憨山德清=Hanshan Deqing; 楞嚴經通議=An Exposition of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra; 一心三觀=Threefold Contemplation in One Single Mind; 攝末歸本=Assimilating the derivative into the original
This study has as its starting point the main idea of Threefold Contemplation in One Single Mind in Lengyanjing tongyi (An Exposition of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra), which was written by Hanshan Deqing in the late Ming Dynasty. The study first examines Deqing's life learnings, the historical background of the late Ming Dynasty, the role of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra at that time, and the causes and conditions for its writing. An analysis of Deqing’s two works related to the Śūraṃgama-sūtra from his middle to later years, looks at the transformation in terms of his states of mind and content. A textual analysis of the textual organization in Deqing’s Lengyanjing tongyi lüeke (An Exposition of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra: A Succinct Organization) clarifies how Deqing has compared the similarities, differences, and connections of the origin and development of Threefold Contemplation in One Single Mind among the three schools of Tiantai, Perfect Enlightenment, and Śūraṃgama in Lengyanjing tongyi. This analysis also structures the various schools of thought used by Deqing, and integrated the One Mind in Avataṃsaka-sūtra; the doctrine of the two gates of the one mind in The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna; the threefold contemplation of emptiness, provisional existence, and the mean in the prajñā system; threefold cessation in Tiantai; the four-part division in Consciousness-only to explain the essence of the One Mind. The tathāgatagarbha which is itself empty in the Śūraṃgama-sūtra is extended to include non-empty tathāgatagarbha, empty and non-empty tathāgatagarbha, which has direct correspondences with the threefold contemplation in the Śūraṃgama and the threefold contemplation of emptiness, provisional existence, and the mean, hence presenting an integrated thinking across different schools of thought. Lastly, the perspective of essence, characteristics, and function is used to detail Deqing’s thought proposition on the Threefold Contemplation in One Single Mind. This study also reveals that Deqing considered the Śūraṃgama-sūtra as a derivative assimilated into the original of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, which is his unique insight into the Śūraṃgama-sūtra.
