Fó shuō wúèr píngděng zuìshàng yújiā dàjiàowáng jīng 佛說無二平等最上瑜伽大教王經
Sūtra of the Buddha’s Speaking of the Non-Dual Equality Supreme-Yoga Great-Teaching-King (Skt. Advaya-sama-tāparamayoga-mahātantra-rāja) by 施護 (Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A six-fascicle Sòng-period Esoteric translation by Dānapāla (施護) of the Advaya-sama-tāparamayoga-mahātantra — a late-Indian yoga-uttara-tantra-class scripture in the Hevajra-Cakrasaṃvara family of advanced tantras.
Abstract
The text presents the doctrine of non-dual equality (wúèr píngděng = advaya-samatā) as the foundational principle of the supreme yoga (paramayoga / yoga-uttara-tantra). The six fascicles cover the doctrinal exposition, the abhiṣeka sequences, the sādhana prescriptions, and the yoga-uttara-tantra-specific advanced practices.
The translation is one of the principal Sòng Institute translations of the late Indian yoga-uttara-tantra corpus. Like other Sòng-period Esoteric translations, its East Asian liturgical reception was minimal — it was canonised but not integrated into the lived Esoteric practice of the Sòng or post-Sòng periods. The text is significant primarily as a textual witness to the late Indian Buddhist tantra in Chinese translation.
The translation dates from Dānapāla’s career at the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn (982–1017).
Translations and research
- Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. — On the late Indian yoga-uttara-tantra tradition.