Shih, Heng-Ching

Heng-Ching Shih

Professor Venerable Heng-Ching Shih earned a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught in the Department of Philosophy, National Taiwan University. She has worked in Buddhist education at almost all levels in Taiwan throughout the years.

Venerable Heng-Ching helped establish Pumen Buddhist High School and Fakuang Buddhist Graduate Institute. She also founded the Center of Buddhist Studies at National Taiwan University and Taiwan’s first Graduate Students’ Buddhist Forum. She was also active in the early stages of the project to digitize the Chinese tripitaka, known as CBETA (Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts Association).

Venerable Heng-Ching has retired and now serves as the President of the Bodhi Education Foundation and as Consultant to the Committee of Western Bhiksunis. She is the author of many academic papers and books, including The Syncretism of Ch’an and Pure Land Buddhism (English), Buddha Nature (Chinese), and Good Women on the Bodhisattva Path (Chinese).

She continues to work tirelessly in support of fully ordained nuns worldwide. (Source Accessed March 21, 2019)

Library Items

Book

Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota

This book contains ten essays on the topic of buddha-nature by prominent Buddhist Studies scholars, written in honor of Professor Minoru Kiyota (1923–2013), who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1962 to 2008.

Griffiths, Paul J., and John P. Keenan eds. Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990. https://archive.org/details/buddhanatureafestschriftinhonorofminorukiyota_542_W/mode/2up.

Griffiths, Paul J., and John P. Keenan eds. Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990. https://archive.org/details/buddhanatureafestschriftinhonorofminorukiyota_542_W/mode/2up.;Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota;Paul J. Griffiths; John P. Keenan;Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota

Article

T'ien-T'ai Chih-I's Theory of Buddha Nature—A Realistic and Humanistic Understanding of the Buddha

Heng-ching Shih, in her contribution, explores in some detail the T'ien-t'ai view of Buddha Nature, with a special focus on the question of evil. This is clearly a difficult issue for any philosophical school whose basic affirmation is that all living beings are naturally and originally pure and radiant: how, if this is true, can one account for the apparent existence of evil, the opposite or absence of this purity and radiance? Shih's chronological review of the development of the theory of "inherent evil" in T'ien-t'ai begins with the Ta ch'eng chih-kuan fa men which, in accord with the tradition, she judges to predate Chih-i himself, and then proceeds to an analysis of the Kuan-yin hsüan-i, a work that, again following tradition, she attributes to Chih-i. It is probably fair to say that the weight of contemporary historical-critical scholarship in both Japan and the West is against both this chronology and this attribution; Shih is, of course, aware of this, but judges the arguments against the traditional position to be inconclusive. The matter is complex, and the importance of Shih's paper lies not in this but rather in the substantive doctrinal analysis she provides of "inherent evil". (Griffiths and Keenan, introduction to Buddha Nature, 6)

Shih, Heng-Ching. "T'ien-T'ai Chih-I's Theory of Buddha Nature—A Realistic and Humanistic Understanding of the Buddha." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 153–70. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.

Shih, Heng-Ching. "T'ien-T'ai Chih-I's Theory of Buddha Nature—A Realistic and Humanistic Understanding of the Buddha." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 153–70. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.;T'ien-T'ai Chih-I's Theory of Buddha Nature—A Realistic and Humanistic Understanding of the Buddha;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism;Tien Tai;Zhiyi;Heng-Ching Shih;&nbsp

Book

The Realm of Awakening

This translation and study of Chapter Ten of Asanga's Mahayanasamgraha, one of the foundational documents of the Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism, presents the systematic thinking of one of the greatest early Buddhist theoreticians on the nature of the Buddha. Providing insight into Asanga's thought and influence in the development of Mahayana Buddhism in India, Tibet, China, and Japan, the book includes translations of early Indian commentaries on the text which have been preserved in earlier Chinese and Tibetan translations. (Source Accessed March 20, 2020)

Griffiths, Paul J., Noriaki Hakamaya, John P. Keenan, and Paul L. Swanson, trans. The Realm of Awakening: A Translation and Study of the Tenth Chapter of Asaṅga's Mahāyānasaṅgraha. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/asanga_mahayanasangraha.pdf.

Griffiths, Paul J., Noriaki Hakamaya, John P. Keenan, and Paul L. Swanson, trans. The Realm of Awakening: A Translation and Study of the Tenth Chapter of Asaṅga's Mahāyānasaṅgraha. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/asanga_mahayanasangraha.pdf.;The Realm of Awakening;Pure Land;Textual study;Yogācāra;Asaṅga;ཐོགས་མེད་;thogs med;slob dpon thogs med;སློབ་དཔོན་ཐོགས་མེད་;Āryāsaṅga; Paul J. Griffiths;Hakamaya Noriaki;John P. Keenan;Paul Swanson;The Realm of Awakening: A Translation and Study of the Tenth Chapter of Asaṅga's Mahāyānasaṅgraha;Asaṅga

Article

The Significance of 'Tathagatagarbha': A Positive Expression of 'Sunyata'

No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:

The well-known motto of Ch'an Buddhism is that "perceiving the true self, one becomes a Buddha." The "true self" signifies the Buddha nature inherent in all sentient beings. The discovering of the "true self" has become the single most important pursuit of the Buddhist, especially in Sino-Japanese Buddhism. On the contrary, early Buddhism teaches that ultimately no substantial self (i.e., 'anatman') can be found, since the self is nothing but the union of the five aggregates. Modern Buddhologists as well as the Buddhists have been intrigued by the inconsistency that one single tradition teaches both that there is no self on the one hand, and that the goal of religious life is to discover the true self, on the other hand.

The big questions concerning these two contradictory doctrines include:

How did they develop during the course of Buddhist history?
How can they be reconciled?
Are these two ideas actually as contradicting as they appear to be?
Is the concept of the Buddha nature an outcome of the influence of other Indian religious thought upon Buddhism?

It is out of the scope of this short paper to answer all these questions. Therefore, this paper will deal with the antecedent and synonymous concept of the Buddha nature, that is, 'tathagata- garbha' ('ju lai tsang'). Specifically, this paper will examine the meaning and significance of the 'tathagatagarbha' (Buddha nature) based on three 'tathagatagarbha' texts and argue that the 'tathagatagarbha'/Buddha nature does not represent a substantial self ('atman'); rather, it is a positive language and expression of 'sunyata' (emptiness) and represents the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices. In other words, the intention of the teaching of 'tathagatagarbha'/Buddha nature is soteriological rather than theoretical.

Affiliations & relations

Bodhi Education Foundation · workplace affiliation