Grounds of Buddha-Nature in Tibet

Religions, 2025

Jizang (549–623) is regarded as a prominent figure in Sanlun Buddhism (三論宗) and a revitalizer of Nāgārjuna’s Mādhyamaka tradition in China. In this essay, I argue that Jizang’s concept of non-empty Buddha-nature is compatible with the idea of universal emptiness. My argument unfolds in three steps. First, I argue that, for Jizang, Buddha-nature is the Middle Way (zhongdao 中道), which signifies a spiritual state that avoids the extremes of both emptiness and non-emptiness. Next, I explore how and why Jizang believes that Buddha-nature is eternal. I examine Jizang’s notions of intrinsic eternality (dingxing chang 定性常) and conditional eternality (yinyuan chang 因緣常), aiming to demonstrate that his understanding of Buddha-nature as eternal can be framed within the concept of conditional eternality, where Buddha-nature is seen as the objective manifestation of the dharma body. Since this type of eternality aligns with the principle of universal emptiness, Jizang’s assertion that Buddha-nature is eternal is thus compatible with the notion of universal emptiness. Furthermore, I illustrate that Jizang’s theory of eternal Buddha-nature carries practical implications, suggesting that this assertion serves as encouragement rather than being merely an ontological claim.

Buddha Nature Across Asia, WSTB 103, 2022

Brambilla, Filippo. 2022. “Empty of True Existence, Yet Full of Qualities: Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso on Buddha Nature.” In: Buddha Nature Across Asia, ed. by K. D. Mathes and C. Kemp, WSTB 103, 377–422. Vienna: ATBS.

2020

Emptiness and Buddha nature are very hard topics and we, Jodo Shinshu followers who have a simple faith in Amida, do not possess the high spiritual capacities of the advanced esoteric Vajrayana practitioners, so it would be impossible and useless to try to enter too deep into this topic. It is not the practice of our school to try to recognize and dwell in ultimate reality in the present life, with this very body, so we do not need to know everything about emptiness and Buddha nature. However, it is good to know a few things about it so that we cannot be confused by false spiritual friends who play smart with such terms and use them in a distorted manner to justify or impose their own opinions on others. This is why from the immense ocean of authentic Dharma literature on emptiness and Buddha nature I took only a small part which is enough to have a little clue about this topic, as little as samsaric dreamers like us can have. My goal as a Jodo Shinshu priest is to help others entrust to Amida Buddha and aspire to birth in His Pure Land after death, so whatever I write or say, even when I speak about emptiness and Buddha nature, I do it with this intention in mind. All sentient beings have Buddha nature. This Buddha nature is now obscured, but it has always been there. Obscured Buddha nature may become unobscured Buddha nature if the obscurations are purified, and they will be automatically purified when we are born in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha. There, in that Enlightened realm, everything is conducive to Enlightenment, unlike here, in samsara, where everything is conducive to more obscurations, blind passions and suffering. To practice for the attainment of Enlightenment in this samsaric environment is like trying to melt ice by placing it in the snow, while to be born in the Pure Land is like putting ice into a powerful stove. The ice of our obscurations will be melted by the Enlightened Power of Amida and His Pure Land, thus revealing our innate Buddha nature with its myriad qualities. Perhaps by clearing up the confusions brought by false teachers who talk about emptiness and Buddha nature in a way that leads to nihilistic and materialistic views, my readers will be able to discover the joy of faith and true aspiration for that wonderful ultimate Reality of Wisdom, Compassion and unconditional Freedom where Amida and all Buddhas are guiding us through the Pure Land teaching.

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion

The Sanskrit term tathāgatagarbha has been analyzed as a possessive compound (bahuvrīhi) referring to sentient beings, all of whom contain as their nature (garbha) a tathāgata ("thus gone/come"), namely a buddha. Thus, all have already a fully developed buddha within, but not everybody is aware of this, due to the adventitious stains in the form of ignorance, hatred, and attachment that conceal it (Zimmermann 2002, 43-45). Another common interpretation requires taking tathāgatagarbha as determinative compound (tatpurus. a) meaning "buddha-embryo," referring only to the buddha-nature and not its possessor, and hence suggesting that this is only the potential to become a buddha, i.e. that one possesses undeveloped buddha-qualities that may blossom into full buddhahood as adventitious stains are gradually removed on the path of Buddhist practice (Mathes 2008). The former understanding of tathāgatagarbha lends itself well to a group of discourses of the Great Vehicle (Mahāyānasūtras) such as the Discourse on Neither Decrement Nor Increment (Anūnatvāpūrn. atvanirdeśasūtra) or the Discourse for the QueenŚrīmālā (Wayman and Wayman 1974) which fully equate buddha-nature with a buddha's enlightenment, namely the buddha's "Body of Reality," or dharmakāya. The Discourse for the QueenŚrīmālā thus explains that the dharmakāya is neither fabricated nor arisen, and called buddha-nature when the sheath of defilements has not yet been separated from it (Takasaki 1966, 167-168). Such an equation of buddha-nature with the dharmakāya, in combination with the notion in the Discourse for the QueenŚrīmālā that the dharmakāya displays the four perfections of purity, self (ātman), bliss, and permanence, posed a problem for mainstream buddhism, bringing the buddha-nature doctrine dangerously close to the Hindu tenets teaching a soul/self (ātman; see self and not-self in indian philosophy). A possible solution to this problem is provided by the Discourse on Buddha-Nature (Tathāgatagarbhasūtra), in which the presence of a buddha-nature in sentient beings is illustrated by nine similes: (i) a Tathāgata in a lotus; (ii) honey shielded by bees; (iii) kernels enclosed by husks; (iv) a gold nugget in excrement; (v) a hidden treasure beneath the house of some poor person; (vi) a sprout latent in a seed; (vii) a Buddha-image wrapped in rotting rags; (viii) a future universal emperor in the womb of a poor woman; and (ix) golden figures within burnt clay molds (Takasaki 1966, 268-269). Two of them, the sprout and the future emperor, indicate a growth of the buddha-qualities, and thus point to a substantial difference between buddha-nature and buddhahood. Seizing upon this, the final version (fourth century ce) of the standard Indian treatise on buddha-nature, the Analysis of the The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion.

Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 1999

2016

To link the artists' works, exhibition curator Linda Michael has focused on the Buddhist concept of 'Emptiness' or Sunyata. Unlike the negative connotations this concept often carries in Western contexts, 'Emptiness' in a Buddhist milieu connotes a space rich in possibility and spiritual liberation. As Michael explains, the concept emerges from an understanding that, ' ... all entities are part of an ever-changing causal chain of growth and decay. All things emerge as "dependent arisings" from a matrix of conditions, in turn becoming part of another momentary cluster of causes and effects and so on to infinity. All dharmas (every mental and physical entity, even the Buddha) are interconnected and therefore without essence .. . Emptiness is thus the unbroken ground of being that is egoless, conceptless and unobjectifiable ... Things exist, yet without endurance or inherent substance.'[1]

People's happiness depends upon their awaking. Contradiction, harmony, war, and suffering have cause from misunderstanding the world, which you are living. In the Buddha's teachings, he taught us the way of look at the world that is the doctrine of emptiness. Patrick Carré, a famous French Scholar, says about doctrine of Śūnyatā: ―This is a truly strange concept. If the world and ‗oneself', colorful entities are presenting, existing cannot deny, but in fact, they are empty, merely hollow, it must be cruelly mad that can advocate this unreasonable thing! Certainly, this respectable concept, the nihilism of the East may be merely ‗a Modern Movement' bringing temporary character in our homeland. Due to it is still searching for itself a way in the forest which contents all empty concepts to discover a position obviously and establish the entirely new truth.‖ Most people believe that the doctrine of emptiness was arisen from Nagārjuna but in fact the notion of emptiness was begun from the Buddha time. Nagārjuna merely received and developed it became the doctrine of emptiness. It is demonstrated by the Buddha's discourse in Pāli Nikayas. Afterwards, the doctrine developed in the Abhidharma schools. Besides, the system of Prajñāparamita Sūtras is place an importance role in this doctrine Last but not least, the period of the Madhyamaka School is the pinnacle period of emptiness philosophy. In this essay, Writer depended on the Buddha's teachings that recorded in Pāli Nikāyas to search origin for this doctrine.

BEFEO, 2018