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Meditative Practices in the Context of Constructing and Understanding the Spatial World

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Abstract

Major Buddhist traditions, especially Yogâcāra Buddhism, suggest that both mental activities and meditative practices play determinative roles in constructing and understanding the spatial world. Concerning the spatial world, which is closely related to the temporal world, numerous passages in the Āgama-sūtras indicate that such a set of meditative practices as the “eight levels of liberation” (aṣṭau vimokṣāḥ) can perform a pioneering function, on the one hand, in understating how the realm of desire of the spatial world is both constructed by and therefore confined by sentient beings’ desire-infused mental activities, and on the other hand, in expanding the spatial world from the realm of desire to those of form and formless. The sixth chapter of the Saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra discusses in detail how and why a bodhisattva practices the meditation of quietude and vision. Along the line of the quietude meditation, various discursive constructions of time and space can actually be appeased. Along the line of the insight meditation, the unreality of identity in relation to time and space can be clearly recognized. In view of such reasoning, this study will investigate how the Saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra explicates the way in which mental activities and meditative practices are intrinsic in the construction and understanding of the spatial world. After detailed exploration of the multiple roles played by meditative practices in shaping the spatial world, this study will conclude with a brief examination of the thematic consistency among these two texts.

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Notes

  1. For a definition and clarification of these terms, see Yao-ming Tsai, “Buddhist Meditative Practices as the Abiding of the Mind–Body Complex: From the Clue of Basic Ideas and Key Concepts,” in Proceedings of the 2011 Conference on the Cultivation of Inner Alchemy and Meditation, edited by Center for General Education, Kaohsiung: Center for General Education, Cheng Shiu University, 2012, pp. 1–17.

  2. For a fuller discussion of the constitution of a worldview, see Yao-ming Tsai, “A Contemporary Application of Buddhist Worldview for Understanding and Transforming Sentient Beings,” International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture 26/1 (June 2016): 101–125.

  3. For related discussion, see Yao-ming Tsai, “Philosophy of Time and Space in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra,” Dharma Drum Journal of Buddhist Studies 21 (December 2017): 41–72.

  4. For example, see Dīrghâgama 30, translated by Buddhayaśas, Taishō.1, vol. 1, pp. 114b–149c; Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), “AN 3.36,” The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 2012, pp. 233–237; Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), “MN 130,” The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 1995, pp. 1029–1036.

  5. See Saṃyuktâgama 80, translated by Guṇabhadra, Taishō. 99, vol. 2, p. 20a-b; Maurice Walshe (tr.), “DN 33: Saṅgīti Sutta: The Chanting Together,” The Long Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 1995, p. 486; Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), “SN 40.9,” The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 2000, p. 1308; Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), “AN 3.183–184,” The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 2012, pp. 376–377.

  6. See Yao-ming Tsai, “Meditative Practices of the 15th Assembly of the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtras,” Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal 17 (July 2004): 49–93.

  7. Example one, see Saṃyuktâgama 1144, translated by Guṇabhadra, Taishō. 99, vol. 2, p. 303b; Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 2000, pp. 676–679; The Shorter Chinese Saṃyuktâgama 119, Taishō. 100, vol. 2, p. 418b-c. Example two, see Ekottarikâgama, translated by Gautama Saṅghadeva, Taishō. 125, vol. 2, p. 712a-c; Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), “AN 6.2,” The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 2012, pp. 858–859.

  8. See Ekottarikâgama, translated by Gautama Saṅghadeva, Taishō. 125, vol. 2, p. 772b; Saṃyuktâgama 715, translated by Guṇabhadra, Taishō. 99, vol. 2, pp. 192a–193a.

  9. See Madhyamâgama 97, translated by Gautama Saṅghadeva, Taishō. 26, vol. 1, p. 582a; Dīrghâgama 13, translated by Buddhayaśas, Taishō.1, vol. 1, p. 62b; Maurice Walshe (tr.), “15: Mahānidāna Sutta: The Great Discourse on Origination,” The Long Discourses of the Buddha, Boston: Wisdom, 1995, pp. 229–230, 566. Moreover, see Dīrghâgama 9, p. 52b; Dīrghâgama 10, p. 56a; Dīrghâgama 11, p. 58c; Dīrghâgama 17, p. 76b.

  10. Takayasu Kimura (ed.), Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā: VI-VIII, Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, 2006, pp. 57–58. See also the 2nd Assembly of the Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtras, translated by Xuanzang, T. 220 (2), vol. 7, p. 375a-b; Edward Conze (tr.), The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom: with the divisions of the Abhisamayâlaṅkāra, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975, p. 581. Moreover, see Yaśomitra, Sphuṭārthā Abhidharmakośa-vyākhyā, edited by Unrai Wogihara, Tokyo: The Publishing Association of Abhidharmakośavyākhyā, 1932–1936, p. 688; Nathmal Tatia (ed.), Abhidharmasamuccayabhāṣyam, Patna: K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1976, p. 119.

  11. For related discussion, see Yao-ming Tsai, “Inquiry into the Reasoning of Liberation of Buddhist ‘Eight Levels of Liberation’,” Aletheia: NHU Journal of Philosophy and Life Education 24 (January 2013): 201–266.

  12. Concerning paths of cultivation, see Yao-ming Tsai, “On Justifying the Choice of Mahāyāna among Multiple Paths in Buddhist Teachings: Based on the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtras,” Scripture:Canon::Text:Context—Essays Honoring Lewis R. Lancaster, ed. by Richard Payne, Berkeley: Institute of Buddhist Studies and BDK America, 2014, pp. 257–277.

  13. Saulius Geniusas, The Origins of the Horizon in Husserl’s Phenomenology, Dordrecht: Springer, 2012, p. 207.

  14. For a discussion of parikalpita and related terms, see Dan Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch’eng Wei-shih Lun, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, pp. 336–337.

  15. See Christopher Bartley, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources, 2nd ed., London: Bloomsbury, 2015, pp. 110–111.

  16. T. 671, p. 515c; T. 672, p. 588b; P. L. Vaidya (ed.), Saddharma-laṅkâvatāra-sūtram, Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1963, p. 3; Daisetz Suzuki (tr.), The Lankavatara Sutra, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1932, p. 7.

  17. See T. 675, p. 674a-b; T. 676, pp. 697c-698a; Étienne Lamotte, Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra: l' Explication des Mystères, Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1935, pp. 88–90; John Powers (tr.), Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṃdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra, Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1994, pp. 148–153.

  18. See T. 675, p. 679a; T. 676, p. 702b; Étienne Lamotte, Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra: l' Explication des Mystères, Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1935, p. 116; John Powers (tr.), Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṃdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra, Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1994, p. 205. See also John Powers, Two Commentaries on the Sandhinirmocana Sutra by Asanga and Jnanagarbha, Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1992, pp. 69–70, 116–117.

  19. See Ayako Nakamura, “Constituents of Buddhahood as Presented in the Buddhabhūmisūtra and the 9th Chapter of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra: A Comparative Analysis,” Puṣpikā: Tracing Ancient India Through Texts and Traditions, vol. 1, edited by Nina Mirnig and et al., Oxford: Oxbow, 2013, pp. 308–312; Anthony Tribe, Tantric Buddhist Practice in India: Vilāsavajra’s Commentary on the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṃgīti, London: Routledge, 2016, p. 44.

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Funding was provided by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Grant No. MOST 106-2410-H-002-200-MY3).

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Tsai, Ym. Meditative Practices in the Context of Constructing and Understanding the Spatial World. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 11, 515–531 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-018-0212-4

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