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釋迦牟尼

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Śākyamuni

Senses:

  • Literally means 'the sage of the Śākya clan.' The name of the historical Buddha, who came from this clan. His family name was Gautama (Pāli Gotama) 喬答摩, and given name was Siddhârtha (Pāli Siddhattha) 悉達多. Also transliterated as 釋迦文,釋迦文尼, 釋尊, and 釋伽文. Muni is saint, holy man, sage, ascetic monk; it is interpreted as 仁 benevolent, charitable, kind, also as 寂默 one who dwells in seclusion. After '500 or 550' previous incarnations, Śākyamuni finally attained to the state of bodhisattva, was born in the Tuṣita heaven, and descended as a white elephant, through her right side, into the womb of the immaculate Māyā, the purest woman on earth; this was on the 8th day of the 4th month; next year on the 8th day of the 2nd month he was born from her right side painlessly as she stood under a tree in the Lumbinī garden. For the subsequent miraculous events see the Lalitavistara 神通遊戲經, the Shijia rulai chengdao ji 釋迦如來成道記, etc. Simpler statements say that he was born the son of Śuddhodana, of the kṣatriya caste, ruler of Kapilavastu, and Māyā his wife; that Māyā died seven days later, leaving him to be brought up by her sister Prājapati; that in due course he was married to Yaśodharā who bore him a son, Rāhula; that in search of truth he left home, became an ascetic, severely disciplined himself, and finally at 35 years of age, under a tree, realized that the way of release from the chain of rebirth and death lay not in asceticism but in moral purity; this he explained first in his four truths 四諦 and eightfold noble way 八正道, later amplified and developed in many sermons. He founded his community on the basis of poverty, chastity, and insight or meditation, and it became known as Buddhism, as he became known as Buddha, the enlightened. His death was probably in or near 487 BCE, a few years before that of Confucius 孔子 in 479. The sacerdotal name of his family is Gautama, said to be the original name of the whole clan, Śākya being that of his branch 瞿, 喬; his personal name was Siddhârtha, or Sarvârthasiddha. [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD, Yokoi, Hirakawa]
  • In the Zen tradition, Śākyamuni is revered more than any other buddha in the Mahāyāna pantheon because he said to have founded the Zen lineage when he vouchsafed his formless 'mind dharma'  心法 to his disciple Mahākāśyapa in a 'separate transmission apart from the teachings'  教外別傳. An image of Śākyamuni 釋迦像 is the main object of veneration 本尊 on the central altar of most Zen monasteries and temples. The traditional story of the life of Buddha Śākyamuni is broken into major episodes in his career, often depicted in a series of sculptures or paintings. In India, famous events in the Buddhaʼs life (as well incidents said to have occurred in his past lives) were also commemorated by stūpas built at the locations where they were believed to have taken place. The four episodes (as told in Chinese Buddhist texts known across East Asia) that are deemed most important in the Zen tradition are: (1) Śākyamuniʼs miraculous birth in the Lumbinī Grove near Kapilavastu, where he emerged from his motherʼs side as she stood holding a tree branch, took seven steps, looked in the four directions, pointed to the sky with one hand and to the earth with the other and declared, 'In the heavens above and this earth below, I alone am uniquely honored'  天上天下唯我獨尊; (2) his 'attainment of the way'  成道 in Magadha, where he sat in meditation under the bodhi tree 菩提樹 and declared that he would not move until he attained awakening; (3) his first preaching of the Dharma 說法, also called 'turning the Dharma wheel'  轉法輪, which took place in the Deer Park in Sārnāth, near the city of Vārāṇasī; and (4) his death or 'entry into nirvana'  入滅, which took place between a pair of Sala trees 娑羅雙樹 on the banks of the river Hiraṇyavatī in Kuśinagara. All four of these events are recalled on a daily basis in Sōtō monasteries in the Verse upon Hearing the Meal Signal 聞槌の偈, and three of them are commemorated in major annual observances called the Buddhaʼs birthday assembly 佛誕會, Buddhaʼs attainment assembly 成道會, and nirvana assembly 涅槃會. [Griffith Foulk]
  • In his commentary on the Brahmāʼs Net Sutra 梵網經菩薩戒本私記, Wonhyo distinguishes Śākyamuni 釋迦如來 as a name for the transformation body in contrast to Vairocana, who is connotative of the Dharma-body. Also written 釋尊, 釋迦牟尼世尊. 〔 HBJ 1.587b 〕 [Charles Muller]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 474

    Bulgyo sajeon 441a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 466a

    A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) 265, 328, 332

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 267a/294

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 622

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 610b

    Fo Guang Dictionary 6824

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 1177

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)751c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 796-3

    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: 2020-05-31