The translator Kumārajīva (350?–409?) was born in Kucha 龜茲, an oasis city on the northern route of the Tarim basin (in present-day Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China). His father Kumārayāṇa 鳩摩炎 was an Indian monk and his mother a Kuchean princess. At the age of seven, Kumārajīva became a novice monk, and when he was nine he went to northwest India and studied the Traditional Buddhist Canon (Āgamas). On his way back to Kucha, he studied Abhidharma at Kashgar 沙勒 but later converted to Mahāyāna Buddhism there under the guidance of Sūryasoma 須利耶蘇摩, a Mahāyāna monk from Yarkand 莎車, an oasis city on the southern route of the Tarim basin. In 384, Kumārajīva was captured at Kucha by the Chinese general Lü Guang 呂光 (337–399), who conquered the city by order of Fu Jian 符堅 (338–385), king of the Former Qin 前秦 dynasty. Fu Jian, however, was killed in 385 when Lü Guang was on his way home. Lü Guang reached Guzang 姑藏 (a city in present-day Gansu 甘肅 province) in the same year and learned about the death of his king in the following year, 386. After that, Lü Guang became independent and established his own local kingdom, the Latter Liang 後涼, in the Gansu and Xinjiang areas. Kumārajīva was detained for sixteen years in this kingdom. During this long period of detention, he seems to have learned Chinese.

When Yao Xing 姚興 (366–416), the ruler of the Latter Qin 後秦, conquered the Latter Liang in 401, Kumārajīva was invited to Chang'an 長安 (present-day Xi'an 西安), the capital of the Latter Qin.

There, under Yao Xingʼs patronage, Kumārajīva translated many important Mahāyāna sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra 妙法蓮華經, T 262) and the Vimalakīrti Sutra (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa-sūtra 維摩詰所說經, T 475), into polished Chinese. These scriptures have been very popular and broadly influential among East Asian Buddhists to this day. He also translated several significant philosophical texts, most notably the Treatise on the Middle 中論 (T 1564) and the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom 大智度論 (T 1509), and a few Vinaya texts (though the origin of the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom has been doubted). These texts also exerted significant influence over subsequent developments in East Asian Buddhism.

The first text Kumārajīva translated was this Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation. According to the preface to this manual, the Guanzhong chu chanjing xu 關中出禪經序 (Preface to the Meditation Manual Translated in the Guanzhong Area, T55: 65a–b) by Sengrui 僧叡 (dates uncertain), Kumārajīva translated it only six days after his arrival at Chang'an, upon the request of Sengrui. Thus we can see the keen demand for a clear meditation manual in China.

On the whole, the Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation is a lucid and well-organized manual that describes the paths for becoming an arhat, a solitary awakened one (pratyekabuddha), or a buddha (the respective goals of the three vehicles). However, since the exposition of the path for becoming a solitary awakened one is very brief, the bulk of this manual consists of a discussion of Traditional and Mahayanist methods of meditation practice.

In the Traditional portion, the manual first advises instructors of meditation to observe the inclinations of practitioners. Practitioners are classified into five different types: those who are primarily inclined to lust, anger, ignorance, or discursive thoughts as separate tendencies, and those who are troubled by a combination of these problems. Then an appropriate remedy is prescribed for each type: for those who are inclined to lust, meditation on the impurities of human bodies; for those who are inclined to anger, cultivation of friendliness; for those who are inclined to ignorance, observation of the twelve links of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda); for those who are inclined to discursive thoughts, mindful inhalation and exhalation; for those who are troubled by several problems, calling the Buddha to mind. By practicing these methods, practitioners attain single-mindedness and can proceed to the four stages of meditation and the four stages of formless concentration. Finally, they attain the five supernatural powers.

If practitioners seek to attain nirvana directly, they first apply mindfulness to the body, sensation, mind, and elements, and observe that they are impermanent, painful, empty, and without self. Then practitioners meditate on, and finally penetrate into, the Four Noble Truths 四諦, thereby becoming partially awakened people. They then go through the four supramundane stages and eventually become arhats.

In the Mahayanist portion, practitioners are also classified into the same five types, and the aforementioned five methods are prescribed. By following these methods, practitioners see the Mahayanist truth. They then follow the bodhisattva path and eventually attain the unsurpassable awakening of buddhas (anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi).

Thus, the basic methods of practice are the same for those who seek to become arhats and those who wish to become buddhas. In the Mahayanist section, Mahayanist interpretations are given to the same methods, and the advanced stages described after the five methods are Mahayanist. The general framework of practice, however, is largely the same. This suggests that to Kumārajīva, Mahayanist meditation was not separate from Traditional forms of meditation. When interpreted in the Mahayanist way, the Traditional methods can be followed by Mahayanist practitioners also.

According to Sengruiʼs preface, portions of this text are based on excerpts from texts by Upagupta 優波崛, Pārśva 勒, Vasumitra 婆須蜜, Kumāralāta 究摩羅羅佛陀, Aśvaghoṣa 馬鳴, Saṃgharakṣa 僧伽羅叉, and Saṃghasena 僧伽斯那. Sengrui, however, is silent about the sources of the Mahayanist portion. It has been confirmed that passages from Aśvaghoṣaʼs and Saṃgharakṣaʼs works have indeed been incorporated into this manual precisely at the places specified by Sengrui. This indicates the reliability of his preface.

Most of the authors of the first half (Traditional portion) were affiliated with the Sarvâstivāda tradition, though not all of them were faithful to the orthodox tenets of this tradition. Upagupta, according to Buddhist legends, was a master of King Aśoka and is considered in the Chinese tradition to have been one of the Sarvâstivāda masters. Pārśva is said to have been a cardinal figure at the convention at which the magnum opus of the Sarvâstivāda school, the Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論 (T 1545), was compiled. Vasumitra is one of the four major masters frequently quoted in the Mahāvibhāṣā. Kumāralāta was a famous master of Dārṣṭāntika, an unorthodox group of people within the Sarvâstivāda tradition. Aśvaghoṣa was a celebrated Buddhist poet and is well known for his two epics, the Acts of the Buddha (Buddhacarita) and Nanda the Fair (Saundarananda). Saṃgharakṣa was the author of an important meditation manual, known as the Yogâcārabhūmi of Saṃgharakṣa (Xiuxing daodi jing 修行道地經, T 606), which is considered to have been one of the precursors of the magnum opus of the Yogâcāra school, also entitled Yogâcārabhūmi 瑜伽師地論. Not much is known about Saṃghasena, but many of the other masters—Pārśva, Vasumitra, Kumāralāta, Aśvaghoṣa, and Saṃgharakṣa—were active in northwest India. Therefore, by and large the methods described in the Traditional portion of this manual were based on the meditative tradition within the Sarvâstivāda community in that area. Kumārajīva probably based his manual on the meditation methods he learned while he was there.

On the other hand, the sources of the Mahayanist portion of this manual are not clear. This portion may well be an original contribution by Kumārajīva, based on his own understanding. In a way, the structure of this manual may reflect the personal history of Kumārajīva, who first studied Traditional Buddhism and then converted to Mahāyāna. Perhaps more to the point are the arguments of some scholars, who point out that the Mahāyānization of Buddhist meditation, which eventually led to the compilation of the voluminous Yogâcārabhūmi, was taking place in northwest India. It is possible that the structure of this manual thus reflects the historical development of Buddhist meditation in India. For the Chinese, this manual provided much-needed clear guidance for meditation. The old meditation manuals translated by An Shigao 安世高 (second century), the first translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese, had been influential up to and including the lifetime of Dao'an 道安 (312–385). The language of these manuals, however, was rather clumsy and not easy to understand. That probably was the reason why Sengrui, Dao'anʼs disciple, requested the compilation/translation of this manual as soon as Kumārajīva came to Chang'an. Kumārajīva might also have intended to answer the questions of Chinese Buddhists about the relationship between Traditional and Mahayanist practices. In any case, the Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation exerted significant influence on the subsequent development of Buddhist meditation in China, especially on the Tiantai tradition.

There is a short 'commentary' on this manual, the Zazen sanmaikyō chūshaku, by the Japanese scholar-monk Jiun 慈雲 (1718–1804). However, this is merely a brief unfinished draft, and the content is a very free exposition of the text from a practical point of view. Therefore, it is not very helpful for a literal understanding the text. Also see 禪經. Translated into English by Yamabe and Sueki. Reconstructed Sanskrit title is *Dhyāna-niṣṭhita-samādhi-dharma-paryāya-sūtra.

(Adapted from the introduction to The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation [see below] by permission of the BDK)

References:

Yamabe, Nobuyoshi, and Fumihiko Sueki, trans. 2009. The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation. Berkeley:  Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series. (Taishō Volume 15, Number 614)  

[European Language Translations]