《寶王三昧念佛直指》有關淨土教義的研究

Abstract

妙叶(推測洪武以亥1395)是明初鄞江的大禪師，徹悟禪宗，深通教理，自行化他，專主淨宗；於此足見妙叶由禪轉淨之證；此一時代有關淨土教的著作，多依天臺等教義，闡述唯心淨土，本性彌陀的思想，又深受永明延壽(904-975)以來的影響，主張禪、淨雙修，或賦詩感懷申述願生淨土的心意，大多無創見。又當時興起諸家融合之說，如袾宏(1535-1616)倡「禪淨同歸」，智旭(1599-1655)主「禪、教、律三學一源」，企圖將禪與淨土，天臺與念佛，融合為一，為明代佛教的一大特色。 妙叶所集的《寶王三昧念佛直指》，致力於破除「極樂淨土不求之於西方，而求於緣影妄心之中」的謬解，斥妄顯真；真心含育一切塵剎，本具極樂依、正求之必生。又極樂世界不在六塵緣影之中，阿彌陀佛不在眾生五陰之體；因為六塵緣影、四大假合，皆屬幻化，本無自體，自體若無，心無處可著，云何更有彼土、彼佛在此心內？但從事相上來說，實有西方極樂世界。《阿彌陀經》中云：從是西方，過十萬億佛土，有世界名曰極樂。妙叶推崇念佛三昧為三昧中王，為寶王三昧；將念佛法門判與《華嚴》、《法華》，同屬圓教，並與禪宗的單傳直指之道劃上等號。又以一心三觀來解釋十六觀，文中以闡述＜日觀＞和＜佛菩薩像觀＞為主，而顯淨土之圓修。 妙叶又提出念佛三昧即是一行三昧的理論。又妙叶以兩個篇章，來闡述念佛的「正行」，一是＜正行第十三＞、二是＜別明客途所修三昧第十四＞，前者為安住於一處，精進辦道者而論，是為在道場中可修的三昧；後者針對居於旅次，居處不一的行者，亦可於行、住、坐、臥之中，精進辦道，妙叶將此稱之為「非行非坐三昧」。 以上所述的論點，將於本論文中一一闡述及剖析。

Miao Xie (presumably Hongwu Yihai 1395) was the great Chan (Jp. Zen) master of Yinjiang in the early Ming Dynasty. He realized the Chan Buddhism, has a deep thorough understanding of the teachings and principles, both in self-practice and transformation of others with a main focus on the Pure Land School. We can infer from these as sufficient evidence that he switched from Chan practice to Pure Land practice. During this period, most of the works related to the Pure Land Teachings was based on Tiantai Teaching Principles in expounding Pure Land thoughts merely from the mind perspective, and Amitabha from the innate nature. Though deeply influenced by Post-Yongming Yanshou (904-975), which advocated the dual cultivation of Chan and Pure Land, or sentimental poetry filled with the wish to willingly be reborn in Pure Land, however, they are mostly un-innovative. At that time, the burgeoning of integration thoughts from several parties, such as Zhu Hong (1535-1616) who advocated "Chan and Pure Land have the same destiny", Zhi Xu (1599-1655) who focused on "The Three Studies of Chan, Teaching, and Vinaya having the same origin" in an attempt to merge Chan and Pure Land, Tiantai and the mindfulness of the Buddha, syncretism is a major feature of Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty. “The Direct Guide on the Jewelled King Samādhi of the Mindfulness of the Buddha”collated by Miao Xie is dedicated to breaking the shackles of the misunderstandings of "One does not seek the Pure Land of Extreme Bliss in the West, but seek in the mind of conditions reflections and delusions", and dispel delusions to manifest the Truth. The True Mind breeds all Lands of “contamination”, being originally endowed with the reliance for Extreme Bliss, and the proper wish will definitely lead to the birth The World of Extreme Bliss. The World of Extreme Bliss is not in the reflections of the six types of objects of the mind (dusts) and Amitabha Buddha is not in the body of the five skandhas of all beings; because the six types of objects of the mind (dusts), the four big elements are all provisionally combined together, and they are all illusory. They originally do not have a “self”, if there is no self, then the mind has no place to attach to, then how can one even have the other Land, the other Buddha within the mind? However, in terms of the phenomena, there is a world named Extreme Bliss. It is stated in “The Sutra of Amitabha”: “From the West, over ten trillion Buddha Lands, there is a world named Extreme Bliss”. Miao Xie esteemed the Samādhi of the Mindfulness of the Buddha as the king of all Samadhis, and classified the method of the Mindfulness of the Buddhas to be the same status as the Perfection Teaching of “Avatamsaka” (Huayan) and “Saddharma Pundarika” (Fahua). In the same manner, he equated it with the Chan School’s linage of Direct Pointing. He also adopted “The Three Contemplations in One Mind” to explain the Sixteen Contemplations. In the text, the elaboration of ‘Contemplation of the Sun’ and ‘Contemplation of an image of the Buddha Bodhisattvas’ as the main focus, in order to manifest the Perfect Cultivation of the Pure Land. Miao Xie also proposed that the Samādhi of the Mindfulness of the Buddha is the same as the principle thesis of the Samādhi of One Practice. In addition, Miao Xie explicated the ‘Proper Practice’ of Mindfulness of the Buddha in two articles, one is the ‘The Thirteenth – the Proper Practice’, the other one is ‘The Fourteenth – the Distinctive Exposition of the Samādhi of Objective Path of Cultivation’. The former one is discussing it from the perspective of vigorously cultivating in tranquilly abiding in one place and it is a Samādhi that can be cultivated in a practice hall. The latter is aimed at the practitioners who need to travel frequently who stay in different places, and can also be cultivated in the midst of walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. Miao Xie called this ‘The Samadhi of non-walking non-sitting’. The arguments mentioned above will be elaborated and analyzed in this thesis.