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般舟三昧經

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Text ID
KR6h0027
Date
179–179
Dynasty
後漢

Bānzhōu sānmèi jīng 般舟三昧經

The Pratyutpanna-Samādhi-Sūtra (3-fascicle recension) by 支婁迦讖 (Lokakṣema, 譯)

About the work

The 3-fascicle Bānzhōu sānmèi jīng (T0418) is the longer of the two surviving Chinese translations attributed to 支婁迦讖 Lokakṣema of the Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra. The Taishō print preserves an alternative title in the header, “Yī míng Shífāng xiànzài fó xī zàiqián lìdìng jīng” 一名十方現在佛悉在前立定經 (“alternatively titled: The Sūtra of the Concentration in which All the Buddhas of the Present in the Ten Directions Stand Forth”), which is a literal rendering of Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi. The Taishō header explicitly cross-references Nos. 416, 417, 419 — KR6h0025 (Jñānagupta), KR6h0026 (Lokakṣema’s short version, T0417), and KR6h0028 (anonymous, T0419).

Prefaces

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

Abstract

This 3-fascicle recension is the longest and most widely-cited Lokakṣema version of the Pratyutpanna-samādhi. The text opens at Rājagṛha / Luóyuèqí 羅閱祇 with the Buddha addressing five hundred bodhisattvas — all observers of the Five Precepts — led by Bhadrapāla (颰陀和 Bátuóhé). The body of the sūtra is the Buddha’s exposition to Bhadrapāla of the pratyutpanna-samādhi, the systematic procedures for entering it, and the visionary direct encounter with the buddhas of the ten directions that is its fruit.

Modern philological scholarship (Harrison 1990; Nattier 2008) regards T0418 as the more original Lokakṣema rendering, with T0417 as an abridgement; together they constitute the principal Late-Hàn Chinese transmission of the Pratyutpanna-samādhi. The dating window 179–179 reflects the conventional dating per the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145, j. 7), where the work is recorded among Lokakṣema’s translations of the Guānghé 光和 / Zhōngpíng 中平 era (178–189). The text is the principal scriptural source for the East Asian niànfó 念佛 / nembutsu tradition.

Translations and research

  • Harrison, Paul. The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990. — Standard study and translation.
  • Harrison, Paul. The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra. Berkeley: BDK America, 1998. — English translation in the BDK series.
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: Soka University, 2008. — Methodologically rigorous reassessment of Lokakṣema attributions.

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