Dhyāna sutras

The Dhyāna sutras (Chan-jing) are a group of early Buddhist meditation texts which contain meditation teachings from the Sarvastivada school along with some early proto-Mahayana meditations. They were mostly the work of Buddhist Yoga teachers from Kashmir. They were influential in Chinese Buddhist meditation. We only have them in Chinese translation.

The five main types of meditation in these sutras are:

• anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing),
• paṭikūlamanasikāra meditation - mindfulness of the impurities of the body,
• loving-kindness maitrī meditation,
• the contemplation on the twelve links of pratītyasamutpāda,
• the contemplation on the Buddha's thirty-two characteristics.