འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་བྱམས་པ་དགའ་ལྡན་གནམ་ད་སྐྱ་བ་བླངས་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

Maitreya’s Birth in the Heaven of Joy is also sometimes classified as one of six so-called visualization sūtras in the Chinese canon, all of which are thought to have been compiled around the first half of the fifth century ce (Yamabe 1999, 40–46; Quinter 2013). These six sūtras receive that label from the term “visualization” (觀, guan, sometimes also translated as “contemplation” or “meditation”), which appears at the beginning of each of their titles. This raises the question of just what visualization means in this context and how it functions specifically within each of these six texts. Several of these sūtras, including Maitreya’s Birth in the Heaven of Joy, lack detailed visualization instructions, leading some scholars to question whether they were in fact ever intended for visualization practices, or simply emerged within a general milieu of Maitreya worship and contemplation.⁴