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Cultivating Original Enlightenment

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Wŏnhyo (617–686) is the dominant figure in the history of Korean Buddhism and one of the most influential thinkers in the Korean philosophical tradition. Koreans know Wŏnhyo in his various roles as Buddhist mystic, miracle worker, social iconoclast, religious proselytist, and cultural hero. Above all else, Wŏnhyo was an innovative thinker and prolific writer, whose works cover the gamut of Indian and Sinitic Buddhist materials: Some one hundred treatises and commentaries are attributed to him, twenty-three of which are extant today. Wŏnhyo’s importance is not limited to the peninsula, however. His writings were widely read in China and Japan, and his influence on the overall development of East Asian Mahāyāna thought is significant, particularly in relation to the Huayan, Chan, and Pure Land schools.

In Cultivating Original Enlightenment, the first volume in The International Association of Wŏnhyo Studies’ Collected Works of Wŏnhyo series, Robert E. Buswell Jr. translates Wŏnhyo’s longest and culminating work, the Exposition of the Vajrasamâdhi-Sûtra (Kŭmgang Sammaegyŏng Non). Wŏnhyo here brings to bear all the tools acquired throughout a lifetime of scholarship and meditation to the explication of a scripture that has a startling connection to the Korean Buddhist tradition. In his treatise, Wŏnhyo examines the crucial question of how enlightenment can be turned from a tantalizing prospect into a palpable reality that manifests itself in all activities. (Source: University of Hawai'i Press)

Citation	Buswell, Robert E., Jr. Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wǒnhyo's Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra (Kǔmgang Sammaegyǒng Non). International Association of Wŏnhyo Studies' Collected Works of Wŏnhyo 1. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007.

ContentsSources

• Prefacevii
• Abbreviations and Conventionsxi

Part 1: Study

• I Contemplative Practice in the Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra3
• II The Writing of the Exposition17
• III The Exposition as Commentary28

Part 2: Wŏnhyos Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra: An Annotated Translation

ROLL ONE 47 An Analysis of the Themes of the Sūtra 48 An Explication of the Title 50 An Exegesis of the Text 57 The Inspiration of Original Enlightenment 137 Abandoning the Spurious to Access Reality 166 ROLL THREE 211 Immeasurable Dharmas Access the Tathāgatagarbha 243 Dhāraṇí Codes 271 A Schematic Outline of Wŏnhyos Exposition of the VajrasamādhiSūtra 309 Notes 335 Glossary of Sinitic Logographs 377 Main Body 62 Rejecting All Characteristics of SenseObjects to Reveal the Signless Contemplation 65 ROLL TWO 116

The Inspiration of Original Enlightenment 137 Abandoning the Spurious to Access Reality 166 ROLL THREE 211 Immeasurable Dharmas Access the Tathāgatagarbha 243 Dhāraṇí Codes 271 A Schematic Outline of Wŏnhyos Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra 309 Notes 335 Glossary of Sinitic Logographs 377 Bibliography 385 Index 411

Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra (Kŭmgang Sammaegyŏng Non)

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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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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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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