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The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna (Dissertation)

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Abstract

The present dissertation identifies the ontological presuppositions and the corresponding soteriological-epistemological principles that sustain and define the Mahāyāna Buddhist belief in the inherent potentiality of all animate beings to attain the supreme and perfect enlightenment of Buddhahood. More specifically, the study establishes a coherent metaphysic of Absolute Suchness (Tathatā), synthesizing the variant traditions of the Tathāgata-embryo (Tathāgatagarbha) and the Storehouse Consciousness (Ālayavijñāna).
      The dissertation interprets the Buddhist enlightenment as the salvific-transformational moment in which Tathatā "awakens" to itself, comes to perfect self-realization as the Absolute Suchness of reality, in and through phenomenal human consciousness. It is an interpretation of the Buddhist Path as the spontaneous self-emergence of "embryonic" absolute knowledge as it comes to free itself from the concealments of adventitious defilements, and possess itself in fully self-explicitated self-consciousness as the "Highest Truth" and unconditional nature of all existence; it does so only in the form of omniscient wisdom.
      Aside from Ruegg's La Theorie du Tathāgatagarbha et du Gotra and Verdu's study of the Ālayavijñāna in Dialectical Aspects in Buddhist Thought, Western scholarship treating of the subject is negligible. And while both sources are excellent technical treatises, they fail to integrate in any detailed analysis the dual concepts as complementary modes of each other. Thus, the dissertation, while adopting the methodology of textual analysis, has as its emphasis a thematic-interpretive study of its sources. Conducting a detailed analysis into the structure of the texts, the dissertation delineates and appropriates the inherent ontological, soteriological and epistemological foci which they themselves assume as their natural form.
      Structurally, the dissertation is divided into three major parts. The first focuses on the Tathāgatagarbha, the second on the Ālayavijñāna, the third on their relation and deeper significance in the human thought tradition. The first two parts are sub-divided into seven and four chapters respectively. The former seven chapters establish the ontological identity of the Tathāgata-embryo (Tathagātagarbha) through a critical examination of the major sūtral authority for the concept, i.e., the Śrī-Mālā-Sūtra, and the primary śāstral elaboration inspired by it, viz., the Ratnagotravlbhāga.
      Following the same pattern, the four chapters of part 2 note the role of the Laṅk¯āvatāra Sūtra as a principal scriptural advocate for the theory of the Storehouse Consciousness (Ālayavijñāna), while detailing the scholastic amplification of it in Hsüan Tsang's Ch'eng Wei-Shih Lun. Part 3 concludes the study by recapitulating the principal developments in the emergent complementarity of the two concepts, arguing that any adequate discussion of the Buddha Nature must be informed on the one hand by the theory of the Tathāgatagarbha which grounds and authenticates its ontological status, and on the other by the Ālayavijñāna, its noetic-cognitive determination. While the former tends to elucidate the process towards, and experience of enlightenment as a function of Absolute Suchness (Tathatā), the latter adopts the reciprocal perspective and examines the subject in the light and function of phenomenal consciousness.
      By way of comparison with Western thought, the chapter likewise demonstrates the analogous dynamic in the bilateral theory of the Tathāgatagarbha-Ālayavijñāna and the Hegelian Absolute Spirit in-and-for-itself. Focusing upon The Phenomenology of Spirit, the chapter notes that the self-becoming process in and through which consciousness realizes its own plenitude is strikingly homologous to the theory of Buddhist enlightenment presented through the concept of the Tathāgatagarbha-Ālayavijñāna. It suggests that these two representative thought systems mutually illumine each other, and together illustrate a correspondent framework within which the relationship of the Absolute and relative may gain a more universal conception and therefore, a more comprehensive resolution.

Citation	Brown, Brian Edward. "The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna." PhD diss., Fordham University, 1981.

Table of Contents About the Book Texts Translated Quotes

• Chapter
• I. Introduction1
  • Part One4
  • Part Two23
  • Part Three34

Part One The Tathāgatagarbha in the Śrī-Mālā Sūtra and the Ratnagotrabibhāga

• II. Analysis of the Śrī-Mālā Sūtra39
  • Tathāgatagarbha as Ontic Subjectivity41
  • Tathāgatagarbha and Soteriology45
  • The Status of the Buddha54
  • Tathāgatagarbha and Epistemology58
  • The Nescience Entrenchment61
  • The Buddha Natures64
  • The Four Noble Truths67
  • Tathāgatagarbha as Both Śūnya and Aśūnya75
  • Tathāgatagarbha as Self-Explicitating Knowledge81
  • Evaluation86
• III. The Ratnagotravibhāga91
  • The Jewels of the Dharma and the Saṃgha97
  • Samalā and Nirmalā Tathatā105
  • Threefold Meaning of the Tathāgatagarbha108
  • The Meaning of Gotra112
• IV. Characteristics of the Embryo Reality: Its Self-Nature125
  • The Cause of the Embryo's Purification126
  • The Four Supreme Virtues: Antidotal Methodology129
  • Ātma-Pāramitā: Supreme Unity142
  • Nitya-Pāramitā: Supreme Eternity154
  • Supreme Bliss and Supreme Purity161
  • The Result of the Embryo's Self-Purification164
  • The Union with the Purifying Factors166
• V. Further Characteristics of the Embryo169
  • The Function of the Embryo Towards Self-Purification169
  • The Embryo's Manifestation173
  • Cittaprakṛti: the Innate Mind178
  • Buddhahood and Nirvāṇa192
• VI. Nine Illustrations of the Garbha201
  • Threefold Nature of the Tathāgatagarbha207
• VII. The Tathāgatagarbha and Śūnyatā215
  • The Tathāgatagarbha as Śūnya and Aśūnya224
  • The Ratnagotra and the Prajñāpāramitā Tradition235
• VIII. The Properties of the Buddha249
  • Nirmalā Tathatā252
  • Evaluation262

Part Two The Alayavijñāna in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra And the Ch'eng Wei-Shih Lun

• IX. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra271
  • The Union of the Tathāgatagarbha and the Ālayavijñāna271
  • The Confusion of Epistemology and Ontology in the Laṅkāvatāra279
• X. The Ch'eng Wei-Shih Lun292
  • The Metaphysics of Mere-Consciousness292
  • The Ālayavijñāna and the Bījas301
• XI. The Ālayavijñāna and Ignorance314
  • Ātmagrāha and Dharmagrāha314
  • The Manas and Manovijñāna316
  • The Ultimate Origin of Ignorance326
• XII. The Holy Path of Attainment332
  • The Stage of Moral Provisioning332
  • The Stage of Intensified Effort333
  • The Stage of Unimpeded Penetrating Understanding336
  • The Stage of Exercising Cultivation339
  • The Stage of Ultimate Realization350

Part Three The Tathāgatagarbha-Ālayavijñāna Summary and Comparison

• XIII. Conclusion356
  • The Tathāgatagarbha in the Śrī-Māla Sūtra356
  • The Tathāgatagarbha in the Ratnagotravibhāga361
  • The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra374
  • The Ch'eng Wei-Shih Lun378
  • The Ultimate Status of Ignorance in the Theory of the Tathāgatagarbha-Ālayavijñāna382
  • The Tathāgatagarbha-Ālayavijñāna and the Hegelian Absolute Spirit391

• Appendix 1418
• Appendix 2422
• Selected Bibliography425

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. 藏識,阿賴耶識

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

tathatā - Suchness itself, absolute reality, or thusness, as in the ultimate state of being of phenomena. Skt. तथता Tib. དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་

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

āgantukamala - Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence. Skt. आगन्तुकमल Tib. གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་

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

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

ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂