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佛說觀佛三昧海經

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Text ID
KR6i0280
Date
410–429
Dynasty
東晉

Fóshuō guānfó sānmèi hǎi jīng 佛說觀佛三昧海經

Sūtra on the Ocean-like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha translated by 佛陀跋陀羅 (Fútuóbátuóluó / Buddhabhadra, 譯)

About the work

T643 (ten fascicles, alt. title 觀佛三昧經; the Guānfó sānmèi hǎi jīng) is the major Chinese visualization-sūtra (guān jīng 觀經), translated by 佛陀跋陀羅 (Buddhabhadra, 359–429) in the Eastern Jin. The text presents in immense detail the meditative visualization of the body of the Buddha — first the gross physical body, then the marks (lakṣaṇa), then the multiple buddhas in all directions, then the dharmakāya — as a graduated path culminating in the guānfó sānmèi hǎi, the “Ocean of Buddha-Visualization Samādhi”. It is among the most influential meditation texts of medieval Chinese Buddhism and a principal source for the iconography of the buddha-body.

Structural Division

T643 is divided into twelve chapters:

  1. 六辟品 (Liùpì pǐn) — Chapter on the Six Repulsives
  2. 序觀地品 (Xù guāndì pǐn) — Chapter Introducing the Visualization Stages
  3. 觀相品 (Guānxiàng pǐn) — Chapter on Visualizing the Marks [of the Buddha]
  4. 觀佛 (Guānfó) — Visualizing the Buddha
  5. 觀四無量心品 (Guān sìwúliàngxīn pǐn) — Chapter on Visualizing the Four Immeasurable Minds
  6. 觀四威儀品 (Guān sìwēiyí pǐn) — Chapter on Visualizing the Four Postures
  7. 觀馬王藏品 (Guān mǎwángzàng pǐn) — Chapter on Visualizing the Concealed [Marks like a] Horse-King
  8. 本行品 (Běnxíng pǐn) — Chapter on the Original Practice
  9. 觀像品 (Guānxiàng pǐn) — Chapter on Visualizing the Image
  10. 念七佛品 (Niàn qīfó pǐn) — Chapter on Recollecting the Seven Buddhas
  11. 念十方佛品 (Niàn shífāngfó pǐn) — Chapter on Recollecting the Buddhas of the Ten Directions
  12. 觀佛密行品 (Guānfó mìxíng pǐn) — Chapter on the Esoteric Practice of Visualizing the Buddha

Abstract

T643 was translated by Buddhabhadra at the Daochang-sì 道場寺 in Jiànkāng during his Eastern Jin period (after his expulsion from Cháng’ān in 410). Date bracket: 410–429 (his Jiànkāng period until his death). Yamabe Nobuyoshi (1999, 2002) has demonstrated through detailed philological analysis that T643 is a Chinese composition or composite text, not a straightforward translation of an Indic source: it incorporates substantial Chinese medical-cosmological vocabulary, repeats and reorders blocks of text in ways characteristic of Chinese editing, and develops the visualization scheme in directions that have no clear Indic parallel. Yamabe’s hypothesis — now broadly accepted — is that the text emerged from the Liángzhōu / Yúnnán meditation circles of the early fifth century and was given its received form by Buddhabhadra’s circle.

The visualization scheme of T643 was foundational for Tiantai guān practice (智顗, [[KR6d0130|Móhē zhǐguān]]), for Pure Land Buddha-visualization, and for the iconographic conventions of buddha-body painting in Chinese and Japanese art.

Translations and research

  • Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. The Sūtra on the Ocean-Like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha. PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1999. — comprehensive study with partial translation.
  • Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. “Practice of Visualization and the Visualization Sūtra: An Examination of Mural Paintings at Toyok, Turfan.” Pacific World, 3rd series, no. 4 (2002): 123–152.
  • Greene, Eric M. Chan Before Chan: Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2021.
  • Quinter, David. From Outcasts to Emperors: Shingon Ritsu and the Mañjuśrī Cult in Medieval Japan. Leiden: Brill, 2015. — context for visualization-sūtra reception in East Asia.

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