Buddhadhātu, Tathāgatadhātu and Tathāgatagarbha in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra

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|ArticleLayout=Academic Layout
|ArticleTitle=Buddhadhātu, Tathāgatadhātu and Tathāgatagarbha in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra
|AuthorPage=People/Habata, H.
|PubDate=2017
|ArticleSummary=In the original of its so-called Mahāyāna version the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra bears the Sanskrit title Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra.<ref>On the problem of the text's title see Hiromi Habata, ''Die zentralasialischen Sanskrit-Pragmente des'' Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra: ''Kritische Ausgabe des Sanskrittextes und seiner tibetischen Übertragung im Vergleich mit den chinesischen Übersetzungen'', Indica et Tibetica 51 (Marburg : lndica et Tibetica, 2007), pp. xliii–li.</ref> The Sanskrit original of this text has come down to us only in fragments. For the reconstruction of the Sanskrit text from these fragments, it is essential to compare the text with the word-for-word Tibetan translation completed at the beginning of the 9th century by Jinamitra, Jñānagarbha and Devacandra. Fǎxiǎn 法顯 translated it into Chinese under the title ''Dà bānnihuán jīng'' 大般泥洹經  in 6 fascicles (''juàn'' 卷), and Dharmakṣema 曇無讖 translated it as ''Dà bānnièpán jīng'' 大般涅槃經 in 40 fascicles. Both translations were completed at the beginning of the 5th century. The Chinese translations of this sūtra played an important role in the history of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. The sūtra is famous especially for the formula "切眾生西有佛性 ''yíqiè zhongshēng xī yǒu fóxìng'',"  "Every living being has the Buddha-nature." The skill of the Chinese translators is evident from their use of the word ''fóxing'' 佛性, which is commonly translated into English as "Buddha-nature." While the underlying Sanskrit term and its intended meaning poses difficulties, as will be shown below, the Chinese term ''fóxing'', although not resulting from a very literal translation, has been accepted in dogmatical and philosophical interpretations in China and Japan.
{{6nbsp}}Comparing the Sanskrit fragments and the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'', which quotes the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra'' (that is the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra''), the original Sanskrit word ''fóxìng'' is ''buddhadhātu'', ''tathāgatadhātu'' or ''tathāgatagarbha''. Takasaki Jikidō's research on the tathāgatagarbha theory led him to conclude that the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra'' is the first known text in which the word ''buddhadhātu'' is used in this meaning.<ref> (missing Chinese characters) Takasaki Jikidō, ''Nyoraizō shisō no keisei: Indo daijō bukkyō shisō kenkyū'' [''Formation of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory: A Study on the Historical Background of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism Based upon the Scriptures Preceding the Ratnagotravibhāga''] (Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 1974), pp. 128–190.</ref>
{{6nbsp}}I have been studying the original text of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra'' for some time, analyzing the Sanskrit fragments in comparison with the Tibetan and Chinese translations. From the viewpoint of the original text, the meaning of the formula "Every living being has the Buddha-nature" reveals nuances slightly different from the interpretations adopted in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. (Habata, introduction, 176–77)
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