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Document Details : Title: The Samye Debate Revisited Subtitle: The Chinese Chan View of Heshang Moheyan and Direct Approaches to Ultimate Reality Author(s): MATHES, Klaus-Dieter Journal: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume: 48 Date: 2025 Pages: 167-191 DOI: 10.2143/JIABS.48.0.3295425 Abstract : This article reassesses the Samye Debate (c. 792-794) and the contested figure of the Chinese Chan master Heshang Moheyan (Tib. Hwa shang Ma ha yan), traditionally portrayed as having been defeated by the Indian scholar Kamalaśīla before the Tibetan king Khri srong lde btsan. It questions the standard narrative that opposes a 'sudden' Chan approach of directly 'looking at the mind' to a normative 'gradual' Indian path of the six perfections grounded in ethical discipline and conceptual analysis. Drawing on Tibetan historiographical accounts and Dunhuang materials, the article argues that the Samye 'debate' was less a single formal disputation than a multifaceted process of doctrinal exchange among diverse Central and East Asian Buddhist actors competing for royal patronage. It further suggests that the view attributed to Moheyan by his Indo-Tibetan critics, though difficult to anchor in non-tantric Mahāyāna, is more at home in Indian Mahāmudrā sources. Re-examining these materials, the article situates the Samye controversies within broader patterns of cross-cultural transmission, and legitimation of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in Tibet. |
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