Buddha-Nature — Episode 22 of True Words: A Shingon Buddhist Podcast

Audio

This week's topic is Buddha Nature, in Sanskrit: tathāgatagarbha (如来藏). All sentient beings are considered to be in possession of the Buddha Nature, the potential to attain enlightenment. In this episode we discuss a bit about how to understand this concept, and compare it to philosophical ideas of human nature and its connection with morality.

Sources Mentioned

Text

Śrīmālādevīsūtra

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, this text tells of the story of Śrīmālādevī taking up the Buddhist path at the behest of her royal parents based on a prophecy of the Buddha. It includes mention of important concepts related to the teachings on buddha-nature, such as the single vehicle and the four perfections, or transcendent characteristics, of the dharmakāya. It also mentions the notion that buddha-nature, which is equated with mind's luminous nature, is empty of adventitious stains but not empty of its limitless inseparable qualities. In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, Asaṅga quotes this sūtra more than any other source text. In particular, it is considered a source for the fifth of the seven vajra topics, enlightenment.

Śrīmālādevīsūtra;Bodhiruci; Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Guṇabhadra;'phags pa lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Śrīmāladevīsiṃhanādasūtra;勝鬘夫人會;श्रीमालदेवीसिंहनादसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

About the recording

Featuring	Rev. George Kosho Finch
Producer	Foundation for Shingon Buddhism
Related Website	Foundation for Shingon Buddhism YouTube Channel
Creation Date	5 August 2017
Citation	Finch, Rev. George Kosho. "Buddha-Nature." True Words: A Shingon Buddhist Podcast, episode 22. Produced by the Foundation for Shingon Buddhism. August 5, 2017. Audio, 15:34. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpQM8qG8k0k.