Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Greene, Eric M
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Sharf, Robert H
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
UC Berkeley
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2012
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Body granting the degree
UC Berkeley
Text preceding or following the note
2012
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This dissertation explores the development of Buddhist meditation in China between 400 and 600 CE. Although texts discussing Buddhist meditation were known in China from the end of the second century, only during this period did it become a commonly practiced form of Buddhist training, and did Indian meditation masters come to China in appreciable numbers. Focusing on a body of meditation texts written in China during the first half of the fifth century, I argue that Chinese Buddhists came to understand the practice and meaning of Buddhist meditation in relation to rituals of repentance, which during this time became the core of Buddhist liturgical life. Meditation was thought to produce a state of visionary sensitivity in which practitioners would obtain visions attesting to their karmic purity or impurity, and hence to either the success of or need for rituals of repentance.