thumb|The [[Moonlight|moon and its light hidden by the clouds is a metaphor for the luminous mind of Buddha-nature, which is always shining but can be hidden or covered over by the afflictions.]]

In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature (Chinese: , Japanese: , , Sanskrit: or ) is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within themselves. It will shine forth when it is cleansed of the defilements, that is, when the nature of mind is recognized for what it is.

The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (2nd century CE), which was very influential in the Chinese reception of these teachings, linked the concept of tathāgatagārbha with the buddhadhātu. The term buddhadhātu originally referred to the relics of Gautama Buddha. In the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, it came to be used in place of the concept of tathāgatagārbha, reshaping the worship of physical relics of the historical Buddha into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation.

The primordial or undefiled mind, the tathāgatagārbha, is also often equated with the Buddhist philosophical concept of emptiness (śūnyatā, a Mādhyamaka concept); with the storehouse-consciousness (ālāyavijñāna, a Yogācāra concept); and with the interpenetration of all dharmas (in East Asian traditions like Huayan). The belief in Buddha-nature is central to East Asian Buddhism, which relies on key Buddha-nature sources like the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. In Tibetan Buddhism, the concept of Buddha-nature is equally important and often studied through the key Indian treatise on Buddha-nature, the Ratnagotravibhāga (3rd–5th century CE).

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 Tibetan scholar Go Lotsawa outlined four meanings of the term Tathāgatagarbha as used by Indian Buddhist scholars generally: (1) As an emptiness that is a nonimplicative negation, (2) the luminous nature of the mind, (3) alaya-vijñana (store-consciousness), (4) all bodhisattvas and sentient beings.

Western translations

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:
  1. "embryonic tathāgata", the incipient Buddha, the cause of the Tathāgata,
  2. "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" (, ) 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, see also Svabhava, Mahābhūta, and Eighteen dhātus) 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.

Indian Sutra sources

Historical precursors

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 Brunnhölzl 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:

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

thumb|240x240px|The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra states that the tathāgatagarbha is like the grain of rice contained inside of the husk of the rice plant

thumb|The 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:

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").
  • 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.
  • Mahābheri Sūtra (Great Drum Sutra) – Describes buddha nature as luminous and pure, as eternal, everlasting, peaceful and self (ātman).
  • Mahāmegha 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 Dhāraṇīśvararāja sūtra is a key source for the Ratnagotravibhāga<nowiki/>'s seven main vajra topics. It explicitly points out that the nature of the minds of sentient beings is fundamentally pure (cittaprakrtivisuddhi).
  • 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

thumb|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:

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:

  1. the Tathāgata's dharmakāya permeates all sentient beings;
  2. the Tathāgata's tathatā is omnipresent (avyatibheda);
  3. 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:

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:

Uniquely among Madhyamaka texts, some texts attributed to Nagarjuna, mainly poetic works like the Dharmadhatustava, Cittavajrastava, and Bodhicittavivarana, associate the term tathāgatagarbha with the luminous nature of the mind.

Yogācāra school

According to Brunnhölzl, "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. Brunnhölzl 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.

East Asian Buddhism

thumb|250x250px|A [[Sui dynasty manuscript of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra]]

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

thumb|275x275px|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 the 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 "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).

Strong tathāgatagarbha theory versus weak tathāgatagarbha theory

According to Ching Keng, there are two different types of tathāgatagarbha theory: [1] weak tathāgatagarbha theory, associated with texts such as the Ratnagotravibhāga; and [2] strong tathāgatagarbha theory, associated with such texts as the Awakening of Faith. According to the weak theory, although thusness pervades all sentient beings, it is strictly unchanging and unconditioned. Thus, it can have no effects in sentient beings and does not play an active role in their liberation. On the other hand, strong tathāgatagarbha theory blurs the distinction between the conditioned and the unconditioned and maintains that thusness, while unconditioned, nonetheless evolves into conditioned dharmas. Keng associates the weak theory with the Indian understanding of tathāgatagarbha and the strong theory with that of Chinese Buddhism.

Similarly, Buswell observes that while the passive aspect of the tathāgatagarbha can be seen from the earliest stratum of tathāgatagarbha literature, texts such as the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra, an East Asian apocryphon, emphasize the tathāgatagarbha as an active agent which constantly exerts a beneficial influence on sentient beings. For example, the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra says, "The original enlightenment of each and every sentient being is constantly enlightening all sentient beings . . . prompting them all to regain their original enlightenment." In addition to the eight consciousnesses of Yogācāra, this text teaches the existence of an immaculate ninth consciousness, the amalavijñāna. According to Wŏnhyo's commentary, this is equated with original enlightenment and constitutes the force which makes awakening accessible to sentient beings. Buswell writes, "The amalavijñāna as original enlightenment is therefore constantly acting on sentient beings, exerting a beneficial influence that ultimately will prompt those beings to rediscover their inherent enlightenment. This treatment of amalavijñāna as the catalyst of enlightenment corresponds to the active interpretation of the tathāgatagarbha."

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. In addition to the standard eight consciousnesses of classical Yogācāra, some Chinese Yogācāra schools such as the Shelun maintained the existence of an immaculate ninth consciousness known as the amalavijñāna, which lay beyond the eighth (ālayavijñāna, the storehouse consciousness), and served as the basis for all the other consciousnesses.

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, <nowiki></nowiki> "ultimate reality," "middle way" and also the wisdom that contemplates dependent origination. 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). Swanson argues that for Zhiyi, buddha-nature is: