Jīngāngdǐng yújiā niànzhū jīng 金剛頂瑜伽念珠經
The Vajraśekhara Yoga Sūtra of the Rosary translated by 不空 (Bùkōng = Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
T789 in one fascicle is one of the Vajraśekhara-class esoteric translations of 不空 (Bùkōng = Amoghavajra, 705–774), the Indian-Sogdian Tang translator who, with 善無畏 (Śubhakarasiṁha) and 金剛智 (Vajrabodhi), established the zhēnyán 真言 (mantra) tradition in Tang China. The title attributes the work to the Vajraśekhara Yoga corpus — the great Tang esoteric tantra-cycle centred on the Sarva-tathāgata-tattva-saṃgraha — and treats the japa-mālā (rosary 念珠 niànzhū) within the framework of yoga-tantra visualisation and recitation practice.
Abstract
The text presents the Vajraśekhara-tradition esoteric doctrine of the rosary. The framework is more elaborate than the earlier rosary-merit sūtras KR6i0491 and KR6i0492: the rosary itself is consecrated and visualised as a maṇḍala-like ritual object, each bead identified with a specific yidam or mantra-deity of the Vajraśekhara cycle. The text expounds the materials of the rosary (the standard graded list culminating in the bodhi-bīja), the proper enumeration (108 beads, with the meru-bead at the head identified with the central yidam), the proper visualisation accompanying each recitation, and the merits accruing from each kind of mantra-recitation. The whole functions as a sādhana-style ritual handbook for the Vajraśekhara-tradition rosary-practice, situating the rosary firmly within the developed esoteric ritual system rather than the simpler exoteric anusmṛti practice of the earlier rosary-sūtras.
The text is one of the foundational scriptures of Chinese esoteric Buddhism on the rosary and was carried to Japan by 空海 Kūkai in the early 9th century, where it became a foundational text for Shingon rosary-practice. Together with KR6i0490, KR6i0491, and KR6i0492 it forms the canonical core of Buddhist rosary-doctrine in East Asia, with Amoghavajra’s text providing the esoteric culmination.
The dating window 746–774 brackets Amoghavajra’s principal Cháng’ān period, from his return from South Asia in 746 through his death in 774; the precise date of T789 is not separately recorded.
Translations and research
- Orzech, Charles D. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism. University Park: Penn State University Press, 1998. (For Amoghavajra’s career and translations.)
- Orzech, Charles D., Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
- Giebel, Rolf W., trans. Two Esoteric Sutras: The Adamantine Pinnacle Sutra; The Susiddhikara Sutra. Berkeley: Numata Center, 2001. (For the Vajraśekhara cycle.)
Links
- CBETA T17n0789
- 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.
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA