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

The Ratnagotravibhāga [vyākhyā] is a Mahayana treatise of India, and is the result of efforts to organize and systematize the philosophy of the tathāgatagarbha doctrine, that “all sentient beings have Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha).” In this paper, I attempt to investigate the significance of the tathāgatagarbha doctrine, with reference to “dharmakāya, tathatā, and gotra as the three meanings of Tathāgatagarbha” as one of this treatise’s essential topics. First of all, I attempt to clarify the differences in the Sanskrit text, and its Chinese and Tibetan translations, as to the three meanings of tathāgatagarbha appearing in the verses I.27-28 of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Then, I investigate how rNgog Blo ldan shes rab (1059-1109), who composed its earliest commentary in Tibet, interpreted the three meanings of tathāgatagarbha. Lastly, I investigate the three meanings of tathāgatagarbha with reference to the Fóxìng lùn (佛性論) by Paramārtha (499-569) in China. In proposing the earliest philosophical positions on the tathāgatagarbha doctrine of the Ratnagotravibhāga in the history of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, rNgog Blo ldan shes rab and Paramārtha not only transmitted the tathāgatagarbha doctrine but also presented philosophical positions that combine the tathāgatagarbha doctrine with the ālayavijñāna doctrine of the Yogācāra School and the śūnyatā doctrine of the Madhyamaka School. Through the above investigations, I attempt to delineate, at least partially, the doctrinal differences in the process of adopting and interpreting the three meanings of tathāgatagarbha in verses I.27-28 of the Ratnagotravibhāga within the history of Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.