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般舟三昧經

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Text ID
KR6h0026
Date
179–179
Dynasty
後漢

Bānzhōu sānmèi jīng 般舟三昧經

The Pratyutpanna-Samādhi-Sūtra (1-fascicle recension) by 支婁迦讖 (Lokakṣema, 譯)

About the work

The 1-fascicle Bānzhōu sānmèi jīng (T0417) is one of the two short Lokakṣema Chinese translations of the 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 “後漢月支三藏支婁迦讖譯” and explicitly cross-references Nos. 416, 418, 419 — the parallel translations KR6h0025 (Jñānagupta), KR6h0027 (Lokakṣema’s longer version, T0418), and KR6h0028 (anonymous, T0419).

Prefaces

No separate preface is preserved in the canonical print, only the standard signature.

Abstract

The Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra — the Pratyutpanna-samādhi-sūtra — is one of the very earliest Mahāyāna sūtras in Chinese, datable to the Lokakṣema Cháng’ān workshop of the Late-Hàn 後漢 era around 179 CE. The text articulates the practice of bānzhōu sānmèi 般舟三昧 / pratyutpanna-samādhi, in which by sustained one-pointed recollection of the buddhas of the ten directions (especially Amitābha) the practitioner is brought into the visionary presence of those buddhas, who can be questioned face to face. This is the principal scriptural foundation for the niànfó 念佛 / nembutsu tradition of the Pure Land schools.

The relationship between the two Lokakṣema translations (T0417 and T0418) has been the subject of substantial philological debate. Modern critical scholarship (Harrison 1990, Nattier 2008) suggests that T0417 is in fact an abridgement of T0418, possibly produced by later transmission rather than as a separate Lokakṣema rendering. The dating window 179–179 reflects the conventionally accepted date for the original Lokakṣema translation, though the text as transmitted may have been edited subsequently. The protagonist of the sūtra is the lay bodhisattva Bátuóhé 跋陀和 / Bhadrapāla, an early figure in Mahāyāna sūtra-protagonist tradition.

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.
  • Harrison, Paul. The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra. Berkeley: BDK America, 1998. — English translation, based on the Lokakṣema and Jñānagupta versions.
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2008. — Critical assessment of attributions to Lokakṣema, including the Pratyutpanna-samādhi.

Other points of interest

  • The Lokakṣema Chinese translations of the Pratyutpanna-samādhi are among the very earliest Mahāyāna sūtras documented anywhere in the world; the second-century CE Chinese translation considerably antedates the earliest extant Sanskrit and Tibetan witnesses, providing a unique terminus ante quem for the composition of the Indic original.

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