The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2437 page)

 
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see
TAO-TSANG
.

 
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(355–434).
Chinese Buddhist who founded the Nirv
na school (
nirv
na
). Recognized early as a man of great insight, he went to Ch'ang-an in 405 and collaborated with
Kum
raj
va
. There he developed the arguments later accepted extensively, but at the time so revolutionary that he was expelled from the monastery—especially that all beings possess the buddha-nature (
buddhat
), and can realize this through sudden enlightenment. Nevertheless, it can and should be prepared for through meditation and study. Because even nirv
na is empty of self (
nyat
), he rejected
Pure Land
tendencies to think of ‘heavenly’ rewards, but he insisted that the state of nirv
na has to be regarded as the highest, because undisturbed, bliss.