Abstract:

Critical Buddhism in modern Japan has investigated Buddhist doctrines, putting forward two propositions, one is that Tathāgata-garbha is not Buddhism, another inner-Buddha is not Buddhism.This article conversely investigates above two propositions from two possible channels, one is that how the theory of pratītya-samutpāda can be the criterion of Buddhism, the other whether Tathāgata-garbha and inner-Buddha run counter to the theory of pratītya-samutpāda when we admit the pratītya-samutpāda criterion for the time being.the result of the converse investigation finds that all the above two propositions of Critical Buddhism are mistaken.At last we compare the dogmatism in Critical Buddhism and the humanism in Chinese Buddhism.

Key words: critical Buddhism, Tathāgata-garbha, inner-Buddha (Original Enlightenment), Chinese Buddhism, the distinguishing and judging of the Buddhist classics