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Hu-Jan Nien-Ch'i (Suddenly a Thought Rose): Chinese Understanding of Mind and Consciousness
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|ArticleTitle=Hu-Jan Nien-Ch'i (Suddenly a Thought Rose): Chinese Understanding of Mind and Consciousness | |ArticleTitle=Hu-Jan Nien-Ch'i (Suddenly a Thought Rose): Chinese Understanding of Mind and Consciousness | ||
|AuthorPage=Lai | |AuthorPage=Lai, W. | ||
|PubDate=1980 | |PubDate=1980 | ||
|ArticleSummary=''The Issue'': In the ''Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna'' (''Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun'',<sup>b</sup> henceforth abbreviated as AFM), is found a unique explanation of the origin of ''avidyā'', ignorance:<br> | |||
:''Hu-jan nien-ch'i, ming wei wu-ming<sup>c</sup> | |||
:Suddenly a thought rose; this is called ignorance<br> | |||
This idea has baffled many modern scholars as it has traditionally charmed many a Far Eastern Buddhist. What is meant by "suddenly"? What constitutes "thought"? The most recent translator of the AFM, Yoshito Hakeda, has appended this remark to the passage:<br> | |||
:There has been much discussion on the meaning of ''hu-jan'' in connection with the origin of ignorance, mainly on the basis of interpretations proposed by Fa-tsang,<sup>d</sup> (1) that ignorance alone becomes the source of defiled states of being. It is the subtlest; no other state of being can be the origin of this. It is therefore said in the text that ignorance emerges suddenly. (2) Commenting on a quotation from a ''sūtra'', he says "suddenly" means "beginninglessly," since the passage quoted makes clear that there is no other state of being prior to the state of ignorance. (3) The word "suddenly" is not used from the stand point of time, but is used to account for the emergence of ignorance without any instance of inception. | |||
:. . . A monk of Ming<sup>e</sup> China, glosses "suddenly" as ''pu-chüeh'',<sup>f</sup> which may mean "unconsciously" or "without being aware of the reason." | |||
:. . . If ''hu-jan'' is a translation of a Sanskrit word, the original word ''asasmāt'' may be posited. ''Akasmāt'' means "without reason" or "accidentally."<ref>Yoshito Hakeda, trans., ''Awakening of Faith attributed to Aśvaghoṣa'' (New York: Columbia, 1967), pp. 50-51; passage on "suddenly a thought rose ... " in ''Taishō Daizōkyo'' (henceforth T.) 44, p. 577c of the Paramārtha text, 'interestingly edited off in the Śikṣānanda text, T. 44, p. 586a. See note 2 below.</ref><br> | |||
The above remark does not actually answer the question of the origin of the concept, ''hu-jan'' (suddenly) or the identity of ''nien''<sup>g</sup> (thought). We become only more aware that ''hu-jan'' is one crucial justification for ''ch'an''<sup>h</sup> (zen) "sudden enlightenment," itself a unique idea. Concerning the meaning of ''nien'' and ''wu-nien''<sup>i</sup> (no-thought), I have shown in a related article that (a) Hakeda is not the first repeatedly to read ''nien'' as ''wang-nien'',<sup>j</sup> ''vikalpa''; Śikṣānanda's AFM was bothered by the same term; (b) but both managed to distort the original meaning; for (c) ''nien'' is rooted in a peculiar understanding in pre-Buddhist Han China.<ref>Whalen W. Lai, "A Clue to the Authorship of the ''Awakening of Faith'': Siksananda's Redaction of the Word ''' Nien' '' '."</ref> Nien is the incipient thought, associated with ''yin''<sup>k</sup> that disrupts the (otherwise passive, ''yang'',<sup>l</sup> mind. In this present article, I will cite more evidences—this time focusing upon the concepts of ''shih'',<sup>m</sup> consciousness, and ''hu-jan'', suddenness—to show again why the AFM cannot be fully understood without reference to the native mode of thought. (Lai, "''Hu-Jan Nien Ch'i'' (Suddenly a Thought Rose)," 42–43) | |||
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Latest revision as of 11:19, 8 May 2020
Hu-Jan Nien-Ch'i (Suddenly a Thought Rose): Chinese Understanding of Mind and Consciousness
Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.
Article
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| Translated texts: | Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected. |
Abstract
Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.
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Disposition (gotra), Tathāgatagarbha as the Resultant State of Buddhahood, Tathāgatagarbha as the Latent State of Buddhahood that is Obscured in Sentient Beings, There are several types of Tathāgatagarbha, Tathāgatagarbha was Taught Merely to Encourage Sentient Beings to Enter the Path) of allowed values for the "PosEmptyLumin" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་), Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་)) of allowed values for the "PosSvataPrasa" property.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "BuNayPublisher" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "BuNayTopicTags" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: 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boolean, table expected.]][[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]]
- Yoshito Hakeda, trans., Awakening of Faith attributed to Aśvaghoṣa (New York: Columbia, 1967), pp. 50-51; passage on "suddenly a thought rose ... " in Taishō Daizōkyo (henceforth T.) 44, p. 577c of the Paramārtha text, 'interestingly edited off in the Śikṣānanda text, T. 44, p. 586a. See note 2 below.
- Whalen W. Lai, "A Clue to the Authorship of the Awakening of Faith: Siksananda's Redaction of the Word ' Nien' '."
