The Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra ("The Treatise that Accomplishes Reality"; Chinese:
It was translated into Chinese in 411 by Kumārajīva and this translation (Taishō number: T1646) is the only extant version, which became popular in China.[1][3][4] This text was translated into English by N. Aiyaswami Sastri in 1978.[5]
Author and school affiliation
editWhat little information exists about Harivarman is from Chinese sources which put him sometime between 250 and 350 CE.[6] According to Xuanzang's biography, Harivarman was born a Brahmin, ordained with the Sarvāstivāda, and became a student of the Sarvāstivāda teacher Kumāralāta (possibly the same as the original teacher of Sautrantika) who taught him the "great Abhidharma of Kātyāyana (迦旃
The school affiliation of the author and his text has been debated for hundreds of years, even the early Chinese sources disagree. Jizang (
The Japanese scholars Katsura Shōryu and Fukuhara Ryōgon, in analyzing the doctrinal content, maintain that Harivarman is closest to the Bahuśrutīya school.[10] This is also the position of A.K. Warder.[11] Kumārajīva's student Sengrui discovered Harivarman had refused the abhidharma schools' approach to Buddhist seven times in the text, suggesting a strong sectarian division between them and the Sautrāntikas.[3]
Qian Lin notes the difficulty of using doctrinal analysis to pin down a specific school affiliation due to the fluidity of said schools and the terms used to refer to them. He cautiously places him among the Dārṣṭāntika-Sautrāntika.[12]
Content
editThe Tattvasiddhi is preserved in sixteen fascicles in the Chinese with 202 chapters, it is organized according to the four noble truths.[13]
I. Introduction (
- The three treasures of Buddhism (
三寶 ) (1–12) - Introduction to the treatise and its content (13–18)
- Ten points of controversy (19–35)
II. The truth of suffering (
- Form (rūpa
色 ) (36–59) - Consciousness (vijñāna 識) (60–76)
- Apperception (saṃjñā
想 ) (77) - Feeling (vedanā 受) (78–83)
- Volitional formations (saṃskāra
行 ) (84–94)
III. The truth of origin (
- Karma (
業 ) (95–120) - Defilements (
煩惱 kleśa) (121–140)
IV. The truth of cessation (
V. The truth of the path (
- Concentration (
定 samādhi) (155–188) - Insight (
慧 prajñā) (189–202)
In the text Harivarman attacks the Sarvastivada school's doctrine of "all exists" and the Pudgalavada theory of person. The Tattvasiddhi includes the teaching of dharma-śūnyatā, the emptiness of phenomena.[14] This text also mentions the existence of a Bodhisattva Piṭaka.[15] A central teaching of the text is that dharmas have no substance or substratum, they appear real but they are "like bubbles or like a circle of fire seen when a rope torch is whirled around very quickly."[16] Harivarman writes:
"All parts being analyzed again and again are reduced to atoms which again being broken become non-existent. All things culminate necessarily in the idea of Shunyata."[17]
Another important argument covered in the text is on the relationship between mind or consciousness (citta) and mental factors (caitasikas). Harivarman argues against the common Abhidharma idea of "association" (samprayoga) which held that caitasikas and citta were separate elemental constituents of experience which "associate" or join together.[18] Instead, according to Lin, his view is that "“mental factors” are not actually things different from consciousness but are in their nature precisely consciousness manifested in different modes".[19]
The Tattvasiddhi outlines a conception of the two truths doctrine, explaining conventional or nominal truth and ultimate truth.[20]
The Tattvasiddhi also outlines the importance of a samadhi which is a "cause of knowledge of things as they are, which is the same as knowledge of Shunyata."[21]
Chinese sect
editThe Tattvasiddhi school (Chinese:
The Tattvasiddhi was initially promoted by three of Kumarajiva's students, Sengrui (
Other major expounders of the Tattvasiddhi in China include the group named "Three Great Masters of the Liang dynasty": Sengmin (
The tradition of the Tattvasiddhi remained strong up until the Tang dynasty, up to 24 commentaries were written on the text, all of which are now lost.[23] The Madhyamaka teacher Jizang (549–623) strongly criticized the work as "Hinayana" (lesser vehicle) and possibly due to the rise of new more influential schools such as the Huayan and Tiantai schools, the Chinese tradition of the Tattvasiddhi died out.[24]
Japan
editIt was introduced to Japan as Jōjitsu in 625 by the monk Ekwan of Goryeo. In Japan, it was classified as one of the three approaches of East Asian Mādhyamaka instead of a separate lineage.[25] East Asian Mādhyamaka (
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Buswell & Lopez 2013, p. 180.
- ^ Takakusu 2002, p. 74.
- ^ a b c d Takakusu 2002, p. 75.
- ^ Lin, p. 3
- ^ N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, 571 pages.
- ^ Lin, p. 13-14
- ^ Lin, p. 14-15
- ^ Lin, p. 15-16
- ^ Lin, p. 19
- ^ Lin, p. 19-20
- ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism, page 398.
- ^ Lin, p. 23
- ^ Lin, pg 32–33.
- ^ Skilton, Andrew. A Concise History of Buddhism. 2004. pp. 91–92
- ^ Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett. Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism. 1997. p. 9
- ^ Petzold, Bruno; The Classification of Buddhism 1995, page 441.
- ^ N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 337.
- ^ Lin, pg 10.
- ^ Lin, pg 10.
- ^ N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 334-335.
- ^ N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 361.
- ^ Lin, pg 29
- ^ Lin, pg 30
- ^ Lin, pg 31
- ^ Takakusu 2002, p. 76.
- ^ Buswell & Lopez 2013, p. 547.
Bibliography
edit- Buswell, Robert; Lopez, Donald S. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.
- Rahder, Johannes. "Harivarman's Satyasiddhi-sastra". Philosophy East & West, V. 5 (January, 1956) p. 348.
- Shi, Zhangqing (2004). The Two Truths in Chinese Buddhism. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-2035-7.
- Takakusu, Junjirō (2002). The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1592-6.
- Lin, Qian. Mind in Dispute: The Section on Mind in Harivarman’s *Tattvasiddhi, University of Washington