An initial exploration of the parallels between Xuanzang's Yogācāra Buddhism and Huineng's Chan tradition

Xuanzang was extremely knowledgeable. He traveled to India, obtained large number of Sītra and treatises back to China, translated them into the Chinese language, and propagated extensively the principle of Consciousness-Only. On the other hand, Huineng was said to be illiterate, nonetheless, he broadly advocated the lineage of the Chan tradition which focused on the notion of “not establishing words and letters, a special transmission outside the teachings, directly pointing to the human mind, and seeing one's nature and attaining buddhahood.” This paper uses the principle of the Buddha Dharma to explore the seemingly drastically different approach of their methods and processes of teaching but one will eventually realize that both their goals of enlightenment are mutually conclusive. They both converge towards the realization of the eighth consciousness (also referred to as Alayavijnāna; Tathāgatagarbha). Nevertheless, Xuanzang's level of realization is believed to be superior to that of Huineng's.