Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]
Unfurling the Real Meaning) is today extant only in Chinese and Tibetan versions (Chinese, Jie shenmijing, Tibetan, Dgongs pa nges par 'grel pa'i mdo). As its title indicates, the text claims to provide definitive explanations for contradictory statements in earlier sutras. It is divided into ten chapters, each of which has a main interlocutor who asks the Buddha to explain the intentions behind earlier statements attributed to him. All of the interlocutors are identified as bodhisattvas on the tenth stage {bhumi), and the discourse is set in a heavenly realm. These tropes are apparently intended to establish the text as the definitive statement on contentious doctrinal issues.
The first four chapters focus on a discussion of the ultimate truth {paramartha). The fifth contains a seminal description of the storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijnana), and the sixth explains the notion of the three characteristics {trilaksana) of phenomena (imputational, other-dependent, and thoroughly real). The seventh chapter is mainly concerned with outlining principles of Buddhist hermeneutics, and the eighth focuses on meditation theory and practice. The ninth chapter describes the bodhisattva path, and the final chapter is concerned with the characteristics of buddhahood, the culmination of the practices the text describes.
The Samdhinirmocana-sutra became the main scriptural source for the YogAcara school, one of the two main philosophical traditions of Indian Ma-hayana Buddhism (the other being Madhyamaka). It figures prominently in the thought of Asanga (ca. 320-390), Vasubandhu (fourth century c.e.), and their commentators, and inspired a voluminous literature in Tibet that is based on Tsong kha pa's Legs bshad snyingpo {Essence of Good Explanations).
Bibliography
Powers, John. Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Samdhinirmocana-sutra. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1993.
Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmocana-sutra. Berkeley, CA: Dharma, 1995.
John Powers
SAMGUK YUSA (MEMORABILIA OF THE THREE KINGDOMS)
The Samguk yusa {Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) is a collection of myths, anecdotes, and short stories from ancient Korea, mostly from the kingdom of Silla. The text was compiled around 1285, after the Mongol
subjugation of Korea, by the Buddhist monk Iryon (Kim KyonmySng, 1206-1289) and contains at least one later insertion by his disciple Muguk (d.u.). Little is known about the text prior to 1512. The title word yusa (Chinese, yishi) suggests that the text was meant to serve as an unofficial supplement to an official work, perhaps the Samguk sagi {Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms), compiled by Kim Pusik between 1136 and 1145. Samguk yusa is roughly modeled after the Lidai fabao ji {Record of the Dharma-Jewel over Successive Generations, ca. 780) and the Taiping guangji {Expanded Tales of the Taiping Era, compiled 977-978) in form and content.
The Samguk yusa is comprised of five chapters. The first chapter begins with a dynastic chronology and follows with the foundation myths of the native Korean kingdoms and other traditional narratives dating from before Silla's conquest of the other kingdoms. The second chapter contains tales from the peninsular wars for unification, as well as postunification dynastic and other tales. The third chapter is comprised of two sections subtitled "The Flourishing of the Dharma" and "Stupas and Images," which present the Buddhist perspective of the transmission of the religion to the peninsula and tales about the miraculous founding and history of particular sacred or cultic sites. The fourth chapter, "Exegetes," contains hagiographies of eminent Silla scholastic monks. The fifth chapter is divided into four subsections titled (1) "Divine Spells," hagiographies of Buddhist monks who specialize in working miracles through chanting dhArani and sutras; (2) "Thaumaturges," stories of individuals, particularly Buddhist monks, who possess magic powers; (3) "Escape and Seclusion," stories of people who escaped this mortal realm; and (4) "Filial Piety and Virtue," traditional narratives of filial sons and virtuous daughters.
See also: Korea; Korean, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in
Bibliography
Ha, Tae-Hung, and Mintz, Grafton K., trans. Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea. Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1972.
Richard D. McBride II
SAMSARA
Samsara (wandering) is a term referring to the begin-ningless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and a
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process characterized by mental and physical duhkha (suffering). This ongoing series of lives is determined by the moral quality of an individual's thoughts and karma (action) in this life and in previous lives. It is generally postulated that within samsara the effects of good moral actions lead to wholesome rebirths, while the effects of bad moral actions lead inevitably to unwholesome rebirths. Liberation (nirvana), release from the cycle altogether, is achieved only by those individuals who gain correct insight and realization of the truth of the Buddha's teachings.
Samsara is divided cosmologically into five (sometimes six) distinct realms of existence, within which living beings are reborn in dependence upon their karma. These places of rebirth include the realms of divinities (deva), human beings (manusya), animals {tiryak), spirits of the dead or hungry ghosts (preta), and the hells {noraha). When the list of five realms is expanded to six, the place of demigods (asura) is added below the god realm. Life in any one of these realms is never eternal and never free from the prospect of suffering. Whether wandering temporarily in the higher realms of gods and humans or in the lower realms of animals, ghosts, and the denizens of hell, all living beings experience the sufferings of birth, death, and rebirth. Samsara and the realms of rebirth are depicted in paintings of the wheel of life (bhavacakra), which are especially common in Tibet.
Liberation from the cycle of samsara is not always the immediate goal of Buddhism. In some Buddhist traditions, particularly in East Asia, greater emphasis is placed on rebirth in a buddha's pure land (Chinese, jingtu; Japanese, jodo). The pure lands are purified buddha-fields (Sanskrit, buddhaksetra) or paradises, which are free from mental and physical suffering and watched over by a particular buddha. Dissenting opinions exist about the exact location of the pure lands. Some place them within the realms of samsara, and others place them outside the cycle altogether. Rebirth in one of the pure lands is determined less by karma and more by sincere faith and aspiration to be reborn there. The compassionate assistance of the buddha who resides in the pure land is also a decisive factor in securing rebirth in such an auspicious realm. Among the most popular pure lands are AmitAbha's Land of Bliss (Sukhavati) and Aksobhya's Land of Delight (Abhirati).
See also: Cosmology
Bibliography
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrd Taye. Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kahcakra, and Dzog-chen. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1995.
Sadakata, Akira. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins, tr. Gaynor Sekimori. Tokyo: Kosei, 1997.
Bryan J. Cuevas
SAMYE DEBATE. See Bsam yas Debate
SANCT
Sand's extensive monastic complexes occupy a hilltop near the prosperous Indian town of Vidisa, where major road and river routes intersect. Its many freestanding pillars, stupas, temples, assembly halls, and monastic residences (viharas) date from the reign of King Asoka (third century b.c.e.) to around 1200 c.e., making it one of the oldest and most constantly occupied extant Buddhist sites. A small flat-roofed Gupta temple (ca. fourth century c.e.) is probably the earliest extant stone temple in South Asia. Many structures were erected on the foundations of earlier ones. Begun during Asoka's rule, an apsidal temple complex (no. 40) was enlarged in Suiiga times (ca. second to first centuries b.c.e.) and again later. Four quadrangular dry-masonry viharas belong to the seventh century c.e. Two of these were double-storied, while another incorporated a stone-faced temple with a northern-style tower in its eastern wall. As at AjantA, Sand's early stupas are unadorned and austere, while a Buddha image graces its Gupta stupa. Here too, Buddha images do not replace stupas; rather the two coexist.
Dominating the hilltop, the Great Stupa's core of Mauryan bricks and the edict pillar beside it suggest Asoka may have built it as part of his legendary redistribution of the Buddha's bodily relics (sarTra). During the Suriga period, the stupa was doubled in size to its present diameter of thirty-six meters. A railed berm accessed by a double staircase was also added to the dome, and an identical but more massive stone railing with openings at the cardinal directions enclosed the sacred precinct. These unadorned railings defined circumambulatory passages where Buddhist devotees could perform the basic rite of worshiping their lord's relics.
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