Dàfāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng rù fǎjièpǐn sìshíèr zì guānmén 大方廣佛華嚴經入法界品四十二字觀門
Contemplation-Gate of the Forty-Two Letters from the Avataṃsaka-sūtra’s “Entry into the Dharma-Realm” Chapter by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric guānmén 觀門 (contemplation-gate) text extracted by Amoghavajra (不空) from the Gaṇḍavyūha / Rù fǎjièpǐn 入法界品 — i.e. the final section of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra (KR6c0004 / KR6c0008). The text isolates the famous forty-two-syllable Arapacana alphabet-mantra spoken by the kālyāṇa-mitra Sudhana’s teacher in the Gaṇḍavyūha and recasts it as a stand-alone Esoteric meditation manual centred on the Sanskrit syllabary as a vehicle of prajñā-realisation.
Abstract
The Arapacana (a-ra-pa-ca-na…) syllabary is one of the great pan-Buddhist mnemonic-meditation devices, attested in Indic Mahāyāna literature from the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā through the Gaṇḍavyūha and into Esoteric ritual practice. Amoghavajra’s contribution is to take the syllabary as it appears in the Gaṇḍavyūha and present it as an Esoteric guānmén — a contemplation manual in which each of the 42 syllables is correlated with a particular prajñā-insight, bodhisattva-stage, and maṇḍala-position. The text is one of the foundational documents of Tang/Shingon syllabary-meditation practice and is paired with KR6j0213 T1020 (the Yújiā yíguǐ — “yoga ritual manual”) in the canonical sequence: T1019 supplies the guānmén (contemplation-gate) and T1020 supplies the yíguǐ (ritual procedure).
Translations and research
- Salomon, Richard. “New Evidence for a Gāndhārī Origin of the Arapacana Syllabary.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.2 (1990): 255–273.
- Mayer, Robert. “The Arapacana and the prajñāpāramitā.” Indo-Iranian Journal 36 (1993): 25–40.
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.
Links
- CBETA T19n1019
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (750) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.