Buddhānusmṛti (念佛/佛隨念), the Sanskrit term for mindfulness of the Buddha, has been popularised as a key liturgical and ritual formula in the form of invocating the Buddha’s name in Mahāyāna uddhism today. The study of buddhānusmṛti specifically as a form of meditative practice in this paper, 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. When uddhānusmṛti is regarded and legitimately carried out as a meditation practice beyond the literal ecitation of a uddha’s name, buddhānusmṛti-samādhi (念佛三昧) — the absorption of mindfulness of the Buddha, is attainable. In Kumārajīva’s (344–413 CE) biographies, he is not described as a master of meditation, but is lauded for his prowess as a reciter 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 uddhists 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 lue yaofa 《思惟略要法》), establishing his contributions to Mahāyāna 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 as well as texts on buddhānusmṛti in early Buddhism. This is combined with a synthesis and building upon of present disparate research efforts, to answer the following uestions: What is the practice and transmission of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi from the perspective of Kumārajīva’s entire corpus of meditation texts? How does the presentation of Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi compare across his meditation texts? Through this study I hope to provide a clearer picture of Kumārajīva’s contribution to Mahāyāna meditation practice with his transmission of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi, positing that Kumārajīva’s meditation texts were skillful selections of innovative practical methods of meditation that are steeped in the teachings of the Buddha, that were also able to better meet the needs and inclinations of their contemporaries, and supersede previous limitations.
