Lèngyán jīng guānxīn dìngjiě 楞嚴經觀心定解
“Mind-Contemplation Settled Explanation” of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 靈耀 (述)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) Tiāntái-school commentary on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118) by Língyào Quánzhāng 靈耀全彰 靈耀, abbot of the Lèngyán jiǎngsì 楞嚴講寺 in Jiāhé 嘉禾 (Jiāxīng, Zhèjiāng); the author identifies himself as Zhù Jiāhé Lèngyán jiǎngsì Tiāntái bǐqiū Língyào shù 住嘉禾楞嚴講寺天台比丘靈耀述. Preserved as X15 no. 306 in the Xùzàngjīng. The work is the main book of which KR6j0712 (科) and KR6j0713 (大綱) are the structural outline and main-outline summary.
Abstract
The Dìngjiě is a substantial late-Kāngxī-period reaffirmation of the Tiāntái-school exegetical orthodoxy on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra, written in explicit opposition to the Wànlì-period commentator 交光真鑑 Jiāoguāng Zhēnjiàn 交光真鑑’s Lèngyán jīng zhèngmài shū (KR6j0703), which had attempted to dispense with the six consciousnesses (六識) and the three contemplations (三觀) as exegetical categories. Língyào restores the classical Tiāntái apparatus — the threefold structural division (sānfēn fēnwén 三分分文: 序 / 正宗 / 流通); the sìxītán 四悉檀 (four siddhāntas) for interpreting the rúshì 如是 incipit; the yuèjiāo 約教 system of doctrinal classification (Tripiṭaka / tōng / bié / yuán) — and uses it to read every section of the sūtra. The opening exegesis of the rúshì wǒwén 如是我聞 already shows the method: Língyào takes the formulaic incipit and gives it a layered Tiāntái-school exposition through sìxītán and yuèjiāo. Composition: Kāngxī 19 / 1680, contemporaneous with the Dàgāng.
The Dìngjiě is the principal eighteenth-century Tiāntái-school Śūraṃgama commentary and an important counterweight to the Chán/Xiánshǒu-leaning commentaries dominant in late-Míng Buddhism.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.