Can all Beings Potentially Attain Awakening? Gotra-theory in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra

Can All Beings Potentially Attain Awakening? Gotra-theory in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra

Article

Citation:	D'Amato, Mario. "Can All Beings Potentially Attain Awakening? Gotra-theory in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 26, no. 1 (2003): 115–38. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8933/2826.

Article Summary

The Mahāyāna has sometimes been associated with the doctrine that all sentient beings will attain complete awakening, a doctrine which is often linked to some conception of the "embryo of the Tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha)^[1]. However, according to an alternate Mahāyāna doctrine, only some sentient beings will attain the complete awakening of a buddha — and some may even be excluded from attaining any form of awakening at all. In this paper, I will examine just such a doctrine, as it is found in an Indian Yogācāra treatise, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra ("Ornament to the Mahāyāna Sūtras"; abbr., MSA), a Sanskrit verse-text, and its prose commentary, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra-bhāṣya (MSABh),^[2]. Particular Tibetan and Chinese sources attribute the composition of the MSA to the bodhisattva Maitreya^[3], which gives us some indication of the importance this text was understood to have within certain traditions. Nevertheless, the authorship and date of the verse-text and its commentary are not certain; I hypothesize that the MSA/Bh may be dated to the fourth century CE (perhaps c. 350 CE)^[4]. It is my hope that an examination of such a source may contribute to the study of the various ways in which the contours of the Mahāyāna have been drawn from a doctrinal perspective. In the MSA/Bh, one way in which the limits of the Mahāyāna are defined is through the employment of the gotra-theory, a theory which identifies the soteriological potentialities of individuals through reference to their spiritual "family" or "lineage." So in order to understand this text's discursive construction of the category "Mahāyāna," we must understand its concept of gotra. (D'Amato, "Can All Beings Potentially Gain Awakening," 115–16)

References

Bagchi, Sitansusekhar, ed. 1970. Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṅkāra of Asaṅga. Darbhanga, Bihar: Mithila Institute.

Beal, Samuel, trans. 1906. Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr. 1992. "The path to perdition: the wholesome roots and their eradication." Paths to Liberation: The Mārga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought. Edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Robert M. Gimello. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press: 107-134.

D'Amato, Mario. 2000. "The Mahāyāna-Hīnayāna Distinction in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra". A Terminological Analysis." PhD diss., University of Chicago.

Davidson, Ronald M. 1985. "Buddhist Systems of Transformation: Āśrayaparivṛtti/-parāvṛtti among the Yogācāra." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.

Dutt, Nalinaksha, ed. 1966. Bodhisattvabhūmi. Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute.

Edgerton, Franklin. 1970. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, 2 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Originally published in 1953.

Funahashi Naoya, ed. 1985. Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (Chapters I, II, III, IX, X): Revised on the Basis of Nepalese Manuscripts. Tokyo: Kokushokankokai, Ltd.

Griffiths, Paul J. 1990a. "Omniscience in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra and its commentaries." Indo-Iranian Journal vol. 33.2: 85-120.

Griffiths, Paul J. 1990b. "Painting space with colors: Tathāgatagarbha in the Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṅkāra-corpus IX. 22-37." Buddha Nature: A Festschrift for Minoru Kiyota. Edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan. Reno: Buddhist Books Int.: 41-63.

Haack, Susan. 1978. Philosophy of Logics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keenan, John P. 1980. "A Study of the Buddhabhūmyupadeśa." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Lamotte, Étienne, ed. and trans. 1935. Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra: L'Explication des Mystères. Louvain: Université de Louvain.

Lamotte, Étienne, trans. 1976. The Teaching of Vimalakīrti. Translated by Sara Boin. London: Pali Text Society. Originally published as L'Enseignement de Vimalakīrti in 1962.

Lévi, Sylvain, ed. and trans. 1907-1911. Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṃkāra, 2 vols. Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion.

Mano Ryūkai. 1967. "'Gotra' in Haribhadra's theory." Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū) vol. 15.2: 972-964.

Nagao Gadjin. 1958-1961. Index to the Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṃkāra, 2 vols. Tokyo: Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkō-kai.

Nagao Gadjin, ed. 1964. Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāsya. Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation.

Obermiller, E., trans. 1987. The Jewelry of Scripture by Bu ston. Delhi: Sri Satguru. Originally published in 1931.

Powers, John, trans. 1995. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing.

Pradhan, P., ed. 1967. Abhidharmakośabhāṣya of Vasubandhu. Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute.

Ruegg, David Seyfort. 1968. "Ārya and Bhadanta Vimuktisena on the gotra-theory of the Prajñāpāramitā." Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens vol 12-13: 303-317.

Ruegg, David Seyfort. 1969. La Théorie du Tathāgatagarbha et du Gotra. Paris: École Française d'Extrëme-Orient.

Ruegg, David Seyfort. 1974. "Pāli gotta/gotra and the term gotrabhū in Pāli and Buddhist Sanskrit." Buddhist Studies in Honour of I. B. Horner. Edited by L. Cousins, A. Kunst, and K. R. Norman. Dordrecht: D. Reidel: 199-210.

Ruegg, David Seyfort. 1976. "The meanings of the term gotra and the textual history of the Ratnagotravibhāga." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies vol. 39: 341-363.

Sakaki R., ed. 1926. Mahāvyutpatti, 2 vols. Kyoto: Suzuki Gakujutsu Zaidan.

Schmithausen, Lambert. 1969. "Zur Literaturgeschichte der älteren YogācāraSchule." Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft supplementa I: 811-823.

Schmithausen, Lambert. 1976. "On the problem of the relation between spiritual practice and philosophical theory in Buddhism." German Scholars on India, vol. 2. Edited by the Cultural Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass: 235-250.

Ui Hakuju. 1928. "On the author of the Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra." Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik vol. 6: 215-225.

Wayman, Alex. 1961. Analysis of the Śrāvakabhūmi Manuscript. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Williams, Paul. 1989. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. London: Routledge.

Yamabe Nobuyoshi. 1997. "The idea of dhātu-vāda in Yogacara and Tathāgatagarbha texts." Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism. Edited by Jamie Hubbard and Paul L. Swanson. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press: 193-204,208-219.

Yamaguchi Susumu, ed. 1934. Madhyāntavibhāgaṭīkā. Nagoya: Librairie Hajinkaku.

A concise introduction to this doctrine, and the Mahāyāna sūtras to which it is related, may be found in Williams 1989, Chapter 5
When referring to both the verse-text and the prose commentary together, I will use the abbreviation MSA/Bh. By the term "the text" I mean the MSA and the MSABh taken together, by "the verse-text" I mean the MSA, and by "the commentary" I mean the MSABh. Throughout this paper, for the Sanskrit I will quote from Lévi’s edition of the MSA/Bh (1907); I have also consulted the editions of Bagchi (1970; based on Lévi’s edition) and Funahashi (1985; select chapters based on mss. from Nepal). All translations are my own. The Tibetan canon contains the following relevant works: the MSA (verse-text): DT 4020; the MSA/Bh (verse-text along with prose commentary): DT 4026; the MSAVBh (Sthiramati’s subcommentary to the text): DT 4034; and the MSAT (Asvabhāva’s subcommentary to the text): DT 4029. The MSA/Bh also appears in the Chinese canon (Taisho 1604), although with some differences from the Sanskrit version; on this, see Nagao 1961: vi.
The colophon of the Derge edition of the MSA states that the verse-text was composed by Maitreya. Bu ston (1290-1364) includes the MSA as one of the five Maitreya texts; see Obermiller 1987: 53-54. Ui (1928: 221) identifies a Chinese tradition of the “five treatises of Maitreya,” which differs from the Tibetan list of texts, but which also includes the MSA. Xuanzang (seventh century CE) writes that Asanga received the MSA and other texts from Maitreya; see Beal 1906, vol. 1: 226.
My working hypothesis is that earlier strata of the MSA were compiled, redacted, added to, and commented upon by one person, and I take the result of this process to be the received text of the MSA/Bh. An extended introduction to the MSA/Bh — its editions and translations, structure and contents, authorship, date, and relation to a larger corpus of texts — may be found in Chapter 2 of my PhD dissertation (D’Amato 2000).

[1] A concise introduction to this doctrine, and the Mahāyāna sūtras to which it is related, may be found in Williams 1989, Chapter 5

[2] When referring to both the verse-text and the prose commentary together, I will use the abbreviation MSA/Bh. By the term "the text" I mean the MSA and the MSABh taken together, by "the verse-text" I mean the MSA, and by "the commentary" I mean the MSABh. Throughout this paper, for the Sanskrit I will quote from Lévi’s edition of the MSA/Bh (1907); I have also consulted the editions of Bagchi (1970; based on Lévi’s edition) and Funahashi (1985; select chapters based on mss. from Nepal). All translations are my own. The Tibetan canon contains the following relevant works: the MSA (verse-text): DT 4020; the MSA/Bh (verse-text along with prose commentary): DT 4026; the MSAVBh (Sthiramati’s subcommentary to the text): DT 4034; and the MSAT (Asvabhāva’s subcommentary to the text): DT 4029. The MSA/Bh also appears in the Chinese canon (Taisho 1604), although with some differences from the Sanskrit version; on this, see Nagao 1961: vi.

[3] The colophon of the Derge edition of the MSA states that the verse-text was composed by Maitreya. Bu ston (1290-1364) includes the MSA as one of the five Maitreya texts; see Obermiller 1987: 53-54. Ui (1928: 221) identifies a Chinese tradition of the “five treatises of Maitreya,” which differs from the Tibetan list of texts, but which also includes the MSA. Xuanzang (seventh century CE) writes that Asanga received the MSA and other texts from Maitreya; see Beal 1906, vol. 1: 226.

[4] My working hypothesis is that earlier strata of the MSA were compiled, redacted, added to, and commented upon by one person, and I take the result of this process to be the received text of the MSA/Bh. An extended introduction to the MSA/Bh — its editions and translations, structure and contents, authorship, date, and relation to a larger corpus of texts — may be found in Chapter 2 of my PhD dissertation (D’Amato 2000).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]