Dà Pílúzhēnà jīng ācāryā zhēnshízhì pǐn zhōng ācāryā zhù azì guānmén 大毘盧遮那經阿闍梨真實智品中阿闍梨住阿字觀門
The Ācāryā’s Gateway of A-syllable Contemplation, from the True-Wisdom-of-the-Ācāryā Chapter of the Mahāvairocanasūtra (alt. Sìzhòng zìlún màntúluó chéngshēn guān 四重字輪曼荼羅成身觀; alt. Sānzhòng bùzì chéngshēn màntúluó guānxíng 三重布字成身曼荼羅觀行) by 惟謹 (Wéijǐn, 述)
About the work
A short Esoteric meditation manual in one fascicle, expounding the a-ji-kan 阿字觀 (“contemplation on the [seed-syllable] A”) drawn from Chapter 17 of the Mahāvairocanasūtra — the Ācāryā zhēnshízhì pǐn 阿闍梨真實智品 (“Chapter on the Ācāryā’s True Wisdom”). Composed (shù 述, “expounded”) by Wéijǐn 惟謹 (惟謹) of the Jìngyǐngsì 淨影寺 Bǐqǐyuàn 比綺院 in Chángān, designated as a wǔbù chíniàn sēng 五部持念僧 (“monk practising the recitation of the Five Sections”). Wéijǐn’s authorship attribution is preserved in the colophon: 淨影寺比綺院五部持念僧惟謹述.
Prefaces
The text opens with the colophon-attribution and the chapter heading 成入理軌儀一卷. The opening doctrinal exposition: “Fú yán ācāryāzhě, jiě mìzhōng zuìmì, zhēnyánzhì dàxīn. Azì míng zhǒngzǐ, gù yīqiè rúshì, yīfǎ jiē biàn shòu” 夫言阿闍梨者，解祕中最祕，真言智大心。阿字名種子，故一切如是，依法皆遍受 (“As for the ācāryā — he understands the most-secret of the secret, the great-mind of mantra-wisdom. The A-syllable is called the seed; thus all things are so, dependent on the dharma all are universally received”).
Abstract
The Azì guānmén is the principal Tang Chinese exposition of the a-ji-kan — the contemplation on the seed-syllable A as the unborn, ungraspable ground of all phenomena (ādyanutpāda) — that became central to East Asian Esoteric meditation. The text expounds the doctrine of the A-syllable as the bīja of Mahāvairocana, its visualisation in three or four concentric mandalic arrangements (the alternative titles Sìzhòng zìlún màntúluó “four-fold syllable-wheel mandala” and Sānzhòng bùzì màntúluó “three-fold arranged-syllable mandala” reflect the two principal contemplative-iconographic schemata), and the integration of the contemplation with the practice of the Mahāvairocana ritual.
The text was extensively cited by the Japanese Shingon scholastic tradition (Kūkai’s Hokku-myō and Sokushin jōbutsu-gi draw on the same doctrinal material) and remains the principal Chinese textual basis for the a-ji-kan meditation that is central to Japanese Esoteric Buddhist practice. Wéijǐn’s biographical obscurity is striking given the doctrinal importance of the text; he is otherwise unknown beyond this single composition.
The dating is uncertain. The text presupposes the Mahāvairocanasūtra (translated 724/725) and so postdates that translation; the conventional bracket places Wéijǐn’s composition in the 8th–9th century Tang Esoteric establishment.
Translations and research
- Yamasaki Taikō. Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. Boston: Shambhala, 1988. — Discusses the a-ji-kan practice extensively.
- Hakeda, Yoshito S. Kūkai: Major Works. New York: Columbia UP, 1972. — Background on Kūkai’s reception of the a-ji-kan doctrine.
- Abé, Ryūichi. The Weaving of Mantra. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. — Discusses the seed-syllable doctrine.