Atman (Buddhism)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Atman (Buddhism))For other uses, see Atman (disambiguation).Part of a series onBuddhismDharma Wheel.svgHistory[show]Dharma Concepts[show]Practices[show]Nirva?a[show]Traditions Canons[show]OutlinePortal icon Buddhism portalv t eAlthough the Buddha argued that no permanent, unchanging "self" can be found, some Buddhist schools, sutras and tantras present the notion of an atman (/'??tm?n/) or permanent "Self", although mostly referring to an Absolute and not to a personal self.Contents [hide] 1 Etymology2 Early Buddhism3 Pudgalavada4 Buddha-nature4.1 Mahayana Mahaparinirva?a Sutra4.2 Cautions4.3 Rang stong and shentong5 Thai Dhammakaya movement6 See also7 Notes8 References9 Sources10 Further reading11 External linksEtymology[edit]Cognates (Sanskrit: ??????) atman, (Pali) atta, Old English thm, German Atem, and Greek atmo-[1] derive from the Indo-European root *et-men (breath).Atman and atta refer to a person's "true self", a person's permanent inner nature.[2] Occasionally the terms "soul" or "ego" are also used.Early Buddhism[edit]"Atman" in early Buddhism may simply refer to the sense of "I am",[3][4] similar to the pre-Buddhist Upanishads of Hinduism, which link the feeling "I am" to a permanent "Self".[5] Contrary to this the Buddha argued that no permanent, unchanging "self" can be found.[6][7] All conditioned phenomena are subject to change, and therefore can't be taken to be an unchanging "self".[7] Instead, the Buddha explains the perceived continuity of the human personality by describing it as composed of five skandhas, without a permanent entity.[8][9] This analysis makes it possible to avoid attachment, and is supportive for attaining liberation.[10][11]Pudgalavada[edit]Of the early Indian Buddhist schools, only the Pudgalavada-school diverged from this basic teaching. The Pudgalavadins asserted that, while there is no atman, there is a pudgala or "person", which is neither the same as nor different from the skandhas.[9]Buddha-nature[edit]Main article: Buddha-natureBuddha-nature is a central notion of east-Asian (Chinese) Mahayana thought.[12] It refers to several related terms,[note 1] most notably Tathagatagarbha and Buddha-dhatu.[note 2] Tathagatagarbha means "the womb of the thus-gone" (c.q. enlightened one), while Buddha-dhatu literally means "Buddha-realm" or "Buddha-substrate".[note 3] Several key texts refer to the tathagatagarbha or Buddha-dhatu as "atman", self or essence, though those texts also contain warnings against a literal interpretation. Several scholars have noted similarities between tathagatagarbha texts and the substantial monism found in the atman/Brahman tradition.[15]Mahayana Mahaparinirva?a Sutra[edit]In contrast to the madhyamika-tradition, the Mahaparinirva?a Sutra uses "positive language" to denote "absolute reality". According to Paul Williams, the Mahayana Mahaparinirva?a Sutra teaches an underlying essence, "Self", or "atman".[16] This "true Self" is the Buddha-nature, which is present in all sentient beings, and realized by the awakened ones.According to Sallie B. King, the Mahayana Mahaparinirva?a Sutra does not represent a major innovation.[17] Its most important innovation is the linking of the term buddhadhatu with tathagatagarbha.[17] According to King, the sutra is rather unsystematic,[17] which made it "a fruitful one for later students and commentators, who were obliged to create their own order and bring it to the text".[17] The sutra speaks about Buddha-nature in so many different ways, that Chinese scholars created a list of types of Buddha-nature that could be found in the text.[17] One of those statements is:Even though he has said that all phenomena [dharmas] are devoid of the Self, it is not that they are completely/ truly devoid of the Self. What is this Self ? Any phenomenon [dharma] that is true [satya], real [tattva], eternal [nitya], sovereign/ autonomous/ self-governing [aisvarya], and whose ground/ foundation is unchanging [asraya-aviparinama], is termed the Self [atman].[18]In the Mahaparinirva?a Sutra the Buddha also speaks of the "affirmative attributes" of nirvana, "the Eternal, Bliss, the Self and the Pure."[19] The Mahayana Mahaparinirva?a Sutra explains:The Self signifies the Buddha; the Eternal signifies the Dharmakaya; Bliss signifies Nirvana, and the Pure signifies Dharma.[20]Edward Conze connotatively links the term tathagata itself (the designation which the Buddha applied to himself) with the notion of a real, true self:Just as tathata designates true reality in general, so the word which developed into Tathagata designated the true self, the true reality within man.[21]Cautions[edit]According to Paul Wiliams, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra uses the term "Self" in order to win over non-Buddhist ascetics. He quotes from the sutra:[22]The Buddha-nature is in fact not the self. For the sake of [guiding] sentient beings, I describe it as the self.[23]In equating the Buddha-nature with practice, King argues that the author of the Buddha-Nature Treatise... undercuts any possibility of conceiving Buddha nature as an entity of any kind, as a Hindulike Atman or even as a purely mental process."[24]In the later Lankavatara Sutra it is said that the tathagatagarbha might be mistaken for a self, which it is not.[25]Rang stong and shentong[edit]The dominant Tibetan school, Gelugpa, favours Prasangika (rang stong) Madhyamaka philosophy over Yogacara and Buddha-nature thought.[26] Rang stong, "self-empty" refers to sunyata, empty of a self or essence.[26]Other Tibetan schools have tended to accept the shentong (gzhan tong), "other-empty", point of view, which discerns an "inherently existing Absolute".[27] This Absolute "is empty of adventious defilements which are intrinsically other than it, but is not empty of its own inherent existence".[28] This understanding and interpretation of the tathagatagarbha-teachings has been a matter of intensive debates in Tibet.[29]The Rim movement is an eucumenical movement in Tibet which started as an attempt to reconcile the various Tibetan schools in the 19th century. The Rim movement also supports shen tong.[27]Thai Dhammakaya movement[edit]The Dhammakaya Movement in Thailand teaches that it is erroneous to subsume nirvana under the rubric of anatta (non-self); instead, nirvana is claimed to be the "true self" or dhammakaya. According to Paul Williams, this teaching echoes the tathagatagarbha sutras.[30]"Tathagatagarbha Buddhism": key sutras of the Tathagatagarbha Buddhist tradition[dead link]