The Significance Of ‘Tathagatagarbha’ — A Positive Expression Of ‘Sunyata
January 5th, 2010 | No Comments
The Significance Of ‘Tathagatagarbha’ –
A Positive Expression Of ‘Sunyata’
Heng-Ching Shih
The well-known motto of Ch’an Buddhism is that “perceiving the true self, one becomes a Buddha.” The “true self” signifies the Buddha nature inherent in all sentient beings. The discovering of the “true self” has become the single most important pursuit of the Buddhist, especially in Sino-Japanese Buddhism. On the contrary, early Buddhism teaches that ultimately no substantial self (i.e., ‘anatman’) can be found, since the self is nothing but the union of the five aggregates. Modern Buddhologists as well as the Buddhists have been intrigued by the inconsistency that one single tradition teaches both that there is no self on the one hand, and that the goal of religious life is to discover the true self, on the other hand.
The Concept of Atman or Eternal Soul
January 5th, 2010 | No Comments
Atman is the immortal aspect of the mortal existence, the
self, which ishidden in every object of creation including man. It is the microcosm, representing the macrocosm in each of us, imparting to us divine qualities and possibilities and providing us with the reason to exist and experience the pains and pleasures of earthly life.
Atman is Brahman Itself, the very Self which descends down into the elements of nature through self-projection and participates Itself in the game of self-induced illusion and
pure Delight. But bound by the senses and limited by the sensory knowledge and sensory perceptions, we, the jivas, do not perceive the truth.
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