Tathagatagarbha doctrine
Encyclopedia
In Mahāyāna
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

, The "Tathāgatagarbha Sutras" are a collection of Mahayana sutras which present a unique model of Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle , is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas...

, i.e. the original vision of the Buddha-nature as an ungenerated, unconditioned and immortal Buddhic element within all beings. Even though this collection was generally ignored in India, East Asian Buddhism provides some significance to these texts. The Tathāgatagarbha Sutras include the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
Tathagatagarbha Sutra
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an influential and doctrinally striking Mahayana Buddhist scripture which treats of the existence of the "Tathagatagarbha" within all sentient creatures. The Buddha reveals how inside each person's being there exists a great Buddhic "treasure that is eternal and...

, Srimaladevisimhanada Sutra, Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
The Nirvana Sutra or ' ; ; ).) is one of the major sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. It shares its title with another well-known Buddhist scripture, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali Canon but is quite different in form and content...

 and Angulimaliya Sutra
Angulimaliya Sutra
The Angulimaliya Sutra is a Buddhist scripture belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha class of sūtra, which teach that the Buddha is eternal, that the non-Self and emptiness teachings only apply to the worldly sphere , and that the tathagatagarbha is real and immanent within all beings and all phenomena...

. Related ideas are in found in the Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

 and Avatamsaka Sutra
Avatamsaka Sutra
The is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras of East Asian Buddhism. The title is rendered in English as Flower Garland Sutra, Flower Adornment Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture....

. Another major text, the Awakening of Faith, was originally composed in China in a Chinese language.

Nomenclature and etymology

The Sanskrit term "tathāgatagarbha" may be parsed into tathāgata
Tathagata
Tathāgata in Pali and Sanskrit) is the name the Buddha of the scriptures uses when referring to himself. The term means, paradoxically, both one who has thus gone and one who has thus come . Hence, the Tathagata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena...

("the one thus gone", referring to the Buddha) and garbha ("root/embryo"). The latter has the meanings: "embryo", "essence"; whilst the former may be parsed into "tathā" ("[s]he who has there" and "āgata" (semantic field: "come", "arrived") and/or "gata" ("gone").

For the various equivalents of the Sanskrit term "tathāgatagarbha" in other languages (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese), see Glossary of Buddhism, "tathagatagarbha"

Texts and early history

Some of the earliest and most important Tathāgatagarbha sūtras have been associated by scholars with certain early Buddhist schools
Early Buddhist schools
The early Buddhist schools are those schools into which, according to most scholars, the Buddhist monastic saṅgha initially split, due originally to differences in vinaya, and later also due to doctrinal differences and geographical separation of groups of monks.The original saṅgha split into the...

 in India. Brian Edward Brown, a specialist in Tathāgatagarbha doctrines, writes that it has been determined that the composition of the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra occurred during the Īkṣvāku Dynasty
Andhra Ikshvaku
The Andhra Ikshvakus were one of the earliest recorded ruling dynasties of Andhra Pradesh and are said to have been the first Kshatriya rulers in the Andhra region. They ruled the eastern Andhra country along the Krishna river during the later half of the 2nd century CE. . Their capital was...

 in the 3rd century CE, as a product of the Mahāsāṃghika
Mahasamghika
The ' , literally the "Great Saṃgha", was one of the early Buddhist schools in ancient India.The origins of the sect of Buddhism are still extremely uncertain, and the subject of debate among scholars. One reason for the interest in the origins of the school is that their Vinaya recension appears...

s of the Āndhra region (i.e. the Caitika
Caitika
The Caitika was an early Buddhist school, and was a sub-sect of the Mahāsāṃghika school. They were also known as the Caityaka sect. The Caitikas proliferated throughout the mountains of southern India, from which it derives its name....

 schools). Wayman has outlined eleven points of complete agreement between the Mahāsāṃghikas and the Śrīmālā, along with four major arguments for this association. Sree Padma and Anthony Barber also associate the earlier development of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
Tathagatagarbha Sutra
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an influential and doctrinally striking Mahayana Buddhist scripture which treats of the existence of the "Tathagatagarbha" within all sentient creatures. The Buddha reveals how inside each person's being there exists a great Buddhic "treasure that is eternal and...

with the Mahāsāṃghikas, and conclude that the Mahāsāṃghikas of the Āndhra region were responsible for the inception of the Tathāgatagarbha doctrine.

Key texts associated with this doctrine are the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra, which contains a series of very striking, concrete images for what the tathāgatagarbha is, Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, which states that this doctrine is ultimate rather than provisional or "tactical", and perhaps most importantly the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
The Nirvana Sutra or ' ; ; ).) is one of the major sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. It shares its title with another well-known Buddhist scripture, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali Canon but is quite different in form and content...

, which likewise insists that the tathāgatagarbha teaching is "absolutely supreme" (uttarottara), the "final culmination" and "all-fulfilling conclusion" of the entirety of Mahāyāna Dharma.

The later Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

 presents the tathāgatagarbha as being a teaching completely consistent with and identical to emptiness and synthesizes tathāgatagarbha with the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the prajñāpāramitā
Prajnaparamita
Prajñāpāramitā in Buddhism, means "the Perfection of Wisdom." The word Prajñāpāramitā combines the Sanskrit words prajñā with pāramitā . Prajñāpāramitā is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and its practice and understanding are taken to be indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva Path...

sutras. Emptiness is the thought-transcending realm of non-duality and unconditionedness: complete freedom from all constriction and limitation.

Luminous mind in the Nikāyas

In the Anguttara Nikāya, the Buddha refers to a "luminous mind
Luminous mind
Luminous mind is a term attributed to the Buddha in the Nikayas...

". The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

describes the tathāgatagarbha as "by nature brightly shining and pure," and "originally pure," though "enveloped in the garments of the skandhas, dhātus and ayatanas and soiled with the dirt of attachment, hatred, delusion and false imagining." It is said to be "naturally pure," but it appears impure as it is stained by adventitious defilements. Thus the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra identifies the luminous mind of the canon with the tathāgatagarbha. It also equates the tathāgatagarbha (and ālaya-vijñāna) with nirvana, though this is concerned with the actual attainment of nirvana as opposed to nirvana as a timeless phenomenon. The canon does not support the identification of the "luminous mind" with nirvanic consciousness, though it plays a role in the realization of nirvana. Upon the destruction of the fetters, according to one scholar, "the shining nibbanic consciousness flashes out of the womb of arahantship, being without object or support, so transcending all limitations."

Tathāgatagarbha in Indian texts

The Buddha-nature is equated in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra with the changeless and deathless true self of the Buddha. In the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

, however, it is said that the tathāgatagarbha might be mistaken for a self
Atman (Buddhism)
The word Ātman or Atta refers to a self. Occasionally the terms "soul" or "ego" are also used. The words ātman and atta derive from the Indo-European root *ēt-men and are cognate with the Old English æthm and German Atem....

, which according to this sutra, it is not. This Buddha-nature is described in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra to be incorruptible, uncreated, and indestructible. It is eternal awakeness (bodhi
Bodhi
Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...

) indwelling samsara, and thus opens up the immanent possibility of liberation from all suffering and impermanence.

Every being has Buddha-nature (Buddha-dhatu). It is indicated in the Angulimaliya Sūtra
Angulimaliya Sutra
The Angulimaliya Sutra is a Buddhist scripture belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha class of sūtra, which teach that the Buddha is eternal, that the non-Self and emptiness teachings only apply to the worldly sphere , and that the tathagatagarbha is real and immanent within all beings and all phenomena...

that if the Buddhas themselves were to try to find any sentient being who lacked the Buddha-nature, they would fail. In fact, it is stated in this sutra that the Buddhas do discern the presence of the everlasting Buddha-nature in every being:
The eternality, unshakeability and changelessness of the Buddha-nature (often referred to as "tathagatagarbha") is also frequently stressed in the sutras which expound this Buddha element. The Śrīmālā Sūtra
Srimala Sutra
The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts that teaches the doctrines of Tathāgatagarbha and the One Vehicle , through the words of the Indian queen Śrīmālā...

, for example, says:
The development of the Buddha-nature doctrine is closely related to that of Buddha-matrix (Sanskrit: tathāgatagarbha). In the Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdeśa
Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa
The Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa is a Buddhist sutra belonging to the tathagatagarbha class of sutras...

, the Buddha links the tathāgatagarbha to the Dharmadhātu
Dharmadhatu
Dharmadhatu may be defined as the 'dimension', 'realm' or 'sphere' of Dharma and denotes the collective 'one-taste' dimension of Dharmata.-Nomenclature, orthography and etymology:...

(ultimate, all-equal, uncreated essence of all phenomena) and to essential being, stating:
This eternal refuge of the Dharmadhātu or Buddha-dhātu is transcendentally empty of all that is conditioned, afflicted, defective, and productive of suffering. It is equated in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra with Buddhic Knowledge (jñāna). Such Knowledge perceives both non-self and the self, emptiness (śūnyatā) and non-emptiness, wherein "the Empty is the totality of samsara [birth-and-death] and the non-Empty is Great Nirvana."

It is a recurrent theme of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra that the Buddha-nature is indestructible and forever untarnished. Professor Jeffrey Hopkins
Jeffrey Hopkins (Tibetologist)
Jeffrey Hopkins is a distinguished American Tibetologist. He is Emeritus of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught for more than three decades since 1973...

 translates several passages from the sutra in which the Buddha speaks of this topic and defines the Buddha-nature as pure, eternal, truly real self
Real self
The Real self theory in politics and philosophy proposes that people often have a private "real will" , that is different from their public "expressed will".-References:...

:
In explaining what is meant by sentient beings' having the Buddha-nature, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra distinguishes three ways of understanding the term "to have":
Thus according to Heng-Ching Shih, the teaching of the universal Buddha nature does not intend to assert the existence of substantial, entity-like self endowed with excellent features of a Buddha. Rather, Buddha-nature simply represents the potentiality to be realized in the future.

This type of interpretation of the Buddha-nature is not, however, universally accepted by Buddhists or scholars. Shenpen Hookham, Oxford Buddhist scholar and Tibetan lama of the Shentong
Shentong
Shentong is a philosophical sub-school found in Tibetan Buddhism. Its adherents generally hold that the nature of mind, the substratum of the mindstream, is "empty" of 'other' , i.e., empty of all qualities other than an inherent, ineffable nature...

 tradition, for example, writes of the Buddha-nature or "true self" as something real and permanent, and already present within the being as uncompounded enlightenment. She calls it "the Buddha within", and comments:
Buddhist scholar and chronicler, Merv Fowler, writes that the Buddha-nature really is present as an essence within each being. Fowler comments:
An important Sanskrit treatise on the Buddha-nature, the Ratnagotravibhāga sees the Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) as "suchness" or "thusness" - the abiding reality of all things - in a state of tarnished concealment within the being. The idea is that the ultimate consciousness of each being is spotless and pure, but surrounded by negative tendencies which are impure. Professor Paul Williams comments on how the impurity is actually not truly part of the Buddha-nature, but merely conceals the immanent true qualities of Buddha mind (i.e. the Buddha-nature) from manifesting openly:
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
Tathagatagarbha Sutra
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an influential and doctrinally striking Mahayana Buddhist scripture which treats of the existence of the "Tathagatagarbha" within all sentient creatures. The Buddha reveals how inside each person's being there exists a great Buddhic "treasure that is eternal and...

presents the tathāgatagarbha as a virtual Buddha-homunculus
Homunculus
Homunculus is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically, it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism...

, a fully wisdom-endowed Buddha, "a most victorious body ... great and indestructible", inviolate, seated majestically in the lotus posture
Lotus position
The Lotus Position is a cross-legged sitting posture originating in meditative practices of ancient India, in which the feet are placed on the opposing thighs. It is an established posture, commonly used for meditation, in the Hindu Yoga and Buddhist contemplative traditions...

 within the body of each being, clearly visible only to a perfect Buddha with his supernatural vision. This is the most "personalist" depiction of the tathāgatagarbha encountered in any of the chief Tathāgatagarbha sutras and is imagistically reminiscent of Mahāyāna descriptions of the Buddha himself sitting in the lotus posture within his own mother's womb prior to birth: "luminous, glorious, gracious, beautiful to see, seated with his legs crossed" and shining "like pure gold ..."

Other tathāgatagarbha sutras (notably the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra) view the tathāgatagarbha in a more abstract, less explicitly personalist manner. But all are agreed that the tathāgatagarbha is an immortal, inherent transcendental essence or potency and that it resides in a concealed state (concealed by mental and behavioural negativities) in every single being, even the worst - the icchantika
Icchantika
The icchantika is, according to some Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, the most base and spiritually deluded of all types of being. The term implies being given over to total hedonism and greed...

.

Although attempts are made in the Buddhist sutras to explain the tathāgatagarbha, it remains ultimately mysterious and allegedly unfathomable to the ordinary, unawakened person, being only fully knowable by perfect Buddhas themselves. As the Śrīmālā Sūtra
Srimala Sutra
The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts that teaches the doctrines of Tathāgatagarbha and the One Vehicle , through the words of the Indian queen Śrīmālā...

states:
the tathāgatagarbha is the sphere of experience of the Tathāgatas [Buddhas] ...

It cannot even be seen clearly even by 10th-level (i.e. highest level) bodhisattvas - although they vaguely perceive its presence. Yet once it is fully "seen and known", on that morning the bodhisattva "attains the sovereign self" (aishvarya-atman) and Buddhahood is achieved. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra, which presents itself as the final teachings of the Buddha on the tathāgatagarbha, makes clear that there are two kinds of self of which he speaks: one mundane and mutable, the other Buddhic and eternal. The first is denied as truly real, while the second is affirmed as the only true reality. In this same sutra the Buddha explains that he proclaims all beings to have Buddha-nature (which is used synonymously with "tathāgatagarbha" in this sutra) in the sense that they will in the future become Buddhas. In the later Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

it is said that the tathāgatagarbha might be mistaken for a self, which it is not. In fact, the sutra states that it is identical to the teaching of no-self.

In some sutras the tathāgatagarbha is presented as being possessed of two elements, one essential, immutable, changeless and still, the other active and salvational. As Professor Robert E. Buswell Jr. writes in connection with the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra
Vajrasamadhi-sutra
The Vajrasamadhi-sutra is one of the supreme teachings given by Vairocana-shakyamuni Buddha. Over the centuries the Sanskrit manuscript of the Vajrasamadhi-sutra has vanished and today, many scholars deny that the sutra was spoken by the Buddha, believing it to have been the work of a Korean...

:
This 'dharma of the one mind', which is the 'original tathagatagarbha', is said to be 'calm and motionless' ... The Vajrasamadhis analysis of tathagatagarbha also recalls a distinction the Awakening of Faith makes between the calm, unchanging essence of the mind and its active, adaptable function ... the tathagatagarbha is equated with the 'original edge of reality' (bhutakoti) that is beyond all distinctions - the equivalent of original enlightenment, or the essence. But tathagatagarbha is also the active functioning of that original enlightenment - 'the inspirational power of that fundamental faculty' .... The tathagatagarbha is thus both the 'original edge of reality' that is beyond cultivation (= essence) as well as the specific types of wisdom and mystical talents that are the byproducts of enlightenment (= function). ....

The tathāgatagarbha itself thus needs no cultivation, only uncovering or dis-covery, as it is already present and perfect within each being.

Jeffrey Hopkins, also elucidates this idea of the
tathāgatagarbha:
An unknown treasure exists under the home of a poor person that must be uncovered through removing obstructive dirt, yielding the treasure that always was there. Just as the treasure already exists and thus requires no further fashioning, so the matrix-of-one-gone-thus [i.e. the tathāgatagarbha], endowed with ultimate buddha qualities, already dwells within each sentient being and needs only to be freed from defilements.


The
tathāgatagarbha doctrine later became linked (in syncretic form - e.g. in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

) with doctrines of Citta-mātra ("just-the-mind") or Yogācāra
Yogacara
Yogācāra is an influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing phenomenology and ontology through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It developed within Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in about the 4th century CE...

. Yogācārins aimed to account for the possibility of the attainment of Buddhahood by ignorant sentient beings: the
tathāgatagarbha is the indwelling awakening of bodhi
Bodhi
Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...

 in the very heart of samsara
Samsara
thumb|right|200px|Traditional Tibetan painting or [[Thanka]] showing the [[wheel of life]] and realms of saṃsāraSaṅsāra or Saṃsāra , , literally meaning "continuous flow", is the cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth or reincarnation within Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism, Sikhism, and other...

. There is also a tendency in the
tathāgatagarbha sutras to support vegetarianism, as all persons and creatures are compassionately viewed as possessing one and the same essential nature - the Buddha-dhatu or Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle , is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas...

. (See: vegetarianism in Buddhism
Vegetarianism in Buddhism
In Buddhism, the views on vegetarianism vary from school to school. According to Theravada, the Buddha allowed his monks to eat pork, chicken and beef if the animal was not killed for the purpose of providing food for monks...

.)

Some of the most important early texts for the introduction and elaboration of the
tathāgatagarbha doctrine are the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
The Nirvana Sutra or ' ; ; ).) is one of the major sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. It shares its title with another well-known Buddhist scripture, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali Canon but is quite different in form and content...

, the Tathāgatagarbha Sutra
Tathagatagarbha Sutra
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an influential and doctrinally striking Mahayana Buddhist scripture which treats of the existence of the "Tathagatagarbha" within all sentient creatures. The Buddha reveals how inside each person's being there exists a great Buddhic "treasure that is eternal and...

, the Śrīmālā-Sūtra
Srimala Sutra
The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts that teaches the doctrines of Tathāgatagarbha and the One Vehicle , through the words of the Indian queen Śrīmālā...

, the Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdeśa Sūtra
Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa
The Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa is a Buddhist sutra belonging to the tathagatagarbha class of sutras...

, and the Angulimaliya Sūtra
Angulimaliya Sutra
The Angulimaliya Sutra is a Buddhist scripture belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha class of sūtra, which teach that the Buddha is eternal, that the non-Self and emptiness teachings only apply to the worldly sphere , and that the tathagatagarbha is real and immanent within all beings and all phenomena...

; the later commentarial and exegetical-style texts, the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna
Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna is a text of the Mahāyāna branch of Buddhism.-Origin and History:...

scripture and the Ratna-gotra-vibhāga
Ratna-gotra-vibhaga
Ratnagotravibhāga and its vyākhyā commentary are important Buddhist texts of the tathāgatagarbha literature which expound the Buddhist philosophy doctrine known as Buddha-nature which is generally understood as belonging to the Third Turning of the Dharmacakra...

summation of the tathāgatagarbha idea had a significant influence on the understanding of tathāgatagarbha doctrine.

The concept of the
tathāgatagarbha is closely related to that of the Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle , is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas...

; indeed, in the
Angulimaliya Sūtra
Angulimaliya Sutra
The Angulimaliya Sutra is a Buddhist scripture belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha class of sūtra, which teach that the Buddha is eternal, that the non-Self and emptiness teachings only apply to the worldly sphere , and that the tathagatagarbha is real and immanent within all beings and all phenomena...

and in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
The Nirvana Sutra or ' ; ; ).) is one of the major sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. It shares its title with another well-known Buddhist scripture, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali Canon but is quite different in form and content...

, which latter is the lengthiest sutra dealing with the immanent and transcendent presence of the tathāgatagarbha within all beings, the terms "Buddha-nature" (Buddha-dhātu) and "tathāgatagarbha" are synonyms.

Belief and faith in the true reality of the
tathāgatagarbha is presented by the relevant scriptures as a positive mental act and is strongly urged; indeed, rejection of the tathāgatagarbha is linked with highly adverse karmic consequences. In the Angulimaliya Sutra, for instance, it is stated that teaching only non-self and dismissing the reality of the tathāgatagarbha karmically lead one into most unpleasant rebirths, whereas spreading the doctrine of the tathāgatagarbha will bring benefit both to oneself and to the world. We read:
Those who were donkeys in previous lives and paid no attention to the Tathâgata-garbha are now poor and eat coarse food as donkeys do. In future lives, too, apart from being poor, they will be born into lowly kshatriya [military] families. These are none other than the people who have no faith in the Tathâgata-garbha and cultivate the notion of no-Self, for they will be like prostitutes, outcastes, birds and donkeys ...

People who lack learning and have wrong views get angry with those who teach the Tathâgata-garbha to the world, and [those unlearned people] expound non-Self in place of the Self as their doctrine. He who teaches the Tathâgata-garbha, even at the expense of his own life, knowing that such people are inexperienced with words and lacking in balance, has true patience and teaches for the benefit of the world.


Caution is required when discussing the doctrine of the tathāgatagarbha (as presented in the primary tathāgatagarbha-sutric texts), so that the tathāgatagarbha does not become inaccurately denigrated or reduced to a "mere" tactical device or become dismissed as just a metaphor with no actual ontological reality behind it in the here and now. It is incorrect from the perspective of the tathāgatagarbha sutras to view the tathāgatagarbha solely as some future as yet non-existent potential or as a vacuous emptiness. The tathāgatagarbha is not constrained by time, not subsumed within the past-present-future confines of temporality, but is changeless and eternal. Conversely, it is erroneous to construe the tathāgatagarbha as a tangible, worldly, mutating, passion-dominated, desire-driven "ego" on a grand scale, similar to the "ego-lie" composed of the five mundane skandhas (impermanent mental and physical constituents of the unawakened being). The tathāgatagarbha is indicated by the relevant sutras to be one with the Buddha, just as the Buddha is the tathāgatagarbha at the core of his being. The tathāgatagarbha is the ultimate, pure, ungraspable, inconceivable, irreducible, unassailable, boundless, true and deathless quintessence of the Buddha's emancipatory reality, the very core of his sublime nature (Dharmakāya
Dharmakaya
The Dharmakāya is a central idea in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā , composed in the 1st century BCE...

). The tathāgatagarbha is, according to the final sutric teaching of the Mahāyāna Nirvāṇa Sūtra, the hidden interior Buddhic self (ātman
Atman (Buddhism)
The word Ātman or Atta refers to a self. Occasionally the terms "soul" or "ego" are also used. The words ātman and atta derive from the Indo-European root *ēt-men and are cognate with the Old English æthm and German Atem....

), untouched by all impurity and grasping ego. Because of its concealment, it is extremely difficult to perceive. Even the eye of insight
Prajña
Prajñā or paññā is wisdom, understanding, discernment or cognitive acuity. Such wisdom is understood to exist in the universal flux of being and can be intuitively experienced through meditation...

 (
prajñā) is not adequate to the task of truly seeing this tathāgatagarbha (so the Nirvāṇa Sūtra): only the "eye of a Buddha" can discern it fully and clearly. For unawakened beings, there remains the springboard of faith in the tathāgatagarbha's mystical and liberative reality.

It is possible to do a Madhyamaka interpretation of
tathāgatagarbha literature.

The Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra)

Of disputed authorship, the Ratnagotravibhāga (otherwise known as the Uttaratantra), is the only Indian attempt to create a coherent philosophical model based on the ideas found in the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras. The Ratnagotravibhāga especially draws on the Srimaladevisimhanada Sutra. Despite East Asian Buddhism's propensity for the concepts found in the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras, the Ratnagotravibhāga has played a relatively small role in East Asian Buddhism. This is due to the primacy of sutra study in East Asian Buddhism.

Tathāgatagarbha in East Asian Buddhism

The role of the tathāgatagarbha in Zen can not be discussed or understood without an understanding of how tathāgatagarbha is taught in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...

. It is through the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra that the tathāgatagarbha has been part of Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 (i.e., Chan) teaching since its beginning in China. Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...

, the traditional founder of Chan-Zen in China, is traditionally known for carrying the
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra with him when he came from India to China. The early Zen/Chan teachers in the lineage of Bodhidharma's school were known as the "Laṅkāvatāra Masters"
The
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra presents the Chan/Zen Buddhist view of the tathāgatagarbha:
[The Buddha said,]
Now, Mahāmati, what is perfect knowledge? It is realised when one casts aside the discriminating notions of form, name, reality, and character; it is the inner realisation by noble wisdom. This perfect knowledge, Mahāmati, is the essence of the Tathāgata-garbha.

Because of the use of expedient means
Upaya
Upaya is a term in Mahayana Buddhism which is derived from the root upa√i and refers to a means that goes or brings one up to some goal, often the goal of Enlightenment. The term is often used with kaushalya ; upaya-kaushalya means roughly "skill in means"...

 (
upāya) by metaphors (e.g., the hidden jewel) in the way that the tathāgatagarbha was taught in some sutras, two fundamentally mistaken notions arose: first that the tathāgatagarbha was a teaching different from and somehow more definitive than the teaching of emptiness (śūnyatā), and second that tathāgatagarbha was believed to be a substance of reality, a creator, or a substitute for the ego-substance or fundamental self
Atman (Buddhism)
The word Ātman or Atta refers to a self. Occasionally the terms "soul" or "ego" are also used. The words ātman and atta derive from the Indo-European root *ēt-men and are cognate with the Old English æthm and German Atem....

 (
ātman) of the Brahmans. Responding to these two mistaken notions, in Section XXVIII of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Mahāmati asks Buddha, "Is not this Tathagata-garbha taught by the Blessed One the same as the ego-substance taught by the philosophers?"
The Blessed One replied: No, Mahamati, my Tathagata-garbha is not the same as the ego taught by the philosophers; for what the Tathagatas teach is the Tathagata-garbha in the sense, Mahamati, that it is emptiness, reality-limit, Nirvana, being unborn, unqualified, and devoid of will-effort; the reason why the Tathagatas who are Arhats and Fully-Enlightened Ones, teach the doctrine pointing to the Tathagata-garbha is to make the ignorant cast aside their fear when they listen to the teaching of egolessness and to have them realise the state of non-discrimination and imagelessness. I also wish, Mahamati, that the Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas of the present and future would not attach themselves to the idea of an ego [imagining it to be a soul]. Mahamati, it is like a potter who manufactures various vessels out of a mass of clay of one sort by his own manual skill and labour combined with a rod, water, and thread, Mahamati, that the Tathagatas preach the egolessness of things which removes all the traces of discrimination by various skilful means issuing from their transcendental wisdom, that is, sometimes by the doctrine of the Tathagata-garbha, sometimes by that of egolessness, and, like a potter, by means of various terms, expressions, and synonyms. For this reason, Mahamati, the philosophers' doctrine of an ego-substance is not the same as the teaching of the Tathagata-garbha. Thus, Mahamati, the doctrine of the Tathagata-garbha is disclosed in order to awaken the philosophers from their clinging to the idea of the ego, so that those minds that have fallen into the views imagining the non-existent ego as real, and also into the notion that the triple emancipation is final, may rapidly be awakened to the state of supreme enlightenment. Accordingly, Mahamati, the Tathagatas who are Arhats and Fully-Enlightened Ones disclose the doctrine of the Tathagata-garbha which is thus not to be known as identical with the philosopher's notion of an ego-substance. Therefore. Mahamati, in order to abandon the misconception cherished by the philosophers, you must strive after the teaching of egolessness and the Tathagata-garbha.

Also as described in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, in Chan/Zen the tathāgatagarbha is identical to the ālayavijñāna known prior to awakening as the storehouse-consciousness or 8th consciousness. Chan/Zen masters from Huineng
Huineng
Dajian Huineng was a Chinese Chán monastic who is one of the most important figures in the entire tradition, according to standard Zen hagiographies...

 in 7th century China to Hakuin in 18th century Japan to Hsu Yun
Hsu Yun
Hsu Yun , born Xiao Guyan 萧古巖, 26 August 1840 – 13 October 1959) was a renowned Zen Buddhist master and one of the most influential Buddhist teachers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is often noted for his unusually long lifespan, having lived to age 119.-Early life:Hsu Yun was born on April 26...

 in 20th century China, have all taught that the process of awakening begins with the light of the mind turning around within the 8th consciousness, so that the
ālayavijñāna, also known as the tathāgatagarbha, is transformed into the "bright mirror wisdom". When this active transformation is complete the other seven consciousnesses are also transformed. The 7th consciousness of delusive discrimination becomes transformed into the "equality wisdom". The 6th consciousness of thinking sense becomes transformed into the "profound observing wisdom", and the 1st to 5th consciousnessses of the five sensory senses become transformed into the "all-performing wisdom".

As D.T. Suzuki wrote in his introduction to his translation of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra,

Let there be, however, an intuitive penetration into the primitive purity (
prakritiparisuddhi) of the Tathagata-garbha, and the whole system of the Vijnanas goes through a revolution.

This revolution in the system of consciousness
Vijnana
Vijñāna or viññāa is translated as "consciousness," "life force," "mind," or "discernment."...

 (
vijñāna) is what Chan/Zen calls "awakening
Kensho
Kenshō is a Japanese term for enlightenment experiences. It is most commonly referred to in Zen Buddhism.Literally it means "seeing one's nature" or "true self." It generally "refers to the realization of nonduality of subject and object." Frequently used in juxtaposition with satori , there is...

" (
kensho), seeing into one's own nature.

Therefore, in modern-Western manifestations of the Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 Buddhist tradition, it is considered insufficient simply to understand Buddha-nature intellectually. Rather
tathāgatagarbha must be experienced directly, in one's entire bodymind. Enlightenment in a certain sense consists of a direct experience (gata) of the essence or womb (garbha) of thusness (tathā) and this is the tathāgatagarbha of one's own mind, which is traditionally described and designated as emptiness
Shunyata
Śūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong-pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoγusun is frequently translated into English as emptiness...

 (
śūnyatā).

The Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 tradition often uses a koan to evoke the revolution in consciousness of the turning of the light back to the
tathāgatagarbha or Buddha-nature. According to one of the most famous koans, a monk once approached the Zen master Chao-chou  and asked him, "Does a dog possess Buddha-nature or not?" Chao-chou replied with the one-word answer "Wú" , which literally means "there is no" or "without", and in post-Han Chinese philosophy, "non-being". Through an inquiring contemplation of the question and response, one may come to detach from the phenomena of externals in which the six sense consciousnesses are usually enthralled and realize the turning around of the light of the mind to gain a direct insight into the tathāgatagarbha of Buddha-nature.

Further reading


See also

External links

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