Meetings
Buddha-Nature Discussion at AAR, Denver
Dimensions of Buddha-Nature: Considering the State of the Field
3:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Meeting Description
Scholars have studied buddha-nature and the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra) since the early days of Buddhist Studies in the West. The first translation in English was by Obermiller (1931), from the Sanskrit and Tibetan, and a second by Takasaki (1958), who worked from the Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. Ruegg published numerous studies of tathāgathagarbha-theory in India and Tibet beginning with La Théorie du Tathāgatagarbha et du Gotra (1969) up to his Gifford Lectures, Buddha-Nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism (1989). Ruegg's work was entirely within the "analytic" tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis. The "meditative" tradition, which is aligned with the Mahāmudrā teachings of the Kagyu and Jonang in Central Asia (and Tendai and Ch'an/Zen in East Asia), has been the focus of most major scholarship since. This includes Klaus-Dieter Mathes' extensive study of Gö Lotsāwa's commentary on the Uttaratantra (Wisdom, 2008) and Karl Brunnhölzl’s translations in When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Important contributions were also made by Kano, Duckworth, Hookham, Stearns, Zimmerman and others. Most recently we have seen the publication of The Sublime Continuum Supercommentary by Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen (Bo Jiang, AIBS, 2017); the important work of Tsering Wangchuk, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows (SUNY, 2017); Higgins and Draszczyk’s Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyu Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature (WSTB, 2016). The Padmakara Translation Group will soon publish a new translation of the Uttaratantra with commentary in English, while Tsadra Foundation will publish a different commentary in French (Charrier trans. 2018). Mathes and Sheehy will soon come out with The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in India and Tibet (SUNY, 2018). And of course there is important scholarly work about buddha-nature in East Asian Buddhism. Sallie King's early work, Buddha Nature (SUNY, 1991), continues to be an important source for the study of Buddha-nature thought in China. In Japanese Buddhism, tathāgatagarbha has been at the core of debates about "original enlightenment," well documented in Jacqueline Stone's book by the same name (Hawai'i, 2003). Buddha-nature continues to be at the center of contemporary debates—e.g., in regard to "Critical Buddhism," amply documented in Jamie Hubbard and Paul Swanson's Pruning the Bodhi Tree (Hawai'i, 1997).
Participants
University of Vienna Symposium
Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia: The Reception of an Influential Mahāyāna Doctrine in Central and East Asia
Meeting Description
The tathāgatagarbha doctrine which proposes that all sentient beings are already a “buddha within” or at least have the potential to attain Buddhahood was first largely ignored in Indian scholastic Buddhism, but increasingly attracted the attention of Mahāyāna scholars and became an important, if sometimes controversial, current of Buddhist thought all over Central and East Asia. With the Mahāyāna goal of establishing all sentient beings in Buddhahood, the possibility of enlightenment became a Buddhist axiom of central importance. Either one has to explain the causal process of its production, or accept its primordial existence, for example in terms of a buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha). The latter also applies, of course, when buddhahood is not taken to be produced from scratch. The way the process of becoming a Buddha is addressed is an ideal touchstone for systematically comparing the philosophical hermeneutical positions of various masters in Central and East Asia. The diversity of views on buddha-nature has its roots already in early Indian Buddhism. Depending on whether one follows the original intent of the Tathāgatagarbhasūtras, or the Yogācāra interpretation of the latter, buddha-nature can refer to either an already fully developed buddha, or the naturally present potential (prakṛtisthāgotra) or natural luminosity of mind, i.e., sentient beings’ ability to become buddhas. In Madhyamaka, buddha-nature was taken either as a teaching of provisional meaning (neyārtha) or simply a synonym of emptiness (i.e., a non-affirming negation). This symposium will look at the differing forms tathāgatagarbha doctrine assumed as its primary Indian scriptural sources were translated and transmitted throughout Central and East Asia and variously interpreted by religious schools in line with their key philosophical positions. Contributions will range from the historical-philological analysis of the primary sources to issues of reconstruction and comparison in the target languages and cultures with particular attention to the role the tathāgatagarbha doctrine played in the development of Buddhist philosophical and religious views both within India and beyond.
Meeting Schedule
These dates will allow for those attending the IATS meeting in Paris to have Bastille Day in Paris, and another day to travel to Vienna before the meeting starts.
| July 16th, 2019 ~ Arrival Day | 5:30 pm ~ Evening Welcome Event Keynote Speech with Official Welcome from Klaus-Dieter Mathes |
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| July 17th, 2019 ~ Presentations | 9:00 am ~ Session 1 10:30 am ~ Tea Break 11:00 am ~ Session 2 12:30 pm ~ Lunch |
2:30 pm ~ Session 3 4:00 pm ~ Tea Break 4:30 pm ~ Session 4 6:00 pm ~ End of Day |
| July 18th, 2019 ~ Presentations | 9:00 am ~ Session 5 10:30 am ~ Tea Break 11:00 am ~ Session 6 12:30 pm ~ Lunch |
2:30 pm ~ Session 7 4:00 pm ~ Tea Break 4:30 pm ~ Session 8 6:00 pm ~ End of Day |
| July 19th, 2019 ~ Presentations | 9:00 am ~ Session 9 10:30 am ~ Tea Break 11:00 am ~ Session 10 12:30 pm ~ Lunch |
2:30 pm ~ Session 11 4:00 pm ~ Tea Break 4:30 pm ~ Session 12: Closing Discussion: Reflection on State of the Field 6:00 pm ~ End of Day |
| July 20th, 2019 ~ Departure Day | Travel | |
