Active Self . A Philosophical Study of the Buddha Nature Treatise and Other Chinese Buddhist Texts

Abstract

工 am indebted to the readers of this study, Professors DeMartino, Kiyota and Yadav for their most helpful comments on the first draft, suggestions which certainly helped strengthen both the conceptualization and the expression of these thoughts. 工 am further obliged tc Professor Kiyota for his help in steering me towards this topic and first stirring my interest in tathagatagarbha thought. He has shown himself to be a wealth of encouragement and moral support throughout the final stages of my studies and a generously beneficent spirit. For these boons 工 am grateful. 工 also owe thanks to the Department of Religion, Temple University, for its generous financial support. In my case this support was especially extraordinary, as the Department proved itself willing to both encourage and support those studies which took me outside the confines of the Department itself. Thanks are also due Mrs. Marilyn Coyne for typing the first draft of the dissertation f a most ungratifying task, no doubt, with all the foreign words and markings. Certain debts cannot be adequately stated, much less repaid. Such are my debts to Professor Thomas Dean, my advisor, who has for years selflessly given of himself that 工 might succeed in completing my degree. Given the kind and number of obstacles which 工 have faced over the years, his aid has been both constantly in demand and crucial to my success. He has given enormously of his time, assistance and concern. A bodhisattva of compassion, thoroughly proficient in the skillful means of negotiating a graduate studies path— it has been my very good fortune to have been guided by him. Finally, unending thanks to my husband, Steve. When difficulties in my studies arose, his unshakable confidence in me has always succeeded in returning me to my task. It is thanks to him that we have maintained in our lives the graduate students1 Middle Path： keeping the study foremost (so that it would be accomplished) yet keeping it also in perspective.