Vasumitra
Vasumitra
2nd c. BCE – Unknown
Vasumitra (Vasumitra of the Chan list) is the seventh patriarch in the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù* sequence, named as the disciple of Mīcaka and teacher of Buddhanandi. The Sanskrit name Vasumitra ("Friend of the Vasus") attaches to several historically attested figures in Indian Buddhism—most prominently a Sarvāstivādin abhidharma master associated with the Fourth Council under Kaniṣka and the compilation of the *Mahāvibhāṣā*—and the Chan tradition's identification of "its" Vasumitra with one or more of these figures has never been securely established[1].
Dumoulin observes that the Chan compilers had access to lists of distinguished names from the Sarvāstivādin and Mūlasarvāstivādin traditions and integrated several of them into the twenty-eight-patriarch sequence; whether the seventh patriarch is meant to be the abhidharma Vasumitra or a different figure of the same name is not resolvable from the surviving texts[2]. What the Chan reckoning affirms through the placement of "Vasumitra" is the connection of the Chan transmission to the prestigious northwestern scholastic milieu in which the Vibhāṣā commentaries were composed.
Names
Disciples of Vasumitra
Teachers and lineage of Vasumitra
Teacher / root master:
Teachings
- dialogueThe Wine Jar and the Dharma
Vasumitra was known to frequent wine shops without drinking wine, appearing in the midst of ordinary life. When Mīcaka found him and asked: 'You dwell among the impure—how is your mind?' Vasumitra said: 'You are the one who judges pure and impure. My mind judges nothing.' Mīcaka said: 'And the Dharma?' Vasumitra said: 'It has been sitting here in the wine shop all along.' Keizan's verse: The master enters the wine shop / and the wine shop becomes a monastery. / Not because he purifies it— / he simply sees what was always there.
Other masters in Indian Patriarchs
Master Record Sources
- datesZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
trad. 2nd c. BCE
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Vasumitra
- schoolZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Indian Patriarchs
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Michaka
Vasumitra (not to be confused with the Abhidharma scholar of the same name) is counted the eighth or tenth Indian patriarch depending on the lineage list; the Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia documents his role in the Chan transmission sequence.