Buddha-nature (as Depicted in the Lankavatara-sutra)
by Nguyen Dac Sy | 2012 | 70,344 words
This page relates ‘Hindu Philosophical Systems (c) Nyaya’ of the study on (the thought of) Buddha-nature as it is presented in the Lankavatara-sutra (in English). The text represents an ancient Mahayana teaching from the 3rd century CE in the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and Bodhisattva Mahamati, while discussing topics such as Yogacara, Buddha-nature, Alayavijnana (the primacy of consciousness) and the Atman (Self).
2. Hindu Philosophical Systems (c) Nyāya
The term Nyāya (zhenglilun) is a Sanskrit word which means “going into a subject” that is, an analytical investigation of the subject through the process of logical reason.[1] So Nyāya is called the school of logic. The philosophy of Nyāya school is based on texts known as the Nyāya Sūtras written by Akṣapāda Gautama. Radhakrishnan gives the date of Akṣapāda Gautama in the 3rd century BCE,[2] while Theos Bernard places him about 550 BCE, making him almost a contemporary of the Buddha.[3]
The Nyāya school advocates that Supreme Happiness is attained by knowledge of the true nature of the sixteen categories (padarthas), namely:
- Pramāṇa (renshishouduan): means of right knowledge,
- Prameya (renshiduixiang): objects of right knowledge,
- Saṃśaya (nihuo): doubt,
- Prayojana (dongji): aim,
- Dṛṣṭānta (shili): familiar example,
- Siddhānta (dingshuo): established tenet,
- Avayava (wuzhilunshi): members of syllogism,
- Tarka (yinwei): hypothetical reasoning,
- Nirṇaya (queding): ascertainment,
- Vāda (lunyi): discussion,
- Jalpa (lunzheng): controversy,
- Vitaṇḍā (lunji): unreasonable criticizing,
- Hetvābhāsa (yishiliyou): fallacy,
- Chala (guibian): equivocation,
- Jāti (cuobulunnan): sophisticated refutation, and
- Nigrahasthāna (baibeilichang): disagreement in principle.[4]
The Nyāya school holds that the bondage of the world is due to wrong knowledge, which can be destroyed by continually thinking of its opposite, i.e. the true knowledge which can lead to niḥśreyasa (salvation), a passive stage of self in its natural purity, unassociated with pleasure, pain, knowledge and willingness.[5] The Nyāya believes that the creator God exists and can only be one. The Nyāyas attempted to dispute with the Buddhists and tried to prove the existence of God on the basis of inference.[6]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Theos Bernard, Hindu Philosophy, p. 20.
[2]:
Saṃyuttanikāya. Radhakrishnan, op. cit., p. 36
[3]:
op. cit., p. 20.
[4]:
Theos Bernard, Hindu Philosophy, p. 23; Chandradhar Sharma, Aṅguttaranikāya Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, p. 192; Majjhimanikāya. Hiriyanna, Outlines of Indian Philosophy, p. 245.
[5]:
Surendranath Dasgupta, Aṅguttaranikāya history of Indian philosophy, Vol.I, p. 365; Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Indian Philosophy: Aṅguttaranikāya Popular Introduction, p.163
[6]:
Chandradhar Sharma, Aṅguttaranikāya Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, pp. 209-210.