Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

We can mention in Dao sheng’s vocabulary the word wuxiang( 无相),“the markless”or“without an external mark,” and shi-xiang(实相),“the real”or“the real mark.” In Dao sheng the relation between“formless”and “not formless”is causal. Dao sheng’s pattern of description is correlative to a cause-effect relationship. Li (理), the ultimate principle of reality, was a very important category in Chinese traditional thought, including Chinese Buddhism. Dao Sheng, in his thought, communicated the li (理) concept with one’s mind and human nature, and regarded it as co-equivalent with Buddha nature(佛性). He also uses the term Buddha nature(佛 性) synonymously with such terms as Dharma(法), the true(真), origin(本), Dao(道), li(理), the middle path(中道), and nirvāna(涅槃). Dao sheng has been portrayed by historians as the one who succeeded in harmonizing“the genuine emptiness with the mysterious existence(真空妙有)”. Emptiness refers to the doctrine associated with the Prajnāpāramitā Sūtras(般若经 典), the Lotus Sūtra(法华经) and Nirvāna Sūtra(涅槃經). The ultimately real finds an expression in some of the terms Dao sheng frequently uses : li, Dharma, Dharma-nature(法 性), One, the ultimate(极), and Dao, ben(本). Practically, almost all of these terms came from Chinese philosophical texts. With his efforts, the concepts of Buddhism has received a new structural framework.