Observing the Link between Self-awareness and Buddha Nature in Ratnākaraśānti’s Prajñāpāramitopadeśa
Self-awareness (svasaṃvedana/svasaṃvitti) plays a central role in Ratnākaraśānti’s doctrinal system, it is the locus of prakāśa. Focusing on the six summarizing verses at the end of the yathāvadbhāvikatāyāṃ cintāmayī prajñā section in the Prajñāpāramitopadeśa, this paper aims to 1) present Ratnākaraśānti’s understanding of self-awareness as sketched in these verses, 2) trace the possible sources of his sketch, and 3) observe the link between svasaṃvedana and buddha-nature in his doctrinal system.
Event: Vienna Symposium 2019 – Paper Presentation
Date: July 18, 2019 – 9:45 am
Speaker: Hong Luo
Topics: Buddha Nature, Ratnākaraśānti
Hong Luo
Sichuan University
Hong Luo studied Indology and Buddhology at Peking University with Prof. Bangwei Wang. He was awarded Ph.D. in 2007 with a dissertation on the Pravrajyāvastu of Guṇaprabha’s Vinayasūtra. From 2007 to 2017, he was affiliated with the China Tibetology Research Center and mainly worked for the international cooperative projects on editing Sanskrit manuscripts preserved in Tibet. In 2015 and 2016, he taught as Numata visiting professor in the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. From 2011 to 2014, he was visiting scholar of Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Hamburg, and Ryukoku University. In 2018, he became professor for religious studies at the Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University.
