Icchantika

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Icchantika ( Chinese  一 闡提 , Pinyin yīchǎntí , W.-G. i-ch'an-ti ; hgl. 일 천제, ilcheonje ; Japanese 一 闡 堤 , issendai ; viet. Nhất xiển đề ) is a Sanskrit term and called in Mahayana - Buddhism beings who - for whatever reason - never the enlightenment (can achieve in a weaker and narrower sense, the term being only those to whom these reasons -. eg lack of belief in or misunderstanding Buddhist principles, character weaknesses and moral deficits, lack of interest in enlightenment etc.). In the East Asian schools of Mahayana in particular, the question of whether Icchantika even existed (or whether their condition was only temporary) and whether they belonged to Buddha nature has been extremely controversial since the 5th century.

The term does not appear in the relevant writings of Theravada Buddhism (Pali- Nikayas ) and the Chinese agamas. In the Mahayana sutras , it is discussed primarily in the Aṅgulimālā-sūtra and the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra .

The existence of Icchantika was mainly postulated by the schools of the Yogacara , as also in the Japanese Hossō-shū , which formulated such an assumption in a teaching on the foundations of the world in the sense of the Abhidharma , understood as simply realistic, because in fact it was achieved overwhelming majority of people never achieve enlightenment.

Schools such as the Tendai-shū and the Huayan rejected the existence of Icchantika and pointed out that everything that existed was Buddha-nature and with it the possibility of enlightenment. Those schools that represented the existence of Icchantika were defamed as Hinayanist because they inadmissibly excluded certain individuals or groups from salvation.

The position that the assumption of the existence of Icchantika is only realistic also played a special role in Amitabha Buddhism . Based on the theory of the three ages , according to which mankind is in the period of the decline of the Dharma, z. B. the Jōdo-Shinshū, to offer those beings for whom the path to enlightenment was not feasible a different spiritual goal: The entry into the pure land of the Buddha Amida is due to his infinite compassion even to the most evil and depraved individuals with the appropriate trusting Belief possible.

Bodhisattvas , who - in contrast to the hedonistic Icchantika - were so full of compassion for the suffering beings in samsara that they had made a vow not to attain nirvana until they had redeemed all suffering beings were finally also referred to as Icchantika . In some interpretations, this includes a. Avalokiteshvara and Ksitigarbha , they are called Icchantika of great compassion ( Chinese  大悲 闡提 , Pinyin dàbēi chǎntí ; Hgl. 대비 천리, daebi cheonje ; Japanese. Daihi sendai ; viet. Đại bi xiển đề ).

literature

  • Buswell, Robert E. (2003). Encyclopedia of Buddhism, vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference Lib. P. 351. ISBN 0028657187 .
  • Liu, Ming-Wood (1984). The Problem of the Icchantika in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 7 (1), 71-72 digitized
  • Karashima, Seishi (2007). Who were the Icchantikas ?, Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University 10, 61-80 digitized
  • Lai, Whalen (1982). Sinitic speculations on buddha-nature: The Nirvaana school (420-589), Philosophy East and West 32: 2, p. 135–149 digitized version