The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism

Lakkhaṇasutta. (C. Sanshi’er xiang jing; J. Sanjūnisōgyō; K. Samsibi sang kyŏng 三十二相經). In Pāli,“Discourse on the Marks,” the thirtieth sutta of the DĪGHANIKĀYA (a separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears as the 115th SŪTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA). At ANĀTHAPIṆḌADA’s (P. Anāthapiṇḍika) park in ŚRĀVASTĪ (P. Sāvatthi), the Buddha explained to his disciples the thirty-two physical marks of a great man (MAHĀPURUṢALAKṢAṆA) and explained how one endowed with these marks has only two possible destinies: becoming a wheel-turning monarch (CAKRAVARTIN) or a buddha. The Buddha then recounts the deeds he performed in his previous lives that engendered each of his own thirty-two physical marks.

lakṣaṇa. (P. lakkhaṇa; T. mtshan nyid; C. xiang; J. sō; K. sang 相). In Sanskrit, a polysemous term for a “mark,” “characteristic,” “attribute,” or “sign”; used in a variety of contexts to indicate either the principal characteristic or defining quality of something. As a primary characteristic, lakṣaṇa refers to the distinguishing features of a factor (DHARMA), i.e., the factor “earth” (PṚTHIVĪ) may be characterized by its mark of “hardness,” etc. ¶ The three defining characteristics (TRILAKṢAṆA) of all conditioned (SAṂSKṚTA) things are their impermanence (anityatā), unsatisfactoriness (DUḤKHA), and lack of a perduring self (ANĀTMAN). ¶ The four characteristics (CATURLAKṢAṆA) governing all conditioned objects (SAṂSKṚTALAKṢAṆA), as described in the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, are “origination,” or birth (JĀTI); “continuance,” or maturation (STHITI); “senescence,” or decay (JARĀ); and “desinence,” or death (ANITYA). The Sarvāstivāda school treated these four as “forces dissociated from thought” (CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAṂSKĀRA), which exerted real power over compounded objects, escorting an object along from one force to another, until the force “desinence” extinguishes it; this rather tortured explanation was necessary in order to explain how factors that the school presumed existed in all three time periods (past, present, and future) nevertheless still appeared to undergo change. Some Sarvāstivāda ABHIDHARMA texts, however, accept only three characteristics, omitting continuance. ¶ The term lakṣaṇa is also used with reference to the thirty-two major marks (DVĀTRIṂŚADVARALAKṢAṆA) of a great man (see MAHĀPURUṢALAKṢAṆA), which appear on the physical body (RŪPAKĀYA) of either a buddha or on a wheel-turning monarch (CAKRAVARTIN); these are accompanied by eighty minor marks (ANUVYAÑJANA). ¶ The term lakṣaṇa is also used in the YOGĀCĀRA school to refer to the three intrinsic characteristics (trilakṣaṇa) of all phenomena, and in this context is equivalent to the three qualities or natures (TRISVABHĀVA), viz., imaginary (PARIKALPITA), dependent (PARATANTRA), and consummate (PARINIṢPANNA). ¶ In the MADHYAMAKA school, the term lakṣana is used to refer to the “signs” of intrinsic existence (SVABHĀVA) that are falsely perceived by the senses as the result of ignorance. Ignorance mistakenly regards each phenomenon as having its own defining characteristic (SVALAKṢAṆA). ¶ In Buddhist epistemology, the term lakṣaṇa is used for the specific or particular mark (svalakṣaṇa) and general or shared mark (SĀMĀNYALAKṢAṆA) of an object; the former is known only by nonconceptual knowledge; the latter is the object that appears when one thinks about something. See also NIMITTA.

lakṣaṇaśāstra. (T. mtshan nyid bstan bcos). In Sanskrit, lit. “marks treatise”; in Mahāyāna works, a pejorative designation for the pre-Mahāyāna ABHIDHARMA, which is portrayed as being obsessively concerned with generating exhaustive lists of factors (DHARMA) and their defining characteristics (LAKṢAṆA).

lakṣaṇayāna. (T. mtshan nyid theg pa). In Sanskrit, “vehicle of attributes,” a term used in PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ and tantric literature to refer to the SŪTRA (i.e., exoteric) paths of ŚRĀVAKAs, PRATYEKABUDDHAs, and BODHISATTVAs. In the TANTRAs, lakṣaṇayāna refers to the practices of bodhisattvas as delineated in the sūtras and their commentaries. In this context, it is a synonym of PĀRAMITĀYĀNA.

Lakuṇṭaka Bhadrika. (P. Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya; T. Snyan pa bzang ldan; C. Xianyan/Luoponabati; J. Ken’en/Rabanabadai; K. Hyŏnyŏm/Nabanabalche 賢鹽/羅婆那拔提). An ARHAT monk declared by the Buddha to be foremost among his monk disciples who were sweet in voice. According to Pāli sources, he was the son of a wealthy family from ŚRĀVASTĪ, handsome but very small in stature, hence his sobriquet lakuṇṭaka (“dwarf”). After listening to one of the Buddha’s sermons, he was moved to enter the monastic order and eventually became a gifted preacher noted for his sweet voice. It was for this quality that he won preeminence and numerous stanzas in the SUTTAPIṬAKA are attributed to him. Despite his eventual eminence, his small size apparently made him the butt of many cruel jokes early in his vocation. It is said that novices used to tweak his ears, and a group of thirty village monks once pushed him about until the Buddha intervened. One instance of disrespect, however, prompted his enlightenment. A woman riding in a chariot saw the diminutive Bhadrika and laughed at him, showing her teeth. Bhadrika took her teeth as an object of foulness meditation (AŚUBHABHĀVANĀ) and quickly reached the third stage of sanctity, that of a nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN). ŚĀRIPUTRA subsequently instructed him in mindfulness of the body (see KĀYĀNUPAŚYANĀ) and Bhadrika attained arhatship. The Buddha is reported to have been delighted to hear that Śāriputra’s instructions proved so efficacious.

lalanā. (T. brkyang ma). In tantric physiology, the channel (NĀḌĪ) that runs in males from the right nostril to the base of the spine and in females from the left nostril to the base of the spine. It is one of the three main channels, together with the central channel (AVADHŪTĪ), and the right channel in females and the left channel in males (RASANĀ). According to some systems, 72,000 channels are found in the body, serving as the conduits for subtle energies or winds (PRĀṆA). The most important of these channels are the central channel (avadhūtī), the lalanā, and the rasanā. The central channel runs from the place between the eyebrows to the crown of the head and down in front of the spinal column, ending at the genitals. The right and left channels run parallel to the central channel on either side. These two channels wrap around the central channel at various points, of which as many as seven are enumerated. These points, called wheels or CAKRAs, are located between the eyes, at the crown of the head, at the throat, at the heart, at the solar plexus, at the base of the spine, and at the tip of sexual organ. In highest yoga tantra (ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA), especially in practices associated with the “stage of completion” (NIṢPANNAKRAMA), much emphasis is placed on loosening these knots in order to cause the winds to flow freely through the central channel.

lalitāsana. (T. rol pa’i ’dug stangs). In Sanskrit, “posture of relaxation,” an iconographic posture (ĀSANA), in which the left leg is bent resting on the seat, and the right leg pendant, often with the knee slightly raised. Occasionally, the leg positions are reversed. This posture is common in BODHISATTVA images from the AJAṆṬĀ caves in India, as well as in Chinese representations of GUANYIN (AVALOKITEŚVARA), Korean depictions of MAITREYA, and Tibetan images of Green Tārā (ŚYĀMATĀRĀ). A common variant of this posture is the RĀJALĪLĀSANA. See also MAITREYĀSANA.

Lalitavistara. (T. Rgya cher rol pa; C. Puyao jing/Fangguang da zhuangyan jing; J. Fuyōkyō/Hōkō daishōgongyō; K. Poyo kyŏng/Panggwang taejangŏm kyŏng 普曜經/方廣大莊嚴經). In Sanskrit, lit. “Extensive Play,” a relatively late treatment of the Buddha’s life, in mixed prose and verse, probably dating from the third or fourth century CE. The work treats the current Buddha’s last lifetime, from his time waiting in the TUṢITA heaven to take his final rebirth to the “first turning of the wheel of the dharma” (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA) at SĀRNĀTH, when the Buddhist dispensation (ŚĀSANA) begins. The frame of the Buddha’s life story is enhanced with exuberantly told tales of his thaumaturgic abilities and his numinous essence. For example, the infant Buddha, after emerging from his mother’s right side, takes seven steps and then gives an extended discourse to ĀNANDA, predicting that there will be fools who will not believe the miracles surrounding his birth and will reject the Lalitavistara, and as a consequence, will be reborn in the AVĪCI hell. Some scholars have suggested the text’s supernal portrayal of the Buddha may have influenced the development of the MAHĀYĀNA conception of the multiple bodies of a buddha (see TRIKĀYA). The work is attributed to the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, but it has been extensively reworked along Mahāyāna lines (including allusions to such emblematic Mahāyāna terms as TATHĀGATAGARBHA), suggesting that it went through continued, even radical, embellishment after its initial composition. There are two translations corresponding to this text in Chinese, the Puyao jing, translated by DHARMARAKṢA in 308, and the Fangguang da zhuangyan jing, translated by Divākara in 683. The Newari Buddhist tradition of Nepal includes the Lalitavistara among its nine principal books of the Mahāyāna (NAVAGRANTHA; see NAVADHARMA).

Lamaism. An obsolete English term that has no correlate in Tibetan, sometimes used to refer to the Buddhism of Tibet. Probably derived from the Chinese term lama jiao, or “teachings of the lamas,” the term is considered pejorative by Tibetans, as it carries the negative connotation that the Tibetan tradition is something distinct from the mainstream of Buddhism. The use of this term should be abandoned in favor of, simply, “Tibetan Buddhism.”

lam ’bras. (lamdre). In Tibetan, lit. “path and result.” The central tantric system of the SA SKYA sect of Tibetan Buddhism, derived from the HEVAJRATANTRA and transmitted to Tibet by ’BROG MI SHĀKYA YE SHES. The system was first set down in written form by the first of the five Sa skya hierarchs, SA CHEN KUN DGA’ SNYING PO of the aristocratic ’Khon family. There are two exegetical traditions, first, the slob bshad (lopshe), or “explanation for disciples,” was originally reserved for members of the ’Khon family, and the second, the tshogs bshad (tsokshe), or “explanation in the assembly,” was for a wider audience. The preliminary practices of the lam ’bras are taught under the rubric of the snang ba gsum (nangwa sum) “three appearances” (impure, yogic, and pure) that systematize the topics found in the fundamental Sa skya teaching called “parting from the four attachments” (zhen pa bzhi bral) (see SA CHEN KUN DGA’ SNYING PO). These topics are covered in other Tibetan sects under different such names as BSTAN RIM, LAM RIM (“stages of the path”), and so on. The second, the tantric part of the system, requires consecration and includes the practice of esoteric yogas. The practices convey to the practitioner the insight that the nature of the basis (gzhi), path (lam), and result (’bras bu) is the same, and that liberation through the practice of coemergent knowledge (lhan cig skyes pa’i ye shes)—i.e., the enlightened body, speech, and mind—is indivisible from the basis.

Lamotte, Étienne. (1903–1983). A Belgian Buddhologist and Roman Catholic monsignor, considered to be the principal successor of LOUIS DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN in the Franco–Belgian school of European Buddhist Studies. After receiving his doctorate in 1930 (with a dissertation on the Bhagavadgītā), Lamotte taught for forty-five years (1932–1977) as a professor at the Université catholique de Louvain. In 1953, he was awarded the Francqui Prize, a prestigious Belgian prize awarded to scholars and scientists under the age of fifty. Making use of his knowledge of Sanskrit, Pāli, Tibetan, and Chinese, he made definitive French translations, all with extensive annotation, of a wide range of important Indian sūtra and treatises, including the ŚŪRAṂGAMASAMĀDHISŪTRA, VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEŚA, SAṂDHINIRMOCANASŪTRA, VASUBANDHU’s KARMASIDDHIPRAKARAṆA, and ASAṄGA’s MAHĀYĀNASAṂGRAHA. He was also the first to translate the lengthy prolegomenon to the *Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, a massive commentary on the “Great Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra” extant only in a Chinese recension known as the DAZHIDU LUN, which is attributed by the East Asian tradition to NĀGĀRJUNA. Lamotte’s annotated translation of this text was published in five volumes between 1944 and 1980 but remained unfinished at the time of his death. Among his monographs, perhaps the most important is his comprehensive history of early Indian Buddhism published in 1958, Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien: des origines à l’ère Śaka (translated into English in 1988 as History of Indian Buddhism: From its Origins to the Śaka Era), which remains the most extensive such history yet produced in a Western language.

lam rim. In Tibetan, “stages of the path”; a common abbreviation for byang chub lam gyi rim pa (jangchup lamkyi rimpa), or “stages of the path to enlightenment,” a broad methodological framework for the study and practice of the complete Buddhist path to awakening, as well as the name for a major genre of Tibetan literature describing that path. It is closely allied to the genre known as BSTAN RIM, or “stages of the doctrine.” The initial inspiration for the instructions of this system is usually attributed to the Bengali master ATIŚA DĪPAṂKARAŚRĪJÑĀNA, whose BODHIPATHAPRADĪPA (“Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment”) became a model for numerous later stages of the path texts. The system presents a graduated and comprehensive approach to studying the central tenets of MAHĀYĀNA Buddhist thought and is often organized around a presentation of the three levels of spiritual predilection, personified as “three individuals” (skyes bu gsum): lesser, intermediate, and superior. The stages gradually lead the student from the lowest level of seeking merely to obtain a better rebirth, through the intermediate level of wishing for one’s own individual liberation, and finally to adopting the MAHĀYĀNA outlook of the “superior individual,” viz., aspiring to attain buddhahood in order to benefit all living beings. The approach is most often grounded in the teachings of the sūtra and usually concludes with a brief overview of TANTRA. Although usually associated with the DGE LUGS sect, stages of the path literature is found within all the major sects of Tibetan Buddhism. One common Dge lugs tradition identifies eight major stages of the path treatises:

1. LAM RIM CHEN MO (“Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path”)

2. LAM RIM CHUNG BA (“Short Treatise on the Stages of the Path”)

3. LAM RIM BSDUS DON (“Concise Meaning of the Stages of the Path”); all by TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA

4.LAM RIM GSER ZHUN MA (“Stages of the Path [like] Refined Gold”) by the third DALAI LAMA BSOD NAMS RGYA MTSHO

5.BDE LAM LAM RIM (“The Easy Path Stages of the Path”) by the first PAṆ CHEN BLA MA BLO BZANG CHOS KYI RGYAL MTSHAN

6.LAM RIM ’JAM DPAL ZHAL LUNG (“Stages of the Path [which are] the Instructions of Mañjuśrī”) by the fifth Dalai Lama NGAG DBANG BLO BZANG RGYA MTSHO

7.MYUR LAM LAM RIM (“The Quick Path Stages of the Path”) by the second Paṇ chen Lama Blo bzang ye shes dpal bzang po (Losang Yeshe Palsangpo, 1663–1737)

8.LAM RIM SNYING GU (“Essential Stages of the Path”) by Dwags po Ngag dbang grags pa (Dakpo Ngawang Drakpa, born c. 1450).

Lam rim bsdus don. (Lamrim Düdön). In Tibetan, “Concise Meaning of the Stages of the Path”; also called Lam rim chung ngu or “Brief Stages of the Path.” The shortest of three major treatises on the stages of the path to awakening (LAM RIM) composed by the renowned Tibetan scholar TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA. The text is written in verse form, based upon the author’s own meditative experiences. For that reason, it is often called the Lam rim nyams mgur ma or “Song of Experience of the Stages of the Path.”

Lam rim chen mo. In Tibetan, “Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path”; the abbreviated title for one of the best-known works on Buddhist thought and practice in Tibet, composed by the Tibetan luminary TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA in 1402 at the central Tibetan monastery of RWA SGRENG. A lengthy treatise belonging to the LAM RIM, or stages of the path, genre of Tibetan Buddhist literature, the LAM RIN CHEN MO takes its inspiration from numerous earlier writings, most notably the BODHIPATHAPRADĪPA (“Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment”) by the eleventh-century Bengali master ATIŚA DĪPAṂKARAŚRĪJÑĀNA. It is the most extensive treatment of three principal stages that Tsong kha pa composed. The others include (1) the LAM RIM CHUNG BA (“Short Treatise on the Stages of the Path”), also called the Lam rim ’bring ba (“Intermediate Treatise on the States of the Path”) and (2) the LAM RIM BSDUS DON (“Concise Meaning of the Stages of the Path”), occasionally also referred to as the Lam rim chung ngu (“Brief Stages of the Path”). The latter text, which records Tsong kha pa’s own realization of the path in verse form, is also referred to as the Lam rim nyams mgur ma (“Song of Experience of the Stages of the Path”). The LAM RIM CHEN MO is a highly detailed and often technical treatise presenting a comprehensive and synthetic overview of the path to buddhahood. It draws, often at length, upon a wide range of scriptural sources including the SŪTRA and ŚĀSTRA literature of both the HĪNAYĀNA and MAHĀYĀNA; Tsong kha pa treats tantric practice in a separate work. The text is organized under the rubric of the three levels of spiritual predilection, personified as “the three individuals” (skyes bu gsum): the beings of small capacity, who engage in religious practice in order to gain a favorable rebirth in their next lifetime; the beings of intermediate capacity, who seek liberation from rebirth for themselves as an ARHAT; and the beings of great capacity, who seek to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering and thus follow the bodhisattva path to buddhahood. Tsong kha pa’s text does not lay out all the practices of these three types of persons but rather those practices essential to the bodhisattva path that are held in common by persons of small and intermediate capacity, such as the practice of refuge (ŚARAṆA) and contemplation of the uncertainty of the time of death. The text includes extended discussions of topics such as relying on a spiritual master, the development of BODHICITTA, and the six perfections (PĀRAMITĀ). The last section of the text, sometimes regarded as a separate work, deals at length with the nature of serenity (ŚAMATHA) and insight (VIPAŚYANĀ); Tsong kha pa’s discussion of insight here represents one of his most important expositions of emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ). Primarily devoted to exoteric Mahāyāna doctrine, the text concludes with a brief reference to VAJRAYĀNA and the practice of tantra, a subject discussed at length by Tsong kha pa in a separate work, the SNGAGS RIM CHEN MO (“Stages of the Path of Mantra”). The Lam rim chen mo’s full title is Skyes bu gsum gyi rnyams su blang ba’i rim pa thams cad tshang bar ston pa’i byang chub lam gyi rim pa.

Lam rim chung ba. (Lamrim Chungwa). In Tibetan, “Short Treatise on the Stages of the Path”; also called Lam rim ’bring ba (“Intermediate Treatise on the Stages of the Path”); the middle-length of three major treatises on LAM RIM, or stages of the path, composed by the renowned Tibetan luminary TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA. It is about half the size of the author’s classic LAM RIM CHEN MO (“Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path”), and also less formal. He wrote this work in 1415, some thirteen years after Lam rim chen mo. Although the first sections of the text are largely a summary of what appears in Lam rim chen mo, the section on insight (VIPAŚYANĀ) is substantially different from what appears in Tsong kha pa’s earlier and longer work, changing the order of the presentation and adding dozens of quotations from Indian works that he did not use in Lam rim chen mo. Perhaps the most important contribution of this later work is its discussion of the two truths (SATYADVAYA) found in the vipaśyanā section.

Lam rim snying gu. (Lamrim Nyingu). In Tibetan, “Essential Stages of the Path”; an important LAM RIM, or stages of the path, treatise composed by Dwags po Ngag dbang grags pa (Dakpo Ngawang Drakpa, born c. 1450).

Lam rim thar pa’i lag skyang. (Lamrim Tharpe Lakyang). In Tibetan, “Stages of the Path [which are like] Liberation in the Palm of One’s Hand”; a well-known LAM RIM, or stages of the path, treatise written by the twentieth-century DGE LUGS scholar Pha bong ka Byams pa bstan ’dzin ’phrin las rgya mtsho (Pabongka Jampa Tendzin Trinle Gyatso, 1878–1941).

Laṅkāvatārasūtra. (T. Lang kar gshegs pa’i mdo; C. Ru Lengqie jing; J. Nyū Ryōgakyō; K. Ip Nŭngga kyŏng 入楞伽經). In Sanskrit, “Scripture on the Descent into Laṅka”; a seminal MAHĀYĀNA sūtra that probably dates from around the fourth century CE. In addition to the Sanskrit recension, which was discovered in Nepal, there are also three extant translations in Chinese, by GUṆABHADRA (translated in 443), BODHIRUCI (made in 513), and ŚIKṢĀNANDA (made in 700), and two in Tibetan. The text is composed as a series of exchanges between the Buddha and the BODHISATTVA Mahāmati, who asks his questions on behalf of Rāvaṇa, the YAKṢA king of Laṅka. Thanks to the wide-ranging nature of Mahāmati’s questions, the text covers many of the major themes that were the focus of contemporary Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, and especially the emerging YOGĀCĀRA school, including the theory of the storehouse consciousness (ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA), the womb or embryo of the buddhas (TATHĀGATAGARBHA), and mind-only (CITTAMĀTRA); despite these apparent parallels, however, the sūtra is never quoted in the writings of the most famous figures of Indian Yogācāra, ASAṄGA (c. 320–390) and VASUBANDHU (c. fourth century CE). The sūtra also offers one of the earliest sustained condemnations in Buddhist literature of meat eating, a practice that was not proscribed within the mainstream Buddhist tradition (see JAINA; DHUTAṄGA). The Laṅkāvatāra purports to offer a comprehensive synthesis of the Mahāyāna, and indeed, its many commentators have sought to discover in it a methodical exposition of scholastic doctrine. In fact, however, as in most Mahāyāna sūtras, there is little sustained argumentation through the scripture, and the scripture is a mélange composed with little esprit de synthèse. ¶ The emerging CHAN school of East Asia retrospectively identified the Laṅkāvatāra as a source of scriptural authority; indeed, some strands of the tradition even claimed that the sūtra was so influential in the school’s development that its first translator, Guṇabhadra, superseded BODHIDHARMA in the roster of the Chan patriarchal lineage, as in the LENGQIE SHIZI JI (“Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Laṅkāvatāra”). Rather than viewing the Chan school as a systematic reading of the Laṅkāvatāra, as the tradition claims, it is perhaps more appropriate to say that the tradition was inspired by similar religious concerns. The Newari Buddhist tradition of Nepal also includes the Laṅkāvatāra among its nine principal books of the Mahāyāna (NAVAGRANTHA; see NAVADHARMA).

Lanxi Daolong. (J. Rankei Dōryū; K. Nan’gye Toryung 蘭溪道隆) (1213–1278). Chinese CHAN monk in the Mi’an collateral branch of the LINJI ZONG. Lanxi was a native of Fujiang in present-day Sichuan province. At a young age, he became a monk at the nearby monastery of Dacisi in Chengdu and later visited the Chan masters WUZHUN SHIFAN (1178–1249) and Chijue Daochong (1169–1250). Lanxi eventually became the disciple of Wuming Huixing (1162–1237), who in turn was a disciple of the eminent Chan master Songyuan Chongyue (1132–1202). In 1246, Lanxi departed for Japan, eventually arriving in Hakata (present-day Kyūshū) with his disciple Yiweng Shaoren (1217–1281). At the invitation of the powerful regent Hōjō Tokiyori (1227–1263), Lanxi served as abbot of the monastery Jōrakuji in Kamakura. In 1253, Tokiyori completed the construction of a large Zen monastery named KENCHŌJI in Kamakura and appointed Lanxi its founding abbot (kaisan; C. KAISHAN). Lanxi soon had a large following at Kenchōji where he trained students in the new SAṂGHA hall (C. SENGTANG) according to the Chan monastic regulations (C. QINGGUI) that he brought from China. In 1265, he received a decree to take up residence at the powerful monastery of KENNINJI in Kyōto, but after three years in Kyōto, he returned to Kenchōji. Lanxi also became the founding abbot of the temple of Zenkōji in Kamakura. Retired emperor Kameyama (r. 1259–1274) bestowed upon him the title Zen Master Daikaku (Great Enlightenment); Lanxi’s lineage in Japan thus came to be known as the Daikaku branch of the Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition (RINZAISHŪ).

Laozi huahu jing. (J. Rōshi kekokyō; K. Noja hwaho kyŏng 老子化胡經). In Chinese, “Scripture on Laozi’s Conversion of the Barbarians,” an indigenous Chinese scripture (see APOCRYPHA), of which only the first and tenth rolls are extant. The fragments of the text were discovered at the Central Asian cave site of DUNHUANG by the French Sinologist PAUL PELLIOT. A text known as the Laozi huahu jing is known to have been written by the Daoist priest Wang Fu (fl. c. third century CE) in the Western Jin dynasty, but the Dunhuang manuscript by the same title seems not to be Wang Fu’s text; this assumption derives from the fact that the Dunhuang manuscript makes reference to Manichean thought, which was not introduced to China until later during the Tang dynasty. The Laozi huahu jing was written in China to advance the theory that the Daoist progenitor Laozi traveled to the West, where he became the Buddha. This theory appears as early as the year 166 in a petition submitted to the Emperor Huan (R. 146–168) of the Latter Han Dynasty. By positing a Chinese origin for the presumably imported religion of Buddhism, the Laozi huahu jing may have been written either to argue for the primacy of Daoism over Buddhism or to suggest that there was common ground between the imported tradition of Buddhism and indigenous Chinese religion. The Daoist canon contains a related text that similarly posits Laozi’s identity as ŚĀKYAMUNI Buddha: the Santian neijie jing (“Inner Explanations of the Three Heavens”), which explains how Laozi left for KASHMIR in the ninth century BCE, where he converted both the king and his subjects to Daoism. After this success, he continued on to India, where he was subsequently reborn as Śākyamuni, thus demonstrating that Buddhism is nothing more than Daoism in foreign guise. Later, Daoist texts written during the thirteenth century provide descriptions of as many as eighty-one different incarnations of Laozi; several of these descriptions draw liberally from Buddhist sources.

La phyi. (Lapchi). Also La phyi gangs (Lapchi Gang) and ’Brog la phyi gangs kyi ra ba (Drok Lapchi Gangkyi Rawa). A preeminent sacred region in southern Tibet on the Nepalese border, considered by some Tibetan sources, especially those of the BKA’ BRGYUD sect, to be one of the three most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Tibet, together with Mt. KAILĀSA and TSA RI. The central mountain of the region is considered the MAṆḌALA of CAKRASAṂVARA and VAJRAYOGINĪ, and the region is specifically identified as GODĀVARĪ, one of the twenty-four sacred sites (tīrtha; see PĪṬHA) according to the CAKRASAṂVARATANTRA. According to Tibetan tradition, the region was first made suitable for spiritual practice, through the taming of its local demons, by the eleventh-century yogin MI LA RAS PA, who established La phyi as one of his main centers for meditation practice. Central among the complex of retreat caves is Bdud ’dul phug (Dudulphuk), the Demon Vanquishing Cave.

laukika. (P. lokiya; T. ’jig rten pa; C. shijian; J. seken; K. segan 世間). In Sanskrit, “mundane” or “worldly”; anything pertaining to the ordinary world or to the practices of unenlightened sentient beings (PṚTHAGJANA) in distinction from the noble ones (ĀRYA), who have directly perceived reality. The “worldly” embraces all the contaminated (SĀSRAVA) or conditioned (SAMSKṚTA) phenomena of the three realms of existence (LOKADHĀTU), since these are subject to impermanence (anityatā). In the context of the status of practitioners, laukika refers to ordinary sentient beings (pṛthagjana); more specifically, in the fifty-two-stage BODHISATTVA path, laukika usually indicates practitioners who are at the stage of the ten faiths (C. shixin), ten understandings (C. shijie), or ten practices (C. shixing), while “supramundane” (LOKOTTARA) refers to more enlightened practitioners, such as bodhisattvas who are on the ten stages (DAŚABHŪMI). But even seemingly transcendent dharmas can be considered mundane if they are changeable by nature, e.g., in the MADHYAMAKA (C. SAN LUN ZONG) exegete JIZANG’s (549–623) Shengman baoku (“Treasure Store of the ŚRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIṂHANĀDASŪTRA”); mind-made bodies (MANOMAYAKĀYA) produced by bodhisattvas on the eighth through the tenth bodhisattva stages (see BODHISATTVABHŪMI; DAŚABHŪMI) may still be designated “mundane” because they are subject to change. FAZANG’s HUAYAN WUJIAO ZHANG (“Essay on the Five Teachings According to Huayan”) parses these stages even more precisely: of the ten stages (daśabhūmi) of the path leading to buddhahood, stages one through three belong to the mundane (laukika); the fourth to the seventh stages are supramundane (lokottara) from the standpoint of the three vehicles (TRIYĀNA) of ŚRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, and BODHISATTVA; and the eighth to the tenth stages transcend even the supramundane and belong to the one vehicle (EKAYĀNA). In Indian YOGĀCĀRA and MADHYAMAKA works, and commonly in the Tibetan commentarial tradition, laukika and lokottara are used to differentiate paths in the mindstreams of noble (ĀRYA) beings in any vehicle (YĀNA), who have directly witnessed the true reality (TATTVA) of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS. The last instants before the lokottara stage are given the name LAUKIKĀGRADHARMA (highest worldly factors); this is the last stage of the PRAYOGAMĀRGA in the five path (PAÑCAMĀRGA) system. The ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA says that the first lokottaradharma, the first instant of the sixteen-instant path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA), happens in a single meditative sitting. Even after the supramundane awakening, all subsequent attainments (PṚṢṬHALABDHA) are mundane, with the exception of the knowledge in equipoise (SAMĀHITAJÑĀNA) when the initial vision is revisited in a process of habituation, leading to a union of subsequent states and equipoise in the final lokottara experience of full enlightenment.

laukikāgradharma. (T. ’jig rten pa’i chos kyi mchog; C. shidiyifa; J. sedaiippō; K. sejeilbŏp 世第一法). In Sanskrit, “highest worldly factors,” the fourth of the “aids to penetration” (NIRVEDHABHĀGĪYA), which are developed during the “path of preparation” (PRAYOGAMĀRGA) and mark the transition from the mundane sphere of cultivation (LAUKIKAMĀRGA) to the supramundane vision (DARŚANA) of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (catvāry āryasatyāni). This aid to penetration receives its name because these factors (DHARMA) constitute the highest mundane stage prior to the attainment of the first noble (ĀRYA) path, the “path of vision” (DARŚANAMĀRGA). There were rival definitions within MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS and among VAIBHĀṢIKA teachers themselves about which factors constituted the laukikāgradharma; the orthodox view of the dominant Kashmiri branch was that the laukikāgradharma were those factors involving mind (CITTA) and mental concomitants (CAITTA) that immediately catalyze the abandonment of mundane stages of existence and induce “access to the certainty that one will eventually win liberation” (SAMYAKTVANIYĀMĀVAKRĀNTI). Emerging from the stage of laukikāgradharmas, there is a single moment of “acquiescence to the fact of suffering” (duḥkhe dharmajñānakṣānti) at the first (of the sixteen) moments of realization of the four noble truths, which then leads inexorably in the next instant to the path of vision (darśanamārga), which constitutes stream-entry (SROTAĀPANNA), the first of the four stages of sanctity. Thus, the laukikāgradharmas represent the final thought-moment of the ordinary person (PṚTHAGJANA) before one attains the “supreme” fruit of recluseship (ŚRĀMAṆYAPHALA). ¶ In the Mahāyāna reformulation of ABHIDHARMA in the perfection of wisdom (PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ) tradition based on the ABHISAMAYĀLAṂKĀRA, the laukikāgradharma is divided into three parts, a smaller, middling, and final part, within a larger presentation of a path of vision (darśanamārga) that knows “the lack of self of phenomena” (DHARMANAIRĀTMYA), i.e., that even the knowledge of the four noble truths is itself without any essential ultimate truth. According to this Mahāyāna abhidharma presentation, the path counteracts not just the mistaken apprehension of the four noble truths of suffering, origination, cessation, and path but also a series of thirty-eight object and subject conceptualizations (GRĀHYAGRĀHAKAVIKALPA). The three parts of the bodhisattva’s laukikāgradharma, each divided again into three, counteract the last set of nine “pure” subject conceptualizations of an essentialized liberated person who experiences a liberating vision.

laukikamārga. (T. ’jig rten pa’i lam; C. shijiandao; J. sekendō; K. segando 世間道). In Sanskrit, lit. “mundane path,” those practices that precede the moment of insight (DARŚANAMĀRGA) and thus result in a salutary rebirth in SAṂSĀRA rather than liberation (VIMUKTI); also called laukika-BHĀVANĀMĀRGA (the mundane path of cultivation). In the five-stage soteriology of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, the mundane path corresponds to the first two stages, the path of accumulation (SAṂBHĀRAMĀRGA) and the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA), because they do not involve the direct perception of reality that transforms an ordinary person (PṚTHAGJANA) into a noble one (ĀRYA). The mundane path is developed when a practitioner has begun to cultivate the three trainings (TRIŚIKṢĀ) of morality (ŚĪLA), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom (PRAJÑĀ) but has yet to eradicate any of the ten fetters (SAṂYOJANA) or to achieve insight (DARŚANA). The eightfold path (ĀRYĀṢṬĀṄGAMĀRGA) is also formulated in terms of the spiritual ascension from mundane (LAUKIKA) to supramundane (LOKOTTARA). For example, mundane right view (SAMYAGDṚṢṬI), the first stage of the eightfold path, refers to the belief in the efficacy of KARMAN and its effects and the reality of a next life after death, thus leading to better rebirths; wrong view (MITHYĀDṚṢṬI), by contrast, denies such beliefs and leads to unsalutary rebirths. After continuing on to cultivate the moral trainings of right speech, action, and livelihood based on this right view, the practitioner next devotes himself to right concentration (SAMYAKSAMĀDHI). Concentration then leads in turn to supramundane right view, which results in direct insight into the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS and the removal of the initial fetters. ¶ In the MADHYĀNTAVIBHĀGA, a Mahāyāna work associated with the name of MAITREYA, the eightfold path is reformulated as a “worldly” path that a bodhisattva treads after the path of vision (darśanamārga), on the model of the Buddha’s work for the world after his awakening beneath the BODHI TREE in BODHGAYĀ. The bodhisattva’s supramundane vision, described by the seven factors of enlightenment (BODHYAṄGA), is an equipoise (SAMĀHITA) in which knowledge is beyond all proliferation (PRAPAÑCA) and conceptualization (VIKALPA); the states subsequent (pṛṣṭhalabdha) to that equipoise are characterized as the practice of skillful means (UPĀYA) to lead others to liberation, on the model of the Buddha’s compassionate activities for the sake of others. The practice serves to accumulate the bodhisattva’s merit collection (PUṆYASAṂBHĀRA); there is no further vision to be gained, only a return to the vision in the supramundane stages characterized as the fundamental (maula) stages of the ten bodhisattva stages (BODHISATTVABHŪMI) or a supramundane cultivation (lokottarabhāvanā). All other acts are laukika (“worldly”) skillful means.

La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. (1869–1938). Pioneering Belgian scholar of Buddhism, who is considered the founder of the Franco–Belgian school of European Buddhist Studies and one of the foremost European scholars of Buddhism during the twentieth century. La Vallée Poussin studied Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese under SYLVAIN LÉVI at the Sorbonne in Paris and HENDRIK KERN at Leiden, before becoming a professor of comparative Greek and Latin grammar at the University of Ghent in 1895, where he taught for the next three decades. La Vallée Poussin became especially renowned for his multilingual approach to Buddhist materials, in which all available recensions of a text in the major canonical languages of the Buddhist tradition were carefully studied and compared. Indicative of this approach is La Vallée Poussin’s massive French translation of VASUBANDHU’s ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA (later translated into English in four volumes), which uses the Chinese recension (in an annotated Japanese edition) as the textus receptus but draws heavily on Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan materials in order to present a comprehensive, annotated translation of the text, placed squarely within the broader context of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA. La Vallée Poussin also published the first complete renderings in a Western language of DHARMAPĀLA/XUANZANG’s CHENG WEISHI LUN (*Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi) and ŚĀNTIDEVA’s BODHICARYĀVATĀRA. He also published editions, translations, and studies of central YOGĀCĀRA, MADHYAMAKA, and tantric texts, in addition to a number of significant topical studies, including one on the Buddhist councils (SAṂGĪTI). In 1916, his Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College, Oxford, were published as The Way to Nirvāṇa: Six Lectures on Ancient Buddhism as a Discipline of Salvation. Of his many students, perhaps the most renowned was the Belgian ÉTIENNE LAMOTTE.

Ldan kar ma. (Denkarma). One of the earliest known catalogues of Tibetan Buddhist texts translated during the imperial period of the early dissemination (SNGA DAR) of Buddhism in Tibet; also spelled Ldan dkar ma or Lhan kar ma. The work, preserved in the BSTAN ’GYUR section of the Tibetan canon, was compiled in the early ninth century and catalogues more than seven hundred distinct texts. Its name is derived from the Ldan kar (Denkar) palace in which it was written. The work is an important aid for scholars in determining which Buddhist texts were known and available during this early period of Tibetan history. It also illustrates the development of early principles for categorizing Buddhist literature, prefiguring the formation of the modern canon with its BKA’ ’GYUR and bstan ’gyur sections. MAHĀYĀNA sūtras are listed first, followed by HĪNAYĀNA sūtras, treatises (ŚĀSTRA), TANTRAs, DHĀRAṆĪs, praises (STOTRA), prayers (PRAṆIDHĀNA), auspicious verses (maṅgalagāthā), VINAYA texts, and works on logic (NYĀYA). The collection ends with a list of revisions and translations in progress. See also JINGLU.

Ledi, Sayadaw. (1846–1923). In Burmese, “Senior Monk from Ledi”; honorific title of the prominent Burmese (Myanmar) scholar-monk U Nyanadaza (P. Ñāṇadhaja), a well-known scholar of ABHIDHAMMA (S. ABHIDHARMA) and proponent of VIPASSANĀ (S. VIPAŚYANĀ) insight meditation. Born in the village of Saingpyin in the Shwebo district of Upper Burma, he received a traditional education at his village monastery and was ordained a novice (P. sāmaṇera; S. ŚRĀMAṆERA) at the age of fifteen. He took for himself the name of his teacher, Nyanadaza, under whom he studied Pāli language and the Pāli primer on abhidhamma philosophy, the ABHIDHAMMATTHASAṄGAHA. At the age of eighteen, he left the order but later returned to the monkhood, he said, to study the Brahmanical science of astrology with the renowned teacher Gandhama Sayadaw. In 1866, at the age of twenty, Nyanadaza took higher ordination (UPASAṂPADĀ) as a monk (P. BHIKKHU; S. BHIKṢU) and the following year traveled to the Burmese royal capital of Mandalay to continue his Pāli education. He studied under several famous teachers and particularly excelled in abhidhamma studies. His responses in the Pāli examinations were regarded as so exceptional that they were later published under the title Pāramīdīpanī. In 1869, King MINDON MIN sponsored the recitation and revision of the Pāli tipiṭaka (S. TRIPIṬAKA) at Mandalay in what is regarded by the Burmese as the fifth Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, FIFTH). During the proceedings, Nyanadaza assisted in the editing of Pāli texts that were inscribed on stone slabs and erected at the Kuthodaw Pagoda at the base of Mandalay hill. Nyanadaza remained in the capital until 1882, when he moved to Monywa and established a forest monastery named Ledi Tawya, whence his toponym Ledi. It is said that it was in Monywa that he took up in earnest the practice of vipassanā meditation. He was an abhidhamma scholar of wide repute and an advocate of meditation for all Buddhists, ordained and lay alike. With the final conquest of Burma by the British and the fall of the monarchy in 1885, there was a strong sentiment among many Burmese monks that the period of the disappearance of the dharma (see SADDHARMAVIPRALOPA) was approaching. According to the MANORATHAPURĀṆĪ by BUDDHAGHOSA, when the dharma disappears, the first books to disappear would be the seven books of the abhidhamma. In order to forestall their disappearance, Ledi decided to teach both abhidhamma and vipassanā widely to the laity, something that had not been previously done on a large scale. He produced over seventy-five vernacular manuals on Buddhist metaphysics and insight meditation. He also wrote several treatises in Pāli, the best known of which was the Pāramatthadīpanī. He taught meditation to several disciples who went on to become some of the most influential teachers of vipassanā in Burma in the twentieth century. In recognition of his scholarship, the British government awarded Ledi Sayadaw the title Aggamahāpaṇḍita in 1911. Between 1913 and 1917, Ledi Sayadaw corresponded on points of doctrine with the British Pāli scholar CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, and much of this correspondence was subsequently published in the Journal of the Pali Text Society.

Leg bshad snying po. (Lekshe Nyingpo). In Tibetan, “The Essence of Eloquence,” by TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA; its full title in Tibetan is Drang nges legs bshad snying po (“Essence of Eloquence on the Provisional and Definitive”). It is the most famous of the five texts that Tsong kha pa wrote on the view of emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ). In it, he explores the categories of the provisional (NEYĀRTHA) and the definitive (NITĀRTHA) as they are presented in the YOGĀCĀRA (CITTAMĀTRA), *SVĀTANTRIKA, and *PRĀSAṄGIKA schools. In 1402, at the age of forty-five, he completed LAM RIM CHEN MO, which concludes with a long and complex section on VIPAŚYANĀ. Five years later, when he was fifty, he began writing a commentary on NĀGĀRJUNA’s MŪLAMADHYAMAKAKĀRIKĀ, entitled Rigs pa’i rgya mtsho (“Ocean of Reasoning”), at a hermitage above what would become SE RA monastery on the northern outskirts of LHA SA. While writing his commentary on the first chapter, he foresaw interruptions if he remained there and so moved to another hermitage nearby, called Rwa kha brag (“Goat-face Crag”). At this time, a representative of the Chinese emperor arrived in Lha sa bearing an invitation from the Ming emperor to come to teach the dharma at his court. Tsong kha pa left his hermitage in order to meet with him. Citing his advancing age and the wish to remain in retreat, Tsong kha pa sent images of the Buddha in his stead. Returning to his hermitage, he set aside for the time being his commentary on Nāgārjuna and began writing Legs bshad snying po. After completing it in 1408, he returned to his commentary on Nāgārjuna’s text. In 1415, he wrote his medium length LAM RIM text, known as Lam rim ’bring, which contains a substantial exposition of vipaśyanā. At the age of sixty-one, one year before his death, he composed a commentary on CANDRAKĪRTI’s MADHYAMAKĀVATĀRA. Among his works on Madhyamaka, Legs bshad snying po is considered the most daunting, called his iron bow and iron arrow. Just as it is hard to pull an iron bow to its full extent, but if one can, the arrow will travel far, in the same way, the words—not to mention the meaning—of this text are difficult to understand but, when understood, are said to yield great insight. It has been viewed by generations of Tibetan scholars as a work of genius, known for its often cryptic brevity, but yielding profound insight if pursued with analytical fortitude. (The metaphor of the iron bow may also be a polite allusion to the fact that the book is so abstruse and sometimes apparently self-contradictory that it takes considerable effort to attempt to construct a consistent account of Tsong kha pa’s position.) Within the DGE LUGS sect, Legs bshad snying po is regarded as the foremost philosophical tome in the eighteen volumes of Tsong kha pa’s collected works, presenting a particular challenge, both as an avenue to approach reality and as an elaborate exercise in constructing his thought.

Lei-kyun Man-aung Zedi. A pagoda, or CAITYA (Burmese JEDI), located at the foot of the Sagaing Hills in Thotapan village in Upper Burma (Myanmar). Built in 1724 CE, the pagoda commemorates the spot where, according to local legend, the Buddha once vanquished ninety-nine ogres and converted them to Buddhism. The pagoda was built with eight faces to represent the Buddha’s victory in all eight directions of the compass. It contains a shrine room with a twelve-foot buddha image, which is surrounded by figures of the ninety-nine ogres, all reverently listening to his preaching. There is an annual festival held here on the eighth day of the waxing moon in the Burmese lunar month of Tawthalin (September–October).

lena. [alt. leṇa] (S. layana; T. gnas; C. gui/zhu; J. ki/jū; K. kwi/chu 歸/住). In BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT and Pāli, “refuge” or “abode”; the term was used by extension to refer to a permanent dwelling place where a monk or group of monks remained in residence. In the early tradition, it appears that monks would rendezvous at specific places to spend the rains retreat (VARṢĀ) without those places becoming the permanent dwelling places for a specific monk or group of monks. The term lena was used for these more private and permanent dwelling places that developed for the use of a single resident SAṂGHA, as opposed to a seasonal settlement; visiting monks were welcome but only for a limited period. The CŪḶAVAGGA lists five kinds of lena, although the precise meaning of each is not entirely clear: (1) the VIHĀRA, which originally seemed to be either communal shelters or individual huts; (2) the aḍḍhayoga, a more permanent structure with eaves; (3) a pāsāda, a structure with one or more upper stories; (4) a hammiya, a structure with an upper story and an attic; and (5) a guha, a structure built into the side of a hill or mountain. Eventually, only two of these terms survived, with vihāra referring to a free-standing monastery and guha referring to a man-made cave monastery.

Lengqie shizi ji. (J. Ryōga shishiki; K. Nŭngga saja ki 楞伽師資

). In Chinese, “Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Laṅkāvatāra”; a genealogical anthology associated with the Northern school (BEI ZONG) of the early CHAN tradition, compiled by JINGJUE (683–c. 760). The Lengqie shizi ji contains the biographies and sayings of eight generations of masters (twenty-four in total), who received the “transmission of the lamp” (chuandeng) as patriarchs (ZUSHI) in the Chan school. The transmission narrative presented in this text differs markedly from that found in the LIUZU TAN JING (“Platform Sūtra”), which becomes normative in the mature Chan tradition. The recipients of the special transmission of the Chan teachings in the Lenqi shizi ji belong instead to the Northern school. Jingjue places GUṆABHADRA before BODHIDHARMA in the Chan patriarchal lineage (probably because of his role in translating the LAṄKĀVATĀRASŪTRA, an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school); in addition, SHENXIU is listed as the successor to the fifth Chinese patriarch, HONGREN, in place of HUINENG. The Lenqie shizi ji also contains a set of rhetorical questions and doctrinal admonitions known as zhishi wenyi (lit. “pointing at things and inquiring into their meaning”) in the biographies of Guṇabhadra, Bodhidharma, Hongren, and Shenxiu. Jingjue quotes from numerous sources, including his teacher Xuanze’s (d.u.) Lengqie renfa zhi (“Records of the Men and Teachings of the Laṅkāvatāra,” apparently extant only in these embedded quotations in the Lenqie shizi ji), the DASHENG QIXIN LUN, the XIUXIN YAO LUN, Bodhidharma’s ERRU SIXING LUN, and the Rudao anxin yao fangpian famen attributed to DAOXIN (which also seems to exist only as quoted, apparently in its entirety, in the Lenqie shizi ji). As one of the earliest Chan texts to delineate the transmission-of-the-lamplight theory as espoused by the adherents of the Northern school of Chan, the Lenqie shizi ji is an invaluable tool for understanding the development of the lineage of Chan patriarchs and the early history of the Chan school. See also CHUANDENG LU; LIDAI FABAO JI.

Leshan dafo. (樂山大佛). In Chinese, “Great Buddha of Leshan,” the world’s largest stone statue of the bodhisattva MAITREYA. See EMEISHAN.

Lévi, Sylvain. (1863–1935). Influential nineteenth-century European scholar of the YOGĀCĀRA school of Buddhism. Born in Paris to Alsatian parents, Lévi had a conservative Jewish education and held his first teaching position at a conservative seminary in Paris. Educated in Sanskrit at the University of Paris, Lévi became a lecturer at the École des Hautes Études in Paris in 1886. There, he taught Sanskrit until he became professor of Sanskrit language and literature at the Collège de France in 1894, a position that he would hold until 1935. Lévi went to India and Japan to carry out his research and also traveled extensively in Korea, Nepal, Vietnam, and Russia. He eventually became the director of the École des Hautes Études. In addition to Sanskrit, Lévi also read classical Chinese, Tibetan, and Kuchean and was one of the first Western scholars to study Indian Buddhism through translations that were extant only in those secondary canonical languages. Perhaps his most significant translations were of seminal texts of the YOGĀCĀRA school, including renderings of VASUBANDHU’s twin synopses, the VIṂŚATIKĀ and TRIṂŚIKĀ (1925), and ASAṄGA’s MAHĀYĀNASŪTRĀLAṂKĀRA, thus introducing the major writings of this important Mahāyāna scholastic school to the Western scholarly world. Lévi also published on classical Indian theater, the history of Nepal, and Sanskrit manuscripts from Bali. Together with TAKAKUSU JUNJIRŌ, Lévi was the cofounder of the joint Japanese–French Hōbōgirin, an encyclopedic dictionary of Buddhism, the compilation of which continues to this day.

Lha btsun nam mkha’ ’jigs med. (Lhatsün Namka Jikme) (1597–1653). An adept of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism, renowned for his mastery of many Rnying ma doctrines and his great supernatural powers. Although ordained as a monk while a youth, he spent much of his life as a YOGIN, practicing meditation in retreat centers across the Tibetan countryside. He is best remembered for entering the region of Sikkim (T. ’Bras mo ljongs), in 1646, “opening” it as a place of pilgrimage and spiritual practice, and for founding the retreat center of Bkra shis lding (Tashiding).

Lha btsun Rin chen rnam rgyal. (Lhatsün Rinchen Namgyal) (1473–1557). A Tibetan Buddhist master famous for his literary compositions and publishing activities in southern Tibet. He was born into the ruling family of the Gung thang region of southwestern Tibet; the title lha btsun is generally applied to descendants of Tibet’s royal dynastic aristocracy. Although his teachers represent a wide range of religious affiliations and intellectual currents of his time, Rin chen rnam rgyal’s principal teacher is usually considered to be GTSANG SMYON HERUKA, the so-called mad YOGIN of Tsang. Following the example of his master, who edited and published a well-known biography and verse anthology of MI LA RAS PA, Rin chen rnam rgyal began a career of authoring, editing, and publishing a wide range of literary materials from his seat at the retreat complex of BRAG DKAR RTA SO. These works include biographies and verse anthologies of numerous BKA’ BRGYUD masters. During the sixteenth century, Brag dkar rta so became one of Tibet’s leading publishing centers.

Lha lung. A monastery located in the southern Tibetan region of LHO BRAG, founded in 1154 by the first KARMA PA DUS GSUM MKHYEN PA. It remained allied with the BKA’ BRGYUD sect under the direction of the sixteenth-century scholar DPA’ BO GTSUG LAG PHRENG BA but changed affiliation to the RNYING MA under the Gsung sprul (Sungtrul) lama, the speech incarnation of PADMA GLING PA. During the time of the fifth DALAI LAMA, NGAG DBANG BLO BZANG RGYA MTSHO, it was converted to the DGE LUGS sect. Although mostly demolished during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Lha lung is architecturally unique, and an important collection of murals survived destruction.

lha mo. In Tibetan, lit. “the goddess”; the name for the classical theater of Tibet. These plays are drawn from Tibetan literature, often with Buddhist themes, and can last a full day when performed in their entirety. They are performed with a rich assortment of masks and costumes; the members of the lha mo troupe employ sung dialogue, chanted narration, stylized movement, and dancing. Satire and comic improvisation are also included. The tradition of lha mo is said to have begun with the famous saint THANG STONG RGYAL PO. See ’CHAM.

Lha mo bla mtsho. (Lhamo latso). An important oracular lake located in central Tibet, southeast of LHA SA. It is considered to be the receptacle for the life force (bla) of the DALAI LAMAs and considered sacred to the Buddhist protective deity DPAL LDAN LHA MO (Śrīdevī), protectress of the Dalai Lamas. Each Dalai Lama would try to visit the lake at least once during his life to receive visions on the water’s surface regarding his future activities and death. The lake is also believed to display signs concerning the future rebirth of the Dalai and PAṆ CHEN LAMAs. Most recently, in 1933, the regent Rwa sgreng Rin po che saw visions in the lake that indicated the birthplace and circumstances of the fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Lha sa. In Tibetan, “place of the gods”; capital city of Tibet and location of some of the country’s most important Buddhist institutions. According to traditional histories, the Tibetan king SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO moved his capital from the Yar klungs Valley to its current location when he founded the original edifice underlying the PO TA LA Palace in 637, a structure completed in its present form only during the seventeenth century under the direction of the fifth DALAI LAMA, NGA DBANG BLO BZANG RGYA MTSHO, and his regent. At about the same time, Srong bstan sgam po began work on the central JO KHANG temple. As goats were used as work animals during the construction, the area became known as Ra sa (lit. “place of the goats”). Following the temple’s consecration in 647, it is said that the city’s name was then changed to Lha sa (“place of the gods”). These two structures, together with the RA MO CHE temple, form the core of Lha sa’s religious and sacred architecture. Over the centuries, many other institutions were added, including the medical college of Lcags po ri (Chakpori), the Dalai Lama’s summer palace at the NOR BU GLING KHA, and numerous small monasteries, temples, and shrines. Around the city’s periphery, a number of important monasteries were established, including the three great DGE LUGS monasteries of DGA’ LDAN, ’BRAS SPUNGS, and SE RA (known collectively as the GDAN SA GSUM, or “three seats”), as well as GNAS CHUNG monastery, the seat of Tibet’s state oracle. A series of three ritual circumambulation routes around the city’s sacred centers developed: (1) the nang bskor (nangkor, “inner circuit”), skirting the Jo khang temple’s inner sanctum; (2) the BAR BSKOR (barkor, “middle circuit”), circling the outer walls of the Jo khang and its neighboring buildings; and (3) the gling bskor (lingkor, “sanctuary circuit”) circumnavigating the entire city, including the Po ta la Palace and Lcag po ri. Lha sa has long been considered the spiritual center of Tibet, and chief pilgrimage destination. Some devotees would travel the immense distance from their homeland to Lha sa while performing full-length prostrations, literally covering the ground with their bodies the entire way. Although the far eastern and western provinces of Tibet traditionally maintained a large degree of regional independence, after the seventeenth century Tibet’s central government, the DGA’ LDAN PHO BRANG, operated from Lha sa in the Po ta la Palace.

Lho brag. (Lhodrak). In Tibetan, lit. “the southern cliffs”; a region of alpine meadows and narrow gorges in southern Tibet on the border with Bhutan and location of numerous monasteries and retreat hermitages. The area was home to many translators and treasure revealers (GTER STON) of the RNYING MA and BKA’ BRGYUD sects of Tibetan Buddhism during the early period of the later dissemination (PHYI DAR) of the DHARMA. Perhaps the most famous among them is the translator MAR PA CHOS KYI BLO GROS, who is often called Lho brag pa (Lhodrakpa), “The Man from Lhodrak,” who established his seat at GRO BO LUNG. Other leading masters and their institutions include NYANG RAL NYI MA ’OD ZER who founded Smra bo rcog (Ma’ojok) monastery; Nam mkha’i snying po (Namke Nyingpo), Lo ras pa (Lorepa, 1187–1250), and PADMA DKAR PO, who established MKHAR CHU monastery; GURU CHOS KYI DBANG PHYUG, whose main seat was the Guru lha khang; and DPA’ BO GTSUG LAG PHRENG BA, abbot of the monasteries at LHA LUNG and SRAS MKHAR DGU THOG.

lho gter. (lho ter). In Tibetan, “southern treasures,” a term used to refer to the treasure texts (GTER MA) discovered by great seventeenth-century Rnying ma lama GTER BDAG GLING PA, which became the central texts studied at SMIN GROL GLING monastery.

li. (J. ri; K. i 理). In Chinese, “principle”; the fundamental “principle,” general “pattern,” or innate “quality” that governs reality. (The antiquated English rendering of li as “noumenon” is weighted down with Kantian connotations that are inappropriate in an East Asian philosophical context and is best avoided.) In ancient China, the term li was originally used as a noun to indicate the natural patterns that occurred on a piece of jade, although it could also be used as a verb referring to the carving that transforms a piece of raw jade into a refined cultural object. The term soon came to refer to the inner or outer patterns inherent in any kind of physical object. For example, in the section on “Jielao” (“Explaining Lao[zi]”) from the Hanfeizi, compiled during the late second century BCE, li refers to either an object’s overt quality or its hidden disposition to manifest certain qualities at a given time. XUANXUE (Dark Learning) scholars from the Wei-Jin period were among the first intellectuals to use the term in a philosophically meaningful way. In particular, Wang Bi (226–249) employed li as a synonym for his ontological concept of WU (nonbeing) to refer to a metaphysical principle that underlies all phenomena. Such usages of the term influenced early Buddhist thinkers in China. DAOSHENG (355–434), e.g., regarded li as an immutable, ultimate principle, often using it as a synonym for the buddha-nature (FOXING) or the true self (zhenwo). During the Tang dynasty, Huayan Buddhism (HUAYAN ZONG) employed the term in a philosophically sophisticated manner, although with varying meanings. For DUSHUN, the putative founder of the Huayan school, li represents not a substance or thing but, instead, a proposition that expresses the true identity of the phenomenal world. For example, li could refer to the principle that all phenomena (SHI) are empty (ŚŪNYATĀ), a proposition that is only understandable through practice. His successors in the Huayan school, such as FAZANG and CHENGGUAN, imbued the term with additional ontological connotations. Fazang identified li with the mind as suchness (TATHATĀ; BHŪTATATHATĀ) described in the DASHENG QIXIN LUN (“Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna”), which he considered to be synonymous with the TATHĀGATAGARBHA. Developing on Fazang’s thought, Chengguan viewed li as the essential quality that pervades all four realms of reality (DHARMADHĀTU; SI FAJIE). During the Song dynasty, Neo-Confucian philosophers reinterpreted the term to fit a Confucian philosophical context. They interpreted li as an inherent principle within things that makes them what they are; when applied to human beings, li thus refers to the four inner moral essences of humaneness, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. Some aspects of these Neo-Confucian interpretations of the term li appear in the writings of such Song-dynasty Chan masters as DAHUI ZONGGAO.

Liang gaoseng zhuan. (梁高僧傳). In Chinese, “Biographies of Eminent Monks [Compiled during the] Liang [Dynasty].” See GAOSENG ZHUAN.

Lidai fabao ji. (J. Rekidai hōbōki; K. Yŏktae pŏppo ki 歴代法寶

). In Chinese, “Record of the Dharma-Jewel throughout Successive Generations”; an influential genealogical history of the early CHAN tradition, composed by disciples of the Chan master BAOTANG WUZHU in the JINGZHONG ZONG. The history of the Chan school as related in the Lidai fabao ji begins with the arrival of Buddhism in China during the Han dynasty, which is followed by a brief discussion of the lineages of dharma transmission in the FU FAZANG YINYUAN ZHUAN and LENGQIE SHIZI JI. The Lidai fabao ji then provides the biographies of the six patriarchs (ZUSHI) of Chan in China: Bodhidharmatrāta [alt. BODHIDHARMA], Huike, Sengcan, Daoxin, Hongren, and Huineng. Each biography ends with a brief reference to the transmission of the purple monastic robe of Bodhidharma as a symbol of authority. The manner in which this robe came into the hands of Zhishen (609–702), a disciple of the fifth patriarch Hongren, is told following the biography of the sixth, and last, patriarch Huineng. According to the Lidai fabao ji’s transmission story, Huineng entrusted the robe to Empress WU ZETIAN, who in turn gave it to Zhishen during his visit to the imperial palace. Zhishen is then said to have transmitted this robe to Chuji [alt. 648–734, 650–732, 669–736], who later passed it on to his disciple CHŎNGJUNG MUSANG (C. Jingzhong Wuxiang). The robe finally came into the possession of Musang’s disciple Baotang Wuzhu, whose teachings comprise the bulk of the Lidai fabao ji. After the Lidai fabao ji was translated into Tibetan, Wuzhu’s teachings made their way to Tibetan plateau, where they seem to have exerted some influence over the early development of Tibetan Buddhism. The Lidai fabao ji was thought to have been lost until the modern discovery of several copies of the text in the manuscript cache at DUNHUANG. Cf. CHUANDENG LU; LENGQIE SHIZI JI.

Lidai sanbao ji. (J. Rekidai sanbōki; K. Yŏktae sambo ki 歴代三寶紀). In Chinese, “Record of the Three Jewels throughout Successive Dynasties,” a private scriptural catalogue (JINGLU) composed by Fei Changfang (d.u.) in 597. The Lidai sanbao ji professes to be a history of the dissemination of the three jewels (RATNATRAYA) in China and provides lists of translated scriptures, indigenous works, or APOCRYPHA, and discussion of the circumstances of their compilation. The catalogue is in fifteen rolls, covering 2,268 texts in a total of 6,417 rolls. The first three rolls of the catalogue provide a chronology of the major events in the history of Buddhism from the Zhou through the Han dynasties. Rolls four through twelve detail the different translations of Buddhist scriptures made in China during different dynastic periods and present them in chronological order. Rolls thirteen and fourteen present a roster of the complete MAHĀYĀNA and HĪNAYĀNA TRIPIṬAKAs. Finally, the fifteenth roll provides an afterword, a table of contents of the Lidai sanbao ji, and a list of other scriptural catalogues that Fei consulted in the course of compiling his own catalogue. Fei’s organizational principle is unique among the Chinese cataloguers and serves to legitimize specific scriptural translations by associating them with the Chinese dynastic succession. Fei’s record is particularly important for its attention to scriptures translated in northern China and its attempt to authenticate the translation and authorship of certain apocryphal texts. Fei was especially concerned in his catalogue to reduce the number of scriptures that previously had been listed as anonymous, in order to quash potential questions about the reliability of the Buddhist textual transmission (a concern that Daoists at the Chinese court were then exploiting in their competition for imperial patronage). Fei thus blatantly fabricated scores of attributions for translations that previously had been listed as anonymous. These attributions were later adopted by the state-authorized Da Zhou lu, compiled in 695, which ensured that these scriptures would subsequently enter the mainstream of the Buddhist textual transmission. Fei’s translator fabrications resulted in substantial numbers of Chinese Buddhist scriptures that were apocryphal and yet accepted as canonical; this list includes many of the most influential scriptures and commentaries in East Asian Buddhism, including the YUANJUE JING, RENWANG JING, and DASHENG QIXIN LUN.

Liễu Quán. (了觀) (1667–1742). Vietnamese monk who is considered the second patriarch of a branch of the Linji school (LINJI ZONG) of CHAN, which was brought to Vietnam by the Chinese Chan Master Nguyên Thiêều (Yuanshao). He was born in Phú Yên Province (Central Vietnam), and his personal name was Lê Thiệt Diệu. When he was six years old, his father sent him at his request to Hội Tôn Monastery to study under the Venerable Tế Viên, a Chinese monk. After his teacher passed away, he went to Bảo Quốc Monastery in Huế to study under another Chinese monk, the Venerable Giác Phong. In 1695, he went to Huế to receive novice ordination under the Chinese Chan Master Thạch Liêm and received full ordination in 1697 from another Chinese monk, the Venerable Từ Lâm. In 1702, he traveled to Đông Sơn Monastery to receive instructions on the practice of Chan from the Chinese monk Tử Dung, an eminent Buddhist teacher of the time, and received the “mind seal” of the Chan transmission from him in 1708. In 1735, Liễu Quán returned to Huế and until 1735 presided over numerous precept ceremonies. He was invited to the royal court several times, but he declined each invitation. Liễu Quán founded the Thiền Tôn (Chan School) Monastery in Huế and was traditionally considered to be the thirty-fifth generation successor in the Linji lineage. Liễu Quán was particularly credited with reforming some of the Chinese Linji Chan rituals and practices, making them more palatable to Vietnamese Buddhists.

li fajie. (J. rihokkai; K. i pŏpkye 理法界). In Chinese, “dharma-realm of principle,” the second of the four DHARMADHĀTU (realms of reality) according to the Huayan school (HUAYAN ZONG). The “dharmadhātu of principle” refers to the singular, all-pervasive truth of suchness (ZHENRU; see TATHATĀ) that unifies all individual phenomena (SHI). This sense of unity exists within the “sphere of dharma” (see dharmadhātu) because all phenomena share the same empty nature and derive from the same one mind (YIXIN). A common Huayan simile compares “principle” to the oceanic body of water in which waves (viz., “phenomena,” shi) well up. Here, the “principle” is the creative, ontological source of all “phenomena.” The five Huayan classes of teachings (HUAYAN WUJIAO) classify the dharmadhātu of principle under the “initial [Mahāyāna] teaching” (SHIJIAO) and the “sudden [Mahāyāna] teaching” (DUNJIAO), and their respective modes of meditative contemplation.

Lihuo lun. (理惑論). In Chinese, “Treatise on the Resolution of Doubts.” See MOUZI LIHUO LUN.

Līlavajra. [alt. Līlāvajra, Lalitavajra] (T. Rol pa’i rdo rje). There is a disagreement in Tibetan lineage lists about whether this is the proper name of a single or multiple persons. In Sanskrit, both the words līlā and lalita denote joyful abandonment in a state of spontaneous play. According to Tibetan hagiographies, Līlavajra is one of the eighty-four MAHĀSIDDHAs, Indian tantric adepts who manifested eccentric, even antinomian, behavior and from whom Tibetan translators received the transmission of secret tantric instructions. He is found in the lineage of the CAKRASAṂVARA and GUHYASAMĀJA tantras but is associated in particular with the VAJRABHAIRAVA cycle (with the central figure given variously the name Kṛṣṇayamāri, Raktayamāri, YAMĀNTAKA, and Vajrabhairava), a wrathful form of MAÑJUŚRĪ, the embodiment of a buddha’s wisdom. Līlavajra is the central figure in the lineage lists of five of the six early Vajrabhairava traditions in Tibet; he is the source of the RWA LO TSĀ BA RDO RJE GRAGS tradition that TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA learned while still young. Through him, the VAJRABHAIRAVATANTRA became a central practice in the DGE LUGS sect.

liṅga. (T. mtshan/rtags; C. xiang/shengzhi; J. sō/shōshi; K. sang/saengji 相/生支). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “sign” or “mark,” a polysemous term with three major denotations in Buddhist materials: (1) the distinguishing characteristic of a given phenomena, (2) the reason in a syllogism (PRAYOGA), and (3) a denominator of gender and specifically the male sexual organ. In the MAHĀYĀNA, in particular, the signs that a BODHISATTVA will not turn back (avaivartikaliṅga) on the path to full enlightenment are described in great detail; best known are the tears and horripilation that occur spontaneously in a true bodhisattva who hears a particular Mahāyāna SŪTRA for the first time, or when listening to an explanation of BODHICITTA and ŚŪNYATĀ. In a syllogism, according to DIGNĀGA, a true mark (liṅga) meets three prerequisites (trairūpya): it must be a property of the logical subject (PAKṢADHARMA), and there must be positive (anvaya) and negative concomitance (VYATIREKA). For example, in a standard syllogistic formulation, “sound (the logical subject) is impermanent because it is a product (the mark),” being a product is a property of the logical subject: there is positive concomitance between a product and impermanence (ANITYA), i.e., perishing in the next moment, and there is negative concomitance between being permanent and not being a product. As a denominator of gender, liṅga also refers to the gender of letters and words (male, female, and neuter). In TANTRA, liṅga refers to the gender of deities in MAṆḌALAs and defines their hand implements and the specific practices associated with the deities; in some cases, particularly in the RNYING MA VAJRAKĪLAYA tantras, as in Śaivism, liṅga refers specifically to the male sexual organ.

Lingyinsi. (靈隱寺). In Chinese, “Numinous Seclusion Monastery”; located in Zhejiang province northwest of Hangzhou. In 326 CE, an Indian monk with the Chinese name Huili (d.u.) is supposed to have come to Hangzhou, where he was awestruck by the sight of Feilai Feng (lit. “Peak that Flew Hither”) and built a monastery there that he named Lingyin. The monastery is the largest of several that are located in the Wulin Mountains, which also features a large number of grottoes and religious rock carvings. The monastery was destroyed in 771 CE during the Tang dynasty and later rebuilt. In 1007 CE, during the Song dynasty, it was renamed Lingyin Chan Monastery but was subsequently destroyed as the result of war and rebuilt again. In 1359, during the Ming dynasty, it was given its present name of Lingyinsi.

Ling Zhao. (J. Rei Shō; K. Yŏng Cho

照). Daughter of the famous Tang-dynasty Chinese layman PANG YUN and a well-known lay adept of the CHAN school in her own right. See PANG YUN.

lingzhi. (J. ryōchi/reichi; K. yŏngji 靈知). In Chinese, “numinous awareness”; the quality of “sentience” common to all sentient beings, which constitutes their capacity both to experience the sensory realms in all their diversity and to attain enlightenment. Numinous awareness is both the inherent faculty that inspires sentient beings to seek enlightenment and the quality of mind perfected through meditative development. As the foundation of sentience, numinous awareness is what enables all sentient beings to see, hear, know, and experience their world and thus constitutes the capacity of the mind to remain “aware” of all sensory stimuli; hence, this “numinous awareness is never dark” (C. lingzhi bumei). This property of awareness is said to be itself “void and calm” (C. kongji) and is consequently able to adapt without limitation to the various inclinations of sentient beings; hence, the term is often known as the “void and calm, numinous awareness” (C. kongji lingzhi). Regardless of whether that particular sentient being’s awareness inclines toward greed and hatred or toward wisdom and compassion, however, that sentience itself remains simply “aware.” This numinous awareness is therefore equated in the CHAN school with enlightenment (BODHI), TATHĀGATAGARBHA, buddha-nature (BUDDHADHĀTU; C. FOXING), or one’s “original face” (BENLAI MIANMU). The enlightenment inherent in the mind is naturally luminous, shining ever outward and allowing beings to experience their external world. This natural quality of luminosity is what is meant by “sentience,” and the very fact that “sentient” beings are conscious is ipso facto proof that they are inherently enlightened. If the meditator can turn this radiance emanating from one’s mind back to its source, one would rediscover that luminous core of the mind and be instantly enlightened. In CHAN meditation, the quality of introspection that allows the meditator to experience this numinous awareness directly is called “tracing back the radiance” (FANZHAO) or “seeing the nature” (JIANXING). The term receives particular attention in the works of the Chinese Chan/HUAYAN adept GUIFENG ZONGMI (780–841) and the Korean Sŏn master POJO CHINUL (1158–1210). See also RIG PA.

lingzhi bumei. (靈知不昧). In Chinese, “numinous awareness is never dark.” See LINGZHI.

Linh Mụ Tự. (靈姥寺). In Vietnamese, “Numinous Matron Monastery”; also known popularly as the Chùa Linh Mụ or Linh Mụ Pagoda. See THIÊN MỤ TỰ.

Linji lu. (J. Rinzairoku; K. Imje nok 臨濟

). In Chinese, “The Record of Linji,” the discourse record (YULU) attributed to LINJI YIXUAN (d. 867), the putative founder of the eponymous LINJI ZONG of CHAN (J. Zen; K. Sŏn), and one of the most widely read and cited works within the Chan tradition; also known as the Linji yulu and the Zhenzhou Linji Huizhao Chanshi yulu. The Linji lu purports to provide a verbatim account of Linji’s sermons, teachings, and his exchanges with disciples and guests. As with most texts in the discourse-record genre, however, the Linji lu was not compiled until long after Linji’s death (the most popular recension was compiled in 1120, some 250 years after his death) and therefore provides a retrospective portrayal of how the mature Chan school assumed one of its quintessential masters would have taught and conducted himself. The record is in one roll and is divided into three sections: (1) formal discourses (e.g., SHANGTANG), many delivered at the request of local officials; (2) critical examinations (KANBIAN), viz., his encounters with monks, students, and lay visitors; and (3) a record of his activities (xinglu), which discusses his enlightenment under HUANGBO XIYUN (d. 850), his meetings with Chan masters early in his career, and concludes with an official biography taken from his stele inscription. The text is well known for its distinctive teachings, such as the “lump of raw flesh” (CHIROUTUAN), and his pedagogical technique called the Linji “shout” (he); see BANGHE.

Linji Yixuan. (J. Rinzai Gigen; K. Imje Ŭihyŏn 臨濟義玄) (d. 867). Chinese CHAN master of the Tang dynasty and putative founder of the eponymous LINJI ZONG. Linji was a native of Nanhua in present-day Shandong province. He is said to have begun his career as a monk by training in Buddhist doctrine and VINAYA, but he abandoned this scholastic path and headed south to study under the Chan master HUANGBO XIYUN (d. 850). Linji is also known to have visited Gao’an Dayu (d.u.) with whom he discussed the teachings of Huangbo. Having received certification of his attainment (see YINKE) from Huangbo, Linji returned north to Zhenzhou (in present-day Hebei province) and resided in a small hermitage near the Hutuo River that he named Linji’an, whence derives his toponym. There, with the help of the monk Puhua (d. 861), Linji was able to attract a large following. Linji is most famous for his witty replies and iconoclastic style of teaching. Like the Chan master DESHANM XUANJIAN’s “blows” (bang), Linji was particularly famous for his “shouts” (he) in response to students’ questions (see BANGHE). He was posthumously given the title Chan Master Huizhao (Illumination of Wisdom). The thriving descendents of Linji came to be known collectively as the Linji zong. Linji’s teachings are recorded in his discourse record (YULU), the LINJI LU.

Linji zong. (J. Rinzaishū; K. Imje chong 臨濟宗). In Chinese, the “Linji school”; one of the so-called Five Houses and Seven Schools (WU JIA QI ZONG) of the mature Chinese CHAN school. Chan genealogical records (see CHUANDENG LU) describe a lineage of monks that can be traced back to the eponymous Tang-dynasty Chan master LINJI YIXUAN. Linji’s lineage came to dominate the Chan tradition in the southern regions of China, largely through the pioneering efforts of his Song-dynasty spiritual descendants Fengxue Yanzhao (896–973), Fenyang Shanshao (947–1024), and Shishuang Chuyuan (986–1040). Shishuang’s two major disciples, HUANGLONG HUINAN (1002–1069) and YANGQI FANGHUI (992–1049), produced the two most successful collateral lines within the Linji lineage: the HUANGLONG PAI and YANGQI PAI. Few monks had as significant an impact on the Chan tradition as DAHUI ZONGGAO, a successor in the Yangqi branch of the Linji lineage. Dahui continued the efforts of his teacher YUANWU KEQIN, who is credited with compiling the influential BIYAN LU (“Blue Cliff Record”) and developed the use of Chan cases or precedents (GONG’AN) as subjects of meditation (see KANHUA CHAN). Dahui and his spiritual descendants continued to serve as abbots of the most powerful monasteries in China, such as WANSHOUSI (see GOZAN). During Dahui’s time, the Linji lineage came into brief conflict with the resurgent CAODONG ZONG lineage over the issue of the latter’s distinctive form of meditative practice, which Dahui pejoratively labeled “silent-illumination meditation” (MOZHAO CHAN). Other famous masters in the Linji lineage include WUZHUN SHIFAN, GAOFENG YUANMIAO, and ZHONGFENG MINGBEN. For the Korean and Japanese counterparts, see IMJE CHONG; RINZAISHŪ.

lishi wu’ai fajie. (J. rijimugehokkai; K. isa muae pŏpkye 理事無礙法界). In Chinese, “dharma-realm of the unimpeded interpenetration between principle and phenomena,” the third of the four realms of reality (DHARMADHĀTU) according to the Huayan school (HUAYAN ZONG). A mere realization of the “principle” (LI) of the dharmadhātu, as is offered in the second of the four dharmadhātus (see LI FAJIE) is not a decisive insight, the Huayan school claims, because it does not take into account the dynamic interpenetration or unimpededness (wu’ai) between the singular “principle” of true suchness (ZHENRU; see TATHATĀ) and the myriad “phenomena” (SHI) of the external world. Since true suchness is an abstract entity without definable features or tangible substance of its own, it is only revealed and made accessible through “phenomena.” Conversely, “phenomena” lose their ontological ground and epistemological coherence if they are not uniformly rooted in the “principle.” Thus, the Buddhist practitioner must come to recognize that the vibrant functioning of the phenomenal aspects of reality is in fact the expression of the principle itself. Alternatively, some Huayan exegetes have equated “principle” with the imperturbable buddha-nature (S. BUDDHADHĀTU, C. FOXING) and “phenomena” with the active ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA, the “storehouse consciousness.” In this interpretation, these two factors “interpenetrate” because ālayavijñāna is taken to be grounded in the buddha-nature and, in response to activating conditions, the buddha-nature is transmuted into the ālayavijñāna. A common simile used to describe the relationship between “principle” and “phenomena” is that between the deep ocean and the waves welling up on its surface, the essence of each of those waves is the same “principle” of water, but each wave is a unique, discrete “phenomenon” in its own right. Traditionally, Huayan classifies the unimpeded interpenetration between principle and phenomena under the “final [Mahāyāna] teaching (zhongjiao)” in the five Huayan classes of teachings schema (HUAYAN WUJIAO).

Li Tongxuan. (J. Ri Tsūgen; K. Yi T’onghyŏn 李通玄) (635–730; alt. 646–740). Tang-dynasty lay exegete of the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA (Huayan jing) and renowned thaumaturge. Li’s life is the stuff of legend. He is claimed to have been related to the Tang imperial house but is known only as an elusive and eccentric lay scholar of Buddhism, who hid away in hermits’ cells and mountain grottoes so as to devote himself entirely to his writing. Li’s hagiographer says that he was able to work late into the night just from the radiance that issued forth from his mouth; his scholarship and health were sustained by two mysterious maidens who brought him paper, brushes, and daily provisions. The magnum opus of this life of scholarship is a forty-roll commentary to ŚIKṢĀNANDA’s “new” 699 translation of the Avataṃsakasūtra; his commentary is entitled the Xin Huayan jing lun and was published posthumously in 774. In the mid-ninth century, Li’s commentary was published together with the sūtra as the HUAYAN JING HELUN, and this compilation is the recension of Li’s exegesis that is most widely used. Li also wrote a shorter one-roll treatise known usually by its abbreviated title of Shiming lun (“The Ten Illuminations”; the full title is Shi Huayan jing shi’er yuansheng jiemi xianzhi chengbei shiming lun), which discusses the Huayan jing from ten different perspectives on the doctrine of conditioned origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA), and two other shorter works. Because Li Tongxuan was not associated with the mainstream of the Huayan lineage (HUAYAN ZONG), he was able to develop his own distinctive vision of the insights found in the Avataṃsakasūtra, a vision that often offered an explicit challenge to the interpretations of FAZANG and the mainstream tradition. Li stands outside the orthodox patriarchal lineage of the Huayan school by being a layperson, not a monk, and by being someone interested not just in the profound philosophical implications of the scripture but also its concrete, practical dimensions. In his commentary, Li focuses not on the description of the dimensions of the realm of reality (dharmadhātu; see SI FAJIE) as had Fazang, but instead on SUDHANA’s personal quest for enlightenment in the final, and massive, GAṆḌAVYŪHA chapter of the sūtra. Li moved forward the crucial point of soteriological progress from the activation of the thought of enlightenment (BODHICITTOTPĀDA), which he places at the first stage of the ten abidings (shizhu), up to the first level of the ten faiths (shixin), what had previously been considered a preliminary stage of the Huayan path (MĀRGA). Since faith alone was sufficient to generate the understanding that one’s own body and mind are identical to the dharmadhātu and are fundamentally equivalent to buddhahood, buddhahood could therefore be experienced in this very life, rather than after three infinite eons (ASAṂKHYEYAKALPA) of training. ¶ Although Li’s writings seem to have been forgotten soon after his death, there was an efflorescence of interest in Li Tongxuan during the Song dynasty, when specialists in the Linji school of Chinese CHAN Buddhism (LINJI ZONG), such as JUEFAN HUIHONG (1071–1128) and DAHUI ZONGGAO (1089–1163), and their acquaintance, the scholar-official ZHANG SHANGYING (1043–1121), began to draw on Li’s practical orientation toward the Huayan jing in order to clarify aspects of Chan practice. In particular, Li’s advocacy of “nature origination” (XINGQI) in the Huayan jing (rather than conditioned origination of the dharmadhātu [FAJIE YUANQI]) seemed to offer an intriguing sūtra parallel to Chan’s emphasis on “seeing the nature” in order to “achieve buddhahood” (JIANXING CHENGFO). In Korea, POJO CHINUL (1158–1210) was strongly influenced by Li Tongxuan’s portrayal of Huayan thought, using it to demonstrate his claim that the words of the Buddha in the scriptural teachings of KYO and the mind of the Buddha transmitted by SŎN (C. Chan) were identical. Through Li, Chinul was able to justify his claim of an intrinsic harmony between Sŏn and Kyo. Chinul also wrote two treatises on Li’s Huayan thought, including a three-roll abridgement of Li’s Xin Huayan jing lun, entitled the Hwaŏm non chŏryo. In Japan, MYŌE KŌBEN (1173–1232) drew on Li’s accounts of the radiance emanating from the Buddha himself, in conjunction with his readings of esoteric Buddhism (MIKKYŌ) and his own prophetic dreams and visionary experiences, to create a distinctive meditative technique called the SAMĀDHI of the Buddha’s radiance (Bukkō zanmai). Thus, despite being outside the mainstream of the Huayan tradition, in many ways, Li Tongxuan proved to be its longest lasting, and most influential, exponent. PENG SHAOSHENG (1740–1796), in his JUSHI ZHUAN (“Biographies of [Eminent Laymen”), lists Li Tongxuan as one of the three great lay masters (SANGONG) of Chinese Buddhism, along with PANG YUN (740–803) and LIU CHENGZHI (354–410), praising Li for his mastery of scholastic doctrine (jiao).

Liu Chengzhi. (劉程之) (354–410). Chinese lay Buddhist known for his specialization in PURE LAND practice; his cognomen was Liu Yimin. Liu lived in the period between the Eastern Jin and Liu-Song dynasties. He lost his father at a very young age and is said to have waited on his mother with utmost filial piety. An accomplished scholar and civil servant, he eventually resigned his government post to live in solitude in the valleys and forests. Learning about the practice of reciting the Buddha’s name (NIANFO) that was then occurring in the community of LUSHAN HUIYUAN (334–416) at DONGLINSI on LUSHAN, Liu Chengzhi moved there, eventually staying for eleven years, concentrating on the practice of reciting the Buddha’s name. Eventually, he was able to achieve the samādhi of recitation (NIANFO sanmei), which provoked many spiritual responses. One day, for example, AMITĀBHA appeared before Liu, suffusing Liu with radiant light from his golden body. He subsequently dreamed about the water named Eight Kinds of Merit in the pond of the seven jewels in Amitābha’s pure land. Hearing a voice telling him, “You may drink the water,” he ingested only a small amount, after which he felt the cool refreshment spread throughout his chest and smelled unusual fragrance emanating from his entire body. The next day, he told Huiyuan that the time had come for him to be reborn in the western pure land and, soon afterwards, he passed away in serenity. PENG SHAOSHENG (1740–1796), in his JUSHI ZHUAN (“Biographies of [Eminent] Laymen”), lists Liu Chengzhi as one of the three great lay masters (SANGONG) of Chinese Buddhism, along with LI TONGXUAN (635–730) and PANG YUN (740–803), praising Liu for his mastery of pure land (JINGTU) practice.

liuxiang. (J. rokusō; K. yuksang 六相). In Chinese, “six aspects,” “characteristics,” or “signs” (LAKṢAṆA) inherent in all DHARMAs, according to the Huayan school (HUAYAN ZONG). Based on their reading of the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA, Huayan thinkers delineated six “aspects” to all things (with two alternate analogies given for each aspect): (1) The general or generic aspect (zongxiang), e.g., the aggregates (SKANDHA) together make up an individual person, which is the general sum of its parts; alt., being a sentient being is the generic aspect of a person. (2) The constituent or particular aspect (biexiang), e.g., the individual is constituted from the aggregates, which are the constituent parts that make up the sum of the person; alt., the fact that people may be differentiated as wise or fools is their particular characteristic. (3) The identity aspect (tongxiang), e.g., though distinct from one another, the aggregates are all part of this same person; alt., that each person possesses the identical wisdom of the buddhas is their characteristic of identity. (4) The differentiated aspect (yixiang), e.g., though they are of the same person, the aggregates are still distinct from one another; alt., that people have their unique attachments and vices is their characteristic of difference. (5) The collective, or integrated, aspect (chengxiang), e.g., the aggregates function collectively in interdependence one with another, thereby forming an integrated whole, which is the person; alt., that all beings are reborn in congruity with the actions they perform is their characteristic of integration. (6) The instantiated, or destructive, aspect (huaixiang), e.g., though forming a unitary whole in their function, each aggregate functions within its own laws and operational parameters; alt., that the mind ultimately does not abide anywhere is the characteristic of destruction. According to Huayan analysis, the first dyad pertains to the “essence” (TI) of things, the second to their “characteristics” (xiang), and the third to their “function” (YONG). Huayan exegetes argued that, in the enlightened vision of reality, these six aspects of things were seen simultaneously and not as contradictory facets. This vision of the “consummate interfusion” (YUANRONG) of the six aspects is said to occur on the first BHŪMI of the BODHISATTVA path (see BODHISATTVABHŪMI). See also SHISHI WU’AI FAJIE; FAJIE YUANQI.

liuyu. (J. rokuyu; K. yugyu 六喩). In Chinese, “six similes,” referring to six analogies employed to illustrate the unreality and illusory nature of all DHARMAs, the locus classicus of which appears in the VAJRACCHEDIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀSŪTRA (“Diamond Sūtra”). The existence of all mundane and supramundane dharmas (including NIRVĀṆA and buddhahood) is said to be as evanescent as a “dream,” a “phantasm,” a “bubble,” a “shadow,” “morning dew,” and “lightning.” These similes appear frequently throughout MAHĀYĀNA Buddhist literature. See AṢṬAMĀYOPĀMA.

Liuzu tan jing. (J. Rokuso dangyō; K. Yukcho tan kyŏng 六祖壇經). In Chinese, “Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch,” the written transcription of the sermons of the sixth patriarch (LIUZU) HUINENG (638–713); the composition is attributed to the monk FAHAI; also known as the Nan zong dunjiao zuishang dasheng mohe bore boluomi jing, Liuzu dashi fabao tan jing, Fabao tan jing, or simply Tan jing (“Platform Sūtra”). The Liuzu tan jing is one of the most influential texts of the CHAN tradition. The text is ostensibly a record of the lectures delivered by the reputed sixth patriarch Huineng at the monastery of Dafansi in Shaozhou (present-day Guangdong province). The lectures contain the famous story of Huineng’s verse competition with his rival SHENXIU, which wins Huineng the Chan patriarchy (see ZUSHI), in which Huineng distinguished his own “sudden teachings” (DUNJIAO) of a so-called Southern school (NAN ZONG) of Chan from the “gradual teachings” (jianjiao) of Shenxiu’s Northern school (BEI ZONG). As Huineng defines the term later in this sermon, the “sudden teaching” involves an approach to Buddhist training that is free from all dualistic forms of practice (see ADVAYA) and that correspondingly rejects any and all expedient means (UPĀYA) of realizing truth. This sudden teaching comes to be considered emblematic of the so-called Southern school (Nan zong) of Chan, which retrospectively comes to be considered the mainstream of the Chan tradition. The teachings of the text also focus on the unity of concentration (SAMĀDHI) and wisdom (PRAJÑĀ), in which concentration is conceived to be the essence (TI) of wisdom and wisdom the functioning (YONG) of concentration; “no-thought” (WUNIAN), which the text defines as “not to think even when involved in thought”; seeing one’s own nature (JIANXING); and the conferral of the formless precepts (WUXIANG JIE). Indeed, the “platform” in the title refers to the ordination platform (jietan; cf. SĪMĀ) where Huineng conferred these formless precepts. Although the Liuzu tan jing has been traditionally heralded as the central scripture of the Nan zong, and certainly is beholden to the teachings of the Southern-school champion HEZE SHENHUI, the text seems to have been influenced as well by the teachings of both the Northern and Oxhead schools (NIUTOU ZONG). Within the Chan tradition, a Yuan-dynasty edition of the Liuzu tan jing, which included an important preface by FORI QISONG, was most widely disseminated. SIR MARC AUREL STEIN’s rediscovery in the DUNHUANG manuscript cache of a previously unknown, and quite different, recension of the text, dating to the mid-ninth century, did much to launch the modern scholarly reappraisal of the received history of the Chan school. See also DUNWU.

lobha. (T. chags pa; C. tan; J. ton; K. t’am 貪). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “craving,” or “greed,” a synonym of RĀGA (“sensuality” or “desire”) and the opposite of “absence of craving” or “absence of greed” (ALOBHA). Lobha is one of the most ubiquitous of the defilements (KLEŚA) and is listed among six fundamental afflictions (KLEŚAMAHĀBHŪMIKA), ten fetters (SAṂYOJANA), ten proclivities (ANUŚAYA), five hindrances (ĀVARAṆA), three poisons (TRIVIṢA), and three unwholesome faculties (AKUŚALAMŪLA). Lobha is also one of the forty-six mental factors (see CAITTA) according to the VAIBHĀṢIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA abhidharma, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGACĀRA school, and one of the fifty-two in the Pāli abhidhamma. When sensory contact with objects is made “without proper comprehension” or “without introspection” (ASAṂPRAJANYA), craving (lobha), aversion (DVEṢA), and delusion (MOHA) arise. In the case of craving—which is a psychological reaction associated with the pursuing, possessing, or yearning for a pleasing stimulus and discontent with unpleasant stimuli—this greed could target a host of possible objects. Scriptural accounts list these objects of craving as sensual pleasures, material belongings, loved ones, fame, the five aggregates (SKANDHA), speculative views (DṚṢṬI), the meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA) of the “subtle-materiality” and “immaterial” realms (see TRILOKADHĀTU), the future “becoming” (BHAVA) of the “self” (S. bhavarāga), and the future “annihilation” of the “self” (S. abhavarāga), among other things. According to the ĀGAMAs and the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA, craving is the self-imposed “yoking together” of the subject and its object, whereby the mind is “mired,” “bonded,” and “burdened” by desire. As one of the three unwholesome faculties (AKUŚALAMŪLA), craving is said to be the common ground or source of a variety of unwholesome mental states, such as possessiveness (MĀTSARYA) and pride (MADA).

Lo chen Dharma Shri. (1654–1717). Eminent scholar of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the younger brother of the founder of SMIN GROL GLING monastery, GTER BDAG GLING PA. More scholarly than his older brother, his collected works cover the entire range of traditional subjects, including astrology, VINAYA, and TANTRA, filling twenty volumes. Particularly important is his detailed explanation of Mnga’ ris paṇ chen Padma dbang rgyal’s (Ngari Panchen Pema Wangyel) SDOM GSUM RNAM NGES, his Sdom pa gsum rnam par nges pa’i ’grel ba legs bshad ngo mtshar dpag bsam gyi snye ma, the study of which forms the central part of the curriculum of many Rnying ma BSHAD GRWA (monastic schools).

Lo chen sprul sku. (Lochen tulku). A Tibetan title for the lineage of incarnations of the famed eleventh-century translator RIN CHEN BZANG PO, the main line of incarnate lamas at BKRA SHIS LHUN PO monastery after that of the PAṆ CHEN LAMA. The appellation is short for lo tsā ba chen po, “great translator” (see LO TSĀ BA).

logic. A term used to render Sanskrit YUKTI or NYĀYA, referring in general to the system of reasoning developed by DIGNĀGA and DHARMAKĪRTI that sets forth the constituents of correct reasoning and how such reasoning results in inference (ANUMĀNA). See also HETUVIDYĀ, LAKṢAṆA, LIṄGA.

Lohapāsāda. The ordination (P. uposatha; S. UPOṢADHA) hall of the MAHĀVIHĀRA monastery in ANURĀDHAPURA, Sri Lanka. Originally a small structure built by the Sri Lankan king DEVĀNAṂPIYATISSA in the third century BCE, King DUṬṬHAGĀMAṆĪ rebuilt it in the first century BCE, this time as a celebrated nine-story edifice with one hundred rooms on each floor, the four upper floors of which were reserved for ARHATS. The Lohapāsāda was restored and renovated numerous times. In the fourth century CE, King MAHĀSENA, under the advice of the heretical monk, Saṅghamitta, had the Lohapāsāda torn down and its materials reused for construction within the rival ABHAYAGIRI monastery. Mahāsena’s son, Sirimeghavaṇṇa, in an effort to make amends for his father’s misdeed, ordered the Lohapāsāda to be reconstructed on its original spot within the Mahāvihāra compound. BUDDHAGHOSA, the fifth-century commentator, describes the Lohapāsāda and its prominence as place of religious preaching and instruction. It was restored a final time in the twelfth century by King PARĀKRAMABĀHU I, after it had been sacked by Cōḷa invaders. Thereafter, the Lohapāsāda fell into ruin and has remained in that state until today. The site is marked by twelve hundred stone pillars which are believed to have supported the first terrace of the structure.

Lohiccasutta. (C. Luzhe jing; J. Roshakyō; K. Noch’a kyŏng 露遮經). In Pāli, “Discourse to Lohicca,” the twelfth sutta of the Pāli DĪGHANIKĀYA (a separate DHARMAGUPTAKA recension appears as the twenty-ninth SŪTRA in the Chinese translation of the DĪRGHĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to the brāhmaṇa Lohicca at the village of Sālavatikā in KOŚALA. According to the Pāli account, Lohicca holds the view that a sage who reaches certain wholesome states of mind should tell no one of it, for to do so would be to manifest craving and entangle him in new bonds. He puts this opinion to the Buddha who responds that, to the contrary, it would be selfish for such a person to remain silent if he had something of benefit to teach to others. The Buddha then describes three types of teachers who are worthy of blame. The first is one who, even though he himself has not attained true renunciation, teaches DHARMA and VINAYA to others but is rejected along with his teachings by his pupils. The second is one who, even though he himself has not attained true renunciation, is embraced along with his teachings by his pupils. The third is one who, even though he himself has attained true renunciation, is nevertheless rejected along with his teachings by his pupils. The Buddha then describes the teacher who is unworthy of blame as someone who awakens to the dharma and enters the Buddhist order, trains in the restraint of conduct and speech and observes minor points of morality, guards the senses, practices mindfulness, is content with little, becomes freed from the five hindrances (NĪVARAṆA), attains joy and peace of mind, cultivates the four meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA), develops insight (P. ñāṇadassana; JÑĀNADARŚANA) into the conditioned nature and the impermanence of body and mind, and gains knowledge of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI) and the destruction of the contaminants (ĀSRAVA). Lohicca is pleased by the sermon and becomes a lay disciple of the Buddha.

loka. (T. ’jig rten; C. shijie/shijian; J. sekai/seken; K. segye/segan 世界/世間). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “world,” or “realm”; a polysemous term with a wide range of literal and figurative senses. Literally, loka is used to refer to a specific realm of various types of beings as well as more broadly to an entire world system (see LOKADHĀTU, TRAIDHĀTUKA), with Mount SUMERU at the center; the term can also refer collectively to the inhabitants of such a world. In a figurative sense, loka carries many of the connotations of “world” in English (“worldly,” “mundane”) to refer to SAṂSĀRA and its qualities, which, although attractive to the unenlightened, are subject to impermanence (ANITYA). Such a world is contrasted with what is, lit. “beyond the world” or LOKOTTARA, a term used to describe the “supramundane” aspirations and achievements of those seeking liberation.

lokadharma. (P. lokadhamma; T. ’jig rten gyi chos; C. shifa; J. sehō; K. sebŏp 世法). In Sanskrit, “worldly factors,” a polysemous term that in its most general sense indicates mundane factors (DHARMA) that arise and cease according to causes and conditions (HETUPRATYAYA). The term also refers to worldly ways and principles, which can be summed up as the process of birth, decay, and death. However, in its most common usage, the term lokadharma is understood as referring to eight worldly conditions or states (AṢṬALOKADHARMA) that govern all of mundane life in this world: gain (lābha) and loss (alābha), fame (yaśas) and disgrace (ayaśas), praise (praśaṃsā) and blame (nindā), and happiness (SUKHA) and suffering (DUḤKHA). Each of these states will inevitably befall any sentient being trapped in the cycle of continued existence (SAṂSĀRA). In this schema, the lokadharma are understood as four complimentary pairs: gain (lābha) is the inevitable precursor of loss (alābha) and loss the inevitable outcome of gain; and so forth for the other three pairs. Learning to react with equanimity to each of these worldly conditions will lead to nonattachment and ultimately enlightenment.

lokadhātu. (T. ’jig rten pa’i khams; C. shijie; J. sekai; K. segye 世界). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “worldly realm” or “world system”; a cosmos within SAṂSĀRA that consists of the four continents, a central Mount SUMERU, etc. See AVACARA; TRAIDHĀTUKA.

*Lokakṣema. (C. Zhi Loujiachan; J. Shi Rukasen; K. Chi Rugach’am 支婁迦讖) (c. 178–198 CE). A pioneering translator of Indic Buddhist materials into Chinese. Lokakṣema was an Indo–Scythian monk from the KUSHAN kingdom in the GANDHĀRA region of northwest India, who was active in China sometime in the last quarter of the second century CE, soon after the Parthian translator AN SHIGAO. His Sanskrit name is a tentative reconstruction of the Chinese transcription Loujiachan, and he is often known in the literature by the abbreviated form Zhi Chan (using the ethnikon ZHI). Lokakṣema is said to have arrived in the Chinese capital of Luoyang in 167 CE, where he began to render Indic Buddhist sūtras into Chinese. Some fourteen works in twenty-seven rolls are typically ascribed to him (although the numbers given in the literature vary widely), of which twelve are generally presumed to be authentic. The translations thought to be genuine include the first Chinese renderings of sūtras from some of the earliest strata of Indic MAHĀYĀNA literature, including the AṢṬASĀHASRIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ (Xiaopin bore jing), the KĀŚYAPAPARIVARTA (Yi rimonibao jing), the PRATYUTPANNABUDDHASAṂMUKHĀVASTHITASAMĀDHISŪTRA (Banzhou sanmei jing), and the AKṢOBHYATATHĀGATASYAVYŪHA (Achu foguo jing). Given the time of his arrival in China, the Indic texts on which his translations were based must already have been in circulation in Kushan territory by at least 150 CE, giving a terminus ad quem for their composition. Rendered into a kind of pidgin Chinese, these “translations” may actually have targeted not Chinese readers but instead an émigré community of Kushan immigrants who had lost their ability to read Indic languages.

lokapāla. (T. ’jig rten skyong ba; C. si tianwang; J. shitennō; K. sa ch’ŏnwang 四天王). In Sanskrit, “world guardians” or “protectors of the world”; an alternate name for the four “great kings” (mahārāja) of heaven, who were converted by the Buddha and entrusted with protecting the inhabitants of the world. The world guardians reside in the first and lowest of the six heavens of the sensuous realm of existence (KĀMADHĀTU), the heaven of the four great kings (CĀTURMAHĀRĀJAKĀYIKA). They are vassals of ŚAKRA, the lord or king (INDRA) of the gods (DEVA) (ŚAKRO DEVĀNĀM INDRAḤ), who is lord of the heaven of the thirty-three devas (TRĀYASTRIṂŚA), the second of the six sensuous realm heavens, which is located at the summit of the world’s central axis of Mount SUMERU. The world guardians’ names are (1) DHṚTARĀṢṬRA, who guards the gate to the east at the midslope of Mount Sumeru, which leads to the continent of VIDEHA; (2) VIRŪḌHAKA in the south, who guards the gate that leads to JAMBUDVĪPA; (3) VIRŪPĀKṢA in the west, who guards the gate that leads to GODĀNĪYA; and (4) VAIŚRAVAṆA in the north, who guards the gate that leads to UTTARAKURU. Of the eight classes of demigods, who are subservient to the world guardians, Dhṛtarāṣṭra rules over the GANDHARVA and pūtana; Virūḍhaka over the KUMBHĀṆḌA and PRETA; Virūpākṣa over the NĀGA and PIŚĀCA; and Vaiśravaṇa over the YAKṢA and RĀKṢASA. The four world guardians began as indigenous Indian or Central Asian deities, who were eventually incorporated into Buddhism; they seem to have been originally associated with royal (KṢATRIYA) lineages, and their connections with royal warfare are evidenced in the suits of armor they come to wear as their cult is transmitted from Central Asia to China, Korea, and Japan.

Lokātītastava. (T. ’Jig rten las ’das par bstod pa). In Sanskrit, “In Praise of the Supramundane One”; an Indian philosophical work written in the form of a praise of the Buddha by the MADHYAMAKA master NĀGĀRJUNA. In the Tibetan tradition, there are a large number of such praises (called bstod tshogs or STAVAKĀYA), in contrast to the set of philosophical texts (called rigs tshogs or YUKTIKĀYA) attributed to Nāgārjuna, among which the ACINTYASTAVA, Lokātītastava, NIRAUPAMYASTAVA, and PARAMĀRTHASTAVA are extant in Sanskrit and generally accepted to be his work; these four works together are known as the CATUḤSTAVA. It is less certain that he is the author of the DHARMADHĀTUSTAVA (“Hymn to the Dharmadhātu”) of which only fragments are available in the original. The Lokātītastava is a work in twenty-eight verses. The first part of the text refutes the independent existence of the aggregates (SKANDHA) that constitute the person; the second part of the text refutes the ultimate existence of the world; and the third part states that the knowledge of emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ) leads to liberation. The content of the work accords with that of the MŪLAMADHYAMAKAKĀRIKĀ, although here, the Buddha is addressed directly and quoted in many of the stanzas.

Lokāyata. (T. ’Jig rten rgyang phan pa; C. Shunshi waidao; J. Junse gedō; K. Sunse oedo 順世外道). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “Naturalist” or “Worldly” school; one of the major early schools of the Indian movement of wandering religious (ŚRAMAṆA), which is mentioned occasionally in Buddhist scriptures. Its founding is attributed to the legendary figure Bṛhaspati, but during the Buddha’s lifetime, its most prominent exponent was AJITA Keśakambala. The Lokāyata school is claimed to have taken a rigidly materialist perspective toward the world, in which everything in the universe, including consciousness, was composed only of the four elements (MAHĀBHŪTA) of earth, water, heat, and air. Since everything occurs spontaneously through the interaction of its inherent material properties, the Lokāyatas advocated a “natural,” even laissez-faire, attitude toward conduct (yadṛcchāvāda), in which the summum bonum of existence was thought to be sensual pleasure (KĀMA). As a materialist school, the Lokāyatas also denied the efficacy of moral cause and effect because of its rejection of any prospect of transmigration or rebirth.

lokeśvara. (T. ’jig rten dbang phyug; C. shizizai; J. sejizai; K. sejajae 世自在). In Sanskrit, “lord of the world”; a polysemous term in a Buddhist context. Lokeśvara is one of the many titles of respect given to a buddha. The term also denotes several different divinities (DEVA) who are worshipped or called upon for favor; many of these gods were assimilated from the ancient Indian pantheon. Thus, the term can refer to any number of deities that are invoked by Buddhist practitioners. Lokeśvara is also one of the common variant names of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEŚVARA. Finally, LOKEŚVARARĀJA is the name of one of the fifty-three buddhas of the past mentioned in the SUKHĀVATĪVYŪHASŪTRA and the one who gave the prediction of future buddhahood to DHARMĀKARA, the eventual buddha AMITĀBHA.

Lokeśvararāja. (T. ’Jig rten dbang phyug rgyal po; C. Guanzizai wang rulai/Shizizai wang fo; J. Kanjizaiō nyorai/Sejizaiō butsu; K. Kwanjajae wang yŏrae/Sejajae wang pul 觀自在王如來/世自在王佛). Sanskrit proper name of one of the fifty-three buddhas of the past listed in the SUKHĀVATĪVYŪHASŪTRA (Wuliangshou jing); Lokeśvararāja is the one who displayed millions of buddha fields (BUDDHAKṢETRA) to DHARMĀKARA and who gave the monk the prediction of his future buddhahood (VYĀKARAṆA). Dharmakāra then selected the best qualities of each of these buddha lands and combined them into his conception of a single buddha field, which he described to Lokeśvararāja in terms of forty-eight vows. Dharmakāra subsequently completed the path of the bodhisattva to become the buddha AMITĀBHA, and his buddha field, or PURE LAND, became SUKHĀVATĪ.

lokiyasamādhi. (S. laukikasamādhi; T. ’jig rten pa’i ting nge ’dzin; C. shunshi sanmei; J. junse sanmai; K. sunse sammae 順世三昧). In Pāli, “mundane concentration,” or “worldly concentration”; any type of mental concentration that is disassociated from the four paths (P. magga; S. MĀRGA) and four fruits (PHALA) of liberation. The term denotes all moments of concentration that are involved in ordinary mundane consciousness, whether virtuous or nonvirtuous, and states of meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA) cultivated through tranquillity meditation (P. samathabhāvanā; S. ŚAMATHA), which do not as yet involve insight or wisdom (P. paññā; S. PRAJÑĀ). See also LOKUTTARASAMĀDHI.

lokottara. (P. lokuttara; T. ’jig rten las ’das pa; C. chushijian; J. shusseken; K. ch’ulsegan 出世間). In Sanskrit, lit. “beyond the world”; “supramundane,” “transcendent”; viz., something that is related to attaining liberation (VIMOKṢA) from SAṂSĀRA or that leads to such liberation. The term also can indicate a certain level of spiritual maturity, such as when the practitioner is no longer subject to the contaminants (ĀSRAVA). In the context of the status of practitioners, mundane (LAUKIKA) refers to ordinary beings; more specifically, in the fifty-two stage bodhisattva path, laukika usually indicates practitioners who are at the stage of the ten faiths (C. shixin), ten understandings (C. shijie), or ten practices (C. shixing), while “supramundane” (lokottara) refers to more enlightened practitioners, such as BODHISATTVAs who are on the ten stages (DAŚABHŪMI). FAZANG’s HUAYAN WUJIAO ZHANG (“Essay on the Five Teachings according to Huayan”) parses these stages even more precisely: of the ten stages (daśabhūmi) of the path leading to buddhahood, stages one through three belong to the mundane (laukika); the fourth to the seventh stages are supramundane from the standpoint of the three vehicles (TRIYĀNA) of ŚRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, and BODHISATTVA; and the eighth to the tenth stages transcend even the supramundane and belong to the one vehicle (EKAYĀNA). The LOKOTTARAVĀDA (Teaching of Transcendence), a subschool of the MAHĀSĀṂGHIKA school of mainstream Buddhism, took its name from its advocacy of the supramundane qualities of the Buddha and the univocality of the BUDDHAVACANA. The school’s emblematic text, the MAHĀVASTU, claims that all the seemingly mundane acts of the Buddha are in fact supramundane; hence, although the Buddha may appear to eat and sleep, walk and talk like ordinary people, he in fact remains constantly in a state of meditation because he is free from all needs.

Lokottaravāda. (P. Lokuttaravāda; T. ’Jig rten ’das par smra ba; C. Shuochushibu; J. Setsushussebu; K. Sŏlch’ulsebu

出世部). In Sanskrit, lit. “Teaching of Transcendence,” meaning “Those Who Teach [that the Buddha and the BUDDHAVACANA] are Transcendent,” the name of one of the three main branches of the MAHĀSĀṂGHIKA school of mainstream Buddhism; also known as the EKAVYAVAHĀRIKA (“Those Who Make a Single Utterance”). (Note that the Chinese translation suggests that the school should properly be called the Lokottaranikāya.) The name for the school comes from its distinguishing doctrine: that the Buddha articulates all of his teachings in a single utterance that is altogether transcendent or supramundane (LOKOTTARA). Later interpretations of the school also suggest that its name may derive from the fact that all the things of this world can be described in a single utterance because those phenomena are nothing more than mental constructions or have merely provisional reality. The Lokottaravāda position is in distinction to two rival schools that derive from the KAUKKUṬIKA branch of the Mahāsāṃghika: the BAHUŚRUTĪYA, who asserted that the buddhavacana includes both transcendent and provisional teachings; and the PRAJÑAPTIVĀDA, who asserted that the Buddha taught not only transcendent truths but also employed provisional designations (PRAJÑAPTI) and concepts to frame his teachings for his audience. The Lokottaravāda is now primarily known as the school that composed the MAHĀVASTU, a biography of the Buddha that is the earliest extant text of BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT. The Mahāvastu claims that all the seemingly mundane acts of the Buddha are in fact transcendent; hence, although the Buddha may appear to function like ordinary people, he in fact remains constantly in a state of meditation.

lokuttaramagga. (S. lokottaramārga; T. ’jig rten las ’das pa’i lam; C. chushi dao; J. shussedō; K. ch’ulse to 出世道). In Pāli, “supramundane path”; four stages of “attainment” along the noble path (S. ĀRYAMĀRGA) of enlightened persons (S. ĀRYAPUDGALA); viz., the path of stream-enterer (S. srotaāpattimārga), the path of once-returner (S. sakṛdāgāmimārga), the path of nonreturner (S. anāgāmimārga), and the path of the worthy (S. arhanmārga). The four supramundane paths are combined with four supramundane fruitions (LOKUTTARAPHALA) to make eight stages of holiness altogether.

lokuttaraphala. (S. lokottaraphala; T. ’jig rten las ’das pa’i ’bras bu; C. chushi guo; J. shusseka; K. ch’ulse kwa 出世果). In Pāli, “supramundane fruition”; four stages of “enjoyment” along the noble path (S. ĀRYAMĀRGA) of noble persons (S. ĀRYAPUDGALA); viz., the fruition of stream-enterer (S. srotaāpattiphala), fruition of once-returner (S. sakṛdāgāmiphala), fruition of nonreturner (anāgāmiphala), and fruition of the worthy one (S. arhatphala). The four supramundane fruitions are combined with four supramundane paths (LOKUTTARAMAGGA) to make a total of eight stages of sanctity. See ĀRYAMĀRGAPHALA; ĀRYAPUDGALA.

lokuttarasamādhi. (S. lokottarasamādhi; T. ’jig rten las ’das pa’i ting nge ’dzin; C. chushi sanmei; J. shusse sanmai; K. ch’ulse sammae 出世三昧). In Pāli, “supramundane concentration”; concentration associated with the attainment of any of the four paths (magga, S. MĀRGA) and/or four fruitions (PHALA) of enlightenment, which constitute collectively eight moments along the path to complete liberation from SAṂSĀRA. The eight moments in order of their occurrence are the (1) path and (2) fruition of a stream-enterer (S. SROTAĀPANNA), the (3) path and (4) fruition of a once-returner (S. SAKṚDĀGĀMIN), the (5) path and (6) fruition of a nonreturner (S. ANĀGĀMIN), and the (7) path and (8) fruition of a worthy one (S. ARHAT). All other forms of concentration not associated with the paths and fruits of enlightenment are deemed of this world or “mundane concentrations” (LOKIYASAMĀDHI). Supramundane concentration is also characterized by its singular object, NIRVĀṆA.

Longchisi. (龍池寺). In Chinese, “Monastery of the Dragon Pool”; located on ZHONGNANSHAN near the former Chinese capital of Chang’an (present-day Xi’an). According to DAOXUAN (596–667 CE), in 601 CE a Buddhist monk named Daopan (532–615 CE) assembled some disciples around a pond by Mt. Zhongnan, where they built this monastery. The name refers to the legend of a dragon king (see NĀGA), who flooded an entire kingdom so that he could use it as a pool in which to reside. He was later converted to Buddhism by MADHYĀNTIKA, one of ĀNANDA’s two main disciples. In another account, it is said that the monastery already existed when Emperor Wen (r. 581–604 CE) of the Sui dynasty ordered its renovation in 587 CE, whereupon it was given the name Longchi Monastery. In this account, Daopan was already in residence at the monastery, which enjoyed the patronage of several influential court officials. Many eminent monks in addition to Daopan are buried here. They include Kongzang (569–642 CE), Huiman (589–642 CE), Jingxuan (569–611 CE), Huizan (536–607 CE), and Pukuang (548–620). It is also said that the HUAYAN master FAZANG (643–712 CE) was active at the monastery, where, at the behest of the Tang Emperor Ruizong (r. 684–690 CE and 710–712 CE), he famously performed a ritual to pray for snow in order to stave off a severe drought the region was experiencing. (There are conflicting accounts, however, as to whether this event occurred at Longchisi or WUZHENSI.)

Longmen. (龍門). In Chinese, lit. “Dragon Gate,” an important Buddhist cave site located 7.5 miles south of the ancient Chinese capital of Luoyang in China’s Henan province. Spanning over half a mile along a cliff above the Yi River, the Longmen grottoes contain some of the most spectacular examples of stone sculpture in China, together with the MOGAO KU near DUNHUANG, the YUNGANG grottoes at Datong, and the Dazu caves (DAZU SHIKE) outside the city of Chongqing. The first grotto at Longmen was excavated in 495 CE when the Northern Wei capital was moved from Datong to Luoyang. Construction at the site continued until the site was abandoned in 755 because of civil strife and reflects a period of intense Buddhist activity in China that lasted through the Tang and Northern Song dynasties. A total of 2,345 grottoes were excavated and carved, which include more than one hundred thousand Buddhist images, some three thousand inscribed tablets, and over forty pagodas. Although largely an imperial site, some of the individual caves and niches were commissioned by the local Buddhist laity. Fengxiansi, the largest of the Longmen grottoes, dates to the Tang dynasty. When that chapel was first constructed, a roof is thought to have enclosed the entire cliff face. Today, the roof no longer remains and the sculptures stand unprotected in the open air. In 2000, the Longmen grottoes were placed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. See also BINGLINGSI.

lo tsā ba. (lotsawa). In Tibetan, “translator,” used especially as an epithet for the Tibetan translators of the earlier dissemination (SNGA DAR) and later dissemination (PHYI DAR) of dharma in Tibet, who translated Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into Tibetan. The term may be a Tibetan phonetic rendering of the Sanskrit lokaścakṣus, “eye of the world.” The title is often abbreviated simply as lo and appended at the beginning of the names of many of the early translators.

lta ba nyon mongs can. (S. dṛṣṭisaṃkleśa). In Tibetan, “defiled view” (see DṚṢṬI), a term for the fifth of the six ANUŚAYA (“proclivities”) set forth as the basic afflictions or defilements (KLEŚA) in the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA. It differentiates dṛṣṭi in the negative sense of “speculative opinions” from dṛṣṭi in the positive sense of “right view” (see SAMYAGDṚṢṬI). These defiled views are subdivided into five types of wrong views (pañcadṛṣṭi): SATKĀYADṚṢṬI (view that there is a perduring self), ANTAGRĀHADṚṢṬI (extreme views of permanence or annihilation), MITHYĀDṚṢṬI (fallacious views denying the efficacy of KARMAN, rebirth, and causality), DṚṢṬIPARĀMARŚA (clinging to one’s own wrong views as being superior), and ŚĪLAVRATAPARĀMARŚA (belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals). All are eliminated by the path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA).

Luang Prabang. Ancient royal capital of the kingdom of Laos and one of the major historical centers of Laotian Buddhism. Originally named Muang Sua, the region was a frequent locus of political contestation and was periodically under the suzerainty of the Nanzhao kingdom in southern China, the Chams from Vietnam, the Khmer kingdom in Cambodia, and the Thais. In 1353, the city became the initial capital of the Lao Lan Xang kingdom (1353–1707) and after the demise of that state became the center of an independent Luang Prabang kingdom. After the French annexed Laos, Luang Prabang continued to be maintained as the royal residence. The city is a collection of districts, each of which is built around a central monastery. The city includes thirty-three major Buddhist monasteries (wat), which are built in a distinctive style, with tiered roofs, pillared porticos, and embellished from top to bottom with exceedingly elaborate ornamentation. One of the most important of the monasteries is Wat Xieng Thong, which was constructed in 1560 on the northern peninsula of the city and includes a rare image of a reclining buddha that is said to date from the monastery’s founding. Luang Prabang was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 and has emerged as a major center of Buddhist tourism in Southeast Asia.

Lumbinī. (T. Lum bi’i tshal/Lum bi ni; C. Lanpini yuan; J. Ranbinion; K. Nambini wŏn 藍毘尼園). In Sanskrit and Pāli, the name of the Buddha’s birthplace, now Rummindei in the Terai Region of modern Nepal. The Buddha’s mother MĀYĀ was traveling from her home in KAPILAVASTU to her parents’ home to give birth when she went into labor at Lumbinī. According to traditional accounts, she gave birth while standing between twin ŚĀLA trees. It is said that the Buddha stepped out of her right side and was born. (His conception had been similarly miraculous: the Buddha entered his mother’s womb in the form of a white elephant.) The moment after the Buddha’s birth, both mother and child were washed with water by divinities, the legendary origin of “bathing the infant Buddha” ceremonies that occur during the festival celebrating the Buddha’s birth in numerous Buddhist cultures. As soon as he was born, he is claimed to have taken seven steps and declared that he was unrivalled on heaven and earth (see SIṂHANĀDA). As with all mothers of prospective buddhas, Māyā died seven days after the birth of her son. Queen Māyā’s sister MAHĀPRAJĀPATĪ, another wife of his father King ŚUDDHODANA, would serve as the Buddha’s wet nurse and foster mother and eventually become the founder of the order of nuns (BHIKṢUṆĪ). The mainstream MAHĀPARINIRVĀṆASŪTRA (P. MAHĀPARINIBBĀNASUTTA) recognizes Lumbinī as the first of the four principal pilgrimage sites (MAHĀSTHĀNA) Buddhists should frequent to recollect the achievements of the Buddha and to “arouse emotion in the faithful” along with BODHGAYĀ, where the Buddha attained enlightenment; the Deer Park (MṚGADĀVA) at ṚṢIPATANA (SĀRNĀTH), where he first “turned the wheel of the dharma” (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA); and KUŚINAGARĪ, where he passed away into PARINIRVĀṆA. Lumbinī is still frequented today by Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world.

luohan. (J. rakan; K. nahan 羅漢). In Chinese, ARHAT, referring to groups of venerated disciples of the Buddha who in their popular forms served as objects of cultic worship in East Asia. Countless paintings and statues of arhats were created, and legends and miracle stories concerning them circulated throughout the East Asian region. The arhats were commonly worshipped in groups of sixteen, eighteen, and five hundred, the last two of which developed without a canonical basis. Especially important was the cult of sixteen (later sometimes expanded to eighteen) arhat disciples (see ṢOḌAŚASTHAVIRA), whom the Buddha ordered to forgo PARINIRVĀṆA and to continue to dwell in this world in order to preserve the Buddhist teachings until the coming of the future buddha, MAITREYA. Each of these arhats was assigned a residence and a retinue of disciples. Once Maitreya had advented on earth, the arhats would be charged with gathering the remaining relics of the current buddha ŚĀKYAMUNI and erecting one last STŪPA to hold them, after which they would finally pass into PARINIRVĀṆA. In China, arhat cults were popular particularly during the medieval period. Statues and paintings of arhats were enshrined throughout the land and Buddhists made offerings before those images. The Wuyue court even sponsored an annual summoning ritual of the five hundred arhats from the tenth century onward. The Song-dynasty court continued to sponsor the same ritual to pray for the welfare of the court and to ward off the evils. In Korea, the Koryŏ (918–1392) court performed a ritual for the five hundred arhats more than twenty-five times between 1053 and the end of the dynasty. The ritual was principally intended to pray for precipitation and protection from foreign invasion. This ritual even continued into the early Chosŏn (1392–1910) period. Still today, most of the larger Korean monasteries will have on their campus an arhat hall (nahan chŏn), which enshrines paintings and/or images, typically of the group of sixteen. In Japan, the arhat cults were especially connected with the ZEN school. In particular, many monasteries associated with the SŌTŌSHŪ have a hall dedicated to the arhats, which usually enshrines images of the sixteen, and the tradition engages in monthly and semiannual rituals dedicated to the arhats. In the Sōtō tradition, arhats are believed to play both salvific and apotropaic roles.

Luoyang qielan ji. (J. Rakuyō garanki; K. Nagyang karam ki 洛陽伽藍

). In Chinese, “Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang,” written in 547 by Yang Xuanzhi (d.u.) of the Eastern Wei dynasty. (Qielan in the title is an abbreviated Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit term saṃghārāma or monastery; see ĀRĀMA.) This five-roll compilation is a record of forty-five great monasteries that flourished in or around the Chinese capital of Luoyang during the previous Northern Wei dynasty. The number of monasteries in the vicinity of Luoyang grew from forty-two during the Yongjia reign (307–313) of the Jin dynasty to 1,367 during the Northern Wei period; after the Wei moved its capital from Luoyang to Ye in 534, however, the number rapidly declined to 421. After witnessing the decline of Buddhism in the city during his visit in 547, Yang Xuanzhi decided to record in as much detail as he could the splendor of the monasteries that had once flourished in Luoyang. Yang provides a meticulous description of the founder, scenery, layout, and landscape of each of the great monasteries, as well as the icons and tablets housed inside the different basilicas and shrines on each monastic campus. Whenever possible, he also includes a brief account of ceremonies and services observed at the monasteries. The Luoyang qielan ji is an invaluable source of information on Northern Wei Buddhist institutions.

Lushan. (J. Rozan; K. Yŏsan 廬山). A Chinese sacred mountain located near Poyang Lake in present-day Jiangxi province. Lushan, or Cottage Mountain, is a scenic place that was long frequented by Daoist practitioners and known as the abode of Daoist perfected. AN SHIGAO, the early Parthian translator of Chinese Buddhist texts, is also said to have resided on the mountain during the Eastern Han dynasty. At the end of the fourth century CE, the Chinese monk DAO’AN is known to have established the monastery Xilinsi (Western Grove Monastery) on the mountain. A decade or so later, his famed disciple LUSHAN HUIYUAN also came to the mountain and established the influential monastery DONGLINSI (Eastern Grove Monastery). On a peak named the “PRAJÑĀ Terrace,” Huiyuan enshrined an image of the buddha AMITĀBHA for worship and contemplation. Together with 123 colleagues, Huiyuan established the White Lotus Society (BAILIAN SHE), which was dedicated to Amitābha worship. Due especially to Huiyuan’s influence, Lushan emerged as an important site for the cult of Amitābha and his PURE LAND (see SUKHĀVATĪ). During the Song dynasty, Lushan became the home of the CHAN master HUANGLONG HUINAN (1002–1069) and his disciples in the HUANGLONG PAI of the LINJI ZONG. In 1147, Donglin Changcong (1025–1091), one of Huanglong’s chief disciples and recipient of the imperial purple robe, was appointed by the court to assume to abbotship of Donglinsi, which had been officially recognized as a public Chan cloister (chanyuan) in 1079. During his visit to Lushan, the renowned poet Su Shi (1037–1101) is said to have attained awakening under Changcong’s guidance. In 1616, the Chan master HANSHAN DEQING established the monastery Fayunsi on Lushan’s Wuru peak. Lushan continues to serve today as an important pilgrimage site for Chinese Buddhists.

Lushan Huiyuan. (J. Rozan Eon; K. Yŏsan Hyewŏn 盧山慧遠) (334–416). Chinese monk during the Six Dynasties period, who was an important early advocate of PURE LAND cultic practices. Huiyuan was a native of Yanmen in present-day Shanxi province. In 345, he is said to have visited the prosperous cities of Xuchang and Luoyang, where he immersed himself in the study of traditional Confucian and Daoist scriptures. In 354, Huiyuan met the translator and exegete DAO’AN on Mt. Heng (present-day Hebei province), where he was ordained, and became his student. Huiyuan seems to have primarily studied PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ thought under Dao’an. In 381, Huiyuan headed south for LUSHAN, a mountain widely known as the abode of Daoist perfected and an ideal site for self-cultivation. There, he established the monastery DONGLINSI (Eastern Grove Monastery), which soon became the center of Buddhist activity in the south. Huiyuan is also known to have attracted a large lay following, consisting largely of educated members of the local gentry. He also began corresponding with the eminent monk KUMĀRAJĪVA to clarify certain issues (e.g., the nature of the DHARMAKĀYA) in MAHĀYĀNA doctrine. These correspondences were later edited together as the DASHENG DAYI ZHANG. In 402, together with 123 other monks and laymen, Huiyuan is said to have contemplated on an image of the buddha AMITĀBHA in order to seek rebirth in his pure land of SUKHĀVATĪ. This gathering is known as the beginning of the White Lotus Society (BAILIAN SHE). He should be distinguished from the commentator JINGYING HUIYUAN.

lus med mkha’ ’gro snyan brgyud chos skor dgu. (lüme kadro nyengyu chökorgu). In Tibetan, “the nine teachings from the aural lineage of the formless ḌĀKINĪ”; a series of brief one-line instructions that the Indian SIDDHA TILOPA received from the formless display of reality. Tilopa passed these instructions to his disciple NĀROPA, who in turn passed them in part to his disciple MAR PA CHOS KYI BLO GROS and later, in full, to the Indian master TI PHU PA (said to be the miraculous reincarnation of his son). Mar pa transmitted four of the nine to his disciple MI LA RAS PA who then famously sent his disciple RAS CHUNG PA RDO RJE GRAGS to India in order to receive the remaining five from Ti phu pa. These instructions are understood to summarize the entire path of tantric practice and are foundational for many teachings of the BKA’ BRGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The nine are:

1. maturation and liberation: sever the mind’s tangled knots (smin grol sems kyi rgya mdud bshig)

2. commitments: look into your own mind, a mirror (dam tshig rang sems me long ltos)

3. channels and their energies: animate the networks and centers (rtsa rlung drwa mig ’khor lo bskor)

4. great bliss: keep the precious gem of speech (bde chen gsung gi rin chen zung)

5. pristine cognition: look with the lamp of primordial awareness (rig pa ye shes sgron me ltos)

6. self-liberation: attend to the great seal (rang grol phyag rgya chen po ltos)

7. sacramental substance: bask in realization’s sun (dam rdzas rtogs pa’i nyi ma lde)

8. action: strike the water with a sword (spyod pa chu la ral gri rgyob)

9. equal-taste: gaze into the mirror of externals (ro snyoms phyi’i me long ltos).