On the Meditation Sutra of Dharmatrāta, Buddhabhadra’s Profile, and the Primordial State
Michel Mohr
Journal of Chan Buddhism May 27, 2024 DOI: 10.1163/25897179-12340021 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that the Damoduoluo chanjing presents mindfulness with breathing as leading to a "primordial state" that cannot be described as confirmatory vision or experience, since it coincides with rediscovering consciousness's intrinsic luminosity and the cessation of discursive experience. The author also contends that no single overarching theory can account for the growing popularity of meditation techniques in the early fifth-century Sinosphere, emphasizing the diversity of contemporary cultivation accounts. |
Abstract
This article focuses on the Damoduoluo chanjing 達摩多羅禪經 [Meditation Sutra of Dharmatrāta], a text completed around 411 CE. This article focuses first on the central figure associated with it, Buddhabhadra [Fotuobatuoluo 佛馱跋陀羅] (359–429), geographical issues linked with him, and the historical context, before discussing and unpacking a few portions of the text about mindfulness with breathing. The MSD not only discusses some of the obstacles encountered on the path toward mastery, according to the preliminary way and the advanced way, but it also emphasizes how this practice leads to a stage called “primordial state”. Such a state cannot be accurately described by speaking of confirmatory vision or confirmatory experience because it coincides with rediscovering the intrinsic luminosity of consciousness, which precisely coincides with the cessation of all discursive experience. This article challenges the idea that a single overarching theory can account for the increasing popularity of meditation techniques in the Sinosphere during the early fifth century. Scrutinizing the accounts about cultivation that mushroomed in the early fifth century and highlighting one of their facets as expressed in the MSD serves to emphasize their diversity.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |