Fóshuō huìyìn sānmèi jīng 佛說慧印三昧經
Sūtra on the Samādhi of the Wisdom-Seal as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯)
About the work
T632 (one fascicle, alt. title 慧印經; provisional Sanskrit Tathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhi-sūtra) is a short Mahāyāna samādhi-sūtra translated by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, fl. 222–253) at Jiànyè under the Wu. The text expounds the huìyìn sānmèi — a samādhi in which the meditator becomes “sealed” by the wisdom of the Tathāgatas, such that all dharmas are perceived as already containing the buddha-mark. It is the first of three Chinese versions: T633 is an anonymous later rendering, and T634 is a much-expanded Northern Song retranslation by 智吉祥 and his colleagues.
Abstract
T632 is unanimously ascribed in the canonical bibliographies to 支謙 (Zhī Qiān); the [[KR6s0084|Chū sānzàng jì jí]] (T2145, juan 2) lists it among his works. Date bracket follows his productive period in Wu (222–253). As with T631, the CANWWW database erroneously assigns T632 to 支曜 (a data error in the AUT00021 key); the source colophon and all Chinese catalogs agree on Zhī Qiān. The text is an important early statement of the jñāna-mudrā (wisdom-seal) theme that was later expanded in tantric Buddhism. The “wisdom-seal” doctrine here developed influenced later Chinese exegesis on the relation between prajñā and upāya.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008.
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959.
No book-length Western translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0632
- Kanseki DB
- 支謙 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (186, 245, 250, 300) — Sakaino Kōyō 境野黄洋. Shina Bukkyō seishi 支那佛教精史. Tokyo: Sakaino Kōyō Hakushi Ikō Kankōkai, 1935. 123–124.