Indian roots The doctrine of innate enlightenment developed in
Chinese Buddhism out of various Indian
Mahayana ideas, such as the Buddha-nature (
tathagatagarbha) doctrine, the
luminous mind and the teachings found in various Mahayana sources, including the
Śūraṅgama Sūtra,
Ghanavyuha,
Śrīmālādevī,
Tathagatagarbha sutra,
Nirvana sutra, and the
Ratnagotravibhāga. The influential Huayan-Chan scholar,
Guifeng Zongmi, cites various Indian Mahayana sources for this idea. He cites a passage from the
Avatamsaka Sutra which states, "When one first raises the
thought [of awakening], one attains unexcelled, perfect awakening." He also cites the
Nirvana Sutra, which states: "The two, raising the thought [of awakening] and the ultimate, are not separate." The Prajña translation of the
Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra (translated by the Indian monk Prajña) also mentions the term, stating: "When the buddhas and bodhisattvas realize enlightenment, they convert the ālaya and attain the wisdom of original enlightenment" (Taisho no. 10 n0293 p0688a08).
Origins in China The Chinese term itself is first mentioned in the
Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (c. 6th century). According to this treatise: The
Awakening of Faith also identifies inherent enlightenment with "true suchness" (真如,
tathātā), the mind which is pure in itself, and the
tathagata-garbha. According to
Jacqueline Stone, the
Awakening of Faith sees original enlightenment as "true
suchness considered under the aspect of conventional deluded consciousness and thus denotes the potential for enlightenment in unenlightened beings." The idea is further discussed in the influential commentary to the
Awakening of Faith titled
On the Interpretation of Mahāyāna (
Shi Moheyan lun, 釈摩訶衍論, Japanese: , Taisho no. 1668). As such, the foundational view of the
Korean Sôn tradition is grounded on the view of original enlightenment and
essence-function metaphysics influenced by scriptures like the
Platform Sutra,
Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, and the
Awakening of Faith. This Song era Tiantai debate was part of the so called "home mountain" (shanjia
) vs. "off mountain" (shanwai
) debates. The "off mountain" faction supported the original enlightenment view, which was influenced by the thought of Zongmi and Yongming Yanshou, and promoted the existence of the "one pure formless mind" like the Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith
. The Tiantai patriarch Siming Zhili (960–1028) famously defended the home mountain faction and argued against the Awakening of Faith''—original enlightenment view.
In Japanese Buddhism Kūkai (774–835), founder of
Shingon Buddhism, was one of the first Japanese authors to discuss original enlightenment. He was fond of the
Awakening of Faith (and the
Shi Moheyan lun commentary), so his view of the teaching is based on these sources. One was a radical Mahayana
non-dualism, in which everything was seen as pure, empty and interconnected, so that the differences between ordinary person and Buddha,
samsara and
nirvana, and all other distinctions, were ultimately
ontologically negated. The other feature of medieval hongaku thought was a radical affirmation of the phenomenal world as an expression of the non-dual realm of Buddha nature. This was expressed in popular phrases such as "the worldly passions are precisely enlightenment", "birth and death are precisely nirvana", "
Saha is the
Pure Land", and "the grasses, trees, mountains, and rivers all attain Buddhahood." These scholars went even further in their critiques, arguing that the buddha-nature doctrine was not really Buddhist, but a kind of
foundationalist substance theory similar to the Hindu doctrine of
atman-brahman. Their critiques sparked a heated debate, as other Japanese scholars like
Takasaki Jikidō and Hirakawa Akira defended the buddha-nature teachings and original enlightenment thought. ==See also==