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禪經

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: meditation sūtra

Senses:

  • Seon sūtra; a sutra that deals with or emphasizes meditation. [Ockbae Chun]
  • 'Dhyāna sūtra(s), ' 'meditation manuals' . A general term for a class of meditation manuals introduced into Chinese around the turn of the fourth-fifth centuries. These texts as a group display problems of provenance and content. Main exemplars of the group are:
    1. the so-called “Yogalehrbuch” (in Sanskrit);
    2. the *Yogâcārabhūmi of Buddhasena 達摩多羅禪經 T 618, translation ascribed to Buddhabhadra 佛陀跋陀羅;
    3. the “Manual on Sitting in Dhyāna and Samādhi” (Dhyāna-niṣṭhita-samādhi-dharma-paryāya-sūtra) 坐禪三昧經 T 614, translation ascribed to Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 (344–413);
    4. the “Essential Explanations of the Method for Sitting in Dhyāna” 禪法要解 T 616 (Kumārajīva);
    5. the “Abridged Essence of Meditation” 思惟略要法 T 617 (Kumārajīva);
    6. the “Essence of the Manual on the Fivefold Meditation” 五門禪經要用法 T 619, translation ascribed to Dharmamitra 曇摩蜜多 (356–442);
    7. the “Manual of the Secret Essentials of Meditation” 禪祕要法經 T 613 (Kumārajīva);
    8. the “Secret Essential Method to Cure Diseases Caused by Meditation” 治禪病祕要法 T 620, translation ascribed to Juqu Jingsheng 沮渠京聲 (?-464).

    These texts, and the genre as a whole, are discussed in detail in Nobuyoshi Yamabe, “The Sutra on the Ocean-Like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha: The Interfusion of the Chinese and Indian Cultures in Central Asia as Reflected in a Fifth Century Apocryphal Sūtra.” (PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1999), 59–114. Yamabe argues that the manuals of Kumārajīva, in general, have many Mahāyāna elements but little concrete imagery; texts by Dharmamitra and Juqu Jingsheng are 'more mystical' , but poorly organized, and contain many Chinese elements, alongside other features that may indicate composition in Chinese cultural areas (111–112).

    [Michael Radich]
  • Meditation practice; the cultivation of seated meditation. 〔禪行法想經〕 [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura]
  • A mass said for the deceased. [Charles Muller; source(s): LinYutang]
  • References:

    Greene, Eric. 2020. Chan Before Chan: Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu:  University of Hawai`i Press.

    Greene, Eric M. 2022. Secrets of Buddhist Meditation: Visionary Meditation Texts from Early Medieval China. Honolulu:  University of Hawai`i Press.

    [Nobuyoshi Yamabe]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 678b

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 854b

    Fo Guang Dictionary →坐禪三昧經

    Ding Fubao {Digital Version}

    Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) ⑥391c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1057-1



    Entry created: 2007-07-29

    Updated: 2022-10-16