Awakening Of Faith Article Index for
Awakening
Shopping
Mahayana
Website Links For
Awakening
 

Information About

Awakening Of Faith





ORIGIN AND HISTORY

While the text is attributed by the faithful to Ashvaghosha , no Sanskrit version of the text is available. Instead, the earliest known versions are written in Chinese . Many scholars (including Mochizuki Shinkō 望月信亨) doubt whether the text originated in India, suspecting instead that it is of East Asian origin. Paramartha ( 499 - 569 translated or authored the first known version, which dates to 553 . Śikṣānanda translated or re-edited another version, perhaps during 695 - 700 .


CONTENT

Written from the perspective of essence and 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 . It was studied and commented on repeatedly by many East Asian scholars, including Weonhyo 元曉, Fazang 法藏 and Zongmi 宗密.
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 .


REFERENCES


English Translations

  • Hakeda, Yoshito S., trans. Awakening of Faith Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, Columbia University Press, 1967.

  • Richard, Timothy, The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna Doctrine—the New Buddhism, 1907.

  • Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro. Aśvaghoṣa's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana., Open Court Publishing

  • Vorenkamp, Dirck, trans. An English Translation of Fa-Tsang’s Commentary on the Awakening of Faith, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2004.



Other References