Bùkōng juànsuǒ Pílúzhēnàfó dàguàndǐng guāng zhēnyán 不空羂索毘盧遮那佛大灌頂光真言
Light-Mantra of the Great Consecration of Vairocana-Buddha within the Amoghapāśa Tradition by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A short one-fascicle text by Amoghavajra (不空) presenting the Light-Mantra (kōmyō shingon 光明真言, guāng zhēnyán) — one of the most ritually-important Esoteric mantras in the Tang and Heian-Kamakura traditions, recited for the merit-empowerment of the dead to secure their post-mortem rebirth. The mantra is framed as the guàndǐng (consecration / abhiṣeka) light-mantra of Vairocana within the Amoghapāśa (bùkōng juànsuǒ 不空羂索, “unfailing-noose”) deity-cycle.
Abstract
The Light-Mantra (oṃ amogha-vairocana mahā-mudrā maṇi-padma jvāla pravartaya hūṃ) is the single most ritually-important short mantra in East Asian Esoteric Buddhism after the Mahā-pratyaṅgirā and the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī. It is recited especially over sand to be cast on the corpse of the deceased — the kōmyō shingon dosha kanjō 光明真言土砂加持 / guāng zhēnyán tǔshā jiāchí practice — and over food and water for general merit-empowerment. The text was foundational for the Japanese Shingon and Tendai-Esoteric funerary traditions and provided the doctrinal-ritual basis for the medieval Japanese Pure-Land-Esoteric synthesis (空海 Kūkai’s Goyuigō 御遺告 explicitly recommends the Light-Mantra as the central Esoteric devotional practice). The mantra’s compactness combined with its broad ritual applicability made it the most widely-disseminated single mantra in East Asian Esoteric Buddhism. A companion exegesis, KR6j0192 Bùkōng juànsuǒ Pílúzhēnàfó dàguàndǐng guāngmíng zhēnyán jùyì shì, was composed by Kōben (高辧 / Myōe 明惠, 1173–1232).
Translations and research
- Unno, Mark. Shingon Refractions: Myōe and the Mantra of Light. Boston: Wisdom, 2004. — definitive English-language study of the Light-Mantra cult and its medieval Japanese reception.
- Goepper, Roger. Aizen-myōō: The Esoteric King of Lust. Zurich: Artibus Asiae, 1993.