Research Into The Two Aspects Of Jingying Huiyuan’s Buddha-nature Thoughts

Impacted by the metaphysics in Wei and Jin dynasties when Buddhism was introduced into China in the early stage, the Prajna study in Buddhism which maintains the theory of dependent origination and the Emptiness of Nature had found its great development. However, the "empty talk and the unfathomably deep principle of the way" of Prajna study has curbed the development of Buddhism to a great extent, which accommodated convenience for the spring up of Nirvana Buddha-nature study. Under this circumstance, Jingying Huiyuan (not Hui-yuan, Lu-shan) appeared as a master of Dilun zong and developed his own complete theoretical system on Buddha-nature, serving as a link between the past and future. Taking the master and his thoughts as object of study, this paper attempts to deeply analyze the two core problems in Huiyuan’s Buddhist theory, which are whether the sentient beings can accomplish Buddhahood and how the sentient beings to accomplish Buddhahood.Chapter one mainly analyzed the spread of the Prajna Study in Central Plain and the dilemma it encountered, thereby arguing the necessity of the appearance of Nirvana School. Based on the background of Nirvana Study, it also briefly introduces how the ten Lunshi schools were formed. Dilun School counts for a most important position in the ten schools, and this paper focused on the development of Dilun School and the debate between the two trends of northern and southern doctrines. At the end of this chapter, the paper introduced the life about Jingying Huiyuan in brief, in order to unfold the thinking background of the master.The introduction part in chapter two is a general summary about Huiyuan’s Buddhist theory, from which we can catch a sight of his united world view and dialectical teaching classification theory. Part one summarized the two questions of "whether the sentient beings can accomplish Buddhahood" and "how the sentient beings to accomplish Buddhahood" into the final goal of his Buddhist theory through the analysis of the definition of "Buddha-nature". The second part has stated his understandings of the "Buddha-nature" in detail, which is numerous but can be included into the system of the dual aspects theory. The third part of this chapter discussed the congenital and acquired Buddha-nature thoughts, and introduced his theory focusing on practice, lying a foreshadowing for the further discussion about the two types of practice methods. It is obvious that this chapter mainly aimed at manifesting Huiyuan’theory of "All sentient beings have Buddha-nature". It is congenital for all sentient beings, neither adding in sages nor subtracting in ordinary people, which is called cosmic body in answer to the first question.Chapter three is Huiyuan’s theory on practice. The first section discussed the four classes of practice means and the difficulty and easy practice methods; part two is about his pure land practice Dharma-gate. In this part, with a merciful heart, he put everyone into the system of Buddhahood, establishing confidence for all sentient beings; then he listed the four Dharma-gates to reincarnation, offering a guarantee for all sentient beings. What shall be noticed here is that the belief of Maitreya pure land were widely spread that time (Fashang, Huiyuan’s guru is a believer) but hadn’t been shaped up. However, the author can only analyze the theories of pure land from the aspect of practice theory according to two classics written by Huiyuan, while leaving the question between Maitreya and Amitabha open. The third part analyzes how the three hindrances shielding the true nature of sentient beings; then, it emphasized on the importance of self-practice in accompolising Buddhahood; at last, the excellent way to practice is to benefit others, which is an ideal state. According to Huiyuan, though all sentient beings are endowed with equal rights, they shall accomplish Buddhahood through constant practice, which is "yi fen shi you" meaning part of sentient beings cannot accomplish Buddhahood unless through continuous practice (different from the "yi fen shi you" defined by Lai Yonghai) and is the answer to the second question.Based on the literature review of the existing documents and academic achievements of scholars, Chapter four describes the development of the Buddhist theory after Huiyuan, which includes Buddhist theory of Zhi Yan, Zhiyi, etc. In the fifth and last chapter, the author provides some reflections and suggestions. The complete and profound Buddhist theory system developed by Huiyuan is far-reaching, thus Huiyuan shall received sufficient attention beyond question. However, it’s not. The author shares some of analysis and thinking. On the other hand, the author proposes that the academia strengthen the study toward Huiyuan’s Buddhist theory and rebuild the due position for the great master.