From the idea of the luminous mind emerged the idea that the awakened mind is the pure (visuddhi), undefiled mind. In the tathagatagarbha-sutras it is this pure consciousness that is regarded to be the seed from which Buddhahood grows:
All in One, One in All. The All melts into a single whole. There are no divisions in the totality of reality [...] [I]t views the cosmos as holy, as "one bright pearl," the universal reality of the Buddha. The universal Buddhahood of all reality is the religious message of the Avatamsaka-sutra.[43][note 12]
avatamsaka sutra pdf italiano 20
The Lotus Sutra (Skt: Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), written between 100 BCE and 200 CE, does not use the term buddha-nature, but Japanese scholars of Buddhism suggest that the idea is nevertheless expressed or implied in the text.[45][46] In the sixth century Lotus Sutra commentaries began to argue that the text teaches the concept of buddha-nature and, according to Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline Stone, "the Lotus Sutra came to be widely understood as teaching the universality of the buddha-nature."[47]The sutra shares other themes and ideas with the later tathāgatagarbha sūtras like the tathāgatagarbha sūtra and several scholars theorize that it was an influence on these texts.[48][49][50]
There are several major Indian texts which discuss the idea of buddha-nature and they are often termed the tathāgatagarbha sūtras. According to Brunnholzl "the earliest mahayana sutras that are based on and discuss the notion of tathagatagarbha as the buddha potential that is innate in all sentient beings began to appear in written form in the late second and early third century."[4] Their ideas became very influential in East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The Tathāgatagarbha sūtras include the Tathāgatagarbha sūtra, Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa, Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, and the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra.[52]
The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra (200-250 CE) is considered (...) "the earliest expression of this (the tathāgatagarbha doctrine) and the term tathāgatagarbha itself seems to have been coined in this very sutra."[53] It states that all beings already have perfect Buddha body (*tathāgatatva, *buddhatva, *tathāgatakāya) within themselves, but do not recognize it because it is covered over by afflictions.[54][55][56][57][58]
According to Sallie B. King, it does not represent a major innovation, and is rather unsystematic,[17] which made it "a fruitful one for later students and commentators, who were obliged to create their own order and bring it to the text".[17] According to King, its most important innovation is the linking of the term buddhadhatu with tathagatagarbha.[17] The sutra presents the buddha-nature or tathagatagarbha as a "Self". The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra refers to a true self. "The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṅa Sūtra, especially influential in East Asian Buddhist thought, goes so far as to speak of it as our true self (ātman). Its precise metaphysical and ontological status is, however, open to interpretation in the terms of different Mahāyāna philosophical schools; for the Madhyamikas it must be empty of its own existence like everything else; for the Yogacarins, following the Laṅkāvatāra, it can be identified with store consciousness, as the receptacle of the seeds of awakening.[72] Paul Williams states: "[...] it is obvious that the Mahaparinirvana Sutra does not consider it impossible for a Buddhist to affirm an atman provided it is clear what the correct understanding of this concept is, and indeed the sutra clearly sees certain advantages in doing so."[73] but it speaks about buddha-nature in so many different ways, that Chinese scholars created a list of types of buddha-nature that could be found in the text.[17] Paul Williams also notes:
Nevertheless the sutra as it stands is quite clear that while [...] we can speak of [the tathagatagharba] as Self, actually it is not at all a Self, and those who have such Self-notions cannot perceive the tathagatagarbha and thus become enlightened (see Ruegg 1989a: 21-6).[73]
It is plain that when the Lankavatara-sutra identifies the two terms, this scripture necessarily diverges in the meaning of one or both of the terms from the usage of the term Tathagatagarbha in the earlier Sri-Mala or of the term ālāya-vijñāna in the subsequent Yogacara school.[78][note 20]
The Ratnagotravibhāga, also called Uttaratantraśāstra (5th century CE), is an Indian śāstra in which synthesised major elements and themes of the tathāgatagārbha theory.[23] It gives an overview of authoritative tathāgatagarbha sutras, mentioning the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra, the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, the Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa and the Mahābherīharaka-sūtra.[81] It presents the tathāgatagarbha as "an ultimate, unconditional reality that is simultaneously the inherent, dynamic process towards its complete manifestation".[82] Mundane and enlightened reality are seen as complementary:
Go Lotsawa states that this statement is referencing the tathāgatagarbha doctrine.[86] Candrakirti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāsya also argues, basing itself on the Lankavatara sutra, that "the statement of the emptiness of sentient beings being a buddha adorned with all major and minor marks is of expedient meaning".[86]
The Yogacara concept of the alaya-vijñana (store consciousness) also came to be associated by some scholars with the tathāgatagarbha. This can be seen in sutras like the Lankavatara, the Srimaladevi and in the translations of Paramartha.[89] The concept of the ālaya-vijñāna originally meant defiled consciousness: defiled by the workings of the five senses and the mind. It was also seen as the mūla-vijñāna, the base-consciousness or "stream of consciousness" from which awareness and perception spring.[90]
The buddha nature idea was introduced into China with the translation of the Mahaparanirvana sutra in the early fifth century and this text became the central source of buddha-nature doctrine in Chinese Buddhism.[21] Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra some Chinese Buddhists supposed that the teaching of the buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths.[93] This idea was interpreted as being similar to the ideas of Dao and Principle (Li) in Chinese philosophy.
The teaching that Buddha-nature is the hidden essence within all sentient beings is the main message of the tathagatagarbha literature, the earliest of which is the Tathagatagarbha Sutra. This short sutra says that all living beings are in essence identical to the Buddha regardless of their defilements or their continuing transmigration from life to life... As in the earlier traditions, there is present the idea that enlightenment, or nirvana, is not something which has to be achieved, it is something which is already there... In a way, it means that everyone is really a Buddha now.[150]
L'Avataṃsakasūtra (in modo più completo il Buddhâvataṃsaka mahāvaipulyasūtra, Il Grande sutra dell'ornamento fiorito dei Buddha) è un sūtra appartenente alla tradizione del Buddhismo Mahāyāna.
Essendo l'Avataṃsakasūtra non un singolo sutra quanto piuttosto la raccolta di differenti sutra che ne costituiscono i capitoli amalgamati nel corso dei secoli, risulta piuttosto difficile risalire alla sua effettiva datazione, la quale è certamente successiva ai singoli sutra che contribuiscono a comporlo.
La raccolta, e anche parte della composizione dei diversi sutra nonché la loro armonizzazione in una singola opera, è comunque databile intorno al III secolo d.C. Una serie di riferimenti all'interno del sutra fa supporre che tale raccolta sia avvenuta nell'area di influenza indiana dell'Asia centrale tra Kashgar e il Regno di Khotan e, da quest'ultima area[1], esso sia stato introdotto in Cina e, successivamente, in Corea, in Vietnam e in Giappone.
Il Daśabhūmikasūtra è raccolto nell'XI capitolo (rotolo 8) nella versione di Buddhabhadra e nel XV capitolo (rotolo 11) nella versione di Śīkṣānanda dell'Avataṃsakasūtra. Precedentemente questo sutra era stato già tradotto, singolarmente, da Kumārajīva. Nella versione tibetana, esso corrisponde al XXXI capitolo dell'Avataṃsakasūtra. 2ff7e9595c
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