Buddha-nature
In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within themselves. "Buddha-nature" is the common English translation for several related Mahāyāna Buddhist terms, most notably tathāgatagarbha and buddhadhātu, but also sugatagarbha, and buddhagarbha. Tathāgatagarbha can mean "the womb" or "embryo" of the "thus-gone one", and can also mean "containing a tathāgata"''. Buddhadhātu can mean "buddha-element", "buddha-realm", or "buddha-substrate".
Buddha-nature has a wide range of meanings in Indian Buddhism and later in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist literature. Broadly speaking, it refers to the belief that the luminous mind, "the natural and true state of the mind", which is pure mind undefiled by afflictions, is inherently present in every sentient being, and is eternal and unchanging. It will shine forth when it is cleansed of the defilements, that is, when the nature of mind is recognized for what it is.
The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which was very influential in the Chinese reception of these teachings, linked the concept of tathāgatagārbha with the buddhadhātu. The term buddhadhātu originally referred to the relics of Gautama Buddha. In the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, it came to be used in place of the concept of tathāgatagārbha, reshaping the worship of physical relics of the historical Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation.
The primordial or undefiled mind, the tathāgatagārbha, is also often equated with the Buddhist philosophical concept of emptiness ; with the storehouse-consciousness ; and with the interpenetration of all dharmas. The belief in Buddha-nature is central to East Asian Buddhism, which relies on key Buddha-nature sources like the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. In Tibetan Buddhism, the concept of Buddha-nature is equally important and often studied through the key Indian treatise on Buddha-nature, the Ratnagotravibhāga''.
Etymology
''Tathāgatagarbha''
The term tathāgatagarbha may mean "embryonic tathāgata", "womb of the tathāgata", or "containing a tathagata". Various meanings may all be brought into mind when the term tathagatagarbha is being used.Compound
The Sanskrit term tathāgatagarbha is a compound of two terms, tathāgata and garbha:- tathāgata means "the one thus gone", referring to the Buddha. It is composed of "tathā" and "āgata", "thus come", or "tathā" and "gata", "thus gone". The term refers to a Buddha, who has "thus gone" from samsara into nirvana, and "thus come" from nirvana into samsara to work for the salvation of all sentient beings.
- garbha, "womb", "embryo", "center", "essence".
Asian translations
The Tibetan scholar Go Lotsawa outlined four meanings of the term Tathāgatagarbha as used by Indian Buddhist scholars generally: As an emptiness that is a nonimplicative negation, the luminous nature of the mind, alaya-vijñana, all bodhisattvas and sentient beings.
Western translations
The term tathagatagarbha first appears in the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras, which date to the 2nd and third centuries CE. It is translated and interpreted in various ways by western translators and scholars:- According to Sally King, the term tathāgatagarbha may be understood in two ways:
- "embryonic tathāgata", the incipient Buddha, the cause of the Tathāgata,
- "womb of the tathāgata", the fruit of Tathāgata.
- Wayman & Hideko also point out that the Chinese regularly takes garbha as "womb", but prefer to use the term "embryo".
- According to Brown, following Wayman & Hideko, "embryo" is the best fitting translation, since it preserves "the dynamic, self-transformative nature of the tathagatagarbha."
- According to Zimmermann, garbha may also mean the interior or center of something, and its essence or central part. As a tatpuruṣa it may refer to a person being a "womb" for or "container" of the tathagata. As a bahuvrihi it may refer to a person as having an embryonic tathagata inside. In both cases, this embryonic tathagata still has to be developed. Zimmermann concludes that tathagatagarbha is a bahuvrihi, meaning "containing a tathagata", but notes the variety of meanings of garbha, such as "containing", "born from", "embryo", " womb", "calyx", "child", "member of a clan", "core", which may all be brought into mind when the term tathagatagarbha is being used.
- In addition to Zimmerman's statement that tathagatagarbha most natural means "containing a Tathagata," Paul Williams notes that garbha also means "womb/matrix" and "seed/embryo," and "the innermost part of something." The term tathagatagarbha can thus also imply "that sentient beings have a tathāgata within them in seed or embryo, that sentient beings are the wombs or matrices of the tathāgata, or that they have a tathāgata as their essence, core, or essential inner nature." According to Williams, the term tathāgatagarbha "may also have been intended simply to answer the question how it is possible that all sentient beings can attain the state of a Buddha.
''Buddhadhātu''
The corresponding Sanskrit term is buddhadhātu. It has two meanings, namely the nature of the Buddha, equivalent to the term dharmakāya, and the cause of the Buddha. The link between the cause and the result is the nature which is common to both, namely the dharmadhātu.
Matsumoto Shirō also points out that "buddha-nature" translates the Sanskrit-term buddhadhātu, a "place to put something," a "foundation," a "locus." According to Shirō, it does not mean "original nature" or "essence," nor does it mean the "possibility of the attainment of Buddhahood," "the original nature of the Buddha," or "the essence of the Buddha."
In the Vajrayana, the term for buddha-nature is sugatagarbha.
Indian Sutra sources
Historical precursors
According to Alex Wayman, the idea of the tathāgatagarbha is grounded on sayings by the Buddha that there is something called the luminous mind, "which is only adventitiously covered over by defilements." The luminous mind is mentioned in a passage from the Anguttara Nikaya which states that the mind is luminous but "is defiled by incoming defilements." The Mahāsāṃghika school coupled this idea with the idea of the "root consciousness" which serves as the basic layer of the mind and which is held to have a self-nature which is pure and undefiled. In some of the tathagatagarbha-sutras a consciousness which is naturally pure is regarded to be the seed from which Buddhahood grows. Wayman thus argues that the pure luminous mind doctrine formed the basis for the classic buddha-nature doctrine.Karl Brunnhölzl writes that the first probable mention of the term tathāgatagarbha is in the Ekottarika Agama. The passage states:
This tathāgatagarbha idea was the result of an interplay between various strands of Buddhist thought, on the nature of human consciousness and the means of awakening. Gregory sees this doctrine as implying that enlightenment is the natural state of the mind.
''Avatamsaka'' and ''Lotus Sutras''
According to Wayman, the teachings of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, which say that the Buddha's knowledge is all pervasive and is present in all sentient beings were also an important step in the development of buddha-nature thought. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra does not mention the term tathāgatagarbha, but the idea of "a universal penetration of sentient beings by the wisdom of the Buddha," is seen by some scholars as complementary to the tathāgatagarbha concept.The Lotus Sutra, written between 100 BCE and 200 CE, also does not use the term tathāgatagarbha, but Japanese scholars suggest that a similar idea is nevertheless expressed or implied in the text. The tenth chapter emphasizes that all living beings can become a Buddha. The twelfth chapter of the Lotus Sutra details that the potential to become enlightened is universal among all people, even the historical Devadatta has the potential to become a buddha. East Asian commentaries saw these teachings as indicating that the Lotus sutra was also drawing on the concept of the universality of buddha-nature. The sutra shares other themes and ideas with the later tathāgatagarbha sūtras and thus several scholars theorize that it was an influence on these texts.
''Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra'' and ''Nirvana Sūtra''
According to Zimmerman, the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is the earliest buddha-nature text. Zimmerman argues that "the term tathāgatagarbha itself seems to have been coined in this very sutra." The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra states that all beings already have perfect Buddha body within themselves, but do not recognize it because it is covered over by afflictions.The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra uses nine similes to illustrate the concept:
Another important and early source for buddha-nature is the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, possibly dating to the 2nd century CE. Some scholars like Michael Radich argue that this is the earliest buddha-nature sutra. This sutra was very influential in the development of East Asian Buddhism. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra linked the concept of tathāgatagarbha with the "buddhadhātu" and it also equates these with the eternal and pure Buddha-body, the Dharmakaya, also called vajrakaya. The sutra also presents the buddha-nature or tathagatagarbha as a "Self" or a true self, though it also attempts to argue that this claim is not incompatible with the teaching of not-self. The Nirvana sutra further claims that buddha-nature is characterized by four perfections or qualities: permanence, bliss, self, and purity.''