which he also termed true reality and universal principle dao 99 In the 20th century the influential Chinese master Yin Shun drew on Chinese Madhyamaka to argue against any Yogacara influenced view that buddha nature was an underlying permanent ground of reality and instead supported the view that buddha nature teachings are just an expedient means 19 Yin Shun drawing on his study of Indian Madhyamaka promoted the emptiness of all things as the ultimate Buddhist truth and argued that the buddha nature teaching was a provisional teaching taught in order to ease the fear of some Buddhists regarding emptiness as well as to attract those people who have an affinity to the idea of a Self or Brahman 19 Later after taking up the Buddhist path they would be introduced to the truth of emptiness 19 In Tiantai Edit In the Tiantai school the primary figure is the scholar Zhiyi According to Paul L Swanson none of Zhiyi s works discuss buddha nature explicitly at length however Yet it is still an important concept in his philosophy which is seen as synonymous with the ekayana principle outlined in the Lotus Sutra 6 Swanson argues that for Zhiyi buddha nature is an active threefold process which involves the way reality is the wisdom to see reality as it is and the practice required to attain this wisdom Buddha Nature is threefold the three aspects of reality wisdom and practice are interdependent one aspect does not make any sense without the others 6 Buddha nature for Zhiyi therefore has three aspects which he bases on passages from the Lotus sutra and the Nirvana sutra 6 The direct cause of attaining Buddhahood the innate potential in all sentient beings to become Buddhas which is the aspect of true nature the way things are The complete cause of attaining Buddhahood which is the aspect of wisdom that illuminates the true nature and the goal of practice The conditional causes of attaining Buddhahood which is the aspect of the practices and activities that lead to Buddhahood The later Tiantai scholar Zhanran would expand the Tiantai view of buddha nature which he saw as synonymous with suchness to argue for the idea that insentient rocks and plants also have buddha nature 100 In Chan Buddhism Edit In Chan Buddhism buddha nature tends to be seen as the non substantial essential nature of all beings But the Zen tradition also emphasizes that buddha nature is sunyata the absence of an independent and substantial self 16 In the East Mountain Teaching of early Chan buddha nature was equated with the nature of mind while later on any identification with a reificationable term or object was rejected 11 This is reflected in the recorded sayings of Chan master Mazu Daoyi 709 788 who first stated that Mind is Buddha but later stated Neither mind nor Buddha note 21 Chan masters from Huineng 7th century China 102 Chinul 12th century Korea 103 Hakuin Ekaku 18th century Japan 104 to Hsu Yun 20th century China 105 have taught that the process of awakening begins with the light of the mind turning around to recognize its own true nature so that the 8th consciousness alayavijnana also known as the tathagatagarbha is transformed into the bright mirror wisdom According to D T Suzuki the Laṅkavatara Sutra presents the Chan Zen Buddhist view of the tathagatagarbha The Buddha said Now Mahamati what is perfect knowledge It is realised when one casts aside the discriminating notions of form name reality and character it is the inner realisation by noble wisdom This perfect knowledge Mahamati is the essence of the Tathagata garbha 106 When this active transformation is complete the other seven consciousnesses are also transformed The 7th consciousness of delusive discrimination becomes transformed into the equality wisdom The 6th consciousness of thinking sense becomes transformed into the profound observing wisdom and the 1st to 5th consciousnesses of the five sensory senses become transformed into the all performing wisdom The influential Chan patriarch Guifeng Zongmi 780 841 interpreted buddha nature as empty tranquil awareness k ung chi chih which he took from the Ho tse school of Chan 20 Following the Srimala sutra he interpreted the theory of emptiness as presented in the Prajnaparamita sutras as provisional and saw buddha nature as the definitive teaching of Buddhism 19 According to Heng Ching Shih the teaching of the universal buddha nature does not intend to assert the existence of substantial entity like self endowed with excellent features of a Buddha Rather buddha nature simply represents the potentiality to be realized in the future 7 Hsing Yun forty eighth patriarch of the Linji school equates the buddha nature with the dharmakaya in line with pronouncements in key tathagatagarbha sutras He defines these two as the inherent nature that exists in all beings In Mahayana Buddhism enlightenment is a process of uncovering this inherent nature The Buddha nature is identical with transcendental reality The unity of the Buddha with everything that exists 107 108 Korean Buddhism EditIn the Korean Vajrasamadhi Sutra 685 CE the tathagatagarbha is presented as being possessed of two elements one essential immutable changeless and still the other active and salvational This dharma of the one mind which is the original tathagatagarbha is said to be calm and motionless The Vajrasamadhi s analysis of tathagatagarbha also recalls a distinction the Awakening of Faith makes between the calm unchanging essence of the mind and its active adaptable function The tathagatagarbha is equated with the original edge of reality bhutakoti that is beyond all distinctions the equivalent of original enlightenment or the essence But tathagatagarbha is also the active functioning of that original enlightenment the inspirational power of that fundamental faculty The tathagatagarbha is thus both the original edge of reality that is beyond cultivation essence as well as the specific types of wisdom and mystical talents that are the byproducts of enlightenment function 109 Japanese Buddhism Edit A Japanese Kamakura period reliquary topped with a cintamani a wish fulfilling jewel Buddha nature texts often use the metaphor of a hidden jewel buddha nature which all beings have but are unaware of Nichiren Buddhism Edit Nichiren 1222 1282 was a Buddhist monk who taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra as the exclusive means to attain enlightenment and the chanting of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō as the essential practice of the teaching Nichiren Buddhism includes various schools with diverging interpretations of Nichiren s teachings Nichiren Buddhism views the buddha nature as The inner potential for attaining Buddhahood common to all people 110 Based on the Lotus Sutra Nichiren maintained that all living being possess the Buddha nature 111 being the inherent potential to attain Buddhahood The Buddha nature refers to the potential for attaining Buddhahood a state of awakening filled with compassion and wisdom 112 The emphasis in Nichiren Buddhism is on revealing the Buddha nature or attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime 113 through chanting the name of the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra T the Buddha nature within us is summoned forth and manifested by our chanting of Nam myoho renge kyo 114 The potential for Buddhahood exists in the whole spectrum of the Ten Worlds of life and this means that all people including evil doers have buddha nature 115 which remains as a dormant possibility or a theoretical potential in the field of emptiness or non substantiality until it is materialized in reality through Buddhist practice In his letter Opening the Eyes of Wooden and painted Images 116 Nichiren explains that insentient matter such as trees mandalas images statues also possess the Buddha nature because they serve as objects of worship This view regards the buddha nature as the original nature of all manifestations of life sentient and insentient through their interconnectedness This concept of the enlightenment of plants in turn derives from the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life which teaches that all life insentient and sentient possesses the Buddha nature 117 Zen Buddhism Edit The founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism Dōgen Zenji held that buddha nature busshō 仏性 was simply the true nature of reality and Being This true nature was just impermanence becoming and vast emptiness Because he saw the whole universe as an expression of buddha nature he held that even grass and trees are buddha nature Therefore the very impermanency of grass and tree thicket and forest is the Buddha nature The very impermanency of men and things body and mind is the Buddha nature Nature and lands mountains and rivers are impermanent because they are the Buddha nature Supreme and complete enlightenment because it is impermanent is the Buddha nature 118 The founder of Sanbō Kyōdan lineage of Zen Buddhism Yasutani Haku un Roshi also defined buddha nature in terms of the emptiness and impermanence of all dharmas Everything by its very nature is subject to the process of infinite transformation this is its Buddha or Dharma nature What is the substance of this Buddha or Dharma nature In Buddhism it is called ku shunyata Now ku is not mere emptiness It is that which is living dynamic devoid of mass unfixed beyond individuality or personality the matrix of all phenomena 119 A famous reference to buddha nature in the Zen tradition is the Mu koan A monk asked Zhaozhou Congshen a Chinese Zen master known as Jōshu in Japanese Has a dog Buddha nature or not Zhaozhou answered It does not wu Chinese mu in Japanese 120 Shin Buddhism Edit The founder of the Jōdo Shinshu of Pure Land Buddhism Shinran equated buddha Nature with shinjin 121 Tibetan Buddhism EditMain article Rangtong Shentong In Tibetan Buddhist scholastics there are two main camps of interpreting buddha nature There are those who argue that tathagatagarbha is just emptiness described either as dharmadhatu the nature of phenomena or a nonimplicative negation and there are those who see it as the union of the mind s emptiness and luminosity which includes the buddha qualities 122 The Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism favors what is called the rangtong interpretation of Prasaṅgika Madhyamaka philosophy 123 They thus interpret buddha nature as an expedient term for the emptiness of inherent existence Other schools especially the Jonang 124 and Kagyu have tended to accept the shentong other empty Madhyamaka philosophy which discerns an Absolute which is empty of adventitious defilements which are intrinsically other than it but is not empty of its own inherent existence 125 These interpretations of the tathagatagarbha teachings has been a matter of intensive debates in Tibet 126 Nyingma Edit In the Nyingma school doctrines on buddha nature are generally marked by the tendency to align the idea with Dzogchen views as well as with Prasangika Madhyamaka beginning with the work of Rongzom 1042 1136 and continuing into the work of Longchenpa 1308 1364 and Mipham 1846 1912 127 Mipham Rinpoche the most authoritative figure in modern Nyingma adopted a view of buddha nature as the unity of appearance and emptiness relating it to the descriptions of the Ground in Dzogchen as outlined by Longchenpa This ground is said to be primordially pure ka dag and spontaneously present Ihun grub 128 Germano writes that Dzogchen represents the most sophisticated interpretation of the so called Buddha nature tradition within the context of Indo Tibetan thought 129 The 19th 20th century Nyingma scholar Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal sees the buddha nature as ultimate truth 130 nirvana which is constituted of profundity primordial peace and radiance Buddha nature is immaculate It is profound serene unfabricated suchness an uncompounded expanse of luminosity nonarising unceasing primordial peace spontaneously present nirvana 131 Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche sees an identity between the buddha nature dharmadhatu essence of all phenomena and the noumenon and the Three Vajras saying Dharmadhatu is adorned with dharmakaya which is endowed with dharmadhatu wisdom This is a brief but very profound statement because dharmadhatu also refers to sugata garbha or buddha nature Buddha nature is all encompassing This buddha nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky It is indivisible from the three vajras i e the Buddha s Body Speech and Mind of the awakened state which do not perish or change 132 The Nyingma meditation masters Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal emphasise that the essential nature of the mind the buddha nature is not a blankness but is characterized by wonderful qualities and a non conceptual perfection that is already present and complete it s just obscured and we fail to recognize it 133 Speaking in the context of Nyingma Dzogchen Ponlop expresses the view that there exists within vajrayana Buddhism the doctrine that we are already buddha in the vajrayana we are buddha right now in this very moment 134 and that it is legitimate to have vajra pride in our buddha mind and the already present qualities of enlightenment with which it is replete Vajra pride refers to our pride and confidence in the absolute nature of our mind as buddha primordially originally pure awake and full of the qualities of enlightenment 135 Kagyu Edit According to Brunnholzl Virtually all Kagyu masters hold the teaching on buddha nature to be of definitive meaning and deny that the tathagata heart is just sheer emptiness or a nonimplicative negation Though the Kagyu approach has certain similarities with Dolpopa s view it is generally less absolute than the latter s and shows several significant differences such as not claiming that the buddha qualities exist in their full blown form even in confused sentient beings and not making such an absolute distinction between the two realities as Dolpopa does the exception is Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye who largely follows Taranatha and Dolpopa but at times blends their positions with the Third Karmapa s view 136 In Kagyu the view of the Third Karmapa is generally seen as the most authoritative This is the view that buddha nature is mind s luminous ultimate nature or nondual wisdom which is the basis of everything in samsara and nirvana 137 Thrangu Rinpoche sees the Buddha nature as the indivisible oneness of wisdom and emptiness The union of wisdom and emptiness is the essence of Buddha hood or what is called Buddha nature Skt Tathagata garbha because it contains the very seed the potential of Buddhahood It resides in each and every being and because of this essential nature this heart nature there is the possibility of reaching Buddhahood 138 Sakya Edit Sakya Pandita 1182 1251 sees the buddha nature as the dharmadhatu free from all reference points and states that the teaching that buddha nature exists in all beings is of expedient meaning and that its basis is emptiness citing Candrakirti s Madhyamakavatarabhasya 139 The Sakya scholar Rongton meanwhile argued that buddha nature is suchness with stains or emptiness of the mind with stains 140 Sakya scholar Buton Rinchen Drub 1290 1364 like the Gelugpas held that the buddha nature teachings were of expedient meaning and that the naturally abiding disposition is nothing but emptiness however unlike them his view was that the basis for these teachings is the alaya vijnana and also that buddha nature is the dharmakaya of a buddha but never exists in the great mass of sentient beings 136 According to Brunnholzl in the works of the influential Sakya scholar Gorampa Sonam Senge 1429 1489 buddha nature is nondual unity of minds lucidity and emptiness or awareness and emptiness free from all reference points It is not mere emptiness because sheer emptiness cannot be the basis of both samsara and nirvana However it is not mere lucidity either because this lucidity is a conditioned entity and the tathagata heart is unconditioned 140 Sakya Chokden meanwhile argues that the ultimate buddha nature is minds natural luminosity free from all extremes of reference points which is the sphere of personally experienced wisdom and an implicative negation 141 Jonang Edit The Jonang school whose foremost historical figure was the Tibetan scholar monk Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen 1292 1361 sees the buddha nature as the very ground of the Buddha himself as the permanent indwelling of the Buddha in the basal state 142 According to Brunnholzl Dolpopa basing himself on certain tathagatagarbha sutras argued that the buddha nature is ultimately really established everlasting eternal permanent immutable therzug and being beyond dependent origination 136 This is the foundation of what is called the Shentong view The Buddhist tantric scripture entitled Chanting the Names of Manjusri Manjusri nama saṅgiti repeatedly exalts as portrayed by Dolpopa not the non Self but the Self and applies the following terms to this ultimate reality The Buddha Self the beginningless Self the solid Self the diamond Self These terms are applied in a manner which reflects the cataphatic approach to Buddhism typical of much of Dolpopa s writings 143 Cyrus Stearns writes that Dolpopa s attitude to the third turning of the wheel doctrines i e the buddha nature teachings is that they are the final definitive statements on the nature of ultimate reality the primordial ground or substratum beyond the chain of dependent origination and which is only empty of other relative phenomena 144 Gelug Edit An early Tibetan translator Ngok Lotsawa 1050 1109 argues in his commentary to the Uttaratantra that buddha nature is a non implicative negation which is to say that it is emptiness as a total negation of inherent existence svabhava that does not imply that anything is left un negated in terms of its svabhava Another early figure Chaba Chokyi Senge also argued that buddha nature was a non implicative negation 145 The Kadampa tradition generally followed Ngok Lotsawa by holding that Buddha nature was a nonimplicative negation The Gelug school which sees itself as a continuation of the Kadampas also hold this view while also holding as Chaba did that buddha nature teachings are of expedient meaning 145 Kedrub Je Geleg Balsang 1385 1438 one of the main disciples of Tsongkhapa defined the tathagatagarbha thus It is the emptiness of mind s being empty of being really established that is called the naturally pure true nature of the mind The naturally pure true nature of the mind in its phase of not being free from adventitious stains is called sugata heart or naturally abiding disposition 145 Brunnholzl states that the view of Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen 1364 1432 is that the tathagata heart is the state of a being in whom mind s emptiness is obscured while buddhas by definition do not possess this tathagata heart 145 The 14th Dalai Lama sees the buddha nature as the original clear light of mind but points out that it ultimately does not exist independently because like all other phenomena it is of the nature of emptiness Once one pronounces the words emptiness and absolute one has the impression of speaking of the same thing in fact of the absolute If emptiness must be explained through the use of just one of these two terms there will be confusion I must say this otherwise you might think that the innate original clear light as absolute truth really exists 146 Rime movement EditThe Rime movement is an ecumenical movement in Tibet which started as an attempt to reconcile the various Tibetan schools in the 19th century In contrast to the Gelugpa which adheres to the rang stong self empty or Prasaṅgika point of view 147 the Rime movement supports shen tong gzhan tong other empty an essential nature which is pure radiant non dual consciousness 124 Jamgon Kongtrul says about the two systems Madhyamika philosophies have no differences in realising as Shunyata all phenomena that we experience on a relative level They have no differences also in reaching the meditative state where all extremes ideas completely dissolve Their difference lies in the words they use to describe the Dharmata Shentong describes the Dharmata the mind of Buddha as ultimately real while Rangtong philosophers fear that if it is described that way people might understand it as the concept of soul or Atma The Shentong philosopher believes that there is a more serious possibility of misunderstanding in describing the Enlightened State as unreal and void Kongtrul finds the Rangtong way of presentation the best to dissolve concepts and the Shentong way the best to describe the experience 148 Modern scholarship EditModern scholarship points to the various possible interpretations of buddha nature as either an essential self as Sunyata or as the inherent possibility of awakening Essential self Edit Shenpen Hookham Oxford Buddhist scholar and Tibetan lama of the Shentong tradition writes of the buddha nature or true self as something real and permanent and already present within the being as uncompounded enlightenment She calls it the Buddha within and comments In scriptural terms there can be no real objection to referring to Buddha Buddhajnana Buddha Awareness Buddha Knowledge Nirvana and so forth as the True Self unless the concept of Buddha and so forth being propounded can be shown to be impermanent suffering compounded or imperfect in some way in Shentong terms the non self is about what is not the case and the Self of the Third Dharmachakra i e the Buddha nature doctrine is about what truly IS 149 Buddhist scholar and chronicler Merv Fowler writes that the buddha nature really is present as an essence within each being Fowler comments The teaching that Buddha nature is the hidden essence within all sentient beings is the main message of the tathagatagarbha literature the earliest of which is the Tathagatagarbha Sutra This short sutra says that all living beings are in essence identical to the Buddha regardless of their defilements or their continuing transmigration from life to life As in the earlier traditions there is present the idea that enlightenment or nirvana is not something which has to be achieved it is something which is already there In a way it means that everyone is really a Buddha now 150 Sunyata Edit According to Heng Ching Shih the tathagatagarbha buddha nature does not represent a substantial self atman Rather it is a positive language expression of emptiness sunyata which emphasizes the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices The intention of the teaching of tathagatagarbha buddha nature is soteriological rather than theoretical 7 Paul Williams puts forward the Madhyamaka interpretation of the buddha nature as emptiness in the following terms if one is a Madhyamika then that which enables sentient beings to become buddhas must be the very factor that enables the minds of sentient beings to change into the minds of Buddhas That which enables things to change is their simple absence of inherent existence their emptiness Thus the tathagatagarbha becomes emptiness itself but specifically emptiness when applied to the mental continuum 151 Critical Buddhist interpretation Edit Several contemporary Japanese Buddhist scholars headed under the label Critical Buddhism hihan bukkyō 批判仏教 have been critical of buddha nature thought According to Matsumoto Shiro and Hakamaya Noriaki of Komazawa University essentialist conceptions of buddha nature are at odds with the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination and non self anatman 152 153 The Buddha nature doctrines which they label as dhatuvada substantialism sometimes rendered locus theory or topicalism and generative monism is not Buddhism at all 154 As defined by Matsumoto this locus theory or dhatuvada which he rejects as un buddhist is It is the theory that the single eka sama existent locus dhatu or basis is the cause that produces the manifold phenomena or super loci dharmah 155 Matsumoto further argues that Tathagatagarbha thought was a Buddhist version of Hindu monism formed by the influence of Hinduism gradually introduced into Buddhism especially after the rise of Mahayana Buddhism 155 Other Japanese scholars responded to this view leading to a lively debate in Japan Takasaki Jikido a well known authority on tathagathagarbha thought accepted that Buddha nature theories are similar to Upanishadic theories and that dhatuvada is an accurate expression of the structure of these doctrines but argues that the Buddha nature texts are aware of this and that Buddha nature is not necessarily un Buddhist or anti Buddhist 8 155 Likewise Hirakawa Akira sees buddha nature as the potential to attain Buddhahood which is not static but ever changing and argues that dhatu does not necessarily mean substratum he points to some Agamas which identify dhatu with pratitya samutpada 8 Western scholars have reacted in different ways to this idea Sallie B King objects to their view seeing the buddha nature as a metaphor for the potential in all beings to attain Buddhahood rather than as an ontological reality 156 Robert H Sharf notes that the worries of the Critical Buddhists is nothing new for the early tathagatagarbha scriptures betray a similar anxiety as they tacitly acknowledge that the doctrine is close to if not identical with the heretical atmavada teachings of the non Buddhists 154 He also notes how the Nirvaṇa sutra tacitly concedes the non Buddhist roots of the tathagatagarbha idea 154 Sharf also has pointed out how certain Southern Chan masters were concerned with other interpretations of Buddha nature showing how the tendency to critique certain views of Buddha nature is not new in East Asian Buddhism 154 Peter N Gregory has also argued that at least some East Asian interpretations of Buddha nature are equivalent to what Critical Buddhists call dhatuvada especially the work of Tsung mi who emphasizes the underlying ontological ground on which all phenomenal appearances hsiang are based which he variously refers to as the nature hsing the one mind i hsin 157 According to Dan Lusthaus certain Chinese Buddhist ideologies which became dominant in the 8th century promoted the idea of an underlying metaphysical substratum or underlying invariant universal metaphysical source and thus do seem to be a kind of dhatuvada According to Lusthaus in early T ang China 7th 8th century there was a deliberate attempt to divorce Chinese Buddhism from developments in India Lusthaus notes that the Huayen thinker Fa tsang was influential in this theological trend who promoted the idea that true Buddhism was about comprehending the One Mind that alone is the ground of reality wei hsin 158 Paul Williams too has criticised this view saying that Critical Buddhism is too narrow in its definition of what constitutes Buddhism According to Williams We should abandon any simplistic identification of Buddhism with a straightforward not Self definition 159 Multiple meanings Edit Sutton agrees with Williams critique on the narrowness of any single interpretation In discussing the inadequacy of modern scholarship on buddha nature Sutton states One is impressed by the fact that these authors as a rule tend to opt for a single meaning disregarding all other possible meanings which are embraced in turn by other texts 160 He goes on to point out that the term tathagatagarbha has up to six possible connotations Of these he says the three most important are an underlying ontological reality or essential nature tathagata tathata vyatireka which is functionally equivalent to a self atman in an Upanishadic sense the dharmakaya which penetrates all beings sarva sattveṣu dharma kaya parispharaṇa which is functionally equivalent to brahman in an Upanishadic sense the womb or matrix of Buddhahood existing in all beings tathagata gotra saṃbhava which provides beings with the possibility of awakening 161 162 Of these three Sutton claims that only the third connotation has any soteriological significance while the other two posit buddha nature as an ontological reality and essential nature behind all phenomena 163 See also EditDhammakaya tradition Hongaku Immanence Kulayaraja Tantra Panentheism Rigpa Turiya Won BuddhismNotes Edit The image of the moon as the Buddha nature comes from the Platform Sutra Dogen treats this metaphor in Shobogenzo 43 Tsuki On the Moon as One s Excellent Nature Compare also A Zen master Ryokan lived a life of simplicity in his hut near the mountains When he was away one night a thief broke in only to find nothing worth stealing Just then Ryokan returned You have travelled far to visit me he told the burglar I cannot let you return empty handed Here are my clothes please accept them as my gift The baffled thief took the clothes and vanished Naked now the master gazed at the moon Poor man he sighed How I wish I could give him this glorious moon Zen Story Steal the Moon Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky Sometimes clouds come and cover it but the moon is always behind them Clouds go away then the moon shines brightly So don t worry about clear mind it is always there When thinking comes behind it is clear mind When thinking goes there is only clear mind Thinking comes and goes comes and goes You must not be attached to the coming or the going Seung Sahn Clear Mind Is Like The Full Moon According to McRae 2003 p 61 65 in the famous story of the verse contest in the Platform Sutra the two verses are actually complementary The body is the bodhi tree The mind is like a bright mirror s stand At all times we must strive to polish itand must not let dust collect Bodhi originally has no tree The mirror has no stand The Buddha nature is always clear and pure Where is there room for dust According to McRae T he verse attributed to Shenxiu does refer to a constant practice of cleaning the mirror Huineng s verse s apply the rhetoric of emptiness to undercut the substantiality of the terms of that formulation However the basic meaning of the first proposition still remains See also Joko Beck Everyday Zen 2008 p 19 20 and p 63 on the mirror verses Now while the verse of the Sixth Patriarch is the true understanding the paradox for us is that we have to practice with the verse that was not accepted we do have to polish the mirror we do have to be aware of our thoughts and actions we do have to be aware of our false reactions to life Buddha dhatu mind tathagatagarbha Dharma dhatu suchness tathata 2 Sanskrit Jp Busshō buddha nature Enlightened one a the Buddha Kevin Trainor a sacred nature that is the basis for beings becoming buddhas 3 According to Wayman amp Wayman the term garbha takes on various meanings depending on its context They transalte a passage from the Sri mala sutra as follows Lord this Tathagatagarbha is the Illustrious Dharmadhatu womb neither self nor sentient being nor soul nor personality Is the dharmakaya embryo not the domain of beings who fall into the belief in a real personality Is the supramundane dharma center not the domain of beings who adhere to wayward views Is the intrinsically pure dharma center not the domain of beings who deviate from voidness 28 In Sanskrit grammar a tatpuruṣa तत प र ष compound is a dependent determinative compound i e a compound XY meaning a type of Y which is related to X in a way corresponding to one of the grammatical cases of X A bahuvrihi compound from Sanskrit बह व र ह bahuvrihi literally meaning much rice but denoting a rich man is a type of compound that denotes a referent by specifying a certain characteristic or quality the referent possesses In the Maraparinirvana Sutra the term tathagatagarbha replaces the term buddhadhatu which originally referred to relics Worship of the physical relics of the Buddha was reshaped into worship of the inner Buddha 18 For the various equivalents of the Sanskrit term tathagatagarbha in other languages Chinese Japanese Vietnamese see Glossary of Buddhism tathagatagarbha Harvey mentions AN 1 10 Monks this mind citta is brightly shining pabhassara but it is defiled by defilements which arrive AN 1 49 52 gives a similar statement Each part of the world reflects the totality of the cosmos quote Aṅgulimaliya Sutra 央掘魔羅經 Vol 2 Those who preach the Dharma should praise tathagatagarbha for its natures of permanency and reality If one does not preach this way then because one abandons tathagatagarbha one should not sit on the lion throne similar to that a caṇḍala 旃陀羅 should not ride a king s elephant All Buddhas pursue the arising of tathagatagarbha with various expedient methods but fail because non arising is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the unreality of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because reality is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the impermanence of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because permanence is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the non eternity of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because eternity is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the variability of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because invariability is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue no silence of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because silence is the Buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the badness of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because non badness is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the damage of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because non damage is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the sickness of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because no sickness is the uddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the aging of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because non aging is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the defilement of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because undefilement is the buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity Aṅgulimaliya Sutra Vol 2 At that time Aṅgulimaliya says the following verses Tathagatagarbha manifests in the various worlds without knowing evil views and mistaken views one should not be afraid while hearing the Buddha s correct Dharma that no self will be attained after abandoning oneself Tathagatagarbha is dissociated from arrogance body and life the broad definition of tathagatagarbha is the world One should bear the above concepts and be patient Aṅgulimaliya Sutra Vol 2 All Buddhas pursue the arising of tathagatagarbha with various expedient methods but fail because non arising is the Buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity Taishō Tripiṭaka Meeting of Father and Son Sutra 父子合集經 The king of gandharvas makes offerings for listening to the great pure Dharma This Dharma exists in the reality and its original intrinsic natures do not increase or decrease if one is attached to the phenomenon and discriminates it then tathagatagarbha is not attainable This Dharma is neither real nor empty Due to the emptiness of its dharma nature the Buddha does not say anything The Sutra Explaining Undefiled Praise 說無垢稱經 The Dharma does not have the nature of discrimination because it is dissociated with the mental consciousness Aṅgulimaliya Sutra Vol 2 All Buddhas pursue the impermanence of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because permanence is the Buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the non eternity of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because eternity is the Buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity All Buddhas pursue the variability of tathagatagarbha s intrinsic nature with various expedient methods but fail because invariability is the Buddha nature it manifests with countless wondrous appearances purity and solemnity Tathagatagarbha neither ages nor dies 66 The most notable of which are greed 貪 hatred 嗔 delusion 癡 and pride 慢 In the Seminal Heart series of Dzogchen a distinction is made between kun gzhi c q alaya the base of it all the samsaric basis of consciousness of all the samsaric appearances and gzhi the nirvanic basis known as the ground 79 Sam van Schaik the Seminal Heart distinction between two types of basis the nirvanic basis known as the ground gzhi and the samsaric basis of consciousness the alaya kun gzhi 79 Philip Kapleau in The Three Pillars of Zen drawing from Harada roshi discerns a Pure Consciousness or Formless Self underlying the alaya vijnana 80 This 9th consciousness was also mentioned by Paramartha a 6th century Indian translator working in China 2 Compare Mazu s Mind is Buddha versus No mind no Buddha When Ch an Master Fa ch ang of Ta mei Mountain went to see the Patriarch for the first time he asked What is Buddha The Patriarch replied Mind is Buddha On hearing this Fa ch ang had great awakening Later he went to live on Ta mei mountain When the Patriarch heard that he was residing on the mountain he sent one of his monks to go there and ask Fa ch ang What did the Venerable obtain when he saw Ma tsu so that he has come to live on this mountain Fach ang said Ma tsu told me that mind is Buddha so I came to live here The monk said Ma tsu s teaching has changed recently Fa ch ang asked What is the difference The monk said Nowadays he also says Neither mind nor Buddha Fa ch ang said That old man still hasn t stopped confusing people You can have neither mind nor Buddha I only care for mind is Buddha The monk returned to the Patriarch and reported what has happened The plum is ripe said the Patriarch 101 References Edit Bielefeldt 2015 p 153 a b Lusthaus 1998 p 84 a b Trainor 2004 p 207 a b c Brunnholzl 2014 p 3 a b c d Wayman 1990 p 45 a b c d Swanson Paul L T ien t ai Chih i s Concept of Threefold Buddha Nature A Synergy of Reality Wisdom and Practice a b c Heng Ching Shih The Significance Of Tathagatagarbha A Positive Expression Of Sunyata a b c Swanson Paul L Why They Say Zen is Not Buddhism Recent Japanese Critiques of Buddha Nature PDF TheZenSite a b c d e f Wayman 1990 p 42 a b c d e Brunnholzl 2014 p 54 a b Sharf 2014 a b c d e Gregory 1991 p 288 289 King 1991 p 112 The final form of expression indicating that tathagatagarbha or Buddha nature involves a substantialist monistic theory is found is those passages stating that the tathagatagarbha dharmakaya nirvaṇa or Buddha nature is beyond cause and conditions is unborn quiescent or unchanging Ch an Master Sheng yen 1999 Complete Enlightenment Zen Comments on the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment p 165 ISBN 9781570624001 Buddha nature however is universal and unchanging It is impossible for it to exist at one point and not at another It transcends space time and movement Duckworth Douglas Samuel 2008 Mipam on Buddha Nature The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition State University of New York Press p XIV ISBN 9780791477984 The unchanging permanent status attributed to Buddha nature is a radical departure is a departure from the language emphasizing impermanence 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Swanson Paul Loren eds Pruning the Bodhi Tree The Storm Over Critical Buddhism Univ of Hawaii Press a b c d Sharf Robert H December 2017 Buddha nature Critical Buddhism and Early Chan Critical Review for Buddhist Studies 22 105 150 a b c Shiro Matsumoto Critiques of Tathagatagarbha Thought and Critical Buddhism full citation needed King Sallie B 1997 The Doctrine of Buddha Nature is Impeccably Buddhist In Hubbard Jamie Swanson Paul Loren eds Pruning the Bodhi Tree The Storm Over Critical Buddhism Univ of Hawaii Press pp 174 179 ISBN 0824819497 Gregory Peter N Is Critical Buddhism Really Critical PDF TheZenSite Lusthaus Dan Critical Buddhism and Returning to the Sources full citation needed Paul Williams Mahayana Buddhism Routledge London 2nd Edition 2009 p 128 Sutton Florin Giripescu 1991 Existence and Enlightenment in the Laṅkavatara sutra SUNY ISBN 0 7914 0172 3 p 51 Takasaki Jikido 1991 A Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga ISMEO 1966 p 198 Florin Giripescu Sutton Existence and Enlightenment in the Laṅkavatara sutra SUNY ISBN 0 7914 0172 3 p 53 Wayman Alex 1981 The Title and Textual Affiliation of the Guhya garbha Tantra In From Mahayana Buddhism to Tantra Felicitation Volume for Dr Shunkyo Matsumata Tokyo p 4Sources EditBrown Brian Edward 1994 The Buddha Nature A Study of the Tathagatagarbha and Alayavijnana Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Brunnholzl Karl 2014 When the Clouds Part TheUttaratantraand Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra Boston amp London Snow Lion Cheng Chien Bhikshu 1992 Introduction Sun Face Buddha The Teachings of Ma tsu and the Hung chou School of Ch an Asian Humanities Press Dumoulin Heinrich 2005a Zen Buddhism A History Volume 1 India and China World Wisdom Books ISBN 978 0 941532 89 1 Dumoulin Heinrich 2005b Zen Buddhism A History Volume 2 Japan World Wisdom Books ISBN 978 0 941532 90 7 Gethin Rupert 1998 Foundations of Buddhism Oxford University Press Gregory Peter N 1991 Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation Tsung mi s Analysis of Mind In Peter N Gregory editor 1991 Sudden and Gradual Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Hakeda Yoshito S trans 1967 Awakening of Faith Attributed to Asvaghoṣa New York Columbia University Press archived from the original on September 11 2013 Harvey Peter 1995 An introduction to Buddhism Teachings history and practices Cambridge University Press Hookham Shenpen tr 1998 The Shrimaladevi Sutra Oxford Longchen Foundation Hopkins Jeffrey 1999 Introduction by Jeffrey Hopkins In His Holiness the Dalai Lama Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation Wisdom Publications Jikido Takasaki 2000 The Tathagatagarbha Theory Reconsidered Reflections on Some Recent Issues in Japanese Buddhist Studies Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 27 1 2 archived from the original on July 27 2014 Kapleau Philip 1989 The Three Pillars of Zen Anchor Books Kim Seong Uk 2007 Understanding Tsung Mi s view on Buddha nature King Sallie B 1991 Buddha Nature SUNY Press ISBN 978 0 7914 0428 7 Lai Whalen 2003 Buddhism in China A Historical Survey In Antonio S Cua ed Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy PDF New York Routledge archived from the original PDF on November 12 2014 Liu Ming Wood 1982 The Doctrine of the Buddha Nature in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5 2 63 94 archived from the original on October 16 2013 Lopez Donald S 2001 The Story of Buddhism a concise guide to its history amp teaching HarperCollins Publishers Inc ISBN 0 06 069976 0 Bielefeldt Carl 2015 A Discussion of Seated Zen in Lopez Jr Donald S ed Buddhism in Practice Abridged Edition Princeton University Press Lusthaus Dan 1998 Buddhist Philosophy Chinese In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Index Taylor amp Francis McRae John 2003 Seeing Through Zen The University Press Group Ltd Powers J A 2000 Concise Encyclopaedia of Buddhism Rawson Philip 1991 Sacred Tibet London Thames and Hudson ISBN 0 500 81032 X Reeves Gene 2008 The Lotus Sutra A Contemporary Translation of a Buddhist Classic Somerville MA Wisdom Publications ISBN 978 0 86171 571 8 Sasaki Shizuka 1999 Review Article The Mahaparinirvana Sutra and the Origins of Mahayana Buddhism PDF Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 26 1 2 archived from the original PDF on 2011 08 11 retrieved 21 January 2012 Schaik Sam 2004 Approaching the Great Perfection Simultaneous and Gradual Methods of Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig PDF Wisdom Publications Inc archived from the original PDF on 2014 07 14 retrieved 2014 06 25 Sharf Robert 2014 Mindfullness and Mindlessness in Early Chan PDF Philosophy East and West 64 4 933 964 doi 10 1353 pew 2014 0074 S2CID 144208166 archived from the original PDF on 2017 02 23 Shirō Matsumoto 1997 Tathagata Garbha is not Buddhist In Hubbard Jamie Swanson Paul Loren eds Pruning the Bodhi Tree The Storm Over Critical Buddhism University of Hawaii Press Snelling John 1987 The Buddhist handbook A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice London Century Paperbacks Suzuki D T 1978 The Lankavatara Sutra Prajna Press Boulder Trainor Kevin 2004 Buddhism The Illustrated Guide Oxford University Press Wayman Alex and Hideko 1990 The Lion s roar of Queen Srimala Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Williams Paul 1994 Mahayana Buddhism The Doctrinal Foundations Routledge Williams Paul 2008 Mahayana Buddhism The Doctrinal Foundations Routledge Williams Paul 2000 Buddhist Thought Routledge Williams Paul 2002 Buddhist Thought Taylor amp Francis Kindle Edition Yamamoto Kosho 1975 Mahayanism A Critical Exposition of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra Karinbunko Zimmermann Michael 1999 The Tathagatagarbhasutra Its Basic Structure and Relation to the Lotus Sutra Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 1998 PDF Tokyo The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology Soka University pp 143 168 Archived from the original on October 8 2011 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint unfit URL link Zimmermann Michael 2002 A Buddha Within The Tathagatagarbhasutra PDF Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica Tokyo The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology Soka University VI Archived from the original on November 11 2013 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint unfit URL link Further reading EditGeneralKalupahana David J 1992 A history of Buddhist philosophy Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Sallie B King Buddha Nature State University of New York Press 1991 ISBN 0 7914 0428 5ChinaKing Sallie B 1989 Buddha nature and the concept of person Philosophy East and West 39 2 151 170 doi 10 2307 1399375 JSTOR 1399375 Archived from the original on July 29 2014 Lusthaus Dan 1998 Buddhist Philosophy Chinese In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Index Taylor amp Francis Lai Whalen Buddhism in China A Historical Survey PDF archived from the original PDF on September 16 2012TibetBrunnholzl Karl 2009 Luminous Heart The Third Karmapa on Consciousness Wisdom and Buddha Nature Snow Lion Publications ISBN 978 1 55939 318 8 Hookham S K 1991 The Buddha Within Tathagatagarbha Doctrine According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga SUNY PressJapanHarada Sekkei 2008 The essence of Zen The Teachings of Sekkei Harada Wisdom PublicationsCritical BuddhismHubbard Jamie Swanson Paul Loren eds 1997 Pruning the Bodhi Tree The Storm over Critical Buddhism University of Hawai i PressExternal links EditThich Hang Dat The Interpretation of Buddha nature in Chan Tradition On the Buddha nature of Insentient Things Robert H Sharf Nirvana Sutra full text of Nirvana Sutra plus appreciation of its teachings and Nirvana Sutra 2 6 MB The Laṅkavatara Sutra A Mahayana Text Hodge Stephen 2009 amp 2012 The Textual Transmission of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana sutra Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Buddha nature amp oldid 1140991206, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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