Hǎi yìn sānmèi lùn 海印三昧論
Treatise on the Ocean-Seal Samādhi by 明皛 (Myŏng-hyo, 述)
About the work
This 1-fascicle treatise by the Silla Hwaeom-school monk 明皛 Myŏng-hyo treats the hǎi yìn sānmèi 海印三昧 (Skt. sāgaramudrā-samādhi, “ocean-seal samādhi”) — the key meditative state attributed to the cosmic Vairocana Buddha at the moment of his awakening, in which the entire dharma-realm is reflected as in a mirror-still ocean. The doctrine is one of the most distinctive contributions of the Avataṃsaka corpus to Mahāyāna meditation theory, providing the contemplative-cosmological framework for the school’s vision of the dharma-realm as a vast self-reflecting unity.
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
The work belongs to the broad late-Silla period (the bracket 700 – 935 CE adopted here reflects the Silla period’s range; closer dating is not possible). The doctrinal substance — the ocean-seal samādhi as the contemplative ground of the Avataṃsaka’s cosmology — is one of the most elaborately developed topics in Korean Hwaeom doctrinal literature, and Myŏng-hyo’s treatise is one of the principal extant Silla-period studies of it.
The Taishō text (T1889) is established on the standard apparatus, including the yuán 原 (original-block) witness.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr. The Korean Approach to Zen (1983).
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Lee, Peter H., ed. Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, vol. 1 (1993).
Other points of interest
- The ocean-seal samādhi doctrine — the contemplative state in which the dharma-realm appears as in a still ocean — is one of the most poetically resonant doctrines of the entire East Asian Buddhist tradition, becoming a frequent metaphor in subsequent Korean and Japanese Buddhist literature.