Qiānshǒu yǎn dàbēixīn zhòu xíngfǎ 千手眼大悲心呪行法
Practice-Method of the Thousand-Hand-Eye Great-Compassion-Heart Dhāraṇī compiled by 知禮 (Zhīlǐ / Sìmíng Zhīlǐ / Fǎzhì dàshī, 集)
About the work
A single-juan Northern-Sòng practice-method liturgy by Sì-míng Zhīlǐ 四明知禮 (960–1028) for the qiān-shǒu qiān-yǎn dà-bēi xīn zhòu 千手千眼大悲心呪 — the Thousand-Hand Thousand-Eye Mahākāruṇika-citta-dhāraṇī, one of the principal Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī practices of medieval East-Asian Buddhism. The work belongs to Zhīlǐ’s broader liturgical productive corpus and was subsequently re-compiled by 讀體 Dútǐ in KR6d0202.
Abstract
The Xíng-fǎ provides standardised liturgical-meditative instruction for the Thousand-Hand-Eye Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī practice — one of the most widely practised Avalokiteśvara devotional cults in pre-modern East-Asian Buddhism. The composition is bracketed within Zhīlǐ’s mature productive period c. 996–1028.
Translations and research
- Yü, Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.