Articles/Further suggested readings

Further suggested readings

Selected Readings on Buddha-Nature · Last updated on April 6, 2018

• See the annotated bibliography for detailed discussion of all sources.

Indo-Tibetan Perspectives

• Brunnhölzl, Karl. 2014. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion / Shambhala Publications.
• Duckworth, Douglas. 2008. Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Higgins, David and Martina Draszczyk. 2016. Mahamudra and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyu Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. WSTB 90. Two Volumes. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien.
• Hookham, S.K. 1991. The Buddha Within: Tathagatagarbha Doctrine According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Jiang Bo. 2017. The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary by Maitreyanātha and Noble Asaṅga with The Sublime Continuum Supercommentary by Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen. Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences Series, Tengyur Translation Initiative, and Complete Works of Jey Tsong Khapa and Sons Collection. New York: The American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies, and Tibet House US.
• Kano, Kazuo. 2016. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien.
• Komarovski, Yaroslav. 2011. Visions of Unity: The Golden Pandita Shakya Chokden's New Interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka. Albany: SUNY Press.
• Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. 2008. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Go Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston:Wisdom Publications.
• Prasad, H.S. 1991. The Uttaratantra of Maitreya: Containing Introduction, E. H. Johnston's Sanskrit Text and E. Obermiller's English Translation. Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica No 79. Shakti Nagar, Dehli: Sri Satguru Publications.
• Ruegg, David Seyfort. 1989. Buddha-nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective: On the Transmission and Reception of Buddhism in India and Tibet. Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion. London: School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
• Stearns, Cyrus. 2010. The Buddha From Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. Tsadra Foundation Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.
• Thrangu Rinpoche. Ken and Katia Holmes Holmes, trans. 1994. The Uttara Tantra: A Treatise on Buddha Nature: A Commentary on The Uttara Tantra Ṣāstra of Asaṅga. Vol. 131. Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series. Shakti Nagar, Delhi, India: Sri Satguru Publications.
• Wangchuk, Tsering. 2017. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise. Albany: SUNY Press.
• Zimmermann, Michael. 2002. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University.

East Asian Perspectives

• Gimello, Robert. 1976. "Apophatic and Kataphatic Discourse in Mahāyāna: A Chinese View." Philosophy East and West, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 117-136.
• Greggory, Peter. 1986. "The Problem of Theodicy in the "Awakening of Faith." Religious Studies, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 63-78.
• Griffith, Paul, and John Keenan, editors. 1990. Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kyota. Reno: Buddhist Books International.
• Grosnick William. 1983. "Cittaprakrti and Ayoniśomanaskāra in the Ratnagotravibhāga: precedent for the Hsin-Nier distinction of The Awakening of Faith." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 35–47.
• Hubbard, Jamie, and Paul Swanson. Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism. 1997. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
• Koseki, Aaron K. 1977. "Chi-tsang’s Ta-ch'eng-hsuan-lun: The Two Truths and the Buddha-nature." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin.
• Koseki, Aaron K. 1980. "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, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 16–33.
• Liu, Ming-Wood. 1982. "The Doctrine of the Buddha-Nature in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāna-sūtra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 63–94.
• Liu, Ming-Wood. 1984. "The Problem of the Icchantika in the Mahāyāna Mahaparinirvāna-sūtra.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 57–81.
• Schmithausen, Lambert. 2009. Plants in Early Buddhism and the Far Eastern Idea of the Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees. Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute.
• Sharf, Robert. 2014. "Is Nirvāṇa the Same as Insentience? Chinese Struggles with an Indian Buddhist Ideal." In India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought. John Kieschnick and Meir Shahar, editors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Stambaugh, Joan. 1990. Impermanence Is Buddha-nature: Dogen’s Understanding of Temporality. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Stone, Jacqueline. 1999. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
• Tarocco, Franceska. 2008. "Lost in Translation? The Treatise on the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) and its modern readings." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies vol. 71, no. 2.
• William R. La Fleur. 1973. "Saigyō and the Buddhist Value of Nature. Part I." History of Religions, vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 93-128.

WSTB - Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde - Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien.

SUNY - State University of New York

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

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

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

bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt. बोधि Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་ Ch. 菩提,悟,覺

Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་,ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

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

icchantika - Literally, "those with great desire," icchantikas could be rendered as hedonists or addicts. However, the term is generally used to refer to those who, due to their insatiable desire, are incapable of enlightenment. Skt. इच्छन्तिक Tib. འདོད་ཆེན་,འདོད་ཆེན་པོ་ Ch. 一闡提

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.