菩薩十地와 ‘淸淨’의 의미__『十地經論』을 중심으로__

Abstract

In the Daśabhūmikasūtra (十地經 shidijing), the term purity or viśuddhi (淸淨 qingjing) has a special contextual meaning in regard of bodhisattva’s stages. Here, the meaning of viśuddhi is not just limited to purity but it implies the doctrine of categorization of bodhisattva’s ten stages into three. The bodhisattva’s career of ten stages has two strata from the beginning. The first is the substratum of the buddha-wisdom (buddhajñāna, 佛智 fozhi) which is the cause and basis of bodhisattva’s career, inseparable from the bodhisattvacaryā (菩薩行 pusaxing) stages from the first to the tenth. The second is the process of unfolding (開顯 kaixian) the buddhajñāna as the development of bodhisattva’s career in stages aiming for it. According to the Daśabhūmikasūtra-śāstra, the first stratum, the buddhajñāna underlying as the foundation of bodhisattva’s ten stages is of the inherent nature, considered to be always pure, never contaminated by afflictions or kleśa (煩惱 fannao). Regarding this, there is a passage in the śāstra with an idiomatic expression “inherent purity” (本來淸淨 benlaiqingjing). In this context, the term viśuddhi is always associated with the explanation of buddhajñāna. The second purity as the process of unfolding the buddhajñāna can be divided again into two depending on whether it is afflicted or not, different from the inherently pure buddhajñāna. The first is the purity as “antithetic” to afflictions, and corresponds to the stages from the first to the sixth. The second is the purity as the “removal” of afflictions, and corresponds to the stages after the eighth. I follow the terms of the Chinese canons and refer to these two purities each as afflicted purity (雜染淸淨 zaranquingjing) and unafflicted purity (純粹淸淨 chuncuiqingjing). Accordingly, in terms of purity, the ten stages of bodhisattva’s career can be divided into three, i.e., inherent purity (本來淸淨), afflicted purity (雜染淸淨), unafflicted purity (純粹淸淨).