No turning back : the concept of irreversibility in Indian Mahayana literature

Abstract

This thesis traces the development of the concept of the irreversible bodhisattva in Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na. I take the position that although irreversibility was once considered an important and attainable goal in the career of a bodhisattva, it later become an increasingly abstract and remote ideal during the middle and late periods of Indian Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na. I argue that the concept, which has its origins in the D{u012B}pa{u1E43}kara prediction myth, was reinterpreted by the authors of the Praj{u00F1}{u0101}p{u0101}ramit{u0101} s{u016B}tras in such a way that irreversibility was not seen so much as a milestone in the career of the bodhisattva, or even a function of the strength of the bodhisattva's aspiration for enlightenment; rather, it was seen as the practical application of the doctrine of no own-being (asvabh{u0101}va) to the traditional practices intended to rid practitioners of defilements that bound them to cyclic existence. This mode of practice, known as "skill-in-means," prevented the bodhisattva from actualising the otherwise natural result of the practices (i.e., nirv{u0101}{u1E47}a), leading instead to a state of all-knowledge (sarvaj{u00F1}a). Later, the authors of the longer version of the s{u016B}tra again reinterpreted irreversibility so that it applied only to the second phase of the bodhisattva's career{u0097}a phase in which the bodhisattva advanced beyond the level of an arhat. This system was mapped to the various da{u015B}abh{u016B}mi systems such that irreversible bh{u016B}mi became the seventh or eighth bh{u016B}mi. The study is not only a history of Buddhist doctrines. Reader-response theory has been used to examine the self-identity of the first audiences of the A{u1E63}{u1E6D}as{u0101}hasrik{u0101} and argue that at least some of these people identified themselves as bodhisattvas for whom the irreversible bodhisattva was an ideal to be emulated. Later, however, the normativity of the irreversible bodhisattva ideal diminished, as it became increasingly remote and idealised during the period known as the "institutionalisation" of Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na. By applying theories borrowed from a number of modem scholars, an investigation into the status of Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na as an institution has also been undertaken. This has led to an identification of not only the "institutional basis" of Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na, but also a sense in which Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na can be said to have had institutional existence from its earliest days. Finally, the last chapter of the thesis examines the consequences for the concept of irreversibility that follow from Dharmak{u012B}rti's axiom that future effects cannot be validly inferred from present causes. The investigations undertaken in this thesis are important not only for what they tell us about how conceptions of irreversibility changed, but also for the way they improve our understanding of the development of a systematised bodhisattva path in Mah{u0101}y{u0101}na. They also highlight some of the problems inherent in all attempts to authenticate or certificate spiritual progress.