Hubbard, J.

Jamie Hubbard

Jamie Hubbard graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctorate in Buddhist studies and has been teaching at Smith College since 1985.

Hubbard is the author of books, articles and films on Buddhism in East Asia, including Pruning the Bodhi Tree (with Paul Swanson), "Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood," and the film The Yamaguchi Story: Buddhism and the Family in Japan. He also has extensive interests in the use of technology in Buddhist studies and has worked on numerous projects in the area of archiving Buddhist texts and digital publication, and more recently in the field of neuroscience and emerging technologies of awareness: Cyborg Buddha! (Source Accessed June 13, 2019)

4 Library Items

Article

Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood—The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao

Jamie Hubbard explores some specifically Chinese materials in his contribution "Perfect Buddhahood, Absolute Delusion—The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao". [sic] The San-chieh-chiao wanted to hold together a radically pessimistic view of the capacities of human persons for religious practice with a strong assertion of a fundamental identity between living beings and Buddha. The subtle scholastic discussion by the San-chieh-chiao of how these two affirmations were to be held together focused upon the theoretical question of the relations between pure, undefiled Suchness (tathatā) and the realm of ordinary living beings—for the assertion of a fundamental identity between the two cannot be allowed to call into question the pressing apparent reality of defilements in this degenerate age. The central soteriological affirmation running through these discussions is that all beings will inevitably realize Buddhahood; the metaphysical problem is to show how this can be the case; and the practical problem is to delineate the kind of religious practice that is appropriate if it is the case. All these

challenges the San-chieh-chiao attempted to meet, and it is the burden of Hubbard's careful exegesis to detail the subtle metaphysical and exegetical distinctions they

constructed to do so. (Griffiths and Keenan, introduction to Buddha Nature, 4–5)

Hubbard, Jamie. "Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood—The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 75–94. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.

Hubbard, Jamie. "Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood—The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 75–94. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.; Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood—The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao; Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood—The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao; The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism; tathāgatagarbha; tathatā; Jamie Hubbard;

Article

Original Purity and the Arising of Delusion

Hubbard, Jamie. "Original Purity and the Origin of Delusion." Online Publications of Jamie Hubbard, October 31, 2008 (originally written in 1994). https://sophia.smith.edu/~jhubbard/publications/papers/OriginalPurity.pdf

Hubbard, Jamie. "Original Purity and the Origin of Delusion." Online Publications of Jamie Hubbard, October 31, 2008 (originally written in 1994). https://sophia.smith.edu/~jhubbard/publications/papers/OriginalPurity.pdf; Original Purity and the Arising of Delusion; Original Purity and the Arising of Delusion; ālayavijñāna; Asaṅga; tathāgatagarbha; Yogācāra; The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism; Dasheng qixin lun; Jamie Hubbard;

Book

Pruning the Bodhi Tree

A collection of essays on the "critical Buddhism" (hihan bukkyō) movement started by Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shirō that swept Japanese academia from the late 1980's onward.

Hubbard, Jamie, and Paul L. Swanson, eds. Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm Over Critical Buddhism. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997.

Hubbard, Jamie, and Paul L. Swanson, eds. Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm Over Critical Buddhism. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997.;Pruning the Bodhi Tree;Defining buddha-nature;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Early Buddhism;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism;Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;Against Buddha-Nature;Critical Buddhism;Zen - Chan;Jamie Hubbard; Paul Swanson;Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm Over Critical Buddhism

Article

Tathāgatagarbha, Emptiness, and Monism

The tathāgatagarbha doctrine is one of the most significant Buddhist doctrines to have come under the scrutiny of scholars in recent times.² One of the more interesting aspects of this doctrine is that it focuses attention on the nature of the Buddhist “absolute” or highest truth in such a way as to make clear many of the problems and concerns of the Buddhist community after the advent of the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā). This is so because, while on the one hand the tathāgatagarbha is identified with emptiness (“The wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha is nothing but the Tathāgata's wisdom of emptiness”³), on the other hand this emptiness, which for Nāgārjuna and more so for Candrakīrti was a “non-affirming negation,” is redefined in terms of affirmative predications of the highest order (e.g. astitva, mahā-ātman, eternal, etc.). That an investigation of the tathāgatagarbha requires one to ask fundamental questions about the nature of the Buddhist absolute—e.g. is there an “absolute” in Buddhism, and if so, what are its characteristics, how does it differ from the substantialism of the ātmavāda, etc.—is also indicated by the fact that both those who assert tathāgatagarbha to be an absolute or monistic doctrine and those who interpret it in orthodox Buddhist terms do so based on the same line of reasoning, i.e. that tathāgatagarbha is but an expression of pratītyasamutpāda and śūnyatā. The difference is that the former group of scholars see Mahāyāna in general as monistic while the latter do not. This essay is concerned with this question of the equation of pratītyasamutpāda, śūnyatā, and tathāgatagarbha and the related issue of whether or not tathāgatagarbha thought represents a form of Buddhist monism.(Hubbard, introductory remarks, 1–2)

Notes:

1. (In title and not shown) This was originally written in 1994; the publisher seems to have fallen into a black hole, so I am putting it out here myself; I have not changed it (other than fonts and some formatting issues) in order to keep the historical in perspective. I think that I still agree with myself, especially with the idea that tathāgatagarbha represents more of a dualism than a monism and thereby leads to ethical problems with the less-than-real (accidental) kleśa.

2. Many of the questions considered here have been treated in David Ruegg's recent publication Buddha-nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective (Delhi: Heritage Publishers 1992); see especially Chapter One.

3. Jikido Takasaki, A Study of the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttara-tantra), (Rome, 1966), p. 302. Hereafter cited as Ratnagotravibhāga.

Hubbard, Jamie. "Tathāgatagarbha, Emptiness, and Monism.” Online Publications of Jamie Hubbard, May 2009 (originally written in 1994). https://sophia.smith.edu/~jhubbard/publications/papers/TG-Emptiness-Monism.pdf.

Hubbard, Jamie. "Tathāgatagarbha, Emptiness, and Monism.” Online Publications of Jamie Hubbard, May 2009 (originally written in 1994). https://sophia.smith.edu/~jhubbard/publications/papers/TG-Emptiness-Monism.pdf.; Tathāgatagarbha, Emptiness, and Monism; Tathāgatagarbha, Emptiness, and Monism; tathāgatagarbha; śūnyatā; pratītyasamutpāda; Jamie Hubbard;

About this person

Publications

Books

Jamie Hubbard. Materials for the Study of the San-chieh Movement. Online Publication, 2003~present.

Jamie Hubbard. Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood: The Rise and Fall of a Chinese Heresy. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.

Jamie Hubbard & Paul Swanson, eds. Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm Over Critical Buddhism. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997.

Papers