Concept
Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
Overview
Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (AF, Chinese: 大乘起信論; pinyin: Dàshéng Qǐxìn Lùn; Japanese: 大乗起信論, Daijōkishinron; Korean: 대승기신론, Daeseung-gisinron; Vietnamese: Đại thừa khởi tín luận, reconstructed Sanskrit title: *Mahāyāna-śraddhotpāda-śāstra) is an influential Mahayana Buddhist treatise for East Asian Buddhism, notable for its doctrine of "one mind and two aspects."
Though traditionally attributed to the 2nd century CE Indian master Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version is extant and it is widely regarded by many contemporary scholars as having been composed in China. The main theories of the authorship of the Awakening of Faith among contemporary scholars now point to either the 6th century Indian monk translators Paramārtha and Bodhiruci, or alternatively to one of their Chinese students.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Whenever the summer retreat is ended, the dragon straightway changes its form, and appears as a small snake, with white spots at the side of its ears. As soon as the monks recognize it, they fill a copper vessel with cream, into which they put the creature, and then carry it round from the one who has the highest seat at their tables to him who has the lowest, when it appears as if saluting them. When it has been…
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana; the term itself is not named.
Tsz-lu has forwardness enough for them both; therefore I hold him back." On the occasion of that time of fear in K[']wang, Yen Yuen having fallen behind, the Master said to him (afterwards), "I took it for granted you were a dead man." "How should I dare to die," said he, "while you, sir, still lived?"
Confucius, The Wisdom of Confucius with Critical and Biographical Sketches
Close in meaning to Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana; the term itself is not named.
With what is here called faith or immediate knowledge must also be identified inspiration, the heart's revelations, the truths implanted in man by nature, and also in particular, healthy reason or Common Sense, as it is called. All these forms agree in adopting as their leading principle the immediacy, or self-evident way, in which a fact or body of truths is presented in consciousness.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
States what Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana is.
Philosophers who discussed Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
Related ideas
- Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
- Ratnagotravibhāga
- Two truths doctrine
- Hinayana
- Soteriology
- Saṃsāra
- Kamakura period
- Śūnyatā
- Xuanzang
- Tiyong
- Nirvana
- Chinese Buddhism
- Sanskrit
- Mahayana
- Mou Tsung-san
- Yogachara
- Wonhyo
- Huayan
- Guifeng Zongmi
- East Asian Buddhism
- Chan Buddhism
- Original enlightenment
- Tathātā
- China
Place in the tradition
Part of Buddhist philosophy.
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