Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna is a text of Mahayana Buddhism. Though attributed to the Indian master Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of it exists and it is now widely regarded by scholars as a Chinese composition.
The text
Origin and translations
While the text is traditionally attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of the text is extant. The two earliest existing versions are written in Chinese, and contemporary scholars widely accept the theory that the text is a Chinese composition. However, D.T. Suzuki accepted its Indian Sanskrit origin, while acknowledging that it was unlikely the historical Aśvaghoṣa was the author, and that it was more likely that the attribution to Aśvaghoṣa was an honorific appellation due to the profundity of the treatise. Suzuki saw the Awakening of Faith as being "inspired by the same spirit" as the Lankavatara, Avatamsaka, and the Mahayana Parinirvana Sutras, and regarded its identification as a Chinese text as "not well grounded". Suzuki's views were written before modern computer assisted analysis could be undertaken by scholars. Paramartha was traditionally thought to have translated the text in the 6th Century CE in 553. However, many modern scholars now opine that it was actually composed by Paramartha or one of his students. King remarks that, although Paramartha undoubtedly was among the most prolific translators of Sanskrit texts into Chinese, he may have originated, not translated, the East Asian Yogācāra text of the Buddha-nature Treatise as well as the Awakening of Faith. Other experts dispute that it has anything to do at all with Paramartha. A later translation or reedited version was attributed to the Khotanese monk Śikṣānanda|.
Title
The term Mahayana points not to the Mahayana school, but to tathatā "suchness" or "the Absolute": Charles Muller argues that the terminology "faith in" is misleading: In other words, the treatise is not discussing "Faith in the Mahayana," rather it is presenting the Mahayana style of faith, which is faith in the true suchness of mind.
Content
The text is divided into five sections, and often summarized as “One Mind, Two Aspects, Three Greatnesses, Four Faiths, and Five Practices". Following two introductory chapters dealing with the oneness of mind and motivations for the text's composition, part three focuses on two aspects of mind to clarify the relationship between enlightenment and ignorance, nirvana and samsara, or the absolute and the phenomenal. Part four describes five practices that aid in the growth of faith, emphasizing calmness and insight meditation. Part five describes the benefits that result from cultivating the five practices. Written from the perspective of Essence-Function, this text sought to harmonize the two soteriological philosophies of the Buddha-nature and Eight Consciousnesses into a synthetic vision based on the One Mind in Two Aspects:
Commentaries
Commentaries on the Awakening in Faith were composed in China, Japan, and Korea by numerous exegetes. Commentaries composed before the mid 9th century in Chinese and Korean include those by Jingying Huiyuan 淨影慧遠 Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1843 大乘起信論義疏 Dasheng qixinlun yishu; two by Wonhyo 元曉 Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1844 起信論疏 Gisillon so and Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1845 Daeseung gisillon byeolgi; by Fazang 法藏 Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 44, No. 1846 大乘起信論義記 Dasheng qixinlun yiji; and by Zongmi 宗密, as well as others no longer extant.
Influence
Although often omitted from lists of canonical Buddhist texts, the Awakening of Faith strongly influenced subsequent Mahayana doctrine. It reflects an important stage in the synthesis of Indian and Chinese Buddhist thought, and the elevation of the tathagatagarbha doctrine to a central place in Chinese Buddhist soteriology.
The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana had a great influence on Chinese Buddhism. One of the reasons for this is the status of the commentator Fazang 法藏 as state preceptor and third patriarch of the Huayan school. The Awakening of Faith is thought to have played a role in the Huayan doctrine of the interpenetration of phenomena.
Korean Buddhism
In great part due to the commentaries by Wonhyo, the Awakening of Faith ended up having an unusually powerful influence in Korea, where it may be the most oft-cited text in the entire tradition. It also provided much of the doctrinal basis for the original enlightenment thought found in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment.
Chan (Zen)
The view of the mind in the Awakening of Faith had a significant import on the doctrinal development of the East Mountain Teaching. It is also considered to have strongly influenced the Chan doctrine of "seeing one's nature and attaining Buddhahood".
has used this and Tien Tai to develop his school of thought related to Confucianism, in particular about how to tie between two different aspects of the world.
English translations
The Awakening of Faith
The translations by Hakeda and Jorgensen et al. are based on Paramārtha's version of the Chinese text while Suzuki's translation is based on Śikṣānanda`s version.
