Nanyue Huisi
| English Phonetics | Nanyue Huisi |
|---|---|
| Sort Name | Nanyue Huisi |
| Birth: | 515 |
|---|---|
| Death: | 577 |
| Place of birth: | Yuzhou in present-day Anhui province |
Tibetan calendar dates
Biographical Information
Nanyue Huisi. (J. Nangaku Eshi; K. Namak Hyesa 南嶽慧思) (515-577). Chinese monk in the Tiantai school and teacher of Tiantai Zhiyi (538-597); also known as Great Master Nanyue and Great Master Si. Huisi was a native of Yuzhou in present-day Anhui province. According to his biography in the Liang-era Gaoseng zhuan, Huisi was obsessed with the prospect of death in his youth and assiduously pursued a means of attaining immortality. Studying with his teacher Huiwen (d.u.), about whom next to nothing is known, Huisi is said to have learned a meditative technique based on Nāgārjuna's premise of the identity of emptiness, provisionality, and their mean (see sandi), which he later taught to his own students. Monks who disagreed with his teachings tried to poison him, so Huisi left northern China for the south, but his popularity there prompted jealous monks to brand him a spy. This charge was rejected by the Chen-dynasty emperor, and Huisi continued to teach in the south, where he attracted many students, including the renowned Tiantai Zhiyi. Huisi's meditative teachings on the suiziyi sanmei ("cultivating samādhi wherever mind is directed," or "the samādhi of freely flowing thoughts") were recorded in Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan. In this type of meditation, the adept is taught to use any and all experiences, whether mental or physical, whether wholesome or unwholesome, as grist for the mill of cultivating samādhi. Huisi is credited with the compilation of several treatises, such as the Dasheng zhiguan, Cidi chanyao, Fahua jing anle xingyi, and others. (Source: "Nanyue Huisi." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 573. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
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