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Awakening Of Faith In The Mahayana
''Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna'' (AF, , reconstructed Sanskrit title: ''*Mahāyāna-śraddhotpāda-śāstra'') is an influential Mahayana Buddhist treatise for East Asian Buddhism. Though traditionally attributed to the 2nd century CE Indian master Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version is extant and it is widely regarded by many contemporary scholars as having been composed in China.Gardner, Alex"On the ''Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna''."''Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative'', October 9, 2019. The main theories of the authorship of the ''Awakening of Faith'' among contemporary scholars now point to either the 6th century Indian monk translators Paramārtha and Bodhiruci, or alternatively to one of their Chinese students. Origin and authorship While the text is traditionally attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of the text is extant. The two earliest existing versions are written in Chinese, and contemporary scholars widely accept the theory t ...
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Wonhyo
Wŏnhyo (; ; 617 – 686, meaning: "Dawnbreak") was one of the most important philosophers and commentators in East Asian Buddhism and the most prolific scholar in Korean Buddhism.Muller, Charles元曉 Wonhyo, ''Digital Dictionary of Buddhism''./ref>Buswell, R. E. (2017). Wŏnhyo: Buddhist Commentator “Par Excellence.” ''Journal of Korean Religions'', ''8''(1), 131–160. As one of the most eminent scholar-monks in East Asian history, his extensive literary output runs to over 80 works in 240 fascicles. His most influential commentaries are those on buddha-nature texts like the *'' Vajrasamādhisūtra'', the '' Awakening of Faith'', and the '' Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''. These works became classics widely respected throughout Korea, China and Japan. Wonhyo's work was foundational for all of Korean Buddhism and also influenced Buddhism in other East Asian nations. Chinese masters who were heavily influenced by Wonhyo include Huayan masters like Fazang, Li Tongxuan, and ...
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Tathātā
Tathātā (; ; ) is a Buddhist term variously translated as "thusness" or "suchness", referring to the nature of reality free from conceptual elaborations and the subject–object distinction. Although it is a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, it is also used in the Theravada tradition. The Buddha The Buddha referred to himself as the Tathāgata, which can mean either "One who has thus come" or "One who has thus gone", and can also be interpreted as "One who has arrived at suchness". Theravada Buddhism In Theravada, this term designates the nature of existence (''bhāva''), the truth which applies to things. According to the '' Kathavatthu'', ''tathātā'' is not an unconditioned or un-constructed (''asankhata'') phenomenon. The only phenomenon which is un- constructed in Theravada is Nibbana. According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, ''tathātā'' is merely the way things are, the truth of all things: "When tathātā is seen, the three characteristics of anicca mpermanence ...
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Yogacara
Yogachara (, IAST: ') is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation, as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā). Yogachara was one of the two most influential traditions of Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism in India, along with Madhyamaka. The compound ''Yogācāra'' literally means "practice of yoga", or "one whose practice is yoga", hence the name of the school is literally "the school of the yogins". Yogācāra was also variously termed ''Vijñānavāda'' (the doctrine of consciousness), ''Vijñaptivāda'' (the doctrine of ideas or percepts) or ''Vijñaptimātratā-vāda'' (the doctrine of 'mere representation'), which is also the name given to its major theory of mind which seeks to deconstruct how we perceive the world. There are several interpretations of this main theory: various forms of Idealism, as well as a Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomen ...
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Eight Consciousnesses
The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. ''aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ'') are a classification developed in the tradition of the Yogacara, Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental consciousness (''manovijñāna''), the defiled mental consciousness (''kliṣṭamanovijñāna''), and finally the fundamental store-house consciousness (''ālāyavijñāna''), which is the basis of the other seven.Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2003, page 97 This eighth consciousness is said to store the impressions (''vasanas, vāsanāḥ'') of previous experiences, which form the seeds (''bīja'') of future karma in this life and in the next after Rebirth (Buddhism), rebirth. Eightfold network of primary consciousnesses All surviving schools of Buddhist thought accept – "in common" – the existen ...
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Tathagatagarbha
In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature ( Chinese: , Japanese: , , Sanskrit: ) is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within themselves.Heng-Ching ShihThe Significance Of 'Tathagatagarbha' – A Positive Expression Of 'Sunyata'/ref> "Buddha-nature" is the common English translation for several related Mahāyāna Buddhist terms, most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu'', but also ''sugatagarbha,'' and ''buddhagarbha''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' can mean "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-gone one" ('' tathāgata''), and can also mean "containing a ''tathāgata''"''. Buddhadhātu'' can mean "buddha-element", "buddha-realm", or "buddha-substrate". Buddha-nature has a wide range of (sometimes conflicting) meanings in Indian Buddhism and later in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist literature. Broadly speaking, it refers to the belief that the lumi ...
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Soteriology
Soteriology (; ' "salvation" from wikt:σωτήρ, σωτήρ ' "savior, preserver" and wikt:λόγος, λόγος ' "study" or "word") is the study of Doctrine, religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place of special significance in many religions. In the academic field of Religious studies, soteriology is understood by scholars as representing a key theme in a number of different religions and is often studied in a Comparative religion, comparative context; that is, comparing various ideas about what salvation is and how it is obtained. Buddhism Buddhism is devoted primarily to Enlightenment in Buddhism, awakening or enlightenment (''bodhi''), ''Nirvana (Buddhism), Nirvāṇa'' ("blowing out"), and Moksha, liberation (''vimokṣa'') from Duḥkha, all causes of suffering (''duḥkha'') due to the existence of Sentient beings (Buddhism), sentient beings in ''Saṃsāra (Buddhism), saṃsāra'' (the cycle of compulsory Rebirth (Buddhism), birth, death, ...
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Essence-Function
or essence-function is a key concept in Chinese philosophy and East Asian Buddhism. It is a compound of two terms: "essence" (), the absolute reality, cause, or source of all things, and "function" (, ), the manifestations of ti, which make up the impermanent and relative concrete reality. ''Ti'' and ''yong'' do not represent two separate things, but aspects of the same non-dual process.''Muller, Charles"Innate Enlightenment and No-thought: A Response to the Critical Buddhist Position on Zen".Toyo Gakuen University, A paper delivered to the International Conference on Sôn at Paekyang-sa, Kwangju, Korea, August 22, 1998.'' The meanings of the term essence-function can also expand to include the following polarities: internal/external, root/branch, hidden/manifest, stillness/movement, fundamental/superficial. The basic idea can be found in ancient Chinese texts like the ''I Ching'' and ''Mencius''. The term was widely adopted by Chinese Buddhists and became a major theme in Chin ...
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Hinayana
Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit term that was at one time applied collectively to the '' Śrāvakayāna'' and '' Pratyekabuddhayāna'' paths of Buddhism. This term appeared around the first or second century. The Hīnayāna is considered as the preliminary or small (''hina'') vehicle (''yana'') of the Buddha's teachings. It is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, the second vehicle of the Buddha's teachings, or the great (''maha'') vehicle (''yana''). The third vehicle of the Buddha's teachings is the Vajrayana, the indestructible (''vajra'') vehicle (''yana''). Western scholars used the term ''Hīnayāna'' to describe the early teachings of Buddhism, as the ''Mahāyāna'' teachings were generally given later. Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the term as pejorative, and instead uses the term ''Nikaya Buddhism'' to refer to early Buddhist schools. ''Hinayana'' has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for Theravada, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and S ...
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Timothy Richard
Timothy Richard (Chinese: 李提摩太 ''Li Timotai'', 10 October 1845 – 17 April 1919) was a Welsh Baptist missionary to China, who influenced the modernisation of China and the rise of the Chinese Republic. Biography Richard was born on 10 October 1845 in Ffaldybrenin, Carmarthenshire in south Wales, the son of Timothy and Eleanor Richard, a devout Baptist farming family. Inspired by the Second Evangelical Awakening to become a missionary, Richard left teaching to enter Haverfordwest Theological College in 1865. There he dedicated himself to China, where he had an active role in relief operations during the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879.Paul R. Bohr, ''Famine in China and the Missionary: Timothy Richard as Relief Administrator and Advocate of National Reform, 1876-1884'' (1972). He was a leader in promoting anti-foot binding and gender equality in China. Richard applied to the newly formed China Inland Mission, but Hudson Taylor considered that he would be of ...
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