Zhǔntí sānmèi xíngfǎ 准提三昧行法
Cuṇḍā-Samādhi Practice Method by 受登 Tiānxī Shòudēng (集)
About the work
A one-fascicle (1卷) Tiāntái-school Cuṇḍā-samādhi practice manual by 受登 Tiānxī Shòudēng 天溪受登 (b. 1607), the late-Míng / early-Qīng Tiāntái master of the Tiānxī monastic establishment. Preserved as X74 no. 1481 in the Xùzàngjīng. The work is the principal xíngfǎ 行法 (practice-method) manual for the Cuṇḍā dhāraṇī liturgy organized under a Tiāntái-school sānmèi 三昧 (samādhi) framework — i.e., the Cuṇḍā practice as one of the sìzhǒng sānmèi 四種三昧 (four-types-of-samādhi) of the Tiāntái contemplative system.
Prefaces
The opening Tiānxī Zhǔntí sānmèi xíngfǎ xù 天溪准提三昧行法序 by 明源 Bǎolún shāmén Míngyuán 寶輪沙門明源 is dated Kāngxī yǐsì 乙巳, mid-spring (= early 1665) — providing a precise terminus ante quem. The preface frames the work’s project: “Cuṇḍā repentance-rituals (chànyí 懺儀) have hitherto had no good edition. Why? The World-Honored-One declared that this is a [practice from] the Mahāvairocana Tathāgata’s yoga great-teaching, the samaya-abhiṣeka ritual-ground, the Tathāgata’s secret Dharma-gate, the Buddha-becoming heart-essential. But contemporary masters have measured it with shallow wisdom and limited it to the beginning practitioner; they have not known that it directly receives the high-capacity practitioner [and may] transcend the ordinary, enter the sage.”
Abstract
The Cuṇḍā-samādhi method organizes the Cuṇḍā dhāraṇī liturgy under the Tiāntái-school’s sìzhǒng sānmèi contemplative system (specifically the bànxíng bànzuò 半行半坐 walking-and-sitting samādhi). The method presents Cuṇḍā devotion not as a popular apotropaic ritual (the late-Wànlì dominant framing — see KR6j0750 / KR6j0751) but as a Tiāntái-school doctrinal-soteriological practice: the Cuṇḍā mantra and visualization are placed within the sānguān 三觀 / yīniàn sānqiān 一念三千 framework of Tiāntái meditative contemplation. The work integrates Esoteric ritual mechanics with Tiāntái doctrinal soteriology — a representative document of the broader Qing-period Esoteric-Tiāntái synthesis. Composition: shortly before the 1665 preface, c. 1660–1665.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.