Dà Pílúzhēnà fó shuō yàolüè niànsòng jīng 大毘盧遮那佛說要略念誦經
Sūtra of the Mahāvairocana Buddha’s Spoken Essential Recitation Method by 金剛智 (Vajrabodhi / 菩提金剛, 譯)
About the work
A short Esoteric ritual sūtra in one fascicle, attributed to Vajrabodhi 金剛智 (金剛智, 669/671–741) under the variant name Pútí Jīngāng 菩提金剛 (a reversal of the canonical Chinese rendering of his Sanskrit name Vajrabodhi). The text is identified in the Taishō header as a parallel to fascicle 7 of the Mahāvairocana-sūtra (KR6j0001, T18n0848 fasc. 7) — that is, an alternative version of the Gōngyǎng cìdìfǎ 供養次第法 ritual appendix that travels separately. The catalog header reads: 菩提金剛三藏譯 (“translated by Tripiṭaka-master Pútí Jīngāng / Bodhivajra”). It opens with a verse-invocation: Guī mìng mǎn fēn jìng fǎshēn / Pílúzhēnà biànzhào zhì 歸命滿分淨法身、毘盧遮那遍照智 (“I take refuge in the perfectly-pure dharmakāya / The Vairocana of universally-illuminating wisdom”) — a programmatic Esoteric salutation to Mahāvairocana as the cosmic dharmakāya.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the title and translator-attribution, followed by the verse-invocation; no separate preface survives. The note “[cf. No. 848 fasc. 7]” in the Taishō header indicates the editorial recognition of the text’s relationship to the Gōngyǎng cìdìfǎ in the parent sūtra, but no editorial preface is supplied.
Abstract
The Yàolüè niànsòng jīng (“Sūtra of Essential / Abridged Recitation”) is one of several alternative recensions of the Mahāvairocana ritual appendix that circulated in Tang Esoteric Buddhism. The ritual sequence covers: (i) the meditative refuge and bodhicitta-utpāda; (ii) the meditative purification of body, speech, and mind via mudrā + mantra + visualisation (the Three Mysteries 三密); (iii) the construction of the protective boundary (sīma) and the invitation of the deities of the Garbhadhātu mandala; (iv) the abhiṣeka offerings (perfumes, lamps, food, garlands); (v) the japa of the mūla-mantra; and (vi) the dismissal and merit-dedication. The text is functionally a daily-practice manual for a Garbhadhātu sādhaka.
The attribution to Vajrabodhi (under the variant Pútí Jīngāng) is plausible chronologically (he was active in Chángān 720–741) but the text is brief and lacks the literary signatures of his major translations. It is possible that this is an authentic shorter ritual text by him; it is also possible that the attribution reflects a Tang or post-Tang Esoteric tradition that grouped associated ritual material under the great translators’ names. The brackets 720–741 mark the period of Vajrabodhi’s active translation work in Chángān.
The text travels in close textual proximity to the Mahāvairocana-associated ritual texts T18n0848–T18n0864, all of which form the core scriptural basis of the Tang Garbhadhātu ritual tradition.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. (The text is briefly discussed as a parallel to T848 fasc. 7 in Hodge 2003 and Giebel 2005.)