Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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如是我聞

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: thus have I heard

Senses:

  • The phrase that starts off Buddhist sūtras, said to be spoken by the Buddhaʼs disciple Ānanda 阿難陀. Since Ānanda had attended all of Śākyamuniʼs lectures, and was said to have a powerful memory, he was asked, after the Buddhaʼs death to recite these, so that they could be written down for posterity. Most scriptural commentators pay attention to this line, indicating its purpose in influencing subsequent students of the scriptures to believe that what is being taught was actually spoken by the Buddha (Skt. evaṃ mayā śrutam, evaṃ mayā śrutâdibhyaḥ; Pāli evaṃ me sutaṃ). 〔法華經 T 262.9.1c19〕 [Charles Muller]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 838

    Bulgyo sajeon 578I

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 992d

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 640

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 225b/251

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 512

    Zengo jiten (Iriya and Koga) 11-P346

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1062b

    Fo Guang Dictionary 2366

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0349

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.9-10)773c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1352-1

    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: 2001-11-05

    Updated: 2007-10-18