Samādhirāja Sūtra
1.
It is later Mahāyāna Sūtra.
2.
It is the Sūtra
about the King of Meditations. It is also called Candrapradīpa- sūtra after the principal
speaker Candra Prabhā.
3.
It is a dialogue between Candra Prabhā and Buddha.
4.
It is shown in this Sūtra how a Bodhisattva can
attain to the highest knowledge by means of various meditations, especially the
highest of all, the king of meditations.
5.
To achieve this highest stage of meditation some
preliminary conditions are required.
6.
These preliminary conditions are :-
i.
Worship of Buddha
ii.
Complete renunciation of the world
iii.
Gentleness and goodness towards all beings.
iv.
Indifference towards one’s own life and health
if there is a question of sacrificing them for others.
v.
And lastly the knowledge of the absence of
self-existent nature of the worldly objects i.e. the knowledge of Śūnyata.
7.
Śāntideva
in his Śiḳsā-samuccaya had quoted some of the passages of
moral content which are mostly in Gathās.
8.
In the Śiḳsā-samuccaya a verse is cited
from the Jn͂ānavatī section of the Samādhirāja Sūtra
in which eating of meat is allowed by way of medicine (which otherwise is
prohibited).
9.
It is explained in some of the prose passages
that a person who is burning from head to foot and who is alive to think of
sensual pleasures, than for a Bodhisattva to find rest, as long as there are
human beings in misery or distress.
10.
There are also legends of saints who were
successful by practicing the ‘king of meditations’
11.
This Sūtra
corresponds to the Chinese Yüehteng-san-mei-ching,
which was translated in 450 and 557 A.D.
