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Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn (ca. 8th Century CE), a Korean Yogācāra Monk, and His Predecessors

Dissertation

Dissertation

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Abstract

This dissertation seeks to locate the place of Taehyŏn 大賢(ca. 8th century CE), a Silla Korean Yogācāra monk, within the broader East Asian Buddhist tradition. My task is not confined solely to a narrow study of Taehyŏn’s thought and career, but is principally concerned with understanding the wider contours of the East Asian Yogācāra tradition itself and how these contours are reflected in Taehyŏn’s extant oeuvre. There are problems in determining Taehyŏn's doctrinal position within the traditional paradigms of East Asian Yogācāra tradition, that is, the bifurcations of Tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra; Old and New Yogācāra; the One Vehicle and Three Vehicles; and the Dharma Nature and Dharma Characteristics schools. Taehyŏn's extant works contain doctrines drawn from across these various divides, and his doctrinal positions therefore do not precisely fit any of these traditional paradigms. In order to address this issue, this dissertation examines how these bifurcations originated and evolved over time, across the geographical expanse of the East Asian Yogācāra tradition. The chapters of the dissertation discuss in largely chronological order the theoretical problems involved in these bifurcations within Yogācāra and proposes possible resolutions to these problems, by focusing on the works of such major Buddhist exegetes as Paramārtha (499-569), Ji 基 (632-682), Wŏnhyo 元曉 (617-686), Fazang 法藏(643-712), and, finally, Taehyŏn.

Citation	Lee, Sumi. "Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn (ca. 8th Century CE), a Korean Yogācāra Monk, and His Predecessors." PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2014. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/74h5d0nv#main.

Contents

• Abstractii
• Lists of Chartsxi
• Abbreviationsxii
• Acknowledgementsxiii

• INTRODUCTION1
  • 1. The Origin of the Problem: Taehyŏn and the Difficulty of Determining His Yogācāra Doctrinal Position1
  • 2. Traditional Bifurcations of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism and Their
    Problems9
    • (1) "Old" Yogācāra Buddhism vs. "New" Yogācāra Buddhism; Paramārtha vs. Xuanzang9
    • (2) Tathāgatagarbha Theory vs. Yogācāra Theory; One Vehicle vs. Three Vehicles14
    • (3) Dharma Nature school vs. Dharma Characteristics school18
  • 3. Outline of Chapters21

• CHAPTER I. The Initial Stage of the Old Yogācāra Tradition24
  • 1. Two Directions in the Initial Stage of Old Yogācāra Tradition24
  • 2. The Northern and Southern Dilun Schools and Their Interpretations of Ālayavijñāna27
  • 3. Comparison of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine in the Four and Ten-Fascicle Laṅkāvatārasūtra35
  • 4. Concluding Remarks41

• CHAPTER II. "Old" Yogācāra: Two Strands of the Shelun School42
  • 1. Issues42
  • 2. Distinction between Paramārtha's and Tanqian's Shelun Lineages 47
    • (1) Two Types of Synthesis of Tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra47
    • (2) Reconsideration of Paramārtha’s Doctrine of Amalavijñāna52
    • (3) Two Types of Interpretations of the Nature of Realization: Perfect Enlightenment and Potential Enlightenment63
    • (4) Connection between the Unconditioned and Conditioned I: The
      Duality of Thusness71
    • (5) Connection between the Unconditioned and Conditioned II: Two
      Types of Attainment of the Dharma Body77
    • (6) Connection between the Unconditioned and Conditioned III: The Connection between the Nature of Realization and the Buddha
      Bodies80
    • (7) Disappearance of the Distinction between the Two Shelun Strands86
  • 3. Development of Paramārtha’s Shelun Lineage88
  • 4. Concluding Remarks102

• CHAPTER III. Emergence of Antagonism between the "Old" and "New"
  Yogācāra104
  • 1. Transmission of the "New" Buddhist Literature and Doctrinal
    Diversity104
  • 2. Problems in Interpreting the New Yogācāra as the Dharma Characteristics School107
  • 3. Ji’s Yogācāra Position I: Antagonism towards the One Vehicle and
    Bhāvaviveka121
    • (1) Background: Outbreak of the Buddha Nature Controversy and the Emptiness-Existence Controversy123
    • (2) New Yogācāra Doctrinal Positions Derived from the Eight-
      Consciousness System in Comparison with the Tathāgatagarbha
      Position128
    • (3) The Doctrine of Uncontaminated Seeds and Criticism of Bhāvaviveka:
      Ji’s Response to the Two Controversies133
  • 4. Ji’s Yogācāra Position II: Embracing One Vehicle Thought and Bhāvaviveka’s Madhyamaka139
    • (1) Background: Translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra and its
      Influence on the Two Controversies140
    • (2) Embracing One Vehicle Thought and Bhāvaviveka’s Madhyamaka144
    • (3) Two Types of Buddha Nature: Ji’s Theoretical Basis for Embracing the Universal Buddha Nature150
    • (4) Separation between the Unconditioned and Conditioned Realms: Ji’s Doctrinal Limitation154
  • 5. Concluding Remarks160

• CHAPTER IV. Synthesis of the "Old" and "New" Yogācāra Systems: Wŏnhyo and Fazang's Interpretations of the Awakening of Faith161
  • 1. Social Background and the Emergence of the Awakening of Faith161
  • 2. Wŏnhyo and Fazang’s Compromises between Madhyamaka and Yogācāra
    and the Differences in their Perspectives166
    • (1) Wŏnhyo's Binary Perspective166
    • (2) Fazang's Hierarchical Synthesis178
    • (3) Concluding Remarks188
  • 3. Significance of Wŏnhyo and Fazang's distinct interpretations of the AMF
    in the East Asian Yogācāra Tradition189
    • (1) Wŏnhyo as a Successor of Paramārtha189
    • (2) Fazang: Origin of the Teaching of Dependent Origination from the Tathāgatagarbha196
    • 4. Concluding Remarks201

• CHAPTER V. Synthesis of the One Vehicle and the Three Vehicles: Taehyŏn's Interpretation of the AMF, the Sūtra of Brahmā's Net, and the Cheng weishi lun 203
  • 1. Taehyŏn's Yogācāra Thought from a New Perspective203
  • 2. Taehyŏn's Yogācāra Thought in the Taesŭng kisillon naeŭi yakt’amgi205
    • (1) Balanced Perspective toward the One Vehicle and the Three
      Vehicles205
    • (2) Binary Perspective on the Buddha Nature I: Distinction between the Original Awakening and the Nature of Realization210
  • 3. Taehyŏn's View on Buddhist Precepts Represented in the Pŏmmanggyŏng kojŏkki214
    • (1) Balanced View toward the Śrāvaka Precepts and the Bodhisattva
      Precepts214
    • (2) Binary Perspective on the Buddha Nature II: Universal Buddha Nature
      as the Cause221
  • 4. Taehyŏn’s Response to the Emptiness-Existence Controversy Represented
    in the Sŏng yusik non hakki224
    • (1) Taehyŏn's Position on the Emptiness-Existence Controversy and Its Significance224
    • (2) Binary Perspective on the Innate Uncontaminated Seeds: Coexistence
      of the Doctrines of Five Distinct Lineages and the Universal Gotra229
  • 5. Concluding Remarks235

• CONCLUSION237

• Bibliography242

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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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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ālayavijñāna - A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences. Skt. आलयविज्ञान Tib. ཀུན་གཞིའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་ Ch. 阿賴耶識,藏識

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Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

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

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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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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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śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt. श्रावक Tib. ཉན་ཐོས། Ch. 聲聞

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

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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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