Buddhist precepts include the rule “not to sing, dance, or perform, nor go to watch or listen to such performances.” The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom (Dazhidu lun) likewise asks: “If buddhas and sages are free from desire and have no need of music or dance, why make offerings of music?” Yet the murals of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang depict music and dance in abundant and splendid forms. This leads to the central question of this talk: in Pure Land practice centered on visualization, what meaning does the dancing body hold?

Taking the Contemplation Sutra tableaux of Mogao Cave 172 as a case study, the talk draws on Buddhist scriptures, music and dance imagery, and cave space to examine how music and dance are visually presented within the depicted Pure Land and how they relate to the practice of visualization. Building on this analysis, it extends from the study of images to the level of Buddhist thought, drawing on the Contemplation Sutra’s teaching that “this mind becomes the Buddha; this mind is the Buddha” to explore the relationship between music and dance as a sensory medium and the cultivation of the heart-mind, and thereby rethinks their religious and humanistic significance in Chinese Buddhist art.