｢찟따 상윳따(Citta Saṃyutta)｣에 나타난 찟따 장자의 설법 연구 : 비구를 위한 재가자의 설법

초록

While the Buddha encouraged both monks and laypeople to preach, few lay persons embraced this role. Among the recorded lay preachers, the householder Citta stands out for his exceptional prowess in imparting Buddha's teachings. Citta's sermons were characterized by their depth and breadth, reaching diverse audiences, such as monks, non-Buddhist ascetics, deities, and laypersons. Acknowledging Citta as the foremost layman in expounding the teachings, the Buddha identified him as a standard and a measure for male lay disciples in the Nikāya. Despite Citta's pivotal role, scholarly research on him is scarce, and few studies have focused on laypeople's preaching. This study aims to address this gap by examining Citta's sermons to comprehend the aspects and characteristics of lay Buddhist sermons in the Nikāya. The Saṃyutta Nikāya houses the Citta Saṃyutta, a collection of the 10 suttas featuring Citta. This study focuses on three suttas containing Citta's discourses to the monks, excluding the others. Interestingly, Citta is questioned by monks and responds by preaching various and profound doctrines despite being a layperson. This points to the openness of preaching: anyone can be a preacher of Dhamma as long as they are capable. The study of the suttas reveals two distinctive features of the Citta's discourses. Firstly, Citta employs pragmatic preaching styles of “skillful means (upāya)” and “a roundabout expression (pariyāya),” which are found to be the embodiment of the Buddha's pragmatism. In utilizing upāya, Citta poses pertinent questions to gauge the audience's understanding and adjust his way of teaching accordingly. Regarding pariyāya, he extensively employs figurative expressions. Second, Citta's sermons contain rare discourses, with certain teachings appearing exclusively in Citta saṃyutta and sparsely in other suttas of Nikāyas. Through the analysis of the Citta's sermons, representative of laypersons, it is observed that a lay practitioner possesses the capability to deliver high- quality discourses with pragmatic preaching styles to diverse audiences, particularly monks in the Nikāyas.

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