Xiūxíng dàodì jīng 修行道地經
Sūtra on the Stages of the Path of Practice (Yogācārabhūmi of Saṅgharakṣa) translated by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
The Xiūxíng dàodì jīng (T606) is a seven-fascicle major yoga-treatise by the Sarvāstivāda master Saṅgharakṣa 僧伽羅剎 (僧伽羅剎) — the principal Hīnayāna Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra (not to be confused with the later Maitreya / Asaṅga work). Translated by Dharmarakṣa 竺法護 (竺法護). Together with KR6i0244 Dàodì jīng 道地經 (T607, a partial earlier translation by Ān Shìgāo) it is the principal Chinese witness to Saṅgharakṣa’s Sanskrit text, of which fragments also survive in Sanskrit.
Prefaces
The Chū sānzàng jì jí preserves a long preface by 道安 Dào’ān dating Dharmarakṣa’s translation to Tàikāng 太康 5 (284 CE) at Dūnhuáng. Dào’ān describes Saṅgharakṣa’s life and reputation as one of the great Sarvāstivāda meditation masters of Gandhāra.
Abstract
A foundational yoga-treatise of the older Sarvāstivāda meditation tradition. Saṅgharakṣa was a senior Sarvāstivāda meditation master in pre-Kāṇiṣka Gandhāra, and his Yogācārabhūmi circulated widely in Indian Buddhism before being supplanted by the much later Maitreya-Asaṅga Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra. Dharmarakṣa’s seven-fascicle Chinese rendering, dated to 284 CE, preserves the most complete witness to the work. It treats the bodily and meditative stages of practice in close detail and is a key source for the prehistory of yogācāra meditation theory in Indian Buddhism.
Translations and research
- Demiéville, Paul. “La Yogācārabhūmi de Saṅgharakṣa.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 44 (1954): 339–436 — foundational study with French translation of selected passages.
- Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. The Sūtra on the Ocean-like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha. PhD diss., Yale, 1999 — discussion of Saṅgharakṣa’s treatise in context.
Links
- CBETA T15n0606
- Kanseki DB
- 竺法護 DILA
- 僧伽羅剎 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (284, 300) — Boucher, Daniel. “Buddhist Translation Procedures in Third-Century China: A Study of Dharmarakṣa and his Translation Idiom.” PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996. 268.