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

Since its translation into Chinese in the early fifth century, the Golden Light Sutra (Jinguangming jing 金光明經; Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra) has occupied an important place among Mahāyāna scriptures in East Asia. It attracted attention not only as a scripture associated with the protection of the state (Ch. huguo 護國) but also for its treatment of major Buddhist doctrines, such as the theory of the three bodies (trikāya) of the Buddha. East Asian Buddhist exegetes defined the central purport (Ch. zongzhi 宗旨) of the sutra through various causal schemes, such as the “cause and result of bodhi” (菩提因果), the “cause and result of nirvāṇa” (涅槃因果), and the “cause and result of permanence” (常住因果). Significantly, these interpretations do not correspond neatly to the traditional doctrinal distinction between the One Vehicle and the Three Vehicles. In particular, Huizhao (慧沼, 648–714), associated with the Three Vehicle position, and Gangyō (願曉, 835–871), a Japanese Sanron (Ch. Sanlun 三論) monk who identifies himself with the One Vehicle position, both designate the “cause and result of bodhi and nirvāṇa” (菩提涅槃因果) as the sutra’s central purport. As the intellectual background for examining this apparent convergence, this article first traces how cause and result came to function as a hermeneutical category for defining the purport of Buddhist scriptures and how various causal schemes developed. It then compares Huizhao’s and Gangyō’s theories of the cause and result of bodhi and nirvāṇa through their commentaries on the Golden Light Sutra. By examining the causal structures underlying the same designations and their understandings of the relationship among buddha-nature, bodhi, and nirvāṇa, this article demonstrates that Huizhao and Gangyō construct significantly different causal schemes in accordance with their respective Three Vehicle and One Vehicle orientations. It thus argues that theories of the central purport of the Golden Light Sutra reflect a more complex doctrinal configuration than can be determined from their terminological designations alone.