Buddhānusmṛti (念佛/佛隨念), the Sanskrit term for recollection of the Buddha, has been popularised as a key liturgical and ritual formula in the form of invocating the Buddha’s name in Mahāyāna Buddhism today. The study of buddhānusmṛti specifically as a form of meditative practice in this thesis provides significant discussions relevant to Buddhists, scholars, and those who are interested in understanding the deeper theoretical and historical underpinnings behind buddhānusmṛti, a practice traceable to the teachings of the historical Buddha and his accomplished disciples. Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi (念佛三昧), the absorption of recollection of the Buddha, is a potential attainment only when buddhānusmṛti is carried out as a structured meditation practice beyond the literal recitation of a Buddha’s name. In Kumārajīva’s (344–413 CE) biographies, he is not described as a master of meditation but is lauded for his prowess as a translator of texts and an exegete. Yet the meditation texts that he translated in the fifth century were among the earliest texts on this subject to appear in China, and are important material not only for understanding the kind of content to which fifth-century Chinese Buddhists interested in meditation would likely have been exposed to but also for their considerable influence on later developments of Mahāyāna meditation practice. The present research attempts at exploring the practice of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi within the context of Kumārajīva’s corpus of four meditation texts, namely The Sūtra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation (T15n614, Zuo chan sanmei jing 《坐禪三昧經》); The Essential Explanation of the Methods of Meditation (T15n616, Chan fa yaojie 《禪法要解》); The Discourse on the Essential Secrets of Meditation (T15n613, Chan mi yaofa jing 《禪祕要法經》); and The Outlining Way of Contemplation (T15n617, Siwei lüe yaofa 《思惟略要法》), establishing his contributions to the development of Buddhist meditation practice with his transmission of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi. The methodology of textual studies is employed specifically on Kumārajīva’s meditation texts in the Chinese Buddhist Canon, texts on buddhānusmṛti in early Buddhism, as well as related meditation and samādhi texts from the fifth century, to answer the following questions: What is the trajectory of development of the concept and practice of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi in Buddhism? What is the practice and transmission of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi from the perspective of Kumārajīva’s corpus of meditation texts? How does the presentation of Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi compare across his meditation texts? Through this study I hope to illustrate the significance of Kumārajīva’s oft-overlooked contributions to Buddhist meditation practice, showing that Kumārajīva’s varied transmissions of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi in his meditation texts are well-grounded in the teachings of early Buddhist texts, and serves as extremely valuable reflections of the meditative practices from northwest India and Central Asia in the third and fourth centuries. I also posit that these texts are valuable examples of the diverse meditation methods developed, which reflect a continuum process of change and diversification, stemming from practitioners’ pragmatic activation and adaptation of doctrinal theory int
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT iii 中文摘要 v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES x CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.1.1 Research Aim 2 1.1.2 Research Questions 2 1.1.3 Research Objectives 3 1.2 Technical Details 3 1.2.1 Methodology 3 1.2.2 Limitations 7 1.3 Literature Review 8 1.4 Thesis Structure 11 CHAPTER TWO – HISTORICAL AND CONTEXTUAL OVERVIEW 12 2.1 Tracing the Development of Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi from India to China 12 2.2 Context of Chinese Buddhist Meditation Prior to Kumārajīva’s Arrival 21 2.3 Kumārajīva’s Background and his Translation Style 28 2.4 Kumārajīva’s Meditation Texts in the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō Canon 32 CHAPTER THREE – ANALYSIS OF BUDDHĀNUSMṚTI-SAMĀDHI IN KUMĀRAJĪVA’S MEDITATION TEXTS 42 3.1 The Sūtra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation (T15n614, Zuo chan sanmei jing 《坐禪三昧經》) 42 3.2 The Essential Explanation of the Methods of Meditation (T15n616, Chan fa yaojie 《禪法要解》) 49 3.3 The Discourse on the Essential Secrets of Meditation (T15n613, Chan mi yaofa jing 《禪祕要法經》) 53 3.4 The Outlining Way of Contemplation (T15n617, Siwei lüe yaofa 《思惟略要法》) 63 3.5 Prajñā Contemplation in Kumārajīva’s Meditation Texts 67 3.6 Summary of the Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi Practice 69 CHAPTER FOUR – SIGNIFICANCE OF KUMĀRAJĪVA’S TRANSMISSION OF BUDDHĀNUSMṚTI-SAMĀDHI VIA TEXTUAL COMPARISONS 73 4.1 The Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra (T13n418, Banzhou sanmei jing 《般舟三昧經》) 73 4.2 Dharmatrāta-Dhyāna-Sūtra (T15n618, Da mo duo luo chan jing 《達摩多羅禪經》) 81 4.3 The Essentials of the Meditation Manual Consisting of Five Gates (T15n619, Wu men chan jing yao yong fa 《五門禪經要用法》) 87 4.4 The Secret Essentials of Curing Meditation Ailments (T15n620, Zhi chan bing mi yao fa 《治禪病祕要法》) 102 4.5 Comparison with Samādhi Texts in the Fifth Century 107 4.6 The Sūtra on the Ocean-like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha (T15n643, Fo shuo guan fo sanmei hai jing 《佛說觀佛三昧海經》) 111 4.7 Summary of Findings 118 CHAPTER FIVE – CONCLUSION 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY 131
