Mahābherīsūtra

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Relevance to Buddha-nature

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Description from When the Clouds Part

Similar to some of the above sūtras, this text also states that the Buddha as well as the tathāgata heart are permanent, eternal, everlasting, peaceful, and a self. Śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas who have newly entered the mahāyāna are incapable of realizing the parinirvāṇa of the buddhas as permanent, eternal, everlasting, and peaceful. It is only bodhisattva mahāsattvas who understand the eternal character of the Tathāgata as well as the existence of the tathāgata heart, without abandoning the two-fold identitylessness of persons and phenomena. Those bodhisattvas are able to distinguish teachings of expedient meaning and definitive meaning. Among other positive activities, they will preserve the tathāgatagarbha sūtras and teach their benefit.       Similar to the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, the Mahābherīsūtra uses the example of the progressive refinement of milk into butter and ghee (clarified butter) for the progressive manifestation of the pure essence of buddha nature. Ordinary beings with wrong views are said to be like an impure mixture of milk and blood, while those who have taken refuge in the three jewels resemble pure milk. Those who pursue the dharma out of faith and new bodhisattvas are similar to cream. Śrāvakas and bodhisattvas on the first seven bhūmis are like fresh butter. Śrāvaka and pratyekabuddhas arhats as well as bodhisattvas on the ninth and tenth bhūmis resemble melted butter, while tathāgatas are similar to ghee.

      In this sūtra, the Buddha uses the terms tathāgatagarbha, tathāgatadhātu, and buddhadhātu interchangeably. He also links tathāgatagarbha, which is said to be infinitely luminous and pure, with the notions of the single dhātu and the single yāna. The wisdoms of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas as well as the sūtras on emptiness are like a city conjured up by the leader of a travel party for the weary travelers to rest for a while, whereas buddhahood resembles the actual final destination of this party, a marvelous and real huge city with a great abundance of everything. Thus, the teachings on the three yānas and the three nirvāṇas are of expedient meaning and have only a temporary purpose. The Buddha even proclaims that those who say that sūtras such as the Mahābherīsūtra do not exist are not his students and he is not their teacher.

      Any sūtras that teach on emptiness should be understood to entail a certain intention behind them, whereas unsurpassable sūtras like the Mahābherīsūtra do not bear any intention behind them. Those who are lazy, have corrupt discipline, and whose body, speech, and mind are not under control will cast away the sūtras that teach on the permanence of the Buddha and the tathāgata heart and will instead train in the sūtras on emptiness. Similar to Aṅgulimāla above, the Buddha also says that the sūtras on emptiness are only of expedient meaning and that those who do not understand the meaning of emptiness and identitylessness properly are ruined. For emptiness and identitylessness apply only to the obscuring afflictions, while their basis—great nirvāṇa—is eternal and peaceful. Furthermore, according to the Buddha, he teaches the notion of no-self only in order to overcome the worldly notion of a self. The notion of no-self amazes people and so they become curious to hear the dharma. Once they have entered the teachings and their faith has grown, they diligently train in the dharma of emptiness. Thereafter, the Buddha says, I teach them that liberation is existent, eternal, peaceful, and has form. The existence of such liberation shows that there exists the true self—the tathāgata heart—in sentient beings, just as smoke shows the existence of fire. However, this true self, which is like gold covered by ore, or a precious jewel inside a mountain, is not like the worldly views about a self, or like any views about permanence and extinction.

      In answer to Kāśyapa’s question, "If there is such a true self, why is it not seen?" the Buddha teaches four examples as reasons for the existence of the tathāgata heart in all sentient beings and its being obscured only by adventitious stains. This tathāgata heart, he says, is adorned with infinite major and minor marks, and through it, sentient beings will attain nirvāṇa. For example, a film over our eyes makes us blind for as long as we do not obtain some medicine, but we will regain our eyesight once we have taken that medicine. Likewise, the cocoon of billions of afflictions covers the basic element of beings, which is like an eye. It is not seen by śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas but only by those who delight in the Buddha. The remaining three examples are the moon covered by clouds, someone’s digging a well and eventually finding water under many layers of earth, and a lamp within a vase. Just as this lamp, the tathāgata heart within the vase of saṃsāric afflictions does not shine upon and promote the welfare of beings until this vase of saṃsāra is broken. (pp. 23-24)

The Mahābherīsūtra, another tathāgatagarbha sūtra that like the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta is concerned with the issue of whether the sum total of sentient beings can increase or decrease, also makes extensive use of the term ātman. The sūtra was translated into Chinese in the fifth century by Guṇabhadra and was influenced by the Lotus Sūtra, which it mentions by name.       Christopher Jones proposed that because the presentation of the issues in the Mahābherīsūtra is less sophisticated than in the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta, it should be considered to have been composed earlier. Jones also argues that with the Mahābherīsūtra and the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta came an important expansion of the meaning of tathāgatagarbha: earlier scriptures posited that all beings have buddha-nature in them and that they had the potential to become a buddha. Jones writes that these two sūtras were responsible for equating tathāgatagarbha with dharmakāya (as we saw above), the all-pervading true nature of all reality. Buddha-nature in this way is no longer just a potential or nature of the individual; it is the fundamental nature of reality shared by all beings.

      The Mahābherīsūtra was translated by Guṇabhadra, circa 435–436, as Dafa gu jing 大法鼓經 (T270), It was translated as ’Phags pa rnga bo che chen po’i le’u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (D222) in the ninth century by Vidyākaraprabha and Pelgyi Lhunpo. Christopher Jones writes that the Tibetan is longer than the Chinese version (T270) and is altered in ways that suggest to Jones that the translators sought to make sense of difficult passages.

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ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂

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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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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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neyārtha - 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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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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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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"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

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bhūmi - A plateau of spiritual development. Skt. भूमि Tib. ས་

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śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt. श्रावक Tib. ཉན་ཐོས། Ch. 聲聞

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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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buddhadhātu - A synonym for tathāgatagarbha widely used throughout the East Asian Buddhist traditions, as found in its translations as the Chinese term fó xìng and Japanese term busshō. Skt. बुद्धधातु Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ Ch. 佛性

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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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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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dhātu - A fundamental component or essential constituent. Skt. धातु Tib. ཁམས་ Ch. 界

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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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kleśa - Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind. Skt. क्लेश Tib. ཉོན་མོངས་ Ch. 煩惱

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dhātu - A fundamental component or essential constituent. Skt. धातु Tib. ཁམས་ Ch. 界

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Taishō - Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, Chinese Tripiṭaka

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ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂

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dharmakāya - "Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself. Skt. धर्मकाय Tib. ཆོས་སྐུ་ Ch. 法身

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One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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