Jīngāng jīng guānxīn shì 金剛經觀心釋
Contemplation-of-Mind Explanation of the Diamond Sūtra by 智旭 Zhìxù (述)
About the work
A one-juan contemplative-practice gloss to Ǒuyì Zhìxù’s companion śāstra KR6c0067 Jīngāng jīng pòkōng lùn, applying the Tiāntái guānxīn hermeneutic to the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra. Where the lùn establishes the doctrinal frame (the Three Prajñās, the rejection of èqǔkōng), the Guānxīn shì translates each phrase of the sūtra into a contemplative correlate within the practitioner’s xiànqián yīniàn 現前一念 (“present-moment thought”). The opening verse declares the program: 巳申如實不空義，如如演說不取著，攝彼名句及文身，融歸一念成觀行 (“having disclosed the as-it-truly-is non-empty meaning, thus expounding without grasping, gathering name-phrase and word-body, fusing them back into one thought to constitute contemplation-practice”). Preserved as X25 no. 480. notBefore / notAfter = same window as the parent treatise (1635 / 1655, Zhìxù’s mature commentary period). Catalog dynasty 明.
Abstract
The hermeneutic operation is announced at the opening: 金剛者，喻現前一念心也 (“‘vajra’ is a figure for the present-moment mind”). Each element of the sūtra’s vocabulary is read as a contemplative cipher for some aspect of the present-moment mind: the trikāya-prajñā triplet (實相 / 觀照 / 文字) maps onto the present-moment mind’s body (法界), aspect (無塵染), and use (徧一切); the bōluómì “going to the other shore” maps onto the bǐ’àn of the 三德 (法身, 般若, 解脫) of Tiāntái dogma; even the sūtra’s narrative setting becomes contemplatively transparent — the Shèwèi guó (Śrāvastī) is the present-mind’s “containing-and-bearing-and-generating-all-dharmas,” 戰勝 (“prevailing in battle,” = sub-Sanskrit jeta- of Jeta-vana) is the mind’s “awakening-only-this is-able-to-overcome-māra-and-heretics,” 樹 (jeta-grove) is the “merit-grove,” and so on. The procedure is the orthodox Tiāntái guānxīn-mode of sūtra reading codified by 智顗 Zhìyǐ in the Fǎhuá xuányì / Móhē zhǐguān and revived here for the Vajracchedikā. The work systematically pairs with KR6c0067: where 0067 supplies jiào (doctrine), 0068 supplies xíng (practice).
Translations and research
- See entry KR6c0067 for the principal modern studies of Zhìxù.
- The guānxīn shì genre is discussed in studies of Tiāntái hermeneutic, especially Hans-Rudolf Kantor and Brook Ziporyn on the Sòng-Míng Tiāntái revival.
Other points of interest
The guānxīn reading of the sūtra setting (Śrāvastī as “containing-and-bearing”; Jeta-vana as “merit-grove”; etc.) carries forward a long Tiāntái tradition stretching back to Zhìyǐ, in which every element of the sūtra-narrative becomes simultaneously historical (the Buddha’s actual setting) and contemplative (a feature of the practitioner’s own mind). For Zhìxù to deploy this method on a Mahāyāna sūtra ordinarily annotated through Yogācāra schemas (Asaṅga’s eighteen abodes, Vasubandhu’s twenty-seven doubts) is itself a programmatic statement of late-Míng Tiāntái-recovery within a Buddhist landscape dominated by Chán.