Awakening Faith in Mahayana

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The awakening of faith in the Mahayana (also: Awakening of Mahayana Faith , back translated name in Sanskrit : Mahāyāna śraddhotpādaśāstra ; Chinese  大乘起信論 , Pinyin Dasheng Qǐxìn Lun ; Japanese 大乗起信論 ; Korean 대승 기신론 , . Vietnamese: : Dai Thua Khoi tín Luan, eng .: Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana) is a text of the Mahayana - Buddhism . Although it was ascribed to Master Ashvaghosha , it is now widely regarded as a creation of Buddhism in China .

text

Origin and translations

There is no Sanskrit version of the text. Even the oldest surviving texts are written in Chinese . Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, on the other hand, accepts the Indian origin, even if he restricts the fact that Aśvaghoṣa is only very unlikely to be the author and that an attribution was very likely due to the high esteem

There is no doubt that Lanka is closely related in time and doctrine to the awakening of the faith which is generally ascribed to Aśvaghoṣa. While he may not have been the author of this extremely important treatise on Mahayana philosophy, it was certainly a great Buddhist thinker who, inspired by the same spirit that pervades the Lanka , the Avatamsaka , the Parinirvana , etc., was his Poured out thoughts in "awakening". Some scholars tend to view "awakening" as a Chinese work, but this is not well founded.

Traditionally it is said that Paramartha (499-569) translated the text around 553. Today, however, many scholars assume that Paramartha or one of his students actually wrote the text. King also notes that although Paramartha was certainly one of the most prolific translators of Sanskrit texts into Chinese, he may have translated the text of the East Asian Yogācāra Buddha-Nature Treatise ( Chinese  佛性 論 ), as well as the awakening of faith . Other experts deny that the text could have anything to do with Paramartha.

A later translation or new edition was ascribed to the Khotan monk Śikṣānanda (f. 695-700).

title

The term Mahayana / Dasheng does not refer to the Mahayana school, but to the tathata ("being so" or "the absolute")

Charles Muller also argues that the assignment of "believing in" is misleading:

By translating "Dasheng qixin lun" as "awakening of Mahayana Faith", as opposed to "awakening of faith in Mahayana by Hakeda, I am following the position given by Sung Bae Park in the fourth chapter of his book" Buddhist Beliefs and Sudden Enlightenment ". There he argues that the internal discourse of the text itself, along with a basic understanding of the meaning of" Mahayana "in the East Asian Buddhist tradition, is not in the subject-object construction of Western theology of" belief in ... " works, but according to a native East Asian essence function according to the 體 用 model. Accordingly, "Mahayana" should not be understood as a noun object, but as a modal that characterizes the type of belief.

In other words, the treatise does not discuss "Faith in Mahayana" but represents Mahayana belief, that is, "Faith in the true being of the Spirit".

content

Written from the perspective of essence - function ( Chinese  體 用 , Pinyin tǐyòng ) the text would like to combine the two soteriological philosophies of Buddha-nature and eight forms of consciousness ( Yogacara ) in one vision. All in all, one spirit arises in two aspects :

In the formulations of Awakening Faith - which sums up the foundations of Mahayna - self and world, mind and being are integrally one. Everything is a carrier of a piori enlightenment. All incipient enlightenment is predetermined by it. The secret of existence, then, is not, "How can we overcome alienation?", But rather the challenge is, "Why do we first think we are lost?"

Comments

Commentaries up to the middle of the 9th century in Chinese and Korean come from Jingying Huiyuan淨 影 慧遠 (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1843): 大乘 起 信 論 義疏Dasheng qixinlun yishu ; from Wonhyo元 曉 (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1844): 起 信 論 疏Gisillon so and (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1845): Daeseung gisillon byeolgi ; from Fazang法 藏 (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1846): 大乘 起 信 論 義 記Dasheng qixinlun yiji ; and Zongmi宗密, as well as Japanese scholars.

meaning

Even if the text was often deleted from the canon of the Buddhist texts, the awakening of the faith has subsequently greatly influenced the teaching of Mahayana.

Chan (zen)

The view of understanding in the awakening of faith had a clear influence on the development of the teaching of the Eastern Mountain ( Chinese  東山 法門 , Pinyin Dōngshān Fǎmén ).

Korea

Largely due to Wonhyo commentary, the Faith Awakening developed an unusually strong influence in Korea, where it became perhaps the most widely cited text in the tradition. It also largely paved the way for original enlightenment (hongaku) ​​ideas found in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment .

Translations

The Awakening of Faith

  • Yoshito S. Hakeda: Awakening of Faith — Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa. New York, NY, Columbia University Press 1967. ISBN 0-231-08336-X
  • Timothy Richard : The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna. Doctrine — the New Buddhism. Shanghai, Christian Literature Society 1907. [1] oclc = 464637047. - A Christian influenced translation by a Baptist missionary. s. Franceska Tarocco: Lost in Translation? The Treatise on the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) and its modern readings. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (2), 335, 2008.
  • Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki : Aśvaghoṣa's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana. Chicago, Ill., Open Court Publishing Company 1900 [2] oclc = 4975000 (Śikṣānanda's version)

Comments

  • Dirck Vorenkamp: An English Translation of Fa-Tsang's Commentary on the Awakening of Faith. Lewiston, NY, The Edwin Mellen Press 2004. ISBN 0773463739

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jamie Hubbard: Original Purity and the Arising of Delusion . Smith College, 1994/2008. S. 1. Smith University
  2. ↑ "East Asian tradition also attributes to Aśvaghosa the DASHENG QIXIN LUN (Awakening of Faith), a treatise on TATHĀGATAGARBHA thought that is now widely presumed to be an indigenous Chinese treatise (...)." Buswell 2013. p. 76
  3. ↑ Nattier, Jan. 'The Heart Sūtra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?'. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Vol. 15 (2), 180-81, 1992. PDF
  4. ↑ Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha by Robert E. Buswell. University of Hawaii Press: 1990. ISBN 0-8248-1253-0 . Pp. 1-29
  5. ↑ Franceska Tarocco: Lost in Translation? The Treatise on the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) and its modern readings. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (2), 2008: 323.
  6. ^ Muller 1998: 64.
  7. ↑ There is no doubt that the Lanka is closely connected in time as well as in doctrine with The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana generally ascribed to Asvaghosha. While he may not have been the author of this most important treatise of Mahayana philosophy, there was surely a great Buddhist mind, who, inspired by the same spirit which pervades the Lanka, the Avatamsaka , the Parinirvana , etc., poured out his thoughts in The Awakening. Some scholars contend that The Awakening is a Chinese work, but this is not well grounded. S. xxxix of the Introduction to The Lankavatara Sutra , DT Suzuki, Routledge & Kegan Paul, LTD. London 1932, reprinted 1966.
  8. ↑ Franceska Tarocco: Lost in Translation? The Treatise on the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) and its modern readings, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (2) , 324-325. (T. 1666, p. 576) 2008.
  9. ↑ William Gros Nick: The Categories of T 'i, Hsiang, and Yung: Evidence did Paramārtha Composed the Awakening of Faith. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 12 (1), 65-92, 1989. Internet Archive
  10. ↑ King 1991: 22. On these points, King cites Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramartha's 'Evolution of Consciousness' , Diana Y. Paul, 1984, Stanford University Press.
  11. ↑ Keng Ching, "Yogacara Buddhism Transmitted or Transformed? Paramartha (499-569 CE) and His Chinese Interpreters," Ph.D. diss., Harvard University 2009.
  12. ↑ Tarocco: Lost in Translation? The Treatise on the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) and its modern readings, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (2), 328. (T. 1667, pp. 583bc-584a) 2008.
  13. ↑ Hakeda 1967: 28. "The title of the text, the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana , should therefore be understood as the Awakening of Faith in the Absolute , not in Mahayana Buddhism as distinguished from Hinayana Buddhism."
  14. ↑ "In rendering the title of the Dasheng qixin lun as Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith, as opposed to Hakeda's" Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna "I am following the position put forth by Sung Bae Park in Chapter Four of his book Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment . There he argues that the inner discourse of the text itself, along with the basic understanding of the meaning of mahāyāna in the East Asian Buddhist tradition does not work according to a Western theological "faith in ..." subject-object construction, but according to an indigenous East Asian essence-function 體 用 model. Thus, mahāyāna should not be interpreted as a noun-object, but as a modifier, which characterizes the type of faith. " A. Charles Muller: Wonhyo's Reliance on Huiyuan in his Exposition of the Two Hindrances . In: Imre Hamar, ed., Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism , Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 281-295 (note 8), 2007.
  15. ↑ Dan Lusthaus: Buddhist philosophy, Chinese ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 1998. In: E. Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rep.routledge.com
  16. ↑ In the words of the Awakening of Faith - which summarizes the essentials of Mahayana - self and world, mind and suchness, are integrally one. Everything is a carrier of that a priori enlightenment; all incipient enlightenment is predicated on it. The mystery of existence is, then, not, "How may we overcome alienation?" The challenge is, rather, "Why do we think we are lost in the first place?" Whalen Lai: Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey. In: Antonio S. Cua (ed.): Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy. New York: Routledge 2003.
  17. ^ Robert B. Zeuschner: "The Understanding of Mind in the Northern Line of Ch'an (Zen)" , In: Philosophy East and West 28 (1), 69-79, 1978.
  18. ↑ Park, Sung-bae: Wonhyo's Faith System, as seen in his Commentaries on the Awakening of Mahayana Faith , International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 2 (2), 25-45, 2003.

swell

  • Robert Buswell Jr .; Donald S. Lopez Jr .: Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2013. ISBN 9780691157863
  • Yoshito S. Hakeda: Awakening of Faith — Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa. New York, NY, Columbia University Press 1967. ISBN 0-231-08336-X
  • Sally B. King: Buddha nature. State University of New York Press 1991. ISBN 0585068313
  • Charles Muller : East Asian Apocryphal Scriptures: Their Origin and Role in the Development of Sinitic Buddhism. In: Bulletin of Toyo Gakuen University, vol. 6: 63-76,1998.
  • Daisetz T. Suzuki: Açvaghosha's Discourse on the awakening of faith in the Mahâyâna. Open Court Pub. Co., Chicago 1900.

Web links

  • Text at the Buddhist Society Berlin.

Lexicons

Translations