Baojing sanmei
Baojing sanmei (J. Hōkyō sanmai/zanmai; K. Pogyŏng sammae 寶鏡三昧). “Jeweled-Mirror Samādhi". A definitive poem on enlightenment and practice from the standpoint of the Chinese Caodong zong. Also known as the Baojing sanmei ge, or “Gāthā of the Jeweled-Mirror Samādhi.”[1]
Along with the Cantong qi, the Baojing sanmei is revered in the Chinese Caodong zong and Japanese Soto shu traditions as the foundational scripture of the tradition.[1]
This song/peom is traditionally attributed to Dongshan Liangjie. However, "a number of sources note that Dongshan secretly received this song from his teacher Yunyan Tansheng (780–841), and Dongshan in turn transmitted it to his head disciple Caoshan Benji."[1]
The poem is first mentioned in Juefan Huihong's biographical compilation of 1119, the Chanlin sengbao zhuan (Chronicle of the Sangha Treasure in the Groves of Chan), written over 200 years after Dongshan Liangjie's death. Huihong writes that the poem was given to Dongshan by his teacher, Yunyan Tansheng. Huihong further speculates that Yunyan's teacher, Yaoshan Weiyan, probably entrusted it to him in turn. Huihong relates that he came upon the poem in 1108, when it was given to a scholar Zhu Yan by a monk, whom he does not identify.[2]
The Princeton Dictionary states:
- The Baojing sanmei emphasizes the “inherent enlightenment” (benjue; cf. hongaku) of sentient beings and the futility of seeking that enlightenment through conscious reflection. Instead, the song urges its audience to allow one’s inherently pure enlightened nature to “silently illuminate” itself through meditation (mozhao chan), as the Buddha did under the Bodhi tree. Numerous commentaries on this song are extant.[1]
According to the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, the Baojing sanmei "explains the five ranks 五位, stating that the eternal and the transitory are interfused."[3]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Baojing sanmei.
- ↑ Schlütter 2010, pp. 158, 230.
- ↑
寶鏡三昧, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Schlütter, Morten (2010), How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute Over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, University of Hawaii Press
External links
Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi, Wikipedia
