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Chingying Hui-yuan(A.D. 523-592)was the first one who wrote the commentary of the Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra. His commentary influenced Chih-i''s and Chi-tsang''s commentaries of the same sutra. The thesis aims to explore the thoughts of Hui-yuan''s Guan Wujiang-shou-ching-i-shu and to reveal the importance of this commentary. The Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra is one of the meditation sutras about "Meditation on the Buddha." It was translated by Kālayaśas from Kophen (also called Gandhāra), where the major contemplation practice was to contemplate the characteristics marks of a Buddha. There, with the emergence of different contemplation practices, "the sixteen forms of meditation" in the Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra formed. The purpose of these contemplations is to purify all the past mistakes and harmful actions. To understand the frame and the major points of the Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra, Hui-yuan''s set portion of this sutra is applied, and the differences and sameness among Hui-yuan, Chih-i, and Chi-tsang are found by comparison. Then, the three masters'' thoughts on the Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra are shown and discussed. Hui-yuan referred to the Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra as the sutra about the meditation of pure land, which focuses on "Meditation on the Buddha." He was the first one who used five main ideas to expound the sutra. Chih-i proposed "taking mind as the bone and Reality as the body," and Chi-tsang advocated "Meditation on Reality." Among the three masters in Sui Dynasty who explained the main ideas of the Amitâyur-dhyâna-sûtra, what Hui-yuan explained can conform to the meanings of the sutra most. Hui-yuan was the first one who classified "the three felicity of good karma" and "the sixteen forms of meditation" into two categories-"goodness cultivated during normal life" and "goodness cultivated by meditation." He divided "the sixteen forms of meditations" of "goodness cultivated by meditation" into the meditation of being the resultant person, the meditation of being dependent condition, and the meditation of being independent condition. He explained that making our mind clear and focusing on one point is necessary when we meditate. By this kind of meditation, we will achieve "Meditation on the Buddha." In addition, Hui-yuan used six categories to classify and explain the nine classes of "goodness cultivated during normal life." He declared that the upper three classes are the practitioners of the Mahayana Buddhism, the middle three ones are those who practice Hinayana Buddhism, the lower three ones are those who just begin to learn Mahayana Buddhism. Hui-yuan also figured out that those who commit the five deadly sins (pañcânantarya) and who are females as well as the disabled can gain rebirth in Pure Land if they generate bodhicitta, truly repent of all their past mistakes and harmful actions, and cultivate goodness during normal life or by meditation.
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