Fó shuō sān shí wǔ fó míng lǐ chàn wén 佛說三十五佛名禮懺文

The Worship-Repentance Text of the Names of Thirty-Five Buddhas by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)

About the work

This 1-fascicle text by 不空 Amoghavajra is the Sanskrit Triskandhaka — the famous Buddhist confession-repentance text invoking the names of the thirty-five Buddhas of confession (三十五佛). The text became one of the most widely chanted Buddhist liturgical texts in East Asia and Tibet, used in monastic confession-rituals throughout the medieval period.

Prefaces

No formal preface.

Abstract

The translation belongs to 不空 Amoghavajra’s Cháng’ān period (746 – 774 CE). The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The work is one of the principal texts of the Esoteric-Buddhist devotional tradition that Amoghavajra established at the Tang court.

The Taishō text (T0326) is established on the standard apparatus.

Translations and research

  • Pruden, Leo M., tr. Sutra of the Names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas. (Various publications.)
  • Lévi, Sylvain, tr. Bodhisattvabhūmi (1907) — for the Triskandhaka in Sanskrit context.
  • CBETA T12n0326
  • Kanseki DB
  • 不空 DILA
  • Dazangthings date evidence (750) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.