S

Sabbāsavasutta. (C. Loujin jing; J. Rojingyō; K. Nujin kyŏng 漏盡經). In Pāli, “Discourse on All the Contaminants,” the second sutta in the Pāli MAJJHIMANIKĀYA (a separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears as the tenth SŪTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA; there is also a recension of unidentified affiliation in the EKOTTARĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to a gathering of monks in the JETAVANA grove in the town of Sāvatthi (S. ŚRĀVASTĪ). The Buddha describes the contaminants or outflows (ĀSRAVA) that afflict the minds of ordinary worldlings and keep them bound to the cycle of birth and death. He then prescribes seven methods for controlling and eradicating the contaminants: by correct vision (of the nature of the self), restraint (of the senses), usage (i.e, correct usage of the monastic requisites), endurance (e.g., bearing hunger, climate, physical pain), avoidance (e.g., bad friends, unsuitable residences), removal (e.g., of sensuality and ill will), and development (of the seven limbs of awakening).

sa bdag. (sadak). In Tibetan, lit. “lord of the earth” or “owner of the earth”; a term that encompasses a number of deities who are the rightful owners of particular sites, such as lakes, hills, mountains, and valleys, and who must be properly propitiated before using, and especially digging at, a site. If not properly propitiated, they may cause a wide range of maladies, including epidemics among humans and livestock. These deities can be of either Tibetan or Indian origin, the latter including such beings as NĀGAs.

śabda. (P. sadda; T. sgra; C. sheng; J. shō; K. sŏng 聲). In Sanskrit, “sound,” or “auditory object”; the object of the auditory consciousness and one of the five sense objects, the others being visible forms (RŪPA), smells (GANDHA), tastes (RASA), and tangible objects (SPARŚA). Sounds are the object of the auditory sense organ (ŚROTRENDRIYA) and lead to the production of auditory consciousness (ŚROTRAVIJÑĀNA). In the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA, sounds are categorized according to their source, being divided into those sounds caused by elements conjoined with consciousness (upāttamahābhūtahetuka) and sounds caused by elements not conjoined with consciousness (anupāttamahābhūtahetuka). The former would include the sound made by the clapping of hands or the vocalization of a human or animal; the latter would include sounds in the natural world, such as the sound of wind or water. Each of these two types is further subdivided into the articulate (sattvākhya, lit. “sentient being’s utterance”) and the inarticulate (asattvākhya, lit. “not a sentient being’s utterance”) based on whether or not the sound communicates meaning to a sentient being. Each of these is further divided into two types, the pleasant (yaśa) and the unpleasant (ayaśa), yielding eight types of sound. The nature of sound is an important point of controversy between Buddhist and Hindu thinkers in India, with Buddhists arguing that sound is impermanent (ANITYA) against Mīmāṃsakas who claim that the Vedas are eternal sounds that are not created by persons (apauruṣeya) and hence permanent.

śabdasāmānya. (T. sgra spyi). In Sanskrit, lit. “sound generality” or “sound universal”; a term that appears in Buddhist logic and epistemology in discussions of the operations of thought and the relations between thought and language. The term refers to the sound or phonetic component that appears to the mind, regardless of whether the meaning of that sound is understood. The referent, or semantic content, of the sound that appears to the mind is called arthasāmānya, literally “meaning generality” or “meaning universal.” It is possible to have a sound generality independent of meaning generality, as in the case of hearing a word in a language that one does not understand. It is also possible to have a meaning generality alone, as in the case of seeing an object or hearing a description of an object, but not knowing its name. A conceptual consciousness (see KALPANĀ) is defined as one in which a sound generality and a meaning generality are suitable to be mixed, that is, for the name of the object to be associated with its mental image. The term appears in DIGNĀGA and is important in Tibetan Buddhist epistemology.

śabdāyatana. (P. saddāyatana; T. sgra’i skye mched; C. shengchu; J. shōsho; K. sŏngch’ŏ 聲處). In Sanskrit, “auditory sense-field,” that is, sound (ŚABDA) as it occurs in the list of twelve sense faculties or “bases of cognition” (ĀYATANA), which serve as the bases for the production of consciousness: viz., the six internal sense bases, or sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and the six external sense objects (forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible objects, and mental phenomena). In the case of sound, the contact (SPARŚA) between the auditory sense base and its corresponding auditory sensory object leads to auditory consciousness (ŚROTRAVIJÑĀNA).

sabhāgahetu. (T. skal mnyam gyi rgyu; C. tonglei yin; J. dōruiin; K. tongnyuin 同類因). In Sanskrit, “homogeneous cause”; the fourth of the six types of causes (HETU) outlined in the JÑĀNAPRASTHĀNA, the central text of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, wherein a cause is always antecedent to its incumbent effect. This homogeneity can occur in a number of guises. In the case of physical causation, an apple seed would be a homogenous cause to the production of an apple. In the case of mental causation, a moment of wisdom that derives from what is heard (ŚRUTAMAYĪPRAJÑĀ) would be a homogenous cause to subsequent moments of the wisdom that derives from reflection (CINTĀMAYĪPRAJÑĀ). In the case of actions, a wholesome (KUŚALA) action (KARMAN) is a homogeneous cause to wholesome effects. This homogeneity extends throughout all of the three realms (TRAIDHĀTUKA) of SAṂSĀRA, viz., the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU), the subtle-materiality realm (RŪPADHĀTU), and the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU). In these cases, a cause may produce an effect that it superior to it, as long as the effect is produced in the same realm. For example, a moment of the wisdom that derives from what is heard (śrutamayīprajñā) in the sensuous realm might serve as a homogeneous cause for a moment of the wisdom that derives from reflection (cintāmayīprajñā) in the sensuous realm.

sābhisaṃskāraparinirvāyin. (T. mngon par ’du byed dang bcas pa yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa; C. youxing banniepan; J. ugyōhatsunehan; K. yuhaeng panyŏlban 有行般涅槃). In Sanskrit, “one who achieves NIRVĀṆA through effort”; a particular sort of nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN), one of the twenty members of the ĀRYASAṂGHA (see VIṂŚATIPRABHEDASAṂGHA). According to the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA, the sābhisaṃskāraparinirvāyin are nonreturners who, having achieved any of the sixteen birth states of the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU), enter “nirvāṇa with remainder” (SOPADHIŚEṢANIRVĀṆA) at that support, but only after they have made a conscious effort and applied a little force. This differentiates them from the UPAPADYAPARINIRVĀYIN and the ANABHISAṂSKĀRAPARINIRVĀYIN.

Saccaka. (P). See MAHĀSACCAKASUTTA.

Sa chen Kun dga’ snying po. (Sachen Kunga Nyingpo) (1092–1158). A great scholar and adept of the SA SKYA sect of Tibetan Buddhism, renowned especially for his writings on the tantric system of LAM ’BRAS, or “path and result.” He is usually referred to simply as Sa chen, or “Great Master of Sa skya.” Born the son of DKON MCHOG RGYAL PO, another important Sa skya master and first throne-holder of Sa skya monastery, he was a child prodigy. He first trained under the Sa skya hierarch Ba ri lo tsā ba Rin chen grags pa (Bari Lotsāwa Rinchen Drakpa, 1040–1111), from whom he received numerous transmissions of both SŪTRA and TANTRA. At the age of eleven he began a meditation retreat in which he had a visionary encounter with the bodhisattva MAÑJUŚRĪ. The bodhisattva spoke to him four lines that subsequently became a fundamental Sa skya teaching called the zhen pa bzhi bral (“parting from the four attachments”):

If you are attached to this life, you are not a religious person.

If you are attached to SAMSĀRA, you do not have renunciation.

If you are attached to your own welfare, you do not have BODHICITTA.

If grasping occurs, you do not have the view.

In 1111, at the age of twenty, he received the throne of Sa skya monastery from Ba ri lo tsā ba and became the institution’s third abbot, a position he held for the remainder of his life. Beginning in 1120, Sa chen received the seminal Sa skya instructions on lam ’bras from Zhang ston chos ’bar (Shangtön Chöbar, 1053?–1135?), a YOGIN who initially claimed not to know anything about the topic. However, he eventually provided instruction to Sa chen for eight years, after which he instructed him not to teach lam ’bras for the next eighteen years. Sa chen then spent those eighteen years in retreat, practicing these instructions. During this time, he had a vision of the Indian adept VIRŪPA, founder of the lam ’bras lineage, who bestowed on him the lam ’bras teachings in their entirety. After completing his retreat, Sa chen put Virūpa’s instructions on lam ’bras, known as the RDO RJE TSHIG RKANG (“Vajra Verses”), into writing for the first time, eventually composing eleven commentaries on them. Later, Sa chen was poisoned and went into a coma. When he regained consciousness, he had suffered complete memory loss. He thus went to his former teachers to receive instructions again. However, there was no one to provide the lam ’bras teachings and Zhang ston chos ’bar had passed away. Sa chen went into retreat, during which Zhang ston chos ’bar appeared to him and repeated his previous teachings. Among Sa chen’s four sons, two became prominent Sa skya leaders: BSOD NAMS RTSE MO and Grags pa rgyal mtshan (Drakpa Gyaltsen, 1147–1216). Another of his sons, Dpal che ’od po (Palche Öpo, 1150–1204), was the father of SA SKYA PAṆḌITA KUN DGA’ RGYAL MTSHAN, who would become one of Tibet’s most influential religious figures. Kun dga’ snying po and the most illustrious of his offspring over the next two generations (Grags pa rgyal mtshan, Bsod nams rtse mo, Kun dga’ snying po, and ’PHAGS PA) are known as SA SKYA GONG MA LNGA (the five Sakya hierarchs) and as such have iconic status in Sa skya ritual.

Sacred Books of the Buddhists. A pioneering series of translations of Buddhist texts, initially edited by F. MAX MÜLLER and later by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS. After Müller had completed the Sacred Books of the East series (ten of whose forty-nine volumes were devoted to Buddhist works), he continued to receive requests to publish translations of more texts, especially Asian texts. He decided to start a new series for Buddhism, with financial support provided by the Thai king Chulalongkorn (RĀMA V). The first volume was published in 1895 by Oxford University Press. Publication was eventually taken over by the PALI TEXT SOCIETY. To date, some fifty volumes have been published in the series.

ṣaḍakṣarī. [alt. ṣaḍakṣarīvidyā] (T. yi ge drug pa’i rig sngags; C. liuzi daming/liuzi zhangju; J. rokujidaimyō/rokujishōku; K. yukcha taemyŏng/yukcha changgu 六字大明/六字章句). In Sanskrit, “six-syllable spell”; the renowned MANTRA associated with the BODHISATTVA of compassion, AVALOKITEŚVARA: viz., “OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ.” The mantra has six syllables and is used to call upon the bodhisattva, using his epithet Maṇipadma or “Jewel Lotus,” a four-armed form who holds both a rosary of jewels (RATNA) and a lotus flower (PADMA). Hence, the mantra means “Oṃ, O Jewel-Lotus,” not “jewel in the lotus,” contrary to popular belief. The earliest textual source for this mantra is the KĀRAṆḌAVYŪHA [alt. Avalokiteśvaraguṇa-Kāraṇḍavyūha]. See OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ.

Sadāparibhūta. (T. Rtag tu mi brnyas pa; C. Changbuqing pusa; J. Jōfukyō bosatsu; K. Sangbulgyŏng posal 常不輕菩薩). In Sanskrit, “Never Disparaging,” the name of a BODHISATTVA described in the eponymous nineteenth or twentieth chapter (depending on the version) of the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA (“Lotus Sūtra”). The Buddha explains that long ago there was a bodhisattva named Sadāparibhūta who did not study or recite the sūtras. Whenever he saw a monk (BHIKṢU), nun (BHIKṢUṆĪ), male lay disciple (UPĀSAKA), or female lay disciple (UPĀSIKĀ), he would say, “I dare not belittle you because you will all become buddhas.” Arrogant monks, nuns, and male and female lay disciples began to sarcastically refer to him as “Never Disparaging.” When the bodhisattva was about to die, he heard millions of verses of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra in the sky and as a result his life span was increased by many eons, during which he taught the sūtra. Those who had mocked him were reborn in AVĪCI hell, but were eventually reborn as his disciples and later became the five hundred bodhisattvas in the assembly of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. The Buddha reveals that he had been the bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta in a previous life. The bodhisattva’s famous statement, “I dare not belittle you because you will all become buddhas,” came to be known as the “twenty-four character ‘Lotus Sūtra’” because in KUMĀRAJĪVA’s translation, the line is twenty-four Sinographs long. The chapter was especially important to the Japanese reformer NICHIREN, who noted the importance of developing even a negative relationship with the true teaching, as evidenced by the fact that those who slandered Sadāparibhūta eventually became bodhisattvas themselves.

Sadāprarudita. (T. Rtag tu ngu; C. Changti [pusa]; J. Jōtai [bosatsu]; K. Sangje [posal] 常啼[菩薩]). In Sanskrit, “Ever Weeping,” the name of a BODHISATTVA whose story appears in the AṢṬASĀHASRIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ. He sets out in search of a teacher who will teach him the perfection of wisdom (PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ) but, unable to find one, is constantly crying. He eventually learns that the bodhisattva DHARMODGATA is teaching in a faraway city. He has nothing to offer his teacher and thus announces that he is willing to sell his body. ŚAKRA, the king of the gods, decides to test his commitment and takes the form of an old man who agrees to buy some of Sadāprarudita’s flesh. He cuts off a piece of his thigh and gives it to the man. The man then asks for some bone marrow. Sadāprarudita is about to break his leg to extract the marrow when a wealthy merchant’s daughter, impressed by his dedication, offers to provide the necessary gifts for Dharmodgata. Śakra then reveals his true form and heals Sadāprarudita’s body. Sadāprarudita, the merchant’s daughter, and her five hundred attendants then proceed to the city where Dharmodgata is residing and receive his teachings. The story is a famous example of DEHADĀNA, the “gift of the body” that bodhisattvas make out of their dedication to the welfare of others. It is also an important example of devotion to the teacher.

ṣaḍāyatana. (P. saḷāyatana; T. skye mched drug; C. liuchu; J. rokusho; K. yukch’ŏ 六處). In Sanskrit, “six bases of cognition”; the fifth link in the twelvefold chain of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA), preceded by “name and form” (NĀMARŪPA) and followed by “contact” (SPARŚA). Here, the six bases of cognition refer to the six sense organs (INDRIYA): the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mentality. In some interpretations of the twelvefold chain, the term refers specifically to the formation of the sense organs in the womb, on the basis of the prior link, “name and form” (nāmarūpa), which refers to the five aggregates (SKANDHA) directly after conception. The term “bases” or “sources” (ĀYATANA) more commonly refers to the twelve bases of cognition—the six sense organs and their six objects—but in the context of dependent origination, it refers specifically to the sense organs.

Saddanīti. In Pāli, the “Practice of Grammar,” an important work on Pāli grammar and philology by the twelfth century Burmese monk Aggavaṃsa. Composed in 1154, it is considered the most important of the extant Pāli grammars. It draws both on the first known Pāli grammar, written by Kaccāyana, as well as Pāṇini’s Sanskrit grammar. Its twenty-eight chapters contain a detailed morphology of Pāli and discussions of prefixes and particles.

Ṣaḍdarśanasamuccaya. In Sanskrit, “Compendium of the Six Views,” a work by the eighth-century Indian scholar Haribhadra (or Haribhadra Sūri) of the Śvetāmbara school of Jainism. The six views refer to six schools of Indian philosophy: Buddhism, Jainism (see JAINA), and the four Hindu schools of Nyāya, Sāṃkhya, Vaiśeṣika, and Mīmāṃsā. The work also contains an appendix on the so-called “materialist” school, Cārvāka. The work remains useful to scholars of Buddhism for articulating how Buddhist doctrines were interpreted by non-Buddhist schools.

Saddhammapajjotikā. [alt. Saddhammaṭṭhitikā]. In Pāli, “Illumination of the True Dharma,” a commentary on the NIDDESA of the KHUDDAKANIKĀYA, written by UPASENA of Sri Lanka, probably in either 817 or 877 CE. The text borrows heavily from the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA.

Saddhammappakāsinī. In Pāli, “Explanation of the True Dharma,” a commentary on the PAṬISAMBHIDĀMAGGA of the KHUDDAKANIKĀYA, attributed to Mahānāma of Sri Lanka. According to its colophon, the commentary was composed in the first half of the sixth century CE. The text contains numerous quotations from the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA.

Saddhammasaṅgaha. In Pāli, “Chronicle of the True Dharma,” an ecclesiastical and literary history of THERAVĀDA Buddhism, written by Dhammakitti Mahāsāmī at the Thai capital AYUTHAYA during the reign of PARAMARĀJĀ I (1370–1388 CE); it is the earliest Buddhist chronicle composed in Southeast Asia. The author was inspired to write the history after his return from Sri Lanka, where he had participated in an ongoing purification and revival of Buddhism on the island. The work relies heavily on the DĪPAVAṂSA, MAHĀVAṂSA, and VINAYA commentary, SAMANTAPĀSĀDIKĀ, as well as on the historical introduction to the twelfth-century MAHĀPARĀKRAMABĀHU-KATIKĀVATA of PARĀKRAMABĀHU I. The work is divided into eleven chapters and concludes with an account of the benefits of listening to the preaching of the dharma. The Saddhammasaṅgaha was translated into English in 1941 by B. C. Law under the title, A Manual of Buddhist Historical Traditions.

saddharma. (P. saddhamma; T. dam pa’i chos; C. zhengfa; J. shōbō; K. chŏngpŏp 正法). In Sanskrit, “true dharma” or “right dharma” (and often translated as “true law” in the nineteenth century), a term for the teaching of the Buddha. The term appears widely in Buddhist literature, including the Pāli canon. The term DHARMA has many meanings in Indian literature in general and in Indian Buddhism in particular. Scholars speculate that SADDHARMA was coined to indicate specifically that the saddharma was “the teaching of the Buddha,” in order to distinguish his doctrine from those of non-Buddhist teachers (whose doctrines were also termed dharma). It may have also been intended to imply a truer, in the sense of a more definitive, teaching within the teachings of the Buddha, as in the title of the “Lotus Sūtra,” SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA, lit., “White Lotus of the True Dharma,” where the Buddha explains that his teaching on the one vehicle (EKAYĀNA) supersedes his previous teaching of three vehicles (TRIYĀNA). Saddharma was also used to refer to that period after the PARINIRVĀṆA of a particular buddha, when his teaching remained complete and intact and its practice was faithful and virtuous; this period preceded their inevitable decline (see SADDHARMAPRATIRŪPAKA and SADDHARMAVIPRALOPA).

saddharmapratirūpaka. (T. dam pa’i chos kyi gzugs brnyan; C. xiangfa/xiangsi zhengfa; J. zōhō/zōjishōbō; K. sangpŏp/sangsajŏngpŏp 像法/像似正法). In Sanskrit, “semblance dharma,” or “counterfeit dharma” (although this latter translation has a pejorative connotation in English that is not present in the Sanskrit); the term more literally means “a [mere] reflection of the true dharma.” The term occurs most commonly in MAHĀYĀNA literature and is largely absent in the texts of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS, suggesting that it came into use around the beginning of the Common Era. In its most general sense, it refers to the entire period during which the true dharma (SADDHARMA) of a given buddha exists in the world, i.e., from the time that the buddha passes into PARINIRVĀṆA to the time that his dharma finally vanishes completely. In some texts, this term refers specifically to the second of two periods in the duration of the dharma: the first is the saddharma, or true dharma, the second is the saddharmapratirūpaka, or reflection of the true dharma. In East Asian eschatological traditions, saddharmapratirūpaka came to refer to the second of three periods in the disappearance of the dharma from the world: there was a period of the true dharma (zhengfa), a period of “semblance dharma” (called XIANGFA in Chinese), and a period of final dharma (see MOFA, SADDHARMAVIPRALOPA). See also ANTARADHĀNA.

Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. (T. Dam pa’i chos padma dkar po’i mdo; C. Miaofa lianhua jing/Fahua jing; J. Myōhōrengekyō/Hokekyō; K. Myobŏp yŏnhwa kyŏng/Pŏphwa kyŏng 妙法蓮華經/法華經). In Sanskrit, “Sūtra of the White Lotus of the True Dharma,” and known in English simply as the “Lotus Sūtra”; perhaps the most influential of all MAHĀYĀNA sūtras. The earliest portions of the text were probably composed as early as the first or second centuries of the Common Era; the text gained sufficient renown in India that a number of chapters were later interpolated into it. The sūtra was translated into Chinese six times and three of those translations are extant. The earliest of those is that made by DHARMARAKṢA, completed in 286. The most popular is that of KUMĀRAJĪVA in twenty-eight chapters, completed in 406. The sūtra was translated into Tibetan in the early ninth century. Its first translation into a European language was that of EUGÈNE BURNOUF into French in 1852. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra is perhaps most famous for its parables, which present, in various versions, two of the sūtra’s most significant doctrines: skill-in-means (UPĀYA) and the immortality of the Buddha. In the parable of the burning house, a father lures his children from a conflagration by promising them three different carts, but when they emerge they find instead a single, magnificent cart. The three carts symbolize the ŚRĀVAKA vehicle, the PRATYEKABUDDHA vehicle, and the BODHISATTVA vehicle, while the one cart is the “one vehicle” (EKAYĀNA), the buddha vehicle (BUDDHAYĀNA). This parable indicates that the Buddha’s previous teaching of three vehicles (TRIYĀNA) was a case of upāya, an “expedient device” or “skillful method” designed to attract persons of differing capacities to the dharma. In fact, there is only one vehicle, the vehicle whereby all beings proceed to buddhahood. In the parable of the conjured city, a group of weary travelers take rest in a magnificent city, only to be told later that it is a magical creation. This conjured city symbolizes the NIRVĀṆA of the ARHAT; there is in fact no such nirvāṇa as a final goal in Buddhism, since all will eventually follow the bodhisattva’s path to buddhahood. The apparently universalistic doctrine articulated by the sūtra must be understood within the context of the sectarian polemics in which the sūtra seems to have been written. The doctrine of upāya is intended in part to explain the apparent contradiction between the teachings that appear in earlier sūtras and those of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. The former are relegated to the category of mere expedients, with those who fail to accept the consummate teaching of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra as the authentic word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA) repeatedly excoriated by the text itself. In a device common in Mahāyāna sūtras, the sūtra itself describes both the myriad benefits that accrue to those who recite, copy, and revere the sūtra, as well as the misfortune that will befall those who fail to do so. The immortality of the Buddha is portrayed in the parable of the physician, in which a father feigns death in order to induce his sons to commit to memory an antidote to poison. The apparent death of the father is compared to the Buddha’s entry into nirvāṇa, something which he only pretended to do in order to inspire his followers. Elsewhere in the sūtra, the Buddha reveals that he did not achieve enlightenment as the prince Siddhārtha who left his palace, but in fact had achieved enlightenment eons before; the well-known version of his departure from the palace and successful quest for enlightenment were merely a display meant to inspire the world. The immortality of the Buddha (and other buddhas) is also demonstrated when a great STŪPA emerges from the earth. When the door to the funerary reliquary is opened, ashes and bones are not found, as would be expected, but instead the living buddha PRABHŪTARATNA, who appears in his stūpa whenever the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra is taught. ŚĀKYAMUNI joins him on his seat, demonstrating another central Mahāyāna doctrine, the simultaneous existence of multiple buddhas. Other famous events described in the sūtra include the miraculous transformation of a NĀGA princess into a buddha after she presents a gem to Śākyamuni and the tale of a bodhisattva who immolates himself in tribute to a previous buddha. The sūtra contains several chapters that function as self-contained texts; the most popular of these is the chapter devoted to the bodhisattva AVALOKITEŚVARA, which details his ability to rescue the faithful from various dangers. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra was highly influential in East Asia, inspiring both a range of devotional practices as well as the creation of new Buddhist schools that had no Indian analogues. The devotional practices include those extolled by the sūtra itself: receiving and keeping the sūtra, reading it, memorizing and reciting it, copying it, and explicating it. In East Asia, there are numerous tales of the miraculous benefits of each of these practices. The practice of copying the sūtra (or having it copied) was a particularly popular form of merit-making either for oneself or for departed family members. Also important, especially in China, was the practice of burning either a finger or one’s entire body as an offering to the Buddha, emulating the self-immolation of the bodhisattva BHAIṢAJYARĀJA in the twenty-third chapter (see SHESHEN). In the domain of doctrinal developments, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra was highly influential across East Asia, its doctrine of upāya providing the rationale for the systems of doctrinal taxonomies (see JIAOXIANG PANSHI) that are pervasive in East Asian Buddhist schools. In China, the sūtra was the central text of the TIANTAI ZONG, where it received detailed exegesis by a number of important figures. The school’s founder, TIANTAI ZHIYI, divided the sūtra into two equal parts. In the first fourteen chapters, which he called the “trace teaching” (C. jimen, J. SHAKUMON), Śākyamuni appears as the historical buddha. In the remaining fourteen chapters, which Zhiyi called the “origin teaching” (C. benmen, J. HONMON), Śākyamuni reveals his true nature as the primordial buddha who achieved enlightenment many eons ago. Zhiyi also drew on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra in elucidating two of his most famous doctrines: the three truths (SANDI, viz., emptiness, the provisional, and the mean) and the notion of YINIAN SANQIAN, or “the trichiliocosm in an instant of thought.” In the TENDAISHŪ, the Japanese form of Tiantai, the sūtra remained supremely important, providing the scriptural basis for the central doctrine of original enlightenment (HONGAKU) and the doctrine of “achieving buddhahood in this very body” (SOKUSHIN JŌBUTSU); in TAIMITSU, the tantric form of Tendai, Śākyamuni Buddha was identified with MAHĀVAIROCANA. For the NICHIREN schools (and their offshoots, including SŌKA GAKKAI), the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra is not only its central text but is also considered to be the only valid Buddhist sūtra for the degenerate age (J. mappo; see C. MOFA); the recitation of the sūtra’s title is the central practice in Nichiren (see NAMU MYŌHŌRENGEKYŌ). See also SADĀPARIBHŪTA.

saddharmavipralopa. (T. dam pa’i chos rab tu rnam par ’jig pa; C. mofa; J. mappō; K. malpŏp 末法). In Sanskrit, “disappearance of the true dharma,” the predicted demise of the Buddha’s dispensation (ŚĀSANA) from the world. Mainstream Buddhist doctrine holds that all evidence of the teaching of the previous buddha must vanish before the next buddha can appear in the world. The precise length of the duration of ŚĀKYAMUNI Buddha’s dispensation is a persistent issue in Buddhist literature. The most common, and probably the oldest, of these predictions occurs in the accounts of the Buddha’s decision to permit the ordination of women, where he says that if he had not ordained women, the true dharma (SADDHARMA) would have endured for one thousand years; however, because of his decision to ordain women, it will only last five hundred years (see MAHĀPRAJĀPATĪ). A variety of other predictions for the decline and disappearance of the dharma appear in various sūtras, with the period of the duration of the dharma ranging from as short as five hundred years to as long as twelve thousand years (in some Chinese sources); other figures include seven hundred, one thousand, one thousand five hundred, two thousand, two thousand five hundred, and five thousand years. The majority of periods involving one thousand years or more occur in MAHĀYĀNA sūtras. However, in BUDDHAGHOSA’s MANORATHAPŪRAṆĪ, a chronology of five thousand years is provided, in which the dharma gradually disappears over five periods of one thousand years each. During the first millennium after the Buddha’s demise, there will be a disappearance of the attainments (P. ADHIGAMA), at the end of which no disciple will have the capacity to attain the rank of stream-enterer (P. sotāpanna; S. SROTAĀPANNA). During the second millennium, there will be a disappearance of practice (P. PAṬIPATTI) at the end of which no disciple will be able to attain meditative states or maintain the precepts. During the third millennium, there will be a disappearance of learning (P. PARIYATTI), at the end of which all books of the tipiṭaka (S. TRIPIṬAKA) will be lost. During the fourth millennium, the indicators or signs (NIMITTA) of monastic life will begin to vanish, at the end of which all monks will stop wearing saffron robes and will return to lay life. During the fifth and final millennium, there will be a disappearance of the relics (DHĀTU, see ŚARĪRA), at the end of which the relics of the Buddha will reassemble and, after being worshipped by the divinities, will burst into flame and vanish. Buddhaghosa’s five thousand-year timetable has become standard in the Pāli tradition. The doctrine of the disappearance of the dharma is central to the various East Asian theories of decline. See also MOFA; ANTARADHĀNA.

Saddhatissa, Hammalawa. (1914–1990). A prolific Pāli scholar, translator, social activist, and senior Buddhist monk. Born at Hammalawa in Satkorale province, Sri Lanka, he was ordained a BHIKṢU in 1926 and pursued his undergraduate studies in Sri Lanka at Vidyodaya Pirivena and Prachina Bhasopakara Samagama. He continued his studies in Benares in India, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and ultimately received his Ph.D. at Edinburgh in 1965. He was proficient in Pāli, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Sinhala, and Hindi and held numerous academic posts in Asia, Europe, and North America, including Professor of Pāli at Banaras Hindu University from 1956 to 1957, Lecturer in Sinhala at SOAS from 1958 to 1960, Professor of Buddhism and Pāli at the University of Toronto from 1966 to 1969, and Visiting Lecturer at Oxford in 1973. While holding these posts, he also conducted numerous lecture tours in Europe, the United States, and Japan. In 1956, he served as an advisor to Dr. BHIMRAO RAMJI AMBEDKAR (1891–1956) at Nagpur, India, during the organization of mass conversions of members of the Dalit caste (the so-called untouchables) to Buddhism. Between 1957 and 1985 he served as head of London Buddhist Vihara, and in 1966 revived the British MAHĀBODHI SOCIETY, which had been defunct since World War II, serving as its president. He also helped found the New London Buddhist Vihara in 1964; the Buddhist Center, Oakenholt, in Oxford in 1971; the Buddhist Research Library, in Nugegoda, Sri Lanka in 1984; and the Buddha Vihara, Handsworth, in Birmingham in 1986. He was appointed president of the Saṅgha Council of Great Britain in 1966, and the Sanghanayaka Thera of the United Kingdom in 1980. In 1984 he served as vice-president of the Pali Text Society. His English publications and critical editions and translations include The Buddha’s Way, Buddhist Ethics, The Birth-Stories of the Ten Bodhisattas and the Dasabodhisattuppattikathā, Sutta Nipāta, Upāsakajanālankāra, Handbook for Buddhists, Introduction to Buddhism, and The Life of the Buddha.

ṣaḍgati. (P. *chagati; T. ’gro ba rigs drug; C. liuqu; J. rokushu; K. yukch’wi 六趣). In Sanskrit, “six destinies”; an expansion of the more common list of five rebirth destinies (PAÑCAGATI), adding demigods or titans (ASURA) to the usual five: divinities (DEVA; including those of the sensuous, subtle-materiality, and immaterial realms); asuras, humans (MANUṢYA), animals (TIRYAK), ghosts (PRETA), and hell beings (NĀRAKA). See GATI; PAÑCAGATI.

sādhana. (T. sgrub thabs; C. chengjiu fa; J. jōjuhō; K. sŏngch’wi pŏp 成就法). In Sanskrit, “method” or “technique,” used especially in reference to a tantric ritual designed to receive attainments (SIDDHI) from a deity. Tantric sādhanas generally take one of two forms. In the first, the deity (which may be a buddha, BODHISATTVA, or another deity) is requested to appear before the meditator and is then worshipped in the expectation of receiving blessings. In the other type of tantric sādhana, the meditator imagines himself or herself to be the deity at this very moment, that is, to have the exalted body, speech, and mind of an enlightened being. Tantric sādhanas tend to follow a fairly set sequence, whether they are simple or detailed. More elaborate sādhanas may include the recitation of a lineage of GURUs; the creation of a protection wheel guarded by wrathful deities to subjugate enemies; the creation of a body MAṆḌALA, in which a pantheon of deities take residence at various parts of the meditator’s body, etc. Although there are a great many variations of content and sequence, in many sādhanas, the meditator is instructed to imagine light radiating from the body, thus beckoning buddhas and bodhisattvas from throughout the universe. Visualizing these deities arrayed in the space, the meditator then performs a series of standard preliminary practices called the sevenfold service (SAPTĀṄGAVIDHI), a standard component of sādhanas. The seven elements are (1) obeisance, (2) offering (often concluding with a gift of the entire physical universe with all its marvels), (3) confession of misdeeds, (4) admiration of the virtuous deeds of others, (5) entreaty to the buddhas not to pass into NIRVĀṆA, (6) supplication of the buddhas and bodhisattvas to teach the dharma, and (7) dedication of the merit of performing the preceding toward the enlightenment of all beings. The meditator then goes for refuge to the three jewels (RATNATRAYA), creates the aspiration for enlightenment (BODHICITTA; BODHICITTOTPĀDA), the promise to achieve buddhahood in order to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering, and dedicates the merit from the foregoing and subsequent practices toward that end. The meditator next cultivates the four “boundless” attitudes (APRAMĀṆA) of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUṆĀ), empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKṢĀ), before meditating on emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ) and reciting the purificatory mantra, oṃ svabhāvaśuddhāḥ sarvadharmāḥ svabhāvaśuddho ’haṃ (“Oṃ, naturally pure are all phenomena, naturally pure am I”), understanding that emptiness is the primordial nature of everything, the unmoving world and the beings who move upon it. Out of this emptiness, the meditator next creates the maṇḍala. The next step in the sādhana is for the meditator to animate the residents of the maṇḍala by causing the actual buddhas and bodhisattvas, referred to as “wisdom beings” (JÑĀNASATTVA), to descend and merge with their imagined doubles, the “pledge beings” (SAMAYASATTVA). Light radiates from the meditator’s heart, drawing the wisdom beings to the maṇḍala where, through offerings and the recitation of mantra, they are prompted to enter the residents of the maṇḍala. With the preliminary visualization now complete, the stage is set for the central meditation of the sādhana, which varies depending upon the purpose of the sādhana. Generally, offerings and prayers are made to a sequence of deities and boons are requested from them, each time accompanied with the recitation of appropriate MANTRA. At the end of the session, the meditator makes mental offerings to the assembly before inviting them to leave, at which point the entire visualization, the palace and its residents, dissolve into emptiness. The sādhana ends with a dedication of the merit accrued to the welfare of all beings.

sādhana. (T. sgrub pa; C. nengli; J. nōryū; K. nŭngnip 能立). In Sanskrit, “proof”; a term used in Indian logic in the sense of a proof statement or syllogism. The Indian Nyāya (Logic) school advocated that there were five necessary stages in syllogistic reasoning: (1) probandum or proposition (PRATIJÑĀ), viz., “The mountain is on fire”; (2) reason (HETU), “because there is smoke,” (3) analogy (udāharaṇa), “Whatever is smoky is on fire, like a stove, but unlike a lake”; (4) application (upanaya), “Since this mountain is smoky, it is on fire”; (5) conclusion (nigamana), “The mountain is on fire.” Using the same example, the Buddhist logician DIGNĀGA reduced the syllogism down to just three essential steps: (1) thesis or proposition (PAKṢA), “the mountain is on fire”; (2) reason (HETU), “because there is smoke”; (3) exemplification (dṛṣṭānta), “whatever is smoky is on fire, like a stove,” and “whatever is not on fire is not smoky, like a lake,” or, more simply, “like a stove, unlike a lake.” See also LIṄGA; PRAYOGA.

Sādhanamālā. (T. Sgrub thabs rgya mtsho). In Sanskrit, “Garland of Methods,” sometimes attributed to ABHAYĀKARAGUPTA; an important compendium of some three hundred individual tantric SĀDHANAs, the latest of which were composed around the twelfth century. In addition to the details its provides about tantric practice during this period, the detailed descriptions of the deities to be visualized are an important source of tantric Buddhist iconography. The version preserved in Tibetan is entitled Sādhanasāgara, “Ocean of Methods.”

sādhāraṇasiddhi. (T. thun mong gi dngos grub). In Sanskrit, “common attainment,” a term used, especially in the tantric context, to refer to various supranormal powers, such as the ability to fly, walk through walls, and find buried treasure, which can be attained through the recitation of MANTRAs and the propitiation of deities by both Buddhist and non-Buddhist YOGINs. It is contrasted with the “uncommon attainment” (asādhāraṇasiddhi), which is synonymous with “supreme attainment” (UTTAMASIDDHI), viz., the attainment of buddhahood.

sādhumatī. (T. legs pa’i blo gros; C. shanhui di; J. zen’eji; K. sŏnhye chi 善慧地). In Sanskrit, “auspicious intellect,” the ninth of the ten bodhisattva BHŪMIs. A list of ten stages (DAŚABHŪMI) is most commonly enumerated, deriving from the DAŚABHŪMIKASŪTRA (“Sūtra on the Ten Bhūmis”), a sūtra that is later subsumed into the massive scriptural compilation, the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA. The first bhūmi coincides with the attainment of the path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA) and the remaining nine to the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA). Together with the eighth and tenth bhūmis, this is one of the three “pure bhūmis,” because at the end of the seventh bhūmi, the bodhisattva has abandoned all afflictions (KLEŚA), and is devoted to destroying the remaining obstructions (ĀVARAṆA). On this bhūmi, the bodhisattva practices the ninth of the ten perfections, the perfection of power (BALAPĀRAMITĀ). This stage is called “auspicious intellect” because at this stage the bodhisattva gains a special understanding of the dharma, which allows him to teach others without error. This special understanding comes from his attainment of the four analytical knowledges (PRATISAṂVID). By means of the analytical knowledge of phenomena or factors (dharmapratisaṃvid; see DHARMA), he gains a thorough knowledge of the specific characteristics of all phenomena. By means of the analytical knowledge of meanings (arthapratisaṃvid; see ARTHA), he gains a thorough knowledge of the categories of all phenomena. Through the analytical knowledge of etymology (niruktipratisaṃvid; see NIRUKTI) he gains perfect facility in language so that he can teach without confusing doctrines. With the analytical knowledge of eloquence (pratibhānapratisaṃvid; see PRATIBHĀNA), he is able to inspire others with his words. Another explanation says that through dharmapratisaṃvid, the bodhisattva knows the words in the twelve branches of the Buddha’s teaching (dharma); through arthapratisaṃvid, he knows the content or meaning of the twelve branches of the Buddha’s teaching (DVĀDAŚĀṄGA [PRAVACANA]); through niruktipratisaṃvid, he knows the languages of each region (nirukti); and through pratibhānapratisaṃvid, he possesses the above three knowledges and thus has confidence to teach others. The bodhisattva remains on this stage as long as he is unable to display the land, retinue, and emanations of a buddha, make full use of the qualities of a buddha, and bring sentient beings to spiritual maturity.

sādhyadharma. (T. sgrub bya’i chos; C. suoli/suochengli; J. shoryū/shojōryū; K. sorip/sosŏngnip 所立/所成立). In Sanskrit, the “property being proven,” a term in Buddhist logic that designates one of the elements of a correct syllogism or proof (PRAYOGA) leading to inference (ANUMĀNA). A syllogism is composed of three parts, the subject (dharmin), the property being proved (sādhyadharma), and the reason (HETU or LIṄGA). It is called sādhyadharma because the sādhya (“what is being proved”) must be a dharma (“property”) of the logical subject. For example, in the syllogism, “Sound is impermanent because of being produced,” the subject is sound, the property being proved is impermanence, and the reason is being produced. In order for the syllogism to be correct, three relations must exist among the three components of the syllogism: (1) the reason must be a property (DHARMA) of the subject, also called the “position” (PAKṢA), (2) there must be a relationship of pervasion (VYĀPTI) between the reason and the property being proved, such that whatever is the reason is necessarily the property being proved, and (3) there must be a relationship of “exclusion” or reverse pervasion (vyatirekavyāpti) between the property being proved and the reason such that whatever is not the property being proved is necessarily not the reason. In the example, the syllogism “Sound is impermanent because of being produced,” is correct because the reason (being produced) is a quality of the subject (sound), there is pervasion because whatever is produced is necessarily impermanent, and there is reverse pervasion because whatever is not impermanent is necessarily not produced. See ANUMĀNA; LIṄGA.

sad mi bdun. (se mi dün). In Tibetan, lit. “seven men who were tested”; the first seven Tibetans to be ordained as Buddhist monks at BSAM YAS monastery under the preceptor ŚĀNTARAKṢITA during the late seventh century. The seven were: (1) Sba khri gzigs (Ba Tisik), ordained as Śrīghoṣa (T. Dpal byangs); (2) Sba gsal snang (Ba Selnang), ordained as Jñānendra (T. Ye shes dbang po); (3) Sba khri bzher/bzhir (Ba Tisher); (4) Ba gor VAIROCANA, or Vairocanarakṣita; (5) Rma rin chen mchog (Ma Rinchen Chok); (6) Rgyal ba mchog dbyangs (Gyelwa Chokyang); and (7) ’Khon klu’i dbang po srung ba (Könlu Wangpo Sungwa) (Nāgendrarakṣita). Alternate lists occasionally include: Rtsang legs grub (Tsang Lekdrup), or La sum rgyal ba’i byang chub (La sum Gyelwe Jangchup).

ṣaḍmūlakleśa. (T. rtsa ba’i nyon mongs drug; C. liu genben fannao; J. roku konpon bonnō; K. yuk kŭnbon pŏnnoe 六根本煩惱). In Sanskrit, “six root afflictions,” as outlined in the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA and in the YOGĀCĀRA list of dharmas (see BAIFA); the six unsalutary mental states that serve as the sources for all the other KLEŚA. They are: desire (RĀGA), anger (PRATIGHA), pride (MĀNA), ignorance (AVIDYĀ), doubt (VICIKITSĀ), and wrong view (DṚṢṬI). See ANUŚAYA; KLEŚAMAHĀBHŪMIKA; MŪLAKLEŚA; SAṂYOJANA.

ṣaḍpāramitā. (T. phar phyin drug; C. liu boluomi; J. ropparamitsu; K. yuk paramil 六波羅蜜). In Sanskrit, the “six perfections,” the six bodhisattva perfections (PĀRAMITĀ) of giving (DĀNA), morality (ŚĪLA), patience (KṢĀNTI), effort (VĪRYA), meditative absorption (DHYĀNA), and wisdom (PRAJÑĀ). In the DAŚABHŪMIKASŪTRA, four additional perfections are added, such that one perfection is associated with each of the ten bodhisattva stages (BHŪMI). These additional four perfections are understood as additional elements of the sixth perfection, prajñāpāramitā. They are the perfection of expedient means (UPĀYAPĀRAMITĀ), the perfection of the vow (to attain buddhahood) (PRAṆIDHĀNAPĀRAMITĀ), the perfection of powers (BALAPĀRAMITĀ) and the perfection of knowledge (JÑĀNAPĀRAMITĀ). In Pāli materials, there is a different set of ten perfections (PĀRAMĪ) that are practiced by the bodhisattva. See PĀRAMITĀ and the specific types of perfections.

ṣaḍvārgika. (P. chabbaggiya; T. drug sde; C. liuqun [biqiu]; J. rokugun [biku]; K. yukkun [pigu] 六群[比丘]). In Sanskrit, the “group of six,” a notorious group of six mischievous monks (BHIKṢU), whose misbehavior led to the promulgation of many rules of conduct for the Buddhist order. According to the tradition, the rules of the VINAYA were not formulated hypothetically. Instead, when a monk acted in an inappropriate way, the Buddha would then make a rule prohibiting that action in the future. Thus, for each infraction, the vinaya provides an account of the circumstances that led to its formulation. The names of these six monks, individually and collectively, figure prominently in an inordinate number of those accounts. They are also often portrayed as actively resisting the enforcement of the rules of discipline. The names of the members of this infamous group of malefactors differ in Sanskrit and Pāli sources. In Sanskrit, they are usually listed as Nanda, Upananda, Udāyin (alt. Kālodāyin), Chanda, Aśvaka, and Punarvasu. The Pāli typically gives instead Assaji, Punabhasu, Paṇḍuka, Lohitaka, Mettiya, and Bhummajaka. According to Pāli sources, prior to their ordination, they were acquaintances of each other, living in ŚRĀVASTĪ. Unable to earn a living, they decided to enter the order. Deciding that it was unwise to remain together, they divided into three groups of two (Assaji and Punabhasu, Paṇḍuka and Lohitaka, and Mettiya and Bhummajaka). Each pair attracted a following of five hundred monks. The followers of Paṇḍuka and Lohitaka, living at JETAVANA, were the most virtuous, remaining near the Buddha and accompanying him in his travels. Some sources also offer a salutary motivation behind their frequent transgressions: to provide a wide range of test cases leading to specific monastic rules, so that the SAṂGHA would be protected against future unscrupulous behavior.

Sagaing. One of five Burmese capitals that flourished in Upper Burma (Myanmar) after the fall of PAGAN between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, the others being Pinya, AVA (Inwa), Amarapura and MANDALAY. The city of Sagaing lies adjacent to the Sagaing Hills along the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River to the west of Mandalay in central Burma. The Irrawaddy flows from north to south as it passes Mandalay and then turns west for several miles. Sagaing is named for this point on the river, “the beginning of the bend.” Following the collapse of the Pagan empire, Sagaing served as the capital city of a much reduced Burmese state between 1316 and 1364, after which the capital was moved across the river to Ava. Sagaing has been an important Buddhist center since Pagan times, and tradition claims the Buddha visited the site himself. The city and the surrounding hills contain hundreds of pagodas, monasteries, nunneries, and cave retreats, and many of Burma’s most celebrated scholars hailed from Sagaing over the centuries. Sagaing retains its preeminence as one of the country’s main centers of Buddhist scholarship and meditation practice.

Sāgara. (T. Rgya mtsho; C. Suojieluo/Suoqieluo; J. Shakara [alt. Shakatsura]/Shagara; K. Sagalla/Sagara 娑竭羅/娑伽羅). In Sanskrit, “Ocean”; one of the eight dragon kings (NĀGA) who served as guardians of the BUDDHADHARMA. His name appears alongside those of the other seven dragon kings who were in the audience when the Buddha taught the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA. Sāgara is believed to be the dragon king of the ocean, who governs precipitation. He resides in a palace beneath the ocean that surrounds Mt. SUMERU. Sāgara occasionally appears as a flanking-attendant of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEŚVARA. In his palace, Sāgara is said to store a MAṆI jewel, which he sometimes offers to the bodhisattva. In the twelfth chapter of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, Sāgara also appears as the father of the eight-year-old nāga princess who, by offering a jewel to the Buddha, instantaneously turns into a male, traverses the ten bodhisattva stages (BHŪMI), and achieves buddhahood, evidence to some exegetes in the tradition that women have the capacity to achieve buddhahood.

sāgaramudrāsamādhi. (T. rgya mtsho’i phyag rgya ting nge ’dzin; C. haiyin sanmei; J. kaiin zanmai; K. haein sammae 海印三昧). In Sanskrit, “ocean-seal samādhi,” or “oceanic reflection samādhi,” a concentration (SAMĀDHI) often treated as emblematic of the HUAYAN ZONG’s most profound vision of reality. “Ocean seal” is a metaphor for the pure and still mind that is able to reflect all phenomena while remaining perpetually unaffected by them, just as the calm surface of the ocean is said to be able to reflect all the phenomena in the universe. The AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA includes the sāgaramudrāsamādhi among several other types of samādhi that it mentions. In the “SAMANTABHADRA Bodhisattva Chapter” (Puxian pusa pin), the first of the ten samādhis taught by this bodhisattva is the sāgaramudrāsamādhi; through its power, a buddha is enabled to perform all types of works to rescue sentient beings, such as manifesting himself as a buddha and using numerous skillful means (UPĀYA) in order to guide them. The “Ten Bhūmis Chapter” (Shidi pin) mentions sāgaramudrāsamādhi as one of a list of eleven samādhis that occur to bodhisattvas who reach the tenth stage (BHŪMI) on the path. The “Manifestation of the Tathāgata Chapter” (Rulai chuxian pin) says that sāgaramudrāsamādhi is so named because it is like the ocean that reflects the images of all sentient beings. In the Huayan scholastic tradition, sāgaramudrāsamādhi is raised to pride of place within its doctrinal system. Sāgaramudrāsamādhi is considered to be the generic samādhi (zongding) that the Buddha enters prior to beginning the elucidation of the various assemblies recounted in the Avataṃsakasūtra itself; the seven subsequent samādhis that the Buddha enters as he preaches the teaching of the Avataṃsakasūtra at each of the eight assemblies (hui) (there is no samādhi prior to the second assembly) are regarded instead as specific types of samādhis (bieding). ZHIYAN (602–668), the second Huayan patriarch, associated sāgaramudrāsamādhi with the teaching of one vehicle (EKAYĀNA) in his KONGMU ZHANG, where he says that the common and distinctive teachings of the one vehicle (yisheng tongbie) are revealed through the “ocean-seal” samādhi, while the teachings of the three vehicles (TRIYĀNA) are revealed through the subsequently obtained wisdom (C. houde zhi; S. PṚṢṬHALABDHAJÑĀNA). FAZANG (643–712), the third Huayan patriarch, following his teacher Zhiyan’s view, declares at the beginning of his HUAYAN WUJIAO ZHANG that his work was written to reveal the teaching of the one vehicle that the Buddha attained through the “ocean-seal” samādhi. It is Fazang who formalized the place of the sāgaramudrāsamādhi in the Huayan doctrinal system. In his XIU HUAYAN AOZHI WANGJIN HUANYUAN GUAN, Fazang noted that the “ocean-seal” samādhi and the Huayan samādhi (C. Huayan sanmei), both mentioned among the ten samādhis in the Xianshou pusa pin of the Avataṃsakasūtra, correspond to the “two functions” (er YONG): respectively, to the “function of the eternal abiding of all things reflected on the ocean” (haiyin senluo changzhu yong) and the “function of the autonomy of the perfect luminosity of the DHARMADHĀTU” (fajie yuanming zizai yong). Both of these types of functions were subordinated to the highest category of the “one essence” (yi TI), viz., the “essence of the pure and perfect luminosity of the self-nature” (zixing qingjing yuanming ti). The first type of function, which was associated with the sāgaramudrāsamādhi, was the perfect reflection of all things in the pure mind; like the unsullied ocean that reflected all phenomena, it also was freed from any type of delusion or falsity. For Fazang, “ocean seal” (haiyin) was interpreted to mean the “original enlightenment of true thusness” (ZHENRU BENJUE) by correlating this function with the “ocean of the thusness of the dharma nature” (faxing zhenru hai) as mentioned in the DASHENG QIXIN LUN (“Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna”). In Fazang’s Huayan youxin fajie ji, the “ocean-seal” samādhi was classified as a cause and the Huayan samādhi as a fruition. Elsewhere, in his HUAYAN JING TANXUAN JI, Fazang additionally differentiates the ocean-seal samādhi itself into two phases of cause and fruition: the stage of the cause is attained by the bodhisattva SAMANTABHADRA at the tenth of the ten stages of faith, while the fruition stage corresponds to the samādhi of a tathāgata. In addition to its importance in the Avataṃsakasūtra and the Huayan school, there are several other sūtras that also mention the sāgaramudrāsamādhi. For example, the MAHĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀSŪTRA says that the sāgaramudrāsamādhi incorporates all other samādhis. The RATNAKŪṬASŪTRA states that one should abide in sāgaramudrāsamādhi in order to obtain complete, perfect enlightenment (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAṂBODHI). Finally, the MAHĀSAṂNIPĀTASŪTRA says that one can see all sentient beings’ mental functions and gain the knowledge of all teaching devices (DHARMAPARYĀYA) through the sāgaramudrāsamādhi.

sa ga zla ba. (saga dawa). The name of the fourth Tibetan month, the holiest month of the year, when it is believed the results of wholesome actions increase a hundred thousand times; the fifteenth day of this month is particularly auspicious, commemorating the day when ŚĀKYAMUNI was born, enlightened, and entered NIRVĀṆA. See WESAK.

sahabhūhetu. (T. lhan cig ’byung ba’i rgyu; C. juyouyin; J. kuuin; K. kuyuin 有因). In Sanskrit, the “coexistent cause”; the second of the six types of causes (HETU) outlined in the JÑĀNAPRASTHĀNA, the central text of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA. This type of cause refers to the fact that coexistent dharmas simultaneously condition one another, as with a great element (MAHĀBHŪTA) and its derivatives, or a specific dharma and its four conditioned characteristics (SAṂSKṚTALAKṢAṆA). This process is comparable to the coexistence of the three legs of a tripod: if any one leg is missing, the other two legs are unable to function; thus, these coexistent dharmas must all exist simultaneously, so that if one is missing, all are missing. In the case of perception, for example, the Sarvāstivāda claimed that a moment of visual perception required that the visual sense-faculty (viz., the eye; INDRIYA), the visual object, and visual consciousness all had to exist simultaneously. This interpretation of the coexistent cause is subsequently adapted as a crucial component of the YOGĀCĀRA theory of representation-only (VIJÑAPTIMĀTRATĀ).

sahaja. (T. lhan skyes; C. jushengqi; J. kushōki; K. kusaenggi 生起). A polysemous Sanskrit term, variously translated as “coemergence,” “connate,” “simultaneously arisen,” and “the innate.” This term is used frequently in the tantric Buddhist verses composed by the SIDDHAs of medieval north India such as SARAHA, Kāṇha, and TILOPA; these include collections of DOHĀ recorded in APABHRAṂŚA and Bengali compilations of caryāgīti (see CARYĀGĪTIKOṢA). In these contexts, sahaja refers most generally to the ultimate and innermost true nature, as well as to its realization through the spontaneous and uninhibited lifestyle and practice associated with tantric adepts. The term may be used as a noun for the ultimate state itself, or as an adjective describing a state or condition as natural and uncontrived. In the context of the YOGINĪ tantras such as the HEVAJRATANTRA, the term sahaja is used to refer to the highest of four states of ecstasy—innate ecstasy (sahajānanda)—which can be gained through the visualized or actual practice of sexual yoga, and through which one comes to realize the mind’s luminosity and natural purity. Early twentieth-century authors—beginning with the Bengali scholars and translators who first published studies on the collections of tantric verses—described what they called the sahajayāna (“path of sahaja”) and the sahajiyās who followed it, although neither term is found in traditional Indian Buddhist literature. The Tibetan form, lhan skyes (short for lhan cig tu skyes pa) appears widely in the subsequent literature of MAHĀMUDRĀ.

sahajakleśāvaraṇa. (T. nyon sgrib lhan skyes; C. jusheng fannao zhang/jusheng huo; J. kushō no bonnōshō/kushō no waku; K. kusaeng pŏnnoe chang/kusaeng hok 生煩惱障/生惑). In Sanskrit, “innate afflictive obstructions,” those obstructions (ĀVARAṆA) to liberation that derive from mistaken conceptions of self (ĀTMAN) that are generated and reinforced over many lifetimes. This type is in distinction to PARIKALPITAKLEŚĀVARAṆA (T. nyon sgrib kun btags) or “artificial afflictive obstructions,” which are mistaken conceptions of self that are generated through the study of flawed philosophical systems or ideologies in the present lifetime. The latter are understood to be more easily abandoned than the sahajakleśāvaraṇa.

sahajātmagraha. (T. bdag ’dzin lhan skyes; C. jusheng wuming; J. kushō no mumyō; K. kusaeng mumyŏng 生無明). In Sanskrit, “innate conception of self,” a term used to refer to the deep-seated conception of self that is maintained by all sentient beings from lifetime to lifetime. It is contrasted with the artificial conception of self (PARIKALPITĀTMAGRAHA), which is acquired during a human lifetime through the study of false tenet systems, such as those that assert the existence of a perduring self (ĀTMAN). Those on the path to enlightenment abandon the artificial conception of self more easily than they do the innate conception of self.

sahajāvidyā. (T. lhan cig skyes pa’i ma rig pa; C. jusheng wuming; J. kushō no mumyō; K. kusaeng mumyŏng 生無明). In Sanskrit, “innate ignorance,” a term used to refer to the deep-seated ignorance that is maintained by sentient beings from lifetime to lifetime. It is contrasted with artificial ignorance (PARIKALPITĀVIDYĀ), the ignorance acquired during a human lifetime through the study of false tenet systems, such as those that assert the existence of a perduring self (ĀTMAN). Those on the path to enlightenment abandon the artificial ignorance more easily than the innate ignorance.

sahajayāna. (T. lhan skyes theg pa). In Sanskrit, “innate vehicle” or “spontaneous vehicle.” See SAHAJA.

sahakāripratyaya. (T. lhan cig byed pa’i rkyen; C. zhuyuan; J. joen; K. choyŏn 助). In Sanskrit, the “cooperative condition,” referring to those subsidiary conditions that must be present in order for an effect to be produced, such as the presence of heat and moisture for a seed to grow into a sprout. In the context of epistemology, sahakāripratyaya is the last of four types of conditions (PRATYAYA) that must be present in order for consciousness to occur: for example, in the case of the perception of a tree by a moment of visual consciousness (CAKṢURVIJÑĀNA), the prior moment of consciousness that leads to this visual consciousness is called the immediately antecedent condition (SAMANANTARAPRATYAYA), the tree is called the object condition (ĀLAMBANAPRATYAYA), and the visual sense organ is called the predominant condition (ADHIPATIPRATYAYA); the cooperative condition would be the light that must be present in order to see.

sahāloka. (T. mi mjed kyi ’jig rten; C. suopo shijie; J. shaba sekai; K. saba segye 娑婆世界). In Sanskrit, lit. “world of endurance,” in the MAHĀYĀNA, the name of the world system we inhabit where the buddha ŚĀKYAMUNI taught; the term may also be seen written as sahālokadhātu. The tradition offers at least two explanations for designating this realm as the sahāloka. First, it is called the “world of endurance” because of the suffering endured by the beings that populate it. Second, the Sanskrit term sahā can also mean “together with, conjointly,” and in this sense the term is understood to indicate that in this realm karmic causes and their effects are inextricably bound together. There is a range of opinion concerning the extent of the sahā world. Some texts identify this land with the continent of JAMBUDVĪPA, some with all four continents of this world system, and some with the entire trichiliocosm (TRISĀHASRAMAHĀSĀHASRALOKADHĀTU). The sahāloka is the buddha-field (BUDDHAKṢETRA) of Śākyamuni, which is described as an impure field because it includes animals, ghosts, and hell denizens. In both the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA and the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEŚA, however, Śākyamuni indicates that while unenlightened beings may perceive it as a world of suffering and desire, the sahā world is in reality his pure buddha field, a fact that is fully perceived by those who have achieved enlightenment. The highest divinity (DEVA) in the sahāloka is BRAHMĀ, one of whose epithets is SAHĀṂPATI, “Lord of the Sahā World.”

Sahāṃpati. (P. Sahampati; T. Mi mjed kyi bdag po; C. Suopo shijie zhu; J. Shabasekaishu; K. Saba segye chu 娑婆世界主). In Sanskrit, “Lord of the Sahā World,” the epithet of a BRAHMĀ deity. The first concentration (DHYĀNA) of the realm of subtle materiality (RŪPADHĀTU; see RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA) has three levels, called BRAHMAKĀYIKA, BRAHMAPUROHITA, and MAHĀBRAHMĀ. The most senior of the deities of this third and highest level within the first concentration is called Brahmā Sahāṃpati. He plays a crucial role in the inception of the Buddhist teaching (ŚĀSANA). After his enlightenment, the newly enlightened Buddha is said to have wondered whether there was anyone in this world who would be able to understand his teaching. Brahmā Sahāṃpati then appeared to him and implored him to teach, convincing him that there were persons “with little dust in their eyes” who would be able to understand his teachings. According to BUDDHAGHOSA, the Buddha had every intention to teach but feigned reluctance in order that Brahmā Sahāṃpati would make the request, knowing that if the most powerful divinity in the SAHĀLOKA implored the Buddha to teach, those who honored Brahmā would heed the Buddha’s teachings. Brahmā Sahāṃpati also assured the Buddha that in their last lifetimes, none of the buddhas of the past had had a teacher other than the DHARMA they discovered themselves. According to some accounts, he is divinity not of the mahābrahmā realm but rather of the ŚUDDHĀVĀSA.

Sāhasrabhujasāhasranetrāvalokiteśvara. [alt. Sahasrabhujasahasranetrāvalokiteśvara] (T. Spyan ras gzigs phyag stong spyan stong; C. Qianshou Qianyan Guanyin; J. Senju Sengen Kannon; K. Ch’ŏnsu Ch’ŏnan Kwanŭm 千手千眼觀音). In Sanskrit, “Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed AVALOKITEŚVARA”; one of the manifestations of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteśvara (C. GUANYIN). The iconographical representations of this manifestation are usually depicted in abbreviated form with forty arms, each of which has an eye on its palm, indicating its ability compassionately to see and offer assistance to suffering sentient beings. Every arm also holds a different instrument, such as an axe, a sword, a bow, an arrow, a staff, a bell, or blue, white, and purple lotuses, each symbolizing one of the bodhisattva’s various skills in saving sentient beings. The forty arms and eyes work on behalf of the sentient beings in the twenty-five realms of existence, giving the bodhisattva a total of a thousand arms and eyes. The images also typically are depicted with eleven or twenty-seven heads, although images with five hundred heads are also found. The origin of this manifestation is uncertain; the prototype may be such Indian deities as Viṣṇu, INDRA, and Śiva, who are also sometimes depicted with multiple hands and eyes. Since no image of this form of the BODHISATTVA has been discovered in India proper, some scholars suggest that the form may have originated in Kashmir (See KASHMIR-GANDHĀRA) and thence spread north into Central and East Asia; this scenario is problematic, however, because the earliest such image found at DUNHUANG, the furthest Chinese outpost along the SILK ROAD, dates to 836, about two hundred years later than the first such image painted in China, which is said to have been made for the Tang emperor by an Indian monk sometime between 618 and 626. The Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin became popular in China through translations of the QIANSHOU JING (“Thousand Hands Sūtra”; Nīlakaṇṭhakasūtra) made between the mid-seventh and early-eighth centuries. Due to the great popularity of Bhagavaddharma’s (fl. c. seventh century) early translation, which was rendered between 650 and 658, the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara became identified specifically with Avalokiteśvara’s manifestation as Great Compassion (C. Dabei; S. MAHĀKARUṆIKA), although the epithet is used also to refer to Avalokiteśvara more generally. The Guanyin cult was popular in Chang’an and Sichuan during the Tang period and became widespread throughout China by the Song period; this bodhisattva was subsequently worshipped widely in Korea, Japan, and Tibet, as well. The ritual of repentance offered to the bodhisattva was created by the TIANTAI monk ZHILI (960–1028); the ritual is still widely performed in Taiwan and China. By the twelfth century, the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin also came to be identified with the legendary princess MIAOSHAN, who was so filial that she offered her own eyes to save her father’s life. In Tibet, this form of Avalokiteśvara is called Sāhasrabhuja-ekādaśamukha Avalokiteśvara (Spyan ras gzigs phyag stong zhal bcu gcig), with one thousand arms (often depicted in a fan formation) and eleven heads. According to a well-known story, the bodhisattva of compassion had vowed that if he ever gave up his commitment to suffering sentient beings and sought instead his own welfare, his head would break into ten pieces and his body into a thousand. In a moment of despair at the myriad sufferings of the world, his head and body exploded. The buddha AMITĀBHA put his body back together, crafting one thousand arms and ten heads, placing a duplicate of his own head at the top. This form of Avalokiteśvara is therefore known as, “one thousand arms and eleven heads” (phyag stong zhal bcu gcig).

Sahasrākṣa. (P. Sahassākkha; T. Mig stong can; C. Qianyan; J. Sengen; K. Ch’ŏnan 千眼). In Sanskrit, “One-Thousand Eyes,” an epithet of INDRA. In Sanskrit and Pāli sources, Indra is known by several names, the most frequent being ŚAKRO DEVĀNĀM INDRAḤ (P. Sakko devānām indo), meaning “ŚAKRA, king of the gods.” A number of Indra’s various epithets are explained in one section of the Pāli SAṂYUTTANIKĀYA; there, the name “One-Thousand Eyes” (P. Sahassākkha) is explained by saying that in one instant Indra can consider one thousand different matters. The broader Indian religious tradition, from which Buddhism appropriated the divinity Indra, also has a number of stories explaining why Indra is called “One-Thousand Eyes.” In the most popular of these stories, Indra seduces the wife of a famous seer (ṛṣi). The ṛṣi punishes Indra with a curse—causing one thousand vulvas (S. bhaga) to appear on his body. The ṛṣi is later persuaded to remove the curse and he turns each one of the vulvas into an eye.

sahā world. (S). See SAHĀLOKA.

Saichō. (最澄) (767–822). In Japanese, “Most Pure”; the monk traditionally recognized as the founder of the TENDAISHŪ in Japan; also known as Dengyō Daishi (Great Master Transmission of the Teachings). Although the exact dates and place of Saichō’s birth remain a matter of debate, he is said to have been born to an immigrant Chinese family in Ōmi province east of HIEIZAN in 767. At age eleven, Saichō entered the local Kokubunji and studied under the monk Gyōhyō (722–797), a disciple of the émigré Chinese monk Daoxuan (702–766). In 785, Saichō received the full monastic precepts at the monastery of TŌDAIJI in Nara, after which he began a solitary retreat in a hermitage on Mt. Hiei. In 788, he built a permanent temple on the summit of Mt. Hiei. After Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806) moved the capital to Kyōto in 794, the political significance of the Mt. Hiei community and thus Saichō seem to have attracted the attention of the emperor. In 797, Saichō was appointed a court priest (naigubu), and in 802 he was invited to the monastery of Takaosanji to participate in a lecture retreat, where he discussed the writings of the eminent Chinese monk TIANTAI ZHIYI on the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA. Saichō and his disciple GISHIN received permission to travel to China in order to acquire Tiantai texts. In 804, they went to the monastery or Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai and studied under Daosui (d.u.) and Xingman (d.u.), disciples of the eminent Chinese Tiantai monk JINGQI ZHANRAN. Later, they are also known to have received BODHISATTVA precepts (bosatsukai) from Daosui at Longxingsi. He is also said to have received tantric initiation into the KONGŌKAI and TAIZŌKAI (RYŌBU) MAṆḌALAs from Shunxiao (d.u.). After nine and a half months in China, Saichō returned to Japan the next year with numerous texts, which he catalogued in his Esshūroku. Emperor Kanmu, who had been ill, asked Saichō to perform the esoteric rituals that he had brought back from China as a therapeutic measure. Saichō received permission to establish the Tendai sect and successfully petitioned for two Tendai monks to be ordained each year, one for doctrinal study and one to perform esoteric rituals. After the death of Kanmu in 806, little is known of Saichō’s activities. In 810, he delivered a series of lectures at Mt. Hiei on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, the SUVARṆAPRABHĀSOTTAMASŪTRA, and the RENWANG JING (“Scripture for Humane Kings”). In 812, Saichō also constructed a meditation hall known as the Hokkezanmaidō. Later, Saichō is also said to have received kongōkai initiation from KŪKAI at the latter’s temple Takaosanji, but their relations soured after a close disciple of Saichō’s left Saichō for Kūkai. Their already tenuous relationship was sundered completely when Saichō requested a tantric initiation from Kūkai, who replied that Saichō would need to study for three years with Kūkai first. Saichō then engaged the eminent Hossōshū (FAXIANG ZONG) monk Tokuitsu (d.u.) in a prolonged debate concerning the buddha-nature (see BUDDHADHĀTU, FOXING) and Tendai doctrines, such as original enlightenment (see HONGAKU). In response to Tokuitsu’s treatises Busshōshō and Chūhengikyō, Saichō composed his Shōgonjikkyō, Hokke kowaku, and Shugo kokkaishō. Also at this time, Saichō began a prolonged campaign to have an independent MAHĀYĀNA ordination platform established at Mt. Hiei. He argued that the bodhisattva precepts as set forth in the FANWANG JING, traditionally seen as complementary to monastic ordination, should instead replace them. He argued that the Japanese were spiritually mature and therefore could dispense entirely with the HĪNAYĀNA monastic precepts and only take the Mahāyāna bodhisattva precepts. His petitions were repeatedly denied, but permission to establish the Mahāyāna ordination platform at Mt. Hiei was granted a week after his death. Before his death Saichō also composed the Hokke shūku and appointed Gishin as his successor.

Saidaiji. (西大寺). In Japanese, “Great Monastery to the West”; one of the seven major monasteries in the ancient Japanese capital of Nara (J. NANTO SHICHIDAIJI); the headquarters of the True Word Precepts (SHINGON-Ritsu) school in Japan. As its name implies, Saidaiji is located in the western part of Nara and was first constructed in 765 in accordance with a decree from SHŌTOKU TAISHI (572–622). The monastery originally had two main halls, one dedicated to the buddha BHAIṢAJYAGURU and the other to the bodhisattva MAITREYA. After conflagrations in 846 and 860, the monastery began to decline, but revived when Eison (Kōshō bosatsu; 1201–1290) moved there in 1235 and made it the center of his movement to restore the VINAYA. After another major fire in 1502, the Tokugawa Shogunate supported a rebuilding project. The monastery enshrines four bronze statues of the four heavenly kings (CATURMAHĀRĀJA), dating to the Nara (710–794) period. The main hall is dominated by a statue of ŚĀKYAMUNI said to have been carved cooperatively by eleven sculptors in 1249. To its right is a statue of MAÑJUŚRĪ riding a lion, to its left, a statue of Maitreya dating from 1322.

Saigyō. (西行) (1118–1190). A Japanese Buddhist poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods, especially famous for his many waka poems, a traditional style of Japanese poetry; his dharma name literally means “Traveling West,” presumably referring to the direction of the PURE LAND of AMITĀBHA. Born as Satō Norikiyo into a family of the warrior class, he served during his youth as a guard for the retired emperor Toba (r. 1107–1123) before becoming a monk at the age of twenty-two. Although relatively little is known about his life, Saigyō seems to have traveled around the country on pilgrimage before eventually settling in relative seclusion on KŌYASAN, the headquarters of the SHINGONSHŪ. Virtually all of his poems are written in the thirty-one-syllable waka form favored at court and cover most of the traditional topics addressed in such poems, including travel, reclusion, cherry blossoms, and the beauty of the moon in the night sky. His poetry also reflects the desolation and despondency that Japanese of his time may have felt was inevitable during the degenerate age of the dharma (J. mappō; C. MOFA). Saigyō’s Sankashū (“Mountain Home Collection”) includes some fifteen hundred poems written in the course of his career; ninety-four of these poems were included in the imperially sponsored waka collection, the Shinkokinshū (“New Collection of Ancient and Modern Times”), compiled in 1205, making him one of Japan’s most renowned and influential poets.

śaikṣa. (P. sekha; T. slob pa; C. xueren; J. gakunin; K. hagin 學人). In Sanskrit, “neophyte,” “acolyte,” one who is undergoing religious training. The path to enlightenment is often divided into the path of training and the path of no further training (AŚAIKṢA), with the former including (1) the seven paths of enterer and abider in the stages of the stream-enterer, once-returner, and nonreturner, and the enterer in the stage of the arhat; and (2) the paths of accumulation, preparation, vision, and meditation. The adept path where no further training is necessary (AŚAIKṢAMĀRGA) is the state of an ARHAT or a buddha.

śaikṣadharma. (P. sekhiyadhamma; T. bslabs pa’i chos; C. zhongxue; J. shugaku; K. chunghak 衆學). In Sanskrit, lit., “qualities in which to be trained”; in the PRĀTIMOKṢA, a large set of rules to be followed in the course of daily monastic life, the violation of which entails no sanction beyond the need for confession. They are for the most part items of etiquette with regard to dress, accepting and eating food, teaching the dharma, and using the toilet. The number of these precepts varies by VINAYA recension, with the Chinese MAHĀSĀṂGHIKA having sixty-six and the Chinese SARVĀSTIVĀDA having 113. In the Pāli vinaya, the term refers to a group of seventy-five precepts found in the Pāṭimokkha divided into seven sections. The first two rules concern proper dress. The next twenty-four rules concern the proper way to enter villages and inhabited areas and interact with the laypeople there. A set of thirty rules concerns the proper way to take meals. The next fifteen rules concern the preaching of dharma, and the last three rules concern the use of the toilet. Śaikṣa rules are the same for monks and nuns. One who knowingly transgresses these rules is guilty of an “offense of wrongdoing” (S. DUṢKṚTA; P. dukkata).

Sajip. (四集). In Korean, “Fourfold Collection,” a compilation of three Chinese CHAN and one Korean SŎN texts that has been used in Korean Buddhist seminaries (kangwŏn) since at least the eighteenth century as the core of the monastic curriculum. The four books in the collection provide monks and nuns with, first, a systematic overview of mature Korean Buddhist thought and soteriology, focusing on the accommodation between Buddhist doctrinal study (KYO)—specifically HUAYAN (K. Hwaŏm) thought—and CHAN (Sŏn) meditation practice and different schemata of awakening (C. WU; K. o) and cultivation (C. xiu; K. su); and second, extensive grounding in the theory and mode of practice of “questioning meditation” (K. kanhwa Sŏn; C. KANHUA CHAN), the predominant form of meditative practice in Korea since the middle of the Koryŏ dynasty. The books of the “Fourfold Collection” are, in their traditional order: (1) The “Letters of Dahui” (C. DAHUI PUJUE CHANSHI SHU, better known in Korea by its abbreviated title Sŏjang, C. SHUZHUANG), a collection of the correspondence between the Chinese LINJI master DAHUI ZONGGAO (1089–1163) and various of his lay and ordained students, which describe the specifics of kanhua Chan meditation; (2) The “Chan Prolegomenon” (CHANYUAN ZHUQUANJI DUXU, known in Korea by its abbreviated title of TOSŎ), by GUIFENG ZONGMI (780–841), which provides an overarching hermeneutical framework—drawing on a series of polarities such as sudden and gradual, emptiness and self-nature, true and provisional—through which to understand the relationships among the teachings of representative traditions of Chan and the various doctrinal traditions, leading to a vision of Buddhism that reconciles the scholastic schools and the Chan schools; (3) The “Essentials of Chan” (GAOFENG HESHANG CHANYAO, typically known in Korea as the SŎNYO), by GAOFENG YUANMIAO (1238–1295), which Koreans have considered one of the clearest expositions of kanhwa Sŏn in all of Sŏn literature and use as a primer on the technique; (4) The “Excerpts from the ‘Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record’ with Personal Notes” (PŎPCHIP PYŎRHAENGNOK CHŎRYO PYŎNGIP SAGI, usually known by its abbreviated title CHŎRYO) by POJO CHINUL (1158–1210), which offers an exhaustive examination of the question of whether enlightenment is achieved via a sudden or gradual process of soteriological development, advocating as the optimal stratagem the approach of sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation (K. tono chŏmsu; C. DUNWU JIANXIU), and first introducing to Korea the kanhwa Sŏn technique; through this examination, Chinul specifically correlates the path as described in the doctrinal teachings of Buddhism (Kyo) with the practice of Sŏn, an approach that subsequently becomes emblematic of Korean Buddhism. The four books of the Sajip are thus intended to provide monks and nuns with substantial grounding in the theory and practice of kanhwa Sŏn prior to their beginning intensive training in the meditation hall (Sŏnbang).

sākāra. (T. rnam bcas; C. youxiang; J. usō; K. yusang 有相). In Sanskrit, lit. “having aspects,” a term used in Buddhist epistemological accounts of perception, which asserts that what is perceived in sensory perception is not the object itself, but the “aspect” (ĀKĀRA) of the object. Buddhist philosophical schools differ as to whether or not such an “aspect” is required in order for sense perception to occur. VAIBHĀṢIKAs are “non-aspectarians” (NIRĀKĀRAVĀDA), who hold that mind knows objects directly; SAUTRĀNTIKAs are “aspectarians” (SĀKĀRAVĀDA), who say mind knows its object through an image of the object that is taken into the mind. YOGĀCĀRA also holds that the mind knows its object through an image. However, there is an internal debate within the school as to whether the appearance is a true aspect (satyākāra) or a false aspect (alīkākāra). In the late eighth century in north India, in the MADHYAMAKĀLAṂKĀRA of ŚĀNTARAKṢITA, and the commentaries on his work by his students KAMALAŚĪLA and HARIBHADRA, this terminology was central in a discussion of how the TATHĀGATA can be all-knowing (literally, “knowing all aspects,” SARVĀKĀRAJÑATĀ) while possessing ADVAYAJÑĀNA (nondual knowledge). See ĀKĀRA.

sākāravāda. (T. rnam pa dang bcas par smra ba). In Sanskrit, “proponent of having aspects,” or “aspectarians”; a position in Buddhist epistemology, according to which sensory perception is not of the object itself but of an “aspect” (ĀKĀRA) of the object. See ĀKĀRA; SĀKĀRA.

Sāketa. (T. Gnas bcas; C. Suozhiduo cheng; J. Shagita jō; K. Sagida sŏng 娑枳多城). In Sanskrit and Pāli, a town in KOŚALA regarded during the Buddha’s time as one of the six great cities of India, said to be located six or seven leagues (YOJANA) from ŚRĀVASTĪ. The other cities are Kauśāmbī, Campā, Vārāṇasī, Śrāvastī, and RĀJAGṚHA. The city has been identified by some with Ayodhyā. The Buddha and his disciples visited the city often; it is the setting for the Sāketa Jātaka and the Sāketasutta.

Sakkapañhasutta. (C. Di-Shi suowen jing; J. Taishaku shomongyō; K. Che-Sŏk somun kyŏng 帝釋所問經). In Pāli, “Discourse on Sakka’s Question”; the twenty-first sutta of the DĪGHANIKĀYA (there are three separate recensions in Chinese: an independent sūtra translated by FAXIAN; a SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension that appears as the fourteenth sūtra in the Chinese translation of the DĪRGHĀGAMA; and a SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension that appears as the 134th sūtra in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA). The sūtra is preached to ŚAKRA (P. Sakka), king of the gods, by the Buddha while he dwelt in the Indraśāla [alt. Indraśaila] (P. Indasāla) cave near RĀJAGṚHA. Śakra inquired as to why there was so much hostility between beings. The Buddha explained that hostility is caused by selfishness; that selfishness is caused by likes and dislikes, and that likes and dislikes, in turn, are caused by desire. Desire is produced by mental preoccupations (S. VITARKA, P. vitakka) born from the proliferation of concepts (S. PRAPAÑCA, P. papañca) that gives rise to SAṂSĀRA. The Buddha then delineates a practice to be pursued and a practice to be abandoned for subduing this conceptual proliferation.

Śakra. (P. Sakka; T. Brgya byin; C. Di-Shi; J. Taishaku; K. Che-Sŏk 帝釋). Sanskrit name of a divinity who is often identified with the Vedic god INDRA (with whom he shares many epithets), although it is perhaps more accurate to describe him as a Buddhist (and less bellicose) version of Indra. Typically described in Buddhist texts by his full name and title as “Śakra, the king of the gods” (ŚAKRO DEVĀNĀM INDRAḤ), he is the divinity (DEVA) who appears most regularly in Buddhist texts. Śakra is chief of the gods of the heaven of the thirty-three (TRĀYASTRIṂŚA), located on the summit of Mount SUMERU. As such, he is a god of great power and long life, but is also subject to death and rebirth; the Buddha details in various discourses the specific virtues that result in rebirth as Śakra. In both the Pāli canon and the MAHĀYĀNA sūtras, Śakra is depicted as the most devoted of the divine followers of the Buddha, descending from his heaven to listen to the Buddha’s teachings and to ask him questions (and according to some accounts, eventually achieving the state of stream-enterer), and rendering all manner of assistance to the Buddha and his followers. In the case of the Buddha, this assistance was extended prior to his achievement of buddhahood, both in his previous lives (as in the story of Vessantara in the VESSANTARA JĀTAKA) and in his last lifetime as Prince SIDDHĀRTHA; when the prince cuts off his royal locks and throws them into the sky, proclaiming that he will achieve buddhahood if his locks remain there, it is Śakra who catches them and installs them in a shrine in the heaven of the thirty-three. When the Buddha later visited the heaven of the thirty-three to teach the ABHIDHARMA to his mother MĀYĀ (who had been reborn there), Śakra provided the magnificent ladder for his celebrated descent to JAMBUDVĪPA that took place at SĀṂKĀŚYA. When the Buddha was sick with dysentery near the end of his life, Śakra carried his chamber pot. Śakra often descends to earth disguised as a brāhmaṇa in order to test the virtue of the Buddha’s disciples, both monastic and lay, offering all manner of miraculous boons to those who pass the test. In the Pāli canon, a section of the SAṂYUTTANIKĀYA consists of twenty-five short suttas devoted to him.

sakṛdāgāmin. (P. sakadāgāmi; T. lan gcig phyir ’ong ba; C. yilai/situohan; J. ichirai/shidagon; K. illae/sadaham 一來/斯陀含). In Sanskrit, lit. “once-returner”; the second (in ascending order) of the four grades of noble person (ĀRYAPUDGALA), the others being the SROTAĀPANNA or “stream-enterer” (the first grade), the ANĀGĀMIN or “nonreturner” (the next grade above sakṛdāgāmin), and the ARHAT or “worthy one” (the highest grade). The sakṛdāgāmin is one who has completely put aside the first three of ten fetters (SAṂYOJANA) that bind one to the cycle of rebirth; namely, (1) belief in the existence of a self in relation to the body (SATKĀYADṚṢṬI), (2) doubt about the efficacy of the path (VICIKITSĀ), (3) belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals (ŚĪLAVRATAPARĀMARŚA); and in addition, he has made progress in substantially overcoming the fourth and fifth fetters, namely, (4) sensual craving (KĀMARĀGA), and (5) malice (VYĀPĀDA). Having put aside the first three fetters completely and mitigated the fourth and fifth fetters, the sakṛdāgāmin is destined to be reborn in the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) at most one more time, although he may be reborn in the realm of subtle materiality (RŪPADHĀTU) or the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU) before attaining NIRVĀṆA. Both SAKṚDĀGĀMIPHALAPRATIPANNAKA and SAKṚDĀGĀMIPHALASTHA are once-returners. The sakṛdāgāmin is also one of the twenty members of the ĀRYASAṂGHA (see VIṂŚATIPRABHEDASAṂGHA). In this context sakṛdāgāmin is the name for candidates (pratipannaka) for the fruition of sakṛdāgāmin SAKṚDĀGĀMIPHALAPRATIPANNAKA). They may be either a follower through faith (ŚRADDHĀNUSĀRIN) or a follower through doctrine (DHARMĀNUSĀRIN) with either dull (MṚDVINDRIYA) or keen faculties (TĪKṢṆENDRIYA). In all cases they are those who, before reaching the path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA), have eliminated six or seven of the levels of afflictions (KLEŚA) that cause rebirth in the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) that the ordinary (LAUKIKA) path of meditation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA) removes, but they will not have eliminated the eighth or ninth level. Were they to have done so, they would be called candidates for the third fruit of nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIPHALAPRATIPANNAKA).

sakṛdāgāmiphalapratipannaka. (P. sakadāgāmimagga; T. phyir ’ong zhugs pa; C. yilai xiang; J. ichiraikō; K. illae hyang 一來向). In Sanskrit, candidate for the fruit of once-returner. If they are VĪTARĀGAPŪRVIN (those who have already eliminated afflictions (KLEŚA) associated with the sensuous realm prior to reaching the path of vision) and ānupūrvin (those who reach the four fruits of the noble path in a series), they are SROTAĀPANNAPHALASTHA. See SAKṚDĀGĀMIPHALASTHA.

sakṛdāgāmiphalastha. (P. sakadāgāmiphala; T. phyir ’ong ’bras gnas; C. zheng yilai guo; J. shōichiraika; K. chŭng illae kwa 證一來果). In Sanskrit, “one who has reached, or is the recipient of, the fruit of once-returner”; this term is paired with the SAKṚDĀGĀMIPHALAPRATIPANNAKA, one who is a candidate for the fruit of once-returner. Both refer to the “once-returner” (SAKṚDĀGĀMIN), one of the four types of noble persons (ĀRYA); the sakṛdāgāmiphalapratipannaka has, however, only reached the ĀNANTARYAMĀRGA (unimpeded path), while the sakṛdāgāmiphalastha has reached the VIMUKTIMĀRGA (path of freedom). In general, according to the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA, a noble person reaches the goal of ARHAT by becoming free of all the afflictions (KLEŚA) of the three realms, from the sensuous realm to the BHAVĀGRA, the highest level of the immaterial realm. There are nine levels to the three realms: the level of the sensous realm is counted as one, and each of the four meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA) of the realms of both subtle materiality and and immateriality are counted as one each. The path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA) has sixteen instants, eight ānantaryamārga and eight vimuktimārga. The first four instants (consisting of two pairs of ānantaryamārga and vimuktimārga) are focused on the truth of suffering as it pertains to the sensuous realm, and then to the remaining eight levels of the two upper realms. The second four instants are focused on the truth of origination as it pertains to the sensuous realm, and then to the remaining eight levels of the two upper realms (see DHARMAKṢĀNTI). In this way, during sixteen instants that systematize the path of vision, all the afflictions to be eliminated by the path of vision are removed. The sharpest people (TĪKṢṆENDRIYA), with the finest store of previous actions, like the Buddha, know all three realms are equally conditioned by suffering (SAṂSKĀRADUḤKHATĀ) and feel disgust for all of it equally as SAṂSĀRA; they enter into the path of vision, eliminate the fetters, and awaken as arhats. Others have gradations of good fortune, ranging from those who will reach the final goal after death, to those who spend many lives taking rebirth in different heavens in the upper two realms before finally reaching the goal of arhatship. Those whose prior store of actions is such that, prior to reaching the path of vision, they have eliminated all, some, or none of the nine sets of afflictions that specifically cause rebirth in the sensuous realm reach the intermediate fruits of nonreturner, once-returner, and stream-enterer, respectively, when they reach the path of vision. The number of births they will take, and the places they take them, give rise to an āryasaṃgha made up of twenty different persons (VIṂŚATIPRABHEDASAṂGHA). In the Mahāyāna didactic reformulations of ABHIDHARMA, sakṛdāgāmin is a name for celestial bodhisattvas who are in their last life before taking birth in the TUṢITA heaven prior to becoming complete and perfect buddhas (samyaksaṃbuddha).

Śakro devānām indraḥ. (P. Sakko devānām indo). In Sanskrit, “ŚAKRA, king of the gods.” See ŚAKRA, INDRA.

Śakulā. (P. Sakulā; C. Shejuli; J. Shakuri; K. Saguri 奢拘梨). An eminent ARHAT nun declared by the Buddha as foremost among his nun disciples in mastery of the divine eye (S. DIVYACAKṢUS, P. dibbacakkhu). She was the daughter of a brāhmaṇa family in the city of ŚRĀVASTĪ (P. Sāvatthi), who became a lay follower of the Buddha when she witnessed him accept the gift of the JETAVANA grove offered by ANĀTHAPIṆḌADA. Once, while listening to an arhat monk preach, she became overwhelmed with a sense of the transience of worldly things and joined the order as a nun. Through cultivating insight, she eventually attained arhatship. One of the extraordinary powers (ABHIJÑĀ) she developed as a consequence of her practice was the divine eye, or the ability to perceive the past lives of other beings and to understand the karmic consequences of the actions that led them from one existence to the next. It was because of her exceptional ability that she was deemed foremost in this regard. During the time of Padmottara (P. Padumuttara) Buddha, she was the half-sister of the Buddha and overheard one of his nun disciples being called foremost in mastery of the divine eye. It was at that time that she resolved to attain that distinction during the dispensation of a future buddha.

Śākya. (P. Sākiya; T. Shākya; C. Shijia; J. Shaka; K. Sŏkka; V. Thích ca 釋迦). Name of an ancient north Indian tribe that flourished in the southern foothills of the Himālayas near what is now the border between Nepal and India. This tribe produced the historical buddha, called either GAUTAMA or ŚĀKYAMUNI, whose name means “Sage of the Śākya Clan.” Unfortunately virtually no sources referring to the Śākyas can be found outside the Buddhist tradition. The origin of the name is uncertain, being variously described as synonymous with the Sanskrit term śākya, meaning “able,” or as a derivative of the noun śāka, a kind of tree used by this clan in construction. Texts describe this clan as ruled by KṢATRIYAs, the military or administrative caste of the Indian social system. At the time of the Buddha, the Śākyas were ruled by his father, King ŚUDDHODANA. The Śākyas made KAPILAVASTU the capital of their region. Both the MAHĀVASTU and the BUDDHACARITA name the Śākyas as descendants of the legendary solar king Ikṣvāku; the ultimate progenitor of the Śākyas was MAHĀSAṂMATA, the first king of the present world system. In the time of the Buddha, the Śākyas, although they were self-governing, were subjects of the neighboring kingdom of KOŚALA. According to various accounts, VIRŪḌHAKA (P. Viḍūḍabha), the king of KOŚALA, annexed the territory of the Śākyas and killed most of its inhabitants after they insulted him by revealing that his mother, whom they had provided as a bride to his father PRASENAJIT, was a servant. Prior to their demise, the Buddha himself is said to have dissuaded Virūḍhaka from invading the territory of the Śākyas. In East Asian Buddhism after the fourth century CE, monks and nuns traditionally abandoned their family surnames and adopted instead the Buddha’s clan name Śākya (C. Shi); see SHI.

śākyabhikṣu. (P. sākiyabhikkhu or sakkabhikkhu; T. shākya dge slong; C. shijia seng; J. shakasō; K. sŏkka sŭng 釋迦僧). Literally “ŚĀKYA monk,” a term for a Buddhist monk that appears most frequently in Buddhist donor inscriptions, but also occasionally in non-Buddhist Indian sources. Śākya refers to the northern Indian clan into which was born the historical buddha, who is thus known as ŚĀKYAMUNI, or “Sage of the Śākya Clan.” In its most general use, the term refers to any Buddhist monk, in distinction to mendicants of other Indian religious traditions, such as the JAINA. This figurative use of the term Śākya—i.e., all monks as members of the Śākya clan—is common in Buddhist texts. Often monks are described as kinsmen or sons of the Buddha or the Śākyas. In its more specific use, śākyabhikṣu refers to those monks who, like the Buddha, actually belonged to the Śākya clan. Some scholars have argued that, in the Indian context, the term śākyabhikṣu was used specifically and exclusively by MAHĀYĀNA monks. Many East Asian monastic traditions use their pronunciations of the Sinographic transcription of the name Śākya as the “clan name” for all their ordained members (see SHI).

Śākyamuni. (P. Sakkamuni; T. Shākya thub pa; C. Shijiamouni; J. Shakamuni; K. Sŏkkamoni 釋迦牟尼). In Sanskrit, “Sage of the ŚĀKYA Clan,” one of the most common epithets of GAUTAMA Buddha, especially in the MAHĀYĀNA traditions, where the name ŚĀKYAMUNI is used to distinguish the historical buddha from the myriad other buddhas who appear in the SŪTRAs. The Śākyas were a tribe in northern India into which was born SIDDHĀRTHA GAUTAMA, the man who would become the historical buddha. According to the texts, the Śākya clan was made up of KṢATRIYAs, warriors or political administrators in the Indian caste system. The Śākya clan flourished in the foothills of the Himālayas, near the border between present-day Nepal and India. Following the tradition’s own model, which did not seek to provide a single and seamless biography of Gautama or Śākyamuni until centuries after his death, this dictionary narrates the events of the life of the Buddha in separate entries about his previous lives, his teachings, his disciples, and the places he visited over the course of his forty-five years of preaching the dharma. In India, accounts of events in the life of the Buddha first appeared in VINAYA materials, such as the Pāli MAHĀVAGGA or the LOKOTTARAVĀDA school’s MAHĀVASTU. Among the Pāli SUTTAs, one of the most detailed accounts of the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment occurs in the ARIYAPARIYESANĀSUTTA. It is noteworthy that many of the most familiar events in the Buddha’s life are absent in some of the early accounts: the miraculous conception and birth; the death of his mother, Queen MĀYĀ; his sheltered youth; the four chariot rides outside the palace where he beholds the four portents (CATURNIMITTA); his departure from the palace; and his abandonment of his wife, YAŚODHARĀ, and his newborn son, RĀHULA. Those stories appear much later, in works like AŚVAGHOṢA’s beloved verse narrative, the BUDDHACARITA, from the second century CE; the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school’s third- or fourth-century CE LALITAVISTARA; and the NIDĀNAKATHĀ, the first biography of the Buddha in Pāli, attributed to BUDDHAGHOSA in the fifth century CE, some eight centuries after the Buddha’s passing. Even in that later biography, however, the “life of the Buddha” ends with ANĀTHAPIṆḌADA’s gift of JETAVANA grove to the Buddha, twenty years after the Buddha’s enlightenment and twenty-five years before his death. Other biographical accounts end even earlier, with the conversion of ŚĀRIPUTRA and MAHĀMAUDGALYĀYANA. Indeed, Indian Buddhist literature devotes more attention to the lives of previous buddhas and to the former lives (JĀTAKA) of Gautama or Śākyamuni than they do to biographies of his final lifetime (when biography is taken to refer to a chronological account from birth to death). And even there, the tradition takes pains to demonstrate the consistency of the events of his life with those of previous buddhas; in fact, all buddhas are said to perform the same eight or twelve deeds (see BAXIANG; TWELVE DEEDS OF A BUDDHA). The momentous events of his birth, renunciation, enlightenment under the BODHI TREE, and first turning of the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA) are described in detail in a range of works, and particular attention is given to his death, in both the Pāli MAHĀPARINIBBANASUTTA and the Sanskrit MAHĀPARINIRVĀṆASŪTRA. And all traditions, whether MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS or the Mahāyāna, are deeply concerned with the question of the location of the Buddha after his passage into PARINIRVĀṆA.

Śākyaprabha. (T. Shākya ’od). (d.u.) Medieval Indian master of the VINAYA, renowned in Tibet, together with GUṆAPRABHA, as one of the “two supreme ones” (mchog gnyis). Apparently from KASHMIR, he was an expert in the MŪLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA. He is best known for his work Śrāmaṇeratriśatakakārikā (“Three Hundred Verses on the Novice”), to which he wrote an autocommentary entitled Prabhāvatī.

Śākyaśrībhadra. (T. Shākya shrī) (1127–1225). Also known as Śākyaśrī, a monk and scholar from KASHMIR who played an important role in the later dissemination (PHYI DAR) of Buddhism in Tibet, especially for the SA SKYA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as abbot at both NĀLANDĀ and VIKRAMAŚĪLA monasteries. As the last abbot of Vikramaśīla monastery, he witnessed its destruction by Muslim troops. Declaring that Buddhism had been destroyed in India, he traveled to Tibet in 1204 (at the age of seventy-seven, if his birth year of 1127 is accurate) at the invitation of the Tibetan translator Khro phu lo tsā ba, in the company of nine Indian and Nepalese paṇḍitas. There, he gave teachings on PRAMĀṆA, ABHIDHARMA, VINAYA, the ABHISAMAYĀLAṂKĀRA, MADHYAMAKA, TANTRA, and Sanskrit grammar and poetics. His most famous Tibetan disciple was SA SKYA PAṆḌITA KUN DGA’ RGYAL MTSHAN, whom he ordained as a BHIKṢU in 1208. It is said that Śākyaśrībhadra gave him the name Sa skya Paṇḍita (“Scholar from Sa skya”) because of his ability to spontaneously translate Tibetan into Sanskrit. The two worked together on a new translation of DHARMAKĪRTI’s PRAMĀṆAVĀRTTIKA, marking the beginning of Sa skya Paṇḍita’s influence in the field of pramāṇa. Śākyaśrībhadra’s ordination lineage, known as the Kha che lugs, or “Kashmiri system,” would be adopted by the GSAR MA sects. Śākyaśrībhadra gave teachings at many monasteries in central and western Tibet, ordained many monks, translated Sanskrit texts, and established several monasteries. While at BSAM YAS, he discovered a manuscript of the GUHYAGARBHATANTRA and vouched for its authenticity. He is also credited with providing the Tibetans with a more accurate chronology of the life of the Buddha. In 1212, he consecrated a great statue of MAITREYA at Khro pu. After ten years in Tibet, he returned to his native Kashmir where he spent the last decade of his life. He is often referred to in Tibetan simply as Kha che paṇ chen, the “great paṇḍita from Kashmir.”

śāla. (P. sāla; T. sā la; C. shaluoshu; J. saraju/sharaju; K. sarasu 沙羅樹). In Sanskrit, the “sal” tree (Shorea robusta, [alt. Vatica robusta]); a species of tree native to South Asia, which figures prominently in the Buddhist tradition. In India, the tree grows upwards of one hundred feet in height and provides both timber and fragrant resin, which is burned for incense. In several of his discourses, the Buddha uses the growth of the śāla tree as an analogy for the development of wholesome qualities (KUŚALA). This tree also is particularly significant in Buddhist hagiography because it was under this type of tree that the Buddha was born and died. Queen MĀYĀ, the Buddha’s mother, is said to have given birth to the prince while clinging for support to the branches of a śāla tree that had bent itself down to help her. The Buddha chose a grove of śāla trees near the town of KUŚINAGARĪ as the site of his PARINIRVĀṆA. Different versions of the Buddha’s demise represent these trees in various ways. One version says that the Buddha laid down between twin śāla trees and passed away. Another version says that the Buddha’s deathbed was surrounded by pairs of śāla trees—two in each of the four cardinal directions—and at the moment of his death these trees blossomed out of season, rained petals upon him, and their trunks turned white. See also SIKU.

Sāleyyakasutta. In Pāli, the “Discourse to the Sāleyyakas”; the forty-first sutta contained in the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA (a separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears, but without title, in the Chinese translation of the SAṂYUKTĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to a group of brāhmaṇa householders at the town of Sālā in the Kosala (S. KOŚALA) country. The Buddha describes for them the ten nonvirtuous actions that lead to unhappiness and unfortunate rebirths and the ten virtuous actions that lead to happiness and fortunate rebirths (see KARMAPATHA). The ten nonvirtuous actions are divided into three kinds of bodily misdeed: (1) killing, (2) stealing, (3) and sexual misconduct; four kinds of verbal misdeed: (4) lying, (5) divisive speech, (6) harsh speech, and (7) senseless prattle; and three kinds of mental misdeed: (8) covetousness, (9) harmful intent, and (10) wrong views. The ten virtuous actions are explained as the abstaining from the ten virtuous actions. The Buddha then describes the fortunate rebirths among humans and divinities that may be expected by those who perform virtuous deeds.

Śālistambasūtra. (T. Sā lu ljang pa’i mdo; C. Daogan jing; J. Tōkangyō; K. Togan kyŏng 稻稈經). In Sanskrit, the “Rice Seedling Sūtra,” a MAHĀYĀNA SŪTRA noted for its detailed presentation of the doctrine of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA). The sūtra begins with the Buddha gazing at a rice seedling and then declaring, “Monks, he who sees dependent origination sees the dharma. He who sees the dharma sees the Buddha.” ŚĀRIPUTRA asks MAITREYA what this statement means, and the majority of the sūtra is devoted to his answer. This sūtra provides one of the most detailed treatments of the doctrine of dependent origination found anywhere in the scriptural literature. The doctrine had been set forth in various ways in previous sūtras, and the Śālistambasūtra appears to be something of a digest of these various presentations. The sūtra is widely quoted by Indian commentators in their own expositions of dependent origination, including MADHYAMAKA authors, although the sūtra does not connect dependent origination with emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ). Indeed, the text is so widely quoted that, although the sūtra is lost in the original Sanskrit, approximately ninety percent of the Sanskrit text can be recovered from citations of it in various Indian treatises.

Sallekhasutta. (C. Zhouna wenjian jing; J. Shūna monkengyō; K. Chuna mun’gyŏn kyŏng 周那問見經). In Pāli, “Discourse on Effacement,” the eighth sutta in the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA (a separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears as the ninety-first sūtra in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA, as well as a recension of unidentified affiliation in the EKOTTARĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to Mahācunda, a master of meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA, S. DHYĀNA) in the JETAVANA grove in the town of Sāvatthi (S. ŚRĀVASTĪ). The Buddha explains that pride and speculative views regarding self and the nature of the world cannot be overcome by mere meditative absorption, but only through insight into the Buddhist truths (insight that implicitly will lead to stream-entry). Furthermore, true austerity is nothing other than refraining from forty-four types of unwholesome qualities; one mired in sensuality cannot help bring another to purity.

samādhi. (T. ting nge ’dzin; C. sanmei; J. sanmai; K. sammae 三昧). In Sanskrit, “concentration”; a foundational term in Buddhist meditation theory and practice, which is related to the ability to establish and maintain one-pointedness of mind (CITTAIKĀGRATĀ) on a specific object of concentration. The SARVĀSTIVĀDA school of ABHIDHARMA and the YOGĀCĀRA school list samādhi as one of a group of five determinative (VINIYATA) mental concomitants (CAITTA), whose function is to aid the mind in ascertaining or determining its object. The five are: aspiration or desire-to-act (CHANDA), determination or resolve (ADHIMOKṢA), mindfulness or memory (SMṚTI), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom or cognition (PRAJÑĀ). According to ASAṄGA, these five determinative factors accompany wholesome (KUŚALA) states of mind, so that if one is present, all are present. In Pāli ABHIDHAMMA materials, concentration is one of the seven mental factors (P. cetasika) that are invariably associated with all moments of consciousness (CITTA, MANAS, or VIJÑĀNA). Concentration occurs in many other important lists, including as the second of the three trainings (TRIŚIKṢĀ), and the last stage of the eightfold path (ĀRYĀṢṬĀṄGAMĀRGA). Concentration is distinguished according to the quality of consciousness with which it is associated. “Right concentration” (SAMYAKSAMĀDHI, P. sammāsamādhi) is concentration associated with wholesome (KUŚALA) states of mind; it is listed not only as one element of the eightfold noble path, but as one of seven factors of enlightenment (BODHYAṄGA, P. bojjhaṅga), and, in an incipient state, as one of five powers (BALA) and the other categories that together make up the BODHIPĀKṢIKADHARMA (thirty-seven factors associated with awakening). High degrees of concentration can be developed through the practice of meditation (BHĀVANĀ). Concentration of such intensity receives the designation “one-pointedness of mind” (cittaikāgratā). When developed to its greatest degree, mental concentration leads to the attainment of DHYĀNA (P. JHĀNA), “meditative absorption.” It is also the main mental factor defining the four magical powers (ṚDDHIPĀDA, P. iddhipāda). The cultivation of concentration for the purposes of attaining meditative absorption is called tranquillity meditation (ŚAMATHA). In the Pāli abhidhamma, three levels of concentration are distinguished in the practice of tranquility meditation: (1) preparatory concentration (PARIKAMMASAMĀDHI) is the degree of concentration established at the beginning of a meditation session. (2) Access or neighborhood concentration (UPACĀRASAMĀDHI) arises just as the practitioner approaches but does not enter the first level of meditative absorption; it is marked by the appearance in the mind of a representational image (PAṬIBHĀGANIMITTA) of the object of meditation. (3) “Attainment” or “full” concentration (APPANĀSAMĀDHI) is the level of concentration that arises upon entering and abiding in any of the meditative absorptions. In the MAHĀYĀNA sūtras, a wide variety of profound meditative experiences are described as samādhis and are mentioned as attainments of the bodhisattva as he ascends through the ten BHŪMIs. The MAHĀVYUTPATTI lists 118 different samādhis that are specified by name in the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ sūtras, such as candravimala (stainless moon), sarvadharmodgata (surpassing all dharmas), siṃhavikrīḍita (lion’s play), anantaprabha (limitless light), and acala (immovable). See also YATHĀBHŪTAJÑĀNADARŚANA.

Samādhirājasūtra. (T. Ting nge ’dzin rgyal po’i mdo; C. Yuedeng sanmei jing; J. Gatttōsanmaikyō; K. Wŏltŭng sammae kyŏng 月燈三昧經). The “King of Concentrations Sūtra”; an important MAHĀYĀNA sūtra (also known as the Candrapradīpa) composed in India, probably in the fourth century CE, with the text undergoing expansion in subsequent centuries. The text is a mixture of poetry and prose, with the verse sections considered to be the older stratum. The sūtra is cited often in Mahāyāna śāstras, especially in the PRASANNAPADĀ of CANDRAKĪRTI and the ŚIKṢĀSAMUCCAYA of ŚĀNTIDEVA, and is also one of the foundational texts, or “nine dharmas” (see NAVAGRANTHA), of Newar Buddhism. A Chinese translation of the complete sūtra was made by Narendrayaśas in 557. The Samādhirājasūtra is composed of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Candragupta, and sets forth various forms of meditation for bodhisattvas, including the “king of concentrations” of the sūtra’s title, which is defined as “the proclamation that all phenomena are of the same nature.” The sūtra does not offer instructions for developing these samādhis, but instead provides their names and recounts their wondrous effects. The sūtra describes at some length the two (rather than three) bodies of a buddha, the DHARMAKĀYA and the RŪPAKĀYA, with the former identified with the “mind of clear light” (PRABHĀSVARACITTA).

samādhiśikṣā. (T. ting nge ’dzin gyi bslab pa). In Sanskrit, “training in meditation.” See ADHISAMĀDHIŚIKṢĀ.

samādhisūtra. In Sanskrit, “meditation sūtra.” See SANMEI JING.

samāhita. (T. mnyam bzhag; C. dengyin; J. tōin; K. tŭngin 等引). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “equipoise” (lit. “composed” or “collected”); a past passive participle formed from the Sanskrit root √dhā (“to place”) with the prefixes sam (“fully”) and ā (“from all sides”) (and etymologically related to SAMĀDHI), in which the mind of the practitioner is linked to its object, in such a way that discursive thought no longer intrudes. A paranomastic gloss interprets it as linking (āhita) the mind to equanimity (sama). The term is sometimes contrasted with subsequent attainment (pṛṣṭhalabha), when discursiveness returns. The decision to include samāhita in the Buddhist narrative on meditation, but to emphasize instead samādhi, could be a reaction to brahmanical discourses on meditative states, which tend to emphasize samāhita over samādhi. In the Buddhist tradition, the notion of samāhita as an attainment is incorporated in different ways from one meditation model to another. In the YOGĀCĀRABHŪMIŚĀSTRA of the YOGĀCĀRA school, for example, samāhita is listed as the sixth of seventeen stages (BHŪMI) by which progress is made toward the state of a buddha. See also SAMĀPATTI.

samāhitajñāna. (T. mnyam bzhag ye shes; C. dengyin zhi; J. tōinchi; K. tŭngin chi 等引智). In Sanskrit, “wisdom of equipoise,” the state of direct realization of reality in which the ultimate truth is perceived without mediation by thought in a state of yogic direct perception (YOGIPRATYAKṢA). In descriptions of the five paths (PAÑCAMĀRGA) to enlightenment, the attainment of such wisdom occurs on the path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA) and is repeated over the course of the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA). It has two parts, the VIMUKTIMĀRGA and the ĀNANTARYAMĀRGA.

samanantarapratyaya. (P. samanantarapaccaya; T. de ma thag pa’i rkyen; C. dengwujian yuan; J. tōmuken’en; K. tŭngmugan yŏn 等無間). In Sanskrit, “immediate-antecedent condition”; the second of the four types of conditions (PRATYAYA) recognized in the VAIBHĀṢIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA and the YOGĀCĀRA school. Samanantarapratyaya is also listed as one of the twenty-four conditions (P. paccaya) in the massive Pāli ABHIDHAMMA text, the PAṬṬHĀNA. This type of condition refers to the immediately antecedent moment, which through its cessation enables a subsequent moment to arise; in the case of consciousness (VIJÑĀNA), it therefore refers to the prior moment of consciousness that is a necessary antecedent to the next moment of consciousness. All types of thought in the conditioned (SAṂSKṚTA) realm serve as immediate-antecedent conditions. The only exception is the final thought-moment in the mental continuum of an ARHAT: because the next thought-moment involves the experience of the unconditioned (ASAṂSKṚTA), no further thoughts from the conditioned realm can ever again recur. This type of condition is also called the “antecedent condition” (ANANTARAPRATYAYA); the VISUDDHIMAGGA explains that samanantarapratyaya and anantarapratyaya are essentially the same, except that the former emphasizes the immediacy of the connection between the two moments.

samānapratibhāsadharmin. (T. chos can mthun snang). In Sanskrit, lit. “subject that appears the same” or “commonly appearing subject,” a term in Buddhist logic, particularly important in Tibetan Buddhism. This term refers to the common basis (T. gzhi mthun) that must be present in order for a reasonable and constructive debate to occur. In other words, if adherents of two different doctrinal systems try to debate, but employ only terms and ideas that are unique to their own systems, then no position can be effectively proven or refuted. Furthermore, the participants in a debate must have a common understanding of the subject that is being debated and a shared understanding of what constitutes a logical example. This term is also understood to mean that the participants in a debate must understand the scripture on which the debate is based. Some Buddhist philosophers, such as Jayānanda, refuted the notion that debate or inference (ANUMĀNA) was in any way constructive on the following general grounds: to the enlightened mind, all phenomena are devoid of substance or definition and therefore no phenomenon can serve as a samānapratibhāsadharmin. This is a central issue in MADHYAMAKA, where the proponent of emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ) rejects the notion of anything that possesses its own nature (SVABHĀVA). This raises the question of whether there is a commonly appearing subject in a debate between a Madhyamaka and non-Madhyamaka; if there is, to what degree is the appearance “common”; and how does the Madhyamaka present his position under such circumstances.

samānārthatā. (P. samānattatā; T. don mthun pa; C. tongshi; J. dōji; K. tongsa 同事). In Sanskrit, “consistency”; viz., acting in accordance with one’s own teachings, or demonstrating consistency between one’s words and deeds. See SAṂGRAHAVASTU.

Sāmaññaphalasutta. (S. Śrāmaṇyaphalasūtra; C. Shamenguo jing; J. Shamongakyō; K. Samun’gwa kyŏng 沙門果經). In Pāli, the “Discourse on the Fruits of Mendicancy,” the second sutta of the DĪGHANIKĀYA (a separate DHARMAGUPTAKA recension appears as the twenty-seventh sūtra in the Chinese translation of the DĪRGHĀGAMA; another unidentified recension also is included in the Chinese translation of the EKOTTARĀGAMA). The patricide king AJĀTAŚATRU (P. Ajātasattu) and the physician JĪVAKA visit the Buddha dwelling at Jīvaka’s mango grove, Ambavana. Impressed by the silence and discipline of the Buddha’s disciples gathered there, Ajātaśatru thinks that it would be good if his own son, Udayabhadra (P. Udāyibaddha), were to join such an assembly of mendicants. He asks the Buddha about the benefits of mendicancy here and now, such that men would put aside worldly pursuits and join the Buddhist order. According to the Pāli recension, he states that he had already put this question to six other famous recluses of the day—namely, PŪRAṆA-KĀŚYAPA, MASKARIN GOŚĀLĪPUTRA, AJITA KEŚAKAMBALA, KAKUDA KĀTYĀYANA, NIRGRANTHA-JÑĀTĪPUTRA, and SAÑJAYA VAIRĀṬĪPUTRA (P. Pūraṇa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambala, Pakudha Kaccāyana, Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta and Sañjaya Belaṭṭiputta)—but received no satisfactory answer. In response to the king’s query, the Buddha describes the immediate benefits of mendicancy from the most mundane to the most exalted. He notes that even a servant or householder who becomes a mendicant receives the honor of kings. Moreover, the mendicant is free of taxation and the burden of supporting a family and learns control of the senses, mindfulness (SMṚTI, P. sati) and contentment. Being content, the mendicant becomes glad and calm, which provide the foundation for attaining the four meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA, P. JHĀNA). Higher than any of these and on the basis of having mastered the four meditative absorptions, the mendicant can develop the six higher knowledges or supranormal powers (ABHIJÑĀ, P. abhiññā), which culminate in enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Upon hearing this discourse, Ajātaśatru expressed regret at having murdered his father and took refuge in the Buddha. After the king’s departure, the Buddha noted to his disciples that were it not for the fact that the king had murdered his father, he would have attained the stage of stream-enterer (SROTAĀPANNA) then and there.

Samantabhadra. (T. Kun tu bzang po; C. Puxian; J. Fugen; K. Pohyŏn 普賢). The Sanskrit name of both an important bodhisattva in Indian and East Asian Buddhism and of an important buddha in Tibetan Buddhism. As a bodhisattva, Samantabhadra is a principal bodhisattva of the MAHĀYĀNA pantheon, who is often portrayed as the personification of the perfection of myriad good works and spiritual practices. He is one of the AṢṬAMAHOPAPUTRA, and an attendant of ŚĀKYAMUNI Buddha, standing opposite MAÑJUŚRĪ at the Buddha’s side. In the PAÑCATATHĀGATA configuration, he is associated with the buddha VAIROCANA. Samantabhadra figures prominently in the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA. In a chapter named after him, he sets forth ten SAMĀDHIs. In the GAṆḌAVYŪHA (the final chapter of the Avataṃsakasūtra), the bodhisattva SUDHANA sets out in search of a teacher, encountering fifty-two beings (twenty of whom are female), including the Buddha’s mother Mahāmāyā (MĀYĀ), the future buddha MAITREYA, as well as AVALOKITEŚVARA and MAÑJUŚRĪ. His final teacher is the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who sets forth the ten vows in his famous BHADRACARĪPRAṆIDHĀNA. In China, the center of Samantabhadra’s worship is EMEISHAN in Sichuan province, which began to develop in the early Tang. According to legend, Samantabhadra arrived at the mountain by flying there on his white elephant, his usual mount. As a buddha, Samantabhadra is the primordial buddha (ĀDIBUDDHA) according to the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He is depicted naked, blue, and in sexual union with his consort Samantabhadrī. He is embodiment of the original purity of all phenomena of SAṂSĀRA and NIRVĀṆA. Called the “primordial basis” (ye gzhi), he is regarded as the eternal union of awareness (RIG PA) and emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ), of emptiness and appearance, and of the nature of the mind and compassion. As such he is the wellspring of the ATIYOGA teachings.

Samantabhadracarī-praṇidhāna-rāja. (S). See BHADRACARĪPRAṆIDHĀNA.

Samantagandha. (T. Kun tu dri bsung; C. Puxiang; J. Fukō; K. Pohyang 普香). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “Universal Fragrance.” In the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA (“Lotus Sūtra”), Samantagandha is listed as one of the many divinities (DEVA) who accompany ŚAKRA, the king of the gods, and are present from the outset of the Buddha’s sermons. In other texts, such as the MAHĀVASTU, Samantagandha is listed as one of the divinities who appears on more than one occasion to honor the Buddha by scattering in the sky such articles as flowers (see KHAPUṢPA) and sandalwood powder. In the APADĀNA, a Pāli collection of hagiographical narratives found in the KHUDDAKANIKĀYA, Samantagandha is listed as a name for one of the hundreds of ARHATs whose prior births are recounted in the text. In the distant past, the ARHAT Pādapūjaka Thera was born thirteen times as a king under the name Samantagandha.

sāmantaka. (T. nyer bsdogs; C. jinfen; J. gonbun; K. kŭnbun 近分). In Sanskrit, “preparation,” “neighboring state”; according to the YOGĀCĀRABHŪMI and the ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, each of the four concentrations (DHYĀNA) and attainments (SAMĀPATTI) has two parts: maula (fundamental state) and sāmantaka (a neighboring part that is preparatory to that fundamental state). The fundamental state is ŚAMATHA (serenity, calmness) and the sāmantaka (preparation) is included under the heading of VIPAŚYANĀ (insight). Six or seven types of attentions (MANASKĀRA) are listed as preparations for the attainment of the first dhyāna. These include attention that contemplates marks (lakṣaṇapratisaṃvedīmanaskāra), arises from belief (ādhimokṣikamanaskāra), arises from separation (prāvivekyamanaskāra), contemplates joy and withdrawal (ratisaṃgrāhakamanaskāra), investigates (mīmāṃsakamanaskāra), is a final practice (prayoganiṣṭamanaskāra), and leads to the result of the final practice (prayoganiṣṭaphalamanaskāra). There are nine impediments (heya) between the fundamental stages of the first and second concentrations (dhyāna), for example. Attention is then paid to the marks of the lower as coarse (audārika) and the higher as delightful (śānta). The first attention identifies the impediments and focuses the mind on removing them; the second brings vigor or energy (VĪRYA); the third, fourth, and six actually counteract the three sets of three impediments; the fifth investigates to see whether the impediments have actually been eliminated. The seventh is the fundamental state. See also UPACĀRASAMĀDHI.

Samantapāsādikā. (C. Shanjianlü piposha; J. Zenkenritsubibasha; K. Sŏn’gyŏnyul pibasa 善見律毘婆沙). In Pāli, lit. “Entirely Pleasing”; the title of a fifth-century commentary on the VINAYAPIṬAKA, written in Sri Lanka by the renowned exegete BUDDHAGHOSA. The Samantapāsādikā contains a lengthy introduction called Bāhiranidāna, which recounts the early history of the dispensation from the death of the Buddha through the convocation of the first three Buddhist councils (see SAṂGĪTĪ) and to the recitation of the VINAYA in Sri Lanka by MAHĀRIṬṬHA during the reign of the Sinhalese king DEVĀNAṂPIYATISSA. A translation of the Bahīranidāna appears in the Pali Text Society’s English translation series as The Inception of Discipline. The remainder of the Samantapāsādikā covers a broad array of topics, touching on many points of historical and geographical interest. The commentary makes reference to the specific locations of a host of Indian VIHĀRAs and CAITYAs (P. cetiya). It also offers details on the life and works of AŚOKA, BIMBISĀRA, AJĀTAŚATRU, and other Indian kings as well as information on the missionaries that Aśoka sent throughout South and Southeast Asia. The Samantapāsādikā includes an account of the life of the elder MOGGALIPUTTATISSA, compiler of the KATHĀVATTHU in the Pāli ABHIDHAMMAPIṬAKA. The three classifications of vinaya, SUTTA, and abhidhamma piṭakas are also explained by Buddhaghosa in this commentary.

sāmānyalakṣaṇa. (T. spyi mtshan; C. gongxiang; J. gūsō; K. kongsang 共相). In Sanskrit, “general characteristic,” “generic quality,” “shared mark”; a term used in contrast to SVALAKṢAṆA (“specific characteristic,” “own mark”) to describe qualities that are generic to a class of phenomena, as opposed to those qualities that are unique to a given object. In the SAUTRĀNTIKA school, sāmānyalakṣaṇa refers to the objects of thought (KALPANĀ) that must be apprehended through a mental image and thus lack the specificity of the impermanent objects of direct perception (PRATYAKṢA).

samāpatti. (T. snyom ’jug; C. dengzhi/zhengshou; J. tōji/shōju; K. tŭngji/chŏngsu 等至/正受). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “attainment” or “trance,” a state of deep concentration produced through the practice of meditation; the term literally means “correct entrance.” Specifically, samāpatti refers to eight levels of attainment, which correlate with the eight meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA), the four absorptions of the realm of subtle materiality (RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA) and the four of the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). However, unlike the dhyāna model, samāpatti may also add a ninth attainment, called either the attainment of the cessation of perception and sensation (SAṂJÑĀVEDAYITANIRODHA) or the trance of cessation (NIRODHASAMĀPATTI). The four attainments of the realm of subtle materiality are named for the order in which they occur. Thus, in ascending order, they are the first concentration (prathamadhyāna, P. paṭhamajjhāna), the second concentration (dvitīyadhyāna, P. dutiyajjhāna), the third concentration (tṛtīyadhyāna, P. tatiyajjhāna), and the fourth concentration (caturthadhyāna, P. catutthajjhāna). The four levels of the immaterial realm are the attainment of the sphere of boundless space (ākāśānantyāyatanasamāpatti, P. ākāsānanñcāyatanasamāpatti), attainment of the sphere of boundless consciousness (vijñānānantyāyatanasamāpatti, P. vinñnñāṇānñcāyatanasamāpatti), attainment of the sphere of nothingness (ākinñcanyāyatanasamāpatti, P. ākiñcaññāyatanasamāpatti), and attainment of the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception (naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatanasamāpatti, P. nevasanññānāsaññāyatanasamāpatti). As indicated earlier, a ninth stage, the attainment of the cessation of perception and sensation (saṃjñāvedayitanirodha) or the attainment of cessation (nirodhasamāpatti), is often added to these latter four. These eight or nine states are also known as the “successive dwellings” (anupūrvavihāra). By achieving one of these states of absorption through the practice of meditation while still a human being, one will be reborn in the respective level of these realms of existence in the next lifetime. Similar samāpatti schemes, which present stratified levels of meditative attainment, also appear in non-Buddhist yogic systems. See also ASAṂJÑĀSAMĀPATTI.

samāpattidhyāna. (S). See DHYĀNASAMĀPATTI.

samāropa. (T. sgro ’dogs; C. zengyi; J. zōyaku; K. chŭngik 增益). In Sanskrit, “superimposition,” “reification,” or “erroneous affirmation”; the mistaken attribution to an object of a quality that the object does not in fact possess. The term samāropa is sometimes paired with APAVĀDA (“denigration” or “denial”), where samāropa would refer to the claim or belief that something that in fact does not exist, does exist, while apavāda would refer to the claim or belief that something that in fact does exist, does not exist (such as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS). In Buddhist philosophy, the most important of such erroneous superimpositions is the attribution of a perduring self (ĀTMAN) to the impermanent aggregates (SKANDHA). In MADHYAMAKA, samāropa refers to the false ascription of intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA) to phenomena (DHARMA). The purpose of the Madhyamaka critique is to refute these false qualities that have been superimposed by ignorance onto the objects of experience; the conventionally existent objects that serve as the object of these false projections are not refuted. In YOGĀCĀRA, samāropa is often used to refer to the superimposition of objective existence to phenomena that are in fact of the nature of consciousness.

samatājñāna. (T. mnyam nyid ye shes; C. pingdengxing zhi; J. byōdōshōchi; K. p’yŏngdŭngsŏng chi 平等性智). In Sanskrit, “wisdom of equality” or “impartial wisdom”; one of the five wisdoms (PAÑCAJÑĀNA) of a buddha. Through the samatājñāna, a buddha sees beyond all superficial distinctions and differentiations and perceives the fundamental nature of all things as emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ). Thus, a buddha makes no distinction between one sentient being and another, and no distinction between self and other; in addition, no ultimate difference is perceived between SAṂSĀRA and NIRVĀṆA. Such undifferentiated perception gives rise to equality, impartiality, and compassion for all beings. In YOGĀCĀRA theory, samatājñāna is understood to arise through the cessation of attachment to conceptions of self and pride. In TANTRA, among the five buddhas (PAÑCATATHĀGATA), this type of wisdom is associated with RATNASAMBHAVA.

śamatha. (P. samatha; T. zhi gnas; C. zhi; J. shi; K. chi 止). In Sanskrit, variously translated as “calmness,” “serenity,” “quiescence,” or “tranquillity” (and sometimes as “stopping,” following the Chinese rendering of the term); one of the two major branches of Buddhist meditative cultivation (BHĀVANĀ), along with insight (VIPAŚYANĀ). Calmness is the mental peace and stability that is generated through the cultivation of concentration (SAMĀDHI). Śamatha is defined technically as the specific degree of concentration necessary to generate insight (VIPAŚYANĀ) into reality and thus lead to the destruction of the afflictions (KLEŚA). Śamatha is a more advanced degree of concentration than what is ordinarily associated with the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) but not fully that of the first meditative absorption (DHYĀNA), viz., the first absorption associated with the subtle-materiality realm (RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA). According to the YOGĀCĀRABHŪMI and the ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, śamatha is the fundamental state (maula) of each of the four concentrations (dhyāna) and attainments (SAMĀPATTI), in distinction to a neighboring part that is preparatory to that fundamental state (see SĀMANTAKA), which is vipaśyanā. The process of meditative cultivation that culminates in calmness is described in one account as having nine stages. In the account found in the MADHYĀNTAVIBHĀGA, for example, there are eight forces that operate during these stages to eliminate five hindrances: viz., laziness, forgetting the object of concentration, restlessness and worry, insufficient application of antidotes (anabhisaṃskāra), and over-application of the antidotes (abhisaṃskāra). During the initial stage, when first placing the mind on its object, the first hindrance, laziness, is counteracted by a complex of four motivational mental factors: CHANDA (desire-to-do), vyāyāma (resolve), ŚRADDHĀ (faith), and PRAŚRABDHI (pliancy or readiness for the task). When the cultivation of calmness has reached a slightly more advanced stage, mindfulness (SMṚTI) counteracts the forgetfulness that occurs when concentration wanders away from the meditation object. When a stream of concentration is first achieved, a meta-awareness called introspection or clear comprehension (SAṂPRAJANYA) operates to counteract dullness and restlessness. Finally, in the last stages of the process, there is an application (abhisaṃskāra) in order to heighten the intensity of the concentration to the requisite level, and to avoid the subtle overexcitement that comes with feelings of great ease; and just prior to the attainment of śamatha, there is the setting aside of any application of conscious effort. At that point, calmness continues on its own as a natural stream of tranquillity, bringing great physical rapture (PRĪTI) and mental ease (SUKHA) that settles into the advanced state of serenity called śamatha. ¶ In the context of monastic discipline, śamatha, in its denotation as calming, is also used technically to refer to the formal settlement of monastic disputes. See ADHIKARAṆAŚAMATHA; SAPTĀDHIKARAṆAŚAMATHA.

śamathavipaśyanā. (P. samathavipassanā; T. zhi gnas lhag mthong; C. zhiguan; J. shikan; K. chigwan 止觀). In Sanskrit, “calmness and insight,” a term used to describe a meditative state that combines the clarity and stability of ŚAMATHA with the understanding of the nature of reality associated with VIPAŚYANĀ. In Indian ŚĀSTRA literature, vipaśyanā is defined as insight into reality that is conjoined with śamatha and induced by analytical meditation. Thus, true vipaśyanā includes śamatha. The combination of śamatha and vipaśyanā marks the attainment of the wisdom arisen from reflection (CINTĀMAYĪPRAJÑĀ); and the combination of the two with emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ) as their object marks the beginning of the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA). In YOGĀCĀRA accounts, as in the YOGĀCĀRABHŪMI and the ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, the four concentrations (DHYĀNA) and attainments (SAMĀPATTI) are said to have two parts: a fundamental state (maula), which is śamatha, and a neighboring part that is preparatory to that fundamental state (SĀMANTAKA), which is vipaśyanā; this explanation suggests the vital interconnection between these two terms. Samatha and vipassanā are known in Pāli, but chiefly in a later stratum of the suttas and in commentarial literature. The terms are also important in Chinese Buddhism, serving for example as the subject of the magnum opus of TIANTAI ZHIYI, the MOHE ZHIGUAN, or the “Great Calmness and Insight.”

samaya. (T. dam tshig; C. sanmoye; J. sanmaya; K. sammaya 三摩耶). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “vow,” “occasion,” a polysemous term within the tradition. This term is especially important in tantric Buddhism, where it refers to a specific set of vows (see SAṂVARA) taken in conjunction with an initiation rite (ABHIṢEKA, dīkṣā). These vows are considered to represent a powerful bond between student and teacher and a commitment to maintain them is deemed essential to success in tantric practice. A breech of one’s samaya vows is often said to have serious consequences, including rebirth in hell. Pledging to keep tantric practices secret and pledging never to bring harm to one’s teacher are two examples of a samaya vow. A student of tantra will often take more and more of these vows as he or she progresses. In the Tibetan categorization of tantras into four sets, these vows are systematized into codes. In ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, there is a set list of nineteen samayas associated with the PAÑCATATHĀGATA. The term samaya may also refer to the symbolic representation of a buddha, BODHISATTVA, or deity, such as with a VAJRA, a sword, or a lotus flower. These symbols may represent the divinity itself or more often an attribute of that divinity, such as a vow taken by a buddha or bodhisattva. ¶ In Sanskrit, samaya also indicates a general unit of time that is understood as one specific occasion or as a season of the year. The term samaya is often seen in ABHIDHARMA analyses of distinct chronological moments. For example, in the AṬṬHASĀLINĪ, a Pāli commentary on the DHAMMASAṄGAṆI, BUDDHAGHOSA analyzes the term samaya into five specific meanings related to the passage of time.

Samayabhedoparacanacakra. (T. Gzhung tha dad pa rim par bklag pa’i ’khor lo; C. Yibuzonglun lun; J. Ibushūrinron; K. Ibujongnyun non 異部宗輪論). In Sanskrit, “The Wheel of the Formations of Divisions of the Doctrine”; the title of an important historiographical text written by VASUMITRA, a prominent scholar of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, who wrote in KASHMIR sometime around the second century CE. The text records the Sarvāstivāda account of the evolution of the various schools (NIKĀYA) that arose in the mainstream Buddhist community in the years after the Buddha’s death. Thus, it is an important source of information on the schools and subschools of mainstream Nikāya Buddhism in ancient India. In VASUMITRA’s version, the divisions in the Buddhist sects occur roughly one hundred years later than they do in the Sinhalese Pāli records of the same events. According to Vasumitra, the major disagreement that led to the first major schism in the SAṂGHA was the result of five propositions put forward by the monk MAHĀDEVA concerning the nature and achievements of an ARHAT. The MAHĀSĀṂGHIKA agreed with Mahādeva’s five theses, while the STHAVIRANIKĀYA did not, thus leading to the split.

samayamudrā. (T. dam tshig gi phyag rgya; C. sanmoye yin; J. sanmayain; K. sammaya in 三摩耶印). In Sanskrit, “seal of the vow,” “seal of time,” or “seal of the symbol,” all three denotations related to objects of meditation in tantric Buddhism. The samayamudrā is usually listed as the third of four “seals” (MUDRĀ), “seal” here being used in the sense of a doorway through which one must pass in order to attain full realization; the other three are the KARMAMUDRĀ, the JÑĀNAMUDRĀ, and the MAHĀMUDRĀ. In the context of sexual yoga, the term is also used to refer to a tantric consort who maintains the tantric pledges, as opposed to a karmamudrā (a consort who does not maintain such pledges) and a jñānamudrā (a consort who is not a physical person but is visualized in meditation). As “seal of the vow,” the samayamudrā involves sustained focus on one’s intention to keep a specific set of vows received as part of one’s initiation (ABHIṢEKA, dīkṣā) into tantric practice. As “seal of time,” samaya carries its temporal denotation and the meditation involves an abandonment of past and future for the sake of a sustained experience of the present moment. As “seal of the symbol,” the object of attention is a symbolic representation of various aspects of a buddha, BODHISATTVA, or deity.

samayasattva. (T. dam tshig sems dpa’; C. sanmeiye saduo; J. sanmayasatta; K. sammaeya salt’a 三昧耶薩埵). In Sanskrit, “pledge being,” an important element in tantric visualization. Prior to inviting a deity to appear, the meditator visualizes the body of the deity. This visualized image is called the “pledge being.” The actual deity, called the “wisdom deity” (JÑĀNASATTVA), is then invited to descend into and fuse with the visualized form. In this context, the term SAMAYA may be understood in two different ways. First, the term is synonymous with “conventional,” indicating that the visualized body of the deity is not his or her actual body. The term samaya is also understood to indicate the practitioner’s “vow” or “pledge” to undertake those practices that will evoke the actual presence of the deity. When the meditator visualizes himself or herself as the deity, the initial visualization is the “pledge being.” In some tantric circles, the term samayasattva is also used to indicate one who has been newly initiated into esoteric practice.

samayavimukta. (T. dus kyis rnam par grol ba; C. shi jietuo; J. jigedatsu; K. si haet’al 時解). In Sanskrit, “one liberated dependent upon a specific occasion”; one of the twenty members of the ĀRYASAṂGHA (see VIṂŚATIPRABHEDASAṂGHA). The term refers to an ARHAT who is a ŚRADDHĀNUSĀRIN and who, because of weaker faculties, has limited periods of meditative concentration during which it is possible to achieve NIRVĀṆA.

śambhala. (T. bde ’byung). Often spelled Shambhala. In the texts associated with the KĀLACAKRATANTRA, the kingdom of śambhala is said to be located north of the Himālayan range. It is a land devoted to the practice of the Kālacakratantra, which the Buddha himself had entrusted to śambhala’s king SUCANDRA, who had requested that the Buddha set forth the tantra. The kingdom of śambhala is shaped like a giant lotus and is filled with sandalwood forests and lotus lakes, all encircled by a massive range of snowy peaks. In the center of the kingdom is the capital, Kalapa, where the luster of the palaces, made from gold, silver, and jewels, outshines the moon; the walls of the palaces are plated with mirrors that reflect a light so bright that night is like day. In the very center of the city is the MAṆḌALA of the buddha Kālacakra. The inhabitants of the 960 million villages of śambhala are ruled by a beneficent king, called the Kalkin. The laypeople are all beautiful and wealthy, free of sickness and poverty; the monks maintain their precepts without the slightest infraction. They are naturally intelligent and virtuous, devoted to the practice of the VAJRAYĀNA, although all authentic forms of Indian Buddhism are preserved. The majority of those reborn there attain buddhahood during their lifetime in śambhala. The Kālacakratantra also predicts an apocalyptic war. In the year 2425 CE, the barbarians (generally identified as Muslims) and demons who have destroyed Buddhism in India will set out to invade śambhala. The twenty-fifth Kalkin, Raudracakrin, will lead his armies out of his kingdom and into India, where they will meet the forces of evil in a great battle, from which the forces of Buddhism will emerge victorious. The victory will usher in a golden age in which human life span will increase, crops will grow without being cultivated, and the entire population of the earth will devote itself to the practice of Buddhism. Given the importance of the Kālacakratantra in Tibetan Buddhism, śambhala figures heavily in Tibetan Buddhist belief and practice; in the DGE LUGS sect, it is said that the PAṆ CHEN LAMAs are reborn as kings of śambhala. There is also a genre of guidebooks (lam yig) that provide the route to śambhala. The location of śambhala has long been a subject of fascination in the West. Śambhala plays an important role in the Theosophy of HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY, and the Russian Theosophist Nicholas Roerich led two expeditions in search of śambhala. The name śambhala is considered the likely inspiration of “Shangri-La,” described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon.

saṃbhāra. (T. tshogs; C. ziliang; J. shiryō; K. charyang 資糧). In Sanskrit, “equipment,” requisite,” “accumulation.” This term is used to indicate those qualities that are necessary for the realization of some religious attainment, usually progress along the path to enlightenment. For example, in a common formulation of the stages of the path that successively lead one to enlightenment, the SAṂBHĀRAMĀRGA, or “path of accumulation,” is the first of the five paths (PAÑCAMĀRGA). On this path, the practitioner attains a degree of three prerequisite qualities that must be developed before one can begin to undertake the religious life: morality (ŚĪLA), merit (PUṆYA), and concentration (SAMĀDHI). Similarly, MAHĀYĀNA literature cites merit (puṇya) and knowledge (JNñĀNA) as the saṃbhāra, or “equipment,” of the BODHISATTVA. In this sense, the term saṃbhāra is also understood to indicate “accumulation” in that it is amassing these qualities that brings about progress on the path. See also BODHISAṂBHĀRA.

saṃbhāramārga. (T. tshogs lam; C. ziliang dao; J. shiryōdō; K. charyang to 資糧道). In Sanskrit, “path of accumulation” or “path of equipment”; the first of two parts of the preparatory adhimukticaryābhūmi, literally, “level of belief performance” (see ADHIMOKṢA); the first of the five paths (PAÑCAMĀRGA), which begins the accumulations of merit and wisdom necessary to achieve NIRVĀṆA or BODHI, respectively, on the ŚRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, or BODHISATTVA paths. The path of accumulation is said to begin with the authentic wish to achieve the goal of one’s path, viz., with NIRVEDA (P. nibbidā) (i.e., disgust for SAṂSĀRA) in the case of those who wish for nirvāṇa, and with the development of BODHICITTA (the aspiration to enlightenment) in the case of those suited for the Mahāyāna. In the first pañcamārga model, the path of accumulation, like the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA) that follows it, is not a noble path of a noble being (ĀRYA) because the direct perception of reality does not occur there. The saṃbhāramārga is subdivided into the three stages of small, middling, and large: at the first stage, the cultivation of the four applications of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHĀNA) is primary, at the second the four resolves (PRAHĀṆA), and at the third the four legs of miraculous attainment (ṚDDHIPĀDA). In Mahāyāna ABHIDHARMA, the first level of the path of accumulation is exemplified by earth because it is the ground for all good qualities. The second level is exemplified by gold because from that time on the aspiration to reach enlightenment will not change to anything baser; a bodhisattva is no longer capable of retrogressing from the Mahāyāna and gains an initial capacity to hear the voice of an actual buddha through the achievement of the SROTO’NUGATO NĀMA SAMĀDHIḤ. On the third level of the path of accumulation, the bodhisattva is able to see the NIRMĀṆAKĀYA of buddhas directly and receive teachings from them.

saṃbhinnapralāpāt prativirati. (P. samphappalāpā paṭivirata; T. ngag ’khyal ba spong ba; C. bu qiyu; J. fukigo; K. pul kiŏ 不綺語). In Sanskrit, “[the monk] abstains from idle chatter,” one of ten wholesome (KUŚALA) ways of action (see KARMAPATHA); it refers to the effort or vow to abstain from speech that is either nonsensical or unwholesome. As a moral offense, speaking idly or nonsensically is of greater or lesser severity depending upon how often one engages in it. According to the CŪḶAHATTHIPADOPAMASUTTA in the Pāli MAJJHIMANIKĀYA, one who abstains from idle chatter instead speaks at the right time (kālavādī), speaks only of facts (bhūtavādī), speaks of the goal (atthavādī), speaks of the teaching (dhammavādī), and speaks of religious discipline (vinayavādī).

saṃbhogakāya. (T. longs spyod rdzogs pa’i sku; C. baoshen; J. hōjin; K. posin 報身). In Sanskrit, “enjoyment body” or “reward body”; in the MAHĀYĀNA, the second of the three bodies of a buddha (TRIKĀYA), along with the body of reality (DHARMAKĀYA) and the transformation body (NIRMĀṆAKĀYA). The saṃbhogakāya is described as simultaneously a body for one’s own enjoyment (C. zi shouyong shen), in which the buddha knows the joy that comes from experiencing the dharma for oneself; and a body for others’ enjoyment (C. ta shouyong shen), in which advanced bodhisattvas experience the increasing magnificence of the buddha’s grandeur as they continue to move up the bodhisattva path (MĀRGA). The saṃbhogakāya buddha is adorned with all the accoutrements that are received as rewards for his advanced spiritual experience, which are only visible to similarly advanced beings, specifically bodhisattvas at the first bodhisattva stage (BODHISATTVABHŪMI) and upwards who are dwelling in buddha-fields (BUDDHAKṢETRA). Lesser beings, such as humans, are only able to view the manifestation body (nirmāṇakāya) of a buddha, not his saṃbhogakāya. In bipartite divisions of the buddhas’ bodies as a flesh body (RŪPAKĀYA) and a body of reality (dharmakāya), the saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya are subsumed within the rūpakāya. A saṃbhogakāya is defined by five certainties: it will always be in an AKANIṢṬHA heaven, it will always teach Mahāyāna doctrine, it will always last until the end of SAṂSĀRA, it will always be surrounded exclusively by bodhisattvas who have reached the bodhisattva bhūmis, and it will always be endowed with the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks of a great person (see MAHĀPURUṢALAKṢAṆA).

saṃbodhi. (T. rdzogs pa’i byang chub; C. zhengjue; J. shōgaku; K. chŏnggak 正覺). In Sanskrit, “complete enlightenment” or “full awakening,” a synonym for buddhahood. See ANUTTARASAMYAKSAṂBODHI; MAHĀBODHI.

sambo sach’al. (三寶寺刹). In Korean, “three-jewel monasteries”; three major Korean monasteries that by tradition represent one of the three jewels (RATNATRAYA) of Buddhism: T’ONGDOSA, the Buddha jewel monastery (Pulbo sach’al), because of its ordination platform and the relics (K. sari; S. ŚARĪRA) of the Buddha enshrined behind its main shrine hall (TAEUNG CHŎN); HAEINSA, the DHARMA-jewel monastery (Pŏppo sach’al), because it preserves the xylographs of the Korean Buddhist canon (KORYŎ TAEJANGGYŎNG); and SONGGWANGSA, the SAṂGHA-jewel monastery (Sŭngbo sach’al), because of the series of state preceptors (K. kuksa; C. GUOSHI) during the Koryŏ dynasty who practiced at the monastery.

Saṃcayagāthāprajñāpāramitā. (S). See RATNAGUṆASAṂCAYAGĀTHĀ.

Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra. (T. Mdo sde dgongs ’grel; C. Jieshenmi jing; J. Gejinmikkyō; K. Haesimmil kyŏng 解深密經). In Sanskrit, variously interpreted to mean the sūtra “Unfurling the Real Meaning,” “Explaining the Thought,” or “Unraveling the Bonds”; one of the most important Mahāyāna sūtras, especially for the YOGĀCĀRA school. The sūtra is perhaps most famous for its delineation of the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA), which would become an influential schema for classifying the teachings of the Buddha. The sūtra has ten chapters. The first four chapters deal with the nature of the ultimate (PARAMĀRTHA) and how it is to be understood. The fifth chapter discusses the nature of consciousness, including the storehouse consciousness (ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA) where predispositions (VĀSANĀ) are deposited and ripen. The sixth chapter discusses the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA). In the seventh chapter, the division of the Buddha’s teachings into the provisional (NEYĀRTHA) and the definitive (NĪTĀRTHA) is set forth. The eighth chapter explains how to develop ŚAMATHA and VIPAŚYANĀ. The ninth chapter describes the ten bodhisattva BHŪMIs and the final chapter describes the nature of buddhahood. Each of these chapters contains important passages that are cited in subsequent commentaries and treatises. ¶ Perhaps the most influential of all the sūtra’s chapters is the seventh, which discusses the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma (dharmacakrapravartana). There, the bodhisattva Paramārthasamudgata explains that the first turning of the wheel had occurred at ṚṢIPATANA (the Deer Park at SĀRNĀTH), where the Buddha had taught the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS to those of the ŚRĀVAKA (“listener, disciple”) vehicle. This first turning of the wheel is called the CATUḤSATYADHARMACAKRA, the “dharma wheel of the four truths.” The bodhisattva says, “This wheel of dharma turned by the Buddha is surpassable, an occasion [for refutation], provisional, and subject to dispute.” Referring presumably to the perfection of wisdom (PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ) sūtras, the bodhisattva then goes on to explain that the Buddha then turned the wheel of dharma a second time for those who had entered the Mahāyāna, teaching them the doctrine of emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ), that phenomena are “unproduced, unextinguished, originally quiescent, and inherently beyond sorrow.” Commentators would call this second turning of the wheel the ALAKṢAṆADHARMACAKRA, “the dharma wheel of signlessness.” But this wheel also is provisional. The Buddha finally turned the wheel of doctrine a third time for those of all vehicles, clearly differentiating how things exist. “This wheel of doctrine turned by the BHAGAVAT is unsurpassed, not an occasion [for refutation], of definitive meaning; it is indisputable.” Commentators would call this third turning of the wheel the PARAMĀRTHAVINIŚCAYADHARMACAKRA, “the dharma wheel for ascertaining the ultimate”; it is also called “the dharma wheel that makes a fine delineation” (*SUVIBHAKTADHARMACAKRA). The sūtra thus takes something of an historical perspective on the Buddha’s teaching, declaring both that his first sermon on the four noble truths addressed to śrāvakas and his teaching of the perfection of wisdom addressed to bodhisattvas was not his final and most clearly delineated view. That consummate view, his true intention, is found in the third turning of the wheel of dharma, a wheel that includes, at very least, the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra itself. The Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra was translated into Chinese four times: by GUṆABHADRA, BODHIRUCI, PARAMĀRTHA, and XUANZANG. Of these recensions, the translations by Bodhiruci and Xuanzang are complete renderings of the sūtra and circulated most widely within the East Asian tradition; the other two renderings were shorter digests of the sūtra.

saṃdhyābhāṣyā. (S). See SANDHYĀBHĀṢĀ.

saṃgha. (P. saṅgha; T. dge ’dun; C. sengqie; J. sōgya; K. sŭngga 僧伽). A BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT term, generally translated as “community” or “order,” it is the term most commonly used to refer to the order of Buddhist monks and nuns. (The classical Sanskrit and Pāli of this term is saṅgha, a form often seen in Western writings on Buddhism; this dictionary uses saṃgha as the generic and nonsectarian Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit form.) The term literally means “that which is struck together well,” suggesting something that is solid and not easily broken apart. In ancient India, the term originally meant a “guild,” and the different offices in the saṃgha were guild terms: e.g., ĀCĀRYA, which originally meant a “guild master,” was adopted in Buddhism to refer to a teacher or preceptor of neophytes to the monastic community. The Buddhist saṃgha began with the ordination of the first monks, the “group of five” (PAÑCAVARGIKA) to whom the Buddha delivered his first sermon, when he turned the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA) at SĀRNĀTH. At that time, there was no formal ordination ceremony; the Buddha simply used the EHIBHIKṢUKĀ formula, lit. “Come, monk,” to welcome someone who had joined the order. The order grew as rival teachers were converted, bringing their disciples with them. Eventually, a more formal ritual of ordination (UPASAṂPADĀ) was developed. In addition, as circumstances warranted, the Buddha slowly began making rules to organize the daily life of the community as a whole and its individual members (see VINAYA). Although it seems that in the early years, the Buddha and his followers wandered without fixed dwellings, donors eventually provided places for them to spend the rainy season (see VARṢĀ) and the shelters there evolved into monasteries (VIHĀRA). A saṃgha came to be defined as a group of monks who lived within a particular geographical boundary (SĪMĀ) and who gathered fortnightly (see UPOṢADHA) to recite the monastic code (PRĀTIMOKṢA). That group had to consist of at least ten monks in a central region and five monks in more remote regions. In the centuries after the passing of the Buddha, variations developed over what constituted this code, leading to the formation of “fraternities” or NIKĀYAs; the tradition typically recognizes eighteen such groups as belonging to the MAINSTEAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS, but there were clearly more. ¶ There is much discussion in Buddhist literature on the question of what constitutes the saṃgha, especially the saṃgha that is the third of the three jewels (RATNATRAYA), to which Buddhists go for refuge (ŚARAṆA). One of the oldest categories is the eightfold saṃgha, composed only of those who have reached a certain level of spiritual attainment. The eight are four groups of two, in each case one who is approaching and one who has attained one of the four ranks of stream-enterer, or SROTAĀPANNA; once-returner, or SAKṚDĀGĀMIN; nonreturner, or ANĀGĀMIN; and worthy one, or ARHAT. This is the saṃgha of the saṃgha jewel, and is sometimes referred to as the ĀRYASAṂGHA, or “noble saṃgha.” A later and more elaborate category expanded this group of eight to a group of twenty, called the VIṂŚATIPRABHEDASAṂGHA, or “twenty-member saṃgha,” based on their different faculties (INDRIYA) and the ways in which they reach NIRVĀṆA; this subdivision appears especially in MAHĀYĀNA works, particularly in the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ literature. Whether eight or twenty, it is this group of noble persons (ĀRYAPUDGALA) who are described as worthy of gifts (dakṣiṇīyapudgala). Those noble persons who are also ordained are sometimes referred to as the “ultimate saṃgha” (PARAMĀRTHASAṂGHA) as distinguished from the “conventional saṃgha” (SAṂVṚTISAṂGHA), which is composed of the ordained monks and nuns who are still ordinary persons (PṚTHAGJANA). In a still broader sense, the term is sometimes used for a fourfold group, composed of monks (BHIKṢU), nuns (BHIKṢUṆĪ), lay male disciples (UPĀSAKA), and lay female disciples (UPĀSIKĀ). However, this fourfold group is more commonly called PARIṢAD (“followers” or “congregation”), suggesting that the term saṃgha is more properly used to refer to the ordained community. In common parlance, however, especially in the West, saṃgha has come to connote any community of Buddhists, whether monastic or lay, or a combination of the two. In the long history of Buddhism, however, the presence or absence of the Buddhist dispensation (ŚĀSANA) has traditionally been measured by the presence or absence of ordained monks who virtuously maintain their precepts. In the history of many Buddhist lands, the establishment of Buddhism is marked by the founding of the first monastery and the ordination of the first monks into the saṃgha. See also SAṂGHABHEDA; SAMMUTISAṄGHA; ĀRYAPUDGALA; SŬNGT’ONG; SAṄGHARĀJA.

Saṃgha Administration Act. See SAṄGHA ADMINISTRATION ACT.