General Introduction

During long-term history of evolution, human beings have to fight constantly to survive with natural disasters, social injustices, family turmoils as well as their own sufferings. Man, therefore, always needs a spiritual and physical consolation. Consequently, religion is very necessary and important for human life and society because it can provide spiritual relief, philosophy of life and salvation for human beings.

Buddhism, a religion arose in ancient India and developing in various parts of the world today, also aims at the same goal that is providing happiness for human beings, as words of the Buddha:^[1]

Monks, there is one person whose birth into the world is for welfare of many folk, for the happiness of many folk; who is born out of compassion for the world, for the profit, welfare and happiness of devas and mankinds. Who is that one person? It is a Tathāgata who is Arahant, a fully Enlightened One.^[2]

Welfare and happiness for mankind brought by the Buddha are not the material properties, but the spiritual benefits coming from compassion and wisdom which transcend above the ego of things and persons, free from the hindrances of passion and ignorance. This does not mean that Buddhism rejected materialism. Buddhism views material only as means to achieve happiness and propagate Dharma, although necessary, but also very dangerous because of its excitability of greed, hatred and ignorance of man.

In the process of spreading Dharma, Buddhism has been divided into many sects to adapt to the customs and culture of people in the land where it went. The Buddhist schools have compiled different teachings of the Buddha according to their own practices and thoughts. History of Buddhism recorded that during the period of about 200 years after the Buddha’s Mahāparinirvāṇa, Buddhism was mainly divided into two main schools, Sthaviravāda (Pāli: Theravāda, the Elders) and Mahāsāṅghika (Great Community). The former was split up to some eleven sects and remains nowadays as Theravāda, while the latter was divided into seven sub-sects.^[3] The original words of the Buddha, therefore, have been interpreted into different ways in different languages and doctrines by the distinctive Buddhist sects. The ultimate truth that the Buddha attained under the Bodhi tree, therefore, was presented sometimes by the language of no-self (anātman), sometimes in the language of true-self (satyātman) as in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra.^[4] It would be very wrong to assume that either “no-self” or the “Buddha nature” is the ultimate goal or ideal of Buddhism. No-self, the Buddha-nature and all other Buddhist doctrines are only means to achieve happiness like a raft used to cross the river.

The Buddha-nature doctrine which is presented in several Mahāyāna scriptures of the so-called Tathāgatagarbha literature such as the Māhaparinirvāṇasūtra, Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, Srīmāladevīsūtra, Laṅkāvatārasūtra, etc. was formed in India in about the third century CE,^[5] and then it quickly spread to China, where it occupied an important role in thought and practice of Chinese Buddhism.

The thought of Buddha-nature plays an important role in the religious life of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the East and Southeast Asian countries because it provides a faith of permanence and immortality due to a declaration of “all sentient beings possess the Buddha-nature, and Tathāgata (Buddha) is permanent with no change at all” (一切眾生悉有佛性, 如來常住無有變易)^[6] .

The above idea of the Buddha-nature, although is very important in the Mahāyāna Buddhist countries, seems to be akin to the permanent Self (Ātman/ Brahman) of the Upaniṣads. Whether or not the Buddhist thought of Buddha-nature is in reality a self that the Buddha denied in his teachings. Thus, it is really significant to have a critical and comparative study on the Buddha-nature as it is presented in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra.

Among Mahāyāna scriptures, the Laṅkāvatārasūtra (hereafter abbreviated to Laṅkāvatārasūtra) is preferred for the study of the Buddha-nature than the others because the sūtra is still extant in versions of Sanskrit, Chinese, and other languages. Especially, Laṅkāvatārasūtra is a unique text identifying Tathāgatagarbha with Ālayavijñāna, which is the inherently pure consciousness and has the ability of storing all seeds of good and bad deeds of beings. This identification makes the Buddha-nature become more understandable and easy to explain in the psychological way.

Before going into the technical investigation of the thesis, we present some basic concepts relating to the concept of Buddha-nature and the outline of the Laṅkāvatārasūtra.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ekapuggalo, bhikkhave, loke uppajjamāno uppajjati bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya atthāya hitāya sukhāya devamanussānaṃ. Katamo ekapuggalo? Tathāgato arahaṃ sammāsambuddho (Aṅguttaranikāya i, 21.)

[2]:

The Book of The Gradual Sayings (Aṅguttara-nikaaya), tr. F.L. Woodward & E.Majjhimanikāya. Hare, Vol. I, p. 14.

[3]:

P.V. Bapat, 2500 Years of Buddhism, p. 85.

[4]:

Taisho Tripiṭaka (CBETA 2011) [T12n375], p. 0648b.

[5]:

Hajime Nakamura, Indian Buddhism: Aṅguttaranikāya Survey with Bibliographical Notes, p. 230.

[6]:

Taisho Tripiṭaka (CBETA 2011) [T12n375], p. 767b.