The Ideas Of Middle Way In The Tathagatagarbha School And Inter-religious Dialogue

Tathagatagarbha is one of the main schools of Indian Mahayana Buddhism. Different from Madhyamika and Yogocara schools (the former focuses on "emptiness" and the latter focuses on "the polluted aspect of the consciousness"), the Tathagatagarbha school puts much emphasis on the "pure mind" or "Buddha Nature" that every sentient beings inherently has and that is the foundation and possibility of becoming a Buddha. The idea of Middle way is found in ancient philosophies and religions, from East to West. For example, Aristotle has the famous saying "virtue is a mean state", Confucius considers middle way as the best morality and Buddha teaches disciples to abandon extremes to practice and cultivate themselves according to the middle way principle. The idea of keeping the middle path still plays an important role in our lives today. Religious dialogue has become a very popular theme in academic and practical fields since the study and the relationship of religions has begun to prosper in the last 100 years. It is one of the results of globalization and its proper development will probably become the key to ensure the future peace of the whole world.To create new and modern meanings for the traditional Buddhist Tathagatagarbha school is the main idea of this doctoral dissertation. Therefore, we choose the notion of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school on the one hand and religious dialogue on the other in order to meet such purpose. We try to explain and prove that in the modern context of religious dialogue, the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school can provide much of its wisdom and insight to enrichcurrent religious theories and resolve many problems human beings are facing now.There are three main parts in this dissertation. The first is the introduction about the ideas of middle way in ancient philosophies and religions. The second is the body of the thesis concerning the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha tradition, both in Indian Mahayana times and in Chinese Buddhism such as Tien Tai C^cf) , Hua Yan C^P1) and Chan (#) schools which have received much influence form the Indian Tathagatagarbha theories. The third part is the conclusive exploration of the close relation between the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school and religious dialogue.Chapter 1 is an introduction to this study, including my motivation and purpose for this study, the former studies concerning this topic, the selected sutras and books that we are going to research and finally the outlines and main ideas of every chapter.Chapter 2 is a general statement about the ideas of middle way in ancient philosophies and religions. We introduce Aristotle in the west, Confucianism and Taoism in China, and Buddhism in India. We try to point out that although the idea of middle way reveals itself not only in ontology, metaphysics, morality and politics, but also on a spiritual level, salvation and ultimate reality, the pluralistic views of middle way have the "mind-oriented" tendency as their common feature.Chapter 3 expounds in detail the ideas of pure mind theory and middle way theory in the Indian Tathagatagarbha school. We outline a logical order to undertake our exposition regarding the pure mind theory. The essential points are "The purpose and reason why Buddha gives the Dharma talk of Tathagatagarbha theory", "Tathagatagarbha as the platform on which our faith and motivation rely", "the magnificent nature of Tathagatagarbha", and "the practice process and final achievement of the Tathagatagarbha school" which actually include the four basic cultivation notions in Buddhism: faith, understanding, practice and achievement. The ideas of the middle way theory are divided into two parts. One is the practical middle way in which we will find the spirit of middle way abundant in practical goals, cultivation notions and final achievements. The second is the theoreticalmiddle way that will be further explained in "oneness", "non-duality", "integration of two extremes" and "synthesis of the three aspects of Tathagatagarbha."In chapter 4, we mainly explore the middle way theory from Chinese Buddhist schools: Tien Tai, Hua Yan and Chan. These are three of the most famous and influential schools in China, all of them have received much theoretical heritage from the Indian Tathagatagarbha tradition. First, in the Tien Tai school, the three views (ELM) in Mohe zhiguan (M^kM) written by Chih-I (H? SI) are our focus. These are the view of emptiness ($$1) which negates mistaken notions of common-sense reality, the view of dependent arising (fxM ) which cancels extreme attachment to emptiness, and the middle view (^M) which utilizes either of the above but is not attached. We will expound how the three views go through the whole practice process from bringing forth the Bodhi mind, taking the precepts, practicing meditation, obtaining wisdom, overcoming obstacles to finally achieving nirvana. Second, we choose three important ways of practice as the topic of our discussion on the Hua Yan school. They are the view of "four dharma realms" (29&fe TrM), the view of "delusion eradicated and nature returned" ($^)3iM^), and the view of "three saints in harmony." (.ELï¿¡.WMM>) From the understanding of these views, the middle-way characteristic of harmonious Dharma Realms in the Hua Yan school is thus revealed. Finally, with respect to the Chan school, we take The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (/sfflis^) as the main material, in which a full exposition on the thought of non-duality is stated. Starting from the non-duality of the mind nature, the non-duality of practice to the non-duality of teaching, the sutra also presents a complete frame of cultivation, the essence of which is entirely based on the ideas of middle way.Chapter 5 is our conclusion. By forming a "dialogue" among the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha tradition and global ethic proposed by Hans Kiing and religious pluralism constructed by John Hick, we are undertaking a historic convergence between Buddhism and western religions. From a historical view, we offer three dimensions of observation to construct a sound dialogue context, that is, "multi-culture presents the road towards middle way", "religious pluralismdemands the need for dialogue", and "the middle-way dialogue is spiritually oriented." As the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school are essentially based on the pure nature of mind that everyone inherently has, we believe that the three historical dimensions could provide a solid and stable platform for the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school to develop its modern meaning and values.Concerning the creative insights and achievements of this dissertation, there are mainly three important points. First, although the ideas of middle way in other Buddhist schools have already been discussed by many scholars, it seems that the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school are fully expounded for the first time here. Second, in this dissertation we present three dimensions of observation to construct a sound dialogue context that could provide a solid and stable platform for the ideas of middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school to develop its modern meaning and values. Finally, we form a dialogue among the middle way in the Tathagatagarbha school and global ethic and religious pluralism, having pointed out their theoretical similarities on the one hand and on the other offered some possible ways to enrich the theories concerning the inter-religious dialogue in future development.