ekayāna

From Buddha-Nature

< Key Terms

Glossaryekayāna

Sanskrit Noun

ekayāna

single vehicle
एकयान
ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་
一乘

Basic Meaning

The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment.

Has the Sense of

There is ultimately only one way to become a buddha.

On this topic
Book
An Introduction to Buddhism (Takasaki)
This book is based upon notes prepared by the author for general lectures on Buddhism which he has been giving to students at a number of universities in Tokyo since around 1960. The initial version of the present work first saw the light of day as part of a textbook for university students entitled Bukkyo ippan 仏教一般 (Buddhism in General) which was compiled in concert with professors specializing in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism and published by the Department of Buddhist Studies at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Then, at a later date, the author was approached by the Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai (University of Tokyo Press) to write an introductory work on Buddhism for the edification of the general reading public. By permission of the Department of Buddhist Studies at Komazawa University, he accordingly extracted those sections of the above textbook which he had himself written ("Outline of Buddhism" and "Indian Buddhism"), to which he then made some additions and corrections and also appended a brief history of Buddhism covering not only India but also China and Japan. This was then published in 1983 under the title of Bukkyo nyümon 仏教入門 (An Introduction to Buddhism), of which the present work is an English translation. (Takasaki, preface to the English version, iii)
Takasaki, Jikidō. An Introduction to Buddhism. Translated by Rolf W. Giebel. Tokyo: Tōhō Gakkai, 1987. https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2018/06/Takasaki-Jikido_An-Introduction-to-Buddhism.pdf
Video
Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Christopher Jones discusses the development of the concept of buddha-nature in the first five hundred years of the Common Era. He postulates that the most likely trajectory of buddha-nature thought in India entailed a reimagining of the expression tathāgatagarbha away from its contentious "ātmavādin" origins.
Jones, Christopher V. "Selfhood, Secrecy, Singularity: Reassessing the Early Life of the Tathāgatagarbha in India." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:01. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARzGpIOwFYc.
Book
Collected Papers on the Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine
The volume brings together a selection of the late author's previously published papers written in English (and one in German). Their subject matter relates by and large to the tathāgatagarbha theory or the idea of Buddhanature, which have been the main subjects of his research over the years.
      In part 1 he has singled out those scriptures that use the term tathāgatagarbha as their principal term and identified three scriptures—Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra, Anūnatvāpurṇatvanirdeśa, and Śrīmālādevīnirdeśa—as the basis for the formation of the tathāgatagarbha theory. Next, he has placed the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, which uses the term buddhadhātu for the first time as a synonym of tathāgatagarbha, and associated scriptures in a second group, while in the third group we have the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra and so on, in which the concept of tathāgatagarbha is identified with ālayavijñana, the basic concept of the Vijñānavāda.
      In part 2, he has dealt with the prehistory of the tathāgatagarbha theory in Mahāyāna scriptures that use terms synonymous with tathāgatagarbha, such as gotra and dhātu, tathāgatagotra, tathāgatotpattisambhava, āryavaṃsa, buddhaputra, dharmadhātu and dharmakāya, cittaprakṛti, and so on. The main points made in this work are discussed in the papers that have now been brought together in the present volume.
      This volume has for convenience' sake been divided into seven parts according to subject matter. Part 1 presents a textual study, namely, a critical edition of chapter 6 of the Laṅkāvatāra. Part 2 deals with subjects concerning scriptures such as the Laṅkāvatāra, part 3 with technical terms and basic concepts of the tathāgatagarbha theory, part 4 with tathāgatagarbha doctrine in general, and part 5 with Japanese Buddhism and Buddhism in East Asia (on the basis of scriptures translated into Chinese). Part 6 presents a historical survey of Japanese scholarship on Buddhism, and part 7 consists of several book reviews. (Source: Motilal Banarsidass)
Takasaki, Jikido. Collected Papers on the Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2014.
Book
Daijō kishinron no kenkyū
Anthology of articles covering such topics as the early history of the Awakening of Faith, the influence of its doctrine of original enlightenment on early Chan, Fazang's commentary, the rhetoric of the text, and the concept of the "one vehicle" (ekayāna). (Source Accessed July 3, 2020)
Inoue, Katsuhito, ed. Daijō kishinron no kenkyū. Suita-shi, Osaka, Japan: Kansai Daigaku Shuppanbu, 2000.
Video
Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Katrin Querl presents an overview of Jikten Gonpo's position on Buddha-nature as outlined in the textual corpus known as the Single Intention (Dgongs gcig) and in two of this work's earliest commentaries.
Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.
Video
Kazuo Kano at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Kazuo Kano discusses the term tathāgatagarbha and its appearance in tantric scriptures and commentaries composed by Indic authors and shows how and for what purposes this term has been integrated into tantric contexts. In terms of precursors to the tantric usages he notes mentions such as that found in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra in which practitioners are taught to think of themselves as a stūpa, i.e. a reliquary that contains a buddha within it and as such are objects of worship. As for Indian authors, he discusses the views of Ratnākaraśānti, as representative of the Yogācāra school and the notion of the three vehicles (triyāna), and Abhayākaragupta, as representative of the Madhyamaka school and the notion of a single vehicle (ekayāna), as well as some brief mention of Kamalaśīla who represents a synthesis of the two schools.
Kano, Kazuo. "Examples of the Term tathāgatagarbha Appearing in Indic Tantric Literature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 42:13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIVDu1Ig7H8.
Article
The Gotra, Ekayāna and Tathāgatagarbha Theories of the Prajñāpāramitā according to Dharmamitra and Abhayākaragupta
Ruegg, David Seyfort. "The Gotra, Ekayāna and Tathāgatagarbha Theories of the Prajñāpāramitā according to Dharmamitra and Abhayākaragupta." In Prajñāpāramitā and Related Systems, edited by Lewis Lancaster, 283–312. Berkeley: University of California, 1977.
Ruegg, David Seyfort. "The Gotra, Ekayāna and Tathāgatagarbha Theories of the Prajñāpāramitā according to Dharmamitra and Abhayākaragupta." In Prajñāpāramitā and Related Systems, edited by Lewis Lancaster, 283–312. Berkeley: University of California, 1977.
PhD Diss
Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn (ca. 8th Century CE), a Korean Yogācāra Monk, and His Predecessors
Abstract

This dissertation seeks to locate the place of Taehyŏn 大賢(ca. 8th century CE), a Silla Korean Yogācāra monk, within the broader East Asian Buddhist tradition. My task is not confined solely to a narrow study of Taehyŏn’s thought and career, but is principally concerned with understanding the wider contours of the East Asian Yogācāra tradition itself and how these contours are reflected in Taehyŏn’s extant oeuvre. There are problems in determining Taehyŏn's doctrinal position within the traditional paradigms of East Asian Yogācāra tradition, that is, the bifurcations of Tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra; Old and New Yogācāra; the One Vehicle and Three Vehicles; and the Dharma Nature and Dharma Characteristics schools. Taehyŏn's extant works contain doctrines drawn from across these various divides, and his doctrinal positions therefore do not precisely fit any of these traditional paradigms. In order to address this issue, this dissertation examines how these bifurcations originated and evolved over time, across the geographical expanse of the East Asian Yogācāra tradition. The chapters of the dissertation discuss in largely chronological order the theoretical problems involved in these bifurcations within Yogācāra and proposes possible resolutions to these problems, by focusing on the works of such major Buddhist exegetes as Paramārtha (499-569), Ji 基 (632-682), Wŏnhyo 元曉 (617-686), Fazang 法藏(643-712), and, finally, Taehyŏn.
Lee, Sumi. "Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn (ca. 8th Century CE), a Korean Yogācāra Monk, and His Predecessors." PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2014. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/74h5d0nv#main.
Term Variations
Key Term ekayāna
Topic Variation ekayāna
Tibetan ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་  ( tekpa chikpa)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration theg pa gcig pa  ( tekpa chikpa)
Devanagari Sanskrit एकयान
Chinese 一乘
Chinese Pinyin yīchéng
Japanese いちじょう
Japanese Transliteration ichijō
Korean 일승
Korean Transliteration ilsŭng
Buddha-nature Site Standard English single vehicle
Term Information
Source Language Sanskrit
Basic Meaning The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment.
Has the Sense of There is ultimately only one way to become a buddha.
Term Type Noun
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism See page 281: In Sanskrit, lit. “one vehicle” or “single vehicle.” “Vehicle” literally means “conveyance” or “transportation,” viz., the conveyance that carries sentient beings from saṃsāra to nirvāṇa; the term may also refer to the actual person who reaches the destination of the path. The doctrine of a single vehicle is set forth in certain Mahāyāna sūtras , most famously, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra (“Lotus Sūtra”), which declares that the three vehicles of the śrāvaka (disciple), pratyekabuddha (solitary buddha), and bodhisattva are actually just three expedient devices (upāyakauśalya) for attracting beings to the one buddha vehicle, via which they all become buddhas.
TshigmdzodChenmo mthar thug nges don snying po'i theg pa ste 'bras bu'i theg pa'o/

The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment. Skt. एकयान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་ Ch. 一乘

The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment. Skt. एकयान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་ Ch. 一乘

The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment. Skt. एकयान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་ Ch. 一乘

Commonly in a Mahāyāna context the three vehicles are the śrāvakayāna, pratyekabuddhayāna, and bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hinayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. Skt. त्रियान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ Ch. 三乗

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true. Skt. नेयार्थ Tib. དྲང་དོན་

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