Toward a New Image of Paramartha

Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha are often regarded as antagonistic Indian Buddhist traditions. Paramartha (499-569) is traditionally credited with amalgamating these philosophies by translating one of the most influential Tathagatagarbha texts in East Asia the <i>Awakening of Faith in Mahayana</i> and introducing Tathagatagarbha notions into his translations of Yogacara texts. <br/><br/>Engaging with the digitalized Chinese Buddhist canon Ching Keng draws on clues from a long-lost Dunhuang fragment and considers its striking similarities with Paramartha's corpus with respect to terminology style of phrasing and doctrines. In this cutting-edge interpretation of the concept of <i>jiexing</i> Keng demystifies the image of Paramartha and makes the case that the fragment holds the key to recover his original teachings.