부산대학교 도서관

Buddha-recollection is the category of meditation(dhyāna) in early Buddhism, This is the same with later Indian Buddhist traditions and various Buddhist countries also. However, such discussions in the Buddhist academic circles in Korea have been conducted recently. This has been discussed in academic circles by my presentation. The discussion about relation of Buddha-recollection and meditative steps in succession are more unfamiliar in Korea and of East Asia. This is because Buddha-recollection has been discussed mainly in relation to thought of Pure Land which is not related to meditative succession. In particular, Buddha-recollection in the School of Pure Land has been centered around a vocal invocation of the names of Buddhas. Pure Land School in Korea and East Asia accepted mainly Buddhānussati as only invocation of the names of Buddhas. At tradition of Chan School, we can not find any case of meditative steps of Buddhānussati in Chan‘s way of Buddhānussati. However, as an exceptional case, the master Geumta and his disciple master Cheonghwa (1923-2003)in the modern period of Korean Buddhism taught meditative steps of Buddhānussati. Then, how did Buddhānussati and meditative steps are explained in history of Buddhist thought or history of Buddhist practice? Buddhānussati in the early Buddhism was practiced as meditation rather than invocation of the names of Buddhas and also appeared as meditative steps. Sectarian Buddhism after Buddha‘s demise also inherited Buddhānussati as meditation of early scriptures. According to them buddhānussati is not simply regarded as a vocal invocation of the names of Buddhas. However, Sectarian Buddhism did not explain Buddhānussati in relation to the four meditative absorption, which is the original meditation of early Buddhism. The main reason is that Abhidharma Buddhism, which pursues the strict consistency of doctrines, faces problems with Buddhānussati and meditation. Buddhānussati-meditation[念佛禪] in early Buddhism was transmuted by the vocal invocation of the names of Buddhas from time to time. This is well shown from the Theravada Buddhism in the tradition of early Buddhism and the vocal invocation of the Buddhas in Mahayana texts also. In the early Buddhist scriptures, however, the first meditative absorption of the four meditative absorption is explained as the original meditation. And the invocation[vācā] is disappeared in this step of meditation. Furthermore, in the second step of meditative absorption is a state free from applied and sustained thought which based on state of the invocation. Therefore, buddhānussati at that times was regarded as not to advance the second meditative absorption as well as the first meditative absorption. This means that Buddhānussati proceeds to meditative steps in the early scriptures, while sectarian Buddhism of late phases explained that Buddhānussati cannot proceed even the first meditative absorption. Consequently, late Buddhists devised a new concept of meditative steps, such as preparatory concentration(parikamma samādhi), neighbourhood concentration (upacāra samādhi) and attainment concentration(appanā samādhi). This kind of concentration before the first meditative absorption can not be found in the early scriptures. This is a new understanding of buddhānussati according to practice for verbal chanting of the names of Buddhas.