Medieval Buddhist of the Day

[Twitter, 8/12/19] Medieval Buddhist of the Day: the Northern Wei monk Seng’an 比丘僧安, who dedicated an image of Sakyamuni in the Huoshao Cave 火燒洞 at Longmen in 523. Here he is with possibly some other donors, saying …比丘僧安仰為師僧父母因緣一切含生敬造釋迦像一【軀】弟子生生尚得出家. Thus: “The monk Seng’an, for his monastic teachers, his parents, and all living beings enmeshed in causality, reverently commissioned a figure of Sakyamuni. May [your] disciple have the chance to become a monk yet again in all future lives.”

Seng’an clearly thought that his vows were a step along the pathway to enlightenment and transcendence (as by some accounts they were), so rather than ask for good health or a rebirth in paradise, his request on his own behalf was to always be a monk, as he was in this life. Other dedications express a hope that a deceased person will be born in a place where they can hear about the Buddha and the dharma (知佛聞法 or similar), to continue their spiritual journey, but Seng’an was taking no chances. His monastic vows were forever.