ICCHANTIKA
The notion of the icchantika(loosely rendered into
English as “hedonist” or “dissipated”) is the closest
Buddhism comes to a notion of damnation or perdi-
tion. Icchantikarefers to a class, or “lineage” (Sanskrit,
gotra), of beings who are beyond all redemption and
lose forever the capacity to achieve NIRVANA(Sanskrit,
aparinirvanagotraka). The NIRVANASUTRAdefines the
icchantikaas one who “does not believe in the law of
causality, has no feeling of shame, has no faith in the
workings of KARMA, is unconcerned with the present
or the future, never befriends good people, and does
not follow the teachings of the Buddha.” The term is
often employed polemically in MAHAYANAtexts, as for
example the LAN ̇KAVATARA-SUTRA(Discourse of the
Descent into Lan ̇ka), to refer to beings who are antag-
onistic toward the Mahayana canon. Their destiny is
typically an eternity in the HELLS. Some BODHISATTVA
icchantikasintentionally choose this spiritual lineage
because they “cherish certain vows for all beings since
beginningless time” (sattvanadikalapranidhanata), and
they wish to help all beings gain nirvana.
The icchantikadoctrine has long been controversial
in Mahayana because it seems to contradict an axiom
of many strands of Buddhism: the innate presence of
the buddha-nature, or TATHAGATAGARBHA, in all sen-
tient beings. The Chinese commentator DAOSHENG
(ca. 360–434), for example, debunked the theory and
even had the audacity to question the accuracy of pas-
sages in sutra translations that mentioned the lamen-
table destiny of icchantikas. With the prominent
exception of the FAXIANG SCHOOL, the Chinese branch
of Yogacara, East Asian Buddhists resoundingly re-
jected the icchantikadoctrine in favor of the notion
that all beings, even the denizens of hell, retained the
capacity to attain enlightenment.See also:Cosmology; PathBibliography
Buswell, Robert E., Jr. “The Path to Perdition: The Wholesome
Roots and Their Eradication.” In Paths to Liberation: The
Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought,ed.
Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Robert M. Gimello. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1992.
Suzuki Daisetz Teitaro. Studies in the Lan ̇kavatara Sutra(1930).
London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.ROBERTE. BUSWELL, JR.IGNORANCE. See Pratltyasamutpada (Depen-
dent Origination)IKKYUBorn in Kyoto to a court lady-in-waiting and, accord-
ing to some sources, the young sovereign Gokomatsu
(1377–1433), Ikkyu Sojun (1394–1481) became an
acolyte at age five at the Zen temple Ankokuji. He later
trained under two harsh, iconoclastic Zen masters, first
Ken’oSoi (d. 1414) and then KasoSodon (1352–1428).
Kasogranted his student the name Ikkyu(One Pause)
after he had an awakening experience in 1418. Around
1425 Ikkyumoved to Sakai, where he reveled in an in-
dependent, pleasure-loving way of life. At age seventy-
seven, he fell in love with the blind minstrel Lady Mori,351