The discussion of “mind” has always been one of the main points of discussion in the Taisho canon. However, the vastness of the Taisho canon makes it difficult for people to obtain a complete picture, especially in the case of the endless descriptions of the mind. It is difficult to have a comprehensive grasp of the theories of the mind by various schools of thought. Faced with such a vast Taisho canon, traditional methods of documentary research mostly seek the starting point of thinking by combing through different texts, and strive to achieve an exhaustive explanation on this point. However, such a research approach relies too much on the researcher's familiarity with the topic, and it is not only difficult to deal with a large amount of literature, but also possible to lead to the flaw in research which is conducted only from a single perspective, without a panoramic study of research issues. Today, large-scale analysis carried out with digital tools, together with intensive literature reading, will usher in the solution to the foregoing research dilemma. In this study, we use the “CBETA Concordance Search and Analysis” digital tool to look extensively for high-frequency vocabulary related to “mind” in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra. After analysis of “intention” (直心) and “resolute intention” (深心) in context, we have found that, in two versions of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, there is a big difference in the use of these two terms. The sixty-volume version of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra focuses on both “intention” and “resolute intention”, while the eighty-volume version mostly focuses on “resolute intention”. From the chapter “The Ten Grounds” (十地品), we can see that in the sixty-volume version both “intention” and “resolute intention” refer to the“bodhi-mind” (菩提心), in contrast with the eighty-volume version in which the “bodhi-mind” is referred to as “supreme resolute intention” (最上深心). Moreover, in the chapter “Transcending the World” (離世間品) of the eighty-volume version, “resolute intention” and “superior resolute intention” (增上深心) replace “intention” and “resolute intention” of the sixty-volume version.
Keywords:
CBETA Concordance Search and Analysis, intention, resolute intention, Sixty-volume version of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, Eighty-volume version of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra