Abstract:

It has become a stream of thought to criticize the doctrine of Tathāgata-garbha and the doctrine of inner-Buddha (Original Enlightenment) since the 20^th century.The two most radical representatives are Lücheng in ZhiNaNeiXueYuan in China and the Japanese critical Buddhism.Lücheng was converted to the doctrine of Yoga Consciousness-only.He imputed the Chinese Buddhist classics influenced by the doctrine of Tathāgata-garbha and doctrine of inner-Buddha to be fake classics.Critical Buddhism argues that the doctrine of Tathāgata-garbha and the doctrine of inner-Buddha are a kind of substantialism which is anti-Buddhist in spirit.The author claims that in response to the criticism, one should not only argue for the legitimacy of the coctrine of Tathāgata-garbha and the doctrine of inner-Buddha, but also look at the issue in the perspective of the historical process of modernizaton.At the meantime, the self-reflection of Chinese Buddhism should also be a part of the response to the criticism.

Key words: Tathāgata-garbha, inner-Buddha (Original Enlightenment), critical Buddhism, self-nature precept, perfect and harmonizing, modernity