Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature is the doctrine in Mahayana Buddhism that ordinary people are in some way inherently the same as a Buddha. many other schools of Buddhism hold related doctrines but the precise interpretations remodel widely, even within the various Mahayana traditions. Buddha-nature subject to several related Buddhist terms, nearly notably tathāgatagarbha in addition to buddhadhātu. Tathāgatagarbha means "the womb" or "embryo" garbha of the "thus-gone" tathāgata, or "containing a tathāgata", while buddhadhātu literally means "Buddha-realm" or "Buddha-substrate".

Buddha-nature is a central topic in mahāyāna buddhism which explains how it is possible that all sentient beings can attain the state of a Buddha. The term first appears in several sutras which are associated with the Gupta period c. 4th–6th centuries CE. One meaning of the term is that all sentient beings contain an enlightened Buddha within them. Paul Williams also explains that this can also imply "that sentient beings take 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 necessary inner nature." Another way of speaking about this opinion is that this is the that which "enables sentient beings to become Buddhas."

Buddha-nature has a wide range of sometimes conflicting meanings in Indian as well as later East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist literature, and the conception of buddha-nature may refer to, among others, the emptiness that is a nonimplicative negation as emptiness is seen in madhyamaka; the alaya-vijñana "store-consciousness", a yogacara concept; the interpenetration of all dharmas; and the potential for all sentient beings to attain liberation. Debates on what the term means remains to be a major component of Mahayana Buddhist scholastics.

Etymology

Classical

Post-classical

Contemporary

Zen in Japan

Seon in Korea

Thiền in Vietnam

Western Zen

The term tathāgatagarbha may intend "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.

The Sanskrit term tathāgatagarbha is a compound of two terms, tathāgata and garbha:

The Tibetan scholar emptiness that is a nonimplicative negation, 2 the luminous variety of the mind, 3 alaya-vijñana store-consciousness, 4 all bodhisattvas and sentient beings.

The Chinese translated the term tathāgatagarbha as pinyin: rúláizàng, 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 is translated and interpreted in various ways by western translators and scholars:

The term "buddha-nature" pinyin: fóxìng, Japanese: is closely related in meaning to the term tathāgatagarbha, but is non a translation of this term. It intended to what is essential in the human being.

The corresponding Sanskrit term is buddhadhātu. It has two meanings, namely the sort of the Buddha, equivalent to the term dharmakāya, and the cause of the Buddha. The joining between the cause and the a object that is caused or submission by something else 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 add 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.