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熏習

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: to perfume

Senses:

  • To permeate; impregnate—also written with the first character alone. The literal meaning is that of being permeated with an odor, and this metaphor is used to describe the how karma works in the form of various undefiled and defiled phenomena, whereby activities, without fail, leave impressions on our consciousness, thus altering it. Included here is the meaning of receiving an impression, or for one thing to have an effect on another thing, especially by habituation, or the function of one thing gradually being conditioned by another. As clothes which have been exposed to perfume gradually come to take on that same smell, our own activities of word, thought and deed leave an influence on our mind. It is a distinctive Buddhist explanation for how karmic influence is transmitted through the consciousnesses of living beings. In Yogâcāra theory, unmanifest karma is sown as a 'seed'  種子 in the ālaya-vijñāna. The results of this perfuming are called 'karmic impressions'  習氣 (Skt. vāsanā), which again produce new karmas.

    In the Awakening of Faith 起信論, purity and impurity permeate each other. The permeation of thusness by nescience produces saṃsāra, while the permeation of nescience by thusness produces nirvana. See 四種法熏習. The AMF says: "The meaning of 'permeation' is like clothes in the world, which have no odor of their own. If one permeates them with fragrance, then they will have that fragrance. The permeation of dharma is also like this." 「熏習義者如世間衣服實無於香. 若人以香而熏習故則有香氣. 此亦如是」 〔起信論 T 1666.32.578a18–20〕 (Skt. vāsita, paribhāvita; adhivāsita, abhyasana, āvāsita, paribhāvanā, bhāvanā, bhāvita, vāsana, vāsanatā)

    [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, JEBD, Hirakawa, Iwanami]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 220

    Bulgyo sajeon 974a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 255c

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 216

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 186b/208

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 288c

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0796

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)721a

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1997-09-15

    Updated: 2014-02-09