Plants in Early Buddhism and the Far Eastern Idea of the Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees

Plants in Early Buddhism and the Far Eastern Idea of the Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees

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The present study has grown out of a lecture held in the winter term 2003-04, in which my aim was to present my view on the problem of the sentience of plants in early Buddhism to the participants of a series of lectures or various aspects of Buddhism, past and present, which were arranged by the Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies of the University of Hamburg over about a decade. (Source: Biblia Impex)

Citation	Schmithausen, Lambert. Plants in Early Buddhism and the Far Eastern Idea of the Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees. Lumbini, Nepal: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2009. https://archive.org/details/earlyplantsinearlybuddhismfareasternideaofbuddhanatureofgrassestreeslambertschmithausensentinan_218_v/mode/2up.

Contents

• Preface9
• Technical Remarks17
  
  
• Pt. I: Reconsidering the Status of Plants in Early Buddhism19
• 1. Plants as a Borderline Case between Sentient and Insentient19
• 2. Alternative Proposals30
• 3. Plants as Living Beings with One Sense-Faculty in the Vinaya36
  • Philological Excursus on the phrase 'jīvasaññino manussā rukkhasmiṁ' (§ 16)42
• 4. Plants as Insentient Living Beings (Fujimoto)48
• 5. Additional Arguments for the Sentience of Plants Revisited58
  • 5.1. Findly's Arguments58
  • 5.1.1. Additional Passages Referring to Plants as Sentient Beings59
  • 5.1.2. Additional Arguments for Plants Possessing the Sense of Touch65
  • 5.1.3. Arguments for Plants as Complex Sentient Beings69
  • 5.2. Okada's Arguments for Plants as Sentient Beings76
  • 5.2.1 Tree Deities and Numinous Trees77
  • 5.2.2. Plants Reacting to Extraordinary Events84
  • 5.3 Résumé89
• 6. Plants as Saintly Beings?89
  • 6.1 Discussion of Findly's Arguments90
  • 6.2. Systematic difficulties94
• 7. Résumé98
  
  
• Pt. II: The Problem of the Relationship between the Idea of the Buddha-Nature
      of Grasses and Trees and Early Buddhism101
• Pt. II.A: The Question of Textual Continuity103
  • Excursus: Remarks on 'Buddha-nature' (§ 53)106
• 1. General Passages122
  • 1.1 Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra: Maitreya's Palace123
  • 1.2. Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā124
  • 1.3. Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (1): *Ayuṣparivarta129
  • 1.4. Viṁśatikā Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi136
  • 1.5. Buddhāvataṁsaka (1): Cittamātra Passages140
  • 1.5.1. Daśabhūmika-sūtra VI141
  • 1.5.2. 'Verses Recited in the Palace of Suyāma'148
  • 1.5.3. The 'Chapter on Religious Practice'160
  • 1.6. Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa161
  • 1.7. Buddhāvataṁsaka (2): 'Eulogies on Mount Sumeru'163
  • 1.8. Saddharmapuṇḍarīka: Oṣadhiparivarta167
  • 1.9. Résumé168
• 2. Specific passages169
  • 2.1. Dharmadhātu-prakṛty-asaṁbheda-nirdeśa170
  • 2.2. Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (2): 'Chapter on Religious Practice'176
  • 2.3. 'Amitābha-sūtra' 185
  • 2.4. Buddhāvataṁsaka (3): Samantabhadracaryā-nirdeśa189
  • 2.4.1. First Explanation197
  • 2.4.2. Second Explanation201
  • 2.4.3. Third Explanation224
  • 2.4.4. Conclusions Regarding the Buddhāvataṁsaka226
  • 2.5. Résumé238

• Pt. II.B: An Attempt at a Structural Comparison241
• 1. Facets of the Far Eastern Idea of the 'Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees'
     and their Indian Background247
  • 1.1. Buddha-Nature as the Essential Nature of Plants249
  • 1.2. The Buddha-Nature of Plants as Experienced by Awakened Beings275
  • 1.3. The Omnipresence of Vairocana280
  • 1.4. Plants Miraculously Transformed into Buddhas290
  • 1.5. Plants Becoming Buddhas292
• 2. New Aspects of the Buddha-Nature and Sentience of Plants in Japanese
     Buddhism294
• 3. The Question of Practical Consequences308
• 4. Résumé322
• Conclusion327
• Abbreviations329
• References341
• Index367

vinaya - Vinaya refers to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on moral discipline and precepts and is one of the three canonical sets of teachings alongside Sūtra and Abhidharma. It also refers to the monastic tradition which has been passed down since the Buddha's time until our time. Skt. विनय Tib. འདུལ་བ། Ch. 毘奈耶

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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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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

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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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dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

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