Events Nanzan Institute Colloquium: “Solitary Awakening between Bodhidharma and Heraclitus”

This paper contends that tathāgatagarbha provides the metaphysical ground for the viability of pratyekabuddha awakening across eras and traditions. Through the lens of dormant awakening, we read Chan sources with a brief detour via Heraclitus, to build a metaphysics that clarifies individual awakening without relying on lineage or institution. Beginning with Bodhidharma’s entrance by principle and the discipline of ‘wall-gazing,’ we unpack a nondiscriminating comportment that discloses what is ‘already the case.’ In this reading, the pratyekabuddha emerges as a basic structure of actualisation wherever insight into dependent origination or ‘rest in change’ is discerned, depending on the tradition in question. From the Buddhist side, tathāgatagarbha as depicted in the early Chan materials stresses an inherent purity veiled by adventitious defilements, which grants a praxis of non-interference and stillness that transcends motion. We consider this praxis commensurate with, and plausibly shaped by, Daoist metaphysics, especially regarding non-action and spontaneity. The conclusion is a cosmically construed account of awakening that requires a non-conceptual insight into the ground of reality. In Bodhidharma, as conditions mature, trust and wisdom steady the mind, allowing insight to arise without transmitted instruction; in Heraclitus, gignōskein overcomes dualistic thinking through harmonious attunement to the cosmos’ eternal cyclicality and hidden harmony. Finally, we discuss whether later Chan elevated kōans over contemplative grounding, a tendency Zongmi’s dictum aimed to correct by uniting sudden awakening with gradual cultivation. We find that Heraclitus and Bodhidharma are consonant with Daoist metaphysics, such that the contemplative grounding essential to the pratyekabuddhaideal is anchored in the innate capacity of tathāgatagarbha.