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| A Comparative Research on How Yinshun and Mou Zongsan interpreted Paramãrtha‘s Buddhist Studies Respectively |
| JIANG Mingze |
| Peking University, Beijing, 100871 |
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Abstract Mou Zongsan once suggested that Paramãrtha‘s "amala-vijnana (as a mind with purified selfnature)" should be understood as the mind was originally clean. He then traced this concept back to Maitreya Bodhisattva's teachings and regarded it as a kind of "innate enlightenment" . Finally he concluded that Paramãrtha‘s studies were "following Maitreya and heading to true mind school" . To respond to Mou Zongsan, Yinshun argued the core of Paramãrtha‘s thoughts was the idea that "alaya can lead to either purified phenomena or contaminative phenomena" and defined Paramãrtha‘ thoughts as the combination of Tathãgatagarbha (Buddha nature) and yogacara. After that he explicitly rejected to define amala-vijnana (as a mind with purified self-nature) as a kind of innate enlightenment, which was merely an interpretation using concepts from The Awakening of Mahayana Faith, and insisted that the fundamental position of Paramãrtha‘s thoughts should be yogacara. The two academic masters' studies on Paramãrtha exemplify "creative hermeneutics", which means both of them raised the potential yet necessary implications of Paramãrtha‘s words and showed new possibilities of studies on Paramãrtha. A comparison between Yinshun's and Mou Zongsan's interpretations of Paramãrtha‘s thoughts can help us widen the research field of Paramãrtha study and find new approaches to the interpretation of Paramãrtha. Moreover, through the comparison we could better understand the two important scholars' different positions as well as the result and meaning of their creative hermeneutic methodology.
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2015, Vol. 32 
