A Yogācāra Reading of Tathāgatagarbha: Silla Yogācāra Scholar Daehyeon’s Commentarial Approach to the Awakening of Faith

Since the time of Śākyamuni Buddha’s teachings, Buddhism has undergone diverse developments as it expanded across different historical periods and geographical regions. Within the Mahāyāna tradition, various doctrinal systems emerged, including Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and tathāgatagarbha, giving rise to a vast array of scriptures and treatises. Consequently, Buddhist thought evolved in multiple directions. Buddhist scholars played a crucial role in refining and systematizing these theories by composing commentaries on these texts, thereby enhancing the theoretical precision and coherence of Buddhist doctrine.

However, as Buddhist teachings diversified, commentators faced a critical hermeneutical challenge: how to define the relationships among the various doctrinal systems. Buddhist texts often exhibited divergent orientations both in form and content, and at times, they appeared to be doctrinally inconsistent. In response, commentators sought to interpret this doctrinal diversity of teachings in a coherent manner by applying their own philosophical perspectives and hermeneutical methodologies. Some approached this diversity through a hierarchical framework, arranging the teachings in a stratified order, while others regarded them as distinct teachings operating on separate levels of reality. Alternatively, some scholars differentiated between the external structure of the texts and their underlying meanings. In this process, differing exegetical positions often gave rise to polemical debates, further shaping the development of Buddhist doctrinal interpretation.

In East Asia, Buddhist doctrines were transmitted in a fragmented manner rather than in accordance with their historical sequence of development. As a result, the question of how to consistently explain the relationships among various—and at times conflicting—Buddhist theoretical frameworks became an increasingly significant issue. Within this context, debates such as the Emptiness-Existence debate, known as doctrinal disputes between Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, and the Nature-Characteristics debate, which addressed the tension between Yogācāra’s emphasis on the phenomenal characteristics (xiang 相) of dharmas and Tathāgatagarbha thought’s focus on their intrinsic nature (xing 性), or buddha nature, emerged as key philosophical controversies. In the effort to establish coherence among differing Buddhist doctrines, exegetes who prioritized a particular theoretical framework often found themselves in direct opposition to those advocating alternative interpretative approaches, leading to significant doctrinal disputes.   

Within this context, this paper examines an explanatory approach from the perspective of Yogācāra that sought to reconcile the seemingly conflicting doctrines of “nature” and “characteristics.” Specifically, it focuses on the interpretation of Daehyeon 大賢 (ca. eighth century), a Yogācāra monk of Silla Korea, on the concept of tathāgatagarbha as presented in the Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun 大乘起信論). Unlike the general exegetical tendency of the time, which often exhibited antagonism toward opposing theoretical frameworks, Daehyeon adopted an approach that sought to integrate both perspectives. By analyzing his commentary on the Awakening of Faith, this study explores how he sought to demonstrate the coherence between “nature” and “characteristics,” or tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra. In doing so, particular attention is given to his understanding of ālayavijñāna as a key conceptual framework for resolving the tension between these two doctrines. Ultimately, this study aims to elucidate the possibility of a coherent interpretation of these competing Buddhist theories from a Yogācāra perspective.