PRATYUTPANNASAMĀDHI-SŪTRA

Pratyutpannasamādhi-sūtra, an early MahĀyĀna meditation text, was first translated into Chinese by Lokakṣema in 179 c.e. The full Sanskrit title is Pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukha-avasthita-samādhi-sūtra, which translates as "the scripture of the meditation in which one comes face-to-face with the buddhas of the present," that is, buddhas now inhabiting other worlds. The principal objectives of this encounter are to hear the dharma from the buddha of one's choice and to be reborn with him in his world after death. The text's use of AmitĀbha in Sukhāvatī as a paradigm case suggests links with Pure Land Buddhism, but practitioners may seek to encounter and be taught by any buddha of the present. The sūtra thus provides a means and a rationale for continuing scriptural revelation. After purifying themselves, practitioners meditate on the buddha's virtues and visualize his physical person (using the standard list of thirty-two marks and eighty features), while seated facing the appropriate direction (e.g., west for Amitābha). Doing this continuously for up to seven days and nights, they eventually see the desired vision, either in the waking state or in dreams. Interestingly, the sūtra itself undercuts an excessively literal understanding of the process or undue emotional attachment to its results by deconstructing them in terms of the doctrine of ŚŪnyatĀ (emptiness), thus representing a merging of various currents of Mahāyāna Buddhist thought and practice.

Evidence for the practice in India is slim, although many sources extol the salvific value of such visions of the buddhas. In East Asia, however, the pratyutpannasamādhi and its derivatives are well attested elements in the meditative and ritual repertoire of Buddhism.

Bibliography

Harrison, Paul. "Buddhānusmṛti in the Pratyutpanna-buddhasaṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi-sūtra." Journal of Indian Philosophy 6 (1978): 35–57.

Harrison, Paul. The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present: An Annotated English Translation of the Tibetan Version of the Pratyutpanna-Buddha-Saṃmukhāvasthita-Samādhi-Sūtra with Several Appendices Relating to the History of the Text. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990.

Paul Harrison