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祕密曼荼羅十住心論

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Treatise on the Ten Abiding Minds of the Secret Maṇḍala

Senses:

  • The Himitsu mandara jūjūshin ron. 10 fasc., T 2425 by Kūkai 空海. Commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Treatise on the Mind in Ten Stages 十住心論. The text is thought to have been commissioned by Emperor Junna 淳和天皇 between 824 and 833 along with a serious of other doctrinal treatises from the various Buddhist schools in Japan. If this is the case, the Treatise on the Mind in Ten Stages would have been one of Kūkaiʼs final works, along with its companion text the Gilded Key to the Secret Treasury 祕藏寶鑰.

    This ten-fascicle work is Kūkaiʼs magnum opus and includes his ten-part classification of teachings 教相判釋 called the 'mind in ten stages'  十住心. Kūkai based this classification scheme on a passage in Yixingʼs 一行 Commentary on the Mahāvairocana Sutra 大毘盧遮那成佛經疏 summarizing the first chapter of the sutra. According to Yixingʼs classification of minds, the highest level of teaching is the single vehicle of the Tathāgataʼs secret treasury 一乘如來祕藏. However, Kūkai further divides this category into the three stages of the unconditioned mind of the single path 一道無爲住心 (i.e., the Tendai school 天台宗), the mind that fathoms the teaching of no self-nature 極無自性住心 (i.e., the Kegon school 華嚴宗), and the mind that attains the secret teaching 祕密莊嚴住心 (i.e., his own Shingon school 眞言宗). This distinction between different subcategories of the single vehicle received much criticism from scholastics in the Tendai school, namely Enchin 圓珍 and Annen 安然. In response to Tendai criticisms, Shingon monks later composed numerous commentaries defending Kūkaiʼs classification system. [Matthew McMullen; source(s): JEBD, Ui, FGD]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 105b/116

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 882, 504

    Iwanami Bukkyō jiten 394

    Fo Guang Dictionary 432

    Ding Fubao {Digital Version}

    Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) ⑤170b/⑤170c, ⑨121a*/⑬276c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4331b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 928-2

    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: 2018-02-04

    Updated: 2018-08-15