Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra

The Pratyutpanna is a particularly important Mahayana sutra in East Asian Pure Land Buddhism and Tiantai (Jp: Tendai) Buddhism, since it contains key teachings on Buddha contemplation and Buddha recollection (nianfo). It is the main source for the Tiantai school's "constantly walking samadhi" practice (taught in Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan), also known as the pratyutpanna-samādhi (the meditative absorption of direct encounter [of the Buddhas]). The sutra was commented on and relied upon by numerous Chinese Pure Land masters, like Huiyuan, Shandao (613–681), Cimin Huiri, and Fazhao.

History

The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra was first translated into Chinese by the Kushan Buddhist monk Lokaksema in 179 CE, at the Han capital of Luoyang. This translation is, together with the Prajnaparamita Sutra, one of the earliest historically datable texts of the Mahayana tradition.

In 2018, the discovery of fragments of a birch bark manuscript in the Gāndhārī language and written in Kharoṣṭhī script was announced by scholars Paul Harrison, Timothy Lenz, and Richard Salomon, who wrote regarding the dating of the manuscript:

In conclusion, the fragments of the PraS (Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra) clearly date from the middle period of Gāndhārī/Kharoṣṭhī documents, but as usual a more specific date cannot be proposed with any significant accuracy. The fragments could date from the first or second centuries CE, or possibly even from the first century BCE, since Gāndhārī manuscripts with similar characteristics have been dated by radiocarbon tests to BCE dates.

The post-script of the same paper notes that as the article went to press, scholar Mark Allon brought to the authors' attention "another set of birch-bark fragments, possibly from the same scroll or set of scrolls, containing a large section of Chapter 9 of the PRaS", which the authors state will be included in a follow-up article in the future.