著者

鈴木 隆泰

出版者

東京大学東洋文化研究所

雑誌

東洋文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:05638089)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.152, pp.320-285, 2007-12-19

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The tathāgatadharmakāya (如來法身) called tathāgatagarbha (如來藏) or buddhadhātu (佛性) within all sentient beings is considered to be covered with and corrupted by numerous thousands of millions of afflictions, and therefore cannot demonstrate fully the act of blessing to be granted by the Tathāgata to all sentient beings. Tathāgatagarbha is, however, recognized as nothing other than the perfect Tathāgata himself on the grounds that both tathāgatagarbha and the Tathāgata are essentially dharmakāya and tathatā (眞如). And this understanding of tathāgatagarbha has given rise to two serious problems in this theory: the first is the problem why the eternally pure tathāgatadharmakāya (i.e. the Tathāgata) becomes corrupted by afflictions, and the second is the problem why sentient beings are required to perform religious practice in order to attain supreme enlightenment since all of them have already attained the perfect Tathāgata within themselves. Though some of the scriptures of this theory such as the Śrī-mālādevīsimhanādasūtra (勝鬘經) and the Mahāparinirvānasūtra (・槃經) tried to answer these questions, reasonable resolution has seemed almost impossible since these two problems originate from the fundamental understanding of this theory that by the blessing of the Tathāgata all sentient beings have tathāgatadharmakāya within themselves which ensures them the attainment of supreme enlightenment.There finally appeared one sūtra, the Mahābherīsūtra (大法鼓經, MBhS), that resolved these problems at one stroke. This paper attempts to examine and elucidate precisely the process of resolution of the problems proposed by the MBhS based on the eternity of the Tathāgata. Through this examination the paper also illustrates how one idea of Buddhism develops in the Buddhist history.