3. Buddhatā: The Essence of Buddha (Introduction)

Literally, the Sanskrit term Buddhatā means the essence or nature of the Buddha, however this term is usually used to refer to the Buddhanature. Buddhatā is the essence of the Buddha, so it is suitable to use the Buddhatā to refer to the exposed state of the Buddha-nature in the Buddha, the Enlightened One. Therefore, Buddhatā may be understood as the nature that constitutes the Buddha and it closely relates to the enlightenment of the Buddha.

As already presented above, according to Early Buddhism, the Buddha attained enlightenment while he was successively practicing of the four meditative states, attaining “three knowledges” (tivijjā), culminating the “four noble truths” (in the knowledge of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation), and gaining insight, into the Paticcasamuppāda (Causal chain of Dependent arising).^[1] However, the doctrine of Paticcasamuppāda actually was discovered by the Buddha after he had attained enlightenment seven days.^[2]

However, according to the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, the state of perfect enlightenment attained by the Buddha is the Buddha-nature or Buddhatā. What constitutes the Buddha, i.e. Buddhatā, as the Laṅkāvatārasūtra described, is neither a thing made nor a thing not-made, it is neither cause nor effect, it is neither predicable nor unpredicable, it is neither describable nor indescribable, neither subject to perception nor beyond perception.^[3] In other words, the logical thinking and language cannot apply to this case to explain the state of the Buddha. If Buddhatā, the essence of the Buddha, is something created, it is impermanent; and if it is impermanent, all things created are able to be Buddhas, this case is impossible. Otherwise, if Buddhatā is a thing not created, it is without a substance, and all exertions to realize it will be in vain.

So, the Buddhatā can only be understood whenever our minds run out of the orbit of habit-energy of dualism, ego and ignorance.

This meaning of Buddhatā is described in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra through the conversation between the Bodhisattva Mahāmati and the Buddha as follows:

Punarapi mahāmatirāha-deśayatu me bhagavān buddhānāṃ bhagavatāṃ kathaṃ bhagavan buddhānāṃ buddhatā bhavati?

Bhagavānāha-dharmapudgalanairātmyāvabodhānmahāmate āvaraṇadvayaparijñānāvabodhācca cyutidvayādhigamātkleśadvayaprahāṇācca mahāmate buddhānāṃ bhagavatāṃ buddhatā bhavati |^[4]

爾時大慧菩薩摩訶薩復白佛言：「世尊！願為我說諸佛體性。」

佛言：「大慧！覺二無我，除二種障，離二種死，斷二煩惱，是佛體性。^[5]

Again Mahāmati said: Pray tell me, Blessed One, what makes the Buddhas and the Blessed Ones such as they are: that is, [what is] the Buddha-nature of the Buddhas?

Said the Blessed One: when the egolessness of things as well as of persons is understood, when the knowledge of the twofold hindrance is thoroughly taken hold of, when the twofold death (cyuti) is accomplished, and when the twofold group of passions is destroyed, there, Mahāmati, is the Buddha-nature of the Buddhas and the Blessed Ones.^[6]

The above Sanskrit term buddhatā (Buddha-nature) in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra is translated into Chinese as fo-ti-xing “the Buddha‘s essence” in the Tang version as quoted. Although the question of “What the Buddha-nature is” is directly asked, the answer of it can only be replied indirectly with a series of negative sentences such as without twofold hindrance, twofold death, and twofold group of passions.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Majjhimanikāya i, 21-3, 167; Dīghanikāya ii, 30-35, Saṃyuttanikāya ii, 104-6; Somaratna Balasooriya et al. (ed.), Buddhist Studies in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra in Honour of Walpola Rahula, p. 118-32.

[2]:

“The Mahāvagga,” Vinaya Texts, tr. Taisho Tripiṭaka (CBETA 2011). W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg, Vol. I, p. 74-8.

[3]:

Laṅkāvatāra-Sūtra, p. 187ff.

[4]:

Ibid., p. 140

[5]:

Taisho Tripiṭaka (CBETA 2011) [T16n672], pp. 608a18 -608a19.

[6]:

Laṅkāvatāra-Sūtra, p. 122