Hot cognition is a hypothesis on motivated reasoning
in which a person's thinking is influenced by their emotional state.
Put simply, hot cognition is cognition coloured by emotion. Hot cognition contrasts with cold cognition, which implies cognitive processing of information that is independent of emotional involvement.
Hot cognition is proposed to be associated with cognitive and
physiological arousal, in which a person is more responsive to
environmental factors. As it is automatic, rapid and led by emotion, hot cognition may consequently cause biased decision making.
Hot cognition may arise, with varying degrees of strength, in politics,
religion, and other sociopolitical contexts because of moral issues,
which are inevitably tied to emotion. Hot cognition was initially proposed in 1963 by Robert P. Abelson. The idea became popular in the 1960s and the 1970s.
An example of a biased decision caused by hot cognition would be a
juror disregarding evidence because of an attraction to the defendant. Decision making with cold cognition is more likely to involve logic and critical analysis.
Therefore, when an individual engages in a task while using cold
cognition, the stimulus is likely to be emotionally neutral and the
"outcome of the test is not motivationally relevant" to the individual.An example of a critical decision using cold cognition would be concentrating on the evidence before drawing a conclusion.
Hot and cold cognition form a dichotomy within executive functioning.
Executive functioning has long been considered as a domain general
cognitive function, but there has been support for separation into "hot"
affective aspects and "cold" cognitive aspects. It is recognized that executive functioning spans across a number of cognitive tasks, including working memory, cognitive flexibility and reasoning
in active goal pursuit. The distinction between hot and cool cognition
implies that executive function may operate differently in different
contexts. The distinction has been applied to research in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, social psychology, neuropsychology, and other areas of study in psychology.
Development and neuroanatomy
Performance on hot and cold tasks improves most rapidly during the preschool years, but continues into adolescence. This co-occurs with both structural and functional development associated with the prefrontal cortex.
Specific areas within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are thought to be
associated with both hot and cold cognition. Hot cognition is likely to
be utilized during tasks that require the regulation of emotion
or motivation, as well as the re-evaluation of the motivational
significance of a stimulus. The ventral and medial areas of the
prefrontal cortex (VM-PFC)
are implicated during these tasks. Cold cognition is thought to be
associated with executive functions elicited by abstract,
deconceptualized tasks, such as card sorting. The area of the brain that
is utilized for these tasks is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC). It is between the ages of 3 years and 5 years that the most significant change in task completion is seen. Age-related trends have been observed in tasks used to measure hot cognition, as well as cold cognition. However, the age at which children reach adult-like functioning varies.
It appears as though children take longer to fully develop hot executive functioning than cold.
This lends support to the idea that hot cognition may follow a
separate, and perhaps delayed, developmental trajectory as opposed to
cold cognition. Further research done on these neurological areas suggests there may be some plasticity
during the development of both hot and cold cognition. While the
preschool years are ones of extreme sensitivity to the development of
prefrontal cortex, a similar period is found in the transition into
adolescence.
This gives rise to the idea that there may be a time window for
intervention training, which would improve cognitive abilities and
executive functioning in children and adolescents.
This
section explains the most common tasks that are used to measure hot and
cold cognitive functioning. The cool tasks are neutrally affective and
measure executive function abilities such as cognitive flexibility and
working memory. In other words, there is nothing to be gained or lost by
performing these tasks. The hot tasks also measure executive function,
but these tasks result in emotionally significant consequences.
Hot function tasks
Iowa gambling task
In the Iowa gambling task
participants are initially given $2,000 facsimile dollars and asked to
win as much money as possible. They are presented with four decks of
cards that represent either a gain or loss in money. One card from each
deck is drawn at a time. Consistently choosing a card from the
advantageous decks results in a net gain, whereas choosing from a
disadvantageous deck results in a net loss. Each card from the
disadvantageous deck offers a higher reward than the advantageous deck,
but also a higher and more variable loss.
Delay of gratification
Studies
have been conducted on the concept of delay of gratification to test
whether or not people are capable of waiting to receive a reward in
order to increase the value of the reward. In these experiments,
participants can choose to either take the reward they are immediately
presented with or can choose to wait a period of time to then receive a
higher valued reward. Hot cognition would motivate people to immediately
satisfy their craving for the present reward rather than waiting for a
better reward.
Neutral versus negative syllogisms tasks
The
influence that beliefs can have on logical reasoning may vary as a
result of emotions during cognitive processes. When presented with
neutral content, this will typically lead to the exhibition of the
belief-bias effect. In contrast, content that is emotionally charged
will result in a diminished likelihood of beliefs having an influence.
The impact of negative emotions
demonstrates the capability they have for altering the process
underlying logical reasoning. There is an interaction that occurs
between emotions and beliefs that interferes with the ability that an
individual has to reason.
Cold function tasks
The
cool tasks are neutrally affective and measure executive function
abilities such as cognitive flexibility and working memory. In other
words, there is nothing to be gained or lost by performing these tasks.
The hot tasks also measure executive function, but these tasks result in
emotionally significant consequences.
Self Ordered Pointing
In
this task an array of items is presented to participants. The position
of these items then randomly changes from trial to trial. Participants
are instructed to point to one of these items, but then asked to not
point to that same item again. In order to perform well on this task,
participants must remember what item they pointed to and use this
information to decide on subsequent responses.
Wisconsin Card Sort Task (WCST)
The Wisconsin Card Sort Task
requires participants to sort stimulus cards that differ in dimensions
(shape, colour, or number). However, they are not told how to sort them.
The only feedback they receive is whether or not a match is correct.
Participants must discover the rule according to dimension. Once the
participant matches a certain number of correct cards, the dimension
changes and they must rediscover the new rule. This requires
participants to remember the rule they were using and cognitively change
the rule by which they use to sort.
Dimensional Change Card Sort Task (DCCS)
Participants
are required to sort stimulus cards based on either shape or colour.
They are first instructed to sort based on one dimension (colour) in a
trial, and then it switches to the other (shape) in the following trial.
"Switch" trials are also used where the participant must change back
and forth between rules within a single trial. Unlike the WCST, the rule
is explicitly stated and does not have to be inferred. The task
measures how flexible participants are to changing rules. This requires
participants to shift between dimensions of sorting.
Recent evidence
Research has demonstrated emotional manipulations on decision making processes.
Participants who are induced with enthusiasm, anger or distress
(different specific emotions) responded in different ways to the
risky-choice problems, demonstrating that hot cognition, as an automatic
process, affects decision making differently. Another example of hot
cognition is a better predictor of negative emotional arousal as compared to cold cognition when they have a personal investment, such as wanting your team to win.
In addition, hot cognition changes the way people use decision-making
strategies, depending on the type of mood they are in, positive or
negative. When people are in a positive mood, they tend to use
compensatory, holistic strategies. This leads to a shallow and broad
processing of information. In a negative mood people employ
non-compensatory, narrow strategies which leads to a more
detail-oriented and thorough processing of information. In the study
participants were shown movie clips in order to induce a mood of
happiness, anger or sadness and asked to complete a decision-making
task. Researchers found that participants in the negative mood condition
used more non-compensatory, specific decision-making techniques by
focusing on the details of the situation. Participants in the positive
mood condition used more compensatory, broad decision making techniques
by focusing on the bigger picture of the situation. Also, hot cognition
has been implicated in automatic processing and autobiographical memory.
Furthermore, hot cognition extends outside the laboratory as exhibited
in political process and criminal judgments. When police officers were
induced with sadness they were more likely to think the suspect was
guilty.
However, if police officers were induced with anger there was no
difference in judgments. There are also clinical implications for
understanding certain disorders. Patients diagnosed with anorexia
nervosa went through intervention training, which included hot cognition
as a part of emotional processing development, did not show any
improvement after this training.
In another clinical population, those diagnosed with bipolar disorder
exaggerated their perception of negative feedback and were less likely
to adjust their decision making process in the face of risky-choices
(gambling tasks).
The moon hidden by the clouds is a metaphor for Buddha-nature which is always shining but can be hidden or covered over by the afflictions.
In Buddhist philosophy, Buddha-nature is the potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all beings already have a pure buddha-essence within. "Buddha-nature" is the common English translation for several related MahayanaBuddhist terms, most notably tathāgatagarbha and buddhadhātu, but also sugatagarbha, and buddhagarbha. Tathāgatagarbha can mean "the womb" or "embryo" (garbha) of the "thus-gone one" (tathāgata), and can also mean "containing a tathāgata". Buddhadhātu can mean "buddha-element," "buddha-realm" or "buddha-substrate".
Buddha-nature has a wide range of (sometimes conflicting)
meanings in Indian and later 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 (visuddhi) mind undefiled by kleshas, 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 recognised for what it is.
The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (written 2nd century CE), which was very influential in the Chinese reception of these teachings, linked the concept of tathāgatagarbha with the buddhadhātu. The term buddhadhātu originally referred to buddha relics. In the Mahāparinirvāṇa, it came to be used in place of the concept of tathāgatagārbha, reshaping the worship of physical buddha relics of the Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation.
The primordial or undefiled mind, the tathagatagarbha, is also often equated with emptiness; with the alayavijñana ("storehouse-consciousness", a yogacara concept); and with the interpenetration of all dharmas (in East Asian traditions like Huayan). Buddha nature ideas are central to East Asian Buddhism, which relies on key buddha-nature sources like the Mahāparinirvāṇa. In Tibetan Buddhism, buddha-nature ideas are also important, and are 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 Chinese translated the term tathāgatagarbha as rúláizàng (如来藏), or "Tathāgata's (rúlái) storehouse" (zàng). According to Brown, "storehouse" may indicate both "that which enfolds or contains something", or "that which is itself enfolded, hidden or contained by another." The Tibetan translation is de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po, which cannot be translated as "womb" (mngal or lhums), but as "embryonic essence", "kernel" or "heart". The term "heart" was also used by Mongolian translators.
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.
According to King, the Chinese rúláizàng was taken in its meaning as "womb" or "fruit".
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", "(embracing/concealing)
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 term "buddha-nature" (traditional Chinese: 佛性; ; pinyin: fóxìng, Japanese: busshō) is closely related in meaning to the term tathāgatagarbha, but is not an exact translation of this term. It refers to what is essential in the human being.
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 (dhātu) 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.
According to Alex Wayman, the idea of the tathāgatagarbha is grounded on sayings by the Buddha that there is something called the luminous mind (prabhasvaracitta), "which is only adventitiously covered over by defilements (agantuka klesha)." The luminous mind is mentioned in a passage from the Anguttara Nikaya (which has various parallels) 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" (mulavijñana) which serves as the basic layer of the mind and which is held to have a self-nature (cittasvabhāva) which is pure (visuddhi) and undefiled. In some of the tathagatagarbha-sutras a consciousness which is naturally pure (prakṛti-pariśuddha)
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 Brunnholzl writes that the first probable mention of the term tathāgatagarbha is in the Ekottarika Agama (though here it is used in a different way than in later texts). The passage states:
If someone devotes himself to the Ekottarikagama, Then he has the tathagatagarbha. Even if his body cannot exhaust defilements in this life, In his next life he will attain supreme wisdom.
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
(1st–3rd century CE), 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 (buddhajñāna)," 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
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra states that the tathāgatagarbha is like the grain of rice contained inside of the husk of the rice plantThe Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra uses the image of a Buddha within a lotus flower as a metaphor for the tathāgatagarbha
According to Zimmerman, the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra (200–250 CE) 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 (*tathāgatatva, *buddhatva, *tathāgatakāya) within themselves, but do not recognize it because it is covered over by afflictions.
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra uses nine similes to illustrate the concept:
This [tathāgatagarbha] abides
within the shroud of the afflictions, as should be understood through
[the following nine] examples: Just like a buddha in a decaying lotus,
honey amidst bees, a grain in its husk, gold in filth, a treasure
underground, a shoot and so on sprouting from a little fruit, a statue
of the Victorious One in a tattered rag, a ruler of humankind in a
destitute woman's womb, and a precious image under clay, this [buddha]
element abides within all sentient beings, obscured by the defilement of
the adventitious poisons.
Another important and early source for buddha-nature is the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (often just called the Nirvana Sutra), 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"
("buddha-nature" or "buddha-element") 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 (ātman), though it also attempts to argue that this claim is not incompatible with the teaching of not-self (anatman). The Nirvana sutra
further claims that buddha-nature (and the Buddha's body, his
Dharmakaya) is characterized by four perfections (pāramitās) or
qualities: permanence (nitya), bliss (sukha), self (ātman), and purity (śuddha).
Other important buddha-nature sutras
Other important tathāgatagarbha sutras include:
The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra (The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala, c. 3rd century CE) which discusses the tathāgatagarbha along with other key Mahayana doctrines like the one vehicle and the luminous mind and links them to buddha-nature thought. This sutra also states that the mind's luminous nature, while being empty of adventitious defilements, is not empty of limitless buddha qualities. Furthermore, the Śrīmālādevī
also says that the tathāgatagarbha is the basis of both saṃsāra and
nirvāṇa and equates it with the dharmakāya (which is described as
"permanent," "eternal," "everlasting," and "peaceful").[61]
The Anūnatvāpurnatvanirdeśa (The Teaching of Neither Increase nor Decrease). This sutra states that there is no increase or decrease in the “realm (or domain, or element) of (sentient) beings” (sattvadhātu), which is really a single domain (*ekadhātu) that is equally samsara and buddhahood and is equated with the “originally pure mind” (*prakṛtipariśuddhacitta) and tathāgatagarbha.
The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra (2nd c. CE) – Features the mass murderer convert Aṅgulimāla
as a central character (now reformed and turned into a bodhisattva).
The text attributes various qualities to the universal tathāgatagarbha,
such as non-arising, independence, invariability, and not being the
perceptive mind.
Mahābherīhārakaparivarta Sūtra, The Beater of the Great Drum Sutra) – Describes buddha nature as luminous and pure, as eternal, everlasting, peaceful and self (ātman).
Mahamegha Sūtra (Great Cloud Sutra). Like the Nirvana sutra this sutra also teaches the eternity of Buddhas (and their docetic
nature) and the four perfections of permanence, bliss, self and purity
as qualities of the Buddha. It also discusses the non-dual nature of all
sentient beings with the Dharmadhatu along with four hundred types of samādhi.
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (compiled 350–400 CE) synthesized the tathāgatagarbha doctrine and teachings of the Yogācāra school, like the ālāya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness) and the "three natures". According to the Laṅkāvatāra,
tathāgatagarbha is the same as the ālayavijñāna (though this is
qualified in other passages which explain that there are two layers of
the ālayavijñāna, a pure and an impure layer). The storehouse consciousness is supposed to contain the pure tathāgatagarbha, from which awakening arises. Wayman notes that this synthesis of tathāgatagarbha thought and Yogacara Buddhism is a key innovation of the Laṅkāvatāra.
The Ghanavyūha sūtra is another sutra which synthesizes Yogācāra doctrines like the three natures and the ālayavijñāna (storehouse consciousness) with the tathāgatagarbha teaching.
Indian commentaries
The tathāgatagarbha doctrine was also widely discussed by Indian Mahayana scholars in treatises or commentaries, called śāstra, the most influential of which was the Ratnagotravibhāga (5th century CE).
Ratnagotravibhāga
A ritual vajra, a symbol of indestructibility, which is used in the Ratnagotravibhāga as an image of the adamantine-like permanence of buddha nature.
The Ratnagotravibhāga (Investigating the Jewel Disposition), also called Uttaratantraśāstra (Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum), is a 5th century CE Indian treatise (śāstra) which synthesised major elements and themes of the tathāgatagārbha theory. It gives an overview of key themes found in many tathāgatagarbha sutras, and it cites the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra, the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, the Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa and the Mahābherīharaka-sūtra. The Ratnagotravibhāga
presents the tathāgatagarbha as "an ultimate, unconditional reality
that is simultaneously the inherent, dynamic process towards its
complete manifestation". Mundane and enlightened reality are seen as complementary:
Thusness [tathata] defiled is the Tathagatagarbha, and Thusness undefiled is Enlightenment.
In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the tathāgatagarbha is seen as having three specific characteristics: (1) dharmakaya, (2) suchness, and (3) disposition, as well as the general characteristic (4) non-conceptuality.
According to the Ratnagotravibhāga, all sentient beings have "the embryo of the Tathagata" in three senses:
the Tathāgata's dharmakāya permeates all sentient beings;
the Tathāgata's tathatā is omnipresent (avyatibheda);
the Tathāgata's species (gotra, a synonym for tathagatagarbha) occurs in them.
The Ratnagotravibhāga equates enlightenment with the nirvāṇa-realm and the dharmakāya. It gives a variety of synonyms for garbha, the most frequently used being gotra and dhatu.
This text also explains the tathāgatagarbha in terms of luminous mind, stating that "the luminous nature of the mind Is unchanging, just like space."
Other possible Indian treatises on buddha-nature
Takasaki Jikido notes various buddha nature treatises which exist only in Chinese and which are similar in some ways to the Ratnagotra.
These works are unknown in other textual traditions and scholars
disagree on whether they are translations, original compositions or a
mixture of the two. These works are:
Dharmadhātvaviśeṣaśāstra (Dasheng fajie wuchabie lun 大乘法界無差別論), said to have been translated by Paramartha and attributed to Saramati (the same author which the Chinese tradition states wrote the Ratnagotra).
Buddhagotraśāstra (佛性論, Fó xìng lùn, Buddha-nature treatise, Taishō 1610), said to have been translated by Paramartha and is attributed by Chinese tradition to Vasubandhu
Anuttarâśrayasūtra, which according to Takasaki "is clearly a composition based upon the Ratna."
Madhyamaka school
Indian Madhyamaka philosophers interpreted the theory as a description of emptiness and as a non implicative negation. Bhaviveka's Tarkajvala states:
[The expression] "possessing the
tathagata heart" is [used] because emptiness, signlessness,
wishlessness, and so on, exist in the mind streams of all sentient
beings. However, it is not something like a permanent and all-pervasive
person that is the inner agent. For we find [passages] such as "All
phenomena have the nature of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness.
What is emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness is the Tathagata."
According to Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya the storehouse consciousness "is nothing but emptiness that is taught through the term 'alaya-consciousness.'" Go Lotsawa states that this statement is referencing the tathāgatagarbha doctrine. Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya also argues, basing itself on the Lankavatara sutra,
that "the statement of the emptiness of sentient beings being a buddha
adorned with all major and minor marks is of expedient meaning".
Kamalasila's (c. 740–795) Madhyamakaloka associates tathāgatagarbha with luminosity and luminosity with emptiness.
According to Kamalasila the idea that all sentient beings have
tathāgatagarbha means that all beings can attain full awakening and also
refers to how "the term tathāgata expresses that the dharmadhātu, which
is characterized by personal and phenomenal identitylessness, is
natural luminosity."
Paul Williams puts forward the Madhyamaka interpretation of the buddha-nature as emptiness in the following terms:
…
if one is a Madhyamika then that which enables sentient beings to
become buddhas must be the very factor that enables the minds of
sentient beings to change into the minds of Buddhas. That which enables
things to change is their simple absence of inherent existence, their
emptiness. Thus the tathagatagarbha becomes emptiness itself, but
specifically emptiness when applied to the mental continuum.
According to Brunnholzl, "all early Indian Yogācāra masters (such as Asanga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, and Asvabhava), if they refer to the term tathāgatagarbha at all, always explain it as nothing but suchness in the sense of twofold identitylessness".
Some later Yogacara scholars spoke of the tathāgatagarbha in more positive terms, such as Jñanasrimitra who in his Sakarasiddhi equates it with the appearances of lucidity (prakāśa-rupa). Likewise, the Vikramashila scholar Ratnākaraśānti
describes buddha-nature as the natural luminous mind, which is a
non-dual self-awareness. Brunnholzl also notes that for Ratnākaraśānti,
this luminosity is equivalent to the Yogacara concept of the perfected
nature, which he sees as an implicative negation. Ratnākaraśānti also describes this ultimate self-nature as radiance (prakāśa, ‘shining forth’), which is the capacity to appear (pratibhāsa).
The Yogācāra concept of the alaya-vijñana
(store consciousness) also came to be associated by some scholars with
the tathāgatagarbha. This can be seen in sutras like the Lankavatara, the Srimaladevi and in the translations of Paramartha. The concept of the ālaya-vijñāna originally meant defiled consciousness: defiled by the workings of the five senses and the mind. It was also seen as the mūla-vijñāna, the base-consciousness or "stream of consciousness" (Mindstream) from which awareness and perception spring.
Around 300 CE, the Yogācāra school systematized the prevalent ideas on the nature of the Buddha in the Trikaya
(triple body) doctrine, in which the Buddha is held to have three
bodies: Nirmanakaya (transformation body which people see on earth), Sambhogakāya (a subtle body which appears to bodhisattvas) and the Dharmakāya (ultimate reality).
This doctrine was also later to be synthesized with buddha-nature
teachings by various sources (with buddha-nature generally referring to
the Dharmakaya as it does in some sutras).
The Yogācāra school also had a doctrine of "gotra" (lineage, family) which held that there were five categories of living beings
each with their own inner nature. To make this teaching compatible with
the notion of buddha-nature in all beings, Yogācāra scholars in China
such as Tz'u-en (慈恩, 632–682) the first patriarch in China, advocated
two types of nature: the latent nature found in all beings (理佛性) and the
buddha-nature in practice (行佛性). The latter nature was determined by
the innate seeds in the alaya.
The doctrines associated with buddha-nature (Chinese: fóxìng) and tathāgatagarbha (rúláizàng) were extremely influential in the development of East Asian Buddhism. The buddha-nature idea was introduced into China with the translation of the Nirvana Sutra in the early fifth century and this text became the central source of buddha-nature doctrine in Chinese Buddhism. When Buddhism was introduced to China, it was initially understood through comparing it with native Chinese philosophies such as neo-daoism. Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
some Chinese Buddhists supposed that the teaching of the buddha-nature
was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that
there is an essential truth above emptiness and the two truths. This idea was often interpreted as being similar to the ideas of the Dao, non-being (wu), and Principle (Li) in Chinese philosophy and developed into what was called "essence-function" thought (體用, pinyin: tǐ yòng)
which held there were two main ontological levels to reality, the most
foundational being the buddha-nature, the "essence" of all phenomena
(which in turn were the "functions" of buddha-nature).
Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna
A page of a commentary on the Awakening of Faith, one of the most influential buddha-nature works in East Asian Buddhism.
The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (Dàshéng Qǐxìn Lùn) was very influential in the development of Chinese Buddhism While the text is traditionally attributed to the Indian Aśvaghoṣa,
no Sanskrit version of the text is extant. The earliest known versions
are written in Chinese, and contemporary scholars believe that the text
is a Chinese composition.
The Awakening of Faith offers an ontological synthesis of buddha-nature and Yogacara thought from the perspective of "essence-function" philosophy. It describes the "One Mind" which "includes in itself all states of being of the phenomenal and transcendental world. The Awakening of Faith
tries to harmonize the ideas of the tathāgatagarbha and the storehouse
consciousness (ālāyavijñāna) into a single theory which sees self,
world, mind and ultimate realty as an integrated the "one mind", which
is the ultimate substratum of all things (including samsara and
nirvana).
In the Awakening of Faith the "one mind" has two aspects, namely "the aspect of enlightenment," (which is tathata, suchness, the true nature of things), and "the aspect of nonenlightenment" (samsara, the cycle of birth and death, defilement and ignorance). This text was in line with an essay by Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty
(reign 502–549 CE), in which he postulated a pure essence, the
enlightened mind, trapped in darkness, which is ignorance. By this
ignorance the pure mind is trapped in samsara. This resembles the tathāgatagarba and the idea of the defilement of the luminous mind.
In a similar fashion to the Awakening of Faith, the Korean Vajrasamādhi Sūtra (685 CE) uses the doctrine of Essence-Function to explain the tathāgatagarbha (also called "the dharma of the one mind" and original enlightenment)
as having two elements: one essential, immutable, changeless and still
(the "essence"); the other an active and salvational inspirational power
(function).
In Chinese Yogacara and Madhyamaka
By
the 6th century CE buddha nature had been well established in Chinese
Buddhism and a wide variety of theories developed to explain it.
One influential figure who wrote about buddha nature was Ching-ying
Hui-yuan (523–592 CE), a Chinese Yogacarin who argued for a kind of
idealism which held that "all dharmas without exception originate and
are formed from the true[-mind], and other than the true[-mind], there
exists absolutely nothing which can give rise to false thoughts."
Ching-ying Hui-yuan equated this "true mind" with the storehouse
consciousness and with buddha-nature and held that it was an essence, a
true consciousness and a metaphysical principle that ensured that all
sentient beings will reach enlightenment.
In the sixth and seventh centuries, the Yogacara theory became
associated with a substantialist non-dual metaphysics which saw buddha
nature as an eternal ground. This idea was promoted by figures like
Ratnamati. The Chinese Yogacara tradition
included numerous traditions with their own interpretations of
buddha-nature. The Dilun or Daśabhūmikā school and the Shelun school
were some of the earliest schools in this Chinese Yogacara. The Dilun
school became split on the issue of the relationship between the
storehouse consciousness and buddha-nature. The southern faction held
that storehouse consciousness was identical with the pure mind, while
the northern school held that the storehouse consciousness was
exclusively a deluded and defiled mind.
In contrast with the Chinese Yogacara view, the Chinese Madhyamaka scholar Jizang
(549–623 CE) sought to remove all ontological connotations of the term
as a metaphysical reality and saw buddha nature as being synonymous with
terms like "tathata," "dharmadhatu," "ekayana," "wisdom, '' "ultimate reality," "middle way" and also the wisdom that contemplates dependent origination. In formulating his view, Jizang was influenced by the earlier Chinese Madhyamaka thinker Sengzhao
(384–414 CE) who was a key figure in outlining an understanding of
emptiness which was based on the Indian sources and not on Daoist
concepts which previous Chinese Buddhists had used. Jizang used the compound "Middle Way-buddha-nature" (zhongdao foxing 中道佛 性) to refer to his view.
Jizang was also one of the first Chinese philosophers to famously argue
that plants and insentient objects have buddha-nature, which he also
termed true reality and universal principle (dao).
In Tiantai
The Tiantai school is one of the first native Chinese doctrinal schools, and the primary figure of this tradition is the scholar Zhiyi.
According to Paul L. Swanson, none of Zhiyi's works discuss
buddha-nature explicitly at length however. Yet it is still an important
concept in his philosophy, which is seen as synonymous with the ekayana principle outlined in the Lotus Sutra. Swanson argues that for Zhiyi, buddha-nature is:
an active threefold process which
involves the way reality is, the wisdom to see reality as it is, and the
practice required to attain this wisdom. Buddha Nature is threefold:
the three aspects of reality, wisdom, and practice are
interdependent—one aspect does not make any sense without the others.
Thus, for Zhiyi, buddha-nature has three aspects which he bases on passages from the Lotus sutra and the Nirvana sutra. These three aspects are:
The direct cause of attaining Buddhahood, the innate potential
in all sentient beings to become Buddhas, which is the aspect of 'true
nature', the way things are.
The complete cause of attaining Buddhahood, which is the aspect of
wisdom that illuminates the true nature and the goal of practice.
The conditional causes of attaining Buddhahood, which is the aspect of the practices and activities that lead to Buddhahood.
The later Tiantai scholar Zhanran would expand the Tiantai view of buddha-nature, which he saw as synonymous with suchness, to argue for the idea that insentient rocks and plants also have buddha-nature.
In Huayan
The other major native Chinese doctrinal school is the Huayan school. The Huayan tradition heavily relied on buddha nature sources like the Awakening of Faith and on the doctrine of principle (理, li, or the ultimate pattern) and phenomena (shi). In the Huayan tradition, the ultimate principle is associated with buddha-nature, and with the One Mind of the Awakening of Faith. This ultimate nature is seen as the ontological source and ground of all phenomena. This is a key idea in Huayan thought which is called "nature-origination" (xingqi). According to this doctrine defended by Huayan thinkers like Fazang, the entire universe is a manifestation of the one nature, and it is also fully interfused with its source. As such, the ultimate principle is non-dual with all relative phenomena.
Because the ultimate source of all things is also interdependent and
interconnected with them, it remains a ground which is empty of
self-existence (svabhava) and thus it is not an independent essence.
In Chan Buddhism
In Chan Buddhism, buddha-nature tends to be seen as the essential nature of all beings, while also emphasizing that buddha-nature is emptiness, the absence of an independent and substantial "self". The term buddha-nature is interpreted in various ways throughout the voluminous Chan literature. In the East Mountain Teaching
of early Chan, buddha-nature was equated with the nature of mind, while
later sects sometimes rejected any identification of the term with the
mind. This rejection of any reification of the term is reflected in the recorded sayings of Chan master Mazu Daoyi (709–788) of the influential Hongzhou school,
who sometimes would teach on the "ordinary mind" or say "Mind is
Buddha," but at other times would say "Neither mind nor Buddha."
The influential Chan patriarch Guifeng Zongmi (780–841), who was also a patriarch of Huayan, interpreted buddha-nature as "empty tranquil awareness" (k'ung-chi chih), which he took from the Ho-tse school of Chan. Following the Srimala sutra, he interpreted the theory of emptiness as presented in the Prajñaparamita sutras as provisional and saw the awareness which is buddha-nature as the definitive teaching of Buddhism.
Chan masters from Huineng (7th-century China), Chinul (12th century Korea), Hakuin Ekaku (18th-century Japan) to Hsu Yun (20th-century China),
have taught that the process of awakening begins with the light of the
mind turning around to recognize its own true nature, so that the
storehouse consciousness (also called the 8th consciousness in Yogacara
Buddhism), which is also the tathāgatagarbha, is transformed into the "bright mirror wisdom". According to D.T. Suzuki, the Zen view of buddha-nature can be found in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra,
which states that one must let go of all discriminating notions of any
kind to attain the perfect knowledge of the tathāgatagarbha. When this transformation is complete, the other seven consciousnesses are also transformed into wisdom.
A famous reference to buddha-nature in the Chan tradition is found in the influential koan called the mu-koan (from The Gateless Barrier,
a 13th century koan collection) which asks "does a dog have Buddha
nature?" The enigmatic response given by the master is "no" ("wú'',
Chinese, ''mu'' in Japanese) which can interpreted in various ways.
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. Hsing Yun, forty-eighth patriarch of the Linji school,
equates the buddha-nature with the dharmakāya in line with
pronouncements in key tathāgatagarbha sūtras. He defines these as "the
inherent nature that exists in all beings....transcendental
reality....the unity of the Buddha with everything that exists," and
sees it as the goal of Mahayana Buddhism.
Japanese Buddhism
A Japanese Kamakura periodreliquary topped with a cintamani
(a "wish fulfilling jewel"). Buddha nature texts often use the metaphor
of a hidden jewel (buddha-nature) which all beings have, but are
unaware of.
The major Japanese Buddhist traditions all take the idea of buddha-nature (Japanese: busshō, 仏性) as a central teaching, from Tendai and Shingon, to the new Kamakura schools. One of the most important developments of buddha-nature thought in Japanese Buddhism was hongaku theory (本覚, innate or original enlightenment) which developed within the Tendai school from the cloistered rule era (1086–1185) through the Edo period (1688–1735) and is derived from the Awakening of Faith (which uses the term pen-chileh, “original enlightenment”).
Jacqueline Stone writes that Tendai doctrine held that enlightenment
was "inherent from the outset and as accessible in the present, rather
than as the fruit of a long process of cultivation." It was often held that hongaku was a feature of all phenomena, including plants and inanimate objects.
Hongaku thought was also influential on the development of New Kamakura Buddhist schools, like Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, Zen and Nichiren. Japanese Pure Land Buddhism relied on Tendai buddha-nature doctrine. The founder of the Jōdo Shinshū of Pure Land Buddhism, Shinran, equated buddha-nature with the central Shin concept of shinjin (true faith or the entrusting mind).
The founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dōgen Zenji,
held that buddha-nature was simply the true nature of reality and
being. This true nature was just impermanence, becoming and 'vast
emptiness'. Because he saw the whole universe as an expression of
buddha-nature, he held that even grass and trees are buddha-nature.
According to Dōgen:
Therefore, the very impermanency of
grass and tree, thicket and forest is the Buddha nature. The very
impermanency of men and things, body and mind, is the Buddha nature.
Nature and lands, mountains and rivers, are impermanent because they are
the Buddha nature. Supreme and complete enlightenment, because it is
impermanent, is the Buddha nature.
Buddha-nature was likewise influential for the other sects of Zen, like Rinzai.
Nichiren Buddhism, founded by Nichiren (1222–1282), views the buddha-nature present in all beings as "the inner potential for attaining Buddhahood".
The emphasis in Nichiren Buddhism is on attaining Buddhahood in this
lifetime, described as manifesting or summoning forth buddha-nature by
chanting the name of the Lotus Sutra: Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō
Like the classic Tendai hongaku doctrine, Nichiren held that all life
and even all insentient matter (such mandalas, images, statues) also
possesses buddha nature, because they serve as objects of worship.
In Tibetan Buddhist scholastics, there are two main camps of interpreting buddha-nature:There are those who argue that tathāgatagarbha is just emptiness (described either as dharmadhatu,
the nature of phenomena). This pure Madhyamaka view is described in as
"a nonimplicative negation", which means that in one's philosophical
analysis, one negates all forms of existence (and non-existence)
completely, leaving nothing left over.
There are those who see it as an implicative negation, which means
that there is something further to be said about buddha-nature that is
not just the Madhyamaka emptiness based on pure negations of all
concepts. This could include positive descriptions like the union of the
mind's emptiness and luminosity, a non-dual buddha-wisdom, or even the
eternal pure buddhic Self which includes all buddha-qualities (as in
Jonang Shentong).
An early Tibetan translator, Ngok Lotsawa (1050–1109) argues in his commentary to the Uttaratantra that buddha-nature is a non-implicative negation, which is to say that it is emptiness, as a total negation of inherent existence (svabhava) that does not imply that anything is left un-negated (in terms of its svabhava). Another early figure, Chaba Chokyi Senge (1109–1169) also argued that buddha-nature was a non-implicative negation. The Kadampa tradition generally followed Ngok Lotsawa by holding that Buddha- nature was a nonimplicative negation. The Gelug
school, which sees itself as a continuation of the Kadampas, also hold
this view, while also holding, as Chaba did, that buddha-nature
teachings are of expedient meaning.
This interpretation is sometimes called the rangtong interpretation of Prasaṅgika Madhyamaka.
This view interprets buddha-nature teachings as an expedient ways to
talk about the emptiness of inherent existence which should not be taken
literally. Other schools, especially the Jonang, and some within the Kagyu tradition have tended to accept the shentong
("other-empty") philosophy, which discerns an ultimate reality which
"is empty of adventitious defilements which are intrinsically other than
it, but is not empty of its own inherent existence".
Shentong influenced interpretations tend to rely heavily on the
buddha-nature sutras to balance the negative dialectics of Madhyamaka.
These interpretations of the tathagatagarbha-teachings have been a
matter of intensive debates in Tibetan Buddhism down to this day.
Nyingma
Morten Ostensen writes that the buddha-nature teaching (also known as "sugatagarbha", Wylie: bde gshegs snying po, in Tibetan tantric sources), first entered Tibetan Buddhism through the translation of the Nyingma school's Guhyagarbha Tantra in the eighth century.
During the early translation period, other works which synthesized and
reconciled buddha-nature thought with Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophy
were also translated by Tibetan scholars like Yeshe De (mid 8th – early 9th century). One of these works is Kamalashila"sMadhyamakāloka.
Yeshe De describes the sugatagarbha as twofold. It is the impure mind of sentient beings, the ālayavijñāna,
and it is also the pure "natural spiritual disposition" (rigs) that is
present within all beings which is also called the dharmakāya, and which
he also calls the root (rtsa) and the ground (gzhi).
The teaching of buddha-nature is also a key source for Tibetan Dzogchen
texts, which presents the sugatagarbha as equivalent to the ultimate
ground or basis of all reality. This teaching can be found in early
Dzogchen sources like Nubchen Sangye Yeshe's (9th century) Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation
equates buddha-nature with this ultimate basis, which it also calls by
various names like "the spontaneous essence", "the innermost treasury of
all vehicles", "the great universal grandfather [spyi myes], is to be
experienced directly by self-awareness [rang rig pas]", "sphere of the
great circle [thig le chen po'i klong] of the self-awareness."
The Nyingma school view of buddha-nature is generally marked by the tendency to align the idea with Dzogchen views and with PrasangikaMadhyamaka. This trend begins with the work of Rongzom (1042–1136) and continues into the work of Longchenpa (1308–1364) and Mipham (1846–1912). Mipham Rinpoche,
the most authoritative figure in modern Nyingma, adopted a view of
buddha-nature as the unity of appearance and emptiness, relating it to
the descriptions of the ground
in Dzogchen as outlined by Longchenpa. This ground is said to be
primordially pure (ka dag) and spontaneously present (Ihun grub).
In Dzogchen, buddha nature, which is equated with the basis (gzhi) of
all phenomena, is often explained as the unity of "primordial purity"
(Wylie: ka dag) and "natural perfection" or "spontaneous presence" (lhun grub). The Nyingma commentary of Ju Mipham upon the Ratnagotravibhaga from a Dzogchen viewpoint has been rendered into English by Duckworth (2008).
The modern Nyingma scholars Khenchen Palden Sherab
(1938–2010) and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal (born 1950), emphasise that the
essential nature of the mind (the buddha-nature) is not a blankness, but
is characterized by wonderful qualities and a non-conceptual perfection
that is already present and complete, it's just obscured and we fail to
recognize it.
Sakya
Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), the central figure of the Sakya school, sees the buddha-nature as the dharmadhatu
free from all reference points, and states that the teaching that
buddha-nature exists in all beings is of expedient meaning (not
ultimate) and that its basis is emptiness, citing Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya. The Sakya scholar Rongtön (1367–1449) meanwhile, argued that buddha-nature is suchness, with stains, or emptiness of the mind with stains.
Sakya scholar Buton Rinchen Drub
(1290–1364) likewise held that the buddha-nature teachings were not an
ultimate or final teaching (like emptiness), seeing them as teachings of
expedient meaning that merely points to emptiness. His view was that
the basis for these teachings is the alaya-vijñana and also that
buddha-nature is the dharmakaya of a buddha but "never exists in the
great mass of sentient beings".
According to Brunnholzl, in the works of the influential Sakya scholar Gorampa Sonam Senge (1429–1489), buddha-nature is
nondual unity of minds lucidity and
emptiness or awareness and emptiness free from all reference points. It
is not mere emptiness because sheer emptiness cannot be the basis of
both samsára and nirvána. However, it is not mere lucidity either
because this lucidity is a conditioned entity and the tathágata heart is
unconditioned.
Sakya Chokden
(1428–1507) meanwhile argues that the ultimate buddha-nature is an
implicative negation, which means that its philosophical negation leaves
something positive that is not negated by analysis. This is "mind's
natural luminosity free from all extremes of reference points, which is
the sphere of personally experienced wisdom."
Jonang
The Jonang school, whose foremost historical figure was the Tibetan scholar-monk Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
(1292–1361), sees the buddha-nature as the very ground of the Buddha
himself, as the "permanent indwelling of the Buddha in the basal state". According to Brunnholzl, Dolpopa, basing himself on certain tathāgatagarbha
sutras, argued that the buddha-nature is "ultimately really
established, everlasting, eternal, permanent, immutable (therzug), and
being beyond dependent origination." This is the foundation of what is called the Shentong view.
The Buddhist tantric scripture entitled Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti),
repeatedly exalts, as portrayed by Dolpopa, not the non-Self but the
Self, and applies the following terms to this ultimate reality: "the
Buddha-Self, the beginningless Self, the solid Self, the diamond Self."
These terms are applied in a manner which reflects the cataphatic
approach to Buddhism, typical of much of Dolpopa's writings.
Cyrus Stearns writes that Dolpopa's attitude to the third turning of the wheel
(i.e. the buddha-nature teachings) is that they "are the final
definitive statements on the nature of ultimate reality, the primordial
ground or substratum beyond the chain of dependent origination, and
which is only empty of other, relative phenomena."
Kagyu
According to Brunnholzl, "virtually all Kagyu
masters hold the teaching on buddha nature to be of definitive meaning
and deny that the tathagata heart is just sheer emptiness or a
nonimplicative negation."
This means that most Kagyu scholars do not think that the strictly
negative Madhyamaka explanation of buddha-nature is suffient on its own
(without drawing on the buddha-nature sutras) to explain buddha-nature.
Some Kagyu views can be similar to Jonang shentong and sometimes use
shentong language, but they are generally less absolutist than Jonang
views (the exception is Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, who largely follows Taranatha and Dolpopa but at times blends their positions with the Third Karmapa's view).
In Kagyu, the view of the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje
is generally seen as the most authoritative. His is the view that
buddha-nature is "mind's luminous ultimate nature or nondual wisdom,
which is the basis of everything in samsara and nirvana." Thrangu Rinpoche sees the Buddha-nature as the indivisible oneness of wisdom and emptiness:
The union of wisdom and emptiness is the essence of Buddha-hood or what is called Buddha-nature (Skt. Tathagata-garbha)
because it contains the very seed, the potential of Buddhahood. It
resides in each and every being and because of this essential nature,
this heart nature, there is the possibility of reaching Buddhahood.
It is the emptiness of mind's being
empty of being really established that is called "the naturally pure
true nature of the mind." The naturally pure true nature of the mind in
its phase of not being free from adventitious stains is called "sugata
heart" or "naturally abiding disposition."
Brunnholzl states that the view of Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen
(1364–1432) is that buddha-nature (the tathagata heart) is "the state
of a being in whom mind's emptiness is obscured, while buddhas by
definition do not possess this tathagata heart."
The 14th Dalai Lama
sees the buddha-nature as the "original clear light of mind", but
points out that it ultimately does not exist independently, because,
like all other phenomena, it is of the nature of emptiness:
Once one pronounces the words
"emptiness" and "absolute", one has the impression of speaking of the
same thing, in fact of the absolute. If emptiness must be explained
through the use of just one of these two terms, there will be confusion.
I must say this; otherwise you might think that the innate original
clear light as absolute truth really exists.
Rimé movement
The Rimé movement
is an ecumenical movement in Tibet which started as an attempt to
reconcile the various Tibetan schools in the 19th century. In contrast
to the Gelugpa, which adheres to the rang stong, "self-empty", or Prasaṅgika point of view, the Rimé movement supports shen tong (gzhan tong), "other-empty", an essential nature which is "pure radiant non-dual consciousness".
According to Rime scholar Jamgon Kongtrul
rangtong and shentong are not ultimately different as both can reach
the ultimate state in practice. However, they do differ in how they
describe ultimate reality (Dharmata), since shentong describes the buddha-mind as ultimately real, while rangtong rejects this (fearing it will be confused as an atman).
Kongtrul "finds the Rangtong way of presentation the best to dissolve
concepts and the Shentong way the best to describe the experience."
Modern scholarship
Modern scholarship points to the various possible interpretations of buddha-nature as either an essential self, as Sunyata, or as the inherent possibility of awakening.
Essential self
Shenpen Hookham,
Oxford Buddhist scholar and Tibetan lama of the Shentong tradition
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 writes that the
Buddha, Nirvana and Buddha-wisdom can be referred to as the "True Self"
(as it is done in some buddha-nature sutras). According to Hookham, in
the shentong interpretation, buddha-nature is what truly exists, while
not-self is what it is not.
Buddhist scholar and chronicler, Merv Fowler, writes that "the main message of the tathagatagarbha
literature" is that buddha-nature really is present as "a hidden
essence" within each being. According to Fowler, this view is "the idea
that enlightenment, or nirvana, is not something which has to be
achieved, it is something which is already there... In a way, it means
that everyone is really a Buddha now."
Emptiness
According to Heng-Ching Shih, buddha-nature does not represent a substantial self (ātman). Rather, it is a positive expression of emptiness (śūnyatā),
which emphasizes the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through
Buddhist practices. In this view, the intention of the teaching of
buddha-nature is soteriological rather than theoretical.
The influential 20th century Chinese scholar Yin Shun
(印順, 1906 – 2005) drew on Chinese Madhyamaka to argue against any
Yogacara influenced view that buddha-nature was an underlying permanent
ground of reality and instead supported the view that buddha-nature
teachings are just an expedient means.
Yin Shun, drawing on his study of Indian Madhyamaka promoted the
emptiness of all things as the ultimate Buddhist truth, and argued that
the buddha-nature teaching was a provisional teaching taught in order to
ease the fear of some Buddhists regarding emptiness as well as to
attract those people who have an affinity to the idea of a Self or Brahman. Later after taking up the Buddhist path, they would be introduced to the truth of emptiness.
Critical Buddhist interpretation
Several contemporary Japanese Buddhist scholars, headed under the label Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyō, 批判仏教), have been critical of buddha-nature thought. According to Matsumoto Shirõ and Hakamaya Noriaki of Komazawa University, essentialist conceptions of buddha-nature are at odds with the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination and non-self (anātman). The Buddha nature doctrines which they label as dhātuvāda ("substantialism", sometimes rendered "locus theory" or "topicalism" and "generative monism") is not Buddhist at all. As defined by Matsumoto, this "locus" theory or dhātuvāda which he rejects as un-buddhist is: "It is the theory that the single (eka, sama) existent "locus" (dhatu) or basis is the cause that produces the manifold phenomena or "super-loci" (dharmah)." Matsumoto further argues that: "Tathagatagarbha thought was a Buddhist version of Hindu monism, formed by the influence of Hinduism gradually introduced into Buddhism, especially after the rise of Mahayana Buddhism." Other Japanese scholars responded to this view leading to a lively debate in Japan. Takasaki Jikido, a well known authority on tathagathagarbha thought, accepted that Buddha nature theories are similar to Upanishadic theories and that dhātuvāda is an accurate expression of the structure of these doctrines,
but argues that the Buddha nature texts are aware of this and that
Buddha nature is not necessarily un-Buddhist or anti-Buddhist.
Likewise, Hirakawa Akira, sees buddha-nature as the potential to attain
Buddhahood which is not static but ever changing and argues that "dhātu" does not necessarily mean substratum (he points to some Agamas which identify dhatu with pratitya-samutpada).
Western scholars have reacted in different ways to this idea.
Sallie B. King objects to their view, seeing the buddha-nature as a
metaphor for the potential in all beings to attain Buddhahood, rather
than as an ontological reality. Robert H. Sharf notes that the worries of the Critical Buddhists is nothing new, for "the early tathāgatagarbha
scriptures betray a similar anxiety, as they tacitly acknowledge that
the doctrine is close to, if not identical with, the heretical ātmavāda
teachings of the non- Buddhists." He also notes how the Nirvāṇa-sūtra "tacitly concedes the non-Buddhist roots of the tathāgatagarbha idea."
Sharf also has pointed out how certain Southern Chan masters were
concerned with other interpretations of Buddha nature, showing how the
tendency to critique certain views of Buddha nature is not new in East
Asian Buddhism.
Peter N. Gregory has also argued that at least some East Asian
interpretations of Buddha nature are equivalent to what Critical
Buddhists call dhātuvāda, especially the work of Tsung-mi, who "emphasizes the underlying ontological ground on which all phenomenal appearances (hsiang) are based, which he variously refers to as the nature (hsing), the one mind (i-hsin)...". According to Dan Lusthaus, certain Chinese Buddhist
ideologies which became dominant in the 8th century promoted the idea
of an "underlying metaphysical substratum" or "underlying, invariant,
universal metaphysical 'source'" and thus do seem to be a kind of dhātuvāda.
According to Lusthaus "in early T'ang China (7th–8th century) there was
a deliberate attempt to divorce Chinese Buddhism from developments in
India." Lusthaus notes that the Huayen thinker Fa-tsang
was influential in this theological trend who promoted the idea that
true Buddhism was about comprehending the "One Mind that alone is the
ground of reality" (wei- hsin).
Paul Williams too has criticised this view, saying that Critical
Buddhism is too narrow in its definition of what constitutes Buddhism.
According to Williams, "We should abandon any simplistic identification
of Buddhism with a straightforward not-Self definition".
Multiple meanings
Sutton
agrees with Williams' critique on the narrowness of any single
interpretation. In discussing the inadequacy of modern scholarship on
buddha-nature, Sutton states, "One is impressed by the fact that these
authors, as a rule, tend to opt for a single meaning disregarding all
other possible meanings which are embraced in turn by other texts". He goes on to point out that the term tathāgatagarbha has up to six possible connotations. Of these, he says the three most important are:
an underlying ontological reality or essential nature (tathāgata-tathatā-'vyatireka) which is functionally equivalent to a self (ātman) in an Upanishadic sense,
the dharmakāya which penetrates all beings (sarva-sattveṣu dharma-kāya-parispharaṇa), which is functionally equivalent to brahman in an Upanishadic sense
the womb or matrix of Buddhahood existing in all beings (tathāgata-gotra-saṃbhava), which provides beings with the possibility of awakening.
Of these three, Sutton claims that only the third connotation has any
soteriological significance, while the other two posit buddha-nature as
an ontological reality and essential nature behind all phenomena.
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