Dàrì jīng lüèshè niànsòng suíxíng fǎ 大日經略攝念誦隨行法
Abridged Compendium of Recitation Practice on the Mahāvairocanasūtra (alt. Wǔzhī lüè niànsòng yàoxíngfǎ 五支略念誦要行法 — Essential Five-Limb Abridged Recitation Method, 1 fascicle) by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A short ritual manual in one fascicle by Bùkōng 不空 (不空, Amoghavajra), companion text to KR6j0014. Where KR6j0014 organises the abridged practice around the seven limbs, this text uses the five-limb (wǔzhī 五支) schema — derived from the Esoteric organisation of practice into the five aspects of the abhiṣeka (consecration), sevā (preliminary practice), upasevā (auxiliary practice), sādhana (accomplishment-practice), and mahāsādhana (great-accomplishment). The alternative title Wǔzhī lüè niànsòng yàoxíng fǎ (“Essential Five-Limb Abridged Recitation Method”) is given in the catalog header.
Prefaces
The text opens with the same Amoghavajra court-title-inscription as KR6j0014 (the long formal title with all posthumous honours), confirming a post-774 editorial composition of the colophon. The opening verse-invocation is also identical: Jīshǒu wúài zhì / Mìjiào yìshēngzǐ 稽首無礙智、密教意生子.
Abstract
The Lüèshè niànsòng suíxíng fǎ is the second of Amoghavajra’s two abridged ritual manuals based on the Mahāvairocanasūtra (the first being KR6j0014). The two manuals are functionally complementary: where KR6j0014 organises practice around the devotional seven limbs, KR6j0015 organises it around the technical five limbs of Esoteric sādhana. Together they offered Tang Esoteric practitioners two abridged daily-practice schemata, of differing length and emphasis, both deriving from the Mahāvairocana foundation.
The five-limb structure (wǔzhī) maps to the five constituents of the Esoteric ritual proper: (i) preliminary purification and self-empowerment; (ii) construction of the protective boundary and invitation of the deities; (iii) the central visualisation-recitation of the iṣṭa-devatā; (iv) the offerings (pūjā) sequence; (v) the post-sādhana dismissal and merit-dedication. Each limb is presented with its mudrā-mantra-visualisation triplet.
The text became a widely-circulated short manual in the Tang Esoteric tradition and was transmitted to Japan through both the Tōmitsu (Kūkai) and Taimitsu (Ennin–Enchin) lineages.
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.
- Orlando, Raffaello. A Study of Chinese Documents Concerning the Life of the Tantric Buddhist Patriarch Amoghavajra. Princeton, 1981.