Dàfāngděng dàjí jīng xiánhù fēn 大方等大集經賢護分
The Bhadrapāla Section of the Mahāvaipulya Mahāsaṃnipāta-sūtra (Bhadrapāla-sūtra / Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra) by 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta, 譯)
About the work
The Dàfāngděng dàjí jīng xiánhù fēn in 5 fascicles is 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta’s Suí-period rendering of the Bhadrapāla-sūtra / Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra — the great early-Mahāyāna treatise on the pratyutpanna-samādhi (the meditative state of direct encounter with the buddhas of the present). The Taishō print signs the entry “隋天竺三藏闍那崛多譯” and explicitly cross-references Nos. 417–419 — the parallel translations: KR6h0026 / T0417 and KR6h0027 / T0418 (both 支婁迦讖 Lokakṣema, late Hàn) and KR6h0028 / T0419 (anonymous). The Suí translation incorporates the work as a section (fēn) of the larger Dà jí jīng recension — the protagonist Xiánhù 賢護 “Bhadrapāla” being the lay bodhisattva-householder for whom the dharma is preached.
Prefaces
No separate preface is preserved in the canonical print, only the standard signature.
Abstract
The Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra is one of the earliest extant Mahāyāna sūtras (its Lokakṣema translation is from the late second century — see KR6h0026) and a foundational text for the early-Mahāyāna conception of samādhi-induced visionary encounter with the buddhas. Its first Chinese translation by 支婁迦讖 is from 179 CE and stands among the very earliest documented Mahāyāna scriptures in Chinese. The Suí version by 闍那崛多 in 5 fascicles is the longest and most polished Chinese rendering, and the form in which the sūtra entered the received Suí Dà jí jīng recension. In doctrinal substance the sūtra establishes the practice of one-pointed recollection of Amitābha (or, more generally, the buddhas of the ten directions) leading to direct visual encounter; this practice is the immediate scriptural ancestor of the East Asian niànfó 念佛 / nembutsu Pure-Land tradition.
The dating window 595–595 reflects the precise date — Kāihuáng 開皇 14, 11th month (594/12 – 595/1 by the western calendar) — given for the Jñānagupta translation in the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (T2034, j. 12), which closed in 597.
Translations and research
- Harrison, Paul. The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present: An Annotated English Translation of the Tibetan Version of the Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990. — The standard modern reference, with comparative apparatus including the Chinese versions.
- Harrison, Paul. The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra. Berkeley: BDK America, 1998. — English translation in the BDK series, based on the Lokakṣema and Jñānagupta versions.
Other points of interest
- The Pratyutpanna-samādhi tradition that this sūtra grounds is the principal scriptural foundation for 慧遠 Huìyuǎn’s White Lotus Society at Mount Lú (the Liánshè 蓮社) and for the broader East Asian Pure-Land tradition that develops from there.
Links
- CBETA online text
- DDB entry
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (590): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1