- Buddha-Nature
- Compassion
- Defining Bodhicitta
- Emptiness
- Equalizing & Exchanging Self and Others
- Equanimity
- History of Bodhicitta Teachings
- How to Develop Bodhicitta
- Interdependent Origination
- Lineage of the Profound View
- Lineage of the Vast Conduct
- Mahāyāna
- Mind Training
- Non-Self
- Seven-Point Instructions of Cause and Effect
- The Bodhisattva Ideal
- The Bodhisattva Path
- The Bodhisattva Vow
- The Bodhisattva's Goal
- The Four Immeasurables
- The Six Perfections
- The Three Higher Trainings
- The Two Accumulations
- The Two Truths
- Tonglen: The Practice of Sending and Receiving
- Types of Bodhicitta
Buddha-nature is the capacity for enlightenment and freedom present in every being, a fundamental core of goodness, wisdom, and compassion that is hidden by clouds of ignorance—so hidden in fact that we might never even suspect its presence. It is like the sun that continues to shine regardless of the clouds that may cover it. By clearing away those clouds of greed, anger, and selfishness we uncover a state of perfection that is, and always has been, our own true nature.
Tsadra Foundation has developed an entire resource for the study of Buddha-Nature. For an in-depth resource on buddha-nature, visit:
Buddha-Nature: Wisdom and Compassion as Our True Nature
Bodhicitta and buddha-nature are two of the most important topics in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The teachings on buddha-nature deal with the ontological exploration of the true nature of all beings, while the bodhicitta teachings present the essence of the soteriological process to realize such a true nature. In this respect, buddha-nature concerns what Buddhist scholars called the "ground"—our primordial nature that has existed since beginningless time and that the spiritual path must bring forth. Bodhicitta manifests this true nature as "the path," while perfect enlightenment is the ultimate "result"—the full realization of buddha-nature and complete development of bodhicitta. Thus, the topics of buddha-nature and bodhicitta span the full length of the spiritual process of transformation and awakening.
Buddha-Nature as True Nature
The theory of buddha-nature posits that all sentient beings have the capacity for enlightenment and freedom, and that sentient beings at their fundamental core are good, positive, and pure. Just as the sun continues to shine regardless of clouds that may temporarily obscure it, all beings are said to possess goodness as their true nature, though adventitious impurities may obscure this innate nature. This intrinsic goodness is identified with the Buddha's nature itself; thus all sentient beings are said to possess buddha-nature.
The English term buddha-nature, which is used here and is popular today, is a direct translation of the term buddhadhātu (Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན།, Ch. fóxìng). The most common term used to refer to buddha-nature in the Buddhist scriptures is tathāgatagarbha (Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ།, Ch. rúláizàng), which can be rendered as "the womb of the Buddha" or "the essence/heart of the Buddha." Other terms include sugatagarbha (བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་), or "the womb of the Sugata", which is an epithet of the Buddha; dhātu (ཁམས་), or "element"; dharmadhātu (ཆོས་དབྱིངས་), or "sphere of reality"; tathatā (དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་), or "suchness"; and dharmakāya (ཆོས་སྐུ་), or "truth body." There are also other terms used for buddha-nature in different Buddhist texts and meditation traditions.
The Buddhist sūtras present buddha-nature using many different analogies. It is sometimes compared to a treasure hidden under the ground of an impoverished person, which needs only be revealed. Despite possessing innate purity and buddhahood, sentient beings suffer from ignorance of their true nature, just as a destitute person suffers in poverty while unaware of the priceless treasure buried beneath their house. Buddha-nature is also compared to a healthy seed, which needs to be nurtured and cultivated in order to grow into a majestic tree. Thus, it is seen as a potential to be developed. Regardless of the analogy, most Mahāyāna philosophers claim that all sentient beings have buddha-nature, which is what makes the whole process of enlightenment possible.
Following The Buddha-Nature Sūtra, Maitreya, in The Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna, the locus classicus for buddha-nature teachings, presents nine different analogies, including the two above, to illustrate the hidden presence of buddha-nature in all beings.
- Buddha figure in the wilting, unsightly lotus
- Honey in the beehive
- Kernel of grain in the husk
- Gold nugget in a pile of excrement
- Treasure underneath a pauper’s house
- A mango seed ready to unfold into a tree
- Precious statue of the Buddha in a rag
- A universal monarch in the womb of a poor woman
- Golden statue in a clay mold[1]
Nāgārjuna, in The Praise of the Sphere of Reality, compares buddha-nature to a lamp enclosed in a pot—shining brilliantly but invisible until the hammer of meditative wisdom breaks the pot of ignorance.[2] In order to establish that buddha-nature exists in all beings, Maitreya presents three main arguments in The Ultimate Continuum.
Since the perfect buddhakāya radiates, Since suchness is undifferentiable, And because of the disposition, All beings always possess the buddha heart. (1.28)[3]
Firstly, Maitreya argues that because the enlightened form of the Buddha has become manifest in some beings, this proves that all beings have buddha-nature. If such potential did not exist in sentient beings, they could not attain buddhahood—just as one cannot extract oil from sand but can from mustard seeds, or make charcoal, which is naturally black, turn white. The resultant state of awakening is a sign that the capacity for awakening exists.
Secondly, he argues that the suchness or true nature of sentient beings and the Buddha is identical. Just as the Buddha is empty of inherent independent existence, all sentient beings are also by nature empty of inherent existence. Because they share this nature of emptiness, sentient beings have the potential to realize enlightenment just as the Buddha did.
Thirdly, he argues that sentient beings have a spiritual disposition (gotra) that inclines them toward liberation and fulfillment. Without this, one would not seek happiness, avoid suffering, or value harmony, love, and peace. The fact that even the most malicious and unruly beings wish for happiness, harmony, and peace for themselves and express love and empathy toward their loved ones is an indication that all sentient beings have a positive and good nature.
Buddha-Nature as the Nature of Mind
According to Buddhist philosophy, all beings are composed of mind and body, which in the Buddhist system are analyzed as the five aggregates (pañcaskandha, ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ་): form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. The Buddha and the Buddhist masters argued that there is no person or self other than these psychophysical constituents which make up the individual. The person is just a label given to the assembly of many parts in a certain shape, with certain functions and characteristics. In other words, there is no underlying self or soul that constitutes the person in Buddhist philosophy.
The physical body and its parts cannot be the enduring nature of sentient beings. The body is impermanent, limited to this life, and composed of numerous parts and subparts. When examined through reductionist analysis, the body and its parts are shown to lack inherent existence—they are empty of any independent, permanent essence. This leaves us with the mind or the psychological constituents of a person, which are believed to extend beyond this lifetime. The mind or consciousness is often seen as an integral part of the person. Although it seems to be lasting and permanent, even these psychological constituents, including thoughts, emotions, feelings, and impulses, are in reality momentary and constantly changing. Thus, the mind cannot be considered the enduring nature of beings. Mahāyāna philosophers therefore argue that the enduring nature of sentient beings is not the impermanent ordinary consciousness but the intrinsic, empty, and luminous nature of the mind, which is the basic state of awareness.
This fundamental nature of awareness is considered unconditioned, unchanging, and the pure essence of awareness itself. It is referred to as emptiness, for one cannot find an inherent self-existent point of fixation and it is empty of inherent existence. It is referred to as luminosity, for it is by nature pure and lucid awareness. Buddha-nature, according to Mahāyāna philosophers, refers to this emptiness, luminosity, or their coalescence. In this way, buddha-nature, or the fundamental nature of beings, is identified with the empty, conscious, open, and pure nature of the mind. It is this nature that the Mahāyāna path—which has the practice of bodhicitta at its core—aims to bring forth and actualize as the ultimate goal.
Bodhicitta as an Expression of Buddha-Nature
From the point of view of Mahāyāna philosophers, bodhicitta and all other positive spiritual qualities come about due to the presence of buddha-nature. Without the presence of the capacity for positive qualities, none of it can arise. Nāgārjuna illustrates this using the analogy of gold ore in The Praise of the Sphere of Reality.
If the element is present, through one's efforts, One will be able to see pure gold. If the element is absent, despite one's toil, Only misery will come out of it.[4]
Notes
- ↑ སངས་རྒྱས་པད་ངན་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྦྲང་མ་ལ། །སྦུན་ལ་སྙིང་པོ་མི་གཙང་ནང་ན་གསེར། །ས་ལ་གཏེར་དང་སྨྱུག་སོགས་འབྲས་ཆུང་དང་། །གོས་ཧྲུལ་ནང་ན་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྐུ་དང་ནི། །བུད་མེད་ངན་མའི་ལྟོ་ན་མི་བདག་དང་། །ས་ལ་རིན་ཆེན་གཟུགས་ཡོད་ཇི་ལྟ་བར། །གློ་བུར་ཉོན་མོངས་དྲི་མས་བསྒྲིབས་པ་ཡི། །སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་ཁམས་འདི་གནས། ། Maitreya, Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraratnagotravibhāga (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos), in Derge Tengyur D4024, vol. 123, sems tsam, phi, fol. 58b–59a, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_4024.
- ↑ ཇི་ལྟར་མར་མེ་བུམ་ནང་གནས། །ཅུང་ཞིག་སྣང་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བ། །དེ་བཞིན་ཉོན་མོངས་བུམ་ནང་གནས། །ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱང་མི་མཐོང་ངོ་། ། Nāgārjuna, Dharmadhātustava (Chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa), in Derge Tengyur D1118, vol. 1, bstod tshogs, fol. 64a, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_1118.
- ↑ རྫོགས་སངས་སྐུ་ནི་འཕྲོ་ཕྱིར་དང་། ། དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་དབྱེར་མེད་ཕྱིར་དང་། ། རིགས་ཡོད་ཕྱིར་ན་ལུས་ཅན་ཀུན། ། རྟག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན། ། This is Karl Brunnhölzl's translation. See Karl Brunnhölzl, When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra (Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014), 356–57. For the Tibetan text, see Maitreya, Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraratnagotravibhāga (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos), in Derge Tengyur D4024, vol. 123, sems tsam, phi, fol. 56a, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_4024.
- ↑ ཁམས་ཡོད་ན་ནི་ལས་བྱས་པས། །ས་ལེ་སྦྲམ་དག་མཐོང་བར་འགྱུར། །ཁམས་མེད་ན་ནི་ལས་བྱས་ན། །ཉོན་མོངས་འབའ་ཞིག་བསྐྱེད་པར་ཟད། ། Nāgārjuna, Dharmadhātustava (Chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa), in Derge Tengyur D1118, vol. 1, bstod tshogs, ka, fol. 64a, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_1118.
