Wǔmén chánjīng yàoyòng fǎ 五門禪經要用法
Essential Methods of Practice for the Five-Gate Meditation Sūtra compiled by 佛陀蜜多 (Fútuómìduō / Buddhamitra, 撰); translated by 曇摩蜜多 (Tánmómìduō / Dharmamitra, 譯)
About the work
The Wǔmén chánjīng yàoyòng fǎ (T619, one fascicle) is a Sarvāstivāda meditation manual originally compiled by 佛陀蜜多 (Buddhamitra) and translated into Chinese by 曇摩蜜多 (Dharmamitra, 356–442) under the LiúSòng. It systematizes the “Five Gates” (wǔ mén) of meditation — the five meditative antidotes corresponding to the five primary afflictions — that became canonical in East Asian chán practice.
Structural Division
The text is organized around two principal contemplations:
- 觀十方諸佛 (Guān shífāng zhūfó) — Contemplating the buddhas of the ten directions
- 初習坐禪法 (Chūxí zuòchán fǎ) — Method for the beginning practice of seated meditation
Abstract
The Wǔmén chánjīng yàoyòng fǎ belongs to the cluster of Sarvāstivāda meditation manuals that entered China between the years of Kumārajīva and the mid-fifth century. The work is ascribed in the canonical bibliographies ([[KR6s0084|Chū sānzàng jì jí]], [[KR6r0011|Lìdài sānbǎo jì]], [[KR6s0093|Kāiyuán shìjiào lù]]) to the Indian master 佛陀蜜多 (Buddhamitra) — a Kashmiri yogācāra teacher of obscure dates — as compiler, with the translation carried out in China by 曇摩蜜多 (356–442), who arrived in the south in 424 and was active there until his death. Date bracket follows Dharmamitra’s productive period in LiúSòng (424–441). Like the contemporaneous T618, T619 is a Kashmiri Sarvāstivāda yoga compendium; it is closely related to a separate “Five Gates” tradition continued in T617’s structure of paired remedies, and provided a model for later Chinese meditation manuals such as the [[KR6i0250|Chánmìyào fǎ jīng]].
Translations and research
- Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. The Sūtra on the Ocean-Like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha. PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1999. — discusses T619 in the context of the visualization tradition.
- Greene, Eric M. Chan Before Chan: Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2021.
- Lin, Li-kouang. L’Aide-mémoire de la Vraie Loi. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1949.
Links
- CBETA T15n0619
- Kanseki DB
- 佛陀蜜多 DILA
- 曇摩蜜多 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (430) — Chen, Jinhua. “From Central Asia to Southern China: The Formation of Identity and Network in the Meditative Traditions of the Fifth–Sixth Century Southern China (420–589).” Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences 7, no. 2 (2014): 171–202.