How does the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana not fall into a wrong view according to Buddhism? From my understanding and reading of Professor's Hakeda's translation, it seems to be saying that there is this One Mind that is the basis of Samsara and Nirvana. Unlike emptiness teachings, this One Mind truly exists and is not empty. This One Mind is equated with the Dharmakaya, Suchness and Tathagatagarbha.
If my understanding is correct, this texts seems to be saying that Samsara and Nirvana are not different, but are actually the incorrect or correct perception of this One Mind which is all of reality. When viewed incorrectly, delusion arises as subject and object form based on this incorrect perception. When viewed correctly, all is seen to be Suchness endowed with Buddha qualities. If this is true, how is Suchness endowed with Buddha qualities still compatible with emptiness teachings? If it is not compatible with emptiness teachings, how does it not fall into a wrong view?
The one-mind is not a thing, but exists in the way that patterns and laws exist. Like, Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics are not existent entities, but it would also be incorrect to say that they don't exist, you know? One-mind is likewise not meant to be interpreted as an entity.
Sallie King explains this very well in her monograph on Vasubandhu's Buddha Nature Treatise, also translated by Paramartha, and helps together with the Awakening of the Faith to demonstrate Paramartha's understanding of Yogacara thought.
One-mind in English is a very tough concept to grasp, a large part due to how it's constructed and translated. Even the way that westerners type it out as "One Mind" accidentally reifies it into a substantialist entity, whereas the one-mind really refers to a unified quality that is revealed when the obscurations of mind have fallen away, which all beings possess.
This kind of emptiness is not nothingness, and not an absence of substance, but the field upon which the dialectic of being and non-being plays out. This is what gives it a "generative" power and why it is rendered into a positivist expression in East Asian thought. But this is still very much a theory of emptiness, just expressed through East Asian logic (or Indian logic re-expressed through East Asian logic). Unfortunately, the Awakening of the Faith is very terse and does not completely make the logical argument for its position. That is why Paramartha also translated the Buddha-nature Treatise, in order to showcase the complete view that is being presented.
To ensure I am following what you are saying... The one-mind is not a thing but a description for how samsara and nirvana work? or like you said, it is this "field" that all of samsara and nirvana plays out. I feel that without careful reading this idea of a field can sound like a ground of being in some Hindu philosophy, but I guess this goes back to your point about the term being tough when described in English.
I will check out the Buddha Nature Treatise as well, thanks for the suggestion.
"Field" here is a clumsy translation of "dhatu". The "oneness" refers to its non-duality. All beings attain to the one-mind, and from this one-mind occurs the play of all creation and destruction (think Yogacara, the mind constructing all the layers of reality as perceived by the sentient being). When one realizes this one-mind, and achieves Buddhahood, one attains to the Buddha-dhatu, and so it is said the one-mind and the Buddha-dhatu are not differentiated.
It's not suggesting that everything is literally a single "mind". It is not "one" the number, but "one" as an adjective referring to non-dual cognition.
This is interesting and well said, thank you.
If you’ll indulge another question: how do you (or do you at all?) relate this teaching of one mind with the teachings of Theravada?
Emptiness is always just an absence of an essence, it is not a “field.”
My use of the term "field" here is clumsy, my point is that in the East Asian view, the one-mind refers to the fundamental emptiness "upon" which conventional existence and non-existence alternate in the ceaseless arising and cessation of phenomena. It’s effectively discussing realizing non-duality through direct experience, and realizing it is from this nonduality that phenomena arise within the experiential domain—within an individual, not necessarily speaking cosmologically.
It is a dhatu where existence and non-existence do not apply, and it is "one" because it is non-dual. "Field" is one of three standard translations for "dhatu", but I agree that was sloppy of me. The implication, the way it’s spoken of in teachings, is that all beings have effectively their “own” one-mind that must be realized, which is the same as the direct realization of emptiness and the mind-made nature of reality.
Personally I think it’s better to describe dhatu not as a field upon which existence and non-existence alternate but rather an object of valid cognition, both direct (immediate sensory and mental experience) and inferred (conceptual constructions based on prior direct perceptions). Emptiness like krodha mentioned denotes the lack of inherent essence in all dhatus, so it’s not a locus or container for phenomena. Phenomena arise and cease dependently, not “on” emptiness if that’s what you’re denoting.
Well written in my opinion. At least how I understand your writing, even though it is difficult to put into words I feel like revelations when obscurations of the mind falling away is a really good way to put it.
Are you sure about this?
How is it incompatible?
The Awakening of Faith states "Since it has been made clear that the essence of all things is empty, i.e., devoid of illusions, the true Mind is eternal, permanent, immutable, pure and self-sufficient; therefore, it is called "nonempty" (page 42 of Hakeda's translation)
The introduction also includes the line "What is real is Suchness alone; all else is unreal, a mere appearance only, because it is relative, being devoid of independent self-nature or own-being" (page 9)
In regard to the incompatability of Suchness and Buddha qualities.... If something is empty it has no qualities and is essenceless. Isn't this the message of something being empty?
This is a western definition, but not the definition of "wu" in Chinese. Much closer to "bu" in Chinese, which is a negation. But we don't say emptiness is "bu", we say it is "wu," the counterpart to "yu."
“Nonempty” is just a play on words, it is meant to seem controversial like it is contradicting emptiness at first glance. In actuality “nonempty” here means that the nature of mind is not devoid of qualities such as those listed.
Suchness is just an epithet for emptiness, and also connotes seeing the way things really are.
Ah I see. So reading "Nonempty" as some kind of existence would be incorrect here. How can something be both empty and have qualities? I thought this was the issue that Shentong philosophy runs into, but from my understanding they go a bit further and really claim something is not empty and truly there
"Shentong philosophy" isn't really a thing. What it refers to is just an attempt at correcting a dull and properly nihilistic interpretation of emptiness. The claim isn't that there's actually a substantial entity that exists and has qualities. Instead it's that the awakened mind is empty of all that is untrue/unreal. Being empty in that way, it's full of the qualities that we call buddhahood.
This isn't something that a bunch of people in Tibet calling themselves Shentong proponents came up with, and it's not even some kind of revolutionary or strange assertion, really. Even in the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddha taught that the mind is luminous and is fundamentally empty of the defilements. This luminous mind is also empty in the sense that it is no thing, ultimately, in line with what emptiness actually means. And yet it isn't literally nothing.
In this way, dualistic minds use dualistic and ordinary language built on dualistic perceptions and views to grasp something about what is ineffable. The problems start when we forget this and assume that merely logic and reason can bring us to that truth. Then so-called Rangtong people turn into nihilists and so-called Shentong people turn into eternalists.
i think the question then for me is what is “non-empty” ?
what is “suchness”?
are these “things” ?
what is the “true mind” ?
really your question is best asked to a teacher. above my pay grade and probably nearly anyone else’s on this forum.
The One-Mind is the totality of the Dharmadhatu, that is the unity of emptiness and existence. That is what ‘One’ refers to. Not numerical ‘one’, but rather the Union and non-duality of existence and emptiness. It is referred to as “Mind”, as it naturally possesses an innate awareness, distinguishing it from rocks or dirt.
There can be no emptiness apart from the One Mind, how could it not be compatible with emptiness? Remember, emptiness does not mean there is nothing at all. It is the negation of our deluded imputation of svabhava or the self-existence of particular entities.
What the Awakening of Faith and other Tathagatagarbha texts are describing, is the nature of realty, suchness, once it has been freed from our conceptual proliferation. That is reality free from our delusional imputation - reality that is empty.
To use a metaphor, emptiness is telling us the images that appear inside a tv aren’t real. No particular person or thing in the TV has any true existence, even if we think they do. The One Mind is that TV itself. But of course, unlike a TV, the One Mind isn’t any particular thing but the totality of depend origination.
Emptiness inability to locate any particular entities within the net of dependent origination. As Nagarjuna says, “whatever arises, that I say is empty”. Emptiness is to be found in dependent arising.
The Awakening of Faith, identifies dependent origination to be linked to the mind, since it is only possible for mind to construct the appearances of arising, in the absence of it, for individual phenomena to be created in the absence of them. Like when we gaze up in the sky and imagine shapes or pictures. Those do not belong the sky but the mind.
So this One Mind, is the totality of dependent origination, that is empty. Free from any delusional proliferation. Yet it is not non-existent. Although speaking ultimately there isn’t any single phenomena to be identified within, it still conventionally contains all positive qualities of awakening.
After-all, the Buddha didn’t puff out of existence after awakening. He continues to liberate all sentient beings, he possesses the three bodies, four wisdoms, various Purelands, and so on.
The “one mind” being used in reference to dharmakāya has to do with dharmakāya being a generic characteristic (samanyalakṣana).
The dharmakāya is not a thing, but rather a realization. Since all Buddhas realize the same thing about the nature of mind and phenomena, we cannot really say there are different dharmakāyas, hence the idea of it being “one.” However it is not literally “one” like the monistic natures taught in non-Buddhist teachings.
Classically, dharmakāya is described as “neither one nor many.” It isn’t “one” because various Buddhas realize it independently. And also is not “many” because it is uniform in characteristic wherever it is realized. Like the heat of a flame is not “one” because there are distinct instances of fire, yet not “many” because fire is the same in characteristic wherever it is found.
For example Asaṅga says in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha:
Everything in Samsara is empty (dependently originated). But the One Mind is the luminous, pure mind observing all things, the unconditioned outside Samsara, the true reality beyond the illusion.
The nature of mind or “true mind” is also empty. “Nonempty” is just a play on words to illustrate that gnosis (jñāna) possesses qualities.
In the Vimilakirti Sutra and Lotus Sutra, the Buddha describes how our world is a Pure Land.
I don't think I understand how this is incompatible with the doctrine of emptiness.
As Nagarjuna formulated emptiness, it was that all phenomena is interconnected, and there is no intrinsic property because all properties arise from various causes and conditions. This was later expounded upon by T'ien-t'ai's doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life. The 10 worlds are mutually inclusive, and all contain the 10 factors of life across the three existences. This is to say that in each moment, the potential for manifesting one's Buddha nature exists along side with all the other worlds. Buddhahood, hell, and heaven are not mutually exclusive.
Rangtong is what is found within conditions.
Shentong is what is known free of those conditions.
The realization of buddhahood is the realization of the underlying unconditioned state (see the nibbanadhatu sutta) via the cessation of conditions such as occurred under the bodhi tree.
It is the realization of the emptiness of any independent causation or origination to be found in any condition that can ever be known.
They all collapse back into this underlying pure awareness.
~Longchenpa
That is the truth body of a buddha, the perfected mode of reality, the heart of the tathagatagarbha as described in the heart sutra.
The sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya are the results of the accumulation of the repository consciousness.
But they are not what a buddha realizes as their truth body.
Everything known is the tathagatagarbha.
~Lankavatara Sutra
A buddha knows conditions as a buddhafield; that is the emptiness of conditions.
For a better easier non Buddhist perspective of such an entity search for "Boltzmann brain".
First, One mind does not mean number like one, two, three etc.
Second, emptiness and non-emptiness exist at the same time
OK let discuss one mind using the real life phenomena just to explain it. But I will not go too much into Buddhism, because the point is to clear your confusion of the term!
Example:
You start learning martial art. At first you have to learn all the basic moves. To defend which move you have to use, to attack which move you have to use. You practice these moves slowly, and the teacher sometimes acts like a dummies so you can demonstrate your work. When the teacher does this, you have to think which move you have to use. Your thinking and your move are not in sync!!!
But when you're good enough, and when you are in the real fight, your moves just comes out naturally without thinking! Of course, there is "the think" in your mind and there is "the move", but they happen so quickly, that you feel as if the move is happening without thinking! This is when you call your mind and your move is ONE. There is emptiness between the thinking and the move right now (there is no distinction between your thinking and your move they are merged into one, so the space or time between the thinking and the move is emptiness)
You see that there is one mind, it's also the emptiness! You see that one mind is non-emptiness, but there is emptiness of differentiation.
Do you see that the differentiation you have at first (which move to use) is the burden? Once you get rid of this differentiation you are now liberated?
You are absolutely correct! As Buddhism spread, it sometimes got mixed up with pre-existing belief systems and it changed into many divergent schools. Your understanding is in line with what Buddha taught: anatman, impermanence, interdependent origination and no unchanging essence. Originally there are no such dualities as essence and form. Emptiness is exactly form as it says in the Prajnaparamita Sutras. You should check out Nagarjuna and other teachers who stressed shunyata teachings and recognized the authentic teachings amidst a huge number of conflicting suttas.