The Buddha's Discourse on the Thirty-Seven Factors of Enlightenment Sutra (佛說禪行三十七品經)

About 佛說禪行三十七品經

Later Han · Source text translated by 安世高

951 · about 3 min

The Sutra on the Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment Spoken by the Buddha, translated by the Eastern Han dynasty translator An Shigao, is one of the important early classics of Chinese Buddhism. This sutra belongs to the series of Hinayana meditation and numerical teachings translated by An Shigao, compiled in the second century CE, reflecting the systematic exposition of practice methods during the initial transmission of Buddhism to China. Its main content expounds the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, namely the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of spiritual power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the noble eightfold path, which form the core system of Buddhist practice and realization. This sutra is one of the earliest Chinese translations to systematically introduce the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment. It profoundly influenced the development of Chinese meditation methods, providing practitioners with a clear sequence of meditative contemplation, and held a foundational position before the rise of Mahayana Buddhism.