Tiāntái Zhìzhě dàshī chánmén kǒujué 天台智者大師禪門口訣
Oral Instructions on Meditation by the Tiāntái Great Master Zhìyǐ by 智顗 (Zhìyǐ / Tiāntái dàshī, 說)
About the work
A short single-juan collection of orally-transmitted (kǒujué 口訣 — “oral instructions”) meditation teachings attributed to 智顗 Zhìyǐ, preserved in the Taishō at T46n1919. The work belongs to the broader corpus of Zhìyǐ-attributed meditation manuals and instructions in the Tiāntái scholastic apparatus.
Prefaces
The text in the Taishō recension carries no separate translator’s preface. The work opens with practical meditation instruction: “The Master said: ānbān shǒuyì (mindfulness of breathing) — should know that form-mind mutually-cause-and-breath, like fire conditioned by fuel and producing smoke. Seeing the smoke clear-or-cloudy, then [we] perceive the dry-or-moist forms; investigating the breath soft-or-coarse, [we] use it as a mirror of true-or-deviant signs…”
Abstract
The Chánmén kǒujué preserves practical meditation instruction in oral-transmission style, focusing on concrete practical guidance for the ānbān shǒuyì (mindfulness of breathing) practice. The genre — kǒujué — distinguishes the work from the systematic doctrinal-meditative manuals (the Móhē zhǐguān, the Chánbōluómì cìdì fǎmén) by emphasising direct master-to-disciple oral transmission of practical guidance.
The composition is bracketed within Zhìyǐ’s productive period c. 575–597.
Translations and research
- Donner, Neal, and Stevenson, Daniel B. The Great Calming and Contemplation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
- Sekiguchi Shindai 関口真大. Tendai shōshikan no kenkyū. Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 1954.
Links
- CBETA online text T1919
- Kanseki DB
- 智顗 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (590): Ng 1993 — Ng Yu-Kwan [吳汝鈞]. Tʼien-Tʼai Buddhism and Early Mādhyamika. Tendai Institute of Hawaii and the Buddhist Studies Program, University of Hawaii, 1993. 9.