Perhaps the most influential source in the Indian tradition for this teaching is the Ratnagotravibhāga (5th century CE). This śāstra brought together all the major themes of the tathāgatagārbha theory into a single treatise. The Ratnagotravibhāga sees the tathāgatagarbha as being an inherent nature in all things which is omnipresent, all-pervasive, non-conceptual, free of suffering and inherently blissful.Wayman, Alex; Wayman, Hideko (1990). The Lion's roar of Queen Srimala, p. 46. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. It also describes buddha nature as “the intrinsically stainless nature of the mind” (cittaprakṛtivaimalya).Jones, C.V. (2020). The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman, p. 162. University of Hawaii Press. Indeed, in many later Indian sources, the tathāgathagarbha teachings also come to be identified with the similar doctrine of the luminous mind (prabhasvara-citta). This ancient idea holds that the mind is inherently pure, and that defilements are only adventitious. In the Ratnagotravibhāga, this originally pure (prakṛtipariśuddha) nature (i.e. the fully purified buddha-nature) is further described through numerous terms such as: unconditioned (asaṃskṛta), unborn (ajāta), unarisen (anutpanna), eternal (nitya), changeless (dhruva), and permanent (śāśvata).Michael Radich, "Tathāgatagarbha Scriptures." In Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Volume One: Literature and Languages, edited by Jonathan Silk, Oskar von Hinüber, and Vincent Eltschinger, 261-273. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Perhaps the most influential source in the Indian tradition for this teaching is the Ratnagotravibhāga (5th century CE). This śāstra brought together all the major themes of the tathāgatagārbha theory into a single treatise. The Ratnagotravibhāga sees the tathāgatagarbha as being an inherent nature in all things which is omnipresent, all-pervasive, non-conceptual, free of suffering and inherently blissful.Wayman, Alex; Wayman, Hideko (1990). The Lion's roar of Queen Srimala, p. 46. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. It also describes buddha nature as “the intrinsically stainless nature of the mind” (cittaprakṛtivaimalya).Jones, C.V. (2020). The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman, p. 162. University of Hawaii Pres,s. Indeed, in many later Indian sources, the tathāgathagarbha teachings also come to be identified with the similar doctrine of the luminous mind (prabhasvara-citta). This ancient idea holds that the mind is inherently pure, and that defilements are only adventitious. In the Ratnagotravibhāga this originally pure (prakṛtipariśuddha) nature (i.e. the fully purified buddha-nature) is further described through numerous terms such as: unconditioned (asaṃskṛta), unborn (ajāta), unarisen (anutpanna), eternal (nitya), changeless (dhruva), and permanent (śāśvata).Michael Radich, "Tathāgatagarbha Scriptures." In Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Volume One: Literature and Languages, edited by Jonathan Silk, Oskar von Hinüber, and Vincent Eltschinger, 261-273. Leiden: Brill, 2015.