- Icchantika
The "icchantika" is, according to some Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, the most base and spiritually deluded of all types of being. The term implies being given over to total hedonism and greed. In the
Tathagatagarbha sutras, some of which pay particular attention to the "icchantikas", the term is frequently used of those persons who do not believe in the Buddha, his eternal Selfhood and hisDharma (Truth) or inkarma ; who seriously transgress against the Buddhist moral codes andvinaya ; and who speak disparagingly and dismissively of the reality of the immortalBuddha-nature ("Buddha-dhatu") or (essentially the same thing) theTathagatagarbha present within all beings (including "icchantikas" themselves, though it is more hidden from their consciousness than in other individuals due to the massive accretions of sinfulness and delusion which conceal it from their sight).The two shortest versions of the
Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra - one translated by Fa-xian, and the other a middle-length Tibetan version of the sutra - indicate that the "icchantika" has so totally severed all his/her roots of goodness that he/she can never attain Liberation and Nirvana. The full-lengthDharmakshema version of theMahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra , in contrast, insists that even the "icchantika" can eventually find release into Nirvana, since no phenomenon is fixed (including this type of allegedly deluded person) and that change for the better and best is always a possibility. Other scriptures (such as theLankavatara Sutra ) indicate that the icchantikas will be saved through the liberational power of the Buddha - who, it is claimed, will never abandon any being.Further reading
"The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" (Nirvana Publications, London 1999-2000), 12 Volumes, tr. by Kosho Yamamoto, editor Dr. Tony Page.
See also
*
Tathagatagarbha
*Nirvana Sutra
*Total depravity
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