PART THREE:
OTHER PAPERS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
SEEING SUKHÄVATI:
YOGÄCÄRA AND THE ORIGINS OF PURE LAND
VISUALIZATION
Richard K. PAYNE
Precis: One of the practices characteristic of the Pure Land tradition is
visualization, as found for example in the Visualization Sutra and the
Rebirth Treatise Discourse on the Pure Land attributed to Vasubandhu. The
question this paper pursues is: How did the creators of such visualization
practices conceive that they would be effective in leading one to
awakening? The origins of Pure Land visualization practice place it in the
same religious milieu as Yogäcära. Any religious practice implies a
conception of human existence which defines the human condition, the
path, and goal of practice. For an understanding of how visualization
practice was understood to be effective, it is important to consider what the
contribution of Yogäcära psychology was to the intellectual milieu of Pure
Land visualization practice.
Most importantly for Yogäcära, the idea of a fundamental reorientation (äsrayaparävrtti) of consciousness serves to identify the way in
which practice effects a change leading to awakening. This paper will,
therefore, first describe an instance of visualizing Sukhavatï, and second
describe the Yogäcära conceptions of the way in which a fundamental
reorientation of consciousness is achieved. Finally, it will be suggested that
visualization practice was understood in a variety of ways, at least one of
which was that of Yogäcära psychology.
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Introduction
In the Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra, Säkyamuni Buddha advises the
bodhisattva, mahasattva Bhadrapäla that
bodhisattvas, whether they be householders or renunciante, go alone to
a secluded spot and sit down, and in accordance with what they have
learned they concentrate their thoughts on the Tathagata, Arhat and
Perfectly Awakened One Amitayus; flawless in the constituent of
morality and unwavering in mindfulness they should concentrate their
thoughts on him for one day and one night, or for two, or three, or four,
or five, or six, or seven days and nights. If they concentrate their
thoughts with undistracted minds on the Tathagata Amitayus for seven
days and nights, then, when a full seven days and nights have elapsed,
they see the Lord and Tathagata Amitayus. Should they not see the
Lord during the daytime, then the Lord and Tathagata Amitayus will
show his face to them in a dream while they are sleeping.1
This and similar visualization practices seem to have become very
popular in medieval India, being found in both Brahmanic and Buddhist
texts. In their Buddhist forms, they provided one of the bases for the
development of Pure Land Buddhism in East Asia. There are many
questions which we could pursue in relation to this and similar visualization
practices, but I believe that one of the most important questions is: How did
the authors and practitioners of these visualization practices think of them
as being effective in producing self transformation? At the same time, we
must note that there is the very real possibility that this question cannot be
answered with certainty, and that the best we can accomplish will be
speculative. This will be of use, however, for formulating a contemporary
understanding of the efficacy of Pure Land practice.
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Self-transformation and the Efficacy of Visualization
One possible way of characterizing all of Buddhist thought is that it is
concerned with the issue of self-transformation, though what selftransformation means is understood differently within different Buddhist
traditions. None of Buddhist thought exists simply as an abstract claim or
simply as an intellectually satisfying system of thought. The context of all
of Buddhist thought —qua Buddhist —is the process of self ^transformation,
structured in many cases in the categories of ground, path and goal. The
ground is the definition of the human condition, the goal is the condition
sought, and the path is the process by which the practitioner moves from
ground to goal.
Thus, for Buddhists, the question concerning how medieval Indian,
Central Asian, Chinese and Japanese Buddhist thinkers and practitioners
thought the practice of visualizing the Buddha Amitayus, his retinue and
his Pure Land was effective in producing self-transformation is not purely
philosophical or historical. Rather, it goes to the core of the significance of
the practice. In addition, I believe that answering this question is important
to us today in developing our own, contemporary understanding of
self-transformation and the ways in which it can be achieved.
It is, of course, possible to generate any number of possible
explanations for the efficacy of visualization practice. In order to inform
any contemporary explanation, I think that it is important to understand the
traditional explanations. Various texts within the Buddhist tradition seem to
have utilized two types of explanations, which I will refer to here as
cosmologica! and psychological. These categories are not those of the
original texts, but are rather adopted from contemporary Western
philosophic discourse. While some might automatically reject this adoption
as an imperialistic imposition of Western intellectual conceptions onto the
Buddhist tradition, I would want to note two things. First, that there are
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analogous concepts to these two categories in Buddhist thought. Second,
that for our purposes here, which are to develop a contemporary understanding of the efficacy of visualization practice, these categories are of
heuristic value. As we will see below, the relation between these two kinds
of explanations is not one of mutual opposition, but rather one of differing
emphasis. Some explanations give greater emphasis to cosmological
considerations, while others place their emphasis on psychological ones.
Those explanations which work with the idea that successful
visualization means that one has actually seen Sukhâvatï, the Buddha
Amitäbha and his retinue which exist independently of one's visualization
of them are what I am calling cosmological. Such explanations have
epistemological significance, in the sense that in the absence of a living
Buddha of our own realm, one is able to enter into the actual presence of
another Buddha, Amitäbha for example, and there hear the dharma
directly.2 Another epistemological aspect of this kind of explanation is that
the object of perception changes from this realm of samsaric existence to
the Sukhâvatï. Explanations which refer to visualization itself producing a
transformation of consciousness are what I am calling here psychological.
The Visualization Sutra itself gives us a psychological answer to the
question of how visualization is effective. However, the answer it gives is
so brief, so condensed that additional work needs to be done to make the
answer something we can understand today. In relation to his own work on
The Awakening ofFaith, Hakeda has cited Edward Conze's comment to the
effect that "We at present must reconstruct laboriously what 1,500 years
ago seemed a matter of course."3 Concerning the practice of visualizing
Sukhâvatï, the Visualization Sutra says:
The Buddha said to Änanda and Vaidehï: When you have seen these
things, next perceive the Buddha [of Immeasurable Life]. Why?
Because each buddha-tathagata, as the body of the dharma-realm,
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pervades the mind of all sentient beings. Therefore, when you perceive
a buddha in your mind, it is your mind that possesses the thirty-two
prominent features and the eighty secondary attributes; your mind
becomes a buddha; your mind is a buddha; and the wisdom of the
buddhas — true, universal, and ocean-like — arises from this mind.
Therefore, you should single-mindedly fix your thoughts and clearly
perceive the Buddha, Tathagata, Arhat, Samyaksambuddha. (ΕΠ.8;
Ryukoku translation)
This answer says that by forming a visual image of the Buddha, our
minds become the Buddha. It seems clear that what is meant is not that the
mind becomes that of any particular buddha, e.g., the historical Buddha,
Säkyamuni. Rather, the term "buddha" is being used here to identify
awakened consciousness, which is the same in all buddhas, all awakened
beings. But how can a visual image transform my consciousness from one
which contributes to my daily frustration to one which experiences things
as they actually are?
In contrast to the cosmological explanations which assert the literal
existence of Sukhâvatï, Yogäcära views of visualization practice have a
more psychological emphasis. That is, instead of referencing a change in
the object of perception from the samsaric realm to Sukhâvatï, the change is
in the workings of the mind and its ability to perceive the actuality of things
as they are.
Yogäcära Psychology of Self-Transformation
Within the Buddhist tradition, one of the most systematic treatments of
how the mind works is found in the Yogäcära school. The Yogäcära theory
of mind can provide us with a psychological explanation of how
visualization is effective in the process of selfHransformation. The
Yogäcära texts describe the mind as having two levels. One is the level of
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our present awareness, including both momentary, sensory experience and
ego-consciousness. If this were all, however, there would be no way of
explaining how it is that there is continuity of experience across such
breaks in consciousness as sleep and deep meditative states (nirodhasamäpatti), and no way of explaining how consciousness can be
transformed. So in addition to our present consciousness, the Buddhist
psychologists hypothesized that there must be a level of mind that is outside
of our present conscious awareness, a foundational consciousness which is
normally outside of our conscious awareness, i.e., unconscious. This
foundational consciousness is, of course, the älayavijnäna.
The foundational consciousness is the source of our repetitive
frustrations. Our ego-centric actions - karma —produce effects not only in
the world around us, but also in the foundational consciousness, which then
becomes part of the conditions of following experiences, leading to
habitual patterns of behavior. John Keenan has described this function of
the foundational consciousness, or which he refers to as the "container
consciousness":
The container consciousness is understood as the seminal
consciousness because it serves as a latent and preconscious
accumulation of karmic seeds from defiled experiences in the
transmigratory past. In virtue of this accumulation of seeds, the entire
growth and development of consciousness is karmically defiled and
enmeshed in ignorance and illusion. This container consciousness lies
hidden beneath the everyday activities of sensing, perceiving, and
thinking, and issues in a propensity towards discrimination.4
The modern Shin thinker Soga Ryojin points out, however, that the
älayavijnäna, the foundational consciousness, "is at once the principle of
avidyä, primal ignorance, and of enlightenment. The actual world of
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ignorance is brought about by älayavijnäna, but once aware of, awakened
to, the process by which älayavijnäna comes to be defiled, we are already
on the way toward enlightenment."5
This idea of a foundational consciousness level of our mental
existence has been criticized by some as a crypto-soul, an atman theory
being snuck into Buddhism. This critique, however, is based on an
uninformed misconception of the Yogäcära conceptualization of the
älayavijnäna.6 For example, one of the main sutra sources for the Buddhist
psychologists, the Sutra Explaining the Intent {Sarhdhinirmocana sutra)
presents the foundational consciousness as impermanent in very clear terms.
In the closing verse of thefifthchapter of this sutra, the Buddha declares:
If the appropriating consciousness [i.e., älayavijnäna], deep and subtle,
all its seeds flowing like a river, were conceived as a self, that would
not be right. Thus I have not taught this to children.7
The Sutra Explaining the Intent employs a very traditional metaphor —
waves on ariver— for describing the working of mind. Thoughts arise like
waves on the river which is the ongoing flow of the foundational
consciousness. Like a river, the foundational consciousness is empty of any
permanent, substantive, eternally unchanging essence, being instead an
ongoing process, flowing.
By changing the way in which the foundational consciousness effects
subsequent experiences, it may be possible to break the continuity of
frustrating habit patterns. The Yogäcära texts referred to such a change as a
turning over or revolution in the base of consciousness: äsrayaparävrtti.
This is the key to self-transformation: that there can be a fundamental
change in how we experience the world.
According to Alan Sponberg, another of the main Yogäcära texts - the
Mahäyänasarngraha by AsarjLga-outlines a theory of awakening in which
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non-discriminating cognition (nirvikalpa-jñana) is the direct cause of
unfixed nirvana (aprati^thita^nirvätia), the goal of the bodhisattva who,
balancing wisdom and compassion, is fixed neither in samsara nor in
nirvana.8 "This is the 'basic revolution' (äsrayaparävrtti) in which [the
bodhisattva] rejects all defilements (samklesa) and yet does not abandon
the mundane realm subject to death and rebirth (samsara)"9 Sponberg
describes non-discriminating cognition as being characterized not only
negatively, but also positively, as "the direct and intuitive cognition" of the
truth that all things are empty of independent existence, i.e.,
paramärthasatya. The Mahäyänasamgraha describes the turning over,
conversion, or revolution of the foundational consciousness as leading to
the attainment of the "Dharma Body" (dharmakäya). In Paramärtha's
translation of the commentary on the Mahäyänasaifigraha by Vasubandhu,
the Mahäyänasawgrahabhäsya, this is explained that purification is
attained "by the conversion of the container consciousness" [i.e.,
älayavijnäna]:
Conversion means that, upon the arising of its antidote, one becomes
separated from one aspect of the impure states of the foundational
consciousness, and associated with one aspect of the pure states of the
foundational consciousness.10
Another explanation of the transformation of the foundational
consciousness is found in Tsong Khapa's Ocean of Eloquence. Tsong
Khapa's explanation is that a pure dharma, taking up residence in the
foundational consciousness begins to purify the whole of the foundational
consciousness:
In this [Yogäcära] way [of thinking], then, the seed of uncontaminated
[wisdom] that is on the matured [älaya] consciousness is not älayavijnäna,
since it is an antidote to älayavijnäna. When, through a great deal of
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fostering by the conditions of listening, thinking, and contemplation, the
pure seed increases and the seed of the afflictions is impeded, then... when
the seed of complete affliction is impeded and purity expands, a
fundamental change takes place.11
Using this understanding of how the foundational consciousness is
transformed could be developed into an explanation of the efficacy of Pure
Land visualization in which the experience of seeing Amitäbha, his retinue
and Sukhâvatï constitutes that pure dharma. Since these are pure dharmas,
experiencing them is their entry into the foundational consciousness, and
being pure, they purify. Note that there is an important distinction which is
implicit here, the distinction between visualizing Sukhâvatï and seeing it.
This would seem to be entirely consistent with Shinran's conception of the
difference between self-power and other-power. The limited efficacy of
visualizing is an instance of self-power, while the transformative efficacy
of seeing is an instance of other-power.
Within the Yogäcära tradition, two different conceptions of the
foundational consciousness developed. In one, the foundational consciousness was understood to be itself inherently pure, while in the other it was
seen as the obscuring factor overlaying a more fundamental and pure
consciousness which is inherently awakened and identical with the
awakened consciousness of all buddhas. In East Asian Buddhism, this
inherently awakened, naturally pure consciousness was conflated with the
idea of the tathägatagarbha, and came to be called "Buddha-nature."
According to B. Alan Wallace's explanation, the idea of Buddha-nature
has two aspects.12 One aspect is future oriented - it is the idea that everyone
has the potential of becoming fully awakened, of becoming a buddha. No
one is excludedfromthe possibility of becoming a buddha, or perhaps more
appropriately, no one is excluded from the responsibility of becoming a
buddha. A metaphor employed to describe this aspect is that of the seed of
awakening. Everyone has the seed, and the seed cannot be destroyed, but it
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requires the right conditions, the effort of practice in order that it germinate,
grow and produceflowersand fruit.
The other aspect is present oriented, it is a description of our present
condition as already, naturally and inherently awakened. It is this aspect
that is identified with dharmakäya, which is one of the three bodies of the
buddha, the characteristics of which Jacqueline Stone has described as "the
truth without beginning or end that is inherent in all things."13 Wallace
explains the identity of dharmakäya and Buddha-nature, saying "When
one's own Buddha-nature is completely unveiled, one's own mind is
revealed as dharmakäya, and the dharmakäya one experiences when
becoming a Buddha is not intrinsically separate from anybody else's
dharmakäya"1* To explain this identity another metaphor, that of the
mirror, is often employed. In this metaphor the foundational consciousness
is said to be like a mirror. A mirror naturally, effortlessly, and
spontaneously reflects whatever comes before it. Any dust or dirt that may
accumulate on the surface of the mirror may interfere with the reflective
qualities. But the dust and dirt are only present accidentally and not
inherently-adhering to the mirror, they can be cleared away, revealing the
clear, spontaneously reflective surface beneath.
The idea that all living beings (and perhaps even the trees and grasses)
can become Buddhas because they possess Buddha-nature was accepted by
almost all schools of East Asian Buddhism. The single exception was the
East Asian branch of Yogäcära thought founded by Hsiian-tsang, the
Fa-shiang school (Jpn. Hossö). In medieval Japan, the Hossö scholar
Tokuitsu attempted to reconcile the idea that Buddha-nature is universal
with the idea that there are those who will never become Buddhas by
distinguishing two kinds of Buddha-nature. Stone describes the character of
these two and how they relate to the idea of the älayavijnäna. The two are:
Buddha nature as suchness or principle (ri-bussho), which is universal, and
active Buddha nature (gyô-busshô), which is not. Ri-bussho is quiescent
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and does not manifest itself in the phenomenal world; thus the universality
of the Buddha nature in this sense does not mean that all people can become
Buddhas. Realizing Buddhahood depends on gyo-bussho, which consists of
"untainted seeds" present in the aloya consciousness from the beginningless past. Those who possess such seeds can become Buddhas; those who
lack them can never attain Buddhahood, no matter how hard they may
strive.15
In the long run, however, the idea that Buddhahood was foreclosed to
some living beings was not accepted. Instead, we find the view that all
living beings — indeed, everything — would attain Buddhahood becoming
the view throughout Japanese Buddhist thought generally, including Jodo
Shinshu. The "Notes on 'Essentials of Faith Alone'" strongly suggests that
Shinran's view was consistent with this view that universal Buddha nature
means that all existing things - "plants, trees, and land" - will attain
Buddhahood:
Nirvana is called extinction of passions, the uncreated, peaceful
happiness, eternal bliss, true reality, dharma-body, dharma-nature,
suchness, oneness, and Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is none other
than Tathagata. This Tathagata pervades the countless worlds; it fills
the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings. Thus, plants, trees, and
land all attain Buddhahood.16
While perhaps not as central to his thinking as the concept of shinjin,
the idea of Buddha-nature does appear to have been very important to
Shinran. In his collected works there are many references to Buddha-nature,
and most of these references equate Buddha-nature with shinjin. We find
this equation being made, for example, in a sequence of three of the
"Hymns of the Pure Land":
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Seeing Sukhâvatï: Yogäcära and the Origins of Pure Land Visualization
92
When a person realizes the mind of nondiscrimination,
That attainment is the 'state of regarding each being as one's only
child.'
This is none other than Buddha-nature;
We will awaken to it on reaching the land of peace.
93
Tathagata is none other than nirvana;
Nirvana is called Buddha-nature.
Beyond our ability to attain it in the state of foolish beings,
We will realize it on reaching the land of peace.
94
The person who attains shinjin and joy
Is taught to be equal to the Tathagatas.
Great shinjin is itself Buddha-nature;
Buddha-nature is none other than Tathagata.17
Another instance of this equation of shinjin and Buddha-nature is found
in Shinran's Notes on 'Essentials of Faith Alone.' Here Shinran cites
Vasubandhu, the medieval Indian Yogäcära author mentioned previously,
saying:
Bodhisattva Vasubandhu declares that this true and real shinjin is none
other than the aspiration to become a Buddha, [i.e., bodhicitta] This is
the great thought of enlightenment of the Pure Land. This aspiration
for Buddhahood is none other than the wish to carry all beings across
the great ocean of birth-and-death. This shinjin is the aspiration to
bring all beings to the attainment of supreme nirvana; it is the heart of
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great love and great compassion. This shinjin is Buddha-nature and
Buddha-nature is Tathagata. To realize this shinjin is to rejoice and be
glad. People who rejoice and are glad are called "people equal to the
Buddhas.18
In his "True Teaching, Practice, and Realization" Shinran repeatedly quotes
the Nirvana sutra, one of the primary sources of Buddha nature thought in
East Asian Buddhism. One of these citations makes the equation of Buddha
nature and shinjin quite explicit, giving Shinran a canonic source for his
assertions of their identity:
Buddha-nature is great shinjin. Why? Because through shinjin the
bodhisattva-mahasattva has acquired all the paramitas from charity to
wisdom. All sentient beings will without fail ultimately realize great
shinjin. Therefore it is taught, "All sentient beings are possessed of
Buddha-nature." Great shinjin is none other than Buddha-nature.
Buddha-nature is Tathagata.19
This identification of Buddha nature, Tathagata, nirvana, suchness and
shinjin appears to be consistent throughout Shinran's writings.
That Buddha nature is universally present in all living beings and
existing things, however, creates a further question concerning the relation
between universal Buddha nature and the process by which one realizes
awakening. Stone outlines two possible strategies which are based on the
idea of universal Buddha nature, saying
Once the Buddha nature has been defined as innate in all beings, the
question arises as to whether awakening depends on removing the
attachments and false views that obstruct one from discerning the
Buddha nature, or on a direct realization of the Buddha nature, as
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whose consequence the mental defilements will naturally be dispelled
or transformed.20
The latter view, i.e., that realizing Buddha nature is what dispels
"attachments and false views" would seem to be more in accord with the
emphasis on other power.
With these ideas regarding the relation between Buddha nature and
awakening in mind, we can go back to the formulations of Vasubandhu and
the other Buddhist psychologists concerning the working of the mind. A
key concept for the Buddhist psychologists is what they called the "three
natures" (trisvabhäva). These are subjective awareness, mental constructs
and things as they actually are. In the metaphor of the mirror we employed
earlier, the mirror is subjective awareness, mental constructs are the dust
and dirt that accumulate on the mirror, and things as they actually are are
the objects reflected in the mirror. The mirror will naturally and
spontaneously reflect whatever it is presented with, whether that is the dust
and dirt of mental constructs or things as they actually are. Once cleared of
dust and dirt, the mirror is only left with things as they actually are.
Like all metaphors, however, this one is of limited value and can only
be pushed so far. It is too static and does not account for the dynamic
qualities of mind that lead to the patterns of repetitious frustrating
behaviors. This is the "appropriating mind" referred to in the quote from the
Sarridhinirmocana sutra given above. The metaphor can also contribute to a
mistaken notion of self-power, in that it implies that we are somehow
ourselves other than, or separate from the mirror, and can clean it of dust
and dirt, leading to our own self-empowered awakening. This is like the
first strategy identified by Stone above, that is, that Buddha nature is
revealed through the clearing away of "attachments and false views."
So how do visualization practices such as that we opened with effect a
self-transformation? How do they cut through the obscuring dust and dirt of
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mental constructs to allow the subjective awareness to reflect things as they
actually are, to allow the foundational consciousness to act in its natural,
spontaneously pure fashion? For certain strains of thought regarding the
practice of Buddha visualization the key was not visualizing the Buddha
per se, but rather seeing the Buddha that was transformative. In other words,
while the practice of forming a mental, visual image of the Buddha Amida
arisesfromone's personal effort, it is understood as creating the conditions
for the Buddha's responsive reaching out to us, for us to see the Buddha.
The same thing is true of reciting the name of the Buddha: it is not our effort
in reciting the name of the Buddha that produces our own selftransformation, but rather such recitation creates a condition of responsiveness on our part that allows us to hear the name of the Buddha
spoken to us by the Buddha. It is in these formulations, which accord both
with the idea of other power and the idea that realizing Buddha nature
clears away the obscurations, that the cosmological and psychological
emphases in explaining the efficacy of visualization are merged. Our
ego-consciousness cannot go beyond its own limited view. This is the
profound insight of Shinran's rejection of self-power, i.e., efforts arising
from the ego-consciousness. But ego-consciousness can come to realize
that it is itself the source of its ownfrustrationsand, becoming aware of its
own limitations, create an attitude of desiring something else, what Soga
Ryojin calls "the profound aspiration in our own mind - springing up from
the älayavijnäna - to become denizens of a world of truth and purity."21
While nembutsu is usually identified with verbal recitation of the name
of the Buddha, it more literally means "to keep the Buddha in mind" and
includes the visualization of the Buddha as well. Such a practice begins to
weaken the hold of the ego-consciousness (manas) and for the underlying,
inherently pure and awakened consciousness to manifest itself as the true
locus of our lives. The ego-centric activity of the ego-consciousness
(klicfamanovijnäna) continually obscures the inherently awakened
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consciousness. By focusing our attention on the Buddha, we break the
constant flow of obscurations. Such breaks in the repetitive selfaggrandizement of the ego-consciousness open an opportunity for the
Buddha-nature to become the active center of our lives. Soga cites another
work by Vasubandhu, the Trimsikä, to say that "the älayavijnäna is . . . like
a rushing torrent. It will manifest itself amidst illusory thoughts, break
through all the forms of ignorance of sentient beings, and someday must
fulfill all of their innermost aspirations."22 This is the turning over at the
foundations of consciousness, a shift of the position from which we live our
lives from the ego-consciousness to Buddha-nature. To close with a final
quote from Soga,
To be awakened to the depth of the Original Vow then means to attain
the enlightened wisdom to know who one really is. Once awakened to the
depth of the Original Vow, one shares in the enlightenment of Amida in the
Pure Land - the transcendent realm - while yet remaining in this world of
relativity: one's eventual attainment of Buddhahood is a certainty, is
assured.23
NOTES
This is a revised version of a paper originally presented to the International
Association of Shin Buddhist Studies, at the Ninth Biennial Conference,
Hawai'i, 1999.
1. Paul Harrison, tr., The Samadhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of
the Present: An Annotated English Translation of the Tibetan Version of the
Pratyutpanna-Buddha^amukhavasthita-Samadhi-Sutra, Studia Philologica
Buddhica Monograph Series, no. 5. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist
Studies,1990.p.32[3B].
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2. There is a suggestive similarity here to Gnosticism in which visionary
experiences are held to have salvific significance. According to Dan Merkur,
the Gnostics developed "a distinctive type of visionary experience. The visions
were not regarded as ("extrasensory") perceptions of objectively existing
external realities. They did not disclose the real appearances of heavenly beings
and locations in manners consistent, for example, with the celestial journeys of
Jewish and Christian apocalyptists. Gnostics recognized their visions as
subjective mental experiences whose contents varied from moment to moment
and individual to individual" (Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical
Visions and Unions [Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993], p.
114). Merkur's description of the Gnostics' understanding of the importance of
their visionary experiences suggests something closer to what I am calling here
a psychological explanation. An extended comparison is beyond the scope of
this paper, however. In addition, the value of such a comparison is dependent
upon a theory of such experiences and their interpretation, itself a task even
further beyond the scope of this paper.
3. Hakeda, The Awakening of Faith, p. 4.
4. John Keenan, "Introduction" to Griffiths, et. al., trs., The Realm of
Awakening: A Translation and Study of the Tenth Chapter ofAsafiga's
Mahäyänascapgraha (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989),
p. 7.
5. Soga Ryojin, "Dharmakara Bodhisattva," The Eastern Buddhist, I. 1
(1965); reprinted in Frederick Frank, ed., The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the
Kyoto School (New York: Crossroad, 1982), p. 224.
6. For a discussion of the impermanence of the related concepts of
tathägatagarbha and Buddha-nature, see Sallie B. King, "The Doctrine of
Buddha-Nature is Impeccably Buddhist," in Jamie Hubbard and Paul L.
Swanson, eds, Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism
(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997).
7. John Powers, tr., Wisdom of Buddha: The Sarhdhinirmocana Mahäyäna
281
Seeing Sukhâvatï: Yogäcära and the Origins of Pure Land Visualization
Sütra (Emeryville, California: Dharma Publishing, 1995), p. 77.
8. Specifically, nirvana-without remainder (nirupadhiseça-nirvana), i.e.,
that goal attributed to árávakas and pratyekabuddhas for which they are
criticized in Mahayana discourse.
9. Alan Sponberg, "Dynamic Liberation in Yogäcära Buddhism," Journal
of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 1. 2 (1979, pp. 44-64), p.
48.
10. Paul J. Griffiths, et. al., trs., The Realm of Awakening, p. 116.
11. Gareth Sparham, tr., Ocean of Eloquence: Tsong khapa's Commentary
on the Yogäcära Doctrine of Mind (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1993), p. 92.
12. Β. Alan Wallace refers to the present-oriented aspect of Buddha^nature
as "discovered" and to the future-oriented aspect as "developed." B. Alan
Wallace, "Buddha-Nature" in Jean Smith, ed., Radiant Mind: Essential
Buddhist Teachings and Texts (New York: Riverhead Books, 1999. Pp.
235-237.), p. 235.
13. Jacqueline Stone, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of
Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian
Buddhism, no. 12. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999), p. 19.
14. Wallace, "Buddha-Nature," p. 235.
15. Stone, Original Enlightenment, p. 13.
16. Jödo ShinshO Hongwanji-ha, The Collected Works of Shinran (hereafter,
C.W.S. 2 vols. Kyoto: Jödo Shinshü Hongwanji4ia, 1997), 1.461.
17. C.W.S, 1.350-351. The last hymn is quoted in a letter to Shinran by
Kyoshin, thus evidencing that Buddha-nature was at least familiar, if not a
topic of discussion, among Jodo Shinshu adherents (C.W.S., I. 541).
18. C.W.S., 1.463.
19. C.W.S., I. 99.
20. Stone, Original Enlightenment, p. 38.
21. Soga, "Dharmakara Bodhisattva," p. 226.
282
Richard Payne
22. Soga, "Dharmakara Bodhisattva," p. 227.
23. Soga, "Dharmakara Bodhisattva," p. 223.
283
^ s
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