Guānxīn lùn 觀心論
Treatise on Contemplating the Mind by 智顗 (Zhìyǐ / Tiāntái dàshī, 述)
About the work
A short single-juan doctrinal-meditative treatise by 智顗 Zhìyǐ, also known as the Jiānrǔ lùn 煎乳論 (“Boiling-Milk Treatise” — alternate name preserved in the Taishō editorial note). Body attribution: Tiāntái Xiūchánsì shāmén Zhìyǐ shù 天台修禪寺沙門智者述. The work expounds the central Tiāntái meditative-doctrinal practice of guānxīn 觀心 (“contemplating the mind”) as the foundational meditative-doctrinal apparatus of the school.
Prefaces
The text opens with Zhìyǐ’s characteristic wèndá 問答 (“question-and-answer”) format: “Question: The Buddha-sūtras [are] limitless, the treatises also extremely many. Dharma-spreading persons cluster as if covering the world. Listen-receiving multitudes [are] in no place lacking. This is to say the dharma-rain universally moistens the four-fold assembly. Dew-moisture benefits limitlessly. What seen-and-heard, what further benefit, makes [you] compose this treatise? Answer: As the question-words say…“. This zìshè wèndá 自設問答 (self-set question-and-answer) format is characteristic of Zhìyǐ’s mature lecture style.
Abstract
The Guānxīn lùn is one of Zhìyǐ’s most concentrated treatments of the guānxīn (contemplation of the mind) doctrine — the central meditative-doctrinal practice of the Tiāntái school that integrates the yīniàn sānqiān 一念三千 cosmological framework with the practical Tiāntái meditative apparatus. The work was the subject of a substantial subcommentary by 灌頂 Guàndǐng (KR6d0149, T1921), which provides the standard Tiāntái-school exposition of the work’s doctrinal content.
The composition is bracketed within Zhìyǐ’s mature productive period at the Tiāntáishān Xiūchánsì 修禪寺, c. 585–597.
Translations and research
- Donner, Neal, and Stevenson, Daniel B. The Great Calming and Contemplation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “The Four Kinds of Samādhi in Early T’ien-t’ai Buddhism.” In Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism, ed. Peter N. Gregory, 45–97. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1986.
- Andō Toshio 安藤俊雄. Tendaigaku — kompon shisō to sono tenkai. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1968.
- Hurvitz, Leon. Chih-i (538–597). Brussels, 1962.
Links
- CBETA online text T1920
- 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.