Is “Buddha-Nature” Buddhist? Recent controversies in Japanese
Buddhist scholarship have focused upon the Mahāyāna notion of a
“Buddha nature” within all sentient beings and whether or not
the concept is compatible with traditional Buddhist teachings
such as anātman (no-abiding-self). This controversy is not only
relevant to Far Eastern Buddhism, for which the notion of a
Buddha-nature is a central doctrinal theme, but also for the
roots of this tradition in those Indian Mahāyāna sūtras which
utilised the notion of tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-embryo or Buddha
womb). One of the earliest Buddhist texts to discuss this notion
is the Queen Śrīmālā Sūtra (Śrīmālādevīsūtra), which appears to
display a transitional and revisionist attitude towards
traditional Mahāyāna doctrines such as emptiness (śūnyatā) and
no-abiding-self (anātman). These and related issues are examined
as they occur in the Śrīmālā Sūtra and as they might relate to
the issue of the place of Buddha-nature thought within the
Buddhist tradition. Finally