Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an influential and doctrinally striking Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture which treats of the existence of the "Tathāgatagarbha" within all sentient creatures. According to the Buddha, all sentient beings are born with buddha-nature and have the potential to become a Buddha. Physical and mental defilements of everyday life act as clouds over this nature and usually prevent this realization. This nature is no less than the indwelling Buddha himself.
History
Origins and development
Anthony Barber associates the development of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra with the Mahāsāṃghika sect of Buddhism, and concludes that the Mahāsāṃghikas of the Āndhra region were responsible for the inception of the Tathāgatagarbha doctrine.The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is considered "the earliest expression of this and the term tathāgatagarbha itself seems to have been coined in this very sutra." The text is no longer extant in its language of origin, but is preserved in two Tibetan and two Chinese translations.
Translations
Michael Zimmermann discerns two recensions, the shorter recension, translated into Chinese by Buddhabhadra in 420 CE, and the more extended and detailed recension, extant in the following translations:- the Chinese translation of Amoghavajra ;
- an apocryphal Tibetan translation from Bathang;
- the canonical Tibetan translation.
The nine similes
According to Zimmermann, the nine similes "embody the new and central message of the text, embedded in the more or less standard framework consisting of the setting, a passage expounding the merit of propagating the sutra and a story of the past."The simile in the first chapter describes a fantastic scene with many buddhas seated in lotus calyxes in the sky, who are not affected by the withering of the flowers. The following eight similes illustrate how the indwelling Buddha in sentient beings is hidden by the negative mental states,
Doctrines
Overview
In regard to the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra and the term Tathāgatagarbha, A. W. Barber writes:The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra constitutes one of a number of Tathāgatagarbha or Buddha-nature sutras which unequivocally declare the reality of an Awakened Essence within each being.
Tathāgatagarbha and ''ātman''
According to some scholars, the Tathāgatagarbha does not represent a substantial self ; rather, it is a positive language expression of emptiness and represents the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices; the intention of the teaching of Tathāgatagarbha is Soteriology rather than theoretical. This interpretation is contentious. Not all scholars share this view. Michael Zimmermann, a specialist on the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra, writes for instance: "the existence of an eternal, imperishable self, that is, buddhahood, is definitely the basic point of the Tathāgatagarbha Sutra.Zimmermann also declares that the compilers of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra "did not hesitate to attribute an obviously substantialist notion to the buddha-nature of living beings," and notes the total lack of evident interest in this sutra for any ideas of "emptiness" : "Throughout the whole Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the term śūnyatā does not even appear once, nor does the general drift of the TGS somehow imply the notion of śūnyatā as its hidden foundation. On the contrary, the sutra uses very positive and substantialist terms to describe the nature of living beings.' Also, writing on the diverse understandings of Tathāgatagarbha doctrine, Jamie Hubbard comments on how some scholars see a tendency towards monism in the Tathāgatagarbha . Hubbard comments:
Dan Lusthaus, writing on the Yogācāra school, comments: "Many Tathāgatagarbha texts, in fact, argue for the acceptance of selfhood as a sign of higher accomplishment."
Buddhahood is thus taught to be the timeless, virtue-filled Real, present inside the mind of every sentient being from the beginningless beginning. Its disclosure to direct perception, however, depends on inner spiritual purification and purgation of the superficial obscurations which conceal it from view.