- Buddha-dhātu or Buddha-gotra. Here we follow Takasaki Jikidō, Nyoraizō Shisō no Kenkyū (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1974), p. 11. See, also, his article, "Nyoraizo-Busshō shiso," Koza Bukkyō Shisō, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Rishosha. 1975), pp. 101-133. Further, see Ogawa Ichijō, Nyoraizō-Busshō no Kenkyū (Kyoto: Buneidō, 1974), pp. 62-66.
- Several works in Japanese deal with this early period of Nirvāṇa-sūtra study. See, for instance, Fuse Kōgaku, Nehandhū no Kenkyū, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1973), pp. 12-44. See, also, Tokiwa Daijō, Busshō no Kenkyū (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1972), pp. 178-180.
- A discussion of the Collection and its compiler (attributed to Pao-liang) can be found in Fuse, Nehanshu no Kenkyū, vol. 2, pp. 74-85. See, also, Ogawa Kōkan, Chūgoku Nyoraizō Shishō no Kenkyū (Tokyo: Nakayama Shobō, 1976), pp. 210-225.
- For an overview of Chi-tsang's theories, see Kamata Shigeo, Chūgoku Bukkyō Shisō-shi Kenkyū (Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1968), pp. 31-46, and Hirai Shun'ei, Chūgoku Hannya Shishō-shi Kenkyū (Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1976), pp. 617-637.
- Taishō shinshu Daizōkyō (hereafter T), 45, 35b-42b.
Prajñāpāramitā and the Buddhahood of the Non-Sentient World: The San-Lun Assimilation of Buddha-Nature and Middle Path Doctrine
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Citation: | Koseki, Aaron K. "Prajñāpāramitā and the Buddhahood of the Non-Sentient World: The San-Lun Assimilation of Buddha-Nature and Middle Path Doctrine." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 3, no. 1 (1980): 16–33. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8505/2412. |
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Article Summary
In the case of the San-lun tradition, the most intriguing discussion on this subject occurred in the writings of its systematizer, Chi-tsang (549-623).[4] In his Buddha-nature essay, contained in the Ta-ch'eng hsüan-lun (A Compendium of Mahāyāna Doctrine), Chi-tsang sought to integrate the Prajñāpāramitā doctrine of emptiness and the Nirvāṇa-sūtra concept of Buddha-nature.[5] Assimilating two radically different aspects of Buddhist thought, Chi-tsang was the first individual in the history of East Asian Buddhism to argue that the inanimate world of grasses and trees also had the possibility of achieving Buddhahood. The most obvious peculiarity of this theory was the fact that, prior to Chi-tsang's time it was not a commonly accepted view of universal enlightenment. Indeed, it was a view totally rejected by earlier commentators of the Nirvāṇa-sūtra, who associated the potentiality for Buddhahood with anthropocentric concepts such as "mind," "luminous spirit," "ālaya-vijñāna," and "inherently pure mind." The textual basis for these earlier views was, of course, already established by the Nirvāṇa-sūtra, which extended the promise of Buddhahood to all sentient existence, that is, to those who possessed the faculty of "mind." Although there was no doctrinal precedent for Chi-tsang's assertion, in his examination of Buddhist texts he found several passages to substantiate his theory of a comprehensive Buddha-nature. As we shall see, Chi-tsang took a highly qualified step in expanding the notion of salvation to include all of the natural, phenomenal world. As a San-lun scholar, however, Chi-tsang was neither interested, in a Taoist sort of way, in elevating nature to a religious dimension, nor simply concerned with the Nirvāṇa-sūtra's anthropocentrically-limited promise of eventual enlightenment. Rather, Chi-tsang's most significant contribution to the discussion lay in his assertion that the Buddha-nature was a synonym for the middle path doctrine. The route by which he came to his expanded conception of Buddha-nature, then, was based on his primary view of prajñā, and it is this that we wish to investigate in what follows. (Koseki, "Prajñāpāramitā and the Buddhahood of the Non-Sentient World," 16–17)