법화삼매의 고찰 Ⅰ -초기대승경전 연구의 방법론을 중심으로- = Toward a Study of the Saddharma Lotus Samādhi I : Methodological Reflections on Early Mahāyāna Sūtras

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study offers a preliminary investigation into the concept of Saddharma Lotus Samādhi (法華三昧), examining its divergent representations in Indian and East Asian Buddhist traditions. In early Indian Buddhism, samādhi is understood as a fundamental mental factor (caitasika) accompanying all cognition and as a critical component of structured meditative discipline. However, within the Mahāyāna textual corpus, samādhi frequently appears as a rhetorical construct devoid of systematic practice manuals or detailed psychological frameworks.
The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra (Lotus Sūtra) lists the Saddharma Lotus Samādhi alongside numerous other samādhis, yet without elaboration or doctrinal emphasis. While this term acquired central significance in East Asian Buddhism―particularly through the doctrinal formulations of Nanyue Huisi and Tiantai Zhiyi―it lacks concrete soteriological function or theoretical grounding in its Indian textual context.
Drawing on contemporary methodological developments in Indian Mahāyāna studies, this paper argues against the retrospective imposition of East Asian doctrinal constructs onto Indian sources. It advocates for a strictly text-immanent approach, emphasizing that early Mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā and Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra, do not present independent samādhi systems, but rather employ the term as a literary or devotional device.
Accordingly, the Saddharma Lotus Samādhi should be understood not as a doctrinally substantive or historically attested meditative technique in Indian Buddhism, but rather as a creative and distinctly East Asian religious development. This distinction has significant implications for the methodological framing of Buddhist conceptual history.