Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana

Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Reconstructed Sanskrit: Mahāyāna Śraddhotpāda Śāstra; traditional Chinese: 大乘起信論; simplified Chinese: 大乘起信论; pinyin: Dàshéng Qǐxìn Lùn; Japanese: 大乗起信論; Korean: 대승기신론; Vietnamese: Đại thừa khởi tín luận) is a text of the Mahāyāna branch of Buddhism.

Origin and History

While the text is attributed by the faithful to Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of the text is extant. The earliest known versions are written in Chinese, and contemporary scholars believe that the text is a Chinese composition. Paramartha (499-569) is traditionally thought to have translated the text in 553. However, many modern scholars now opine that it was actually composed by Paramartha or one of his students, though other experts dispute that it has anything to do at all with Paramartha. Śikṣānanda translated or re-edited another version, perhaps during 695-700.

Content

Written from the perspective of Essence-Function (tiyong) 體用, this text sought to harmonize the two soteriological philosophies of the tathāgatagarbha (or Buddha nature) and ālayavijñāna (or yogacara) into a synthetic vision based on the One Mind in Two Aspects.

Influence

Although often omitted from lists of canonical Buddhist texts, the Awakening of Faith strongly influenced subsequent Mahayana doctrine. Commentaries include those by Jingying Huiyuan 淨影慧遠, Wonhyo 元曉, Fazang 法藏 and Zongmi 宗密, as well as others no longer extant. In great part due to the commentaries by Weonhyo, the Awakening of Faith ended up having an unusually powerful influence in Korea, where it may be the most oft-cited text in the entire tradition. It also provided much of the doctrinal basis for the original enlightenment thought found in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment.

The view of the mind in the 'Awakening of Mahayana Faith' (Chinese: Ta-sheng ch'i-hsin lun) had a significant import on the doctrinal development of the East Mountain Teaching.

References

English Translations

• Hakeda, Yoshito S., trans. Awakening of Faith Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1967.
• Richard, Timothy, The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna Doctrine—the New Buddhism, Shanghai: Christian Literature Society, 1907.
• Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro, Aśvaghoṣa's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana., Chicago, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Company, 1900.
• Vorenkamp, Dirck, trans. An English Translation of Fa-Tsang’s Commentary on the Awakening of Faith, Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2004.

Other References

• Entry in the Dictionary of East Asian Buddhist Terms
• Entry in Soothill and Hodous Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms
• The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna Doctrine—the New Buddhism Timothy Richard, 1907 (html-ized full text at link)
• Aśvaghoṣa's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Open Court Publishing Co, Chicago, 1900 (html-ized full text at link)
• Buddha Nature, Sallie B. King, 1991, State University of New York Press; see p22 for remarks to the effect that, although Paramartha undoubtedly was among the most prolific translators of Sanskrit texts into Chinese, he may have originated, not translated, the Buddha Nature Treatise as well as the Awakening of Faith. On these points, King cites Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramartha's 'Evolution of Consciousness' , Diana Y. Paul, 1984, Stanford University Press.
• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (log in with userID "guest")
• Chinese text of the Awakening of Faith (大乘起信論) provided by Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association