Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
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[1]) is an influential Mahayana Buddhist treatise for East Asian Buddhism.
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.
[2][3] 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.
[2] The two earliest existing versions are written in Chinese, and contemporary scholars widely accept the theory that the text was composed in China.
Moreover, the text is written in an extremely concise manner without literary embellishment, out of keeping with the ornate pianliti style that was popular in the sixth century.
[16] Keng Ching also argues that the attribution of the AF to Paramārtha was mainly due to the efforts of the Shelun scholar Tanqian (曇遷; 542–607).
"[18] According to these authors, one candidate for the authorship of the Awakening of Faith is Tanlin (曇 林), who was "an amanuensis of Bodhiruci and a scholar of Tathāgatagarbha material.
[19] This version was edited and modified to make it more compatible with classic Yogacara doctrine of the school of Xuanzang which had been critical of the Awakening of Faith.
When it was discovered by Westerners at the beginning of the 20th century in 1907, Welsh missionnary Timothy Richard interpreted The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana Doctrine as a crypto-Christian text and new form of Buddhism.
Differentiation (i.e. phenomena) arises through illusion, fundamental ignorance of one’s true nature...The Absolute Reality is empty, ‘Because from the beginning it has never been related to any defiled states of existence, it is free from all marks of individual distinction of things, and it has nothing to do with thoughts conceived by a deluded mind’.
Nevertheless, to avoid misunderstandings, ‘the true Mind is eternal, permanent, immutable, pure, and self-sufficient; therefore it is called “nonempty.”’[24] Although often omitted from lists of canonical Buddhist texts, the Awakening of Faith strongly influenced subsequent Mahayana doctrine.
One of the reasons for this is the status of the influential commentator Fazang (法藏 ) as state preceptor (Guoshi) and third patriarch of the Huayan school.
[2] Another important commentary on the Awakening of Faith is On the Interpretation of Mahāyāna (Shi Moheyan lun 釈摩訶衍論, Japanese: Shakumakaen-ron, Taisho no.
However, according to Jiyun Kim, this text was likely composed in 8th century China and later spread to Korea and Japan (where it was influential on Kukai and Shingon Buddhism).
[31] The view of the mind in the Awakening of Faith also had a significant import on the doctrinal development of the East Mountain Teaching, an 8th century tradition of Chan Buddhism.
In great part due to the commentaries by Wonhyo,[34] 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.
[35] Mou Zongsan (Chinese: 牟宗三) has used this and Tien Tai to develop his school of thought related to Confucianism, in particular about how to tie between two different aspects of the world.
