Buddha-nature - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle (Skt

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

: Tathāgatagarbha; Jap

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

: Bussho), is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas. It can be perceived as the 'true self'.

Etymology

Buddha-nature (Classical Chinese

Classical Chinese

Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese...

: 佛性, modern pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

fó xìng) literally corresponds to the Sanskrit Buddha-dhātu - "Buddha Element", "Buddha-Principle", but seems to have been used most frequently to translate the Sanskrit "Tathāgatagarbha". The Sanskrit term "tathāgatagarbha" may be parsed into tathāgata
Tathagata
Tathāgata in Pali and Sanskrit) is the name the Buddha of the scriptures uses when referring to himself. The term means, paradoxically, both one who has thus gone and one who has thus come . Hence, the Tathagata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena...

("the one thus gone", referring to the Buddha) and garbha ("root/embryo"). The latter has the meanings: "embryo", "essence"; whilst the former may be parsed into "tathā" ("[s]he who has there" and "āgata" (semantic field: "come", "arrived") and/or "gata" ("gone").

For the various equivalents of the Sanskrit term "tathāgatagarbha" in other languages (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese), see Glossary of Buddhism, "tathagatagarbha"

Luminous mind in the Nikāyas

There is a reference in the Anguttara Nikāya to a "luminous mind

Luminous mind

Luminous mind is a term attributed to the Buddha in the Nikayas...

", present within all people, be they corrupt or pure, and whether or not it is itself stained or pure.

Abhidhamma

The Buddha-nature doctrine may be traced back, in part, to the abhidharmic
Abhidharma
Abhidharma or Abhidhamma are ancient Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications...

debates over metaphysics. Those arose among the Nikāya
Nikaya Buddhism
The term Nikāya Buddhism was coined by Dr. Masatoshi Nagatomi, in order to find a more acceptable term than Hinayana to refer to the early Buddhist schools. Examples of these schools are pre-sectarian Buddhism and the early Buddhist schools...

schools as they attempted to reconcile various perceived problems. One problem is how to integrate the doctrine of anatta
Anatta
In Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self." In the early texts, the Buddha commonly uses the word in the context of teaching that all things perceived by the senses are not really "I" or "mine," and for this reason one should not cling to them.In the same vein, the Pali...

, which stipulates that there is no underlying self, with the idea of karma: who is suffering? Another problem is soteriology: what is the subject of awakening, is there an essence to awakening?

Debates between different Nikāya schools at this time provided a context for the later origination of the Mahāyāna concepts. The concept of "seeds", espoused by the Sautrāntika in debate with the Sarvāstivādins

Sarvastivada

The Sarvāstivāda were an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all dharmas in the past, present and future, the 'three times'. Vasubandhu's states:-Name:...

over the metaphysical status of phenomena (dharmas), is a precursor to the store-consciousness of the Yogācāra

Yogacara

Yogācāra is an influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing phenomenology and ontology through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It developed within Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in about the 4th century CE...

school and the tathāgatagarbha. The latter is closely related to the concept of Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature in the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras

The "Tathāgatagarbha Sutras" are a collection of Mahayana sutras which present the concept of Buddha-nature as the uncreated and indestructible essence (svabhava) or 'true Self' of all beings (vide Mahaparinirvana Sutra). Even though this collection was generally ignored in India, East Asian Buddhism provides some significance to these texts.

Some sutras mention the self in a very affirmative manner, including the Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
Shurangama Sutra
The ' is a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra, and has been especially influential in the Chán school of Chinese Buddhism.- Etymology :According to Ron Epstein, roughly means "indestructible." The word is composed of Śūraṅ , with Gama...

, the Mahāvairocana Sūtra and the Sutra of Perfect Wisdom called The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin:

Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra specifically contrasts its doctrine of the self with that of the Astikas in order to remove the reifying notion that the self was a little person or homunculus

Homunculus

Homunculus is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically, it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism...

, the size of a grain of rice or of one's thumb, sitting in the heart of the being, thus: "mundane [philosophers] mistakenly imagine it to be a person

Purusha

In some lineages of Hinduism, Purusha is the "Self" which pervades the universe. The Vedic divinities are interpretations of the many facets of Purusha...

(puruṣa) the size of a thumb, the size of a pea or a grain of rice that dwells shining in the heart." This, the Buddha says, is a misconception of the nature of self, for "that opinion of theirs is a mistaken opinion, one that is transmitted onwards from person to person, but it is neither beneficial nor conducive to happiness." The self of which the Buddha speaks is said by him to be the "essential intrinsic being" (svabhava) or even "life-essence" (jīvaka) of each person, and this essential being is none other than the Buddha himself - "radiantly luminous" and "as indestructible as a diamond".

The Buddha in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra insists that the self of the Buddha (the Buddha-nature which is present in all beings) is everlasting, pure and blissful and is most definitely not transitory and impermanent:
The Buddha-nature is, in fact, taught in such tathāgatagarbha sutras to be ultimate, conceptually inconceivable, immortal reality.

The Lotus Sutra

The development of the doctrine can also be associated with the Lotus Sutra

Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...

and its influence on later sutras. One of the unique themes in the Lotus Sutra, particularly in the tenth chapter titled "Teachers of the Dharma", is that everyone has the ability to become a buddha. In other words, this ability is not limited to monks, nuns, laypeople, shravakas

Sravaka

Shravaka or Śrāvaka or Sāvaka means "hearer" or, more generally, "disciple".This term is used by both Buddhists and Jains. In Jainism, a shravaka is any lay Jain...

, or bodhisattvas

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

, but the chapter insists that other beings such as non-human creatures, dragon kings

Nagaraja

Nagaraja is a Sanskrit word from naga and raj meaning King of Snakes. It is applied to three main deities, Anantha , Takshak, and Vasuki. Anantha, Vasuki and Takshak are brothers, children of Kashyap and Kadru, who are the parents of all snakes...

, centaurs, etc., also have this ability. It also insists that all living beings not only have the ability to become a buddha, but can be a 'teacher of the Dharma' here and now.

A connotation to Buddha-nature is also found within the twelfth chapter of the Lotus Sutra titled "Devadatta". It gives no information about the historical Devadatta

Devadatta

Devadatta was by tradition a Buddhist monk, cousin and brother-in-law of Gautama Siddārtha, the Śākyamuni Buddha, and brother of Ānanda, a principal student of the Buddha...

, but gives the encouragement
to understand that just as Devadatta, known everywhere to be evil, has the potential to become a buddha, so too with everyone else. The story of Devadatta is followed by another story about a dragon princess who is both a nāga

Naga

Naga or NAGA may refer to:* Nāga, a group of serpent deities in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.-People:* Nayan / Nayar/Nair people of Kerala Society* Naga people, a diverse ethnic identity in Northeast India...

and a female

Female

Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...

whom the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī

Manjusri

Mañjuśrī is a bodhisattva associated with transcendent wisdom in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Esoteric Buddhism he is also taken as a meditational deity. The Sanskrit name Mañjuśrī can be translated as "Gentle Glory"...

proclaims will reach enlightenment immediately, despite her being what she is. This goes contrary to common prejudices and informed opinion.

Varying interpretations of Buddha-nature

Schools and scholars of Buddhism have varying interpretations of what the Buddha-nature consists in. Essentiality the disagreement is whether the buddha-nature is an essence underlying the flux or phenomena, or whether this idea is an aberration of the buddhist insight of anatta

Anatta

In Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self." In the early texts, the Buddha commonly uses the word in the context of teaching that all things perceived by the senses are not really "I" or "mine," and for this reason one should not cling to them.In the same vein, the Pali...

. Some see the buddha-nature as the innate potential to become awakened, without reifying this potential as a 'thing'.
Some scholars favor one interpretation of the Buddha-nature over others.

Chan

In Chinese Ch’an Buddhism the Buddha-nature tends to be seen as the essential nature of all beings. Writing from this tradition, Master Hsing Yun, forty-eighth patriarch of the Linji School of Ch’an Buddhism, equates the Buddha-nature with the Dharmakāya
Dharmakaya
The Dharmakāya is a central idea in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā , composed in the 1st century BCE...

in line with pronouncements in key tathāgatagarbha sutras, defining these two as:

Tibetan Buddhism

According to the Nyingma

Nyingma

The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...

and Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

schools, tathāgatagarbha is the inseparability of the clarity and emptiness of one's mind. According to the Gelug

Gelug

The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...

school, it is the potential for sentient beings to awaken since they are empty (i.e. dependently originated). According to the Jonang

Jonang

The Jonang is one of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Its origins in Tibet can be traced to early 12th century master Yumo Mikyo Dorje, but became much wider known with the help of Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen, a monk originally trained in the Sakya school...

school, it refers to the innate qualities of the mind which expresses itself in terms of omniscience etc. when adventitious obscurations are removed.

Nyingma

Speaking for the Tibetan Nyingma

Nyingma

tradition, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche sees an identity between the Buddha-nature, Dharmadhātu (essence of all phenomena and the noumenon) and the three vajras

Three Vajras

The Three Vajras namely 'body', 'speech' and 'mind' are a formulation within Tibetan Buddhism and Bon which holds the full experience of the 'openness' of Buddha-nature, void of all bar the 'qualities' and 'marks' and establishes a sound experiential key upon the 'continuum of the path' to...

, saying:
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 characterised by wonderful qualities and a perfection that is already present and complete:
They add:

Dzogchen

Germano (1992: pp.viii - ix) relates Dzogchen

Dzogchen

According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...

, via Buddha-nature to Madhyamaka

Madhyamaka

Madhyamaka refers primarily to a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of Buddhist philosophy systematized by Nāgārjuna. Nāgārjuna may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the āgamas...

, Yogachara and Abhinavagupta

Abhinavagupta

Abhinavagupta was one of India's greatest philosophers, mystics and aestheticians. He was also considered an important musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logician - a polymathic personality who exercised strong influences on Indian culture.He was born in the Valley of Kashmir in...

:
The 19th/20th-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar, Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal, sees the Buddha nature as ultimate truth, nirvana, which is constituted of profundity, primordial peace and radiance:

Kagyu

In the Tibetan Kagyu

Kagyu

The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...

tradition, Thrangu Rinpoche sees the Buddha nature as the indivisible oneness of wisdom and emptiness:

Gelukpa

The 14th Dalai Lama, representing the Gelukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism, and speaking from the Madhyamaka

Madhyamaka

philosophical position, 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:

Jonangpa

The Jonangpa School of Tibetan Buddhism, whose foremost historical figure was Dolpopa, sees the Buddha-nature as the very ground of the Buddha himself, as the "permanent indwelling of the Buddha in the basal state". Dolpopa comments that certain key tathāgatagarbha sutras indicate this truth, remarking:
Moreover, the Buddhist tantric scripture entitled Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī , as quoted by the great Tibetan Buddhist master, Dolpopa, repeatedly exalts not the non-self but the self and applies the following terms to this ultimate reality:

"the pervasive Lord" (vibhu)
"Buddha-Self"
"the beginningless Self" (anādi-ātman)
"the Self of Thusness" (tathatā-ātman)
"the Self of primordial purity" (śuddha-ātman)
"the Source of all"
"the Self pervading all"
"the Single Self" (eka-ātman)
"the Diamond Self" (vajra-ātman)
"the Solid Self" (ghana-ātman)
"the Holy, Immovable Self"
"the Supreme Self"

In the Ghanavyuha Sutra (as quoted by Longchenpa

Longchenpa

Longchen Rabjampa, Drimé Özer "Longchenpa" was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Along with Sakya Pandita and Je Tsongkhapa, he is commonly recognized as one of the three main manifestations of Manjushri to have taught in Central Tibet...

) this immutable, universal and salvific Buddha essence (the true self of the Buddha) is said to be the ground of all things, but it is viewed by fools as something changeful and impermanent, whereas in fact it is stated by the Buddha to be the very opposite of such impermanence:

The Rimé movement

Ringu Tulku says, "There has been a great deal of heated debate in Tibet between the exponents of Rangtong, (Wylie: Rang-stong) and Shentong, (Wylie: gZhan-stong) philosophies. The historic facts of these two philosophies are well known to the Tibetologists."

Jamgon Kongtrul

Jamgon Kongtrul

Jamgön Kongtrül is a name of a prominent line of Tibetan Buddhist teachers , primarily identified with the first Jamgon Kongtrul, but also the name shared by members of a lineage held by tradition to be his subsequent reincarnations , to date....

says about the two systems:
In 2006, Khentrul Rinpoche Jamphal Lodro founded "The Tibetan Buddhist Rimé Institute" in Melbourne, Australia. It aims to propagate the Rimé view of harmony within all Buddhist traditions and to introduce the rare Jonang

Jonang

Kalachakra Tantra lineage teachings in the western world.

Modern scholarship

According to some modern scholars, the tathāgatagarbha/Buddha nature does not represent a substantial self (ātman); rather, it is a positive language expression of emptiness (śūnyatā) and is the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices; the intention of the teaching of tathāgatagarbha/Buddha nature is soteriological

Soteriology

The branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation and redemption is called Soteriology. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion + English -logy....

rather than theoretical.

The Buddhist scholar, Sallie B King, sees the Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) as merely a metaphor for the potential in all beings to attain Buddhahood, rather than as an ontological reality. She writes of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
Tathagatagarbha Sutra
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an influential and doctrinally striking Mahayana Buddhist scripture which treats of the existence of the "Tathagatagarbha" within all sentient creatures. The Buddha reveals how inside each person's being there exists a great Buddhic "treasure that is eternal and...

in particular:
Paul Williams

Paul Williams (British professor)

Paul Williams is Emeritus Professor in Indian Religions at the University of Bristol, England. He is also director for the University's Centre for Buddhist Studies....

puts forward the Madhyamaka interpretation of the Buddha-nature as emptiness

Shunyata

Śūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong-pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoγusun is frequently translated into English as emptiness...

in the following terms:
However, other scholars take a more nuanced approach. Thus, in discussing the problems with and the inadequacy of much modern scholarship on Buddha-nature and the tathāgatagarbha, 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". He goes on to point out that the term tathāgatagarbha has up to six possible connotations. Of these, the three most important are:

an underlying ontological reality or essential nature (tathāgata-tathatā-'vyatireka) which is functionally equivalent to a self
Atman (Buddhism)
The word Ātman or Atta refers to a self. Occasionally the terms "soul" or "ego" are also used. The words ātman and atta derive from the Indo-European root *ēt-men and are cognate with the Old English æthm and German Atem....

(ātman) in an Upanishad
Upanishad
The Upanishads are philosophical texts considered to be an early source of Hindu religion. More than 200 are known, of which the first dozen or so, the oldest and most important, are variously referred to as the principal, main or old Upanishads...

ic sense,
the dharma-kāya
Dharmakaya
The Dharmakāya is a central idea in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā , composed in the 1st century BCE...

which penetrates all beings (sarva-sattveṣu dharma-kāya-parispharaṇa), which is functionally equivalent to brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...

in an Upanishad
Upanishad
The Upanishads are philosophical texts considered to be an early source of Hindu religion. More than 200 are known, of which the first dozen or so, the oldest and most important, are variously referred to as the principal, main or old Upanishads...

ic sense
the womb or matrix of Buddhahood existing in all beings (tathāgata-gotra-saṃbhava), which provides beings with the possibility of awakening.

Of these three, 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.

According to Matsumoto Shiro and Hakamaya Noriaki, essentialist conceptions of Buddha-nature are un-Buddhist, being at odds with the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination.

External links

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Etymology

Luminous mind in the Nikāyas

Abhidhamma

Buddha-nature in the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras

Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra

The Lotus Sutra

Varying interpretations of Buddha-nature

Chan

Tibetan Buddhism

Nyingma

Dzogchen

Kagyu

Gelukpa

Jonangpa

The Rimé movement

Modern scholarship

See also

Further reading

External links