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念佛

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: remembrance of the Buddha[ʼs name]

Senses:

  • To be mindful of the meritorious virtues of the Buddha. Most well known as a practice of the Pure Land school 淨土宗, which entails the verbal chanting of the name of Amitâbha Buddha 南無阿彌陀佛 for the purpose of obtaining rebirth in the Pure Land. Repetition is done both audibly and inaudibly (Skt. buddha-manasikāra, buddha-anusmṛti, tathāgatânusmṛti, buddhânusmṛti; Pāli buddhānussati, buddhagatā sati; Tib. saṅs rgyas rjes su dran pa). [Charles Muller]
  • Recollection of the Buddha (Pāli buddhānussati) T 1648.32.426b26 until 428a27. The meditative recollection of the diverse qualities of the Buddha (buddhaguṇa) 佛功德 as found in the “Itipi so…” formula. For detailed explanations, see Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga) Chapter VIII (T 1648.32.426b26 until 428a27), Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) Chapter VII § 1–67. It is one of the 三十八行處, thirty-eight meditation subjects and 十念, the ten recollections. [Nyanatusita]
  • Part of the practice of mindfulness of the Three Treasures 三寶 along with mindfulness of the Dharma 念法 and mindfulness of the saṃgha 念僧. [Charles Jones]
  • One of the six kinds of mindfulness 六念 from the Āgama-sūtras. 〔長阿含經, T 1.1.12a〕 [Charles Muller]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata) 310

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 848

    Bulgyo sajeon 590a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1005a

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 650

    A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) 33, 138, 153, 163, 258, 374, 434

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 212a/236

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 494

    Zen Dust (Sasaki) 172, 210, 405

    Zengo jiten (Iriya and Koga) 5-P134

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1081a

    Fo Guang Dictionary 3208

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0469

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4158a,1616a,2346b,2784a,4223b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1380-3*1578-3-7*1649-1*1840-1-17

    Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) ⑬247c*

    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: 2023-08-03