Statement or Supramundanity? Making Sense of Śūraṃgama-Samādhi and Its Related Narratives

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a new interpretation for the term Śūraṃgama-samādhi, an important concept in the Mahāyāna literature, by proposing new exegeses of its primary and derivative meanings as they appear in the Śūraṃgamasamādhi-sūtra (hereafter SSS). While many have defined samādhi as a form of meditative practice, a state of mind, or a collection of terms as argued by Andrew Skilton, the concept samādhi in the SSS can be understood as a locus of gathering or convergence in the metaphorical sense. In SSS, this metaphorical location refers to the supramundane state of those buddhas and tenth-stage bodhisattvas, wherein all his supernatural powers and manifestations converge. Lamotte’s interpretation of Śūraṃgama as “marche héroïque/heroic progress”, however, only provides a single understanding of this polysemous concept. This article will offer a more nuanced understanding and interpretation of this compound term. Regarding the derivative meanings of the term, the present paper argues that the traditional interpretation of the term Śūraṃgama-samādhi (in the derivative meaning) as self-referential to the sūtra itself (Śūraṃgama-samādhi = SSS) does not align with the meaning of the term as it appears in the SSS. The exclusion of “self-reference” in our interpretation of the derivative meaning of the term therefore avoids the paradox of an “infinite loop of self-reference” as presented by past studies on the subject.