Wŏnhyo=元曉; the Buddha-nature of insentient things; Yŏlban chongyo=涅槃宗要 (Doctrinal Essentials of the Nirvana Sutra); tathāgatagarbha; the One Mind
摘要
The problem of whether insentient things, such as fences, walls, tiles and stones or grass, trees, mountains and rivers have Buddha-nature was at the center of controversies among Chinese Buddhist schools, such as Tiantai or Huayan. This problem was a much discussed subject in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, and later made a further impact beyond the boundaries of Buddhism. This article explores Silla Buddhists’ position with respect to this issue, by examining Wŏnhyo’s 元曉 (617~686) Yŏlban chongyo 涅槃宗要(Doctrinal Essentials of the Nirvana Sutra). Wŏnhyo’s theory of the Buddha-nature of insentient things contains two important points: First, Wŏnhyo inherited Jingying Huiyuan’s doctrine of the Buddha-natures of the Dharma Body and the Reward Body and asserted that the Buddha-nature of the Dharma Body abides in both sentient and insentient things, while the Buddhanature of the Reward Body exists only in sentient beings, but not in insentient things, such as fences, walls, tiles, and stones. Second, Wŏnhyo defined the essence of Buddhanature as the one mind and defined the Buddha-natures of the Dharma Body and the Reward Body respectively as the realm of intrinsic purity and the realm that accords with impurity. He demonstrated the relationship between the Buddha-natures of the Dharma Body and the Reward Body by using the logic of the one mind and the two approaches, thereby reconciling the Buddha-nature of the Dharma Body of insentient things with that of the Reward Body of sentient beings on the basis of the one mind. Such a way in which the notion of conditioned arising of the tathāgatagarbha and the theory of Dharma nature are combined with each other constitutes the main feature of Wŏnhyo’s position on Buddha-nature. Wŏnhyo inherited Jingying Huiyuan’s and Jiaxing Jizang’s views on the one hand, and displayed his originality in demonstrating the Buddha-nature of insentient things from the position of the conditioned arising of the tathāgatagarbha.
