Bǎiqiānsòng dàjí jīng dìzàng púsà qǐngwèn fǎshēn zàn 百千頌大集經地藏菩薩請問法身讚
The Hymn to the Dharmakāya Requested by the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha from the Hundred-Thousand-Verse Mahāsaṃnipāta by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
The Bǎiqiānsòng dàjí jīng dìzàng púsà qǐngwèn fǎshēn zàn in 1 fascicle is 不空 Amoghavajra’s mid-Táng translation of a short Mahāyāna verse-text in 24 stanzas — the Dharmakāya-stuti requested by the bodhisattva 地藏 Kṣitigarbha — extracted from the larger but no-longer-extant Bǎiqiānsòng 百千頌 “Hundred-Thousand-Verse” recension of the Mahāsaṃnipāta. The Taishō print signs the entry with the full Táng-imperial titulature for Amoghavajra; the work is one of his minor verse-translations.
Prefaces
No separate preface is preserved in the canonical print.
Abstract
The verse opens with the praise guīmìng lǐ fǎshēn, zhù yú zhū yǒuqíng “I take refuge in and salute the dharmakāya, abiding in all sentient beings” — a paradigmatic tathāgatagarbha statement: the dharmakāya is not external but is the resident reality of all beings. The 24 stanzas develop this tathāgatagarbha theme through a sequence of analogies (the dharmakāya is to the sentient being as the sun behind clouds, as the gold within ore, as the lamp within a covered vessel); the verses are direct paraphrases of the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (T667, T668) and the Ratnagotravibhāga tradition, here cast in versified form for ritual recitation.
The text is among the most explicit tathāgatagarbha verses in the Táng esoteric corpus and provides important evidence for the integration of tathāgatagarbha doctrine into the Táng Esoteric Buddhist tradition under 不空 Amoghavajra. The dating window 746–774 reflects the bracket of his most active period as imperial Táng translator.
Translations and research
- Schmithausen, Lambert. “On the Problem of the Relation of Spiritual Practice and Philosophical Theory in Buddhism.” In German Scholars on India, vol. 2, 235–250. Bombay, 1976. — Frame for tathāgatagarbha doctrine.
- Takasaki, Jikidō. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra). Rome: ISMEO, 1966. — Reference for the Dharmakāya-stuti form in the Ratnagotravibhāga.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (750): [ T ] 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. dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1