8605-Article Text-8413-1-10-20110301
8605-Article Text-8413-1-10-20110301
8605-Article Text-8413-1-10-20110301
BUDDHIST STUDIES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A. K. Narain
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
EDITORS
L. M.Joshi Ernst Steinkellner
Punjabi University University of Vienna
Patiala, India Wien, Austria
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Roger Jackson
FJRN->'
I. ARTICLES
by William Grosnick
Moreover, not only does the author of the AFM refer ex-
tensively to concepts found exclusively in the tathagatagarbha
literature; he also builds on these notions, explaining problems
left unresolved in earlier tathagatagarbha texts. A case in point
is the seeming contradiction between the idea that tathatd is
markless and free from discrimination and the idea that it is
replete with innumerable discernible virtues. Authors of earlier
texts identified the tathagatagarbha as "samala tathatd"10 or
"thusness" hidden by defilements, and they emphasized that
tathatd lay beyond the categories of conceptual thought. But, at
the same time, these authors identified the tathagatagarbha
with the innumerable virtues and powers of the Buddha, ap-
parently without wondering whether these virtues and powers
might not be discernible only to a discriminating consciousness.
T h e author of the AFM, on the other hand, shows an aware-
ness of this apparent contradiction, and goes to great length to
explain that the essential nature of mind (which is identical with
tathatd), is really free from all distinctions, and it is only with
reference to the discriminating, deluded mind, which is charac-
terized by innumerable illusions and defilements, that it is pos-
sible to speak of the innumerable virtues associated with the
tathagatagarbha. It is not that tathatd is itself differentiated."
All of this is highly sophisticated, if not abstruse, and shows
that the author of the AFM did not merely pull a few terms or
concepts at random out of Indian Buddhist texts and then use
them to expound a home-grown philosophy. He was, in fact, so
familiar with and involved in the tradition of tathagatagarbha
thought that he could address problems arising within the tra-
dition itself. It would not be surprising, therefore, if one found
that other ideas in the AFM, such as its theory of mind and
thought, showed the influence of the Indian tathagatagarbha
literature.
T h e question of precisely which sutras or commentarial
works expounding the tathagatagarbha were used by the au-
thor of the AFM is an open one, however. It is possible that the
author might have been familiar with one or more of a dozen
or so texts, including the Lahkdvatdrasutra, Srimdlddevisutra, An-
unatvdpurnatvanirdesa, Anuttardfrayasutra, Fo-hsing lunb (*Budd-
hagotrasdstra), and the Ratnagotravibhdga, all of which seem to
have borrowed ideas, images, and terminology from one an-
other. But, it is worth noting that the RGV, besides being the
38 JIABS VOL. 6 NO. 2
most central of all these texts, was also well known to some of"
the principal figures connected with the AFM. Jikido Takasaki
has shown that Paramartha, to whom tradition accords the first
translation of the AFM, was extremely well-versed in the
RGV—his interpolation of extended passages from the RGV
into his "translation" of the Mahay dnasarngraha demonstrates
this rather convincingly. 12 And, for those who are inclined to
assign the authorship of the AFM to a master of the Ti-lun
school, it is worth noting that Ratnamati, co-founder of that
school, was also the translator of the RGV into Chinese. With
the references to the tathagatagarbha teaching found in the
AFM itself, this shows that it was quite possible for the RGV to
have exerted a direct textual influence in the AFM. 13
Since both the RGV and the AFM make the nonorigination of
deluded thought the central characteristic of the pure mental
nature, it is difficult to find any significant difference between
the two texts' basic perspectives on mind and thoughts.
Lai has pointed out the difficulty translators and scholars
of the AFM have had in reconstructing a possible original San-
skrit term for nien, the Chinese term for "thought." 3 " Smrti,
44 J1ABS VOL. 6 NO. 2
NOTES
Indian svabhava (t'i) and laksuria (ksiang) distinction ("New Light on the Ma-
hdydna-.iraddhotpddasdslra,'" T'oung Pao, 46 (1958), pp. 165-66. The problem
may be more complex than that, however, and it should be noted that a
couple of the basic categories of analysis used in the RGV and many Vijnana-
vadin texts, karman and vrtti, could conceivably be assimilated into yung, or
"function." This is a problem worthy of further investigation.
44. Ci. Paul Demieville, "Sur VAuthenticite du Ta Tcheng K'i Sin Louen"
Choix d'Etudes BouddhUjues (1929-1970), (Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1973), pp. 2 0 -
21.
45. Takasaki, "Shindai-yaku," p. 253.
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