Kǔmgang sammae kyǒng

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Relevance to Buddha-nature

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The *Vajrasamādhisūtra is a Korean apocryphon, meaning an indigenous scripture that claimed to be a translation of an Indic original. It was composed at the end of the seventh century and continues to have widespread appeal across Asia as a source for buddha-nature and original enlightenment teachings. It belongs to the genre of "samādhi sūtra" in that it offers contemplative techniques designed to lead to enlightenment. The scripture reveals influences of early Chan and the Chinese Yogācāra tradition of Paramārtha, containing an extensive discussion of "immaculate consciousness" (amalavijñāna), the ninth consciousness which unites saṃsāra and nirvāṇa in a "single taste." The great Korean scholiast Wǒnhyo (617- 686, 體用) wrote the most famous commentary, in which he outlined six successive steps for realizing original enlightenment.

The earliest mention of a scripture with the name "Vajrasamādhisūtra" was in the catalog by Dao'an (312-385 道安) in 374. Subsequent catalogs also named it, but without stating whether it still circulated, while Yentsong's (557-610 彥琮) 602 catalog lists it as not extant. It can be determined then that this scripture likely had little distribution and vanished around the end of the fourth century. According to legend the sūtra was lost soon after its translation in the fourth century and recovered thanks to supernatural efforts. The story is that a king of Korea sent an envoy to China to procure medicine for his sick queen. The mission was waylaid to the palace of the dragon king, who explained that the illness was merely a ruse to allow him to return the Vajrasamādhisūtra to the world. Handing the envoy a pile of loose pages, he instructed him to have a monk named Taean collate the text, and for Wǒnhyo to write a commentary.

Only in the twentieth century did scholars begin to question the authenticity of the sūtra. Japanese scholar Hayashiya Tomojirō first pointed out that the current sūtra could not be the one listed by Dao'an, based on the terminology used. Japanese scholars noted similarities between passages in the *Vajrasamādhisūtra and an early Chan treatise, Er ru si xing lun 二入四行綸, reputedly authored by Bodhidharma, and this discovery directed attention to the sūtra as an early source for Chan, the reasonable assumption being that the śāstra author drew from the sūtra. In the mid twentieth century Japanese scholar Mozuno Kōgen reversed this relationship, arguing that in fact the Bodhidharma text came earlier and the *Vajrasamādhisūtra in fact had borrowed from the Bodhidharma. Mozuno thereby argued that the *Vajrasamādhisūtra is an apocrypha, a theory that has been largely accepted. Although subsequent scholars proposed that Wǒnhyo himself was the author of the text, Robert Buswell has proposed that the sūtra was composed in Korea between 680 and 685 by a monk named Pǒmnang, a Korean student of Daoxin, the reputed founder of the East Mountain School of Chan. Other scholars have proposed Taean and Wǒnhyo himself, as well as Wǒnhyo's teacher Hyegong.

The sūtra was translated from the Chinese into Tibetan some time in the eighth century, and is listed in the ninth-century Magpie Catalog (Ldan dkar ma). It is cataloged in the Peking edition of the Kangyur, text 803, and as Derge text 135. There are two Tibetan manuscripts of the *Vajrasamādhisūtra from Dunhuang (Pelliot no. 623 and 116). Unfortunately no edition reveals the name of the translators.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

  

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Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

  

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Do all beings have buddha-nature?

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To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?

  

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Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  

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Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?

  

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Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

  

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Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

  

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What is Buddha-nature?

  

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Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?

  

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Commentaries on this text

Article

Emptiness–Buddhanature

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The Buddhist schools are rich and varied in their perspectives, but these many points of view all advance the Buddhist concept of the middle view (madhya-drshti in Sanskrit and ume tawa in Tibetan).

Kyabgon, Traleg. “Emptiness/Buddhanature.” Lion's Roar, September 1, 2003. https://www.lionsroar.com/emptiness-buddhanature/.

Video

What Is Buddha-Nature? by Elizabeth Callahan

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In this video Elizabeth Callahan discusses the meaning of buddha-nature, a term that, she describes, refers to who sentient beings really are. Buddha-nature is not something that we have to acquire. Rather it is always present as our best qualities. She goes on to discuss how buddha-nature is sometimes made manifest or recognizable during moments of great suffering and tragedy.

Callahan, Elizabeth. “What Is Buddha-Nature?” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, November 9, 2019. Video, 3:00. https://youtu.be/0vOxXvDIpsU.

Video

What Is Buddha-Nature? by Wulstan Fletcher

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Wulstan Fletcher explains buddha-nature as the deepest aspect of oneself, a wellspring of goodness and wisdom that is always present. One only needs to uncover it in order to experience true happiness. He describes it as something that can be relied upon in times of great suffering, as it can remind one that the suffering that is experienced is impermanent and is something that can be removed.

Fletcher, Wulstan. “What Is Buddha-Nature?” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, November 9, 2019. Video, 4:36. https://youtu.be/1XmwW45aGio.

Article

You Already Have What You’re Looking For

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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche writes that our own buddha-nature is the solution to the problems we face in contemporary times.

Mingyur, Yongey, 7th. "You Already Have What You’re Looking For." Lion's Roar, July 9, 2019.

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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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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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amalavijñāna - The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind. Ch. 啊摩羅識,無垢識

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amalavijñāna - The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind. Ch. 啊摩羅識,無垢識

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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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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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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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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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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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These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

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Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

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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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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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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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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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