Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations

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ContentsSources

• • Preface and acknowledgementsx
• 1 Introduction1
  • Buddhism: doctrinal diversity and (relative) moral unity1
  • The Indian background7
  • Factors that may have contributed to change12
  • Abhidharma15
  • Mahāsāṃghikas and the Lokottaravāda18
  • The origins of the Mahāyāna, and the laity21
  • Mahāyāna before 'Mahāyāna' – the Ajitasenavyākaraṇanirdeśa Sūtra27
  • On the origins of the Mahāyāna – some more sūtras30
  • The justification of the Mahāyāna sutras38
• 2 The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) Sūtras 45
  • On the Mahāyāna sūtras45
  • The origins and development of the Prajñāpāramitā literature47
  • Wisdom (prajña) and its perfection49
  • Absence of Self – the extensive perspective51
  • The Bodhisattva55
• 3 Mādhyamika63
  • Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva63
  • The development of the Mādhyamika tradition in India65
  • Emptiness and intrinsic existence – the incompatible rivals68
  • A brief note on Mādhyamika method71
  • Three Mādhyamika critiques72
    • On causation73
    • On the Self74
    • On nirvāṇa75
  • The two truths76
  • Meditation and emptiness – an impressionistic outline79
  • A final note – Mādhyamika in China and East Asia81
• 4 Yogācāra84
  • Background84
  • The Yogācāra tradition – scholars and texts86
  • The three natures (trisvabhava)88
  • Mind92
  • Substratum consciousness, consciousness and immaculate consciousness97
  • Yet more disputes within the Yogācāra tradition100
• 5 The Tathāgatagarbha103
  • Some Tathāgatagarbha Sūtras104
  • The Tathāgatagarbha in the Ratnagotravibhāga109
  • Tibet – the gzhan stong and rang stong dispute112
  • The Dasheng qixinlun (Ta-sheng ch’i-hsin lun) and the
       Tathagatagarbha in East Asia115
  • Dōgen on the Buddha-nature119
  • A note on some contemporary issues: Critical Buddhism and a debate on
       not-Self in Thai Buddhism122
  • Critical Buddhism122
  • Not-Self in contemporary Thai Buddhism125
• 6 Huayan – the Flower Garland tradition129
  • Buddhism in China129
  • The Avataṃsaka Sūtra132
  • The Huayan tradition in China138
  • Huayan thought – Fazang’s 'Treatise on the Golden Lion' 141
  • A note on some aspects of Huayan practice144
  • The Avataṃsaka Sūtra and Vairocana in Buddhist art146
• 7 The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Lotus) Sūtra and its influences149
  • A note on Tiantai (Tendai)161
  • Nichiren Shōnin and his tradition165
• 8 On the bodies of the Buddha172
  • Prolegomenon to the Mahāyāna172
  • The bodies of the Buddha and the philosophy of emptiness176
  • Yogācāra – the system develops179
  • A note on the dGe lugs schema of the Buddha's bodies182
  • A final note: the 'nonabiding nirvāṇa' and the lifespan of the Buddha185
• 9 The path of the Bodhisattva187
  • Buddhism reaches Tibet187
  • The eighth-century debates191
  • Compassion and the Bodhicitta194
  • Bodhisattva stages, paths and perfections200
• 10 Trust, self-abandonment and devotion: the cults of Buddhas
       and Bodhisattvas209
  • Buddhānusmṛti – recollection of the Buddha209
  • The pratyutpanna samādhi and Huiyuan212
  • The notion of a Buddha Field (buddhakṣetra)214
  • Some Bodhisattvas218
    • Maitreya218
    • Avalokiteśvara221
    • Tārā225
    • Mañjuśrī226
    • Kṣitigarbha229
  • Some Buddhas231
    • Akṣobhya231
    • Bhaiṣajyaguru234
    • Amitābha/Amitāyus238
      • The Amitābha sūtras238
      • Amitābha’s Pure Land in China243
      • Hōnen Shōnin (1133–1212)254
      • Shinran Shōnin (1173–1262)259
  • Notes267
  • References389
  • Index of names422
  • Index of subjects430

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abhidharma - Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha. Skt. अभिधर्म Tib. ཆོས་མངོན་པ། Ch. 阿毗达磨

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་,ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་,ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

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śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt. बोधिचित्त Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། Ch. 菩提心

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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