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Buddha nature
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Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature (originally in Sanskrit, Buddha-dhatu - "Buddha Element",
"Buddha-Principle", Chinese: 佛性 pinyin fó xìng) is a doctrine important
for many schools of Mahayana Buddhism. The Buddha Nature or Buddha
Principle (Buddha-dhatu) is taught to be a truly real, but internally
hidden, eternal potency or immortal element within the purest depths of
the mind, present in all sentient beings, for awakening and becoming a
Buddha. In some Mahayana sutras it is equated with the eternal Buddhic
Self, Essence or Soul (atman). However, Nagarjuna, the founder of
Madhyamaka, presents a view that states that Buddha-nature is
empty-nature. The Buddha-nature / Tathagatagarbha sutras insist,
however, that what the Buddha-nature is empty of is not its own
ever-enduring reality but impermanence, impurity, moral defects, and
suffering - in other words, the painful constrictions and imperfections
of samsara.
Central Tenets of Buddha-nature Doctrine
The Buddha-nature doctrine relates to the possession by sentient beings
of the innate, immaculate buddha-mind or buddha-element (Buddha-dhatu),
which is, prior to the attainment of complete buddhahood, not clearly
seen and known in its full radiance. The Buddha-nature is taught by the
Buddha to be incorruptible, uncreated, and indestructible. It is eternal
bodhi ("Awake-ness") indwelling Samsara, and thus opens up the immanent
possibility of Liberation from all suffering and impermanence.
No being of any kind is without the Buddha-dhatu. It is indicated in the
Angulimaliya Sutra that if the Buddhas themselves were to try to seek
for any sentient being who lacked the Buddha-nature, not one such person
would be found. In fact, it is stated in that sutra that it is
impossible for Buddhas NOT to discern the presence of the everlasting
Buddha-nature in each and every being: "Even though all Buddhas
themselves were to search assiduously, they would not find a
tathāgata-garbha(Buddha-nature) that is not eternal, for the eternal
dhātu, the buddha-dhātu (Buddha Principle, Buddha Nature), the dhātu
adorned with infinite major and minor attributes, is present in all
beings."
The eternality, immovability and changelessness of the Buddha-nature
(often referred to as "Tathagatagarbha") is also frequently stressed in
the sutras which expound this Buddha Element. The Srimala Sutra, for
example, says:
"The Tathagatagarbha is not born, does not die, does not transfer [Tib:
’pho ba], does not arise. It is beyond the sphere of the characteristics
of the compounded; it is permanent, stable and changeless."
The development of the Buddha-nature doctrine is closely related to that
of tathagatagarbha (Sanskrit: "Buddha-matrix"). In the "Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa"
sutra the Buddha links the tathagatagarbha to the Dharmadhatu (ultimate,
all-equal, uncreated essence of all phenomena) and to essential being,
stating: "What I call 'be-ing' [sattva] is just a different name for
this permanent, stable, pure and unchanging refuge that is free from
arising and cessation, the inconceivable pure Dharmadhatu."
This eternal refuge of the Dharmadhatu / Buddha-dhatu (transcendentally
empty of all that is conditioned, afflicted, defective, and productive
of suffering) is equated in the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" with
Buddhic Knowledge (jnana). Such Knowledge perceives both non-Self and
the Self, Emptiness (sunyata) and non-Emptiness, wherein (according to
the Buddha of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra") "the Empty is the
totality of samsara [birth-and-death] and the non-Empty is Great
Nirvana".
A central aspect of the Buddha-dhatu (sometimes called the
Tathagata-dhatu) is that it is utterly indestructible, invulnerable, and
truly everlasting. It is the innermost, irreducible core within the
being that cannot be eradicated or killed. The Buddha says so in terms
in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra (Tibetan version):
"The Tathagata-dhatu is the intrinsic nature of beings. Therefore, it
cannot be killed by having its life severed. If it could be killed, then
the life-force (jivaka) could be annihilated; but it is not possible for
the life-force to be annihilated. In this instance, the life-force
refers to the Tathagatagarbha. That Dhatu [immanent Buddha Element,
Buddha Principle] cannot be destroyed, killed or annihilated."
The Mahaparinirvana Sutra (Dharmakshema version) further makes clear
that the act of seeing this Buddha-dhatu bestows upon the seer a
body-and-mind [kaya] which is "without temporal limits, eternal." In
this mode, life everlasting [nitya] is secured.
Buddha-nature is not at all accepted by Theravada Buddhism and was not
universally accepted in Indian Mahayana, but did become a cornerstone of
East Asian Buddhist soteriological thought and practice. The "Buddha
Nature" remains a widespread and significant doctrine in much of
Mahayana Buddhism today.
Development of Buddha-nature
The Buddha-nature doctrine may be traced back in part to the abhidharmic
debate over metaphysics, which arose among the Nikaya schools as they
attempted to reconcile various perceived problems, including how to
integrate the doctrine of anatta, which stipulates that there is no
underlying self, with Buddhist psychology (i.e., what is the subject of
karma, suffering, etc.; how do these processes occur) and soteriology
(what is the subject of enlightenment; (how) does enlightement occur?).
Debates between different Nikaya schools at this time provided a context
for the later origination of the Mahayana and Mahayana concepts. The
concept of "seeds" espoused by the Sautrantikas in debate with the
Sarvastivadins over the metaphysical status of dharmas is a precursor to
the store-consciousness of the Yogacara school and the tathagatagarbha (Gethin,
p.222), the latter of which is closely related to Buddha-nature and the
former of which is identified with it in Yogacara. (Gethin, p. 252).
Buddha-nature vs. atman
Unlike the Western concept of "soul" or some interpretations of the
Indian "atman", Buddha-nature is not considered an isolated essence of a
particular individual, but rather a single unified essence shared by all
beings with the Buddha himself. (This doctrine of essence unsettles many
Buddhists as it strikes them as in violation of some interpretations of
anatta, as for example that of Nagarjuna, which attacks all essences;
similarly, a trans-personal self shared by multiple beings exists
already within the Hindu context in some monistic and/or pantheistic
interpretations of the atman, and such concepts are generally regarded
as being rejected under anatta.)
However, in the Mahayana version of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra,
Tathagatagarbha is equated with Atman in, for some, direct contradiction
of the Buddhist doctrine of anatman and is actually spoken of as an
inner Reality which "nurtures/sustains" the being. The Sutra, in the
view of some, contains many Hindu / Brahmanist elements and is thought
to have been compiled during the Gupta Period which coincided with a
Hindu revival in India.
The "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" is, however, generally accepted by
Mahayana Buddhists as genuine "Buddha-word" and is not alone amongst
Mahayana sutras in asserting the reality of an essential Self within
each sentient being (including animals) and linking it to the
Tathagatagarbha/Buddha-dhatu. Other sutras which mention the Self in a
very affirmative manner include the Srimala Sutra, the Lankavatara Sutra
(in the "Sagathakam" chapter - e.g."The Self characterised with purity
is the state of Self-realisation; this is the Tathagata-garbha, which
does not belong to the realm of the theorisers"), the Shurangama Sutra
and the Mahavairocana Sutra (this list is by no means exhaustive).
The teaching on the Self which is attributed to the Buddha in the
"Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" insists upon the True Self's ultimacy,
sovereignty and immortality. The Buddha states (in the Tibetan version
of the Sutra): "all phenomena ["dharmas"] are not non-Self: the Self is
Reality("tattva"), the Self is eternal ("nitya"), the Self is virtue ("guna"),
the Self is everlasting ("shasvata"), the Self is immovable("dhruva"),
and the Self is peace ("siva")". In the Chinese versions of the Sutra,
the Self is also characterised as "autonomous/sovereign" ("aishvarya").
The main concern in the "Mahaparinirvana Sutra" in contrasting this
doctrine of the Self with that of the Astikas seems to have been to
remove the reifying notion that the Self was a little person, the size
of a grain of rice or of one's thumb, sitting in the heart of the being.
This, the Buddha says, is a misconception of the nature of Self. The
Self of which the Buddha speaks is said by him to be the
"essential/intrinsic being" ("svabhava") or even "life-essence" ("jivaka")
of each person, and this essential being is none other than the Buddha
himself - "radiantly luminous" and "as indestructible as a diamond".
Thus, while there certainly are distinctions between the Brahmanist/Hindu
notion of Self and that of even the most essentialist version of
Buddha-nature, there are similarities too. What is certain is that to
assert categorically that the Buddha (of the Mahayana) utterly and
absolutely denied the Self is to fly in the face of very weighty
Mahayana doctrinal statements by the Buddha across a number of highly
respected sutras. As for the Buddhist Tantras, they also on occasion
speak affirmatively of the Great Self, which is the Primordial Buddha ("Adibuddha")
himself.
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