[Buddha-l] Re: G-d, the D-vil and other imaginary friends

[Dharma Grandmother]

Re: Mahayana sutras that mention "icchantikas" besides the Lankavatara
Sutra.

It seems that icchantikas are also mentioned in the "Nirvana Sutra,"
which states that they are not to be excluded from having Buddha Nature.
Whaddayaknow.

One of many on-line sources re this sutra and the icchantikas is below -
hey, that Daoshen (Tao-Sheng) fella had b_lls - if they had a buddha-l
list in his day, he'd be running it!

".....Second, in 418 Faxian (the first Chinese monk successfully to
return to China with scriptures from pilgrimage to India) and
Buddhabhadra produced a partial translation of the Mahāyāna
Nirvāṇa Sutra. One of the topics it discusses is the
icchantika, incorrigible beings lacking the requisites for achieving
enlightenment. Daosheng (c.360â€"434), a disciple of Huiyuan,
convinced that all beings, including icchantikas, must possess
Buddha-nature and hence are capable of enlightenment, insisted that the
Nirvāṇa Sutra be understood in that light. Since that
violated the obvious meaning of the text, Daosheng was unanimously
rebuked, whereupon he left the capital in disgrace. 

"In ad 421, a new translation by Dharmaká¹£ema of the
Nirvāṇa Sutra based on a Central Asian original appeared
containing sections absent from the previous version. The twenty-third
chapter of Dharmakṣema’s version contained passages
declaring that Buddha-nature was indeed universal, and that even
icchantikas possessed it and could thus reach the goal.
Daosheng’s detractors in the capital were humbled, suddenly
impressed at his prescience. The lesson was never forgotten, so that two
centuries later, when Xuan Zang (600â€"64) translated Indian texts
that once again declared that icchantikas lacked the requisite qualities
to attain enlightenment, his school was attacked from all quarters as
promoting a less than ‘Mahāyānic’ doctrine.
However, it should be noted that there is no clear precedent or term in
Indian Buddhism for ‘Buddha-nature’; the notion probably
either arose in China through a certain degree of license taken by
translators when rendering terms like buddhatva
(‘Buddhahood’, an accomplishment, not a primordial
ontological ground), or it developed from nascent forms of the theory
possibly constructed in Central Asia. However, from this moment on,
Buddha-nature become one of the foundational tenets of virtually all
forms of East Asian Buddhism."

LUSTHAUS, DAN (1998). Buddhist philosophy, Chinese. In E. Craig (Ed.),
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved March
17, 2005, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G002SECT3

Metta,
Amrita

Blessings to all.  May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.