1. Early period (d): The Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra

All doctrines as mentioned in the above sūtras of the early period of the Tathāgatagarbha literature are now summarized with an important commentarial text of the Tathāgatagarbha literature, i.e. the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra (Jewel Nature Treatise/ Buddha-nature Treatise), also known as the Mahāyānōttaratantraśāstra or simply Uttaratantra. The text was translated in to Chinese, namely, Jiujingyichengbaoxinglun,^[1] by Ratnamati (baoyi), who came to China in 508 CE. According to the opinion of Takasaki, the text was originally composed in Sanskrit and although the Sanskrit version of the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra is extant, it is of later critical re-edition and not truly representative of the original one.^[2]

The Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra is the great explanation of the Buddha-nature thought. It synthesizes the significant development of the idea prior. While the Śrīmālādevīsūtra generally emphasized the process of the self-evolution from the enlightening potentiality of Buddha-nature to become itself Dharmakāya as a fruit, the śāstra refers to the identity of these two concepts as an ontological antecedent. In other words, although the Buddha-nature and Dharmakāya are linguistically different, both are ontologically identical. Therefore, according to the text, that ultimate denominator is nothing other than Reality in its condition of Thusness (tathatā) which in turn, is subdivided into the two major categories of samala (impure, contaminated) and nirmala (pure, uncontaminated). In the Ratnagotravibhāga this form of defilement is indicated as a lower (two-vehicle) form of defilement, as contrasted with possessing defilement obstruction which indicates a subtle remainder of habit energy, the removal of which is beyond the scope of the practices of the two vehicles, and thus can only be dealt with by Bodhisattvas. The two terms simply reflect different modalities of Suchness. Samalātathatā represents Suchness under conditions of phenomenal defilement, and is thus synonymous with the Tathāgatagarbha, while Nirmalātathatā designates its actual freedom from all concealment, and is equivalent to the Dharmakāya:

“The Reality (tathatā) mingled with pollution (samalatathatā)” is a term for “the essence, unreleased from the sheath of defilements,” i.e., the Tathāgatagarbha. “The Reality apart from pollution (nirmalatathatā)” is a term for the same Essence, when it is characterized as the Perfect Manifestation of Basis (āśrayaparivṛtti) in the Stage of Buddha, i.e., the Absolute Body (Dharmakāya) of the Tathāgata.”^[3]

Therefore, the nature of Suchness (Absolute Reality) is one but displays in a two-fold modality that its very inconceivability demonstrates its non-duality. If Suchness mingled with pollution (samalatathatā or Tathāgatagarbha) is considered inexpressible because it is both pure and defiled simultaneously, and if Suchness apart from pollution (nirmalātathatā or Dharmakāya) is also indescribable because though originally not defiled, it is later purified, they are obviously nonseparate in a fundamental purity. The defilement and later purification inversely signify a purity of Tathatā as Tathāgatagarbha while being hidden, and as Dharmakāya while being manifest. Thus, though linguistically distinct, the Tathāgatagarbha and Dharmakāya are ontologically one and the same reality.

Through the three aspects of Dharmakāya as universal penetration of wisdom, of Tathatā as the inherent purity of phenomena, and of “gotra” the germinal essence of Buddhahood, the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra analyzes the saying taken from the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, dogmatically asserting the universality of the Tathāgatagarbha in all sentient beings that “all living beings are possessed of the Tathāgatagarbha” , i.e., are capable of attaining the omniscient wisdom of supreme enlightenment:

“Now with reference to “the Reality mingled with pollution” (Samalatathatā) it is said: All living beings are possessed of the Tathāgatagarbha (Sarvasattvāstathāgatagarbhāh)”^[4]

While all three terms are the Ratnagotra’s critical, simultaneous determinations of the Tathāgatagarbha, the śāstra pays particular attention to the connotation of Gotra in its technical role as soteriological principle within the variant traditions of the Mādhyamika and the Vijñānavāda.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

究竟一乘寶性論 (Taisho Tripiṭaka (CBETA 2011) [T31n1611], pp. 831a-848a.)

[2]:

Jikido Takasaki, Aṅguttaranikāya Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga, p. 5.

[3]:

Jikido Takasaki, Aṅguttaranikāya Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga, p. 187.

[4]:

Jikido Takasaki, Aṅguttaranikāya Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga, p.196.